#but seriously how can you not realize you put the wrong email on your bank account?

[wallabywannabe]

I would appreciate it if everyone with my first and last name would remember their own email address and stop using mine thank you very much.

[popculturebuffet]

Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Restrospective: The Raider of the Copper Hill! “You Got Rich Son”

Hello all you happy people! And welcome back to my retrospective of the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck! It’s been far too long, almost three months since we last checked in with Scrooge and frankly I feel i’ve been spacing these entries out too much for this one and for the retrospectives that aren’t paid for in general. So expect at least one McDuck adventure a month till I finish, possibly two when I can swing it like this month. 

Now i’m done beating myself up, when we last left off a younger more naive, more optimistic and less experienced Scooge took up a career as a cowboy for  Cattle Baron, gained his first sidekick in the form of his Horse Hortense, and took out some cattle thieves with the help of Teddy Fucking Roosevelt. 

This chapter marks the end of the story’s first act. The first act is about a younger and far nicer Scrooge: still onrey and still a cheapskate, but still a good kid and far more outwardly friendly and welcoming, a far cry from the bitter untrusting man we come to know. This chapter is one of the reasons why, as Scrooge learns a hard lesson about wealth and success, the sacrifices one needs to make for family and about sticking your hand in a lightbulb while it’s plugged in. So join me under the cut as Scrooge meets another valuable mentor, one of his greatest enemies, and about 50 feet of barbed wire. 

We begin with the end of Scrooge’s time as a ranch hand and cowpunch. With homesteaders moving in and dividing up the land, Murdo simply dosen’t have the space for cattle baroning anymore and has to let Scrooge go and head back to texas. We do get a great bit of Scrooge wrapped in barbed wire, having gone to cut some down so Murdo could move the herd out. 

So with his Job done and parting on good terms with his old boss, Scrooge sets up his own homestead on some land near the Anaconda Silver Mine, trying to make it as a prospector, starting on the path that would eventually lead him to riches.. in about a decade and a half.

 So Scrooge bemoans his rotten luck over Dinner with a stranger, Marcus Daly owner of said mine... who just.. randomly sat down to have dinner with a 17 year old. 

Marcus belays his own woes: While Scrooge has failed at what he tried to do, having gotten into both steamboating and cattle punching too late to go anywhere with either, Daly has a silver mine that’s full of copper: decent amoutns of it but still not what his investors wanted. 

Both however find their fortunes reverse in an instant in the weirdest way possible. The light goes out at their table and Scrooge tries to adjust it only to electcute himself. To his shock...

He finds out it’s running on electricty, which is starting to become widespread.. and requires vast amounts of copper wiring. Scrooge is back in the game but finds trouble getting equipment as the local seller naturally is a jackass who jacks up the price. Scrooge instead sells the gold teeth his dad gave him to the nearest gentleman after talking him into it. . And i’ts not even the weirdest transaction i’ve seen this week. 

For the record those weird things are the guy on the left’s skinflakes, his power is to make naked golems of himself out of his dandruff and skin flakes and what have you, while the guy on the right is paying for a mutant with a star for a head. So yeah a scottish cowboy selling his ancestor’s dentures to pay for mining gear is refelshingly tame after all of this. 

So we get the comic equivleant of a montage as Scrooge starts his work at prospecting, making a portable homesteader shack as a miner owns any land he lives on, and moving around to try and find it, but he runs into a problem: with his last two careers he had mentors to help him learn what to do: Pothole taught him riverboating and Murdo helped him learn to ride the trails. Here he has no one and while you can self teach a lot of things prospecting isn’t one of them. 

He end sup finding one though as a rich gentleman asking about the mine happens to wander by: Howard D. Rockerduck. If that names sounds familiar it should as he’s indeed the father of exactly who your thinking of and we meet a young 10 or so year old john who asks him to stop dealing with a grubby workman. We also find out whose responsible for him turning out ot be such a piece of work as his mother’s response to his father telling him “I used to be a grubby workman is well... word’s cant’ do this amount of classist bulslhit justice. 

Seriously his unnamed wife is so odious it hurts. And how the fuck did an honest, kind man like Howard end up with this bitch? It’ sbaffled me every time i’ve read this: did he marry for money? is he a gold digger? go down gold dig get down? Is she just THAT good in bed? Did he just make a horrible mistake one night? Did she lie to him about who she was? Was she replaced by a skrull? I have questions no duck comic has properly explained.. and if they have please tell me.  Also it does tickle me we’re getting a bit with a duck named howard though sadly he wears a top hat instead of a nice little bowler. And if you don’t know who howard the duck is.. shame on you. And if you’ve seen the movie.. my deepest sympathies. 

While Howard laments wanting to horsewhip his son, this was a century ago with change mind you standards were different and also John sucks. Howard crticizes Scrooge’s techqniue after introducing himself, and Scrooge and him get into a bit of a tizzy, with Howard offering to teach him for two cents.. but the hostility quickly desolves hours later as Scrooge realizes Howard was right and he’d been doing things completely wrong and the thrill of hard honest work again has washed away any ego driven competiviness. 

I”ll get more into Howard in a second but he does eventually strike copper, and while the vein is full it’s also thin. But Howard has one final trick and takes Scroogey for an ore test. I tried to find more on this but just found a lot of ways to do it yourself and what not. I”m now really intrigued how they did this and found the content of minerals. I know it’s a dull subject but i’m curious how they did it with the technology of the time. Did they just use acids like I found? If so how’d they get them? I do say this is one of the great qualities of Rosa’s works: he makes you want to learn more about history. I looked up more about TR after the last chapter and now I want to know how the hell metallurgy worked in the late 1800′s. 

We then get an intresting interacton as Scrooge.. warmly greets the townsfolk and vice versa.. yes the same Scrooge who as an adult would be introduced proclaming...

Is warm, optimistic and wholeheartedly belieives...

As you can probably tell by Howard’s reaction and what Scrooge becomes.. this story’s all about shattering that notion and is the first of two to shatter the poor kid’s trust in people and make him into the bitter old sod we know. 

The sample comes back 55% positive... which leaves Howard rushing to get Scrooge to a court house. As it turns out there’s an old, very real for the time, mining law called the Law of Apex: whoever owns the land closest to where an ore vein is on the surface owns the whole thing... so legally Scrogoe owns the ENTIRE ANACONDA COPPER MINE, which at this point as detailed in the time skip has gone from struggling to utterly thriving and sucessful. Whoever owns the land at the time the Judge rules it gets the mine.. and Scrooge’s friends, who seconds ago were concerned about him being dragged into court.. are now all scrambling to take his fortune, something Howard dosen’t seem at all suprised about. 

But while this may be a kinder, more naive Scrooge McDuck, it’s still SCROOGE MCDUCK. His response is to cut a nearbye power wire and swing it tarzan style over to hortense and ride her back ahead of the mob... with the electric wire slapping her rear and causing her to go extra fast.. and also quit. So Scrooge stands alone but manages to take out some of the ruffians with his shack while John and the Judge rush to the site. As for Scrooge well... you want to see what a McDuck family beserker rage against an ENTIRE angry mob of opportunistic assholes look like? 

And this isn’t even the most badass thing Scrooge will do this series. Or even in the next few issues. That’s how awesome this series is: fighting an angry mob SOLO with simply his pure rage and whatever he can grab and throw. And he WINS. He’s exausted and passes out, falling out of the sky on his final opponent.. but he took out what was at the LEAST 50 men, and ONLY passed out because one of them threw dynamite in his out house.. and even THAT didn’t kill him or put him out, simply casuing him to land on said dynamite throwing idiot and wins. 

We find out Rockerduck actually was one of the mine’s owners but helped Scrooge anyway: he has more than enough money and all it’s going to do in the end is go to a greedy brat. Marcus Daly shows up and while he’ll get the law overturned eventually, he still has to shut down while that happens and finds the right officials to bribe. And this is the 1800s... you gotta go by train to do your bribes. You can’t just do that shit over email and hidden bank accounts. Daly offers him 10,000.. but given what Scrooge could earn even before he got his mine back, Scrooge turns it down. 

However this victory is bittersweet as Scrooge warmly greets his friends.. only for one to cuss him out and the other to tell him to get loss. We then get one of my faviorite exchanges in this story.

This whole Panel is a masterwork. The sheer INNOCENCE on Scrooge’s face, almost looking like Donald, desperately wondering what he did, when as Howard points out.. he did nothing wrong. He simply got successful and they resent him for it. 

This has been a hard paragraph for me to write as I want to tread carefully. People do have good reasons to scorn the rich or celebrtiies sometimes. Some rich people or those in the media are genuinely terrible. Jeff Bezos, Tucker Carlson, Mel Gibson, Louie CK, Joss Whedon and even someone as low on the totem pole as Doug Walker is odious. And of course we all can think of one odious example of rich bastard i’d rather not think of, especially when thinking of John D Rockerduck and what he’l lbecome as an adult that i’m not giving a pleasure of the name drop but came to mind. 

But even for good people becoming succesful puts up a barrier between you and other people: Fans of yours will admire you or write fanfic or what have about you without even knowing you, i’ve been on that side, and some people will hate you just because without valid reason, especially in this day and age. Success breeds resentment and even people you trusted and loved can sometimes turn on you. It’s the double eged sword of achieving your dreams: You get what you wanted but you often loose what you had. 

And it was no diffrent two centuries ago, with Scrooge’s friends only being friendly as long as it suited them, turning on him first to steal his chance at glory and then to scorn him for daring to achieve it. Some people.. are only there for you as long as your not above them. And sometimes you can be happy. Look at Tom Hanks, who has a lovely family and a long and storied career. Or Linkara, a youtuber who has been at this for over a decade, has tons of fans, a loving wife with her own succesful channel, and just recently got contacted by his childhood heroes. You CAN be happy and successful.. it’s just very hard to make it that far. 

One of the central points of life and times is that’s often not the case: You can get what you want but it comes at a cost. And it’s how you pay that price that will determine how happy you are. Another central point intertwined with it is it’s not the journey but the destination, and i’ts how Scrooge takes that journey that ultimately leads him where he ends up good and bad. And we get an all to telling all too foreboding hint in how he takes everyone he knew for at least a year turning on him overnight. 

When faced with his first real loss on this Journey that wasn’t material.. he dosen’t care. He has his money and riches and that’s enough. And as we’ll see that attitude will cost him greatly. Howard is irate for a moment, hoping he wasn’t wrong in trusting Scrooge.. and indeed, for now, turns out to have placed his faith in the right person as Scrooge gets a telegram: his family needs him. And while he could stay, turn his back on them, and earn MILLIONS.. he tells Howard  to tell the owner he’s taking the deal. For now when given the choice between his family and his fortune, SCrooge will choose them. Sadly.. that won’t hold true forever. 

With this being the end of his time in the story, as he has a still insufferable John buy him a horsewhip for horrific but darkly funny reasons, as John brags about how rich his father is not realizing he’s buying his own whupping tool, i’d like to touch on Howard D Rockerduck and how amazing he is. Rosa managed to pack a throughly interesting, throughly engaging character into only 8 pages. While Rockerduck DID show up earlier in of ducks dimes and destinys, he wasn’t really fleshed out or named and only showed up for one page so still 9 pages total. 

But in those we see a kind and noble man whose easily what Scrooge COULD have been, kind, noble, generous, hardworking and willing to give up money to help people. He’s a good man.. but even he’s seen the sacrifice Money brings. He’s clearly lost friends, lost a sense of peace, and married the wrong Woman, whose poisoned his children into a spoiled brat who will only grown into an even more spoield adult in both continuities.. if raised quite a bit earlier in the 2017 cartoon as he was made scrooge’s contemporary there rather than a child, but semeantics. Point is Howard hismelf isn’t wholly satisfied with his success.. and that’s what he and Scrooge will forever have in common, with Scrooge, likely as a result of meeting the Rockerducks, fearing an indadiquate inheritor and someone squandering what he worked hard for. Though his reasons for not taking up a wife as we’ll see eventually, if outside the main 12 part story but I intend to cover the subchapters in their own time, aren’t entirely motivated by avoiding goldigging but a broken hard and his own stubborness. 

For now though we bid Howard and america adue. Scrooge however for once ends an occupation with less bitterness. Unlike his last two ventures where he made it out with only enough to get to the next one here he made it out ahead: he now has a decent suit, likely bought for him by Howard given he hasn’t cashed the check yet, I know this as it’s a major plot point for next time, 10,000 dollars.. and experince. He may of not gotten all the money he was due on this venture, but he learned more valuable skills and he feels with a land like america, the next opportunity to earn some dough is just waiting for him to get back. And as the chapter ends he muses that maybe the country could use a symbol of this countries boundless opportunity...

Final Thoughts for the Raider of the Copper Hill:

This chapter is one of my favorites. It’s nicely paced, something Rosa himself admits was often a struggle as he had to cover years at a time, has a wonderful new mentor for Scrooge, and sets up a lot of the tragedy to come in the last act beautifully. It’s a nice closer for our first act, showing Scrooge has come out of his first trip to america wiser, more experinced and more hopeful, but at heart still the same kind and noble kid he left Glasgow as. The next act is about the change of that boy into a man, how he will finally find his fortune after some more adventures.. and how the last viestges of his kindess and optimisim towards others die at the hands of a certain fake scotish gentleman. 

Next Life And Times: As is tradition for this series act openers, Scrooge returns home.. and just in time to get his castle back, fight a duel and go to heaven and back. So an average McDuck tuesday then. 

If you liked this review follow for more. And if you liked it a lot join my patreon so I can keep making these and hit my stretch goals. Even at just the 2 dollar level you get access to my discord and your pick of shorts whenever I do a series of them and with Goofy and Donald’s birthdays being the next ones to be celebrated you can’t pick a better time. patreon.com/popculturebuffet See you at the next rainbow. 

[lov3nerdstuff]

Wicked Game {Part 3}

~Professor Hiddleston AU~

*Tom Hiddleston x reader*

Part: 3/?

Words: 4k

Warnings: Professor x student (college AU)

Summary: After transferring to a new university for the last year of your master's, you meet Professor Hiddleston and soon find yourself unable to stay away from him.

A.N.: I really suck at summaries, I'm so sorry 😅 this is a slow burn romance with lots of pining 💗 so this is where things get really interesting!!! I've currently finished chapter 5 already and I honestly can't wait for y'all to sit squealing on the edge of your seats haha

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]

______________________________

It was Tuesday, another day with another Hiddleston class. That was your first thought when you woke up two hours before your alarm, groaning and tired. After admitting to yourself last night that you were indeed crushing on your professor, you had hardly been able to sleep at all. Even if you'd never have any kind of relationship with him outside of an entire professional one, you still felt like the past four weeks were heavy weight on your heart. You needed to talk to him, if only to apologise for whatever you'd done wrong in that first week. However you saw that there were limited ways to actually do that without making the awkwardness between you even worse. For a moment you were tempted to buy him coffee once again, but quickly dismissed the idea. Maybe you could try to stay after class and talk to him… but then you'd be a small spark in the raging fiery pool of girls, desperate for his attention. An email? That seemed a little bit impersonal, even for your weird whatever-it-was. So you settled for a small note that you'd drop in his office before class. Rolling out of bed (despite it being so fucking early, dark and cold) you wrapped yourself in your blanket like a burrito and sat down at your desk. You wouldn't use any of your fancy paper or pens, that would've been a bit too much, but a plain white sheet and a plain black pen would do.

Dear Mr. Hiddleston.

I couldn't help but notice how, over the past weeks, things have been weird between us and I hate it and I want you to be nice again because I'm heavily crushing on you and this is fucking stupid.

You groaned and hit your head against the tabletop. That wouldn't work, not at all. You needed to talk to him, before class, even if it was only to briefly get your apology out. If things remained weird after that, at least you couldn't blame yourself for not trying to better thing between you. But you also wanted to do more than say sorry, you wanted to make him smile, to see him happy like on the first day you had met. So you got out another piece of paper and aimed for something entirely different...

After taking a long and hot shower, you got dressed in something cute and comfortable, did your hair with a little more effort than usual and packed your bag for the long day ahead, hiding your little letter between a stack of books.

"Hey Y/n…" Your roommate came sauntering out of his room into the hallway and you could already tell that this day had just taken a turn for the worse. "Uhm, I have this thing going on tonight and… well, I don't think it's gonna be a good place for a… woman." He mumbled, not even brave enough to look you in the eye.

"You do realize that this is also my apartment and I pay more rent than you do?" You groaned, crossing your arms in front of your chest. This was not the time to deal with the fundamental problems of your housing, but obviously he was being serious about that.

"I know, I know… but please, Y/n, it's really important. Can't you stay with a friend for the night?" He whined, walking too close to you for your liking.

"I'm sure I will be fine in my room tonight." You replied defensively, backing up against the still closed front door.

"Those guys… you know, who always hang here… they saw you in that little dress you wore last night and well..." He insisted. "They always get what they want, you must know that!"

As you frowned deeply at him, he continued.

"Look, I'm just trying to look out for you. You really really really don't wanna be here tonight."

"Stop inviting people who want to harm me then!" You shouted, definitely not in the mood for this conversation. He was a fucking creep and you seriously considered getting into debt just to get away from here.

"I didn't invite them! They…" He started shaking a little. "I kinda owe them a little for… stuff. I beg of you Y/n to stay gone for just one night. Then I promise they won't ever come back."

"Not ever?" You asked roughly. "No more destruction, no more shouting, no more shadowy business?"

"I promise!" He stood straight and looked more or less serious about this.

With a groan you returned to your room, grabbed all valuables you could stuff into your backpack (it weren't many for you'd always feared 'someone' would steal them), along with your materials for tomorrow's studies and then locked the door from the outside.

"I swear I'll call the cops if those guys ever come back. Or if anyone enters my room." You grumbled as you pushed past your roommate, repeatedly asking yourself why exactly you were doing him this favor.

"Thank you Y/n, I owe you!" He called after you as you stepped outside into the chilly morning air.

"Big time!" You called back, making your way to the Metro station. Only when you were starting to get uncomfortably cold, you realized that in the heat of the argument you had completely forgotten to put on your coat. With a sigh you decided that you wouldn't be outside for long anyway and just hurried even more on your way to uni.

After a short debate with your bank account you got yourself a large coffee before heading to campus. It was still super early and you hoped that Hiddleston wouldn't be there so you could still get stuff done before he arrived. Unsure if it was the right thing to do, you slipped into his office unnoticed, placed the letter on his desk and made your way to the lecture hall as quickly as possible to have some more alone time to relax before the madness of the day would start.

______________

When Tom got out of his car, he quickly debated whether or not he needed a jacket for the short way to his office. Deciding against it, he only took a few steps before someone called out to him.

"Hey Tom!" His friend Benedict shouted from over at his car.

"Morning…" Tom sighed, slinging his bag around his shoulders.

"What's got you so moody?" He inquired as he joined Tom in his walk towards the building.

"Nothing I want to talk about, Ben…"

"Oh, come on! Is it the freshman class? I told you those…"

"No, it's not the freshmen!" Tom rolled his eyes and glared at his friend for making him talk. "I… have issues with a student."

Now it was Benedict's turn to roll his eyes. "Oh don't tell me it still gets you all upset when you have to give people a bad grade. That happens all the time!"

"No, it's not about the grades." He sighed, digging his hands into his pockets.

"Is it those girls who appear seemingly out of nowhere to stalk you? We've talked about that before, it happens to me, too, all the time…" He talked on and on and Tom didn't know if he should laugh at his rambling or punch him in the shoulder.

"Just let it go. Please, Ben, I don't want to talk about it right now."

Benedict shrugged. "If you say so… but I'm here if you want to talk."

"Thanks…" Tom said as they walked through the main door, enjoying the warmth that surrounded him here in the hallway.

"Good morning! Mr. Hiddleston, Mr. Cumberbatch…" A female student squealed at them out of nowhere, making both men jump. To their luck, she walked away as quickly as she had appeared.

"Does this get worse every single day or is it just me?" Tom asked his friend as they continued their way to the faculty's tower.

"I think you're just having a bad day."

"More like a bad month."

"Is that when your 'issues' started? A month ago? But that was…"

"Yeah. First day of classes." Tom ran a hand through his hair and turned to Benedict sharply. "If you must know, I'm having a really, REALLY hard time not doing something incredibly stupid and it's slowly eating me up from the inside. Are you happy now?"

Benedict just stared at his friend in surprise, for Tom was the last person who would ever snap at him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to… well." Tom apologized immediately, sounding more like himself again.

"It's fine. Maybe you should try to get your issues with the student sorted out, even if it's annoying. Talk to them, today if you can. I can't have my best friend walking around looking like he might murder someone soon." Benedict gave him an encouraging smile once they reached his office, then he disappeared behind a stack of books on his desk.

Already feeling a little better, Tom made his way to his own office. Ben was right, he needed to do something about this mood he had fallen into. After all, he enjoyed his work and he enjoyed teaching. And that meant he would have to talk to you. Soon.

When he walked into his office, it took him a moment to shake off the gloom of the morning, but the prospect of talking to you today got his heart beating and the corners of his lips twisting upwards. Once he finally sat down behind his desk, he spotted a neatly folded piece of paper on pile of books. Frowning, he unfolded it and started to read.

I wish I wrote the way I thought; obsessively, incessantly, with maddening hunger. I'd write to the point of suffocation. I'd write myself into nervous breakdowns, manuscripts spiraling out like tentacles into abysmal nothing. And I'd write about you a lot more than I should. - Benedict Smith

For a long while Tom stared at the little piece of paper and the neat handwriting. He had read that quote before and thought that it held a lot of truth in it. If we would just write straight out what we thought instead of censoring ourselves, we would reach a deeper level of authenticity, and of understanding for literature. Whoever had placed this little quote here in his office must've known that he would appreciate it; probably one of his colleagues after he'd left last night. It wasn't really important who sent it, but that it made Tom smile. In fact, he was still smiling when he walked to the lecture hall for his literature class. Before he could even open the door, he already heard a quiet voice singing inside and his stomach started doing backflips. But he had wanted to talk to you and he would do it.

"Good morning." He announced his presence as he stepped into the room, his voice a little hoarse. You jumped, making him bite his bottom lip to suppress the smirk that wanted to force its way through his barriers.

"Good morning professor!" You replied in a voice that sounded just as nervous as he felt. "I'm sorry about my singing, again…"

"And again I say don't worry about it." He smiled at you politely. "I enjoy the song. Very much so. Wicked Game… it's one of my favorites."

"Oh…" You looked at the books in front of you and Tom asked himself why on earth he had to keep making you uncomfortable all the time.

"Uhm… Miss L/n…" He started, unsure of how to put into words what he needed to get out. "Would you… would you be so kind and help me put these papers on everyone's tables?"

"Of course!" Your reply came quickly and he couldn't help but genuinely smile as you tried to climb out of the tower of books you had built around yourself.

"I wanted to talk to you anyway, Mr. Hiddleston…" You said as he handed you a stack of paper. "I… I'm not sure what I have done wrong during the first week of class, but since then I feel like I'm on your bad side. And I would very much like to change that. I'm very sorry if I have overstepped my boundaries or been disrespectful."

When Tom looked at you, standing right in front of him with eyes so sad that he could drown in your unshed tears, he felt his heart break a little. His eyes went wide in surprise and regret and he couldn't blame himself more for your sadness. Yet, he found himself at a loss for words once again, opening and closing his lips like a fish stranded at the shore.

"You… you have done absolutely nothing wrong, I'm so sorry that I made you think that." He finally got out and saw you visibly relax in front of him. He, however, still felt miserable and it showed.

"Are you alright?" You asked, looking concerned. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No!" His reply came too quickly and his mouth felt utterly dry. "I… I'm sorry, I've had a rough month. If I made you feel uncomfortable or unappreciated… in class, I dearly apologize for doing so."

You let out a long breath, looking at the papers in your arms, then back at Tom with a small smile. "Thank you, professor. This was kind of really important to me, I absolutely love your classes and it was…" You stopped mid-sentence, looking away from him.

"Please do go on." He smiled at you, a sincere and curious smile and he watched you blush adorably.

"Well, it's just… I tried so hard to be good enough that I got quite far ahead." You bit your bottom lip and peaked up at him through your lashes.

"What's so bad about that?" He leaned his head to one side and kept smiling at you, unable to stop now that he knew that you weren't, in fact, mad at him.

"It's bad because I'm having a really hard time not interrupting you from time to time to throw in some new info that I read about." You laughed nervously. "I… kinda wanted to impress you."

Now it was for Tom to blush, he could feel the heat on his cheeks even before it became visible. At the same time however, a cold shudder ran from the top of his head right to his core.

"Well…" He smiled, which turned into more of a nervous laugh. From the red on your cheeks and the tiny smile on your face he could tell that you felt equally… hopeful about this conversation. "You already are the best student in any of my classes, that's for sure." He said. "And I would love to hear your opinion on the topics."

If he wasn't completely mistaken, there was a hopeful glimmer in your eyes, a spark of certainty and excitement that made him continue. "If… if you'd want that, you could… uhm… write down whatever you want to say in class, and whatever comes to your mind about the topics and give those notes to me at the end of class. I'll read over it and make my own comments, then pass it back to you and so forth."

Tom didn't know if he had just made his life easier or way more difficult, but when he looked at you positively beaming at him, he couldn't help but smile.

"I would love that." You replied with a huge smile of your own.

"You could call it extra credit, if you want…" He let out a breathy laugh and ran a hand through his already messed up hair.

"Nah, I don't want any credit for it." You grinned. "I'm just trying to learn."

"Not that you would need it anyway." Tom smiled back at you and after another minute of just being flustered and observing each other, he finally tore himself away from your captivating presence to pass out the papers before the rest of the class would take their seats. You did the same, humming quietly, but Tom could hear it nonetheless. As he placed paper upon paper on the tables his eyes kept darting between you and the task at hand. He felt like a giddy school boy, all tingly on the inside, but he forced his body and mind to calm down. He had wanted to ask you to discuss your opinions over coffee after the lecture, but fortunately he had realized soon enough that going out for coffee in the middle of the day would've been a bit too much. The idea with interchanging notes was both appropriate for a professional relationship and a good way to get to know you. Maybe, this arrangement would finally allow him to walk the thin line between his desire for you and his attempt to keep said desire to himself. However, your encounter today had also shown him that you wanted his attention, even if only on an academic level. And that you were by no means opposed to out-of-class time together. For a single day and after a whole month of pining on his part this was absolutely fabulous. So he didn't stretch his luck and went to prepare for his lecture.

_______________

You couldn't believe your luck when you sat back down in your chair, hiding your huge grin by sipping on your water. Talking to him had been such a good idea, and even if it had only made you fall for him so much more, you could at least be sure now that he wasn't mad at you. And he was willing to hear about your thoughts of the topics. That was so much more than you had hoped for, and yet so much less than you had dreamed of. Digging through your backpack, you pulled out a journal that only had the first few pages filled. Those you ripped out carefully and done: you had a place to take notes for Hiddleston.

With a loud slump, Sky sat down next to you and immediately started talking.

"Y/n, you won't believe what just happened!" She sighed while the other students started to take their seats.

You could see Hiddleston grinning to himself, before you turned your head towards your friend. "Try me." You chuckled and rested your head in your hands while listening.

"Woah, what's the good mood about?" She asked with exaggerated surprise.

"You go first! What happened that is so incredible?" You laughed at her and poked her in the shoulder with one finger.

"I know I said I'm not into dating and stuff… but there's this amazing person and they… asked me out. I said yes, can you believe that! We're going for dinner tonight." Sky grinned at you and seemed genuinely excited.

You couldn't help but grin in return. "That's amazing! A nice boy, or girl, or whoever, will do you good."

"They don't label themself and I won't either. I'm cool with that." She shrugged. "I'm just really excited."

"Yeah I get that!" You laughed. "I wish you good luck with them and a very nice evening."

"Thank you!" Sky sighed and bit her lip. "Uhm… I know that's a really stupid thing to ask of you, but I'm kinda super broke at the moment and also kinda super hungry…"

You rolled your eyes with a smile. "I can buy you lunch after the lecture."

"Oh you're the absolute best Y/n! I'll pay you back, I promise!" She pulled you into a tight hug and you let it happen with a smile. Hopefully you still had enough cash to buy lunch for two…

"Alright, good morning everyone!" Mr. Hiddleston said loudly to get everyone's attention. "Let's get started on today's topic."

With a smile, you turned towards the front and started your written commentary of the lecture.

"What are you doing?" Sky whispered to you once she noticed that you weren't taking notes of what your professor said, but instead writing down little snippets of information or thoughts.

"... Extra credit?" You mused, only partially happy with your answer.

"Is that why you seem so happy?" She grinned. "Because you talked to our handsome puppy down there?" She motioned toward Hiddleston with her head.

You let out a way too loud snort at her words, which made a few people turn their heads towards you, but Sky didn't seem to mind. "Actually… Yeah, Hiddleston seems so much happier than usual. You did talk to him didn't you!" Sky playfully punched you in the shoulder. "Asked him out on a date yet?"

"Sky!" You hissed, blushing bright red. "He's a professor! Stop those wicked comments…"

"But you can't seriously tell me anymore that you're not crushing on him. C'mon Y/n! You're practically undressing him with your eyes!"

"Stop it! I'm not!" You tried to keep your voice down as much as possible. When Sky looked at you with an who-are-you-kidding expression, you rolled your eyes. "Alright, I… I kinda might have a little crush on him, okay? Can you shut up now?"

Sky pretend to zip her lips closed and you could finally focus back on the lecture.

After class was over and everyone was packing their bags, you thought about it for a second and then added can't wait to hear your thoughts :) to your notes. Then you flipped the journal shut, sealed it with the weird elastic that was attached to it and grabbed your stuff.

"You coming?" Sky asked as she made for the exit.

"Gimme a sec, I gotta talk to Hiddleston." You replied and ignored the knowing grin that Sky shot your way.

You kept your eyes fixed on him as you pushed your way through the usual crowd of girls and when you reached the very front, a few of them even started protesting and elbowing you in the ribs.

Once he noticed you, he simply ignored the babbling girl he was forced to listen to before and you could see the despair in his eyes.

"Uhm, professor, I… we have to go to this… meeting… with the board, immediately, you remember…?" You said loudly and motioned towards the door, hoping he would catch on.

And he did, after a mere second of doubt. "Ah, yes! How could I forget that!" He replied, grabbed his bag in an instant and started making his way through the crowd, following closely behind you. "I'm very sorry, but you all will have to come to my office hours or send an email if you want your questions answered." He called over his shoulder at the irritated girls, while he rushed towards the exit with you. At the door, you grabbed Sky by the arm and lead your group of three around the next corner before finally slowing down.

"What on earth was that?" Sky laughed, looking at you, then at Mr. Hiddleston.

"That, Miss Monroe, was a brilliant save in the last second." He replied with a chuckle. "Miss L/n here saved me a good thirty minutes of meaningless questions from attention seeking students."

You held out the journal to him and grinned. "Did it for utterly selfish reasons. I didn't want to wait to hand this in."

He took the black notebook from you and held it tightly again his chest. "Thank you nonetheless." With another smile he bowed ever so slightly, making Sky giggle.

"Have a nice day, you two." He said then and walked a few steps down the hallway, before turning around once again. "Oh, and Y/n! I'll let you know when you can pick up the notebook." With that and a huge grin, he made his way towards his office, rounding a corner and then he was out of sight.

"Oh well, that was something…" Sky laughed, starting into the opposite direction to head to the cafeteria.

You however remained frozen to the spot, staring after your professor.

"Y/n? Are you okay?" Sky asked with concern once she noticed that you weren't coming.

"He…" You frowned, feeling hot and cold, numb and very much alive at the same time. "He just used my first name…"

_______________

General Tags:

@its-remy-not-ratatouille @wegingerangelica @thidls12333

Wicked Game Tags:

@just-the-hiddles @inmyworstlies @lotus-eyedindiangoddess @foodthatsgoodforyoursoul @jessalynjones1989 @dark-night-sky-99 @hiddles-lobotomy @shockwavee @laudylovesyou @maze-lt101 @cupcakeangelness @fairlightswiftly @lys-syl @ordinarygirlfromasmalltown @pinkzz123 @spookycatqueen @exygon @izzy10718 @jenna-sakura @hiddlescastle @starklymydear @darkprincessloki92 @kinghiddlestonanddixon @alt-er-love-er-alt @timetraveler1978 @dreary-skies-stuff @daddys-littlewhitegirl @justthatfangirloverthere @lucantis @missvilsana

[ahtohallan-calling]

chapter 13 of don’t read the last page is here!

masterpost

[kristanna / m / multichap / modern au with actress!anna and vetstudent!kristoff]

“You’re welcome to bring a plus one...if there is one, I mean,” he said, and she looked up from the envelope to meet his eyes, suddenly feeling awkward, especially when she saw the question there.

“Oh,” she said, forcing a smile, “I’ll bring Kristoff, then! My boyfriend. Longterm boyfriend.”

Hans just gave her another one of his trademark smiles. “Can’t wait to meet him. He must be someone special to have snatched you up.”

chapter 13: advent

“I-- you’re serious? That’s your only concern? You don’t care about the last couple months of rent?”

“Which I’ll pay, by the way,” Anna said quickly, “if you don’t find someone fast enough.”

Sven shrugged. “Security Guard Dylan already responded to my group email about it, so we’re good on that front.”

“You’re really this upset about the sofa?”

“I’m not upset, Bjorgman, I’m disgusted by the taint that was left on it, and now I’m wishing I had chosen any other word because oh god--”

“Jesus,” Anna yelped, “okay, yes, we’ll take the couch you’ve got now, and I’ll get one to replace this one. The exact same one if that’s what you want.”

“It’s okay if that’s too much to ask,” Sven said quickly, “I was mostly kidding, but I figured you’d be buying a new one for the house anyway so--”

Anna turned bright red. “It’s not a problem, Sven, uh...trust me.”

“Sweet. Oh, congrats, you guys, by the way. I think I forgot to say that.”

“You did,” Kristoff said drily. “We’re deeply offended.”

“Super fucking offended,” Anna concurred.

Sven groaned. “Fuck, okay, fine, I’ll make that carrot cake again. But that’s the only going away present you’re getting out of me.”

---

They were going to look at the house together one last time before she made a final decision. “It’s your house, though, Anna,” Kristoff had said seriously. “Your name on the deed. So it’s up to you.”

“I know. I still want to make sure you like it.”

But he was right, and so she went half an hour early just to walk through it by herself. The realtor had agreed to give her a moment just to wander and take it all in. There wasn’t much furniture; the house hadn’t been lived in for a while, so there were just a few pieces for staging. Anna tilted her head in the living room, trying to picture what it would look like to have a familiar sofa, maybe an armchair, a coffee table so they could still have picnics on the floor.

And then the kitchen, which had plenty of counter space for pancakes but was currently devoid of anything, even a stove; she didn’t stay there long before making her way down the hall to the bedrooms. They were both small, but one had a lovely view of the backyard, where Kristoff had already told her he wanted to start a garden. That would be theirs, then, so she could wake up and see the sunflowers.

The other one...well. For now, maybe it would be for storage, or just a guest room in case they had visitors. Looking at it too long sent an odd feeling through her chest, making her feel almost dizzy, and she turned away. 

The front door opened then, and she emerged with a smile to see Kristoff standing in the entryway. She hadn’t seen him in four days, and so she ran to him, and he wordlessly folded her into his arms, settling one hand on the back of her head to stroke her hair.

For a few minutes, they stood and held each other, talking softly about her work and his final exams and how nice the drive up here was, and then she took him by the hand and led him through the house.

It was his first time seeing the interior; he looked over it all carefully, clearly taking note of every detail, and she loved him all the more for it. But she had eyes only for him, for the way his presence suddenly made the house feel full. It wasn’t so hard to picture the sofa now, not when she could see how he would lean over the back of it to surprise her with a kiss on the top of the head, and in the kitchen, she perched on the counter and made sure it was just the right height by leaning forward and wrapping her arms around his neck. And then down the hallway she showed him the bedroom with a mischievous smile. “This one’s going to be ours,” she said, and his eyes lingered on her lips for a moment.

She showed him the other one, too, and they both were quiet for a moment. His hand settled on her shoulder, pulling her close to his side.

“I don’t know that we’ll have much use for this one yet,” she said, peeking up at him from beneath her lashes.

He smiled fondly down at her. “We’ve got time to figure it out.”

---

And that was that, and suddenly Anna was standing in the middle of her own bedroom, staring at all the piles and wondering where to begin.

Elsa slipped in, still in her work blazer. “How did signing everything go at the bank?”

“Great, yeah, super easy. The mortgage guy kind of did a double-take when I came in with the realtor and kept offering me lollipops off his desk.”

“And?”

“Well, I ate them, obviously.”

Elsa snorted. “I meant how did the rest of it go.”

“Oh! Oh-- well.” Anna held up her copy of the deed. “I’m a homeowner now.”

She was quiet for a moment, toeing the only box she had bothered to put together yet. The only item in it so far was a photo album. After a minute, she dared a glance at her sister.

“Do you think Mom and Dad would be proud of me? For...this. For everything.”

Elsa squeezed her hand. “Of course. For absolutely all of it. Mom would be begging to come watch you at work so she could cheer you on from the sidelines, and Dad would be teaching you how to fix....oh, I don’t know, rusty pipes or whatever can go wrong in a house.”

Anna laughed. “Thank God I have Kristoff for that then.”

“They’d be proud of you for that, too. They always liked him.”

“You think?”

“Oh, I know. Remember how they waited up all night to see you come home from prom?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Mom and I had placed a bet on whether or not you two would get together that night. Dad wouldn’t admit it, kept saying ‘that’s my baby girl, she’s too young for a boyfriend anyway’ but he was the one peeking through the curtains.”

Anna leaned her head against her sister’s shoulder. “I miss them.”

“Me, too.”

---

Rehearsals were getting more serious now that the first scenes were set to be shot at the end of the month. Not that Anna had been taking any of this lightly; she’d been driving everyone crazy by humming her songs every waking moment. Even Kristoff had very gently pulled her into his arms as she stood singing the new song that had been written for her-- “Under the Stars”, a cheesy title but really almost as pretty as “Once Upon a December-- while she made French toast in her kitchen; they’d finally been able to spend a night together, and Elsa had graciously pretended she had had plans to spend the night with Honey, anyway.

“Baby,” Kristoff had said, pressing a kiss behind her ear. “You know I love you more than anything.”

“Mmhmm,” she mumbled in between the bridge and the third verse, dipping another piece of bread.

“But can you please, please sing something else?”

She glanced up at him, her cheeks pink. “Sorry, I know I’m being annoying, it’s just--”

He kissed the tip of her nose. “You want to get it right. I know. And I promise that it sounds amazing already.”

She had convinced him to sing for her instead, and then they’d spent the rest of the morning laughing and eating their breakfast and going through furniture websites to pick out a bed.

That was what was distracting her when she ran into a broad chest with an armful of music, dropping her iced coffee on her shoes in the process. “Oh! Jesus fuck, I’m so sorry, I didn’t get any on you, did I?”

She didn’t dare to meet his gaze until she heard a laugh; to her relief, it was only Hans. “Don’t worry about it,” he said, his green eyes bright with amusement. “I was distracted, too, so it’s half my fault. Running lines in your head?”

“Uh-- yeah, something like that.”

“Awesome. Are you ready for our scene practice this afternoon?”

She wasn’t, but she nodded anyway. They were blocking out the dance scene, the one where Anastasia and Dmitri realized they were falling in love. She had the lines down already, and she’d been practicing the dance itself plenty with the choreographer, but it was the other stuff that made her feel nervous, the longing looks and sharp intakes of breath that made up a good ohmygodIlovehim scene. It didn’t help that this was Hans Westergaard, who this past awards season had been nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. He hadn’t won either, but there was already talk that he’d be up again for his part in a war drama, and just the fact that his name was attached to this project was a huge deal. “You can match him, Anna, seriously,” the director, Destin, had said when he’d noticed she was nervous before their first rehearsal together. “You just haven’t had the chance to prove it yet. Well, here it is now.”

She shook her head and realized she’d spaced out before answering. “Um-- yeah. Can’t wait!”

Hans smiled at her, that mysterious grin that had spawned countless thirst tweets. “Me, either.”

---

Kristoff’s back was to her as he worked, fiddling with a tiny screwdriver and a massive bedpost. She knelt beside him with a weak smile; he had insisted on building the bed they’d picked himself, even though it was his only night off this week and she had offered to just get someone to assemble it for them. But that was why they’d gotten one from Ikea anyway, although they could have afforded better; Anna was paying the mortgage and for most of the items in the house so that he could spend the next year focusing on clinicals and studying for his board exams. He’d reassured her it didn’t make him feel weird to let her pay for so much, but still he didn’t want to quit his job at Starbucks entirely-- “so I can still take you out on my own dime”-- and insisted on “earning his keep”, whether that meant doing whatever he could around the little house to get it ready for them to officially move in or picking her up when she needed to make a swift exit to avoid paparazzi or just kissing her as much as she could possibly want.

“Just a second,” he said, not looking up as he finished putting two pieces together, “just gotta-- there!”

He turned to her with a grin. “It’s only taken me an hour, and I’m almost a third of the way there.”

To his horror, she burst into tears instead of laughter. “I have to go away again,” she managed to get out as he immediately pulled her into his arms.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, Anna, don’t cry. We did it before, we’ll do it again.”

“To Russia. They want to do some location shit. For three weeks.”

“We made it six weeks last time, hey?”

“This time it’s over Valentine’s Day.”

Kristoff laughed gently. “So we’ll celebrate early.”

She sniffled against the collar of his shirt. “But I don’t want to leave you.”

“It’ll be okay. I know how to work FaceTime on my own and everything.”

“But I love you. And this is stupid. They can just green screen me in.”

She was being a baby, she knew; she was getting paid a stupid amount of money to go to a brand new place and stay in a hotel and wear gorgeous dresses and act alongside a bunch of people way more famous than she was. And three weeks really wasn’t bad at all, especially when now they’d be spending time every day together so they’d have more than enough chances to make up for lost time.

But still-- she loved him, and she would miss him, and she just wanted to be sad about that for a little while, and so he held her until her tears dried.

---

Sam had a bottle of champagne waiting for her when she stepped into his office after a long day of hair and makeup testing. Her hair was still twisted up into a regal updo she knew would take half an hour to take down and brush out; she’d have to enlist Kristoff’s help in getting all the pins out. It was rather at odds with the Buchanan High sweatshirt she was wearing, the only thing of his she could wear without attracting suspicion since people just assumed it had always been hers. Already her Wikipedia page had way too much personal information on it, too many little details about her life that let people think they knew her.

“Two hundred fifty thousand followers today, kiddo! Quarter of the way to a mill! Lena’s over the moon.”

“Is that what you had me drive all the way over here for?” Anna asked, flopping into a chair.

Sam steepled his fingers. “No. Just wanted to, you know, check in.”

She ignored the glass of champagne he slid across the desk to her. “And you couldn’t just call me?”

“Your director did. Said he could tell you’re running yourself ragged before filming’s even started, but that he can’t get you to slow down long enough to have a chat.”

“I’m Anastasia in Anastasia, Sam. There’s a lot to do.”

“I know,” he said gently, “and I know you can do it. But I don’t want you to burn yourself out this early on in the movie or in your career.”

She didn’t look at him; instead, she focused on sliding her finger around the rim of the glass, wondering if she could make it ring like she used to do to cups of water in restaurants to annoy her sister.

“They hadn’t hired your permanent hair and makeup person yet. So I pulled some strings.”

She looked up then. “Really?”

“Yeah. Lucky for you Miss Nattura just wrapped some--”

“Horror movie, yeah. Trust me, I’ve heard all about it.”

“Still dating your sister, then?”

Anna grinned. “Want to come over for dinner sometime? We can make faces across the table at them when they start being gross.”

“You’re one to talk. How’s the boyfriend?”

“Great. Thanks for getting that photo taken down before it hit TMZ, by the way. I have no idea how they got it or even recognized us. We’ve been really careful. I hardly even see him anymore, seriously.”

“I know,” Sam said with a sad smile. “And it’s only going to get worse.”

---

Sven said the 23rd is great. Looks like Friendsmas is on :)

.

yaaaay it will be so fun

how did ur last final go?

haha final final

.

Well, I think. I’m heading to the house now to meet the guys who are bringing the kitchen stuff. How is your day going?

.

good just singing all day going to lose my voice by tonight

but i’ll figure out how to say thank you for meeting those guys anyway 😘

.

Please tell me this is one of the days you finish early.

As she was about to fire off another response, heat in her cheeks, Hans cleared his throat beside her. “Anna, hey!”

“Oh! Hey, what’s up? Want to run lines again?”

He grinned, and she returned it; that had become something of a routine for them over the last few weeks, running lines together over sandwiches in his trailer. “Yeah, of course. But right now I wanted to give you this.”

He handed her a heavy, ivory envelope; she opened it with a raised eyebrow. “What’s this?”

“Read it and see, goofball.”

She laughed as she scanned the gold-edged piece of cardstock inside. “New Year’s Eve at your place?”

“Yes, I’ve invited the whole cast. And the important members of the crew. You’re welcome to bring a plus one...if there is one, I mean,” he said, and she looked up from the envelope to meet his eyes, suddenly feeling awkward, especially when she saw the question there.

“Oh,” she said, forcing a smile, “I’ll bring Kristoff, then! My boyfriend. Longterm boyfriend.”

Hans just gave her another one of his trademark smiles. “Can’t wait to meet him. He must be someone special to have snatched you up.”

--

“Do you really like it?”

He laughed as he unfolded the massive blanket. “It’s perfect.”

“It’s like, seven feet long or something. So it’s big enough even for you. And look, I got them to put a K on the bottom. So it’s official, I can’t steal it from you.”

Kristoff raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Uh-huh. If I do, you can kick me out of bed.”

“I think that breaks most of the rules we set for these presents.”

“There were only two rules!”

“Yes, and one of them was ‘it has to be a present for both of us’.”

“So that’s only half of the rules. Which is fifty percent, which isn’t a majority.”

She stuck out her tongue, and he rolled his eyes good-naturedly. “Remind me why I ever thought it was a good idea to help you with your stats homework?”

“Because I helped you with your Milton project. And because you had a crush on me,” she teased. “Ha-ha.”

“You definitely had a bigger one on me.”

“Oh, I did for sure,” she said cheerfully, moving from where she had been sitting on the other end of the sofa to sit on his lap, leaning back against his chest. “Especially that year because you grew like six inches.”

He unfolded the blanket all the way and draped it over them both. Anna sighed contentedly and nestled closer against his chest. “See? It can be for both of us sometimes after all.”

“Are you already falling asleep?”

She nodded against him with a yawn, her eyes already closing, and he gently nudged her shoulder. “I didn’t get to give you your present yet.”

“This is enough,” she mumbled sleepily. 

“Trust me, you’ll want to see this.”

“Mhmm.”

“Before the party. Because it’s kind of for Sven too.”

“Well, we have like two hours before they’re here. So let me nap for one.”

He kissed her forehead. “You’ll need time to set it up, though.”

“Is it a Wii?”

Kristoff blinked in surprise. “How did you—“

“You’re dropping so many hints right now it’s not even funny. Also, I tried to hide your present in the second bedroom’s closet and found it there.”

“Goddammit.”

“It’s perfect, though,” she reassured him, pressing a sleepy kiss to his jaw. “Can’t imagine a more perfect present.”

“Now you’re just trying to butter me up so I’ll stay here and hold you while you nap.”

“Is it working?”

He sighed, but a smile was playing at the corners of his lips. “Sweet dreams.”

She was already asleep. 

[memesiders]

Part 3

Death x OC Office AU

(Idk if you guys are even still interested in this but it's helping me get back into writing so imma keep posting it until y'all tell me "STOP!!!" Also I'm on mobile so I can't do a "keep reading" thing I'm so sorry I know it must be annoying)

“Do these leggings make my ass look to big?” I stood sideways in front of the mirror, studying my butt. Today was my first official day on the job, and I was nervous as hell.

“Everything makes your butt look big,” Neema answered, giggling. I scowled at her and stuck my tongue out, turning back to the mirror.

“Seriously, is this okay? Professional enough?”

“Ugh, it’s fine!” She joined me in front of the mirror and grabbed the hem of my baby pink top, pulling it down over my butt. “You look great, alright? It’s not like you’re gonna go to meetings or anything, right? No need for stuffy clothes.” I smiled a little and nodded. She was right, but I still felt uneasy. Maybe my outfit was too casual. “You don’t have time to change anyways, it’s almost eight thirty.”

“Shit!” I grabbed my phone and bag, running out of the room. “Love you, don’t answer the door for strangers!” Neema had gotten a three-day suspension from school after the incident, not that she minded. I hated leaving her alone, but she was sixteen and I had to stop babying her at some point, even if I didn’t like it.

“Go kick ass at work!” she called after me. I picked up my small box of things next to the door and said one last goodbye before running out.

I barely made it in time to catch the bus. I paid the two-dollar fee and searched for a seat, weaving through people. A demon standing in the aisle moved forward as much as he could to allow me to pass, his leathery wings barely missing my face as I squeezed by. Getting hit by wings wasn’t fun, I knew that from personal experience. I ducked behind an angel who was preoccupied on her cellphone and spotted an empty seat, breathing a sigh of relief. I plopped down and set the box next to me, checking the time. Eight forty.

It should only take me ten minutes to reach the office if traffic is light. I mentally cursed myself for not leaving sooner; arriving late would not be a good look for me. Amber had emailed me on Thursday to let me know my schedule and tell me who would be there to show me around. She also informed me that this was a trial run. At the end of three months, Death would decide whether or not I really could be useful. I was hellbent on proving myself, though my mission had gotten off to a late start.

I sighed and checked my email but I had nothing but spam and notifications telling me that my favorite items were on sale. Too bad I didn’t have money to burn, otherwise I’d have been excited by the news. I closed the app and checked another site, my mood not getting any better. All I saw were pictures of friends and families having the time of their lives, vacationing in the Caribbean or announcing their engagement. Apparently, my cousin was pregnant with a baby boy, oh joy. I groaned to myself as I continued to look through my timeline, feeling worse about my situation. I wanted to be able to take my sisters on vacation; hell, I wanted to be able to afford to buy them lunch one day.

I wanted to be able to buy Neema all the manga she could ever want, and make enough so Safiya never had to work another double shift again. I wanted to be able to take care of them for once.

I logged off and threw my phone in my bag, trying to ignore my pathetic self. I had a job, and that was good enough for now. I’d be able to help buy groceries and pay bills; the fun stuff could wait. My stop came up and I gathered my things, making my way back to the front. The angel from earlier was still on the phone and hadn’t noticed me. She turned to get off as I was trying to get past her and smacked me right in the face with her large wings. I fell back into one of the seats, my face stinging and mouth full of feathers.

The person in that seat shoved me forward and I stumbled to the exit, getting off as fast as I could. I set my box down and spat out the feathers in my mouth, plucking a few out of my hair. Today was definitely not starting out the best. I grabbed my things and started down the street, attempting to hold myself high. Nothing was going to ruin this, not even what had just happened.

I crossed the street and arrived at the large black building, my heart leaping into my throat. The last time I’d been here, I’d been forcibly removed. Now I was coming back as an employee. Well, temporary employee, for now. I exhaled the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding and pulled open one of the glass doors, walking in. The lobby didn’t look any different than it had the last time I saw it; black leather sofas and chairs pressed against the walls, magazines stacked neatly on glass coffee tables. The floor and walls were made of black marble, as was the front desk. There was a waterfall on one of the walls with a small pool filled with pennies. I’d tossed one in yesterday, wishing for the job I was now about to officially begin. I smiled and felt a weight lift off of my shoulders; this was a new beginning.

“You’re late.” I flinched and sucked in a sharp breath, twirling around. Leaning against the wall was Death, a frown plastered on his face and an eyebrow arched.

“You scared the shit out of me,” I hissed, taking one hand off of the box to place over my heart. “Do you get your rocks off by sneaking up on people?” He cocked his head slightly and I bit my tongue. That probably wasn’t the smartest thing to say to my new boss. “I, uh, I mean…” He stared at me silently, the quiet between us growing awkward, at least on my part. I shook myself. “I’m not late.”

“It’s nine o’ two.” I snorted. Shit, bad idea again. “I told you nine sharp.”

“I know, I’m sorry. There was a problem at home and then the bus-” He put his hand up, cutting me off, and pushed off the wall.

“Come,” he said, crooking a finger. I refrained from rolling my eyes and followed him. He looked at me for a moment and reached out, touching my hair. I jerked back a little and his hand returned with an angel feather in hand. I blushed. “Run in with an angel?”

“An inconsiderate one,” I replied. He hummed in amusement and nodded, turning back around and walking. My eyes wandered his body as I walked behind him, gaze settling on his ass. Nice. I was so caught up in appreciating him I nearly ran right into him when he stopped. “This is Nora.” I quickly looked up as he turned and gestured to the red-haired woman behind the front desk. “She’ll be your coworker and mentor. If you have any questions, ask her.” I smiled at the woman and shook her hand. “Now, I trust I won’t be hearing any complaints about you? After all, you can take whatever I throw at you, right?” I squinted my eyes a little, giving him a sickeningly sweet smile.

“I won’t be any problem at all, Death, you have my word.”

“Sir.”

“Hmm?”

“At work, you will address me as "Sir.” I held back another snort.

“Kinky,” I muttered under my breath.

“What was that?”

“Nothing, Sir.” He stared at me for a few seconds, a strange glint in his eye.

“Don’t make me regret hiring you, Miss Banks,” he said. He sounded as though he was already regretting it.

“I won’t let you down, Sir.” He let out a breath that almost sounded like a chuckle and said goodbye to both Nora and I before leaving. I stared after him, a small smile on my face; that man was something else.

“I’m glad he finally found someone,” Nora said. I snapped my head back to her.

“What?”

“To fill the job,” she explained. “I thought I’d never be able to cut back my hours.” Warmth spread through my cheeks and I nodded, smiling politely.

“I didn’t think he’d hire me to be honest,” I laughed. “He must love me.” She laughed and pulled up a chair for me, sitting in her own. I gladly sat down, setting my box in my lap.

“The only love the boss has is for his siblings, I’m afraid.” I frowned slightly.

“Really? I saw him with his brother during my interview and he seemed like he’d have thrown him through the window if he had the chance.” Nora laughed.

“Which one? Strife?” I nodded. “Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever seen those two get along, though they might behind closed doors; I’ve only ever interacted with them at work.” I nodded slowly. I wondered how people saw me and my sisters. We loved each other to eternity, but in public it could definitely seem like we didn’t care for each other.

Maybe that was how Death and his siblings were?

“Anyways, I’m glad you’re here,” Nora said, breaking me out of my thoughts. “That means I can spend less time at work and more time with my little one.”

“You have a kid?” I asked. Her smile widened and she nodded, grabbing her phone and showing me her wallpaper. It was her, a bald man, and a tiny baby. It looked cute, I guess; a button nose, big green eyes and a head of black hair. I wasn’t particularly into kids. Maybe if I had a more stable life and the right person, but I never really saw the appeal. “Cute, how old are they?”

“Ten weeks,” she cooed, staring lovingly at the photo. “She’s a bit of a troublemaker but I couldn’t imagine life without her. I just want to spend every moment I can with her.” I nodded and she put her phone away, still looking like she was on cloud nine. “I’m lucky to work here. Death was very accommodating and gave me more time off than I deserved, really. When I asked to cut back my hours, he didn’t even flinch; just gave me the time I wanted and told me I’d have to train whoever he hired next.”

I smiled; that was really kind of him. Way kinder than I thought he was capable of; perhaps we’d just gotten off on the wrong foot? “Anyways, enough about me! We should probably get a crack on, shouldn’t we? There’s a busy day ahead of us.”

“Yes, we probably should,” I agreed.

****

The week flew by faster than I was expecting. Nora had showed me around the building and explained to me all of my duties. Faxing, taking calls, making calls, scheduling appointments, emailing reminders and updates, making sure visitors were checked in and given passes, keeping the lobby clean, collect and sort mail, deliver mail on some occasions, and so much more my head was spinning. The fact that she had done so much by herself for so long was baffling. No one person should’ve been able to do all she had. It almost made me regret taking the job. The paycheck coming up was the only thing keeping me sane.

“Just three more days,” I muttered, doodling on my notepad. My stomach rumbled loudly, a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I winced and curled over a little, nausea washing over me like a wave. We were scrambling to save food at home, which meant eating less than was good for us. It had been messing with me lately and today way no different. I felt like throwing up, but I knew nothing would come out if I did. There was nothing in there to vomit up.

“Az, are you okay,” Nora asked, hanging up her phone. I straightened out and gave her a reassuring smile.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I lied, ignoring the pain in my stomach. “Just a little hungry is all.”

“Well, lunch is coming up, so don’t worry; we’ll get some food in ya then.” I nodded at her, appreciative of her kindness. I really wanted to tell her “I don’t have money for lunch! My next meal is probably gonna come out of a trashcan!” but I didn’t. I really didn’t want anyone knowing how pathetic I was that I couldn’t even afford lunch.

“Sounds great,” was all I said. She smiled at me and picked up another call. She was only on the phone for about a minute. “Looks like the boss wants to see you.” I frowned. What had I done? I hadn’t caused trouble; at least, not enough to warrant attention. I blew out an exhausted breath and pushed away from my desk, standing.

“Alright, I guess I’ll be seeing you in a bit.” She nodded and turned back to her computer screen, typing away at an email. I went to the elevators and pushed the up button, resting my hands on my hips. I was confused, to say the least. I hadn’t raised trouble at all. Well, that wasn’t entirely true; some guy had decided to try and get handsy with me while I was delivering some mail. He’d gotten his nose broken.

I’d had to file a report about it but I hadn’t been reprimanded, nor had I heard anything about it since then. Maybe it was just now getting around to Death. I frowned a little; he better not have called me up to his office to punish me. That would piss me off more than anything else he’s done since our first meeting.

The elevator dinged, the doors opening up, and I stepped in. I smashed the top floor button and leaned back against the metal handlebar, blowing a few strands of hair out of my face. I couldn’t help but be nervous. “Maybe it’s not anything bad,” I said to myself. “Maybe he’s just curious about how you’re doing? Or he wants you to do something for him? Something that Amber can’t do? Fuck…” I shook my head and straightened up as the elevator once again dinged. I breathed deeply as the doors opened, and stepped out.

Amber didn’t even look up when I walked out, gave me the go ahead to enter Death’s office. I thanked her and quietly opened one of the doors, slipping in. Death was against his desk, half sitting and half standing, with his office phone pressed to his ear. His face was contorted into a scowl, his jaw clenched tightly and the vein in his neck popping.

“I’m not going,” he growled into the phone, thrumming his fingers against the desk. “I have no need!” The person on the other end was shouting back at him, I could hear it from my position in front of the now closed door. “I don’t care what they want, they have you, War, and Strife; that should be enough for them!" The person they were talking to got even louder, and I could hear it was a woman’s voice. “Don’t threaten me, Fury.” His face was getting red, his eyes burning brightly.

Suddenly he pushed away from the desk and threw his hand up. “As I said, I have no need to-” Fury cut him off. Death still hadn’t noticed me, so I cleared my throat loudly enough to grab his attention. He looked at me and snapped his fingers, pointing to a chair. Without thinking, I obeyed, hurrying over and plopping myself down into the seat; I had no doubt he was angry enough to fire me right then and there if I didn’t listen. I could hear a few of Fury’s words now that I was closer.

Words like “council,” and “party,” and “pull up your big boy pants before I come down there and beat you senseless.” There was also the threat of dragging him by the ear to whatever party they were all supposed to be at. I nearly laughed; this must’ve been his sister, because there was no way anyone else would’ve been able to get away with saying the things she was. After a few more minutes of fighting, Death conceded. “Fine,” he huffed, falling into his chair. “I’ll be there, but don’t expect me to play nice with others.” Fury had calmed down now too, I couldn’t hear her anymore, but I was sure she was satisfied and probably had a smug look on her face. Death said his goodbyes and hung up the phone, muttering curses under his breath. He sighed and rubbed his temples slowly, running a hand through his hair. I shifted awkwardly.

“Are you okay, Sir,” I asked softly, unsure of whether or not I should say anything. He grunted and looked at me, straightening in his seat.

“I’m fine, thank you.” I nodded, tugging at the hem of my skirt.

“Nora said you wanted me up here? Is this about that asshole on the third floor? I won’t apologize for breaking his nose, you know.” Death snorted and shook his head, his demeanor changing. He looked less annoyed than he had just a moment ago.

“Don’t worry, it’s not about that,” he assured me. “He deserved it, and has been properly removed from the company.” My eyes widened slightly; I hadn’t expected that. I thought he’d just get a slap on the wrist or something. Death clasped his hands together and cocked his head slightly. “No, I called you up here to ask how you were settling in. Anything too much for you?” I frowned a little and shrugged.

“Not really,” I explained. “It’s a little difficult having to remember everything but Nora’s been a big help. I’m worried that I might be annoying her with all of my questions.” I laughed a little and the corner of his lips turned up slightly.

“Don’t apologize; I’d rather have you ask a lot of questions and be prepared than ask none and mess things up. I’m sure Nora feels the same way.” I nodded appreciatively. My stomach rumbled loudly and I blushed.

“I’m so sorry.”

“No need. Have you had lunch yet?” I shook my head. “I should probably let you get to it then. It’s around your break time, I believe.” I nodded and thanked him, standing. The world started to swim and I felt my heart leap into my throat, my vision blurring further. My legs gave out without warning and I fell back into my seat, breathing heavily. Death was by my side almost immediately. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, sorry,” I said, rubbing my throbbing head. “I just haven’t been able to eat much lately.” I bit my tongue after the last word came out and silently cursed myself.

“What?” he asked, concern lacing his words. “What do you mean?”

“It’s nothing, really. I’m sorry for worrying you.” I tried to stand but Death sat me back down. I couldn’t really put up much of a fight.

“What do you mean, Aziza?” I looked up at him, my heart pounding. Again, with the reaction? Why did it make me feel so strange whenever he said my name? I stared into his eyes, my face growing warm, and shrugged.

“There’s not much food in the house so I’ve had to skip a few meals. It’s no big deal, I just have to wait a few days for my paycheck.” He frowned at my words and I gave him a small smile. “I’ll be fine, I just felt a little faint. It won’t affect my work, I promise.” He scoffed.

“Stay here,” he ordered, leaving me. He went to the doors and opened one of them, sticking his head out and talking to Amber. He came back a minute later and sat down behind his desk. “I had Amber order some food for you.” My eyes widened.

“You what?” I squeaked.

“I had her order a cheeseburger. Unless you’re a vegetarian?”

“I’m not, but-”

“Good, then you can wait here until the food arrives.” I stared at him, my mouth open slightly. Had he really just ordered me food? Why? I couldn’t afford to pay him back. Was he gonna take it out of my paycheck? I felt an odd sensation at the thought of him doing something like that for me; a sensation I didn’t know if I liked or not.

“You didn’t have to do that,” I said, trying not to sound too defensive. “I’m fine, and it’s not like you owe me anything. I need to get back to work anyways.” He rested his chin on his clasped hands, studying me carefully. My face grew warm again and I stared back at him.

“Yes, I did have to,” he said coolly. “You work in my building, which means I’m responsible for you. If you collapse on the job then I’ll have to give you time off to recover; time neither of us can afford. Nora will have to keep on full time until you recover and by the time you come back, you’ll have forgotten how everything works. Besides, I can’t have a starving receptionist; your hunger will make you forget things and then I’d have to fire you, and then where would you be? You’d be starving… Again.” I blinked, thinking over his words. He wasn’t doing this out of the kindness of his heart, which reassured me a little, but I was still uncomfortable. Even though it all made rational sense, I still felt uneasy about it.

“Okay, you’ll take it out of my pay, right?”

“No.” I sat up straighter.

“What? You have to; I don’t feel comfortable just letting you-”

“Is it that much of a deal?” He sounded amused. His lips had formed a small smirk.

“Yes, it is. You’re my boss and you’re just buying me food like I’m your girlfriend or something.” He hummed a little and leaned back in his seat, shrugging his shoulders.

“Fine, if it means that much to you, then there is something I’d like you to do.”

“Anything,” I quickly replied, feeling a bit of relief. “As long as I can do something to pay you back.” He cocked his head, a fang peeking out from his upper lip. A shiver ran down my spine.

“The company is hosting a party tomorrow night and my presence has been demanded,” he explained, rolling his eyes. “I need a date.” My eyes nearly popped out of my head. “It’s not a real date, but my sister insists I bring someone; something about she doesn’t want me embarrassing her.” I started to ask why he didn’t take Amber, but he beat me to it. “My brothers will be there, and Amber and Strife are not friendly with each other. Also, she has plans for that night.” I nodded, my stomach twisting into knots. My palms started to sweat and I clenched my hands into fists. I couldn’t exactly say no, not after he bought me food. I didn’t even know why he was asking me; we weren’t exactly friendly with one another. In fact, this was the first time since I’d began working here that we’d seen each other.

“Why ask me?”

“Why not?” I frowned, cocking my head like he’d done not long ago. That wasn’t really the answer I wanted, but it looked like that was the only one I was getting.

“I don’t exactly have the clothing for a party, and I don’t know how I should act.”

“You don’t have to act any way, just be yourself. As for clothes, I’ll have something picked up for you.” This was too weird to get my head wrapped around. “You don’t have to come with me, Aziza.” I flicked my eyes back to his. “I can face my sister’s wrath, don’t worry. I only asked because you seem bent on repaying me.”

“I’ll do it,” I quickly replied. “I’m just worried I’ll embarrass you or something.” That wasn’t exactly a lie. I was worried about doing something embarrassing, I just wasn’t worried about it affecting him.

“Strife will be the embarrassing one, don’t worry about that.” I scoffed playfully and leaned back in my seat. “I’m serious, Aziza, you don’t have to come.”

“I said I’ll do it and I’ll do it.” My words were final. I wasn’t going to back out because I was a little uncomfortable, even though that’s exactly what I wanted to do. Death hummed softly and stared at me, an almost soft look in his eyes. “Just know that I have a hard time keeping a filter on myself.” Death chuckled.

“Perfect.”

[polzkadotz]

Asas reread their fics - ftayc - part 4

And we’re back to rereading this fic!!!! last chapter i reread was the 7k monster of chapter 3, and this one... oh. Oh, this is also 7k?

wowie

if you want a spoiler to interest you, here we go lmao

we begin with this author’s note bc I don’t think I ever really talked about it here on my tumblr???

It was sort of my first time being recommended, really. I had noticed that my hit count had gone up substantially and I couldn’t understand it, but it was nice??? and then i found the post on the library and I was like Oh. I See.

Whoever it was that recommended me, thank you. Seriously.

But enough mushy-wushy, let’s tackle this giant.

We begin with this exchange, which...

I was trying to be funny and this still makes me smile so at least I amuse myself lmao

Neil needs to free himself of the plot device I pulled out of nowhere and he taps into his reserves of power that he has hid away for, basically, forever. One thing that I wish I had made more clear, which was basically the vitriol going through my mind as I wrote this fic, was that Neil had been cutting himself of his powers and how powerful he was for a fucking long time because

1) he bought into his mom’s reasoning that his father was simply Not Someone They Could Face and Win

2) he had made himself fit into a mold that would “make him survive” but, by doing so, he basically chained himself to a fraction of the three-dimensional person he used to be, which made meeting Jean and finding out that he had become a pet god for a human even worse because Neil could see all the ways they were similar but Neil had been doing that shit to himself voluntarily.

Originally, when I thought about making Neil a god in this fic, I did think about modeling him out of an existing god but also, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to make him be someone who was struggling with letting himself be what he was with his full-potential. Someone who had been cutting himself back for so long he had basically lost whatever sense of personhood he used to have. Someone who had started to get tired of cutting parts of himself and forgetting what he used to be so he would survive for--

What? Survive for what? Neil eventually realized he hadn’t been a person for too long and as long as his father was alive, he would never feel safe to be.

Now that I think about it, Neil was very much me working through my own shit about trying to live as myself at the same time that I had different versions of past me struggling with the person I was becoming. The person I wanted to be.

Anyway, back to the story.

There’s a throwaway paragraph where I sort of tease that Andrew’s dragon is becoming "hungry” and it was basically me trying very hard to foreshadow that the priest thing was going to happen lmao

After battling for two paragraphs against the thought of creating a new priest, Neil gets them back on track to go as far away as its possible for both dragons flying.

Nicky tries to get Neil to talk about the god thing, and I like how I made it clear that even being reminded that he had been a god was something conflicting to Neil.

And then we get to the part where Neil suddenly remembers that he has a lot more money than what he had previously said in the first few chapters, but who cares about plot consistency, am I right? Does it show that this fic was edited hastily? Because I can guarantee that it was :3

They stop in Mumbai, I think (the place is not important for past Asas and honestly... can’t say that’s changed lol). Nicky tries to get Neil to talk more about being immortal and stuff. Neil gives a bit of backstory, as a treat, and Kevin reveals what he knows, as a threat I guess lmao

I kind of imply that Neil only had one priest, which... I remember is not what I put in the sequel.............. so I do recommend you reread your fics before writing a new piece, wink-wink

OH MY GOD I MADE NICKY ASK WHY NEIL’S ENGLISH “WASN’T WEIRD” AND THEN I REPLIED WITH A SENTENCE THAT WAS BASICALLY STRUCTURED WITH PORTUGUESE GRAMMAR AND SOUNDS VERY WRONG IN ENGLISH

Asas... my god, Asas.

Anyway, after a lot of questioning, they eventually go to sleep and, when Neil wakes up from a nightmare, he has his daily fairy tale dose from Andrew, who’s also awake. I gotta be honest, I don’t even remember that fairy tale but it explains the Aaron, Andrew and Tilda.

After everybody wakes up from their naps, they go to their last destination: Tokyo.

Wait lemme check:

when did they leave Mumbai in my story?

when did they reach Tokyo?

yeah, that math totally checks out.

Whatever. As they arrive in Tokyo, Neil splurges even more money on a hotel for the whole crew, even though they had been pretty not nice to him as a whole lmao. But! The boy believed he was going to die, so what was he going to do with all that money?

Nothing, so he programmed an email to be sent to Andrew with the info for some of his bank accounts and fucked off to try and find what his mother had stolen.

Neil gets on a ferry that will take six hours to reach the island where is the volcano that his mother had made him hide his father’s immortality. Neil got nekkid because he wanted to have clothes when he got out of the volcano, you know?

(Also, yes, I’m gonna ignore the other time inconsistency from his travel inside Japan, I was very much pressured by the whole “got recommended on the library” okay, you can judge me through those lenses)

Unfortunately, for him, he wasn’t alone when he finally climbed out of the volcano.

Fortunately for him, this Ichirou Moriyama doesn’t want his father, who is very much interested in becoming immortal, to actually become immortal. Neil explains the whole immortality thingy (I found some typos and honestly? I shan’t fix them. It adds character) and Ichirou subtly kicks Neil’s clothes closer to him, which... I get it, my guy. It’s kind of difficult to have an intimidating conversation when someone’s bits are out and about.

As they are trying to hash out their problem -- as in, Neil’s father told them that Neil’s immortality would be viable to cure Kengo --, Andrew appears blowing his ball of flames onto both of them, and Neil uses his powers to create a pocket that repels the fire, so it doesn’t touch him or Ichirou.

(Why didn’t he use those powers on his clothes, as well? Dunno, don’t poke at my plot too much or it will definitely crumble right into your face, you’re gonna inhale too much dust and die from fandom toxicity, AND THAT’S NO WAY TO REACH A GOOD DEATH)

btw:

Neil, my dude. The dragon thought you were in danger? Chill out???

Neil rages for a few seconds but quickly turns that into a situation to ask Moriyama for his protection against his father, since Neil just technically saved his life.

Oh, and if you think “Uhhh, why would Neil even believe that Ichirou would keep his word?”

Don’t worry, I gotchu:

Ichirou agrees with the deal, for plot reasons. Since he got a deal out of it kind of easily, Neil thinks, “Wait a minute. If I give my father’s immortality to this Moriyama, literally passing the hot potato around, then the Moriyamas won’t be after me for an immortality, my father probably won’t be immortal and come after me as the death machine he used to be and I might be able to use it to free a certain god????”

So Neil uses his father’s immortality to bargain for Jean’s freedom, and he doesn’t wait for Moriyama’s response for that one. He simply hops onto dragon!Andrew’s back and they fly away into the... sunset? Sunrise? Don’t ask me, I clearly can’t keep track of the time passage in my fics.

And this is the end of the chapter!

Let me say something that I hope will be quick: this chapter felt much better written to me then the other three. It’s shaky in places, definitely, and it could’ve gone through a more severe round of editing, but I can certainly feel the positive outcomes of the pressure I felt after my work got a shout-out. This fic had been pretty much geared towards myself, so writing about the world-building wasn’t my focus at all in the other three chapters. In this one, I try to at least explain some concepts I came up with which???? Go me??????

I still wish I had taken the time to work on this entire fic to make it as close to what I had in my head, but in a comprehensive form for the attention that it got, you know? I mean, from the ashes you crawl is still my most everything -- most kudos, hits, comments, bookmarks...  It deserved so much better but also... I like that it feels rough? I like that it can clearly help to contrast the growth of my style or whatever?

It was written after a long, long writer’s block, and it only got edited and posted because I decided to participate in an event for a different fandom and it got me excited about writing again.

Anyway, I’ve talked too much. Here’s to hoping I can contain myself in the next posts lmao

PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6

[justanotherwannabeclassic]

Shutdown

Killian Jones is in love with the perfect woman, and now he's planning the perfect proposal. Unfortunately, real world politics are getting in his way. 

Note: The Shutdown is officially over, so let's celebrate with fic!But first, let me  use this platform for a request. 800,000+ federal works went two pay periods without their checks. A considerably number of federal contractors won't get paid at all. Many have turned to food banks, diaper banks, and other organizations that help those in need. Because of this unexpected increase in demand, many organizations of this type are now strapped thin when it comes to available resources. I highly encourage you to donate to your local area food bank, or even those in the DC-area which have a large number of federal workers. Any help is appreciated! 

Special thanks to @distant-rose for encouraging me to finish this fic.

XXXXXX

He meets her in the summer only steps away from the White House.

It’s a place he usually avoids. He loathes tourists, and the White House during the Summer is the prime tourist hub. But Liam and Elsa are visiting, and because he wants to be a good brother/tour guide, he takes them to all of the highlights. He joins them on a tour of the Capitol Building, they get lunch from one of the hot dog vendors that line the Mall. They visit two of the Smithsonians -- the American History and Natural History Museums -- before focusing everything else.

By the time they get to the White House, the sweltering heat is messing with everyone, making Liam more irritable than normal, when Killian suggests popping into the Renwick for art and some much-needed AC. Elsa’s eyes light up, and Liam acquiesces, so Killian leads them away from fences and crowds to one of the Smithsonian's lesser-known galleries. There’s an exhibition with art from Burning Man or whatever outdoor festival is now hip with the youths -- maybe there is a reason Belle calls him an “old soul” -- and he wanders with his family for awhile. Just as they are about to go upstairs, Killian receives a call from his realtor about a property he’s considering, and steps outside to talk it over. It’s a quick and disappointing call -- the condo he was interested in already had a cash offer, that the seller was going to accept. To make matters worse, just as he ends the call, someone crashes into him, sending his phone flying into the hard concrete. The person who runs straight past him, dodging tourists and maneuvering down the stairs after someone else he hadn’t noticed before.

Killian, along with a few dozen other tourists, watch the proceedings. His phone forgotten a few yards away, his stands stunned as the blonde woman chases after a man. The person she’s chasing grabs an errant red bike left alone by an unaware tourist -- rookie mistake, he thinks, the tourist will have the pay for that -- and rides along the sidewalk until he can weave into traffic, earning a blare of a horn from a disgruntled cab driver. The woman throws her hands in the air, middle fingers raised high, when she realizes she’ll be unable to catch him.

He’s not sure what compels him to do it, but he walks over to scoop up his phone -- the screen is definitely shattered -- and then makes a beeline toward the woman.

“Are you okay?” Killian asks. She turns at his question, and it takes Killian no time at all to realize that she’s beautiful. Green eyes and golden hair, and Killian’s always been a sucker for nice things.

“I’m fine. Annoyed, but fine.” She runs her hands through her hair, tucking it behind her ears. “That fucking asshole got away.”

“Who was he?” He doesn’t know what compelled her to chase after the man. Did he steal something of hers? An ex? It doesn’t cross his mind to wonder if she’s the problem.

“To me? No one. But to the family he walked out on? Asshole.” At the quirk of his brow, she elaborates. “I work in bail bonds, and he skipped leaving his wife and kids to deal with the aftermath.”

“So what you’re telling me is that he probably deserved to be hit by that taxi just then.”

She cracks a small smile. “Something like that.” They fall silent for a moment, lingering but not quite knowing what to say. “Thanks for checking up on me,” the woman says finally, “you really didn’t have to.”

“Well, it’s not very often a beautiful woman crashes into you,” Killian tells her. He ducks his head, somewhat embarrassed, “I had to find out the reason why.”

Her eyes widen, and for a split-second Killian believes he has said something wrong until she gasps, “Oh shit, that was you? I really should be the one asking if you’re okay.”

He waves her off. “I’m fine. Phone’s a bit cracked, but that’s what insurance is for, right?”

Her face contorts in horror. “Fuck, I’m sorry.”

“It’s not big deal. Truly, I promise. In fact, watching you just now was impressive.”

Her eyes narrow. “Impressive? He got away.”

“And I’m sure you’ll catch your mark,” he says. “Someone who plows down strangers within sightline of the Secret Service doesn’t strike me as someone to be deterred.”

“Well, thanks.” Killian catches a hint of a blush, and considers it victory. “And, uh, sorry about ruining your vacation.”

“Vacation?” He quickly realizes that she assumes he’s here as a tourist. “Oh, no, my brother and his wife are the ones on vacation. I’m simply the one ferrying them around. Well, me and WMATA.”

“Well, then, I’m really sorry,” she teases.

“Hey now, it’s only caught fire once this month.”

“Back to Good, isn’t that the motto? Speaking of Back to Good and terrible taglines, are you sure everything is fine with your phone? I can help pay for a replacement once I catch this jerk.” She shoves her phone into her pocket, and pulls out a rumpled card. “Here’s my card. You can email me an invoice or whatever.”

He reads her name, Emma Swan, printed in large serif font. He like the flow of her name, almost as much as he likes the fire in her pretty green eyes. “Emma, you truly don’t have to worry about it.”

“Just let me, okay?” Emma asks, and he finally relents. There’s no use starting a fight over it. “Look, I have to fill out a report about this, but get back to me, okay?”

He nods dumbly, watching as she runs away -- a flash of red and gold. He considers tossing her card. He has insurance, and certainly doesn’t want to make her pay for his phone -- especially after hearing her qualify “once she catches the jerk.” But there’s something about her that makes him open up his wallet and put her card in his wallet.

He still won’t make her pay for his phone.

 -/-

 It’s not until well after Liam and Elsa leave and he settles back into his routine that Killian and he forces himself to get his phone fixed. Had it been a simple crack, he might have let it go, but lines spider-web across the front and bits of glass begun to chip off.

Emma Swan’s card has been burning a hole in his wallet, and not because he desires to be refunded. She is stunningly beautiful, and from his brief conversation, he’d gleaned that she was both funny and caring, and also that she appeared to have a code of honor -- something he appreciated.. He’d gone home with different women knowing far less.

But it still takes a few shots of rum on a lonely Saturday night to gather up the courage to send her an email. Even through the haze of alcohol, he knows he likely comes across as a little odd when she sends her a snapshot of him holding his new phone -- taken with his webcam -- with a message saying it’s all fixed.

I know you said you wanted to pay me back, and honestly you don’t need to do it. But if you feel so inclined to make it up to me, how about dinner sometime next week?

In the morning, he instantly regrets it. He has no relationship with this woman beyond a too-brief interaction, but he still feels a sense of loss at the idea of never hearing from her again. Perhaps it’s a sign he’s fully moved on Milah -- as much as one can move on from the untimely death of a loved one -- and that he’s ready to seriously again. Perhaps meeting Emma Swan was the kickstart to his future, and nothing more than that.

But perhaps not, because the following morning she responds.

This is a little be weird. It’s a good thing you’re cute. I’ll let you pick the place, but you have to let me pay. Does next Friday at 7 work. PS -Not creepy sex shit. Dinner only.

Killian smiles.

 -/-

 He takes her to a place in the Eckington neighborhood, a small restaurant that serves pub fare and where the bartender knows him by name. It’s not expensive, a fact that he kept in mind when suggesting places since she insists on paying. They sit outside, away from my prying eyes of the aforementioned bartender, where they can talk and dine under the stars and glowing lights strung around for ‘ambiance’. They light makes her hair appear more golden, and it’s there where he realizes that she’s the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen. He doesn’t tell her that, believing it to be too soon to make a confession. Instead he tells her, “You look lovely tonight,” which causes her to blush and reply, “I know.”

He’s beginning to really like Emma Swan.

They trade stories over burgers and beer. She elaborates more about her role as a bailbonds woman, and he fills her in on the inner-goings of his work at the State Department.

“I’ve gotta say, I expected you to be more of a British Embassy kind of guy,” Emma says, a hint of teasing in her voice when she finally makes note of his accent.

“You can take the man out of Britain, but you can’t take the Britain out of man, it seems,” he replies with a wink. It’s only after that he goes on to explain that he’s technically a dual citizen, courtesy of his father.

“I came here for school, and I suppose I never left,” he explains. There’s more to that story, of course, but the tale of his relationship with Milah is not one for first dates. It’s too serious of a topic this soon. He’ll tell her someday, if they progress that far. They stay late, and he almost regrets walking her back to her apartment. But before he leaves, he manages to ensure a second date and steal a goodnight kiss.

So this is what the start of forever feels like.

 -/-

 The more time passes, the more Killian begins to realize that his life can now be broken into “Before Meeting Emma Swan” and “After”. They go on more dates, and she helps him move into his new place once someone finally accepts his offer, and slowly but surely she becomes a fixture in his life.

He meets her friends -- Mary Margaret, a school teacher in Anacostia, and her husband David, a Congressional Staffer with the idealism that envies the cast of The West Wing. Ruby, the animal rights activist, and Regina, a human rights lawyer. In turn, he introduces her to his people. Belle takes an immediate liking Emma, as does Smee. Robin, the aforementioned bartender, also gives her his approval.

Slowly, but surely, their lives begin to meld together. They fill in one another about their work days. They attend happy hours together, brunches, grab fresh produce at the farmers market, basically doing all the sorts of things couples in this city do. Eventually, her friends begin hanging out at his haunts, and vice-versa. Robin the bartender meets Regina-the-lawyer, and before Killian knows it, everyone is getting coupled up.

It feels right.

Killian doesn’t want it to end.

 -/-

 It’s not all sunshine and roses, of course, but nothing ever is. They fight -- about going to fast, not going fast enough, over her messiness, and his willingness to just throw money around, they ways in which she is closed off and when he lets his ego get in the way. They work it out though, one of them eventually apologizing to the other. And the fact that they make it through these fights gives Killian just enough motivation to think that perhaps Emma Swan might actually be the one.

 -/-

 It takes one year and ten months after the day they met, three months after she finally moves into his condo, for Killian to buy a ring. He goes for something simple -- platinum band with a single solitaire diamond. He sends pictures to Liam and Elsa, shows Robin on a night when Emma is hunting down a skip.

“Think she’ll like it?” he asks, tilting the box to and fro so the diamond can catch the light and sparkle. God, he can’t wait to see it on her finger. Assuming she says yes.

She’ll say yes.

She has to say yes.

“It’s not about the ring, but the person asking it, my bean,” Robin replies, with all the sage wisdom only a bartender could have, “but you probably could have splurged on a bigger diamond.”

“You are absolutely not getting a tip tonight.”

Robin rolls his eyes, and gives him a free beer in congratulations.

“I’m tell you I’m going to propose to the woman of my dreams, and all you give me is a pale ale? Really, mate, that deserves something top shelf…”

“The top shelf is reserved for when I see that ring on her finger.”

“You’re an asshole.”

“And yet you’re somehow still friends with me. Riddle me that, my friend,” Robin teases. His expression then turns serious. “I truly am happy you, and she will say yes.”

 -/-

 This is Killian’s plan:

They’ll have lunch at one of her favorite places in Foggy, and then he’ll suggest walking to the Renwick for old time’s sake. There’s apparently an interesting exhibit focused on the portrayals of fairy tale characters in art -- Mary Margaret had been gushing about, and one of his interns had commented about how “everyone is going for the ‘gram” -- so it’s bound to be interesting. And then, when they get there, he’ll drop down to one knee, and ask her to be his wife.

Assuming, of course, everything goes to plan.

 -/-

It doesn’t.

 -/-

 Here’s the thing: Killian enjoys working for State. The benefits are good, and though he knows he’d get paid more as a lobbyist, his hours are stable and he has a better work/life balance than any of the Hill staffers he knows. He’s fine in his little federal government bubble, thank you very much. The biggest downside, along with navigating the bureaucracy of the US Government, is that every now and then his paycheck is affected by the whims of Congress and the sitting President. And, unfortunately, the whims and divided government are not in his favor, resulting in a government shutdown. The first few days he admittedly appreciates some time away from work. He sleeps in, and whenever Emma doesn’t have something to do in the early morning, they laze about in bed together partaking in very enjoyable activities. But as the shutdown lags, he finds himself eager to go back to work. He’s bored, and he honestly enjoys what he does. More importantly, he would also very much like to paid, along with everyone else whose world has been temporarily flipped upside down. Of course, there’s also a bit of selfishness present that has nothing to do with paychecks or the State Department.

“The Renwick is closed,” he sighs to Belle at the start of week two of the shutdown, as they sit on couch and binge the War and Peace miniseries that came out the previous year. The anniversary of him and Emma meeting is fast approaching, the ideal date for a proposal. But the Renwick doesn’t have the funds, and is non-essential, so its doors remained locked.

“You can still go to other museums. The Spy Museum is still open.”

“The Spy Museum is a godawful tourist trap,” he replies, earning an eye roll.

“I’m just trying to help.” She pokes him in the side. Like him, Belle is also furloughed from her position at the Library of Congress. They had originally met via a setup of mutual friends, and though their romantic relationship went nowhere, a friendship had blossomed.

“I wasn’t looking for things to do. It was more about wanting to propose to Emma.”

“I know, I was just ignoring that part.” She gets off of the couch and stretches before heading over to his bookshelf. “How many times do we have to tell you that it doesn’t matter where you propose? It will be perfect no matter what, because you and Emma are perfect couple for each other.”

“You sound like Mary Margaret.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” She selects a book from his shelf. “Can I borrow this?”

“It’s Emma’s. You can ask, but I’m sure she won’t mind.” He waves her off, and Belle tucks the book into her side with a smile. “I know logically you’re right, alright? But it hardly changes the fact that I’d like to propose to her there.”

“And I’d like to go work, get paid, and not have to worry about my student loans. But, we can’t always get what we want.” She casts him a significant look, and Killian can’t help but feel like a complete asshole. He realizes then how petty he sounded.

“Shit.  I’m was a terrible person just now, wasn’t I?”

“Maybe not terrible, but single-minded.” Belle has never been one to let his idiocy pass by, but she manages to always call him out with tact. He appreciates that about her.  “Listen, Killian, you’re a romantic. It’s incredibly sweet, and I know Emma loves it. But don’t get caught up in your head waiting for the perfect moment or perfect place.”

 -/-

 He goes on a run the next day, forcing himself to get out of the condo. Emma is doing research on one of her skips, and he wants to give her space to work. Someone ought to be getting something done, and he knows she works better in silence.

As he runs, he follows a familiar path by the Potomac. The water always relaxes his mind. Once upon a time, he’d flirted with the idea of purchasing a houseboat, but that had been a dream of both him and Milah. When she died, he couldn’t bear to go through with it. Probably for the best, though Emma enjoys going out on the water with him, he knows she’d be less than thrilled to live on a boat full-time. And, honestly? So would he.

But, he still loves the water. He enjoys watching the way the sun sparkles off the surface and the sound of the gulls and ducks mingling with the light slapping of the waves against the concrete blockades.

On a normal day, he would turn around whenever he reaches the Mall, but he has extra energy to burn and the desire to push through. It’s quieter than normal, no longer overcrowded with families on vacation of eighth-graders gathered around on their school trip. Tourists are still around, but with the museums being closed, there are fewer places on the Mall for them to go. At least, he muses, it’s not like the last go around where they shut down the monuments. The trash, however, might rate as high as the tourists on the list of things he can do without. With the National Parks Service closed, trash has been piling. Volunteers and the local DC government both have stepped in,but it’s still a tenuous task.

Instead of sticking by the river, on whim Killian decides to cut across the mall. As he looks the right, he grimaces when he sees the Capitol Building. Gleaming white under the bright sun, it’s splendor is normally a beautiful sight, but today it only reminds him of dysfunction and everything currently going wrong. Every now and then, he would flirt with the idea of immigrating back to England. That had been an option shortly after Milah had died, but he hadn’t been ready to leave everything behind or the support system that he’d built. Besides, Liam had never been fond of Milah, and returning to London had felt like a betrayal to her memory at the time. Now, it’s not really option. Emma already has a strong support system here, and knowing her history, he’d be reluctant to ever ask her to give it up for him. Besides, even with a marriage, the immigration process is daunting enough. Emma needs to live somewhere where she didn’t need to count on his presence and their relationship to stay.

So in America he stays.

Though with as much whining Liam has done about Brexit…

He’s still unhappy with the mess. To a degree, part of his focus on the closing of the Renwick and the derailing of his engagement plan has been to distract himself from it all. He’s honestly one of the lucky ones. He has some savings -- far less after the purchase of the ring. Emma’s career, thankfully, isn’t tied to the shutdown, and though he loathes the pressure his current lack of income is placing on her, it could be worse. Belle doesn’t have anyone to help share the brunt of the lack of paycheck. He also knows many couples who both work for the federal government. So, he’s lucky. Has hasn’t been able to say a lot about that in his life, but with this he can.

Besides, he will (eventually) ask Emma to be his wife, and once she (hopefully) says yes,he be the luckiest man on the planet.

He runs to the Renwick, and stares forlornly at the closed doors. Technically, they’d met directly outside of those, but something seems off about asking right there. He runs his finger his hand through his hair, both Belle and Robin’s words playing through his head. Why does he want it to be such an event? Because Emma deserves something special. After everything she’s been through -- parental abandonment, bouncing from foster home to foster home, her stint in jail -- she deserves someone to make her feel special and adored..

With a deep sigh, he casts one last look at the Renwick, and turns to head home.

Of course, that’s when everything changes.

 -/-

 “Emma, love?” The condo is quiet when he walks through to doors. He’s unsure if she’s home. She very well could be scouting locations. Regardless of what she’s doing, he plans to take a shower. He’s sweaty from his run, and knows he probably smells awful. But if she’s home, he might be able to coax her into joining him after he soaps off.

He’s already worked his shirt off as he ambles into the bedroom, and he drops it when he sees her. Her eyes are red and her cheeks are splotchy -- it’s clear she’s crying. It’s then when he notices what’s in her hand.

The ring box.

“I wasn’t snooping,” she says, the words spilling out when she sees his eyes fall to her hands, “not intentionally. My pen ran out of ink, and I knew you always kept a few extra in your bag, and...” She lifts the box. “I’m sorry.”

“There’s no need to apologize. You didn’t know,” he replies. He’s let her rifle through his bag in the past for legal pads, pens, spare chargers, and even gum. He’d been hiding the ring in his bag if only because he hadn’t needed it the past few weeks. Originally, it had been hidden in his sock drawer, but after she had borrowed his socks once -- “they’re warmer,” she’d said -- he’d changed his hiding spot. Perhaps he ought to have kept it in place.

He’s suddenly afraid. The sight in front of him -- Emma, tears in her eyes, holding the ring box and apologizing -- settles on him like a heavy weight. His tongue feels heavy. Did he get it all wrong? They’d talked about their future before. She’d said she wanted this, didn’t she?

“Do you like it?” he asks, because that’s the only thing he can think to say.

She laughs, the effect somewhat lost by the tears in her eyes. “That’s what you want to ask me?”

His heart pounds wildly in his chest, and Killian wonders if she can hear it. “I want to ask you many things.”

“Yeah, but I think only one of them deal with a ring.” She extends her arm, and holds the box out to him. “So, are you gonna ask me or what?”

It takes him a moment to register what she’s asking. He takes in everything about her when it does. The green of her eyes, the upticked quirk of her watery smile, and the trembling of her hand. Even crying, she’s stunning.

Slowly, he takes the box from her, and drops down to his knee. He doesn’t have on a shirt and he smells of sweat, but he’ll do this right, at least.

“Emma Swan, will you marry me?” His voice cracks. He doesn’t care.

“Yes.”

 -/-

 They celebrate with their friends a week later, two days after the shutdown ends. The mood at Robin’s bar is jubilant -- everyone happy to both celebrate the engagement and the return of their paychecks.

“Wait just a second, you mean after all of that agonizing about the perfect proposal, you went and did it in your bedroom in nothing but your birthday suit?” Robin teases, his smile wide as Killian rolls his eyes.

“I had on pants, thank you very much,” Killian replies, struggling and failing to sound mad. He can’t be too annoyed. Robin carried through with his promise for free top shelf liquor, even after the restaurant took a beating due to the shutdown. Besides, Killian can’t quite take his eyes off the ring sitting on Emma’s finger.

“It was the perfect proposal,” Emma adds. She bumps his shoulder, and if he smiles any wider, Killian is sure he’s split his face in two. “Besides, I happen like him shirtless.”

“It’s true, she does.” He gives Emma a salacious wink, earning a laugh.

“Good thing you’re spending the rest of your lives together,” Mary Margaret chimes in from somewhere behind them.

“Good thing,” Emma agrees, pulling him in for a kiss. A few of their friends cheer. He can hear Ruby shout ‘Get a room!’, but he doesn’t care. Emma Swan is going to marry him.

That’s all that matters.

[taylorelauria-blog]

Internet Privacy?

Most people would say the internet can be a great place; it can help us with almost anything we need it to and realistically is so convenient. However, with the good comes the bad and honestly I don’t believe the internet is as great as everyone makes it seem. To be honest, the internet is one long record of everything you have ever done on it. Passwords, credit cards numbers, names, google searches, absolutely anything that you put in the internet there is always a record. Seriously there is absolutely no such thing as privacy on the internet and yet, we still use it every day. We still put our personal information such as credit card, debit card, social security number, into the internet.

I used to think putting my personal information on the internet wasn’t a big deal. I love to online shop so my debit card is no stranger to the internet. If I could skip going anywhere and use the internet, I definitely would. But, about a year ago this all came to a screeching halt. I was in class when my phone rang, some random number that I thought was one of those annoying scamming calls. After class I noticed I had a voicemail from that strange number and immediately deleted it. The next day the same number called me four times and left me four messages. I finally decided to listen to one. It was a debt collector letting me know that a company, who I had never heard of, never associated with, was demanding the money I owe them. I was confused and seriously concerned as this collector was demanding money that I had never personally had in my bank account. After days of investigating and a lot of phone calls later, I discovered that someone had stolen my information and opened a credit card and within days of doing so, maxed out and opened up multiple other credit cards. I found that when I had applied for a credit card through one of my favorite stores, someone somehow got a hold of my social security number and all my bank information. This situation is definitely one that I wasn’t expecting because everyone shops online, everyone uses the internet and I just didn’t think it would happen to me. Now I am much more careful about what I put into my computer and the internet although, I wish I had always been. What people don’t realize is that these situations are becoming more and more common and it’s a serious issue.

While watching the assigned videos I also noticed them talking about the surveillance and how after discussing something you can see an ad on your social media sites. This happens to me frequently when I talk about a product and the next time I’m on Facebook, there’s an ad for whatever I was talking about. When I look something up and go on different websites such as Yahoo, there is almost always an ad showing off that product or something similar. I also noticed them talking about how when you put your email to subscribe for one product, you usually get a million other “subscribed” emails. It just goes to show that companies don’t care about your security or whether or not you want your information shared. They will do almost anything that will make them money, even if it is morally wrong.

[hazzasgayvodka]

22 * ROCKET * 22

Impact: Chapter 22

Chapter title song: Rocket - Def Leppard 

HARRY

I make sure to drop Jess off for class before going back home to meet Ryland to get my duffle. He pulls up in the driveway seconds after I've sat down on the couch. He doesn't bother knocking, instead just walks inside with the duffle over his shoulder. He tosses it on the couch next to me and collapses beside it, his attention turning to the TV in front of him.

I grab the duffle and pull it onto my lap, unzipping it and digging around for the stacks of money I know are hidden in the bottom under everything.

"You fought good last night." He says, punching me in the arm.

"In the second half." I laugh, reaching a hand to my bandaged nose.

"You were a different person after she showed up." He thinks aloud, turning to me but I don't acknowledge him.

"She's just good at snapping me out of shit." I lie, not daring to tell him about how worried I was about her not getting home before the fight started.

He stands from the couch and starts making his way to the door. I jump up and follow him, sorting out the blocks of cash in my hands.

"Hey Ry, how much?" I ask, flipping through a block of rubber-banded twenties.

"Five grand." He smirks.

My head snaps up in shock. He's lying. The smug look on his face confirms it though. That's nearly double my regular average.

"Five grand?" I ask incredulously.

He nods, laughing. I grab all the blocks of cash and stare at them crazily, I'm holding five thousand dollars in my hands.

"When you got your ass kicked in the first half, bets on you dropped by half. It was a good tactic Styles, maybe you should bring the chick around more often."

"What? No way, she's not coming to another fight." I say seriously, dropping the money on the counter.

He shrugs, opening the front door and stepping outside, "We could be making that money every time, think about it."

I close the door in his face, turning back to the kitchen. I stare at the pile of money on the counter. If I was getting five grand at every fight I could pay off all of my student loan debt and even the house in a few years. I could buy her whatever the hell she wanted and more. I could take her out to fancy dinners like Miles and buy her a car that she doesn't have to share with Sam.

My phone buzzes in my pocket and I take it out to see a text from her asking if I'm there to pick her up for work yet. It's like she knew I was thinking about her. I tell her I'll be there in five minutes and take the stacks of cash to Niall's room and hide them in the safe with the rest of them until I can get to the bank.

JESS

He pulls up beside the curb and rolls down the window, the sound of The Outfield echoing from inside. I laugh and open the door, falling into the seat beside him and turning the heat dial all the way to the right. When I look at him and see the bandage across his nose, I'm reminded of the night before and my stomach feels sick.

"How was class?" He asks, driving away from the curb.

"Fine, I nearly fell asleep though." I yawn, my head falling back against the seat.

"It was a late night last night." He smirks, looking over to meet my eyes.

I cover my face with my hand, my cheeks blushing bright red I'm sure. I reach over and swat him, and he laughs, pulling onto the main road towards Lexington. I grab my bag and start to look through it to get my clothes, so I can go ahead and change considering how lovely it went last time I waited to change at work.

I drag my sweashirt up over my head and I feel his eyes dart to me as I fold it up and put it back in my bag. I take my dress out of my bag and slide it over my head before shimmying out of my jeans to reveal my tights underneath. I look up as I'm folding my jeans to see his eyes flickering between me and the street.

"Eyes on the road, Styles." I tease, sliding my heels on my feet and finally sitting up and buckling my seat belt.

He clears his throat with a chuckle and gets into the turning lane for the building, "Yes ma'am."

We walk inside, and he surprises me as he grabs my hand, leading us both to the elevators. Harry has never been one for PDA from what I understand from Niall and Sam and yet he always seems to want to have his hands on me.

We ride the elevator up to the thirteenth floor and he makes a b-line for the office. He holds the door open for me and I step inside, falling into my chair and he takes a seat across from me.

"Only a few more days of this you know, I say, looking up from my lap, "The two weeks is over in two days."

I watch his face fall as the realization hits him. I expected him to be happy, ecstatic even. He was hardly willing to give it up in the first place and now he's disappointed that it's time for him to get it back.

"Yeah, I guess I'll have my office back which is nice." He says half-heartedly.

I stand up from my desk and walk over to him, sitting on the arm of the chair and wrapping his arm around my waist. He looks up to meet my eyes and I lean down, pressing my lips to his cheek and running my fingers through his hair.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"Nothing." He says, forcing a smile onto his face.

I raise my eyebrow at him and he drops the smile, he knows I'm onto him. I know him well enough to tell the difference between his smiles.

"I'm just not ready for you to not live with me anymore." He sighs, not daring to meet my eyes.

I laugh, leaning my head on his shoulder, "You really think you're going to get rid of me that easily?"

He perks up at this, sitting up and meeting my eyes finally. Suddenly he's smiling again, really smiling, his dimples showing and his eyes alive.

"You'll stay?" He asks eagerly.

"Well, no, not all the time," I say carefully, trying to tiptoe around his good mood, "I need my own space Harry, but I'm sure I'll stay over more often than not."

His smile remains, and I wrap my arms around his neck, leaning down to press my lips to his. I know it's risky after the Audrie situation, but I can't be bothered enough to care.

"And now it'll be a special occasion," I grin against his lips, "When I stay over."

I can feel his smile widen and he pulls away from me to meet my eyes. He reaches up to tuck my hair behind my ear like he always does, and that stupid smirk finds its way onto his mouth.

"Well I do like the sound of that." He teases, and I stand up from the arm of the chair before he can kiss me again.

He reaches out for me, but I keep walking, sitting behind my computer and checking my emails for anything from Lex about meetings or deals. He walks up behind me and puts his hands on my shoulders, massaging the tense spots in my neck before leaning down and pressing his lips to my skin. I turn around, scolding him and he laughs, turning away from me to occupy the desk in the hallway.

I spend the rest of the day editing a manuscript and sending my notes to Harry via email. I don't know what's with him today, but he can't seem to keep his hands off of me. Part of me knows it has everything to do with last night but I can't afford to let him come in here every time I finish an annotation if he can't leave without kissing me.

Soon enough it's nearly time to head out and he comes into the office with his keys in his hand. He twirls them around his finger as he stands in the doorway, his leather jacket already on his shoulders.

"Come on baby, let's bounce." He says, nodding out the door.

I shake my head at him, standing from my desk and sliding my feet into my heels that have long since been kicked off. He passes me my jacket and hooks his arm around my waist, leading me out of the office to the elevators. He starts to ask me where I want to go for dinner when his phone rings in his pocket, cutting him off.

He releases my waist, taking out his phone and holding it to his ear. He listens for a few minutes and I concentrate on the voice on the other end, trying to place it or understand any of the words but it's nearly impossible.

"Yeah, yeah okay, I'll be there as soon as I can," Harry says impatiently, "Alright bye."

He hangs up and tucks his phone back into his pocket as he leads us out of the building to his car parked in the first row. He doesn't say anything, and my curiosity of the unfamiliar voice is killing me.

"Who was-"

"That was the shop," He sighs, "Someone came in and requested me specifically. I'll drop you off before I go and then I'll be home later." He explains.

I look at him and raise my eyebrows as I open my door and slide into the car beside him. He glances over at me and looks at me expectantly.

"What?" He asks.

"I just can't tell if you're actually going to the shop or if I'm supposed to be picking up on some 'I'm actually going to a fight' code word." I say, looking over his face to spot any tells that he's lying.

"Jess," He laughs, "I'm actually going to the shop, promise, that was Leo on the phone, my boss."

I narrow my eyes at him, trying to decide if he's really telling the truth, "I think I should go with you to make sure."

He looks over at me as he rolls to a stop sign, "What? No way baby, you're not going."

"I knew you were lying." I smirk, reaching over to point my finger in his face.

"I am not lying!" He laughs, shoving my hand from in front of his face and holding it instead, "Fine, you want to come to the shop? We're going to the shop."

He swerves to get in the left lane and turns on his blinker to make a U-turn. He heaves out a sigh and I know I've annoyed him, but he can't be that mad because he's still holding my hand and rubbing his thumb back and forth against it.

I see the complex coming into view as he drives up the street. I haven't been to the flower shop in what feels like ages and seeing it across the street reminds me of the day he came in to mess with me. He pulls into a parking spot and gets out of the car, shrugging his jacket off and unbuttoning his dress shirt. He pops the trunk and walks around to the back of the car to throw on a plain black shirt. It's crazy watching him change into someone else. He takes his glasses off and tucks them into his jacket pocket and lets his hair fall down around his shoulders.

He walks back to the front of the car and leans into his seat to meet my eyes, "You coming, babe?"

I nod, and he meets me at the front of the car with his denim jacket held out for me to put on. I slide my arms through the sleeves and he adjusts it on my shoulders. I turn back to him and he scrunches his face, looking me up and down.

"God, they're going to eat you alive in there." He laughs, throwing his arm over my shoulders.

"I doubt you'll let that happen." I smirk, leaning into his shoulder.

He reaches for the clip in my hair and releases it, letting my hair fall down, just barely brushing my shoulders. He tosses the clip in his pocket and turns to me, looking me over one more time.

"Better." He shrugs, grabbing the door and holding it open for me to walk inside.

I step inside and instantly I hear the incessant buzzing sound of a tattoo needle. It makes my skin crawl. He walks up behind me and places his hand on my lower back, leading me past the busy front counter and towards the back of the shop.

"Stay close." He says, eyeing everyone and shoving me in front of him.

I laugh at his protectiveness and roll my eyes as he grabs my hand and nearly drags me to the supply room at the back. He shuts the closet door behind me and flips on the dingy lightbulb in the corner as he searches through countless bins and boxes on the shelves.

He finally turns back to me with a tattoo needle in one hand and a pair of gloves in the other. He grabs a towel and tosses it over his shoulder before nodding to me and walking out of the closet behind me.

"Wait so you," I start, trying to wrap my head around this, "you actually do the tattoos?"

"Yeah," He laughs, looking at me over his shoulder, "what did you think I did working at a tattoo shop?"

"I don't know, I thought you were like the receptionist or something," I shrug, following him back to the front where he logs into the computer and scrolls through the list of appointments for today, "How many of your tattoos did you do yourself?"

"A few, mainly stupid ones, the good ones are all by Leo," He smiles, nodding to the tanned man walking a girl from the waiting area to the back, "It's nearly impossible to give yourself a tattoo and it turn out good, I promise."

He turns around, calling Leo's name but he's already around the corner with his next appointment. Harry looks back to the computer and squints, scrolling back through the names before turning to me.

"Hey dollface, look through this and tell me if you see any appointments for me on here," He huffs, "I can't fucking see that tiny font."

I laugh, nagging him about wearing his glasses and he rolls his eyes as I move him out of the way, so I can see the computer screen and scroll through the names myself. Nowhere on the schedule does it say there's a request for Harry.

"I don't see-"

I'm cut off as a tall, thin man comes to stand in front of the desk with a wickedly perfect smile. He leans on his elbow on top of the granite counter, his eyes locked on Harry.

"Yeah, I told him not to bother adding me to the schedule," He smirks, running a hand through his short black hair, "I think it'll be a fairly brief appointment."

He's undeniably attractive with the lightest blue eyes I've ever seen, and his voice is smooth like silk. He's almost as tall as Harry but he's built like a telephone pole whereas Harry is all muscle. The way he's smirking at Harry, the wicked glare in his eyes, tells me he's not here for a tattoo.

I turn around to see Harry completely rigid, he's staring at the mystery man with a certain determination and I know that if looks could kill, this poor man would be a corpse. He rips his eyes away from him and turns to me, his expression softening but his words still coming out of grit teeth.

"You need to go, take my keys and drive home, I'll come pick you up as soon as I can-"

"Harry are you insane I'm not driving your car-"

"Please-"

Our argument is cut off by the man once again as he leans across the counter, his hair falling into his face and his wicked grin never leaving his lips.

"Oh, there's no need for that, I'd actually much prefer it if the babe came with us, I could use some eye candy while I treat you to a beer, Harry." He smirks, sending me a wink and I scrunch my nose in distaste.

"Shut up, Zack, can we please do this another time?" Harry sighs, finally looking back to him.

"Well," He laughs, "you see I already told Ryland and the guys that we'd all meet at Blue Jeans so, no, we can't."

He sighs, looking back up to glare at Zack and Zack smiles, knowing that he's won whatever argument is going on here. I have no idea what's going on, but the increasingly tight grip Harry has on my hand tells me this isn't good.

"Can I drop her off first?" Harry asks, nodding towards me.

"Looks to me like the girl could use a beer," Zack laughs, "and besides, Ryland said to make sure you brought that hot piece of ass you've been toting around, and I don't think he meant Ashlyn."

Harry grimaces as the words leave his mouth and finally Zack turns back towards the front doors, laughing as he reminds Harry of the time and place one more time before shoving his way out the doors. Harry turns to me with a pained expression on his face, grabbing my shoulders.

"You don't have to come, I can drop you off right now, I can't believe I got you mixed up in this-"

"It's okay, it's just a bar," I say, cutting him off and running my fingers through his hair to calm him down, "Who is he?"

"Yet another person I was hoping you'd never have the pleasure of meeting." He frowns, not daring to meet my eyes.

I grab his chin and tilt it up, forcing him to look at me. I can see the worry in his eyes as I release his chin and wrap my arms around his waist instead. He lets out a breath and I feel it shudder through his body, a heave of relief as I bury my face in his chest.

"You don't have to do this." He says yet again.

"I know I don't," I sigh, "but I want to, whatever this is."

"Being the hot piece of ass I've been toting around?" He laughs, his sad smile finally breaking into a real grin.

"Something like that." I laugh.

He grabs my hand and pulls me back out of the shop and to his car. We both get in and he backs out, speeding back onto the main road. Before I know it, his apartment is coming into view.

"Harry, you're not dropping me off-"

"I know, I'm still in slacks and there's no way you're wearing a dress to a biker bar." He says, cutting me off as he pulls into the driveway.

He turns the car off and gets out and I follow him to the door. Niall sits up on the couch as we walk inside but Harry walks right past to his bedroom, tugging me along behind him.

"Hey guys-"

"We don't have time Niall," He huffs, stopping in his doorway, "Zack's in town apparently."

I watch as Niall's eyes nearly fall out of his head. He stands up from the couch and rushes over to Harry and my curiosity of this Zack character grows.

"Go get ready baby, put on some jeans or something." Harry says, opening the door to his room and nodding inside.

I want to stay out here and witness whatever conversation these two are about to have but I know that Harry is already on edge. I walk inside, and he shuts the door behind me quickly. I hear their whispered voices moving away from the door, but I can't distinguish their words.

I move to my suitcase on the other side of the room and shuffle through it for a pair of jeans. I slide a black pair up my legs and search for a shirt as soon as I have them on. I can't seem to find anything fitting enough for a biker bar and the last thing I want to do is draw attention to myself with everything already being on edge.

I turn to his closet instead and shuffle through it until I land on a rolling stones shirt. I slip it over my head and tuck it into the front of my jeans before grabbing his denim jacket and tossing it over my shoulders. I grab a pair of black boots from my luggage and slide them on my feet just as his bedroom door opens and he walks inside.

I look up to meet his face and his lip ring is pulled between his teeth as he looks me up and down. I stand up from the edge of his bed and tug his jacket up on my shoulders.

"How's this?" I ask, gesturing to my outfit.

"Perfect, I uh," He says, clearing his throat as he walks to his dresser to grab a pair of jeans, "I've never seen you dressed like that."

"Well only half the clothes are mine," I laugh, grabbing my makeup bag to put on some lipstick, "I just want to fit in."

I can feel his eyes on me as he drags his jeans up his legs and shoves his feet into a pair of sneakers. My hair is a frizzy mess in the mirror from being clipped up all day, but I run my fingers through it to shake out the curls and hope it doesn't look as bad as I think it does.

I turn around from the mirror to see him dressed in black jeans and his leather jacket. He looks so undeniably amazing in black but before I can make any remarks, Niall is walking through the door. His eyes land on me and his jaw nearly hits the floor as he looks me up and down.

"Holy fuck Jess-"

"Careful." Harry warns, walking over to me and throwing his arm over my shoulders.

Niall laughs, walking back the way he came and tossing Harry his keys, "Listen, I'm not making any moves on your woman, but I'm allowed to tell a girl when she looks hot."

Harry smirks, looking down to meet my eyes as he leads us to the door, "Yeah, she looks pretty damn good," He grins, leaning down and pressing his lips to mine, "There's no way you're walking out of the house like this every day though, this is a one-time thing."

"What? You don't like it?" I laugh, dragging him to the car.

"No, I do, that's the problem," He chuckles, opening his door and getting in," And so will every other guy on campus."

I shove him as he starts the car, momentarily forgetting about the hurricane we're quite literally walking into. He turns up the music as he drives and soon enough we're pulling into Blue Jeans, a tiny dive bar with a neon sign and an entire row of motorcycles parked out front. He shuts off the car and meets me on the other side, taking my hand and telling me to stay close.

As soon as we're inside the haze of cigarette smoke hits me like a ton of bricks. He leads me to the back and then I see him, his eyes shine eerily in the dim lighting of the bar. He stands from the table with a pint of beer in one hand, gesturing for me and Harry to sit down.

"There they are! So glad you two could make it." Zack smiles warmly, offering me a seat and pushing it in after I've sat down.

Harry sits next to me and takes out a cigarette, lighting it between his teeth. I can tell he's still nervous, he rests his hand on my thigh and gives it a squeeze as he leans back in his seat. I look up to the four faces around the table that aren't Harry. Zack is eyeing me up and down and the way he licks his lips as he does so makes me feel like I need a shower. Ryland is directly across from me; his eyes are beyond bloodshot and his knee is bouncing under the table rapidly. I look to the unfamiliar faces, one blonde boy with brown eyes and the other a brunette. They look too nice to be caught up in this crowd.

"I saw you fight last night." Zack speaks up, taking a sip of his beer.

"Did you?" Harry asks, leaning forward curiously.

"Yeah, I saw you nearly get your ass kicked until the second half," He says dismissively, "When she showed up."

I look up from my lap to see him nonchalantly pointing at me. He takes another sip of his beer and leans back in his seat once his eyes have caught my gaze.

"That was some stunt you pulled there Styles. It was smart, lose the whole first half and then turn it around in the end. Win double the cash because you pulled a fast one on the crowd," He rambles, taking out a cigarette for himself and leaning forward for the blonde boy to light it, "But you see, people are getting skeptical. How are you supposed to bet against someone when they always win?"

I can feel Harry's hand tightening his grip on my thigh. I reach under the table and place my hand over his, threading my fingers through his. I feel him relax as he intertwines our hands beneath the table, his eyes trained on Zack and his cigarette bobbing between his lips.

"So, what are you saying?" He asks, narrowing his eyes at Zack.

"I'm saying you're going to lose," Zack says simply, "Tomorrow night, I'll set up a fight and the whole thing will be staged. You will lose and therefore interest will be regained, I can't have people thinking my entire ring is a setup. That it's rigged so my fighter always wins, where's the money in that?"

I look up to see Harry's face and I can see the gears turning in his head. I don't like the sound of him losing. How bad will it have to be for the crowd to believe it? I suppose it can't be worse than last night but here he is sitting beside me with a torso covered in bruises and a bandage over his nose.

"Who am I fighting?" He asks, and I can tell he's trying not to grit his teeth.

"Haven't decided yet. I have to find someone that's willing to go with the plan."

His jaw tenses and I can tell he doesn't like the sound of this. He squeezes my hand under the table, assuring me that he's alright before Zack speaks up again.

"Oh, and one more thing," Zack grins, his wicked smile returning from earlier, "The girl, I want her there."

My head snaps to look over at him. His eyes are trained on me, maliciously. The wide grin on his face makes my skin crawl, he knows exactly what he's doing.

"No way," Harry seethes, "She's not going anywhere near another fight."

"She is if I say so and I do believe that's what I just did," Zack says, his friendly façade faltering as he raises his voice, "I'll see you two tomorrow in Berkeley Hall. Ryland will text you the details."

He stands from the table and takes out his wallet, tossing two hundred-dollar bills onto the table to cover the bill. The other two boys stand up right behind him and follow him out of the bar. Harry relaxes as soon as he's gone, releasing my hand from his death grip, and running his thumb over my knee.

He turns to Ryland suddenly, getting up from the table and grabbing him by the back of his shirt. He yanks him up from his seat and turns him around to shout in his face, his jaw pulled taut against his cheek.

"What the fuck is he doing here, Ry? Did you call him?" He shouts, shoving his back against the table.

"No! He just showed up! He said he wanted to check on the ring and I told him I had a fight last night, so he came." He breathes uneasily.

Harry drops him, shoving him into the table and causing a glass to hit the ground and shatter. Ryland holds his chest, breathing heavily in relief as Harry walks back over to me and grabs my hand.

"Come on, we're getting out of here." He huffs, nearly dragging me back towards the entrance and into the car.

He doesn't say a word the whole drive home, but his jaw is clenching against his cheek and his fists grip the steering wheel with white knuckles. He surprises me as he shuts the radio off, something I've never seen him do. He pulls into the driveway but neither of us get out of the car, we stay seated, letting the heat run.

"Harry," I start, my voice shaking as I try to gauge his emotion, "I won't go if you don't want me to."

"No," He says, nearly cutting me off, "You have to go now because I'm a fucking idiot and I let you get mixed up in all this shit after promising myself that I wouldn't let it happen!"

I flinch away from him when he raises his voice and bangs his fist against the steering wheel. He's livid, at me or himself or Zack I don't know but it seems that every time I think I've seen him at his angriest, I'm wrong.

"It's not your fault," I assure him, grabbing his balled fists in my hand, "It's mine, I made Niall take me there last night, you were trying to keep me safe and I should have listened-"

"Don't blame this on yourself." He says, making my rambling cease.

I wait for him to say more but he doesn't, he only lets out a sigh and brings my hands to his mouth, kissing my knuckles. I hate the pain I can see in his face, I wish I could kiss away the stress lines between his eyebrows.

"I wish I could say I don't like it," He says, his voice low, "The fighting. I wish I didn't love it as much as I do, I wish I could quit and say I'm done but it gives me a rush like nothing else does," He sighs, finally looking at me, "I don't want you to think I'm some kind of monster that gets off on hurting people but-"

"That's not what I think." I assure him, running my hands through his hair.

He smiles, finally, and I feel like I can breathe again. He closes his eyes and lets his head fall back to his seat as I continue threading my hands through his hair. I lean forward and press my lips to his cheek, making his eyes flutter open. His eyes meet mine and I can tell he's relieved. Was he really that worked up about what I thought of him after all this?

He finally shuts the car off and climbs out with me following suit. We nearly drag ourselves to his room and collapse into bed. I shove my jeans off and let them fall to the ground beside his denim jacket and my shoes. He does the same in addition to his shirt before wrapping his arms around me and tugging me into his side.

He's inhumanly warm and I relax in the feeling of his steaming arms wrapped around me. I lay my head on his chest, letting my finger dance across his skin, tracing the lines of ink I'm still not familiar with yet. I stare at the bruises along his rib cage and he winces when I adjust my head on his shoulder.

"You're pretty amazing," He mumbles, his voice already thick with sleep, "You know that?"

"Yeah," I smile, leaning up to press my lips to his, "I know."

[kaje665-blog]

Sell Insurance Company

Your competition for purchasing a completely independent insurance agency is possibly the greatest among any niche for small company acquisitions. It's much more challenging if you are a agent that doesn't presently own an agency (i.e. not really a proper acquirer). My firm works regularly with agents across the nation around the valuation, purchase and purchase of insurance agencies so we see first hands what must be done to create deals happen. After talking to countless agency buyers, I made the decision to compile a summary of general "rules" to follow along with. Know more about Insurance Agency Valuations by visiting our website.

Rule #1: Know what you could afford

A customer once explained "a great agent dreams big", that is a great philosophy. With regards to buying an agency, you should be realistic. Generally, my guideline is the fact that a purchaser needs 20-25% associated with a potential purchase obtainable in cash to pay for the lower payment and operating capital to operate the company. Which means someone with $200k in cash could possibly acquire an $800k to $1M agency. Additionally towards the lower payment, you need to be in a position to borrow 50% from the purchase cost from a 3rd party to satisfy the seller's lower payment requirement. Although some transactions still include a lot of seller financing, it is less frequent using the elevated buyer competition and accessibility to 3rd party financing during the last decade.

Rule #2: Fall into line the cash

Most acquisitions have three parties involved: the vendor, the customer and also the financier. The 3 have to be pleased with the terms for any deal to occur. Some occasions the vendor may be the financier, other occasions it might be a trader, but frequently a 3rd party loan provider is involved. There are just a number of lenders that finance purchasing insurance agencies. Many are asset-based lenders (for example commercial banks), other medication is income lenders (for example Small business administration lenders) yet others are still commission-based lenders (for example Oak Street Funding). They all have different underwriting and deal structure guidelines. According to individuals guidelines, one loan provider may go for just one particular deal although not for an additional. You should know how each loan provider determines the things they will loan, what's needed of the customer, and also the structure that's allowable for that transaction. Many buyers miss great possibilities because they need to search lower financing while some have previously done this and move ahead expeditiously by having an offer. Furthermore, many deals go wrong because prospective buyers don't realize the loan provider needs and unknowingly make offers that they'll not complete.

Rule #3: Tips to negotiate

You cannot effectively acquire insurance agencies part-time or in a leisurely pace. Other buyers are extremely aggressive and might have people who work full-time on acquisitions. You might want to take a look at 15 potential possibilities to locate one that's a great fit. The final factor you would like is to locate a great one and miss the chance since you moved slower compared to competition. Without having time to dedicate to the procedure, but they are seriously interested in attempting to acquire agencies, then consider outsourcing. My firm contracts about one half-dozen highly qualified buyers at any given time running marketing campaigns for agencies round the country. We've been with the process a large number of occasions and be aware of challenges and potential pitfalls, so additionally to generating possibilities for the clients additionally they gain the advantage of our experience. At the minimum, possess a pro-active technique to find possibilities, review them diligently making a decision if you should pursue them.

Rule #4: Comprehend the process

The buyers that close transactions be aware of process and move ahead rapidly with full confidence. The procedure generally follows as a result: (1) Summary of the chance, (2) Disclosure by parties, (3) Discharge of info on the agency, (4) Meeting(s) using the seller, (5) Written offer and settlement, (6) Research, (7) Execution from the purchase contract and elimination of closing contingencies, (8) Closing, and (9) Publish-closing transition. Typically from beginning to end it's really a 3-180 day process to get at the closing once the parties are motivated.

Rule #5: "Show yours" to determine their own

The disclosure phase is to, the mark buyer, share details about yourself as well as your finances and sign a confidentiality/non-disclosure agreement, and so the seller or his/her intermediary releases the required information for you concerning the business. Your initial goal ought to be to understand the personal finances, book of economic and operation from the business. The aim isn't to conduct research at this time. Any written offer ought to be susceptible to an intensive research process. Should you submit a laundry listing of questions before you make a deal, the vendor will likely weary or concentrate on another buyer. Buyers which are excessively risk-averse take 2-3 occasions more than a skilled buyer in continuing to move forward, which in turn causes the previous to overlook possibilities.

Rule #6: First impressions count

Whenever you talk with an agency owner to go over a possible purchase, remember Dale Carnegie's famous saying: "be hearty inside your approbation and lavish inside your praise". The aim shouldn't be to barter because this can certainly become an adversarial discussion. It's your chance to provide yourself like a real and qualified candidate, build rapport using the seller and get specific, intelligent questions so you've enough knowledge of the company to maneuver forward. Experienced buyers frequently relay their intentions regarding the way they will proceed and just what they'll need in the seller to accomplish the transaction. Realize that many obstacles which come up throughout the acquisition process could be overcome for those who have good rapport using the seller, so you should establish an friendly relationship from the first day. Don't think that an agency owner is just worried about how much cash they'll receive for that purchase. Most proprietors have put years into building their agency and developed close relationships using their staff and customers, so exiting the company could be a major emotional event. The dog owner does not need to see his/her legacy come crashing lower while heOrshe offered the company towards the wrong person, therefore the money, while important, isn't the whole equation.

Rule #7: Keep your process moving

Otherwise skillfully managed, the negotiations can drag out and finally stall. With regards to making a deal, achieve this on paper and canopy the key terms. You won't want to shuttle one half dozen occasions, arrived at a contract after which understand that you didn't remember an essential detail. That produces deal fatigue and goes away the goodwill. Make use of an experienced intermediary that handles insurance agency purchase transactions to help using the negotiations and drafting of the purchase offer. The "intermediary" can relieve tension and if they're a skilled M&A consultant they are able to help insure that key products are incorporated within the purchase contracts. Supply the seller having a research list to allow them to focus on assembling the thing you need as the contract has been negotiated.

Rule #8: Be flexible on deal structure

Among the greatest reasons buyers miss possibilities is they miss out on the forest with the trees - as they say. They find yourself in trouble on a single detail and won't budge. I'm not recommending that you simply surrender to all the demands of the seller, however that you evaluate how big the worth gap. Are you prepared to lose the chance? Can there be an alternate way to bridge the space?

Let us have a simple scenario. The vendor of the agency wants $500k. You believe the company may be worth $425k - a 15% gap. Are you able to add some impact on an earn-out but still income? Will the vendor extend the financial lending terms longer and bear much more of an email? Is he going toOrshe hold an email on stand-by (no payments) for any couple of years before you can enhance the income? Consider the money flow, risk and total price of capital, not only the acquisition cost. Attempt to understand his/her motives for selling too because this can frequently reveal an chance to locate mutual understanding. When the owner is inflexible and impractical this means that they're unmotivated, therefore it is most likely time for you to move ahead.

Rule #9: Do your research

I would like to state that the planet is definitely an honest place but good people can omit important details to prevent complications in research. Pricier sleep issues to simply provide you with the thing you need. Once under an LOI or purchase contract, request it and watch for it. Research can generally fall under three groups: 1) financial, 2) operational and three) legal. Around the financial side, make certain you realize the revenue and expenses both from your historic along with a pro forma basis. Often a trailing 12 month revenue history inside a P&C agency is a great indicator from the next twelve month's performance but there might be a loss of revenue of the account, producer, bonus or carrier which may be incorporated inside a trailing 12 month think back and can not carry forward. Take a look at monthly trends having a year-over-year comparison. When the agency deals with a / r, then employ a good CPA to complete the digging. Around the operational side, comprehend the culture from the agency from how a office operates to the caliber of the workers and customers. How efficient would be the processes and technology being utilized, where are possibilities for enhancements? Should there be producers, so how exactly does their compensation fall into line with all of those other market and have they got any vesting within their book of economic? Make certain that you've a good knowledge of all parts of the industry before continuing to move forward. It is almost always not that which you uncover which should worry you, what you do not uncover.

Rule #10: Possess a publish-close strategy

Professional buyers possess a transition arrange for following the closing. The size of an effective transition period in the owner relies upon his/her goals and just how integral he/she's towards the business. In some instances, the dog owner can leave following a week as well as in others he/she might need to hang in there for any couple of years. You should make sure to execute new contracts using the agency's staff and producers, even just before closing. In lots of states, non-compete contracts between employees and also the selling corporation aren't transferrable to some buyer. Other products include transferring trust money, getting hired with carriers and redirecting commissions into your money, and many other minute details. You'll have both hands full for that first couple of several weeks so make certain that you're prepared to hit the floor running. Looking for Insurance Consulting? Visit our website today!

Should you chose to create a play in an independent agency, then be prepared to commit some time and sources towards the process expect problems to arise suddenly and expect stress and feelings to boil towards the surface. You might want to hug lots of frogs before you get a prince, but, like anything, the more you practice in internet marketing, the greater you'll become.

[allenmendezsr]

Sinus Treatment - Doctor Say Buy This Treatment

New Post has been published on http://autotraffixpro.app/allenmendezsr/sinus-treatment-doctor-say-buy-this-treatment/

Sinus Treatment - Doctor Say Buy This Treatment

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    What I Reveal Here Is What You Always Needed…

If You Cannot Spare Ten Minutes To Read This Letter, Then You Are A SUCKER Who Deserves To Be Attacked By SINUS MONSTER!

You Have Nothing To Lose Except Sinusitis…

Let’s get something dead straight!

Sinusitis is a serious problem and it is not fun!

You might have come across big claims about treatments to cure your sinusitis.But did they really work? Well to be frank, many people would love to say a big “NO”! Now I bring you a readily workable home-based treatment which is effective enough to eradicate years of torment from sinusitis.

I share my secrets for overcoming excruciating sinusitis, the disease which tormented me for a decade. I treated the problem without using any of those prescriptions and costly medicines. I experienced a complete makeover through my remedies and, above all, it was a safe change too.

Real Success Stories

“Sinus Gone with the Wind. Amazing”

Dear Toni,

I am so thankful for your precious guidance. Had you not been there, I would have been ruined by Sinusitis. It had already made me completely bankrupt.

At first, I was against using the methods in the book as I had tried different treatments but nothing actually worked. Later on when I tried one method then I realized that I was completely wrong.

Your amazing tips have brought me to my senses and helped me regain confidence.

Thank you forhelping me get rid of Sinus problems.

May god shower prosperity on you.

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Real Success Stories

“Getting away from Sinusitis was not an effort at all”

Hi Toni,

I found your e-book to be most influential, informed, practical and affordable for my sinus problem. I read the sinus remedies and found them to be useful when I applied them for my sinus. And now, it’s almost six months; my sinus has improved a great deal.

At one point of time, I used to be so embarrassed by the sinus problem… It seemed that I was thoroughly caught in it. I was a changed man altogether. After days of research over the Internet I came across a book with complete remedies for sinus problems.

The remedies are worth following and they helped me quite a lot. Treating my sinus was simple.

Thanks,

Andrew (Ohio, USA)

From: Toni.B

Thursday, 9:07 a.m

Dear Sinusitis Sufferers

Like you, I was once a victim of chronic sinusitis. I searched relentlessly, met thousands of people and consulted many physicians to try to find a complete cure for my sinusitis.

As a hardcore banking professional, I often felt bogged down by the weight of my job. I had to handle cash, maintain the accounts and take many other responsibilities…

One day I experienced a terrible bout of facial pain, tiredness, headaches and breathlessness. My body was aching and I was fidgeting restlessly.

I remember how I did not even sleep a night after all this, and how I started every day with a reckless beginning.

I went to a physician and told him about what was going on in my body. My physician examined me thoroughly and gave me the real shock:“You have chronic sinusitis”.

Then my real torture began. My superiors were angry with me. They lost no time in throwing insults at me. To describe it in one word, I’d plainly call itHELL.

“What is wrong with me?”I asked myself over and over again. “Why me? Will I be able to put an end to all this mess, or . . . will it go on like this all through my life?”

Well, there were many changes . . . and believe me, the changes were too bad, sudden and drastic.

Sinusitis brought hellish differences to my life’s normal routine. I was encountering pains I had never ever felt before.

I tried what I could. Every piece of advice, every medicine, everything…

But it seemed everything was working against my wishes. Sinusitis alone ruled my body.

It was like a monster growling within me, constantly.

I never thought about the moments of living my life without sinusitis . . . But somewhere deep within me, I had an instinct: “Yes! I have to fight this monster and throw it of my body at any cost” . . .And I tried it seriously.

I have taken victory over the monster

I have experienced those terrible moments with sinusitis. After grappling with it for over a decade, I have won the worst battle of my life . . .

Searching for effective ways to overcome sinusitis was a breathtaking voyage for me. Initially I was doubtful of whether it would work or not . . .

After a week, I enjoyed a really soothing and relaxing morning. I couldn’t believe it. I movedtowards the window of my room; the view outside appeared so appealing and refreshing to me. Everything looked marvelous and changed.

Things were the same as before . . . except the monster, the monster was gone. I was victorious! Solely through my efforts!

To my utter surprise, and after living for a long time with sinusitis,I really had found a solution, a remedy, which worked perfectly for my chronic sinusitis.

I conducted some searches and I found answers. I found real and effective remedies for the sinus problem. And there were no side effects either.

What’s more, all my other sinus-related problems – swollen face, stuffy nose, headaches and a thick mucus – were gone.

But one thing stuck in my mind…

“What if the monster strikes back?”

Yes, I was thinking about what would happen if sinusitis struck me again. Would I be attacked by the monster again? I have seen what happens to people who have sinusitis attacks after a gap of a year.

Although it was a vague thought, after the trauma I had suffered I feared and dreaded going through the same thing again. People want to live a disease-free life and I am no different.

Looking inside myself, I felt something different. Very different than what I used to feel . . . I remember it was not the same feeling as I had had earlier.

This time it was quite different than what I experienced during my previous encounter with a sinusitis attack. And I have a murkier feeling about it now!

Now over four years have passed and I can confidently say that my sinusitis has never returned!

I suffered from those terrible and cruel sinusitis-tormented years and I don’t want it to happen to anybody else.

Let me ask you

Are you suddenly stuck with sinus pain, headaches, a sore throat or bad breath?

Do you feel pathetic and cynical when you are with your friends?

Do you feel let down in front of others by the bad odor coming from your body?

Do you lie awake at night?

Are you on prescribed drugs with still no sign of relief?

Have you given your life completely to sinusitis, thinking there is no way out?

Have you spent a lot of money treating sinusitis, yet the problem persists?

If you answered “Yes”, then you must try out my methods.

Real Success Stories

“When the last time I had sinusitis was, I don’t remember”

Hey Toni,

I feel a new lease of life. It’s all over. No Sinus problems! In fact, it’s been over for years now. I experience some occasional coughs, but that is not often.

I simply followed the remedies in the book. They were awesome. The remedies were easy to use and with no side effects either. I had a complete change around. What’s more, I have regained pounds too.

I want everybody to know the worthwhile methods stored in the book.

Thanks for being so helpful.

Paula Katherine (Ohio, USA)

Real Success Stories

“I experienced a remarkable improvement in my Sinus Symptoms.”

A wonderful book. A champion of sinus treatment. I have seen great improvement in my sinus symptoms over a period of time.

The time-tested remedies give me the feeling that I was never a sinus patient.

Frankly speaking, I was a bit skeptical actually using the methods in the book. I had tried different therapies and methods on different occasions. However, nothing actually worked.

It was just a blind start with one of the methods in the book. Just one method and it changed my life from the first moment from hell to heaven.

Jordan Webb (Ottawa, Canada)

I am 100% confident that with my method you can kill your sinusitis, as I killed mine

I’ve told you my story and here I am telling you straight about ways to get rid of sinusitis – the growling monster within you.

I can tell you about simple remedies, described in my e-book “KillSinus”, which you can practice easily. Not only that but you will also feel emotionally recharged and pleasant.

The e-book “KillSinus” was written by me after exhaustive scientific research and terrible experiences of sinusitis.

After reading your copy of “KillSinus” you can treat yourself with all of the above.

My cheap and simple remedies definitely thwart sinusitis. I tried them myself and was successful, and now I am sinusitis-free.

My e-book gives you practical and simple remedies which will work perfectly well for acute and chronic sinusitis patients.

These methods are 100% safe and there are no side effects. Everyone can easily implement these methods at any time, any place.

You don’t need a trained physician or anyone else.

You are your own doctor and only you can make the therapies successful for yourself. Nobody else can!

…And I bet that after implementing my methods your life will undergo a permanent sea change.

Many people have cured themeselves completely with my method…Now it’s your turn

Below are real testimonials from people just like you who have tried my method and cured their sinus problems completely.

If you have a testimonial that you wish to send in, please email me.

Real Success Stories

“The Information which truly worked to my well-being”

Hello Toni,

It was really the best part of my life knowing you personally. People like you who feel deep concern and help other sinus sufferers to get out of that agony and sleeplessness.

I put to use the information given by you, which worked beneficially for me. Now, no more handkerchiefs in my pocket. Your book was the natural way of treating sinus attacks and there were no side effects.

The book has given me confidence and it contains no false claims, unlike others. I learnt how to remain healthy and fit by going through the points delineated in the book. The results were unbelievable.

With thanks and appreciation

Alec (Chicago, US)

Real Success Stories

I’m a 36-year-old businessman. My hectic business meetings often kept me out late at night. But with recurrent bouts of sinusitis, I was hardly able to do the things I had to.

No decisions, only acute headaches, breathlessness, bad breath, loss of smell, burning eyes… You just name it and I had it. I was fed up. Very fed up.

I still remember the day of my first encounter with the book describing the remedies for sinus troubles. I had already tried many things. Nothing worked completely.

Now this was my last try, and if it failed, I was all ready to just live with my sinus. Almost two weeks passed and I got a real gift. This time I had no symptoms of sinus attack. I was so delighted and, what’s more, I attended as many as four business meetings on that day.

The book is a marvelous masterpiece. A boon to sinus sufferers. I strongly recommend following the remedies given in the book. Very good and simple as well.

Good business fortune ahead for you.

James Morris (Scotland)

Real Success Stories

I bought your book about four months back. Initially I tried two remedies given in your book, just to check how it works. Let me tell you that I am a self-employed man. Going to work is not my bailiwick. Moreover, I had enough time to try the remedies written in your e book.

During the initial 4-5 weeks of implementing those remedies, I was not able to understand much. Probably I had been overdosed by the medicines I had taken earlier.

I remember the figure 2. Yes, it changed my life. It was the 2nd of July and the 2nd month of my reading the remedies given in the book.

Something amazing happened. It was on 2nd July that for the first time I opened my eyes without headache and cough.

I was feeling as healthy and active as I was before sinus problems struck me.

I am all praise for the remedies.

Anita Smith (Ottawa, Canada)

Real Success Stories

Dear Toni,

I have recommended this book to my friend who’s suffering from chronic sinusitis. I have seen marvelous results and tremendous improvement in his sinusitis, after you referred this book to me.

The effective remedies listed in the ebook have helped him to regain vigor. And you know in how many days? Guess! Only 14 days!

God’s blessings and my sincere thanks!

Darrin Duncan (Norway)

Real Success Stories

I’m a 42 year-old software geek. I controlled computer viruses with ease and freedom. Until one day I came under direct sinus attack. It was a nightmare and this became a regular scene.

Every morning, day, and night was filled with drowsiness.

It was a lucky day for me when I came to know about your book and the marvelous ideas in it. It was simply awesome. I am now the man I was earlier. The book with useful remedies was a boon for my dwindling career and fortune.

I would recommend the book to all sinus sufferers.

Endless thanks for making my days energetic.

Jayson (Ontario, Canada)

Real Success Stories

“The remedies not only helped me in saving my life, but I even saved huge amount of money too.”

Hey Toni,

I value your guidance, the way you came into my life and saved me from all that pain of Sinusitis. I am grateful for your help.

Can you imagine how 12 years of sinusitis was replaced by 12 months of a fresh lease of life and new energy? Yes, it was all because of the remedies listed in the book.

I love my sleep and the remedies in the book have given back my sleep. And… I have a sharp memory again too.

All marks to your book “KillSinus”.

My wholehearted gratitude and wishes for you.

Casey (Scotland)

Real Success Stories

Hello Toni,

It’s been almost a year without any visible sign of Sinus infection. Above all, for the past couple of months I have only been stricken by occasional headaches as compared to recurrent headaches every day.

You have been a wonderful mentor to me. It’s your fruitful advice which helped me to bring my aura and energy back. The effective methods in the book were all beneficial for me to regain my consciousness fully and bring me to my present condition.

God Bless You!

Mike Chavez (Los Angeles, US)

Real Success Stories

“Season’s best thing happened to me”

Dear Toni,

I just want to show my appreciation for your wonderful support and for referring to me this great book.

A book with all the practical remedies and with no side effects. What’s more, the remedies are easy to use and cheap too.

I sincerely tried three of those remedies for getting away from sinus trouble and here I am writing you my appreciation for you and the recommended book.

I would strongly recommend the book for those ailing sinus patients.

Many Thanks to the Book and Thanks for your supportive cause.

Ted Watson (Alabama, USA)

Real Success Stories

Dear Toni,

I am writing you to thank you for helping me get rid of the monster. The monster Sinusitis.

It was there in me for over five years and with your benevolent help I have been able to completely cure it from the roots

within a year.

The remedies in the book were so perfect that now I am over those excruciating moments of swollen face, headache and stuffy nose.

Thanks and Good day!

Christine (Canberra, Australia)

Real Success Stories

I’m a 35-year-old Plumber. It’s been almost a decade that I have been strugglingin my life with Sinusitis.

I will never forget the day of my life when suddenly I came across the book “KillSinus”. It was the phase that changed my life.

And now it is almost two years and no Sinus symptoms at all. The book is a true physician!

Blessings and thanks

Bradley (Wellington, NZ)

Real Success Stories

Those grave sinus symptoms are history. I am feeling so much better and so proud that I have cured my sinus without resorting to those expensive and much talked about medicines and remedies.

The methods worked for me and I am sure will work for everyone suffering from Sinus troubles.

The remedies listed in the book are foolproof to give me a sinus free and healthy life ever after.

Anna Cristina (Stockholm, Sweden)

Real Success Stories

Worth buying the book! I’ve completed one year with the remedies given in the book. I have improved and am still improving remarkably. Most of the chronic Sinus symptoms are over.

I am leading a healthy life and confidently managing the tasks of my business and as well as my daily routine.

I had never experienced such amazing relief from any other treatment or methodology. The remedies are very natural and with no side effects either!

A book, a complete cure.

Alfred (Saarland, Germany)

Real Success Stories

I’m a 28-year-old call center executive. Owing to the nature of my job, Sinusitis was my competition. The competition frustrating my potential.

Every time I wanted to do something innovative, Sinus was standing in my way.

Until one day I saw your book “KillSinus” which gave a stiff fight to my competitor. And today I am leading a team of 100 executives.

No tiredness, headaches, breathlessness or bad breath! The book was simply filled with excellent ideas. It was so awesome. I would recommend the book to all sinus sufferers.

Endless thanks!

Nicholas (Florida, US)

Real Success Stories

Dear Toni,

I am writing to tell you that I feel so fine and in shape. I am not so tired all the time and I feel very energetic.

It was because of your timely guidance and strong support that today I am in a position to write you this letter. I am no more a Sinus Sufferer.

I wish you all the health and happiness in the world and thanks so much for helping me. I really appreciate your time and efforts to assist me.

No visible symptoms of bad breath, loss of smell and burning of eyes. And why should they be? I am no more a sinus patient. And I have completely forgotten what Sinus is.

I live my day completely and participate in every activity with full energy!

Thanks! and Best wishes

Jessica (Kansas, US)

Real Success Stories

“Sinus is what I don’t fear at all”

I’m a 27-year-old female with acute Sinus Infection. Since I’m constantly in contact with people, Sinus problems had a devastating effect on my personality, my emotional state and order.

At times, it was embarrassing beyond one’s imagination.

I found the book “KillSinus” last month and went through the listed sinus remedies out there.

I made an immediate start and now I can happily say that my Sinus troubles are almost over! Just a bit of nose flow but only once or twice a month.”

God’s Blessings…

Sophia (Indiana, US)

Real Success Stories

“Sinus symptoms over and no side effects either”

Hi Toni,

I’m 32 and have battled with chronic Sinus Infection for the last eight years.

Recently, I came across your ebook “KillSinus” and it was a complete doctor, which has cured my Sinus infection with much ease and no side effects.

It was one book which proved worthwhile after a series of expensive treatments and huge doctor’s fees.

Thanks to those remedies, which have given a new meaning to my life, personality and everything. I am a happy man with all the goodies in your book, which helped me a great deal in curing my Sinus ailment.

I adore you for all you have done for me. A Big Thanks!

Austin (New York, US)

Now if you feel thrilled about achieving a sinusitis-free life but are hesitating over the price of ordering your copy of “KillSinus”, then I will put your mind at rest…

I could easily sell you my time-tested and proven remedies for $400.00.

Just guess! How much have you already invested in your sinus problem in terms of medicines, over-the-counter products and physicians’ fees?

Several hundred dollars . . . Am I right?

Let me tell you, this e-book was not intentionally developed to make a profit. I sincerely want to help you recover from this grave condition.

For the sake of giving you a healthy life and a better, sinusitis-free tomorrow, I have kept the price of the book “KillSinus”to the meager amount of

More Success Stories

Real Success Stories

“Months without any Sinus Symptoms now…”

Hi Toni,

I want to pass on my sincere thanks for being my mentor in removing the chronic sinus symptoms from my body. You don’t know how helpful the remedies have been for me. I am all praise for you.

You know, it’s been four months now and not even a sign of cough. The book gave me cheap and most wonderful ways of overcoming my sinus problem even without going to a physician.

What I feel is that every sinus sufferer, irrespective of their condition, should read and use the remedies described in the book to lead a sinus free life.

With much adoration and…

Thank you!

W Anderson (California, USA)

Real Success Stories

“Good things have happened to me”

It was a lucky day for me! The day I came to know about this great book and the lovely ideas stored in it. The book with useful remedies was a boon for my declining career and fortune.

I would recommend the book to all sinus sufferers.

With God’s Blessings

Stephanie (Virginia, US)

Real Success Stories

“My Pain and Agony was Over”

Dear Toni,

I would call you my real friend. I did some searching and I didn’t find a thing.

Thanks for suggesting to me the wonder treatment. The useful remedies on sinus in the book completely changed my life and my personality. I experienced an active new start after I followed the useful tips contained in the book.

I dreaded those sleepless nights and now I love the night. It is just because of your effective remedies. No headache, no drowsiness and no nose blockages.

Thanks for making my life meaningful!

Jordan (US)

Real Success Stories

The thing that haunted me was pain and nausea. I tried modern and age-old treatments that I had heard from peers. But, waste of time and money too!

Your book gave me the ultimate sigh of relief. The relief which I was looking for over a decade. I have calm cool sleep with no hiccups every night now.

I simply could not believe it. Such simple treatments for such a chronic disease.

With lots of love,

Kelly (Berlin, Germany)

Real Success Stories

Hi Toni,

I am so grateful to you for changing my life.

It works! How and what should I say? A small word like Thanks is not enough – you deserve much more. Your therapies helped me.

I used to feel guilty and weak all the time. Who would have believed all those horrible symptoms? Those days of pain and distress, I don’t want to remember them again.

You introduced me to the book. The remedies were a complete hit.

Simply thanks and good wishes from yesteryear’s sinus sufferer.

Jesus (Washington, US)

Real Success Stories

“The book has given back my lost world”

I had learnt to live with headaches, breathlessness and bad breath. You name it, I had it. So fed up. Nothing worked the way I wanted.

Sinusitis had paralyzed my decision-making, my brain was a numb center. No thinking going on in it.

It was the most memorable day of my life the day I had a virtual interaction with the remedies given in the book. Short and so practical.

What I learnt from the book was that it feels good to be natural.

Wish you good luck!

Albert (Chicago, USA)

Real Success Stories

“Things have changed, and they have changed for the good.”

Dear Toni,

I am writing to you to give you some good news. The news of how it feels when one is out of the ditch. I feel that sharing good gives you good returns.

Here I am…

Until three months back, I was an acute sinus patient. My nose overflowed, very often you could see me coughing and all that bad stuff oozing out.

I felt like literally closing myself in some dingy corner. Gradually I started becoming an unsocial entity. It was Sinus, Sinus and only Sinus.

It had brought my life downhill. One fine day I was searching for some cool travel package to go away for a week in order to get some fresh air in my veins.

And incidentally I came to know about your book “KillSinus”. I studied the tips for controlling the sinus thoroughly. Every word and every paragraph… Gradually I started implementing those methods to see if they would work for me.

Just four months, and this is true and no exaggeration from me. Four months and I have controlled my sinus to the maximum. In addition, I have gained four pounds.

All blessings and thanks to you!

Arnold (Ottawa, Canada)

Grab Your Copy Now

Yes Toni! I want my copy of “KillSinus”

Yes, I know I am adamant about implementing the remedies described in your e-book.

I will purchase the book not just to embellish my bookshelf but to read the remedies in it seriously.

I understand! Once I get the e-book, I‘ll surely use the benefits of the book to cure my sinusitis.

Your order is 100% safe and secure.

You can pay with your credit card or PayPal account.

After clicking below you will be taken to the ClickBank secure site for processing. You will then get your copy of “KillSinus”. Your purchase will appear on your bank statement under the name “CLKBANK*COM” or ClickBank.

It doesn’t matter if it’s 2:00 a.m., you will get your copy of “KillSinus” instantly.

Wishing you a happier and sinusitis-free life,

———————————————-

[themominars]

Caroline Fardig - An Eye For An Eye

 Caroline Fardig is the USA Today bestselling author of the Java Jive Mysteries series, the Lizzie Hart Mysteries series, and Ellie Matthews series. She has worked as a schoolteacher, church organist, insurance agent, funeral parlor associate, and stay-at-home mom before realizing that she wanted to be a writer when she grew up. Born and raised in a small town in Indiana, Fardigstill lives in that same town with an understanding husband, two sweet kids, two energetic dogs, and one malevolent cat.

Interview with Caroline Fardig Q:  I've read some procedurals, classic dicks, and crime mysteries, so I'm not unfamiliar with the genre(s). However, I've never read a book starting from the perspective of the first victim. What lead you to do that?

A:  When I wrote the first book in the series, BITTER PAST, I actually had 4 chapters leading up to the murder, which originally happened off-page.  But when my agent and I were discussing that book, he said it didn't start with enough of a bang.  There was too much lead-up before anything really happened.  So, I hacked those chapters and started (literally) with a bang--the victim in the first book was shot.  It ended up being a great formula to draw the reader into the action and feel something for the victim, so I kept on with it.  Every Ellie Matthews novel will start that way.

Q:  One of my favorite authors does a ton of real world research for her books. Shooting the guns, doing interviews, suiting up with a SWAT team.... I know you do too. Can you describe what research you do and why you do it?

A:  In the past couple of years, I've taken 3 college-level classes in Criminal Justice--two forensics classes and one criminal investigations class--to prepare for writing this series.  There are so many books and movies and TV series that get the procedural stuff "wrong," I was determined to write something that showed the real way it's done--of course within the realm of fiction to keep things interesting.  In the forensics classes, we did a lot of labs, which ended up being hands-on training provided by real criminalists who work at the Indiana State Police lab.  My teacher is one of the firearms examiners, and she had her coworkers come in to teach lessons and labs in their field of expertise.  They would bring actual supplies from their lab so we could have a true experience at evidence examination.  We also got to tour the lab itself, which was incredibly exciting for me.  My teacher and her coworkers have been so great about answering my many "what if" questions about forensics, even long after the classes were over.  It's been an amazing experience.

Q:  Your main character in this book is an aunt while you are a mom. I've noticed that a lot of authors, either intentionally or not, often infuse their characters and stories with elements from their own life. Can you tell me how Ellie and Rachel are or are not like yourself?

A:  Well, they have a sweet Golden Retriever just like me.  But on the serious side, Ellie's sarcasm comes straight from me.  We both get into trouble for our witty yet cutting observations that maybe shouldn't always be shared with others.  Ellie and Rachel's life and experiences are the polar opposite of mine, though, except for the teaching part.  Although I don't use it, my degree is in education. 

Q:  Are there any real world inspirations for your characters?

A:  Always!  Every time someone says or does something that strikes me as interesting or unusual, I'm immediately on my phone, sending myself an email outlining the situation or turn of phrase so I can use it in the future.  And we all know people who deserve to be caricatures in stories--but I'm not naming any names...

Q: Since this interview is for the Mominars I should probably ask some "mom" questions. How did you get started as a writer? With your diverse background what inspired you to try writing?

A:  I honestly started getting fed up with how books I read would end.  I would always rewrite the ending in my head, and I finally figured...why not do it on paper?  I guess that was my muse giving me a nudge to write my own books.  And my...ahem...diverse work background certainly plays a part in my writing.  Through the many different career paths I've taken, I've managed to meet all sorts of people and have varied experiences. Q: Do you find being a parent presents challenges that other authors may not be faced with?

A:  Absolutely!  I try to get all my writing done when my kids are at school.  But sometimes I have to keep working once they're home.  It's easier now that my kids are older and entertain themselves, but it's not always easy to write something meaningful with the TV blaring in the background.  My husband also works out of our home, so that can be challenging as well--we're always managing to interrupt each other at inopportune times. Q: Let's play 'High/Low'. What's the best part of being an author? What's the worst?

A:  There are a lot of highs for me.  I love it when readers connect with a book and let me know.  I love it when I get good news about my career (new contracts, making bestseller lists, being nominated for awards).  I love to talk about my writing with other people and meet with other authors.  As for lows, it's pretty much the opposite of the highs--bad reviews, publishers saying no, low sales figures.  It's quite a rollercoaster ride! Q: High/Low: parenthood?

A:  I love watching my kids do what they enjoy and excelling at it.  I love it when they're proud of themselves.  I love it when they display kindness toward others.  As for lows, again the opposite--getting upset over a bad performance or worrying over a bad grade, getting into arguments with their friends.  And the worst--me realizing the times when I've not been a good role model and they're copying my bad behavior. Q: No one else may care, but I took a brief look at your FB and your husband had an interesting theme to your Christmas gifts. Care to explain that? A:  HA!  For years, he has always managed to get me a Christmas gift that either makes me laugh until I cry or embarrasses the heck out of me and I have to take it in another room to unwrap by myself.  This time, he went full out and got me 12 of those crazy gifts, one for each day leading up to Christmas.  He got me a foul-mouthed cookbook, a talking toilet paper roll, a farting butt bank, a book of cat poems called "I Could Pee on This," and a set of pens with some really weird sayings on them, to name a few.  He made up for his nonsense on Christmas day, though, and got me a custom made electric guitar. Q: Is there anything you wish people would ask about?

A:  I guess my music--most people who know me know that I'm a musician, but not everyone knows I've got 2 recorded songs under my belt.  I wrote them for my Java Jive series, as the heroine is a struggling musician/songwriter, and recorded them with the help of a friend at a local recording studio.  They're on iTunes, etc. if you want to check them out!

Q: Ok, I'll bite. Let's talk about your music. You said you wrote your songs for your Java Jive series, but do you think it will be something you pursue further? Another thing on your "ahem" diverse resume?

A:  I’d love to write and record music all day, but that would mean putting my day job (writing) on the back burner.  I have a lot of music in my life anyway, as I’m the lead singer/guitarist/arranger for our praise band at church.  Writing brass parts isn’t quite as fun as writing love songs, but it uses the same part of my brain.  And I perform at open mic nights every time I go to Nashville, which is a couple of times a year.  As for my other former jobs, I don’t think I’m ready to dive back into the mortuary world anytime soon… Q: Speaking of diverse interests, as people who happen to be parents and do something to earn a living, we (people) often have interests too. What are some of yours?

A:  Well, music.  I’m lucky to be able to share that with my family—my husband plays piano for our praise band, my son plays trumpet, and my daughter sings with me.  Aside from that, I love to cook, especially baking with my daughter.  My son and I bingewatch sitcoms together and make Starbucks runs.  My husband and I watch and even attend Pacers basketball games together as often as we can.  As a family, we love to travel. Q: One of my interests is genealogy and I happen to think your last name is interesting. Do you know where it comes from?

A:  Yeah, real interesting.  You would not believe the number of people who mistakenly thing there are actually people out there named “Farting.”  Seriously?  Anyway, I think it’s Scandinavian originally. Q: Classic author question: What two pieces of advice would you give to aspiring authors?

A:  I’d say the best thing you can do is surround yourself with people who are willing and able to help you get to where you want to be.  I’ve got a great support system of family, friends, fellow authors, and industry professionals who help me polish my work, get my name out there, and offer great advice.  Secondly, do your research.  Keep up with what’s hot in the industry.  Study the writing and marketing styles of other authors and learn what readers respond to best.  Make sure what you’re writing has an audience.  There’s nothing more soul-crushing than pouring months of your life into a manuscript and having someone tell you that no one is going to want to read it.

[clarencenicholsonata]

Brand Monitoring 101: Six Ways to Track Your Brand’s Online Brand Mentions

If a brand is mentioned online and no one from the brand’s marketing team is around to see it, does it make a difference? Yes, it does.

Brand management is a continuous process that requires the full and undivided attention of the marketing team. And for a good reason — growing brand awareness, monitoring reputation, boosting visibility, and enhancing the perceived value of a brand all at the same time is no easy job.

Meanwhile, brand management is a job that pays off. To prove my point, below are some branding stats every marketer and business owner needs to consider.

Branding happens everywhere. For the past 10 years or so, it’s been mostly happening online. Online is where consumers do their research on products and services they consider, online is where brands build and grow customer bases, online is where purchase decisions (and purchases!) are made.

With 3.6 billion people using social media, there’s every reason to care about your brand’s online presence.

What’s equally important to realize is that a brand’s online presence can not be reduced to the content coming from within. Your audience contributes just as much to the brand’s visibility as your in-house marketing team.

In fact, the audience is what makes or breaks a brand’s reputation. Therefore, monitoring what’s being said about your company online is a vital part of managing your brand in 2020 and beyond.

What is brand monitoring?

Brand monitoring is the process of collecting and analyzing mentions of a brand that appear on social media and the web. What you do with the mentions depends on the channel the mentions were found on and the contents of individual conversations.

Mentions from the media and major publishers pave the way for your PR strategy.

Mentions from social media influencers indicate collaboration opportunities.

Mentions from customers reveal user concerns, questions, and requests that help to build better products and services.

The list goes on. Ultimately, continuous brand monitoring becomes the basis of reputation and crisis management, with real-time insights on marketing and PR campaigns, product decisions, and customer support among other things.

When doing brand monitoring, the channels to keep an eye on are many, and you might not need every single one of them at all times. However, it’s important to focus on major social networks, news, blogs, and industry websites.

Benefits of brand monitoring

Brand monitoring is what keeps you in complete sync with your audience. And putting the audience first is what guarantees the success of any marketing and business strategy.

The benefits of brand monitoring become very clear once you consider all the use cases of real-time intel on what the customers say about your brand.

1. Reputation Monitoring

Reputation is an asset that takes a while to build and an instant to ruin. Therefore, it’s crucial to keep track of your brand’s reputation even when nobody’s looking, because the Internet never sleeps.

When you set up automated brand monitoring — be it via Google Alerts, Search Console, or TweetDeck — you spend nothing but save a lot of effort in the long-term.

Keeping an eye on how your brand is mentioned online becomes as simple as checking on your monitoring tools.

Then, you can use the insights for adjusting the course of your marketing campaign or re-working the whole strategy if needed.

Oatly, a Swedish oat milk brand notorious for its edgy advertising and unapologetic content decisions, took reputation management to the next level and used a genuine negative review to the product’s advantage.

By putting the review on the packaging and using it generously on corporate social media, Oatly reverse-engineered a real-life negative brand mention and generated a lot of positive engagement and admiration.

2. Crisis Management

Crisis management is tied closely to reputation monitoring, but it requires more attention and involvement on your part. Crisis management is usually the domain of PR teams.

They keep close tabs on how a brand/company is perceived by its target audiences, execute a strategy aimed at promoting goodwill, deal with negative media coverage, and assign speakers to represent company interests in any given scenario.

For many companies, crisis management boils down to nurturing a positive image of the brand via campaigns, events, and consistent media coverage, and having a crisis management plan in case anything goes wrong.

In the context of brand monitoring, crisis management boils down to paying constant attention to the tone behind brand mentions, especially on social media.

A brand monitoring workflow that includes sentiment analysis of social media posts requires either a team of full-time social media managers or a sentiment analysis tool.

If you choose the latter, crisis management boils down to keeping an eye on the prevailing tone behind brand mentions, as well as any irregular dynamics.

When Barclays launched its Pingit app and started monitoring the sentiment of conversations around the brand, it became clear that a segment of the app’s audience was underserved.

Specifically, customers were upset with the age restrictions that didn’t allow users under 18 to use the mobile banking service. Barclays reacted promptly and modified the restriction, which resulted in an overwhelmingly positive sentiment of the customers’ feedback.

3. Campaign Monitoring

Campaign monitoring is real-time measurement of campaign results. This includes the engagement generated by campaign materials, subscriptions and purchases placed, and, of course, the feedback people share online with their followers and friends.

Campaign monitoring is essential because it allows for timely adjustments before too much money is spent on an unpopular strategy.

There’s no better way to get real-time feedback on your marketing campaigns than to monitor mentions of your brand, campaign name, or hashtags.

With automated brand monitoring, it only takes a couple of clicks to get to campaign insights and see how it’s being received and what needs to be re-evaluated.

Campaign managers have their ways of tracking campaign progress and the kind of engagement it generates.

However, continuous brand monitoring helps put things in perspective and benchmark campaign progress against audience engagement and user activity at different points in time.

Nestlé Purina was one of the pioneers of campaign monitoring with a multi-channel approach to brand management.

When the company launched its “Feed the Cattitude” campaign back in 2012, marketing execs focused on monitoring brand mentions on social media. By doing so, they were able to measure user engagement, track the sentiment of campaign-related conversations, and uncover major topics and trends.

4. Customer Support

Long gone are the days when customer support was provided exclusively via email and live chats. More and more consumers go on social media to ask questions, voice their concerns, and receive guidance and assistance from businesses.

In fact, over ⅓ of people expect their support requests to be addressed the same day they posted them on social media.

What happens to an unanswered support request on social media? In the best-case scenario, it just stays there, exposed to friends and followers of the person who posted it.

In the worst-case scenario, it gets endorsed by other unhappy users and the brand receives a lot of negative visibility for not caring about customer concerns. Brand monitoring is the way to identify and handle support requests on time.

Hilton is a prime example of speedy and efficient customer support via brand monitoring. The brand’s average response time to customer tweets is 37.3 minutes, making the company quick to handle consumer requests and concerns.

Thanks to dedicated monitoring and analytics tools, Hilton team makes the most of customer support on social media.

Need help with your next marketing campaign for your brand?

Book a free call to learn how our team of marketing experts can help you create high converting marketing campaigns today.

5. Influencer Marketing

Unless you sell literal ice to penguins, people talk about your company online. Among the people who mention your brand on social media, there might be influencers and opinion leaders.

These people have bigger followings and can be regarded as your prospective brand ambassadors. The trick is to find them before your competitors do.

Brand monitoring brings you all conversations about your company happening on social media and the web.

More often than not, this means that you get to discover niche influencers talking about your company. If you up your brand monitoring game and set up a Boolean search for a specific word combination featuring your brand name, you’ll find even more motivated influencers likely to be willing to collaborate.

Glossier is a beauty brand that takes influencer marketing seriously, and for a good reason. “Glossier in real life” is a hub for micro-influencers to showcase the company’s products to their respective audiences while also amplifying the brand’s visibility globally.

By building relationships with micro-influencers who already have a voice in a certain niche, brands like Glossier grow awareness by creating genuine communities.

6. Social Selling

Last but not least, brand monitoring provides a window to lead generation on social media. A promptly resolved customer support request is visible to the entirety of social media and, therefore, exposes your brand to new audiences of potential customers.

Meanwhile, a well-handled product research people make on social media before making a purchase also results in lead prospects who can be converted into paying customers.

When you keep track of brand mentions, you know exactly what kind of social media posts your company appears in.

Be it an information request or a recommendation from one social media user to another, you can always step in and offer a free trial, provide expert opinion, or issue a discount code — depending on the user profile and the nature of their post.

Some social media monitoring and analytics tools even boast a designated social selling module.

If not, you can always utilize your tool’s full potential and set up a lead generation workflow incorporated into brand monitoring.

Probably the most widely quoted social selling success story is IBM’s 400% increase in sales attributed to using corporate content and social accounts to support the sales team.

Lead generation via social media is no longer a distant future but the reality we live in, and brands like IBM prove the point perfectly.

How to set up brand monitoring?

Brand monitoring has lived through two eras: Google Alerts and post-Google Alerts.

Back in the day, monitoring the web for mentions of a brand was all you could do to track online visibility and media coverage. Google Alerts was revolutionary, and it was all brand managers could ever ask for.

It was more than enough, too: in the early 2000s, social networks were barely a thing, and blogs were the only source to monitor.

Therefore, Google Alerts had the spotlight for a good while, until social media started expanding and monitoring the web alone was no longer an option.

As soon as the talk of the town moved over to social networks, brand managers started looking for tools that’d help track social media conversations.

Today, there are many toolkit options for social media monitoring and analytics that deliver anything from audience demographics to lead prospects.

With a tool like Awario (full disclosure: I’m on Awario’s marketing team), Talkwalker, or Brandwatch, you can set up fully automated brand monitoring that covers all of the Internet and brings insights you can use right away.

All it takes is putting in your brand name, social media handles, and anything that ties back to your products, campaigns, and initiatives. From there, it boils down to specifying parameters like languages, sources, date range, and similar — and you’re good to go!

Having a designated brand monitoring tool is essentially having a superhuman assistant monitoring social media and the web 24/7.

This gives you access to real-time results and actionable performance insights backed by reliable social data analytics.

On top of that, you can expand brand monitoring to competitors and benchmark your progress against industry leaders.

Whether or not you choose to go with a designated brand monitoring tool in the long run, make sure you consider this option and test-drive some toolkits to see what difference they can make for your brand.

Wrapping Up

Brand monitoring is an essential and rewarding task that can be automated to perfection. With everything there is to gain from keeping an eye on your online visibility and representation, use cases of monitoring your brand mentions are many.

Reputation and crisis management.

Campaign monitoring.

Customer support.

Influencer marketing.

Social selling.

What’s important is deciding on the tool and figuring out a workflow that works best for you. I hope this article helps you get started.

About the Author

Julia Miashkova is a social data analyst with a background in public relations and SEO. Her focus is social media listening research and data journalism.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8230801 https://ift.tt/2K1nohn via IFTTT

[thebubblewrites]

VATICAN CAMEOS

WORDS  TO REMEMBER

Coptic = The language used by Copts, which  represents the final stage of ancient Egyptian language.

Nowshera = Tourist spot in Kashmir.

Hiranagar, Ghagwal, Bishnah, Rajouri, Surankot,  Kathua = Places in Kashmir.

Parashar lane = Name of snacks center in Rajouri,  Kashmir.

Bhuj, Kutch, Narayan Sarovar, Pandharo = Places  in Gujarat.

Namaste = Indian word for respectful greeting.

           VATICAN CAMEOS

 It was a warm summer evening. Zane was ready to leave the bank of the Chitravathi River. He caught fresh fishes for dinner. The river was close to his home. He had his small house in a village near Dharmavaram in Bengaluru district not so far from Nilopher’s house in Neptune Valley. He put the bucket full with fishes in his second hand pick up vehicle, Mahindra Scorpio GetWay.

He came back to his place, mixed some salt in an ice bucket, and put fishes in that.

He was going to take a shower, but he realized that he had forgotten his cell phone in his house while he went for fishing. He unlocked his cell phone; the screen had notification of six missed calls from Nilopher Nichols. He was going to call her back but his phone rang.

“Hello?” Zane answered.

“I need you here.” Nilopher said from the other end.

“What happened?”  Zane asked.

“It looks like my solo trip turned into professional courtesy, I’ve done reservations, and you have to take flight tomorrow morning from Bengaluru. I’ll receive you at Jammu Airport.” Nilopher said.

“I’ll be there.” He disconnected the phone.

Nilopher was on the solo trip to Kashmir a week ago. Two days before she had sent photos from Nowshera, Kashmir. She had visited some beautiful and alluring valleys near to Nowshera. Zane was not able to figure out what had gone wrong all of a sudden in that trip. He opened his laptop and glanced at some news that happened in Kashmir on the internet. He found the news of one LPG explosion in Rajouri, which was an only distance of one hour from Nowshera, apart from that he, didn’t find anything wrong in that region. He checked his email; he had received his reservation of flight from Nilopher.

He started to pack his bag, some investigation tools; he decided to go to the bank for some cash withdrawal. He looked at a bucket full of fishes; he decided to hand over that bucket to fish sellers. He took his pick-up vehicle, and went to the bank.

 The next day in the early morning he went to the Bengaluru airport, he bought some newspapers for reading in the flight, hoping that maybe he will find any news about Kashmir.  In the flight over his tea, he read all those newspapers but did not find any suspicious news related to Kashmir.

After two and a half hours his flight reached to Jammu airport, he came in terminal building, took his luggage and went to the exit. At the exit gate, Nilopher was waiting for him.

“Sorry, I called you urgently,” Nilopher said. “But I really required extra hand here.”

“It’s all right; tell me what’s the reason that your holiday was ruined?” Zane asked.  “I tried to find something on the internet and in the newspaper, I only found news of the LPG cylinder explosion, I guess it’s not relevant.”

“Actually that’s why we are hired.” Nilopher said.

“Seriously?” Zane asked.

“Yes. I’ll explain in the car.” Nilopher said.

They left the airport building and went towards the parking area. Nilopher came with one black ambassador car, Zane put luggage in the trunk of the car and he sat next to driver’s seat, Nilopher sat on driver’s seat, they fasten their seat belt and Nilopher started the engine.

“Whose car is this?” Zane asked.

“Just wait Zane.” Nilopher said.

They left the Jammu city. Nilopher started highlighting facts of the case.

“It's classified case Zane. The place where a LPG cylinder explosion happened was a safe house occupied by Kashmir police. It is not in Rajouri city but near to Rajouri city. In the LPG cylinder explosion two people died and one of them was caretaker of that safe house.” Nilopher said.

“And the other one?” Zane.

“Another one was Gawdat Girgis.” Nilopher said.

“That sounds like Coptic.” Zane said.

“Because it is Coptic. Gawdat Girgis was Egyptian, a Military Attaché from Embassy of Egypt in India. He came on 19 May for a meeting with Lakshadeep Mehra, Director, and Military Intelligence. Lakshadeep said the meeting was on 21 May. So Egyptian embassy sent a car for his service. Meeting’s agenda was about some classified information that was not discussed before the meeting. Military Intelligence found one file, completely burned, forensic hardly able to restore some burned pieces. In those pieces they found some dates, some photographs of one desert area and that desert area had white sand, which is probably from Sahara el Beyda, The White Desert of Egypt. This is very justified because Gawdat Girgis was from Egypt. So maybe he found something wrong in there related to India. The meeting must be about that suspicious activity and the last clue from those burned pieces is a name ‘The Draconian Star’.”

“Maybe this Draconian star is behind this.” Zane guessed.

“How?” Nilopher asked.

“See, if I am an agent, and I have information about some suspicious activity and if I have clue about this might be dangerous to me, then I’ll straightly write the name of that person who is behind this.” Zane explained.

“You are right Zane, but those pieces are found in a file which is burned, how we should know it is the name of that person who is behind this offence, the file could have many names and I think this LPG cylinder explosion was planned to look like as an accident.” Nilopher said. “And it is well planned because surveillance of safe house had nothing suspicious during the day of LPG cylinder explosion.”

“So where are we going now?” Zane asked.

“To Ex Brigadier Indrajeet Singh’s house from Indian Army, this is his car.” Nilopher answered.

“Why are we going to his house?” Zane asked.

“Because he hired us. The higher ups of military intelligence cannot hire us directly since this case under their investigation, and because this is the matter of national importance as well. Indian military intelligence is on the way to Egypt for investigation, they asked to help in here. Let’s see what they can find in the White Desert of Egypt.” Nilopher said.

After one and a half hours, they reached the Indrajeet Singh’s Bungalow. The bungalow had a compound wall made up of concrete, the name of the bungalow ‘Khalsa’ was printed in the Hindi language on one black tile which was fixed on that wall near to the main gate. There was a garden in front of the bungalow, which included flowers, herbs, and spices. One hammock was placed in the garden. The bungalow was colored in white paint. Brigadier and his wife were waiting for them. Brigadier was wearing Punjabi costume of cotton clothing, which was reaching to his knees, and a typical Punjabi Pagari was on his head. His wife was wearing Punjabi Salwaar Kameez. 

“Welcome Ms. Nichols, Mr. Fox.” Brig. Indrajeet Singh welcomed them.

Nilopher smiled at them.

“It’s an honor sir.” Zane shook hands with Brig. Indrajeet Singh.  “Hello mam. He greeted Mrs. Singh.

“Thank you.” Indrajeet Singh smiled.

They went inside. Mrs. Singh offered them water.

Tea table was placed in the center of the hall and sofa was placed around it. A picture of Indrajeet’s regiment was tied on the wall, in that Brigadier Indrajeet was looking very young. His medals and his uniform were framed on the wall and small figures of Indian flags were placed in the showcase on the same wall. His uniform was framed and tied on the wall. On the other wall, one young man’s photo has tied with a flower garland on it. Nilopher and Zane saw that photo.

“My son, having been martyred two years ago fighting with terrorists in Kashmir.” Mrs. Singh said.

“Sorry to hear that,” Zane said. “My condolences.”

“You look tired Mr. Fox.” Indrajeet said to Zane. “Come, let’s have lunch.”

“Yes please.” Zane nodded. He had eaten nothing since morning.

Over the lunch, they started discussing the case. Mrs. Singh was serving food.

“Do you know this Egyptian guy personally?” Nilopher asked to Brigadier Indrajeet.

“No. I heard about him after the explosion was reoprted and according to military intelligence he had some inputs for them.” Indrajeet said.

“Any lead on Draconian Star?” Nilopher.

“No, but maybe it is the person who is behind this. In the world of mafia and, smuggling some code names are used like this.” Indrajeet answered.

 Zane was hungry, so he was busy in eating food that is why he was only listening for some time.

“They are sending a copy of autopsy report tomorrow.” Indrajeet provided information.

“We need autopsy for the LPG cylinder explosion?” Zane asked.

“Look, here the officer from foreign embassy  is involved, Of course after the explosion Egyptian government  is not happy, we have to take strong efforts and  investigate every possibility even if we know that the person died in the LPG cylinder explosion,” Indrajeet said. “And Ms. Nichols, Military Intelligence sent the file you asked for.”

“Which file?” Zane asked to Nilopher.

“Travelling records of Egyptian officer Gawdat Girgis.” Nilopher replied.

“I thought we are going to Rajouri after lunch, we need to visit that explosion site.” Zane said.

“I already visited Zane. Nothing surprising or suspicious.” Nilopher answered. “So as I said it was well planned explosion.”

They finished their lunch.

“Come I’ll show you your accommodation.” Indrajeet Singh said to Zane. He also brought the file of Gawdat Girgis’s traveling history.

Indrajeet took them behind the bungalow in the guesthouse which was very homely and which had two rooms and a hall.

“Have some rest.” Brig. Indrajeet said. “And if you need anything you can call me” He handed over the file to Niopher.

“Thank you Brigadier Indrajeet.” Zane said.

“Please call me Mr. Singh.”  Brigadier Indrajeet replied and went back in his bungalow.

“Zane you should have some rest, I want to look at this file which has data about Gawdat Girgis’s traveling records.”

Zane went to his room for rest. Nilopher opened maps on her phone and started tallying the file. She made some notes, marked some spots on the maps. She decided to tell her observations about the traveling history of Gawdat Girgis to Zane and Indrajeet Singh at the same time.

In the evening, they were sitting in the dining room of Brig. Indrajeet Singh’s house. Over the coffee, Nilopher clarified about the travel records of Gawdat Girgis to Zane and Indrajeet Singh.

 “See, The traveling history of Gawdat Girgis is a bit confusing, Last month he visited India three times without any known reason. He used cabs provided by embassy. In his first visit, he went to two places, Hiranagar and Ghagwal in Jammu, the distance between Hiranagar and Ghagwal is only 10 Km., the travelling time required is almost fifteen minutes. In Gawdat Girgis’s second visit he went to Kutch, Gujarat, this one is longer from Jammu, connecting flights are available from Delhi, and he choosed that route. Gawdat Girgis’s third visit is here, Bishnah in Jammu. Distance from Gawdat Girgis’s safe house in Rajouri to Bishnah is almost one sixty four-kilometer. The time required to travel is nearly four hours. Apart from that he traveled once from Egypt to the Falmouth, England.”

“Without any strong reason he wouldn’t travel that much, there must be something.”  Indrajeet said.

“Yes but that reason was known to him only, that’s why no one else knows about it.” Zane said.

 “We need to ask all servants of transportation carrier service who took Gawdat Girgis to these particular places,” Nilopher suggested.

“Not all servants, just drivers might be enough.” Zane said.

“Can we do it?” Nilopher asked Brigadier Indrajeet Singh.

“I’ll ask my higher ups.” Indrajeet said.

“That will be helpful; I’ll ask Chadwick Chambers, the alley from England to look why Gawdat Girgis went to the Falmouth. He works in the South Wales police department.” Nilopher said.

“Why we can’t ask Military Intelligence directly?” Zane asked.

“Because we are not directly involved Zane. We are handling this as helping hand to Military Intelligence.” Nilopher answered.

“Actually Military Intelligence did not wanted to take chances so they hired you as consultant investigator. Until military intelligence finds something in The White desert, we can’t know everything.” Indrajeet said. “I’ll make some calls about this meeting with drivers.”

He went to the main hall where the telephone was kept.

Zane finished his coffee. “What are you thinking?” he asked Nilopher.

“We need to examine how that explosion occurred and we need to investigate how was that LPG cylinder tempered and from where it came.” Nilopher said.

 “Any possibilities of an accident?” Zane asked.

“Possible. But less likely.” Nilopher said.

Indrajeet Singh came back to the dining room.

“I’ve made some calls. You can talk to those drivers tomorrow, and the autopsy report of Gawdat Girgis will be here soon.” Indrajeet Singh said.

“But the Egyptian embassy is in Delhi, we have to take a flight to talk with those drivers.” Zane said.

“No need, the Military is sending those drivers to Rajouri in the military camp with the help of Egyptian embassy officials.” Indrajeet Singh said.

“I’ve a request Brigadier, I need you to come with us when we talk with those drivers, your posting was here in Kashmir so you know the area, maps, ups and down very well,” Nilopher said.

“Sure, I’ll come.” Indrajeet said.

“You must be very familiar with this Region.” Zane said to Indrajeet Singh.

“Of course, I spent my entire career in this region.” Brig. Indrajeet Singh said.

He told them stories of his regiment, like tricks of catching rabbits when they were on search round, defence activities in Surankot in which he was shot on his left shoulder, swimming competition in Satalaj River where he almost drowned and many more.

They talked until Mrs. Singh called them for dinner.

“Sorry Mrs. Singh, I should have helped you in cooking.” Nilopher apologized.

“You are invited here for investigation not for preparing dinner.” Mrs. Singh laughed. Zane and Indrajeet laughed with her.

They had authentic Punjabi dinner. In the middle of the dinner, Indrajeet received a call for collecting a fax of autopsy report.

Nilopher just finished her dinner and Indrajeet Singh came back with fax of autopsy report.

“Death by poison.” Indrajeet said and he handed over the report to Nilopher.

“Seriously? “ Zane was surprised.

 Nilopher started reading the report.

“Yes, it says death by poison and forensics were able to identify poison as well, it is Tetrodotoxin. They also found a hole of injection on his body from where the poison was injected.” Nilopher said.

“Tetrodotoxin?” Zane asked.

“Yes, it’s a slow-acting poison, must be injected six to seven hours before the explosion.” Nilopher said.

“That’s a perfect cover; No one will search reason of the death if there has been an explosion.” Indrajeet said.

“But our Military Intelligence did. Hats off to them.” Zane remarked.

“We need to speak to the drivers ASAP, including the one who was hired before the explosion for taking him to Director of Military Intelligence.” Nilopher said.

“We will do it tomorrow.” Indrajeet said.

“Let’s have rest Zane, we have a lot of work to do tomorrow. “ Nilopher said.

Nilopher and Zane went back to guesthouse.

Nilopher said good night to Zane and she started to assemble all the things, which were required for the next day, and then she went to sleep.

In the next day morning, Nilopher, Zane and Brig. Indrajeet Singh headed towards military camp in Rajouri. Indrajeet Singh had the car, Hindustan Ambassador and he was familiar with the roads as well so he took his car for traveling. They went to the military camp. In there they started interrogating the drivers one by one.

First, they started talking with the driver who took Gawdat Girgis to Hiranagar and Ghagwal. He told them that he took Mr. Gawdat Girgis to Wood factory in Hiranagar and one Import Export office in Ghagwal. Nilopher took those addresses from the first driver.

The second driver told them when Gawdat Girigis visited Kutch, Gujarat; the driver took him the place called Narayan Sarovar. Gawdat Girgis took some pictures there and then he took him to some abandoned place near to Narayan Sarovar in Rann of Kutch, where driver saw some boats are carrying some boxes towards one big ship, Gawdat Girgis also took some pictures of those.

 The third driver told them about Gawdat Girgis’s third visit, he visited Bishnah to meet one person named Umar Iqbal. Nilopher took this address as well.

After the question-answer round, they thanked the Chief Officer of military camp and went for snacks in Parashar lane.  While having snacks they highlighted the points where they have to go next.

“So we have to visit the person Umar Iqbal in the Bishnah,” Zane said.

“Let’s visit in the same order Like Gawdat Girgis visited,” Nilopher said.

“Yes, I agree, but let’s visit the nearest places first. Let’s go to that wood factory first then we’ll go to import export office and after that we’ll meet to that person Umar Iqbal.” Indrajeet suggested.

“That is also fine.” Nilopher agreed.

“Well, the point of not talking with Umar Iqbal first is if he is involved then he may alert whatever or whoever in the wooden factory and that import-export office.” Indrajeet Singh said.

“That’s right; we need to look at those two places first.” Nilopher said.

After the snacks, they headed towards the Wood factory in Hiranagar. It was a four hours’ drive. The valleys of Kashmir on the way of Hiranagar were captivating.

“Beautiful isn’t it?” Indrajeet Said to Zane, he was sitting next to him.

“Yeah, closest thing to real heaven.” Zane exclaimed.

“You have no idea how hard we try to keep its exquisiteness safe.” Indrajeet Singh said.

Zane nodded and remembered Brigadier’s son’s sacrifice.

After the four hours of traveling on Kashmir’s meander roads, they reached to Hiranagar. They searched for the address given by first driver. When they found a wooden factory, they decided to watch it from distance first with the help of binoculars.

The factory was situated in the area of four-acres, which had wired compound, it included three warehouses one of them had fresh cut lumbers stored in it. Other warehouse included sawmills and other cutting material. Behind these two adjacent warehouses, third warehouse was situated. Third warehouse was two times bigger than first two warehouses, in which some Lorries were going in and out after workers loaded the goods.

Workers were wearing navy blue uniforms and caps. Overall security was heavy.

“Don’t you think this is too much security for a simple wood factory?” Nilopher asked to Zane and Indrajeet.

“Yes, I noticed it too.” Indrajeet Singh answered.

Wood factory had two entrances. Two surveillance towers in its compound. Two guards were kept on each the surveillance tower and two guards each guarding the entrances of the factory. Couple of guards were in each warehouse and keeping an eye on loading of goods in the Lorries.

“We should go in there.” Zane said.

“You two go and do inquiry about owner and details, I’ll take walk for more observations,” Nilopher said.

“Let’s enter together and then separate” Indrajeet Singh suggested.

“Alright, that’s more convenient.” Nilopher agreed.

They entered the factory and told the security guard that they wanted to meet the owner of the factory. The security guard entered their names in the register and showed them the main office. After the security guard left, Nilopher quietly took the other way to look around the factory.

She went to the worker’s changing room and took one navy blue jacket and one cap for primary disguise. On the other side, Indrajeet Singh and Zane went to the main office.

They both met the owner. His name was Deendayal Sanghavi.

“How may I help you gentlemen?” Deendayal Sanghavi asked.

“We are looking for one person, whose name is Gawdat Girgis.” Indrajeet Singh said. “Do you know him?”

“Are you cops?” Deendayal asked

“Are we looking like cops?” Zane asked back.

“Never mind, No sir I don’t know the person which you mentioned,” Deendayal answered.

“Perhaps, his picture will help you.” Zane said and shown him Gawdat Girgis's photo from his cell phone.

 Deendayal looked at the photo and answered, “No sir, haven't seen before. “

“He came here to visit the factory before some days,” Indrajeet Singh said.

“Let me check” Deendayal said. He called the entrance security and asked him to bring the visitors register. He checked into that and said, “No one visited in these days apart from our regular customers.”

“Where do you supply your woods?” Indrajeet Singh asked to Deendayal.

“Jammu, Delhi, Chandigarh and sometimes as customer’s requirement” Deendayal answered.

“Not here? I mean in the nearest places. Like Ghagwal?” Indrajeet asked.

“You said you are not cops, then why are you asking questions? Look, I have work to do if you have any order regarding wood, then please tell me otherwise you can go.” Deendayal said rudely.

“We are leaving” Zane said, the came to the place where they parked the car.

Nilopher was still inside. She came back after some time.

“What did you see?” Zane asked as soon as she arrived.

“I’ll tell you in the car, let’s go to Ghagwal” Nilopher said.

“I’ll call my wife, I have to inform her that we are going to be late to reach home,” Indrajeet said.

“Okay, I’ll drive” Zane said.

Indrajeet called his wife and said they will be late. After that, Nilopher started telling her observations.

“See as we have seen the first two warehouses. One of which has​ raw material and machinery, apart from that I’ve seen other warehouse which was the big one it included some carving and refining material, on the other side of second warehouse I’ve seen some freshly made wooden boxes which are loaded in local lorries and lorries are departing after they get loaded.”

“Wait, how did you know those are local Lorries?” Indrajeet interrupted.

“Number plates, our country has individual state initials on every vehicle. Those initials indicate the vehicle belongs to which state. Therefore, JK means Jammu and Kashmir. Another thing is tires; some lorrie’s tires dwindled less than other and some of the lorries tires were looking like lorries were travelled a lot.” Nilopher answered.

 “Alright, after that?” Indrajeet asked her to continue.

“As I said, I’ve seen those boxes are loaded in different lorries, but I’ve also seen some lorries are arriving with wooden boxes which are similar to boxes which are made in this factory and those boxes are loaded in different lorries and then those lorries from different states are departing to somewhere.”  Nilopher said.

“That means boxes are made here in this wood factory and then they are sent somewhere to load something in those boxes and then they come back here and after that they depart for another place.” Zane said.

“That’s exactly what I’m thinking.” Nilopher replied.

“Let’s see what we get from that import-export office.” Indrajeet Singh said.

After fifteen minutes, they reached the Ghagwal in that import-export office.

It was well structured and had sufficient area for vehicles, which were loaded with goods. Office was just next to that vehicle area. They entered that office; office was divided into several compartments, which included import section, payment section, sorting section, and export section.

“What do you want?” one person asked.

“We need to speak with the owner of this office.” Zane said.

“You have to wait in his cabin, he’ll come soon,” That person said and took them into the waiting room the outside of the owner’s office.

They were sitting on the sofa in the waiting room outside of the cabin and Zane suddenly pointed towards the nameplate on the door. “Look at the nameplate, the owner’s name is-----“

“Umar Iqbal.” Nilopher completed his sentence.

“Is this the same person mentioned by the third driver of Gawdat Girgis?” Indrajeet wondered.

“I’ll stipulate about this possibility after we talk with him.” Nilopher said.

Nilopher was looking outside the window.

“What are you looking at?” Zane asked.

“The goods carrier lorry, I’ve seen the same truck in the wood factory. “ Nilopher answered.

 She came back to the sofa.

  The cabin’s door opened. One medium-aged man walked into the waiting room.

“My man said you are looking for the owner, hello, I am Umar Iqbal.” He said.

“Hello sir, thank you for meeting us.” Nilopher said.

“You have a parcel to send somewhere? “ Umar Iqbal asked.

“No, we are looking for one man, do you know him?” Indrajeet Singh asked and showed him Gawdat Girgis’s picture.

“Never seen him before.” Umar replied after seeing the picture.

“But our sources said he met you a few weeks ago” Zane said.

“Maybe your sources are mistaken; I don’t know such a man.” Umar Iqbal replied.

“Alright, thank you.” Nilopher said.

Umar Iqbal returned in his cabin.

“It looks like we won’t get anything from him.” Nilopher said.

“He won’t answer until official interrogation.” Brig. Indrajeet Singh said.

“And we can’t do that until cops get a warrant against him.” Zane said.

Before they left office they asked one servant where was Umar Iqbal’s residence because they wanted to thank Mr. Umar Iqbal for his excellent service. The servant told them that he lives in Bishnah.

Then Nilopher, Zane, and Indrajeet Singh started walking towards the car.

“I think he is the same umar Iqbal, so we don’t need to go to the Bishnah.” Nilopher said.

Zane and Indrajeet Singh agreed.

“About that truck you saw, did you see what it carried?” Indrajeet Singh asked.

“No, I didn’t” Nilopher answered.

They sat in the car and the car started running towards Kathua.

“We need to check nearby surveillance​cameras for any clues about Gawdat Girgis’s murder. We also need to find out who injected that poison,” Nilopher said.

“I’ll speak with military intelligence contacts, let’s see” Indrajeet Singh answered.

When they reached back home in Kathua, the time for dinner had already passed.

 While having late dinner, they highlighted some points of the case.

“We have common things in two visits. The goods carrier truck movements. The same truck appeared in both places we have visited. That’s a strange coincidence.” Nilopher said.

“Another thing, Is the death of Gawdat Girgis. I mean how can someone inject poison in the middle of the crowd without any bewilderment?” Zane said.

“We haven’t declared yet that he got injected with poison in a crowd or not, we need to verify that.” Brigadier Indrajeet Singh said.

“Another thing which is bothering me is, if the same truck appears in both spots, and then there must be the connection between the wood factory owner Deendayal Sanghavi and import-export office owner Umar Iqbal,” Nilopher said.

“You are right, there must be some kind of connection between those two, and there is also the possibility of some other people’s involvement, we need to stay alert.” Indrajeet Singh realized.

They finished dinner with this discussion.

“Let’s get some rest, we traveled a lot today” Indrajeet said, “We’ll look for the surveillance camera which possibly captured any of Gawdat Girgis’s movements when he got that poison injected.”

Zane and Nilopher agreed. They went to the guest's house.

On the next day before the breakfast, Brig. Indrajeet Singh made the call for surveillance footage for investigating the murder of Gawdat Girgis.

“They will allow us to look into surveillance footage but we need to go to Rajouri.” Indrajeet Singh told them.

They dressed up and went to Rajouri. They went to the surveillance office as the address given to the Indrajeet Singh on the phone. The surveillance handler was showing them footage of Gawdat Girgis’s movements.

Everything seemed normal; Gawdat Girgis did not came in contact with any other person. They were looking for surveillance footage for nearly two hours, but they did not find Gawdat Girgis making any physical contact with any person.

“Let’s take a break; we will continue that after ten minutes.” Indrajeet Singh suggested.

 They took a break and went to a coffee shop.

“Well if we work with this speed our suspects can slip from our hands,” Zane said and took a bite of cookie which was served.

“Yes, we have to find how the poison was injected and the reason for LPG cylinder explosion.” Indrajeet Singh remarked.

Nilopher seemed distracted. Indrajeet Singh noticed that. “What happened?” he asked Nilopher.

“I think we got a tail.” Nilopher said.

“Sorry?” Indrajeet was confused.

“It’s a code for we are being followed by someone.” Zane cleared the confusion.

“The man who is sitting on the second table with blue goggles and brown jacket. I saw the same person in Umar Iqbal’s office, then today he was outside the surveillance office and now he is here.” Nilopher told them.

“Just act calm, let's pretend we haven’t noticed.” Zane said.

“Is there any bustle nearby?” Nilopher asked Indrajeet Singh.

“Yes, two blocks away from here there is a market, why what are you thinking?” Indrajeet Singh asked.

“Let’s separate, you and Zane go for Surveillance office from bustle area.” Nilopher said.

“And what about you?” Zane asked.

“I’ll slip from our follower’s eyes and go for another route.” Nilopher answered.

“Why? Is separating necessary?” Indrajeet Singh asked.

“Yes, there is a possibility of we are being followed by more than one person, so if we separate they’ll separate. I’ve recognized one; there might be others as well.” Nilopher answered.

“Alright, let’s just pretend nothing happened, we’ll finish our beverages and separate.” Indrajeet Singh said.

 They finished their refreshments, paid the bill, and left the shop. They didn’t go straight to the surveillance office, instead of that they went two blocks away from that shop, mixed in the bustle and then Nilopher separated to other direction. Indrajeet Singh and Zane went straight to the surveillance office using the route of a crowded area.

 On the other way, Nilopher successfully slipped away from the follower’s eyes. She called Zane; Zane picked up the phone and asked,

“Are you still being followed by someone?”

“No, what about you?” Nilopher asked back.

“He is behind us.” Zane replied.

“Alright, so he is only one who is following us, act calm and find how that poison was injected, I’ll call you later,” Nilopher said.

“Wait, are you not coming back here?” Zane asked.

“I’ll tell you later, if they can hire person for following us then there is a possibility that they may have bugged our phones as well. I will call you later.” Nilopher disconnected the phone. She started walking from the market full of people; she had slipped from the eyes of the chaser way before. She started walking through the streets of Rajouri. Streets were filled with small stalls and handcarts. She pulled her sleeves for checking the time. “Ugh!” Nilopher sighed. Her wristwatch’s dial was broken and it was not working. She wanted to fix that, so she searched for watch repair shop. After a few minutes, she found one old shop of watches.

One old man, age near to 60-65 was in the the shop. He was working in that shop alone

“Hello, can you fix this?” Nilopher asked him.

“Show me.” Shopkeeper said. “Dial is broken, I’ll replace it, and it will take some minutes. Have a seat and wait.” He said and started opening Nilopher’s watch.

The shop was old; wood was used in most of the construction. The shop was divided into few sections, one was for wall clocks, one was for alarm and digital clocks, the other was for wristwatches, and pocket watches. Some hourglasses were there in one compartment as well. She was looking at those hourglasses. Some were small and some were big. Some of those could be used in chess games. One of the hourglasses had white sand in it that made her curious.

“Here, it’s done.” The shopkeeper returned her watch.

“How much?” Nilopher asked.

 “Thirty rupees.” Shopkeeper said.

“You are charging very less amount. “ Nilopher said and gave him money.

“It’s alright my child that was less work that’s why I charged less.” Shopkeeper smiled and took the money.

“Did you import some of those?” Nilopher pointed at hourglasses.

“No, all are made in India.” shopkeeper answered.

“All of them?” Nilopher was curious about the hourglass, which had white sand in it.

“Yes, we use sand and wood from different places in India, some of them include sandalwood.” Shopkeeper answered.

Something clicked in Nilopher’s mind and she made immediate decision to leave Kashmir for some days. Fortunately, she had brought her credit card and identity cards with her. She left the watch shop and went to the market. She bought some clothes. She realized that she has to call Zane, but she avoided calling and emailed Zane from her phone that she will return after some days. She also booked an online ticket for immediate traveling. After that, she went straight to the taxi station.

“Where mam?” One taxi driver asked.

“Jammu Airport.” Nilopher said.                           

The taxi went towards Jammu at full speed.

 On the other side, Zane and Indrajeet Singh returned to the surveillance office. They started looking at activities of Gawdat Girgis and something vibrated in Zane’s pocket.

“What’s that?” Indrajeet Singh asked.

“The other phone we use in case of emergency,” Zane said, he took out the phone from the pocket. “Email from Nilopher, she is not coming back for four-five days.”

“Why where did she go?” Indrajeet Singh was surprised.

“She didn’t mention. Don’t worry, if she has said she’ll return she will.” Zane said sedately.

 “Don’t you worry about her? She is alone there.” Indrajeet Singh asked.

“She is judo champion with a smart mind, her enemies should be worried,” Zane said. “Let’s focus”

They started watching that footage repeatedly but they did not find any physical contact by a person to Gawdat Girgis. They spent the entire day in surveillance camera office. They tried different camera angles, tried close camera vision but they did not find anyone close to Gawdat Girgis in any position to inject the poison.

“What should we do?” Indrajeet Singh asked Zane.

“I don’t know. We are not getting anything from this.” Zane agreed.

“Was there another possibility of poison intake from another way? Like from food? Or liquid?” Indrajeet Singh asked.

“Forensic team clearly found an injection hole; I don’t think there is any other source of poison intake or injection.” Zane said.

“What are we going to do?” Indrajeet Singh was confused.

“Can we send these tapes to Military Intelligence? Maybe they will find something.” Zane suggested.

“We can do that, let’s go home, it’s safe to talk there.” Indrajeet Singh said.

Zane agreed. They went to the car and left for Kathua.

“Can we take another route? I mean we are getting followed, so we might take another route than regular route.” Zane suggested.

“That man followed us in three cities, trust me he knows the roads very well” Indrajeet Singh replied and started the engine. The black Ambassador ran towards Kathua.

                                                      “Flight attendants, our plane will be land soon, prepare for landing.” An announcement was done. Nilopher opened her eyes. She slept just after the plane took off from Delhi. It was five o’clock in the morning. She took a minute to channelize. A day before she was in Rajouri, Jammu. She made her mind in Rajouri that she will leave Jammu for some time, and she went to Delhi from Jammu by using the Air India flight and she took another plane from Delhi to reach her destination. She did not bring much luggage with her; she bought a pair of clothes in Rajouri and a small bag to carry those cloths. The plane landed at the Airport. She collected her bag then started walking towards the exit door and came outside of the arrival hall.

‘Welcome to Gujarat’ an arch board was there outside the arrival hall.

There were many cabs outside the airport. She took one cab and asked the cab driver to drop her at the nearest hotel. After arriving at the hotel, she took a nap; she had a meal, and booked an Uber cab for the rest of her traveling. She demanded a local driver who is consummate in speaking Gujarati language. The service officials said the cab will be there in twenty minutes.

She called Zane’s emergency number from the landline of the hotel.

“Hello” Zane answered the phone.             

“Any update yet?” Nilopher asked.

“No. we didn’t find anything that was a really suspicious death, Indrajeet Singh is sending the Surveillance recording to the Military Intelligence, I hope they’ll found something.” Zane said and yawned.

“You were sleeping?” Nilopher asked.

“Of course I was sleeping; it’s five-thirty in the morning.” Zane was drowsy.

“Okay, when Indrajeet Singh will talk to intelligence, ask them if they are able to send me high definition X-Ray images of that injection hole.” Nilopher requested.

“Alright I’ll ask them, and I’ll mail you.” Zane said.

“Okay, Be careful, see you. Have a good day.” Nilopher greeted.

“Wait, where are you?” Zane asked.

“Bhuj, Gujarat.” Nilopher told and disconnected the phone.

After a few minutes, she was told that her cab driver was waiting outside by hotel staff. She went downstairs and paid the bill for the hotel.

“Namaste mam” driver opened the door for her.

“Namaste” Nilopher said and took her seat. “I might need this cab for two-three days, are you willing to be there for service?”

 “No problem mam, my boss told me your terms and conditions. I can take you where you want without any question.” Driver replied.

“Thank you,” Nilopher said.

“So where do you want to go?” Driver asked.

“Narayan Sarovar” Nilopher answered.

“We will be there in three hours.” Driver said.

Nilopher wanted to see the place where Gawdat Girgis went on his second visit. As she remembered the conversation with the driver of Gawdat Girgis, the driver took him to some dock in an abandoned area near Narayan Sarovar.

The taxi started speeding towards the west side of Gujarat.

She was looking at the route and shops nearby on the way. Almost in every city in the way there was a banner of famous actor Amitabh Bachchan saying ‘Welcome to Gujarat’. He was the brand ambassador of Gujarat tourism. There was not much greenery in the Gujarat but the roads were in good condition.

“Do you know the area of Narayan Sarovar?” Nilopher asked.

“Yes, I went there several times, most of the tourists come to the festival in Rann of Kutch. Some tourists come to see ancient temples, the oldest being built-in Eighteen Sixty-three. The famous one is the Koteshwar temple. Narayan Sarovar is one of the famous five Holy lakes in India. Pakistan border is just thirty kilometers away from there. I travel mostly to these places.” Driver answered.

 “Is there any dock nearby?” Nilopher asked.

“No, there is no harbor near to Narayan Sarovar.” Driver answered.

“Alright, how much time to reach there?” Nilopher asked.

“We are in Ugadi, one and half hour mam.” Driver answered. “Don’t worry we are going early, we can visit every tourist spot.”

Nilopher looked at her repaired watch; it was indicating seven-thirty in the morning.

“I hope I’ll complete work in one day.” Nilopher thought.

After one hour, they reached near to the Narayan Sarovar.  Nilopher saw the Welcome board written in the Gujarati language.

 “Should we go to Koteshwar first? It's just four Kilometer away so we don’t need to travel in either direction” driver suggested.

“Take me to the villager's locality of Narayan Sarovar.” Nilopher said.

“Alright” driver was surprised.

They came to the villager's area of Narayan Sarovar.

Some people were walking on the streets; some were sitting on benches near to shops.

“Ask them if they know any dock here.” Nilopher said and pointed to the people who were sitting on the benches.

Driver asked in Gujarati language to those people.

“They don’t know mam.” driver said.

Nilopher tried to ask some other people. Many people did not know such a place.

“I’m telling you mam, there is no such dock near to Narayan Sarovar.” Driver said.

“Let’s ask the drivers of other vehicles.” Nilopher suggested.

“Alright” driver surrendered in front of Nilopher’s insistence.

They went to the stop, which was used by people to travel to urban areas nearby. The driver started to ask about dock to them in the Gujarati language. They said they have not seen such place around here.

Nilopher was disappointed. She saw some kids were pointing at her driver and laughing.

“What are they saying?” Nilopher asked.

“They are making fun of me mam, ignore them.” the driver said.

“Why?” Nilopher asked curiously.

“Because there is no such dock that you are mentioning. Kids are saying, ‘Look one more weirdo asking about dock’ and they are laughing.”  Driver answered.

“One more? Ask them who else was looking for the dock?” Nilopher instructed.

Driver asked kids about it.

 “They are saying a few days ago one person was here to ask about the docks and he was looking like some kind of officer.” Driver said.

“Tell them I’m buying chocolates for them and ask what did they tell that person?” Nilopher was curious. She walked to the shop near to her and bought chocolates.

She returned and gave chocolates to those kids. “What are they saying?” Nilopher asked the driver.

“They said, one day they went to the place while swimming and they saw some boats were in the water, filled with boxes. When the kids got closer to the boats people who were on the boat scolded and drove away those kids.” Driver answered.

“Where is that place?” Nilopher was exited.

“Approximately two miles towards north of Dhunay village.” Driver said.

“Let’s go” Nilopher said and the driver started the engine.

“We have to take long route mam, the causeway is only for walking.” the driver said.

“Alright” Nilopher agreed.

While taking long route Nilopher saw two Lorries were traveling on the undeveloped track, which was heading towards north.

“Follow them, just keep the distance” Nilopher instructed the driver.

“Okay mam” driver said. “Are you from the police department?” he asked.

“No, not at all.” Nilopher replied.             

“It’s not useful to keep distance mam, we will enter in the sand area soon, we won’t remain hidden from them.” the driver said.

“Alright, hide somewhere you’ll feel safe, I’ll walk.” Nilopher said.

“I’ll stop at some distance from where Lorries will stop, you can walk from there, I’ll wait,” the driver said.

“Thank you.” Nilopher thanked him.

Lorries stopped near to some huts made from bricks; it was looking like temporary construction.

 After driver stopped the car, Nilopher crouched among the sand dunes towards those huts. She kept herself hidden behind the brick wall of huts and observed.

Some workers were unloading the goods and taking those towards small boats. There was less security and some of the security people were counting boxes from the first truck the other truck was waiting in line at some distance from first truck near to hut. Nilopher went towards the other truck by crouching behind the wall. She climbed the support and entered in trolley. She was looking at the boxes; those were from the wood factory she had seen in Hiranagar, Jammu. Boxes were sealed by small nails. She looked at some more boxes and she found that one of the box’s nails were loose. She had keys of her place in her pocket. She used her key as a liver, took off nails from one side, and unscrewed that side, she didn’t open the other side, as she did not have enough time. She pulled the upper side of the box slightly. In the box, she saw some dinnerware. She looked carefully; she saw one weird stamp on it with the crosses of Christ.

Suddenly the truck engine started, she jumped quickly from the truck, hid herself behind hut and crouched back towards her car. Car driver saw her running and he quickly started the engine. Nilopher sat into the car. The driver reversed the car and started heading towards the main road.

“No, no, don’t go to the main road” Nilopher stopped him.

“Then?” the driver asked.

“Just take me towards the opposite side,” Nilopher said.

Driver nodded. He took the car in the opposite direction and stopped at one point.

“Can you take me away from this spot but near to the creek bed?” Nilopher said.

“Sure” Driver said, and took a long turn and headed towards the creek bed.

Nilopher saw some boats were heading into deep water.

“Can we follow them from land?” Nilopher asked.

“We can go to their direction on the creek bed, once they enter into the deep side of the creek, we can’t go more,” the driver said.

“Which creek is this?” Nilopher asked.

“The Kori creek.” the driver answered.

 “There is a land.” Nilopher pointed on another end of the water.

“That’s an island, without any inhabit.” Driver said.

They kept following the boats from the bank. Nilopher saw some mountain-like structure on the other side.

“What’s that?” She asked the driver.

“I don’t know mam, but we can’t follow them from here.” Driver answered.

“Alright wait here, and please give me that” Nilopher said and pointed towards plastic pouch on the dashboard.

“That’s my driving license and documents of the car.,” the driver said.

“Not that, just give me the pouch you use to keep those documents.” Nilopher said.

The driver emptied the pouch and handed it over to Nilopher.

She took off her jacket and kept it in her small bag, then she took her phone and kept it in that plastic pouch, after that she put that pouch in her trouser pocket.

“Wait here, it will take time.” Nilopher said.

“What are you doing?” Driver asked.

Nilopher did not answer; she walked towards the water and jumped into it. The driver was shocked. He could see her swimming in the water. She was going towards the island, which was on the other end of creek.

Nilopher was a very skilled swimmer. She knew it will take a while and the swimming will exhaust her. Still, she chose to do that because she did not have a choice. She kept swimming. She stopped for some time in the water after twenty minutes of swimming, she continued for twenty minutes more, and suddenly she saw a gigantic thing inside the gap of two mountains on the other island. She took that plastic bag out and took some pictures from her phone. After that, she started swimming back and returned​to her car.

The driver was on the other end waiting as Nilopher had instructed. Nilopher returned after almost one and a half hours. She was shivering because of the wind.

“Let’s go.” She said to the driver.

 “You need to change clothes mam; I’ll take you to women’s restroom.” Driver said.

“Thank you.” Nilopher expressed gratitude.

After changing clothes, she said to the driver to take her in the restaurant for a meal.

“You are very brave mam” the driver complimented her over the meal. Nilopher smiled.

“How much time is required to reach back to Bhuj?” Nilopher asked.

“Three hours.” the driver said.

“Alright, I need to book a flight ticket; can you give me your phone?” Nilopher said.

“No network here mam, I’ll give you when we reach to Pandharo, the nearest town.” driver said.

Nilopher agreed. They finished the meal and started heading towards Bhuj. On the way they reached Pandharo, there Nilopher contacted Zane from the driver’s phone.

“Hello?” Zane answered.

“It’s me.” Nilopher said.

“Oh! Hey are you okay?” Zane questioned.

“Yes, listen can you book ticket from Bhuj to Delhi? I don’t have a laptop it is in Indrajeet Singh’s home.” Nilopeher said.

“Alright, I’ll do it, and I also mail you the X-Ray images you asked for,” Zane said.

“Thanks, I’m returning.” Nilopher informed.

“What did you find?” Zane asked.

“Draconian Star.” Nilopher said, “Send the ticket Zane, this case is going to end soon.” she disconnected the phone.

The driver took the car towards Bhuj.

After two hours, the driver dropped her at the hotel; she paid the fare and paid extra money for cleaning and servicing the car, which was dusty because it was used in sand. She thanked the driver and went to her hotel room. The flight was at midnight so she decided to take some rest.

 She woke up after a few hours, got ready, had dinner, and checked the mail on her phone. She printed ticket from the hotel service and went to the airport by a cab. She downloaded the image of X-Ray sent by Zane. While waiting for the flight she observed that image. Suddenly her phone rang. It was an international call from Chadwick Chambers, her alley from England. She picked up the phone.

“Don’t say anything, just mail the Information.” Nilopher said immediately and disconnected the phone.

After a few minutes, she received an email from Chadwick Chambers. It was data of Gawdat Girgis’s Falmouth visit. According to that, Gawdat Girgis went to the Harbour of Falmouth and visited one import-export office, which was owned by a person named Samuel Dyer. He was African, migrated to England, and having British nationality. Nilopher opened the file of photos. They were photos of Samuel Dyer’s office’s backyard. In those photos, where the goods was placed, she recognized the wooden boxes made in Hiranagar, Jammu.

 She heard the announcement for the plane. She texted Zane to bring Indrajeet Singh to Jammu.  After all formalities, she took her seat and closed her eyes. This case was becoming exhausting for her.

In the early morning, her flight landed in Delhi Aiport. She boarded connecting flight to Jammu from there.

Zane and Indrajeet Singh were waiting outside of the Jammu Airport. Nilopher smiled at them.

“Welcome back Ms. Nichols.” Indrajeet Singh shook her hands.

“Thank you, let’s check-in in some hotel, I am so tired.” Nilopher said.

She was looking exhausted so Zane did not asked her anything.

They went to the hotel booked a room for Nilopher.

“You guys are not coming?” Nilopher asked.            

“Actually I wanted to see Bahu fort.” Zane answered. “Its early morning so few people will be there and yes, we found how the LPG cylinder tempered, it’s the seal, it was replaced by faulty seal so that it will cause an explosion. I also know you solved the case so I don’t think there is much work left for us.” Zane smiled.

“Very well,” Nilopher agreed. “Mr. Singh” She said to Indrajeet, “please tell your high ups, we are coming to the Military intelligence office regarding this case.”

 “That will be done. You take rest child, we’ll be back soon” Brig. Indrajeet Singh said and left the hotel with Zane. Nilopher started walking towards her room.

 In the morning near to eleven o’clock, they started heading towards Military Intelligence Office in Jammu. Indrajeet Singh and Zane picked up Nilopher from the hotel before an hour ago, they had breakfast and then they went for the Military intelligence office.

The meeting was arranged in the headquarters of the Military Intelligence Office. After parking car, a soldier guided them towards the Military Intelligence headquarters. Sentry opened the door for them.

The Director of Military Intelligence was waiting inside; Air conditioner had just started decreasing the temperature. A coffee pot was on the table and glasses filled with water, its bubble still fizzing. Nilopher noticed that.

‘Clockwork!’ Nilopher thought. Leave it to the Swiss.

After the introduction to each other, Nilopher started unraveling the case.

“Gawdat Girgis, the Egyptian person found something under his country’s property was stolen. He chased with the help of facts and evidence he had. It led him to India. In Gawdat Girgis’s first visit, he went to the Hiranagar and Ghagwal, which are the places in Jammu. When we visited there, we found one common lorry in both places. Gawdat Girgis knew the connection between the Owner of wood factory Mr. Deendayal Sanghavi and Import Export office owner Umar Iqbal. He took some notes from those places. In Hiranagar, the wooden boxes were made, they were sent to Ghagwal with local Lorries for loading those boxes with goods from Umar Iqbal’s office. After the goods got loaded, Lorries returned to the Hiranagar in the same wood factory and loaded those boxes in different Lorries, which depart for the different states. In our visit to Hiranagar we found that there is too much security in the simple wood factory. I can’t see that why much security is required for such a wood factory anywhere. Well, the Lorries, which are newly loaded with those boxes, are going to the Kutch in Gujarat. And yes, our intelligence will find nothing in The White Desert of Egypt.” Nilopher took a pause; she knew the question will come.

“But the material found in the LPG explosion has some photographs of The White Desert.” Director Intelligence officer asked the question.

 “Of course, we found the photograph of white sand, not the White Desert, this came into my mind when my watch was not working, I went to repairing and I saw an hourglass with white sand in it. When I asked the shopkeeper is that hourglass imported from somewhere, he denied, he said it was made in India. So where do we find the white sand in India? The Rann of Kutch. After I realized this, I know the second visit of Gawdat Girgis was to the Kutch, Gujarat. I did not waste time in going there. When I reached kutch, I found two lorries taking one abandoned and undeveloped road to reach somewhere. I followed them, when I was able to look in those boxes; I found some dinnerware in it.”

“Why for such a normal dinnerware Gawdat Giris was murdered?” Zane interrupted.

“The point is that was not a normal dinnerware,” Nilopher continued, “I found an old stamp on it, can I have a paper and pen?” She asked to the intelligence officer.                                                                                                               

She started telling them rest with the help of a diagram.

“Three Christ crosses, opposite to each other from the tail side and three initials between the Gap of each pair.” She completed the drawing.

“Never seen before.” the Intelligence officer said.

“Which initials are those?” Zane asked.

Nilopher drew the initials in the gap of each pair. E, I, C, and with C there was a small o in suffix.

 “E. I. C suffix o, C suffix o must stand for the corporation.” the Intelligence officer said.

“I am not getting anything.” Zane said.

However, Indrajeet Singh was looking shocked. “E.I.C.….oh my God! That means…..”

“Yes, EIC, that means the EAST INDIA COMPANY. The rulers of India for almost two hundred years. This stamp was commonly used in eighteen’ century.” Nilopher completed the sentence.

“I didn’t get the connection of this to Gawdat Girgis.” The intelligence officer said.

“Yes, I know this question will come, The East India Company had visited Egypt in 1801 for the campaign. The event was called ‘Sepoys on the Sand of Egypt’. When East India Company left Egypt, they tried to bring some dinnerware and antiques in England just as they did with India. Nevertheless, the Egyptian people did not allow it and the Egyptian General of that regiment hid those material somewhere in Egypt.  When my alley Chadwick Chambers gave me information about the mastermind behind this, I totally confirmed this theory. Samuel Dyer, African but migrated to England, spent some time in Egypt. I am sure that time he found these unique things, but how can he take it with him? If he took those materials directly with him to England, maybe the shipping department will catch him since it came directly from Egypt. Therefore, what he does is that he started import-export service in Falmouth, England. He diverted the antiques and dinnerware material to India through smuggling. Now he can claim that he took that material from India and easily fool the shipping department, because the record of this antique material and dinnerware is in Egypt not in India so that was the loophole for him.”

“So Samuel Dyer is the Draconian Star.” Intelligence officer said.

“You told me you found Draconian Star, Have you seen him in Kutch?” Zane asked.

“Well, I found Draconian star, wait let me complete” Nilopher continued “So Samuel Dier had an import-export office and my alley in England already found some boxes there which were made in Hiranagar, Jammu. After I saw that dinnerware in those Lorries, I followed the boats, which were taking the boxes into the deep sea. Vehicles were not able to reach there, so I decided to swim, I took the route of boats for swimming, after swimming for some time, I found where the boats were going. The boats were going in the Kori Creek is other end, there was an island and In between the gap of two mountains, I saw the Gigantic Black thing, it was the ship, named as ‘The Draconian Star’.  I took some pictures for evidence in my phone.” Nilopher completed her explaination. Everyone was shocked by this reality. She took a sip from a glass of water.

“Gawdat Girgis figured out these activities of Samuel Dyer, so he visited the places where this racket operated. When Samuel Dyer found this, he decided to take down Gawdat Girgis. He appointed a Killer for injecting poison in his body, but as we know, Gawdat Girgis was not in physical contact with anyone directly, how one will inject the poison. I asked Zane to send me X-Ray of the injection hole. The hole was not so deep and the depth was small. When someone injects something from a close distance the force is more hence the depth of the hole is more. However, here we have a small depth of the hole, so the injection syringe must be injected from long distance. It can be done by dart gun or normal shooting gun with a skilled shooter. They did temper the LPG cylinder by replacing it with faulty seal so that his death looks like an accident and his notes about this case will burn and get destroyed.” Nilopher told them her conclusion. “You should start to run operation for catching them; I’ll call my alley Chadwick Chambers and ask him to take Samuel Dyer into the custody.” She said to the intelligence officer.

“Very well, thank you Ms. Nichols, you have done an excellent job.” intelligence officer appreciated Nilopher.

“Is there anything more you need from me?” Nilopher asked.

“Yes, the location details in Kutch, Gujarat, and pictures of Draconian Star” intelligence officer answered.

“Alright” Nilopher said. She gave details to the intelligence officer and asked them to check whether her phone and Zane’s phone were being tapped. After that, they took leave from the Military intelligence Office. On the way, she called Chadwick Chambers in England.

“Hello, I hope you recieved every detail of Samuel Dyer.” Chadwick said from the other end.

“Yes, thanks a lot!” Nilopher thanked him, “I have some more to say about Samuel Dyer.” She said.

“What is that?” Chadwick asked.

“Vatican Cameos.” Nilopher said.

“I’ll arrest him.” Chadwick said and disconnected the phone.

“Vatican Cameos?” Zane was confused.

 Nilopher smiled, she was going to give an answer but Brig. Indrajeet Singh started talking, “Vatican Cameos is the phrase used by the British Army in world war two, when some outsider entered in their places to cause harm to them. In this case, the outsider is Samuel Dyer”

Zane nodded, the black ambassador ran towards Kathua.

 In the next morning, Indrajeet Singh told Nilopher and Zane that, Military Intelligence is acting fast. They arrested Deendayal Sanghavi and Umar Iqbal, they also arrested the man who Killed Gawdat Girgis with the information Military Intelligence collected while interrogating both Deendayal Sanghavi and Umar Iqbal. Meanwhile Nilopher received a text from Chadwick Chambers that he took Samuel Dyer into police custody.

“Well it all ends well.” Zane said and he locked his bag, they were in the hall of Indrajeet Singh’s house, they were ready to leave.

“Yes, but they ruined my solo trip.” Nilopher said in disappointed manner.

“You may come here anytime child.” Mrs. Singh invited Nilopher, she had came in hall to say goodbye to them; Indrajeet Singh was talking on the phone.

“Thank you for taking care of us, food was amazing,” Nilopher complimented.

Mrs. Singh smiled and Indrajeet Singh arrived in the hall.

“Here’s some more good news, Military Intelligence said to ask you if you want to work in Research and Analysis Wing, They can make arrangements to hire you.” Indrajeet Singh said to Nilopher.

“Ha Ha!” Zane laughed. “She didn’t accept the job of Interpol; do you think RAW is attractive enough for her?”

“Is it true?” Indrajeet Singh was surprised.

“Yes, thank you for the offer, but I like to operate in my way.” Nilopher said.

“Military Intelligence also asked for your payment, tell me, they’ll transfer the amount into your account.”  Indrajeet Singh said.

“There are no charges required for nation’s service Brigadier.” Nilopher said.

“I knew it you’ll say this, that’s why I have something for you and you have to accept it.” Indrajeet Singh said and gave Nilopher a box.

 Nilopher unboxed that box. It was a brand new watch of the famous G Shock series.

“You mentioned your watch was not working, so we got you new one.” Indrajeet Singh said.

“Thank you very much Brigadier.” Nilopher was happy.

“Well, the surprise doesn’t end here, last night I spent a lot of time talking with my best friend from my regiment about your case and how did you solved this one. He has one more for you.” Indrajeet Singh said.

“A case?” Nilopher asked.

“Yes, an elephant was shot in the middle of his head found in Tamil Nadu. Some sandalwood pieces were found near to him as someone was carrying them and did not have time for collecting pieces, which had fallen on the way. The sandalwood they found is old, 20 years old.” Indrajeet Singh said.

“Elephant shot in the middle of the head, twenty years old sandalwood in Tamil Nadu, these things have happened before.” Zane started recalling.

“Yes, these things have happened before” Nilopher said. “In the Age of VEERAPPAN.”

“You are interested? Then I’ll give you an address.” Indrajeet Singh said.

“Alright, I’ll look into it.” Nilopher said.

Indrajeet Singh gave them the address and he said he will drop them to Jammu Airport.

Nilopher and Zane greeted Mrs. Singh and said goodbye to her.

The black ambassador started running towards Jammu.

[ponyregrets]

So what are your thoughts on S4 overall? I know you didn't care about the last season very much

my good friend @tlaloc​ asked for spoilers/if she should catch up on the show so I ended up writing a very long email with a summary of every episode in the season and my feelings on whether or not she should watch each one, so I’m just going to use that email as my answer here, anon!

401: The apocalypse is back, in pog form! They call the upcoming badness THE DEATH WAVE and it is literally a wave of fire we see it consuming some Egyptian grounders at the end of this episode so that's cool. Anyway this is a solid intro episode, kind of weird camera angles, but we set up Roan in charge, Clarke wants to save the world, Bellamy is attractive, etc. etc. I like this one.Watch: Yes

402: This episode is really weird because the big plot is about how they are gonna turn the Ark into a bunker to survive the upcoming DEATH WAVE and Bellamy takes a rag-tag bunch of misfits to some Ice Nation place to get a part they need, but then they discover they have SLAVES and Bellamy has to decide whether to get the part and leave the slaves or blow up the part to save the slaves. This was clearly meant to make Bellamy sympathetic again after the whole massacre thing, but by saving the slaves he reduced the savior capacity of the Ark from 500 people to 100 people so anyone who was still mad at Bellamy remained mad at Bellamy. Also Octavia starts murdering people, that's cool.Watch: Follow your heart

403: Bellamy and Clarke go on a road trip with Jaha because he found a new cult to be into on his iPad. Clarke has to make a list of 100 people who will survive the upcoming apocalypse. She cries about putting her own name on so Bellamy writes it for her. I don't care about anything else that happened. OH WAIT radiation is coming Luna shows up like dying of radiation but DOESN'T DIE dun dun dunWatch: I've seen this episode like eight times

404: OKAY NOW WE ARE GETTING INTO THE SHITTY MIDDLE OF THIS SEASON WHERE THE POINTS ARE MADE UP AND THE SCORES DON'T MATTER goddd anyway Monty and Jasper (oh btw Jasper was gonna kill himself before but found out that the world is ending anyway and was like COOL I CAN JUST WAIT so yeah) find the list and are like CLARKE THIS IS FUCKED UP YOU ARE NOT GOD Roan kidnaps Bellamy and finds out they are planning to keep the Ark just for themselves, Octavia gets shoved off a cliff, Bellamy gets told she's dead and is FUCKING HEART BREAKING and then all the tension is lost because they immediately reveal that she's alive, this will be a patternWatch: Eh

405: THIS EPISODE IS SUCH A GIANT WASTE like did you ever read the last twilight book where they are about to have a huge confrontation but then one of them can see the future and she sees how the fight would go so she's like nah we out? that's this episode. Bellamy figures out immediately that his sister is alive so they do nothing with ROCK BOTTOM GRIEF and then he has to talk this rando dude everyone acts like we care about (no seriously he is one of the slaves they saved in 402 and everyone is like YAY IT'S RILEY and makes a big deal and he is just a non-entity) out of murdering Roan and he does but it's a shitty speech also Echo is there being weird Echo is so weird this season I think they just want to have her around to date Bellamy if they chicken out of Bellarke ANYWAY Clarke and Roan agree that they will share the 100 spaces in the Ark, but then Ilian, the grounder who brought Octavia back, decides to set fire to the entire Ark and it burns up in a fiery explosion while Bellamy holds Octavia and and Clarke holds both of them and they're all like OUR HOME IS GONEWatch: Probably not

406: The Ark appears undamaged everyone is still hanging out living there it's SO WEIRD Clarke gets laid and stares at a picture of Lexa, Octavia tells Bellamy she hates him for killing Lincoln, which is the first we've heard of it since the season began, BUT THEN Clarke and Bellamy go on a pretty great roadtrip with Roan so Clarke can go to science island, where Raven and her mom are using Luna's blood to try to save people, bc nightbloods are immune to radiation. Also they need to go to space and are bringing rocket fuel. Bellamy definitely tries to tell Clarke he loves her on a river bank.Watch: Sure

407: OH this one is pretty great actually! Emori is a fucking badass on science island, Clarke is good, Bellamy has a GREAT storyline and also takes off his shirt. It's relatively plot light--black rain is coming and burning people, they need someone to test nightblood on probably--but a nicely done self-contained episode. This is also FINALLY when they start realizing what they need to do with Bellamy, which is shut up about the massacre and actually let him do good things.Watch: Yes!

408: This one is pretty meh. They spend the whole episode with Clarke having a moral crisis about using Emori to test nightblood, which is annoying because the moral stakes are fucked. Clarke ends up taking the nightblood herself at the last minute, which is theoretically fine, but they wanted it to be a twist ending so everyone kind of makes no sense up until then to make it happen. Also Abby immediately destroys the radiation chamber that they're gonna use to test if the nightblood really protects them from radiation so it doesn't matter anyway. Bellamy and Jasper go on a quick roadtrip to get drugs and then Bellamy gets drunk and probably laid, so good for you, buddy. Watch: Eh

409: This one was pretty boring IIRC? Mostly I remember that at the end Clarke tries to become commander and Roan shuts her down and decides they're gonna battle royale instead, and it was annoying on like every level. OH Jaha and Kane and Monty found a bunker by Polis where 1200 people can survive so they're taking all their people there, but Jasper and (randomly and stupidly) Harper and some other people decide they want to stay behind to die instead. Monty stays with them for friendship, but is planning to get to the bunker. The battle royale is one champion from each clan fighting, and the winning clan gets the bunker. That's their plan. It's not a great plan. Octavia's been off randomly having sex with Ilian and failing to be a farmer and she shows back up again to fight for skaikru. Her arc this season is a mess, but this is when it starts turning around. Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with anything else she did this season. It just starts going in a better but ultimately random direction.Watch: Eh

410: THIS ONE IS GREAT I was so ready to hate it but they do a good job with the battle royale. Luna shows up to be like IF I WIN YOU ALL DIE bc she's mad at basically everyone, which they don't quite sell, but it spooks Clarke bc Luna is an amazing fighter. Bellamy's like, listen Octavia you are not actually a baller you need to hide until most people are killed, and they follow through on that. Ilian saves her (and dies, you were v pointless, Ilian), and then Roan rethinks Clarke's "we should form an alliance" and forms an alliance with her. Bellamy has to stop Echo cheating and has a GREAT scene with Roan. Octavia eventually does win and I actually believed it, and she says they'll share the bunker equally, which was kind of annoying bc it was literally what Clarke wanted to do, but then it turns out Clarke and Jaha STOLE THE FUCKING BUNKER and also knocked Bellamy out to get him inside before they sealed it. which was SUCH A GREAT TWIST and I was so pumped but unfortunately, next episodeWatch: YES

411: OKAY so like this episode had a lot of individually good parts, but REALLY refused to pick a fucking lane with Clarke, to its detriment. There was great Blake sibling stuff, good Bellamy stuff, but Clarke was just kinda like "eh idk what to do" and really wishy-washy because they wanted this dramatic moment of her pointing a gun at Bellamy, which was fine, but then they had zero follow-up on that. BUT there was a great Raven subplot (Raven is dying of an ALIE brain tumor, I forgot to mention) where she talks to ghost Sinclair in her head and chooses life and I love it. But unfortunately there is ALSO the Jasper subplot where he gets all the kids but Monty and Harper to commit mass suicide and it was majorly triggering for a friend of mine. So, uh, yeah. Anyway in the end Bellamy unseals the bunker and lets the grounders in and O takes charge and tells them they have to pick 100 people for their slots and everyone else dies.Watch: ????????

412: MOST PEOPLE LIKED THIS EPISODE MORE THAN I DID I found the main plot pretty boring it was just Jaha being THE WORST and being like WE FOUND THIS BUNKER WE SHOULD GET SLOTS FOR ALL OUR PEOPLE and stirring shit as they tried to perform a lottery to pick slots. Eventually Kane talks him down and they gas all their own people and just use Clarke's list of 100 people to survive from 403 to pick. Whomp whomp. Meanwhile Clarke and Bellamy are kinda awks but it doesn't last long and he flirts so hard with her he commits vehicular manslaughter, which is hilarious, but Clarke's arc is such a fucking mess this season. ANYWAY they're on a road trip to get Raven that (of course) goes wrong, they end up with eight people on science island who have to go BACK TO SPACE to surviveWatch: Probably yeah

413: COUNTDOWN TO DEATH WAVE this was a good one, tight, single-plot with the kids at science island trying to get the spaceship working. Bellamy and Clarke were A LOT but they also made sure Bellamy had some shiptease stuff with Raven and Echo, I assume in case they decide not to go Bellarke. Clarke ends up having to stay behind on earth to get everyone else out, but because of her nightblood she survives. Bellamy thinks he left her to die on earth and is super sad. Then we get SIX YEAR TIME JUMP Clarke has a cute haircut and adopted a grounder and has been calling Bellamy EVERY DAY even though he can't hear her she just talks to him anyway and she SPOTS A SHIP and thinks it's them but of course it's a MYSTERIOUS OTHER SHIP DUN DUN DUNWatch: For sure

And that's what you missed on Glee! Overall I think S4 was better than S3 but the pacing was AWFUL and they kept just setting shit up and botching the delivery. I'm honestly pretty excited about the timeskip for S5 and I am looking forward to a hiatus full of angsty BELLAMY THINKS CLARKE IS DEAD fic like damn

[gordonwilliamsweb]

Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes

The Friday Breeze

Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes, who reads everything on health care to compile our daily Morning Briefing, offers the best and most provocative stories for the weekend.

Happy Friday the 13th! Which feels extra appropriate this week. One of the very few silver linings of our current situation is the 368% increase in social media pictures of people’s pets as they work from home. (Shoutout to Brianna Ehley, a health reporter at Politico, whose pup made me gasp out loud from cuteness overload.)

On to my best attempt to get you the most important and interesting news about the COVID-19 outbreak. This is one of those stories that’s changing by the minute, however, so I would highly recommend checking out KHN for our coverage and also signing up for the Morning Briefings to get a comprehensive look at what’s going on.

But here we go:

— As of this morning, the House was barreling toward a coronavirus deal after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (and the lawmakers she tapped to help her) spent yesterday working through partisan complaints together with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who has been acting as the administration’s point person on the plan. But I’m still seeing rumblings about House Republicans not warming up to the legislation. If President Donald Trump doesn’t embrace the bill, it’s likely to get passed along partisan lines — not a good sign for it getting through the Senate. The president will discuss the coronavirus crisis at a 3 p.m. news conference.

— What’s in the legislation? Provisions include unemployment insurance to furloughed workers and hundreds of millions of dollars toward nutrition programs; an additional $500 million to help feed low-income pregnant women or mothers with young children who lose their jobs or are laid off because of the virus outbreak; $400 million to help local food banks meet increased demand; and free coronavirus testing for anyone who requires it, including uninsured people.

— One of the sticking points between the two parties has been paid sick leave. The issue has been thrust into the spotlight as public health experts and doctors say that workers should stay home if they have flu-like symptoms. But because the U.S. has no mandatory sick leave, some employees just can’t afford to do that.

The Friday Breeze

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— Trump is mulling an emergency declaration, which he has been hesitant to announce — despite his propensity of using presidential power in less urgent crises — because it would likely contradict the rosy messaging he’s put forth since the start of the outbreak.

— Meanwhile, the action that the president did take — instituting a travel ban — was panned by public health experts as a useless distraction. As one said, “This virus is everywhere.” The stock markets seemed to agree with that assessment following Trump’s Oval Office address as they tumbled more sharply than they had previously. It was the worst trading day since 1987, which, for those of us who were paying attention during the 2008 crash, is not exactly reassuring.

— Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had a grim reality check for Congress (and the administration) when he agreed that the worst is yet to come with the outbreak. He also criticized the government for not providing quick and easy testing, saying that the “failing” system “is not really geared to what we need right now.” “The idea of anybody getting it easily the way people in other countries are doing it — we’re not set up for that,” he said. “Do I think we should be? Yes. But we’re not.”

— On that note, there’s still a slew of anecdotes of people who have symptoms that match the coronavirus, have tested negative for the flu and yet still aren’t receiving tests. A startling graphic from Vox shows just how far behind other developed countries the U.S. is in testing. (Read that whole story for an in-depth look at everything that’s gone wrong, including how a shortage of chemicals used in the kits is hampering scientists’ efforts.)

— So, we know we don’t currently have an accurate snapshot of how many Americans are infected (because of above testing stumbles), but what’s the worst-case scenario in terms of outbreak totals? CDC experts have projected that between 160 million and 214 million people in the U.S. could be infected, while as many as 200,000 to 1.7 million could die. Also, 2.4 million to 21 million people in the U.S. could require hospitalization.

— Which leads to what experts say is the scariest part of the outbreak: Hospitals already stretched thin from a bad flu season and ever-increasing budget cuts are simply not equipped to handle the surge in patients we’re likely to see. There aren’t enough ventilators or ICU beds, and if the United States follows in Italy’s footsteps, health care providers might have to start making tough choices about who gets treated and who gets left behind.

— What can Americans do to help mitigate this? (Or “flatten the curve,” as the cool kids say.) Public health officials and experts are recommending social distancing when possible, which includes working from home and avoiding large social gatherings. Even if the total number of cases were to plateau, taking nationwide measures to slow down the speed of the outbreak could help keep hospitals from being overwhelmed (see above).

— A slew of closures, cancellations and post-postponements this week helped toward that end (and possibly helped drive home the seriousness of the threat). Those include, but are not limited to: basketball, soccer, hockey and baseball games; concerts; Disneyland; colleges (which mostly moved to online classes) and schools; Broadway; any gatherings over 250 people in some states; the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian museums, including the National Zoo; St. Patrick’s Day parades across the country; and more. The unified message from private and government organizations alike: America, it’s time to shut down.

— Beyond the astronomical economic toll this crisis will take, some observers are also worried it’s going to deepen our loneliness crisis. As trivial as it might seem, chronic loneliness, especially in the elderly (the population most in danger of a critical reaction to the coronavirus), can produce severe negative health outcomes.

— Speaking of both closures and vulnerable populations, the U.S. Capitol put the kibosh on public tours following an announcement that a Senate staffer tested positive for the virus. Considering the demographics of Congress, and given how often lawmakers travel and interact with strangers, politicians are particularly susceptible to getting sick during this outbreak.

— In other news from the administration’s response: CMS denied states’ requests to use Medicaid funding more freely to help contain the outbreak. In previous emergencies, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina and the H1N1 flu outbreak, both Republican and Democratic administrations loosened Medicaid rules to empower states to meet surging needs.

— And it turns out that a day-long email crash, traced to CMS, created a snafu for health officials right as the crisis was heating up.

— Oh, you might have noticed that we’ve started calling this thing a pandemic. That’s because WHO finally officially deemed it one, after weeks and weeks of hesitating to make that call. “We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

So, those are the bigger highlights you need to know. But here are some interesting and compelling stories that also appeared this week:

— What will it cost you if you get sick? Many insurers have waived testing fees, but they haven’t gone as far as to make promises about treatment costs.

— Trump and other Republicans continue to frame the coronavirus using racist and xenophobic language, despite public health experts saying that’s dangerous and irresponsible. Take a look at the history of the strategy.

— One area in which scientists are hoping the coronavirus mirrors the flu is that it tends to slow down in warmer months. But we simply do not know enough about the virus to say hot temperatures are its kryptonite — yet.

— A series of high-profile people (including Tom Hanks and the Canadian prime minister’s wife) have tested positive for the virus, driving home how seriously people should be taking the threat. As an aside on the Tom Hanks story, his case highlights how easy Australia has made it to get testing.

— The pandemic highlights how little authority WHO actually has. It has supposed to act as a global coordinator, but when no one is trying to work together, the organization’s efforts can fall flat.

— What happens to America’s spy operations in moments like this?

— A devastating tale of two health care providers in China shows just how cruelly random this virus can be.

— A look at the underlying conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer and more, that can often exacerbate the virus’s toll on the body. And an explainer on how the coronavirus actually infiltrates your cells.

— And immigration groups call on the government to release high-risk detainees from facilities where they’re worried the virus will spread like wildfire.

I think other things happened in the world, but I’ve already forgotten them. Remember, wash your hands, don’t create mask shortages for health care workers who actually need them, practice social distancing when you can to flatten the curve and realize that anxiety is inevitable, but you don’t let it have to consume you.

Please have a safe, healthy weekend. See you next week!

Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/