#did i spend too long on this instead of just simply grabbing screenshots? look away

[ash-and-starlight]

humble contribution

[spideeysense]

Fallin’ (Peter Parker x Reader)

A/N: This one is a bit sad, but I won’t give away the ending! It was loosely inspired by the song Falling by Harry Styles. I apologize for any spelling mistakes I wrote this late at night and lightly edited it! Enjoy :) 

Word Count: 1714

Warnings: mentions of cheating, harassment, alcohol consumption (Not heavy), sadness

Peter stares at the other side of his bed. The sheets are barely wrinkled, left untouched. Every so often he gets a scent of your perfume that clings onto the pillow. He’ll reach out in his sleep, and stroke his hand in the empty spot, searching for you. Yearning for your warmth. As his eyes focus on the ceiling, his mind wanders back to when he screwed things up. 

The drinks were flowing that night. You and Peter decided to join your friends at a new club that had opened down the street. Apparently, it was quite coveted. When you entered you had seen Peter disappear to get you and your group of gals some drinks. Then you moved towards shots of vodka. Shot after shot. His throat stung from the strong liquor. He had lost you in the crowd, no doubt you were gushing to your friends about all the secret details of you and Peter’s relationship, including the grittier parts. He was dancing out on the floor, mostly just moving along with the beat, keeping an eye out for you. His thoughts were swimming and felt mushy. His vision was blurred and the lights of the club created a painting in front of him. Suddenly he felt a body against him. Through his drunken haze he saw your haircolor. The body grabbed his hand and he simply followed. “Y/N” he murmured. “Where are we going?” He said cheekily. When the body tugged him into a quiet, dimly lit hallway. The body (your body?) pressed against him and pushed him onto the wall. “Whoa, whoa.” He said and braced himself by placing his hands on the body’s waist (your waist? He couldn’t tell now). “I know you want me.” The body spoke. It was not your voice. Peter realized it was your longtime friend, Madelynn. Peter shook his head. “No, no, let’s go find Y/N” He said, starting to pull away. “Come on, she doesn’t have to know.” Madelynn uttered her voice laced with lust. “No thank you.” He could feel his body go into panic mode, trying to sober up. “Maddie?” Peter could hear your voice. And then the next part broke him. “Peter?” You had said with so much emotion, he could hear the newly built distrust, and the sound of hurt. Peter realized how this situation must look. Dimly lit hallway. His hands on his girlfriend’s best friend's waist. 

“Y/N” He muttered. “What are you guys doing?” You whispered, he could tell that you were trying not to jump to conclusions. But he could tell you were on the verge of tears. 

Madelynn spun her head around, her hair whipping Peter’s face lightly in the process. “Peter just took me down this hallway..” Peter gave Madelynn an incredulous look. “What?” He said and pushed her off. “No no, you took me here.” 

Madelynn shook her head. “No Peter, don’t lie to your girlfriend like that.” She said, fake hurt in her voice. Peter turned to stare at you. Your eyes traveled between the both of him, and he suddenly felt the world around him crumble away. Who were you going to believe the most? Your best friend since diapers, or your boyfriend whom you’ve been with for three years. You bite your bottom lip in concern and turn to leave. That’s when Madelynn turns around, winks, and then runs after you. The rest of the night passes in a blur. You didn’t come home with him. Instead you left with Madelynn. He ubered home, and tried to call your cell but to no avail. The only way he knew you were safe was when you sent a text with only “Im at Maddie’s”.  After that Peter would only hear from you every other day. Avoiding his apologies, his explanation. No doubt you were confused beyond belief. 

He decided to get out of bed that day and speak with you. He spent his time getting ready, practicing what he was going to say in the shower. Letting the hot water drill into his skin, soaking away his melancholy. He got dressed slowly, pulling on a pair of trousers, a grey turtleneck, and a long black coat. Peter slipped on the watch you gave him on your first anniversary. One of your friends had spilled the beans on your whereabouts, you mom’s . He knew you would be there, it was a Sunday. Sunday was your cleaning day. You (and Peter) would spend the day cleaning the apartment you shared, every room, every corner. 

As he walked on the streets, his eyes glued to the ground. He thought about buying you a coffee and bagel at the coffee shop you first met each other at. Peter’s heart was gripped with heartache when he saw that it had been boarded up. A “For Lease” sign was taped onto the plywood. He continued on his walk until he found himself in front of your mother’s townhome. He rushed up the steps with great agility and paused in front of the door.

Memories flooded his mind. Christmas dinner. Halloween Parties. Valentines day. Your family had accepted and welcomed him with open arms. He thought about turning around, he didn’t want to cause anymore pain. Before Peter could retreat the door opened. There stood your mother, car keys in one hand, an empty grocery bag in the other.

“Peter” she muttered, a sad smile on her face. 

“Mrs L/N.” Peter said in a half whisper. “Can I come in?” 

Your mother nodded, when Peter passed her, she gave his shoulder a soft squeeze. “She’s in the kitchen.” 

The door closed behind him with a soft click. He could hear you humming an unrecognizable tune. The floorboards creaked under his shoes. “Mom?” You called out. The home smelled of cleaning products but also had a vanilla undertone. When he saw you, you were hunched over the sink. Bright orange rubber gloves on your hands, and you were gripping a sponge. 

 “Erm. No it’s me.” The kitchen fell quiet. You froze, and placed the sponge gently in the sink. 

“What do you want Peter?” You questioned him, leaning against the counter. “I just wanted to talk.” He said lamely. You rolled your eyes and returned to your cleaning, rubbing the ceramic of the sink way harder than you would've. 

“Our coffee shop closed. I passed it on the way here, and they put it up for sale.” Peter started, he nervously tapped his fingers on the counter. 

“Almost like a metaphor for us huh.” You whispered. The kitchen was quiet. Peter’s scent, his cologne, was overpowering and you almost broke down there. 

“Baby you have to believe me when I say that Madelynn came onto me. In the dark I thought she was you!” Peter had a hard time holding back. You didn’t face him. “Baby please.” He reached for your elbow, but you pulled away.  He heard you sniffle. 

“Peter I-” That’s when the waterworks opened. Salty tears started streaming down your face. 

“I believe you.” You whispered, this time, turning around to face him. You stared at his distress stricken face. His eyebags had deepened. His hair was coiffed, but a couple curls stood out. 

 Shock crossed his expression. “You what?” He muttered in disbelief.

“Look, a longtime ago, before I met you. I was dating this guy. His name was Henry.” You paused, taking off your gloves and twiddling your thumbs. “He was kind, and at the time, I thought of him as my whole world.” You met Peter’s dark brown eyes, they were filled with kindness. Always so kind and gentle to you. 

“Then I introduced him to Madelynn, and they totally hit it off.” You murmured sadly. You approached him taking both his hands in yours. “Maddie was always the hotter one, the prettier one, the one that the boys wanted to date.” You explained. “Henry cheated on me with her. She brushed it off as an accident, but I could tell it had been going on for some time.” You choked out. 

“Why did you keep her as a friend?” Peter muttered softly. 

You shrugged, you really had no concrete reason to be her friend. You had met your friend group through her, so maybe that’s why.

“And then, when I saw you together in that hallway-” Your voice wavered again, and Peter cupped your face. He pressed a soft kiss to your forehead. “I thought the worst.” He pulled you in for a hug, which you gladly accepted. You felt yourself melt into him. 

“I know you would never, ever cheat on me. But Maddie...It just all came back.” You muttered against the soft fabric of his turtleneck. You thumbed the material. 

“Lindsey gave me screenshots of Maddie bragging about how she could break us up, because I’m so fragile.” You continued, your voice breaking at the last word. “Then she could get with you.” You whispered against his sweater. You looked up at Peter with teary eyes. He stared at you with such love that it almost broke your heart that you hurt him. He bent down and kissed your lips.

“I’m so sorry I ran away.” You muttered and started to cry softly. Peter caressed the top of your head. “Shh it’s okay darling.” Relief flooded through Peter’s system. He held you there, against his chest for a long moment before you pulled away. You reached up and  held his face in both hands before pressing a soft kiss to his forehead, nose, and then his lips. 

“How about you take a small break, and we go out to get something to eat, that diner you like around the corner?” Peter suggested gently. 

 “Sounds perfect. Let me go get changed.” You said and left the kitchen. Peter eyed you, as you disappeared down the hallway. When you came back, changed in a simple set of clothes. You started pulling on your coat.

“How did I get so lucky.” He murmured to himself. 

“I don’t know, I’m quite the catch.” You giggled, and you both started to laugh as you left the townhome. 

Peter put his arm around your shoulders and pulled you close. 

“I love you,” he muttered into your hair.

“I love you too.”  

[yukheii]

— rocket.

+ genre and warnings :: med student namjoon + med student reader, not that this drabble contains an overwhelming amount of references to med school but allow me to be self indulgent for a little while, fluff, yoongi is namjoon’s annoying best friend but wbk

+ notes :: idk if you guys have seen that reddit post that’s been going around about this guy talking about his girlfriend washing his hair for the first time but it was really cute and he sounded so happy and in love and it reminded me a lot of joon, so i decided to write this! 

+ side notes :: i can’t find the actual screenshot/post i’m talking about but if i do, i’ll try to add a link later to post it on my blog :’). also i swear yoongi isn’t a pothead okay

Yoongi can’t say he immediately noticed the pep in Namjoon’s step as soon as the taller boy walked into the café, but what he does notice is the dimpled grin and starry eyed gaze that grace his features throughout their conversation. And while Yoongi considers himself to be relatively attractive, he doubts the literal heart eyes being thrown his way are for him.

“Joon? Namjoon? Joon, are you good?” Yoongi asks, a dark eyebrow raised above his left eye. It takes three calls of his name for the younger boy to wake from his trance, looking up at Yoongi with that same, longing smile.

“Yeah,” he sighs, something reminiscent of a lovelorn cartoon prince when he rests his elbow on the table and his chin in the palm of his hand, “I’m good.”

Yoongi shifts a bit in his seat, but Namjoon’s eyes don’t follow; his brown irises stay trained center ahead of him. Yoongi turns his head to the right, looking for the object of Namjoon’s gaze, but is met only with the chipped, brown wood of the café’s booth.

Slowly, Yoongi leans forward, eyebrows pinched and lips pursed, “Joon, are you stoned right now?”

“What? No, I’m not high, Yoon, what the fuck?”

Yoongi simply shrugs, leaning back into the leather seat, “I don’t know, yesterday you were so stressed about your acrobatic salt cycle samples—”

“—it’s acetylsalicylic acid.”

“—and now you look mellow as fuck. Just thought maybe you rolled a good joint or something—not that I’m judging, of course, you could probably use some—”

“I didn’t smoke anything, hyung, Christ,” Namjoon sighs.

“Wouldn’t be so bad if you did. Seriously, sometimes you need a good—”

“Do you know what the half life of cannabis is? Up to ten days, Yoongi. That means that ten days—”

“—From after the time you smoke half of the weed could still be in your body,” Yoongi recites monotonously, “I know, Joon.”

Namjoon retreats with a satisfied grin, met with an unenthusiastic roll of Yoongi’s eyes. “Well, then what’s got your head in the clouds?”

Namjoon shifts in his seat now, pulling his hands off of the table into his lap. Yoongi’s suspicious brow is heightened again when he sees the faint blush dust over his friend’s cheek.

“_______ and I showered together last night,” he finally blurts.

“Oh, so you got laid—”

“—no, no, it wasn’t like that, nothing sexual happened,” he clarifies, continuing, the red on his cheek becoming more prominent with every word that spills out of his mouth, “She washed my hair. I know, that sounds dumb, but it was so... surreal?”

Yoongi should have suspected you had something to do with cheek to cheek grin on Namjoon’s face. Namjoon didn’t talk about his private life often; their conversations revolving around school, work, a mutual love for music, and occasional plans to get beers together. 

Rarely ever did the younger delve into his personal life; never about his familial life, but Namjoon didn’t need to say it for Yoongi to hear it.

So, instead of giving him the side eye and sarcastic comments one Jeon Jeongguk would be on the receiving end of at the topic of his girlfriend, Yoongi nods, and encourages Namjoon to continue. 

“I don’t know how to explain it, it was so—just, nice and relaxing, hyung. We don’t usually shower together, but this time we did and I was about to grab the shampoo myself, but then she took it from me and just did it herself. It felt so good, I felt like I was floating—like all the bullshit from school and home just melted away. I was beginning to think the stress was just going to perpetuate throughout midterms, you know? But last night she just hummed and washed my hair for like five minutes and I felt like it was all gone.”

Yoongi doesn’t stop the small smile from growing on his face; and he doubts Namjoon understands the depths of his newfound romantic bliss. 

“It’s crazy, all she did was wash my hair, but I’m so happy? She was so gentle and she did it like it was normal, like an every day thing between two people—I swear, I almost cried right there. It was just… I don’t know, it just felt good. Made me happy.”

Yoongi chuckles into his words, “You really love her, don’t you?”

“Yeah… I think I do.”

Three days later, Namjoon finds himself alone on your bed, stomach to the mattress, ignoring the nomenclature review in front of him in favor of aimlessly looking around your room. 

He notices things he hadn’t before. The small strip of images of the two of you in a clear mason jar, amongst other photos of you and your friends. The pens and pencils that the adjacent jar; two pencils stick out to him—they’re unsharpened, completely untouched, actually—and at the top, below the metal that holds the eraser at your initials and his.

When he looked over to your closet, he wasn’t surprised to find two of his hoodies, and his missing rugby shirt with the university’s crest embedded in the sleeve; what surprised him was that they were all next to each other, separated only by a hanger with your belts from the rest of your clothing. They were reserved, like they were special amongst the other fabric in your closet.

He notices the way his sweats and pajamas have their own drawer to themselves in your dresser, the way your fridge is stocked with a few of those probiotic smoothies you hate but he loves, the way his baseball cap sits among your other headwear like they just belong. Like Namjoon belongs.

Lost in his thoughts, he doesn’t register the sound of the door closing, or your footsteps growing louder; doesn’t register any sounds of you coming home until you’re shaking your bag off of your elbow.

“Hey, Joon,” you greet, and something about the way you don’t make a point of him being in your bed makes his stomach flutter.

“Hi,” he smiles, a stupidly fond look in his eyes as he watches you unpack the contents of your purse and shimmy your sweater off of your shoulders.

He shifts to sit upwards on the mattress, long legs dangling off the edge of your bed. He eyes your silhouette, admiring the hollows and convexes of your figure while you take off your earrings, and the tiny, silver ring on your index finger.

When you’re finished you greet him for a second time, walking to the center edge of the mattress. Namjoon lets you perch your weight on his thighs, mindlessly securing both arms around your waist while your fingers crawl up the nape of neck and into his scalp.

“Your hair’s dry,” you comment, tilting your head to press your lips against his softly, “You didn’t shower yet?”

He shakes his head, craning his neck downwards to tuck the cold tip of his nose into your collar, and mumbles faint words into your skin, “Was waiting for you.”

“Yeah?” your syllables come out in chuckles, laughter heightened as Namjoon tickles his eyelashes against your skin, and rake your fingers through his hair gently, “That gonna be a regular thing, now?”

“Wouldn’t mind,” he confesses, words hardly audible in the cook of your neck. He tries his hand at tickling you again, but this time, you move out of his reach, standing to your own two feet, a single hand extended forward.

“Well then, come on. I bought two new loofahs today.”

He follows with a smile, giggling all the way to the shower. He relishes in the feeling of your fingertips against his scalp, doesn’t bat an eye as you mold his hair into a bubbly mohawk with far too much shampoo. It’s so mundane, so simple, yet so intimate, and it fills him to the brim with emotions he can’t hope to convey with words. 

And when you’re finished rinsing his hair, you take your body wash on the ball of his new loofah and scrub away at his back, down his shoulders, across his torso; eventually, you abandon the sponge all together in favor of making his body sudsy with your own pressed against his, Namjoon can’t stop the tears falling from his eyes.

He realizes it must look bizarre to you, to be crying amongst the giggling and bubble beards, but he can’t help himself.

“Joon? Baby, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, nothing,” he assures you, sniffling away anymore tears that threaten to fall, “You’re just… I don’t know. You make me happy, love.”

“You make me happy, too, Joon,” you reply with a smile.

You spend nearly five minutes like that, your arms wrapped around each other with water pouring over your naked skin. With every shallow kiss you press into his chest, Namjoon feels his heart physically swell; and it’s on the tenth, quiet press of your lips to skin that he lets himself let go. 

“I love you,” he finally confesses, with wet hair stuck to his forehead, and teary eyes.

“I know, baby,” you smile, kissing his chin, then on your tippie toes, his lips, “I love you more.”

[lavender-rebellion]

The Reality of Existence  Chapter one

Masterpost

AO3 Link

Ships: Analogical and Royality

Description: "Thomas looked around his living room and felt a stone in his gut. He had four freshly human sides before him. Four human, terrified, grown adult men who had never lived a day in the real world. Four men who didn’t legally exist, permanently in reality. They were in his care now, and that dormant panic made itself known once more.“ A story about learning to live and learning to love. But also about being roommates, first jobs, being an adult, and that friendship really is the strongest force on earth. They all have things to teach and things to learn, but that’s part of being human. (They have to learn how to do that too, though)

TW for a panic attack and what can be seen as depression symptoms.

Thomas closed the door noisily behind him, letting out a heavy sigh and quickly making his way over in front of his TV, the familiar spot lending him some comfort and he could feel most of the anxious energy fall from his shoulders. He took a moment to take in the new perspective of his living room the spot gave him, before rolling his shoulder and finding the threads inside him. Thomas tugged at the one thrumming with more nervous energy than usual, watching Virgil appear on the stairs nearly immediately. Seems he was waiting for him, which was fair considering that Thomas had been thinking of this all day.

“It’s bad.” Virgil agreed quickly, wrapped up tight in his hoodie with darker bags than usual. Thomas still wasn’t sure if they were natural or makeup, and Virgil always dodged the question. Honestly, he didn’t know which one was more troubling, if Virgil apparently hadn’t gotten a good days sleep ever or if he thought it was a good fashion choice. Speaking of bad fashion choices…

“I knew it, they hated it!” He despaired, running a hand through his hair. Virgil nodded solemnly.

“There is an unusual amount of icky-sticky energy in here.” Patton rose up, hands on his hips. “If I didn’t know better I’d think your name was Vicky!”

Thomas let out a small chuckle at the Fairly Odd Parents joke because while it wasn’t Patton’s best it was clear that he was trying to cheer him up. Virgil sent a tense smile at the other side, who seemed to pick up on the mood and clapped his hands together.

“Alright then, what’s the problem, kiddo? I’ve got my listening ears on and I’m ready to ear you out!”

“It’s his new shirt!” Virgil chimed in, gesturing. Patton looked confused.

“My friends hated it!” Thomas clarified, “I looked awful all day, and they kept sneaking looks at it with this look on their face..”

“Thomas have we not already gone over your cognitive distortions? It was only a few months ago, surely you remember?” Logan rose up, flipping through a planner. He looked up to give Thomas a disapproving look, before returning Patton’s wave and sharing a smile with Virgil.

“Well yeah, but this is different.” Thomas insists, feeling a little silly but mostly like he needs to change his name and go into hiding.

“Look, Thomas, there is only one option and you know it. It’s time to move away to a remote village and become a hermit, never showing your face again.” Virgil cut in, chopping his hands down to emphasize his point. He nodded along, crossing his arms and wondering how long it would take to pack up his entire house and buy a new one. One without internet access, he couldn’t ever go online again.

“Uhhhh….” Patton looked up at Virgil dubiously. Logan shot him a similar look.

“That’s a bit of an overreaction, is it not? We can’t just go into hiding over a bad ‘look’.”

“Watch me.”

“What’s wrong with his shirt, again? I’m lost.” Patton asked.

“And why are you reacting so strongly to this, it’s hardly the worst thing you’ve worn out of the house,” Logan added, and Thomas clutched at his chest, offended. What could he possibly be talking about, and why was he so quick to remember it? Was it recent? Had Thomas just been walking out of his house looking like he got dressed in the dark for ages?

“Not helping, Lo!” Virgil ran his hands over his face, dark bags still perfect afterward which lent weight towards the natural theory..what were they arguing about again? “Anyway, that’s not the point, the point is that Thomas looked ridiculous all day and it’s all on camera!”

Oh right, that.

“OH! That’s right, you were filming that collab today weren’t you?” Patton jumped, clapping his hands together again. “How did that go?”

They all looked over at him, disbelieving, before turning back to the conversation.

“Everyone is going to see my stupid shirt and laugh, and screenshots are going to be all over Tumblr and there will be memes-”

“Are you really that worried about a bunch of 13-year-olds making fun of you?” Logan interrupted. Thomas ignored him.

“-and people are going to think I’m silly and then they’re going to realize that I’m a weird 30 year old who records himself talking to himself and posts it on Youtube-”

“Tumblr is not just a bunch of 13-year-olds, there’s plenty of young adults and adult adults. I mean, we’re on Tumblr, and so is Joan.” Virgil argued.

“Plus 13-year-olds are really mean,” Patton whined. Still ignoring them.

“-and they’re going to stop watching my videos which means I’m going to steadily lose money until I’m making none and then I’ll have to get a stuffy desk job-”

“That’s true. It’s like the John Mulaney skit, ‘13-year-olds are the meanest people in the world because they will make fun of you, but in an accurate way’.” Virgil quoted.

Patton gasped, “Oh I love John Mulaney! He is a very funny man.”

“That’s ridiculous, there’s no factual evidence that 13-year-olds are meaner or more observant than any of the ages near them.”

“Clearly you’ve never spoken to a 13-year-old.”

“-and I’ll spend the rest of my days living in a grey, unfulfilling haze where my coworkers make fun of me and send office emails around full of my earliest vines and those awful screenshots-” Ignoring them, just continue ranting.

“We are both sides, I’ve met every 13 year old you have.”

“And you’re still defending them?”

“Yeah, I’m on Virge’s side in this, Logan. 13-year-olds are just cruel.”

“I’m not defending them, I’m simply saying that there’s no logical reason-”

“There’s no logic in pre-teens-”

“Not even a teen- sy bit-”

“-and that will be my life, mockery and the cold confinement of office routine, no friends or boyfriends and I’ll die alone, without even a cat for company because I have this stupid allergy-”

CLAP CLAP CLAPCLAPCLAP

They all went quiet, echoing the clap and looking over at Roman, who had appeared a second ago while they were bickering.

“How am I supposed to practice my one-man duets if you are all making a racket?” Thomas squinted at the gaudy necklace he was wearing, a giant ruby pendant resting in the center of his chest. While he watched, it flashed a dim red light. Must have been the light catching the gem.

But everyone else glanced at it as well, including Roman. He looked pleasantly surprised.

“I didn’t know it did that. Neat!”

“What on earth are you wearing?” Logan sighed, glaring at the necklace in suspicion.

"Oh, it’s a best friend necklace! The Dragon Witch gave it to me-”

“The Dragon Witch?” Virgil interrupted, looking at him like he was crazy. Roman glared at him, but it lacked any real heat. He placed a hand on his hip and popped it dramatically.

“Yes, the Dragon Witch. We totally patched things up and are now great friends! Honestly, it was super judgy of me to declare her as evil just because she happens to be a dragon and a witch. She can’t help that! And there are good witches and dragons! Like Sabrina, or the characters from Dragon Tails!” Roman argued, waving his hand around. Patton nodded along, looking proud.

“That is so true! That’s so cool of you, Roman! And may I just say it is be- ruby -ful!” He beamed.

“Ayyyyyyy-” Roman pointed at him, looking delighted. Thomas hid his laugh behind his hand.

“That feels ill-advised,” Logan argued, Virgil gesturing at him in agreement, looking baffled. Personally, Thomas didn’t see the problem with it. But they were once again off track, and Thomas’s problem still hadn’t been solved, so he shrugged and decided that there were no real arguments against Virgil’s idea and that must mean it was fine. He turned and moved to grab his suitcases out of the hall closet.

“Maybe you should evaluate why you hate dragons and/or witches because it’s not her problem that you have a bias.” Roman sassed.

“I have no problem with either of those things, I’m simply saying that prior behavior suggests- Thomas where are you going?” Logan cut off, confused. Thomas blinked and jerked his thumb over his shoulder.

“Gotta pack, so I can become a hermit.”

Logan sighed and adjusted his glasses. “You are not becoming a hermit.”

“I’m not?” “He’s not?”

Logan glared at Virgil and Patton. “No, you aren’t. Thomas, I know you remember our conversation about cognitive distortions so I’m not going to bother rehashing it, and instead let’s get to the root of this problem. Yes, you may have looked silly today, and your friends may or may not have noticed it. Your outfit will certainly be in the video, and others may or may not make fun of it. But we both know that is where it will end, and that it is a minor problem. So why are you making such a big deal about it?”

“Yeah, buddy, it’s not like you to make mountains out of mole-hills.”

It was Thomas’s turn to sigh, body slumping out of its tense position. “You’re right- (“I’m always right.”) - I’m overreacting. I’m just worried about Cartoon Therapy.” He admitted.

“That’s the new script you and Joan are working on, right?” Patton wondered.

“Yes! It’s going to be amazing, you are just going to love the therapist, Pat!” Roman gushed.

“But that’s the thing, what if it isn’t amazing? What if it sucks? I’ve never made such a long scripted episode, what if it gets boring or repetitive? What if people don’t like the new characters? I mean it isn’t like I made you guys up, and I don’t write our scripts from scratch-”

“Take a deep breath, Thomas.” Virgil soothed, looking a little frazzled but much more relaxed compared to earlier. Thomas hadn’t even noticed his anxiety ebb into a dull static. He did as he said, sharing a smile with him at the reference.

“Thanks.” He murmured quietly.

“Give yourself some credit, you’ve created characters people have loved before, in much shorter bits. Take your personification of Sleep, for example. He is well-liked and barely fleshed out. I’m sure characters you can take your time establishing will be just as well received.”

“And if you can’t give yourself credit, give some to Joan. We all know they are a creative genius.” Patton added, speaking softly. “The script will be fine, and the characters will be great. All you can do is give your best try when writing, and watch it come to life.”

“For now, distract yourself and allow yourself to calm down. Put on Parks and Recs! It’ll work out.” Roman suggested. Thomas nodded, feeling much calmer than when he came in. He took another deep breath and grinned at his sides.

“Thanks, guys.”

“It was no problem, I a- shirt you.” Patton shot him finger guns and winked, and then-

Just stood there. Thomas’s brow creased in confusion, watching panic slowly bleed into his expression.

“Pat?”

“I-uh,” The others were looking at him in concern now, “I can’t sink out.”

“What?”

“I can’t sink out.” He stressed, and Logan fidgeted with his glasses.

“How is that possible, Patton-”

“I don’t know!” Patton snapped, looking very upset. “I just know I can’t!”

“I can’t either.” Virgil blurted out, his voice layering.

“This is probably nothing. Lets just all take our own deep breaths, close our eyes and focus on the living room.” Logan said, terse. Thomas watched them all do so, fear rising inside of him at an alarming rate. None of them sunk.

“What’s happening?” He asked. They all looked a little crazed, wide eyes darting around.

“I don’t know, this shouldn’t be possible! What could have-” Logan’s head darted up from where it was buried in his hands. “Your necklace!”

Roman jumped, alarmed at the outburst. A lightbulb went on over Thomas’s head.

“It flashed earlier! When you arrived!”

Roman looked even more alarmed, hands going to the chain and frantically yanking it up over his head, tossing it to the ground. There was a split second of relief on all of their faces before the ruby once again lit up, this time with a blinding red light that filled the entire room, too bright to see through. Thomas could hear the sounds of bodies thumping to the floor and he blinked rapidly, trying to clear the spots from his eyes.

Four men were crumpled on the floor (and stairs), but they weren’t the men who were there just a minute ago. They were all dressed like his sides, but it wasn’t his face looking back at him. He could feel his breath hitching in his chest, his lungs empty and his chest burning. He sunk to the floor and curled up, sticking his head between his legs. He could fuzzily recognize this as a panic attack, though he had never had one this severe, and clumsily went through tactics he remembered reading when researching Anxiety. It took him a while, but eventually, he was back to being aware. The men were still on his ground.

In Patton’s place was a man with curly blond hair and a scattering of freckles across his rounder cheeks. He was a bit softer all around, and round glasses lay on the ground next to him. Roman had been replaced with a tanner version of him, a face that was similar to Thomas’s, but his hair was a dark ginger and thicker, his swoop larger than usual. He seemed broader than usual as well, but he was crumpled oddly and Thomas couldn’t be sure. Instead of Virgil, there was a slight man with wild purple hair, lightly curling around his face. It looked like there was a suggestion of freckles on his pale skin as well, but he was too far away and the maybe-freckles were light if they were there at all. His makeup -or not?- was gone, replaced with very real eye bags that were much less severe but still noticeable. And not-Logan was, well, tall. Not giant, but he appeared taller than before, with black hair neatly styled out of his face, which also looked much like Thomas’s own. Actually, they appeared like they could be siblings, and not-Logan looked the most like who he should be. Does that make sense? Thomas didn’t really care, he was still panicking.

Not-Patton looked the least like Thomas, with not-Virgil hovering somewhere between him and not-Roman. There was a strong suggestion of Virgil’s features but they were more…delicate somehow. Like a distant relative of Talyn’s and a less distant relative of his. Patton didn’t look much like him, while Roman could be a cousin and  Logan could be his brother. Because that’s who they were, he knew it and he had to stop lying about it. Those were his sides, only they weren’t very side-like at all.

A low groan came from Logan, the body shifting on the floor and pushing up into a sitting position. Thomas froze, looking at the strange frame which suddenly felt like it was sitting much too close to Thomas’s own. He scooted back, tense. Logan blinked the spots from his eyes as well, before freezing. He was looking straight at Patton. Thomas was sure he was just as startled as he was, but then Logan relaxed and leaned back against the wall.

“Oh good, we’re back.” He hummed quietly to himself.

“Uh, what the fuck ?” Thomas blurted, feeling somehow more confused and nervous. Logan nearly jumped into the air, head whipping around to face him, dark blue eyes blinking once more at him. His brow drew down in confusion.

“Thomas? But how did you- maybe the light….no, because we never appear like this with you around…” He muttered. They were both interrupted by movement on the staircase, Virgil righting himself on the steps, holding his head. His face was scrunched tight in discomfort, and Logan’s attention snapped to him.

“Are you alright?” Logan asked Virgil, lowly. Virgil nodded, eyes clearing the last of the light and locking with the other sides.

“Fine, Lo. We’re back then?” He noticed the tight line of Logan’s mouth and suddenly Thomas was staring into green.  Virgil’s eyes aren’t brown anymore, either, a grey-green color replacing the familiar warmth. They narrowed.

“That’s not right…”

“What is going on?!” Thomas asked forcefully. He doesn’t get an answer, Patton stirring by the curtains interrupting them. He fumbled for his glasses, clumsily shoving them back on his face and opening his eyes.

“Well, that sure was a pain in the neck , very ruby of that Dragon Witch if you ask me.” Patton joked, though it lacked humor. Just like the other’s his body went slack when he noticed the others, but straightened as he immediately took note of Thomas. He absentmindedly noticed that Patton’s eyes were a sky blue. “Why are you in our living room?”

“I-what-” Thomas spluttered. Patton’s attention shifted just as fast as it came, and he let out a little gasp when he noticed Roman’s unconscious form.

“I don’t think he’ll be waking up for a couple of minutes, at least. It appears we woke up based on how close we were to the initial blast.” Logan offered, his eyes darting back to Virgil every so often, who was also watching Roman with concern.

“What happened?” Patton asked, distressed, and Thomas could have laughed.

“That’s what I’ve been fucking asking!” He burst out, earning a startled expression from Patton.

“Language.”

“That is the least of our problems, Patton! You all knocked out and you aren’t you and you’re still in my living room and no one is telling me what’s going on so take your language and shove it. ” He snapped, and his sides reeled back in shock. He felt a little hysterical, he might laugh anyway. It was either that or scream, because one of them was climbing up his throat.

“We don’t know what is going on, any more than you do,” Logan said.

“But, you- you look!”

“This is how we appear in the Mind Space. When you manifested us for the first time you did so with an image in your mind, so that’s how we appeared.” Virgil explained carefully, looking wary after Thomas’s outburst. “In fact, we look like the short’s characters you imagined us as, so while some features you seemed aware we had, like glasses, the rest of it wasn’t originally us.”

What? “So I decided your faces and clothes and personalities, and forced it on you?”

“Not quite. Admittedly, we dressed very similarly before manifestation, and our personalities have been ours since we started existing. You’ve always been aware of those things, just like you’ve always known our functions and of our existence.” Logan corrected.

Patton piped up, though he wasn’t meeting Thomas’s eyes. “It’s just part of being a manifester, kiddo. Well, we assume so, there isn’t exactly a guidebook on it.”

He suddenly felt bad about his outburst, the metaphorical wind leaving his metaphorical sails. “I’m sorry, Patton, I shouldn’t have yelled at you. At any of you.”

“It’s fine! We’re all freaking out, I can understand your reaction.” He was warmer this time, and Thomas sighed.

Roman let out a dramatic groan and made to sit up against the TV stand, body swaying unsteadily as he adjusted to being conscious. These eyes were familiar and comforting, even squinting suspiciously at him. “You aren’t supposed to be here.”

Patton tapped the ground to get his attention and quietly started filling him in on what little had happened, while Logan started looking around the living room.

“Earlier, you said we were still in your living room,” Virgil commented, watching Logan. He nodded, and Logan mirrored it.

“He’s right, this isn’t our living room. The pictures are wrong, and things are displaced. Like, look, your blankets are not on the couch, and my book and our tea are missing from the table.” He pointed out, and the other three glanced around.

“We didn’t sink out.” Patton devastated.

“And we’re in our real forms, which shouldn’t just happen out of the Mind Space,” Virgil added, grave.

“Something is very wrong.” Roman finished.

“Nothing would be wrong if you hadn’t worn a necklace from the Dragon Witch.” Logan pointed out, edgy. Roman looked a mix between guilty, stricken, and offended, and it twisted his face into something that could have been funny outside of the circumstances. Thomas still wanted to laugh, but that might be the shock setting in. Was this shock? He thought for a second and decided it didn’t really matter. But maybe he should get a blanket?

As the sides began some tense arguing, he spotted his phone lying where he dropped it in his panic attack and realized what would help even more than a blanket. He grabbed it and opened up the call feature. (When was the last time he did that, honestly?)

“It was a gift given of good will, I had to wear it! How could I have known she would do this?”

“Maybe because she was the Dragon Witch ?!”

“Listen, just because she’s the only female in the Mind Space doesn’t mean she has to be the villain!”

“No, she’s the villain because she’s evil! ” Virgil argued.

“He has a point though. Why is the only woman in our realm a villain?” Patton offered, hesitant.

“Roman created her. And he accepted the necklace that got us into this mess!”

“Are you saying this is my fault, Virgil?”

“I’m not not saying that.”

“Virgil!”

“What, Patton? I’m not wrong.”

“But you shouldn’t say it..”

“Patton!”

Thomas hung up and clapped to get their attention. They went quiet once more. “Joan is on their way. Maybe they’ll have some ideas on what’s going on.” And they can tell me I’m not going crazy, he thought, but maybe that was preferable to this situation.

For the first time in his memory, they all lapsed into uncomfortable silence, Virgil tossing his hood over his head and withdrawing into himself while Patton wrung his hands, Roman sulked, and Logan fumed. He had never seen them like this, never known them to be this upset, especially with each other. Things have gotten tense, people have gotten upset or argued, but this disconnect? It was new and somewhat frightening. Minutes passed like snails, slow and dragging, leaving a film behind. Maybe that was the shock.

Finally, a knock on the door drew them out of their heads, and Thomas got up to let them in. They were in their pajamas, and it was only then he thought to check the time. Midnight.

“I’m sorry for dragging you out this late.” He said automatically, but Joan waved him off.

“It’s clearly important, and what are best friends for if not traveling across town at midnight when something important happens?” Joan joked, but Thomas could only give him a weak smile. “You said something happened with the sides?”

He gestured them in, running a hand through his hair. “It’s not good. I was just chatting with them after I got home, everything was normal, and then they couldn’t sink out.”

“They couldn’t leave?”

He shook his head, hovering by the door and speaking quietly. No point in causing the arguing to start back up before it was necessary. “Roman came in wearing this necklace the Dragon Witch gave him-”

“The Dragon Witch?”

“Apparently they made up recently. Today, I think, the others didn’t seem to know about it. Anyway, they figured that was what was preventing them from leaving so Roman took it off. But it let out this bright light, completely blinded us. I heard them all fall and when I could see again they were unconscious and in their real forms.” At their look he tried to explain, feeling jittery and uncomfortable. That was the panic. Shock? “They look different in the Mind Space, they said. They’ve never looked like this outside of it, apparently, they actively control the change. They still can’t sink out, and they keep arguing..”

Joan placed a hand on his arm, seeing him start to panic (had he ever stopped, though?) and Thomas lent into the steadying touch. He smiled at them, thankful. Finally, they moved into the living room, where the sides were waiting. If their new appearances startled them, they didn’t react.

“So you guys are stuck.”

“Understatement of the year,” Virgil grumbled, and Thomas gave him a disapproving look.

“Don’t be mean to Joan. They are just trying to help.”

“Sorry.” He looked guilty, but Joan waved him off.

“Everyone is upset and tense, I understand. But arguing isn’t going to help anything so can we leave that for when this really bad thing isn’t happening?”

They all nodded, and Joan clapped their hands. “Alright. So, once again, you’re stuck. You’ve all attempted to sink out after you woke I’m assuming?”

“Yeah. Before I felt a barrier, almost. I didn’t notice it at first but looking back it was definitely there. But now…now I don’t feel anything at all.” Patton answered, looking down at where his hands were fidgeting in his lap.

“It’s like the Mind Space is just gone.” Virgil agreed. Logan messed with his glasses again, looking agitated.

“But that’s not possible, unless Thomas had something severe happen to his brain or…he wasn’t breathing anymore. Clearly, neither of those things have happened.”

“Yeah I haven’t bonked my head recently, and I’m still kicking. I think?”

“You are,” Joan assured him, seeing the distress in his eyes. “So that means you’ve all lost your connection with the Mind Space, most likely. Can you still conjure things, or access any of your Mind powers?”

They all waved their hands around to no avail, looking crazy. Frustration was clear to read in all of their expressions. Joan grimaced.

“And my shadows are gone,” Virgil said, rubbing his thumb under his eye. “I’ve always had them, I don’t..”

“So, no powers, no shadows, no connection to the Mind.” Joan ticked off. “Forced appearances, as well. Thomas,”

He looked up. “Yeah?”

“You once mentioned you could feel the connections to them, like strings tying you together. Are those still there?”

Oh. He reached deep into his chest, where the strings he had used to call Virgil had always lied. There was just empty. He couldn’t recall ever feeling this empty. The tightness in his throat returned, and his face fell. A sob burst from his lips. “No. No, they aren’t there anymore. I can’t feel them, I can’t feel you guys.” Tears welled up in his eyes but he didn’t care, struck by the realization. “It’s all empty. I thought that was shock, but..”

Joan looked upset, and he distantly felt bad about bringing them into this, but now he was crying and he couldn’t stop. He was reeled into an embrace, and he went willingly.

“It might be shock, from having the connection broken,” Joan admitted, before looking over his head. “Do you guys still feel..”

It was clear from how they trailed off that the answer was no. They couldn’t feel Thomas anymore, and that wrung another shaking sob from him. It took him a few minutes to gather composure, but eventually, he straightened from the awkward hunched position he had had to make, making a small wince at the wet spot on Joan’s chest. A glance at the other sides showed that he wasn’t the only one crying though. He wiped his eyes.

“So, you have no connection to the Mind, or Thomas. But you’re still corporeal, I can see and hear you. Maybe….you’ve become real people. Somehow.”

Oh. He had been so wrapped up in what had happened, he never stopped to think about what it meant. The others looked just as gobsmacked.

“That’s impossible, though,” Logan whispered, but it was obvious to himself.

“Let’s test it. Have any of you moved from your spots?”

“I’m just so used to not being able it didn’t even occur to me,” Virgil admitted, getting to his feet. He swayed a bit, but didn’t fall. The rest rose as well. Patton took an unsteady step forward, likely stiff from hours sitting, and when he didn’t hit a barrier he took another. Virgil climbed down the stairs to meet him in the middle, and Roman stepped forward too. Patton’s eyes brightened slightly, and he reached for Roman.

“I wonder…” He grabbed Roman’s arm and pulled him into a hug. Roman gasped, eyes going wide, and when Patton pulled back he gave Roman a wobbly smile, face brighter.

“You felt it, right?” He asked, before gesturing Virgil to come closer and pulling him into a hug as well. Virgil let out the same surprised gasp and gripped Patton tight.

“Everything feels like it’s dialed up to, like, 15. Lo, come feel this!” He held out a hand to Logan, who placed his own on top and wove their fingers together. His eyes widened. Patton released Virgil and moved hesitantly in front of Joan.

“May I?” They nodded and suddenly Joan had an armful of Patton, who was beaming like it was Christmas.

“I can touch you,” Joan exclaimed, looking shocked. While they had always been able to see the sides, they had never been able to touch them before. Their hand had always gone right through them, like ghosts.

Thomas looked around his living room and felt a stone in his gut. He had four freshly human sides before him. Four human, terrified, grown adult men who had never lived a day in the real world.

“Is this permanent, do you think?” He asked.

“I think, Logan said haltingly, unsure, “ That we have to assume it is. Go into this with a ‘worst-case scenario’ mindset.”

Four men who didn’t legally exist, permanently in reality. They were in his care now, and that dormant panic made itself known once more. He couldn’t take care of them. He didn’t have the space, let alone the funds. And again, they didn’t legally exist. And how was he going to explain this? Only Joan and Talyn knew he was a manifester!

He caught Virgil’s eye and could tell he was thinking the same thing, saw him work himself into a similar panic.

“How can we live? We don’t exist in the eyes of the government, we have no papers! And without papers, we can’t get jobs! Where will we live? What will we do?” Virgil echoed his earlier thoughts, and Patton’s face fell. Roman was still quiet, arms wrapped around himself and staring at the ground. Logan looked deep in thought, lips moving silently. The tension in the room was back, and suddenly Thomas felt exhausted down to his bones. He just wanted to sleep, and let everything disappear. Just for a little while.

Joan seemed to pick up on this, and as frazzled as they now looked, standing in the center of Thomas’s living room in their pajamas at nearly 1 am, they once again smiled. “It’s late. Let’s order a pizza, I’m sure we’re all hungry, and then call it a night. We aren’t going to get anywhere tonight. Figure it out tomorrow.”

They all sagged, and while Joan quietly ordered they all moved to sit. The sides collapsed, leaning against each other, on one part of the coach while Joan and Thomas sat on the smaller side. He absently thought how lucky he was his couch was too big, but mostly he thought about how comfortable it was, and once again how much he wanted to sleep. There was quiet while they waited for food, but it was born out of exhaustion instead of anger.

Once they started to eat, however, some energy managed to fill them again, and quiet chatter started up. Roman mentioned quietly to Patton how cool it was to have a full sense of taste, while Joan struck up a conversation with Virgil and Logan on living in the Mind Space. He listened to them talk about the bookcase filled with books Thomas has read, about their rooms and the emotions connected, but only when Thomas was with them or they were feeling heightened. Roman chimed in with talk about his Realm filled with creativity and stories, while Patton mentioned the dog they had conjured and kept for a couple of weeks.

By the time the food was gone Thomas was nodding off, but he managed to get up and gather four sets of pajamas, mismatched and some grabbed simply because he didn’t know what would fit them. Like Virgil, who seemed too small for his pants and instead got a pair of boxers he bought a size too small, and Patton who he had to dig out one of his slightly larger shirts for. He wandered back to the living room on autopilot and took them all up to the spare bedroom.

They took the clothes from him and Patton grabbed a bunch of spare blankets, setting up two beds on the floor. They looked as out of it as him, and the chorus of “Goodnight, Thomas”’s were more mumbles than speech. He closed the door behind him and went back down to Joan, who was dozing on the couch.

“Thank you for coming over.” He said softly, “And thank you even more for being so helpful. I couldn’t have made it through tonight without you, and I’ll never be able to express how much it meant to me.”

“Everything is going to be alright, Thomas.” Joan insisted, and he smiled.

“Yeah, it probably will. But would you do me a favor and spend the night, so I know it’s not all some crazy dream tomorrow when I wake up?”

They took the hand he offered and pulled themselves up, giving him a teasing grin.

“What, you thought I was going to leave? It’s nearly 2 am, you owe me a place to sleep, dude.”

They headed sluggishly to bed, and everything else was tomorrow’s Thomas’s problem.

(tagging @strickenwithclairvoyance because they told me to, and they inspired me. Hope you like it! Let me know if you’d like to be tagged in future chapters! (Also bold of you to assume there won’t be Deceit because he wasn’t ejected.))

[tetrakys]

(sorry I accidentally cancelled my post after replying to your ask, luckily I’d saved a screenshot)

37. “I want to hike up your skirt and take you right here.”

So... I was thinking how to bullshit my way through this prompt too, but... NO! I’m not going to do it this time. There’s so little out there about Armin (and yes, I’ve written only one fic about him so far, it didn’t seem to get much interest so please comment when you like something, so I know and get inspired to write more on that topic). Also, there’s veeeeeeeeery little smut with him, so... thank you for asking me to write about him, this is for you @fuckyalllifes ! 

And for me.

And for all Armin’s stans!

And for FREEDOM!!!

You can consider this a sequel to Memories Lost, Memories Found.

Long story short, after Candy kissed someone in episode 10, she received the memories box from her mother with Armin’s pictures, she got sad and went to get her man back. 

Beware NSFW.

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

It was Friday evening and I was extremely tired. The last lecture of the day had ended a while ago, I’d just been through a thesis meeting and I felt weak, both mentally and physically.

Rayan’s lectures were awkward for me at this point, after our kiss a few months ago it seemed we were on the verge of starting something serious, but fate has a strange way to play out.

When I told him that we couldn’t go any further because I was still in love with someone else, he didn’t blame me, he didn’t get mad. I saw hurt in his eyes but he said that he understood, that it was for the best and we could get back to a normal student/teacher relationship. He’d been amazingly understanding but I couldn’t help feeling guilty. I knew he still wanted me.

I could see it in the way he briefly looked at me in class, his eyes focusing on me a little longer that they did on anyone else. I could hear it in the way he spoke my name, with sweetness and thinly concealed longing. The guilt was eating me alive.

And it wasn’t that I hadn’t wanted him at the time, that kiss had been as real to me as it had been to him. I liked him, I still found him attractive as hell, but I couldn’t deny the truth of my feelings any longer.

I loved Armin, I always had and always will.

As if I’d conjured him by simply thinking about him, Armin appeared next to me.

“Armin!” I cried out surprised, throwing myself in his arms, “what are you doing here?”

“Surprise,” he said grinning like a child, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear. “I took the day off and got on a train to spend the weekend with you.”

I felt my heart burst with joy. I missed him all the time. I hadn’t forgotten that our relationship hadn’t survived the distance the first time, but now it was different. We were older, more mature and in a couple of months I would graduate and move to his town. Nothing could come between us.

“Where are you staying? I don’t think Yeleen is willing to share the room with the both of us.” It wasn’t just a thought, I’d asked her several times, and she’d always replied with a very dry no. I understood where she was coming from, still… it wasn’t like we had many other options.

“In Alexy’s room, he’s going to spend the night at Morgan’s. Poor Hyun, not only he has to share his room with both Morgan AND my brother, but he’s also doing it because I’m here visiting the girl he likes,” he said smirking a little.

“Don’t say that, Hyun is happy for us.”

“Sure, because he’s a nice guy. It doesn’t mean he’s not also sad about it, he’s in love with you.”

“He’s not in love with me,” I chastised him.

“At the very least, he has a very big crush. Everyone has it, apparently. I can’t blame them though,” he added, giving me a kiss on the cheek, “how could it be otherwise.”

“You like to tease, no one has a crush on me.”

“Should I remind you what happened with Castiel a few weeks ago? Actually, now that I’m here, should I go beat him up?” He said with an over-the-top serious tone.

He got me there though, Castiel had hit on me right after the party for the launch of his new music video. I went to his place for an innocent cup of tea with a friend, and he’d asked me to spend the night together. I’d obviously rejected him and told Armin, I didn’t want any secrets between us.

“He didn’t know we’d gotten back together, and I told you he apologised. Why am I even trying to reassure you? You’ve never felt jealous a moment in your life, and you’d never get in a fight, not a real one at least, maybe online.”

“I could challenge him to a FPS duel, I would totally crush him,” he replied amused. “What lecture did you just have this late in the evening by the way? Alexy only told me where to find you, not what you were doing,” he said looking around the empty room.

“Just a meeting with my thesis advisor,” this got his attention.

“You mean with professor Zaidi?” He said with a grin, but I could hear a barely concealed spiteful undertone. “You and him, alone in this big empty classroom?”

“Please, don’t tell me you care. You were just enjoying yourself teasing me about people who may or may not have a crush on me.”

He looked at me pensive for a few moments, then gently pushed me against the desk.

“You know I’m not the jealous type,” he said caressing my arms with sweetness, “because I’m sure about your feelings for me, and I know you would never be with anyone else.” Lowering the strap of my dress he uncovered my skin and left a small tender kiss on my shoulder. “But this guy… Rayan… you like him,” he said kissing my neck, “you flirted with him,” his lips were now on my jaw, “you kissed him.”

I was about to protest when he added, whispering in my ear, “I want to hike up your skirt and take you right here.”

“What? Are you out of your m…”

My words got stuck in my throat when his mouth came crushing onto mine. This kiss was different from the hundreds we had shared during the years. He was always playful and teasing, now instead he was rough and possessive. His hands started roaming all over my body. Cupping both my breasts with heat, fondling them above the dress, I’d never seen him like this, he seemed to be something in between angry and desperate.

Was he actually jealous? For the first time in his life? He must’ve been going crazy right now. I wanted to reassure him, so I raised my hands to his face, my fingers interweaving with his jet-black hair, and answered the kiss with the same ardour.

Abruptly pulling his lips away from mine, he turned me around, bending me over the desk.

“Armin, we can’t! Anyone could come in at any moment.” I tried to protest.

“Come on, Candy,” he said with a tantalising tone, “you and I have always loved playing games…” slipping a hand under my skirt he caressed my inner thigh up to my underwear, massaging above it with loving motions, “let’s see how fast I can make you come before someone finds us.”

I moaned when his finders slipped under the hem of my panties and started caressing between my folds. “What if I make you come first,” I said looking at him over my shoulder.

He just grinned, happy to be having his way once again, so I added, “you’re going down.”

“Maybe later,” he replied slipping a finger inside me, groaning when he felt how wet I already was, “we don’t have much time now.”

Moving aside my underwear, I felt something much bigger than a finger entering me, and with one fluid motion he settled himself to the hilt inside me. The feeling of him… was always the best thing ever.

I thought he would start moving immediately, but he remained still for a moment, then lowering his chest over my back and tucking a lock of hair behind my ear, he whispered, “hello love, I missed you.”

“I missed you too,” I panted, our lips a mere inch apart. Then he raised again, hands grabbing my hips with possess, and started moving with a quick and precise flow. I loved how the only times he was this absorbed and completely focused were when we were playing a game or making love. When we were doing both? It was magical.

“You really wanted to take me on his desk,” I said when he started increasing his speed, I had to grab the side to steady myself.

“Did you?” he asked, pumping into me even faster, “did you want him to take you on his desk? Or somewhere else? Maybe you still want to?” I could hear a small note of uncertainty in his voice.

“I came to you, Armin. I want you. Just you.” I barely had the strength to reply, I could feel the heat build up inside me, and I didn’t want to lose. I started pushing back against him squeezing my muscles hard, knowing he would’ve felt me even tighter around him. I heard him moan and, with the barest self-control replied, “You’re playing dirty, Candy, with your sweet words and your even sweeter pussy. I’m not going to lose that easily.”

Moving his arm around me, he started caressing my clit and I knew that I was about to lose it completely. After a few extra pumps we both came hard, stifling our moans trying not get caught.

I knew I had to adjust myself and leave the classroom immediately, every second we stayed there was incredibly risky but, in that moment, I was so tired and content that I didn’t really care.

“I don’t think anyone won, we came at the same time,” I said when I finally found the strength to raise from the desk and turn around, seeing him tucking himself in his jeans was so sexy that I was almost willing to start all over again.

He fixed my dress and, taking my chin between his fingers, he looked me in the eyes and said, “I won, Candy, the day you came back for me. Everyday since then is always a victory, because you are with me.”

And when he took my lips again, his body flushed against mine, I knew it in my heart.

I had won too.

[putschki1969]

LINE LIVE ~ Summary

Here’s my summary of yesterday’s LINE LIVE. I am incapable of keeping things short so be prepared for a wall of text. I tried to lighten things up by inserting a few screenshots here and there ⊂((・▽・))⊃ Title: Wakana Solo Debut、「Toki wo Koeru Yoru ni」Release Special Broadcast Date/Time：2019/2/6 21:00～21:50 Victor Channel Download link

We start off with an introduction to the program. In order to celebrate the release of Wakana’s solo debut single, Victor Channel is hosting a special LINE LIVE. The program is hosted by Natsuko Aso. She says she will ask Wakana about all kinds of things, her profile, her music, her hobbies. Towards the end of the program they will play the full PV of “Toki wo Koeru Yoru ni”, etc

Natsuko then advises viewers to remove the comment section on the side if they want to see a full-sized Wakana.

It seems like Natsuko and Wakana have met before but it’s been a while since they have last seen each other. [All I could find on that is an old Kalafina blog post from 2011. Apparently they all performed together at KITAKYUSHU 2011 but they probably met on various other occasions.] Anyways, after the usual formalities of telling each other how happy they are to see each other again Natsuko asks Wakana whether she is feeling nervous to do this live together with her and Wakana confirms that yes, she is super nervous.  She then asks Natsuko if it’s okay to call her Nat-chan like she used to back in the day. Natsuko immediately says yes, of course it’s okay. Wakana continues by saying that it’s totally fine if Natsuko calls her “Wa-chan” or “Waka-chan” or simply “Wakana”, no formalities please [Natsuko is quite a few years younger than Wakana so that offer seemed to make her a bit uncomfortable].

Nat then congratulates Wakana on the release of her single and asks her how she feels now that the CD is finally out. Wakana is super happy and excited of course. The song really transcended time because there was quite a long period between its first performance in August last year and its release. It’s about time it got released!

We continue with a short profile of Wakana’s life/career. The usual stuff, born on Dec 10, from Fukuoka, started singing early, first acitivities as FictionJunctuion Wakana, breakthrough as member of Kalafina and now after celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Kalafina she is debuting as solo artist under Victor Entertainment. Nat is surprised to find out Wakana is from Fukuoka. Wakana then explains that she was born in Tokyo but raised in Fukuoka so she feels like that is her home. Nats wonders if there is any good stuff to eat there and Wakana is more than happy to answer, she is like, “YES, there is!!!!” People in Fukuoka like to eat udon instead of ramen and Wakana’s favourite is udon with fried burdock (gobouten) (something that’s very hard to find in Tokyo). Wakana is like, “now I have become an udon ambassador”. Next they talk about how Wakana got into music. It’s the usual stuff again. Her dad likes to play the guitar, her mum used to be a music teacher, she has always been surrounded by music so naturally she became very fond of it too. She started taking lessons very early, then she was part of a gospel choir and took vocal lessons. But as we know, she originally wanted to become a mangaka or opera singer but that didn’t really happen. She then decided she would focus on singing (although not on an operatic level).

Next up is some talk about Wakana’s private hobby, namely her camera. Wakana reads through some of the comments and sees how many people are watching so she gets a bit nervous. There are lots of people waving so Wakana being the energetic person she is goes a little overboard with her waving.

Now we get to the camera. Wakana grabs it from a table nearby and says that she really loves taking pictures. She shows off all the cool features of the camera and takes a picture of the two of them. Wakana has always loved taking pictures of the sky with her phone so she wanted to try using a real camera for a change. Wakana is proud of the pic she took of them, it turned out nicely, a girly get together. She feels like this has turned into a teleshopping channel, she apologises. With this camera she likes to take pictures of the sky (like before), of nature and she also likes to capture special off shot moments.

Then we see some recent shots Wakana took.

This is one of her plants at home, she has forgotten its name though. She talks about spending a lot of time watering her plants and talking to them. It has become a ritual. She also has a little “angel” corner here which she likes a lot, she is a big fan of wings.

Next up is another one of her plants, it’s a christmas rose which she received as present recently. She is so happy that it already bloomed but she worries what will happen to it this summer since the flowers only bloom when it is cold

They just reached 10,000 viewers. CONGRATS! Wakana gets even more nervous.

We continue with some shark pics because hey, this is Wakana so of course this program has to include sharks. There are pics of her favourite tiger sharks which can be found at Fukuoka Marine World. She explains that she goes to aquariums all the time and that she really loves sharks, how they are so cute, how their form is beautiful, etc...Nat says that she has watched a couple of shark films and Wakana immediately wants to know which ones (=> Deep Blue Sea and Lost Vacation - some of Wakana’s faves actually). Wakana is so happy to talk about those films and of course she has to mention that Blake Lively’s body looks amazing, no matter how many times she watches the movie, she is always blown away by how gorgeous she looks. She recommends those films to everyone who wants some simple entertainment. And now the teleshopping program has fully turned into a shark program. Time to introduce her shark goods. Her infamous tea cup of course and her keyholder. Nat points out that Wakana’s tour goods look like they could be aquarium merch, they don’t have anything to do with Wakana. When Wakana gives her goods to friends they also usually believe that it’s a souvenir from the aquarium.

It’s time to end this shark corner and continue with some talk about the single. Wakana explains how this was her first time writing lyrics. When she first heard the melody of Toki wo Koeru Yoru ni she worried a lot because she didn’t know what kind of lyrics to write. She had to write tons of notes because she had no idea where to start, she would just write down random thoughts while listening to the song. Eventually she would pick out the lines she liked and create some proper lyrics. At this point she realised how much hard work it is to write lyrics, she had never really been aware of that. Nat asks if Wakana has a favourite line or phrase. She really likes the final chorus. Because this song is s collab between Shusui and a Swedish composer the song has a very Western/European vibe. The first version she heard of the song had English lyrics and she was super impressed by the song and she felt quite intimidated. Wakana was super embarrassed when she sang the song for the first time last August because she didn’t know if her lyrics would be well-received but since then she also performed it during her tour so she has become quite confident. That made it easy for her to do the recording (which followed much later). At that point the song had already changed quite a bit due to the different performances and interpretations, it really became her own and she felt very comfortable singing it in the studio. Then we have the live version of Tsubasa. Wakana says that she started her performance being quite nervous but with every line she sang she gained confidence since the song is quite empowering. That’s why she is happy that this live version was chosen even though you can probably hear her nervousness during some parts. Nat is super impressed by those two completely different songs, Wakana’s expressions are pretty much the exact opposite so it’s quite astonishing. Wakana goes on to explain that the song was written by Satoshi Takebe who also produced her tour. He left a huge impression on her because she learned a lot from him.

~ Toki wo Koeru Yoru ni PV ~ Wakana loves the contrast between the nature and urban setting and she likes how there is such a vast world introduced in the PV. All the wide shots are amazing. Nat says the PV has a very fantastical vibe to it, it almost feels like an illusion with all the lovely sparkles. Nat wonders if the PV was actually shot in Sweden because the atmosphere seems so European. Wakana has to disappoint her though, she did not go to Sweden unfortunately. However, they tried to find a location that would have a sort of nostalgic European vibe. Wakana is super happy they were able to find such a gorgeous location. The water was particularly beautiful because it reflected the forest in the background. She is also excited because she got to go on a boat and all the boat scenes where shot with a drone which turned out super well. Wakana says that she had a phone with her on the boat and staff members would tell her what to do ,“okay, now pretend to sleep. Ah yes, the sun looks beautiful now. Perfect. Stay as you are...” Wakana really wanted to look at the beautiful sun but since she needed to pretend to be asleep she couldn’t. Afterwards she got a chance to look though and she also took some pictures with the phone she had with her, she got some great shots. She will probably upload those pics on the blog someday soon. Nat then points out that it must have been very cold during the shooting since you can see Wakana’s breath during some scenes. Wakana admits that this was the coldest she has ever been in her entire life. In the past she had often shot PVs where it had been freezing but it was never as bad as during her shooting for “Toki wo Koeru Yoru ni”. She had never seen her breath like that. When she watched a few scenes they had shot she thought she had become “Godzilla Wakana”

Nat reassures her that she didn’t look Godzilla-like at all. It really fitted the entire winter atmosphere of the PV and it helped to make it more emotional. We then get some off-shots from the shoot. Nat is impressed how much work it takes to get a PV like that done. Wakana agrees, it’s a group effort and everyone did an amazing job.

Wakana really loved the location for the urban night scenery. She wishes that was her apartment but alas it isn’t. For a moment though she had Nat convinced that it was in fact her apartment XD

Nat catches Wakana a little off-guard when she says they should continue with some information. Wakana looks at her schedule sheet and is a bit confused but then she realises it’s time to talk about her album and tour. Nat introduces all the album details we already know. Wakana is like, “OMG, there is so much content on Version B”. Everyone should get it because it includes a HUUUUGE poster of her XD

Wakana says that the album is very Wakana-like (hence the title) but it also introduces a NEW Wakana so she is looking forward to everyone discovering those new facets of her. Wakana loves the dress she wears on the cover design because it’s super flowy. The wind was strong when they took those pictures so it almost looks like she has wings. She thinks that’s very fitting because she is leaping into a new direction, discovering new parts of herself. On a side note, the pose on her promotional picture was extremely uncomfortable but she likes the end result. She generally loves how the pictures turned out. The weather was lovely during the shoot as well. Wakana says that the cameraman is lucky because he always brings good weather with him (unlike Wakana who always brings rain with her - she notes that it has been raining all day in Tokyo). Nat points out that it didn’t seem to rain during the PV shooting so Wakana isn’t THAT unlucky. However, Wakana reveals that it did in fact rain that day (just a little though and the sky eventually cleared up to allow those grogeous final scenes).

Some more news about the release events, the clearfile tokutens, the tour dates, the LINE ticket lottery etc...

Wakana says she wants to show parts of her new self in the upcoming tour (of course this will involve her single and album). She thinks there will be a lot of people coming that don’t really know her from before so she really wants to leave a good impression. She has been thinking a lot about what to do for this tour. At any rate, she wants to create a warm and comfortable atmosphere. Lastly, some info about the new twitter account. It is going to be run by staff members because Wakana is absolutely clueless when it comes to Twitter. However, she thinks she might try to post once in a while. Nat then reads out a few comments by fans saying they will attend so and so many tour lives. Wakana is like, “I am gonna attend ALL of them!! So everyone, please come to all of them as well!”

It’s about time to end the program so Nat asks if Wakana has anything left to say. Wakana says they shouldn’t end the video so soon since it’s only been about 30 minutes. Nat then realises that she has failed to call Wakana by her nicknames. Wakana says it’s fine. She then goes on to thank everyone for this precious time. She had lots of fun talking with Nat and sharing some info. She feels grateful to all the fans who watched the LINE live. Wakana asks if Nat would mind if they talked a bit longer, she doesn’t want to force her but she is enjoying herself so much, she doesn’t want it to end yet. Nat doesn’t mind of course and she suggests they talk a little more about Wakana’s favourite topic...sharks. Obviously Wakana is more than excited and even interrupts Nat while she is about to ask a question. Wakana calms down and aplogises, asking Nat what she wants to know. Nat is curious what made Wakana fall in love with sharks. As we all know, she started out by liking dinosaurs. When Nat hears this she can’t believe it because she loves dinosaurs too. Wakana is beyond excited to have found a fellow dino-fan.

Nats asks if Wakana went to the dinosaur expo and Wakana is like, “dude, OF COURSE!” It was so cool. They are already making plans to go together to this year’s expo. Wakans says that she has loved dinosaurs ever since she watched Jurassic Park at the cinema with her father and brother. She was quite scared initially and her dad worried about her but she was fine at the end. The dinosaurs really impressed her. From that point on she was really into dinos and then she found out about the ancient shark megalodon. After that there was no turning back, she fell in love with sharks due to their awesomeness. She is happy the film MEG was released recently because now everyone knows how cool that shark is. Some more fangirling about sharks and dinosaurs. Nat states that this is the first time she has met a woman who is as passionate about dinosaurs as her. Wakana agrees, there aren’t many women with this kind of hobby.

Final info about the tour and some final words of gratitude to the viewers. She hopes everyone will join her on this journey in a new direction.Wakana has already decided on her tour goods and Nat is looking forward to seeing them. Right when they were waving goodbye they reached 20,000 viewers. BANZAI. 

[jaeminlore]

An Artist's Soulmate // Huang Renjun

-

the prompt: renjun x reader artist/soulmate!au where he just has this one “OC” character that he constantly draws like 24/7 n then he bumps into the reader n realises like woah I’ve somehow been drawing you for years, but doesnt tell them cause its a bit creepy. I’ll leave the rest up to you bc i wanna be surprised!!

words: 1830

category: soulmate!au + fluff

author note: renjun is the softest and i love him so much and his love for art is so endearing. ft. a few awkward 00 liners.

- destinee

-

Renjun sat in the back of class, his notebook open. However, instead of taking notes, he was busy sketching his favorite OC.

Today he made his unnamed OC into a pirate, complete with a sword and a bandana keeping their curly hair back.

Jeno leaned to the side and watched his lab partner draw for a moment. “Why does your pirate have pink hair?”

Renjun shrugged and whispered back, “I felt like it.”

“It’s cute,” Jeno commented, staring at the drawing. “But isn’t that the same character you draw all the time?”

“So?” Renjun asked defensively. “Why can’t I draw my favorite character?”

“Don’t favorite characters have names and personalities?” Jeno asked, this time simply out of curiosity. “I find it strange that you haven’t made a personality or a name for this character.”

“It doesn’t need one,” Renjun said, quietly ending the conversation by going back to shadowing in his colored pirate ship.

-

The next day, Renjun sat at his desk with Jeno again, this time drawing a portrait.

He was so inthralled in the individual strands of ebony hair on his OC’s head that he barely heard the teacher announce that a new transfer student had arrived. He certainly hadn’t heard their name.

But when he looked up, just to see why a new voice had followed his teacher’s, his breath caught in his throat.

You smiled from the front of the classroom and bowed, “Hello, I’m Y/n Y/l/n.”

Everyone spoke back the default greeting, but it was Renjun who couldn’t open his mouth to speak. It was as if his mouth was filled with sawdust and his head was filled with lead. He dared to look at Jeno, but the younger boy perhaps didn’t notice what was right in front of him.

You looked just like Renjun’s OC drawings. Aside from the colored hair, and the fact that you obviously weren’t a pirate, or a conductor, or a circus trainer like some of the sketches Renjun had drawn. Renjun looked down at the historical-esque portrait he was drawing of his OC. Only it didn’t looked like his OC; it looked like you.

When you began to walk down the aisle to your desk, which was conveniently right across from his, Renjun hastily shoved his notebook in his bag, feeling his cheeks heat up.

He chewed on his eraser as the teacher talked, wondering if he should tell Jeno. Wouldn’t that be a weird thing to bring up?

Maybe he would wait until he got to the dorm, where he could ask Sicheng about it.

That seemed like the safest option, and the one where he was least likely to get ridiculed, so he set his mind on that option.

He just couldn’t help but look at you from time to time, however. Just how had he managed to draw you so perfectly detailed? You even had the same mole on your neck that his OC always had.

Renjun felt goosebumps on the back of his neck. It was a bit creepy. How could he bare to look at you knowing he had literally hundreds of drawing, doodles, and paintings of you in his room?

So he ignored you when you caught his eye and gave him a friendly smile. He turned away, seemingly disinterested.

You kept on watching him, a bit confused as to why he gave you the cold shoulder.

-

“Are you serious?” Sicheng asked. He placed a cup of tea in front of Renjun before sipping some tea from his own cup and sitting down.

Renjun nodded, hugging a throw pillow and staring at the tea sitting on the coffee table. “I feel like a creep.”

“How can you be a creep?” Sicheng asked. “She just transferred to your school.”

“From another school only an hour from here,” Renjun replied. “What if I saw her before and subconsciously turned her into my OC? What if I’m that guy.”

Sicheng laughed and shook his head, “Somehow, I don’t think your that guy, as you say. Maybe you two are soulmates.”

“Soulmates?” Renjun choked on his own spit at the sound of such a grown-up word. He was only a junior in high school for crying out loud. He took a sip of tea to stop the choking, and ended up with a slightly burnt tongue thanks to his inability to sip slowly. “W-Why would we be soulmates?”

Sicheng shrugged, “It’s inevitable to get the soulmate link sometime in your life. Maybe this is it.”

Renjun shook his head in disbelief, eyeing the tattoo on Sicheng’s neck. “Why wouldn’t I get a tattoo like you? Or a timer like Kun hyung?”

“Maybe it’s rare,” Sicheng answered. “Look, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Why don’t you go wash up and head to bed.”

Renjun swallowed nervously and nodded, obeying the older boy’s words. “Okay. Thanks.”

“Anytime.”

-

Renjun had a hard time sleeping that night. After tossing and turning for the umpteenth time, he finally huffed and kicked his covers off of his warm body. He grabbed his phone off of his nightstand and quickly logged onto the internet, searching all the known forums for soulmate links.

There it was: link-type 93. He clicked on the link presented and scrolled down, reading as he went.

An artist’s link is one of the only known links that works on only one side of the pair. The chosen side will draw the unchosen side as their muse, the urge to see them so strong that their artistic abilities will push forth and allow their subconscious to see their soulmate, whether their physical eyes have or not. When the chosen side witnesses the unchosen side for the first time, they will know their soulmate.

Renjun let out a sigh. Of relief or frustration, he did not know. All he could figure out was that he was the chosen side, and you had no way of knowing the two of you were soulmates unless he told you himself.

Which he vowed to never do until the two of you were older.

-

Even near the end of the school year, Renjun had kept his promise to himself. He hadn’t told you.

He felt too young to have a soulmate, and too young to be thinking about soulmates. Plus, he would’ve really liked to get your opinion on the whole situation. Except he couldn’t without telling you the truth.

All of his friends knew by now, and they loved to tease Renjun by calling you OC around him.

You eventually caught wind of the nickname, and one day dared to ask your lab partner, Jaemin, what it meant.

Jaemin stared at you for a long time, his mind reeling a million miles a minute to come up with anything that could keep you off Renjun’s scent. “It means obnoxious collarbones.”

You looked down at your shirt that did, in fact, show a hint of your collarbones. You frowned thoughtfully, “Obnoxious? I thought they were always kind of nice.”

Jaemin stood up nervously, “Ha ha, yeah, I guess me and my friends don’t think so. Well, gotta blast!”

“Wait—” you ran after him, confused, only to bump into the only other person left in the room.

“Sorry!” You said, bending down to pick up their things. You grabbed a sketchbook that was conveniently open, and stole a glance at the drawings inside. With a gasp and a quick look at whom the sketchbook belonged to, you continued to look through the book.

You had never talked to Renjun, save to ask about notes or to borrow a pencil. That was why you were so utterly surprised to see that every single drawing in his notebook was of you.

“It’s not what you think!” Renjun said hastily after he saw what you were doing. He ripped the sketchbook from your grasp. “We’re soulmates!”

If you thought he was creepy before, now he was just delusional. Everyone knew that soulmate links worked both ways. You would have known if he was your soulmate. You would have known as soon as you saw the boy earlier that same school year.

As if he could read your mind, the handsome boy kept talking, “Look, I thought it was weird too. You look like every one of my drawings. Sicheng told me it may have something to do with the soulmate link, so I looked it up. It did.”

You weren’t sure if you should believe him or not. On one hand, he had never done anything creepy or strange before. In fact, he was very generous and helpful in every class you two shared.

On the other hand, you had never heard of a soulmate who couldn’t feel their soulmate link.

Renjun pulled out his phone and handed it to you after clicking a few things.

You saw a screenshot taken from online, describing the artist’s soulmate link. You gulped. “So is that why you have so many weird drawings of me?”

Renjun smiled apologetically. “I didn’t want you to know until we were older. That way I could get to know you for you and you could get to know me for me. But I guess the cat is out of the bag now.”

You sat back, unable to stand up, let alone comprehend what was going on. “Let me get this straight: you’ve been drawing pictures of me before you even knew me?”

“Yeah,” Renjun answered. He flipped to a page in his sketchbook and showed you a drawing, clearly dated sometime two years ago. “I’m not creepy, I swear.”

You breathed out a small sigh. “Okay. It’s not the ideal soulmate link every girl dreams of, but it’s not that bad.”

“You mean it?” Renjun asked, offering you a hesitant smile.

“I do,” you answered. “I supposed we should go on a date or something now, since we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together.”

Renjun smiled and threw his backpack onto his shoulder before offering you a hand. As he pulled you up, he spoke, “There’s this photo gallery downtown that just opened. Should we go after school?”

“Okay,” you agreed.

The two of you walked out of the classroom, shoulders occasionally brushing. Every once in awhile you would look at Renjun, only to see him already staring at you. Then the two of you would look away with soft blushes on your cheeks as you realized you had been caught.

“By the way,” you brought up, “Does OC really mean obnoxious collarbones?”

“What?” Renjun laughed. “No! OC means original character. You were my OC, and that’s why the boys called you that. They were teasing me.”

“Oh,” you smiled and looked at the ground. “So, are there any other drawings of me?”

“Tons,” Renjun answered. “I’ll show them to you one day, if you want.”

You smiled at your new-found soulmate, only to see him already grinning fondly at you. “I’d like that.”

~the end~

[connecticut-seo-adwords]

6 CRO and SEO Lessons from Top Speakers at MozCon and Conversion Jam

I just got back from speaking at MozCon the top SEO conference in the US and ConversionJam, the largest CRO conference in the world, and wow did I learn a lot. Both MozCon and ConversionJam were jam packed with inspiring speakers, extremely interesting sessions, actionable content and powerful takeaways I just couldn’t let fly by without sharing them with you guys. Below is a summary of some my favorite sessions, the top CRO and SEO lessons that included powerful tips and resources about conversion optimization, UX and SEO.

Link Building’s Tipping Point / by Rand Fishkin

It comes as no surprise that Rand’s session was a great one. As someone who isn’t a full time SEO peep, I found his tips to be incredibly helpful, actionable, simple to execute for and very profound. Rand gave us a deeper look at the link building world, rather than thinking of it as tactics, he introduced 5 long-term link strategies that work for the most successful companies in the world. In fact, Rand says these strategies are adopted by the vast majority of companies in the world and those using them correctly see great results. These are the strategies he mentioned that gave me some amazing ideas for my own site and for Banana Splash’s strategy:

The community path

The press and media path

The embed path

The partnership/alliance path

The content marketing path

Rand went on to sharing his top 10 hacks for link building, and as he should, made a point of reminding us that the best way to utilize these hacks is by connecting them to larger strategy. There are my favorite hacks that he shared:

Republishing Content – One of the most used tactics for promoting content and getting links is republishing content on platforms such as Medium and Linkedin. The key to success here, isn’t simply copying and pasting your content on these platforms (which is what most marketers do) but re-writing or editing the article and only then publishing it on these platforms.  

Anchor Text in Bio Links – Use anchor text links in your bio to promote certain links. Anchor links still work really well for rankings as Rand showed us how he promoted his wife’s blog in his own bio and got ranked for new search terms.

Using Local Links– This is an awesome way to find new sites you want to get a link at according to location. First find your two most popular competitors in your region, then combine their names with your region as a search query and discover new relevant websites that could recommend you too.

Giving Testimonials & Case studies – another awesome way to get links is with testimonials and case studies. Usually we just ask our partners and clients to write something for our site, however, by writing a testimonial, review or case study for their site, you get a direct link to yours.

Get the full slides and examples here.

29 Advanced Google Tag Manager Tips Every Marketer Should Know / by Mike Arnesen

In probably the most actionable session I’ve seen in ages, Mike Arnesen blew us away with some amazing tips about Google Tag Manager. Mike basically covered 29 ways we can up level our GTM usage, track better and become smarter marketers. Some of my favorite tips included:

Mike started off by helping us make sure that GTM is present on all the most important pages of our site. To do so he used ScreamingFrog which is a great tool all marketers should check out.

One of my personal favorite tips he shared (#3) was a way to track the most valuable clicks on our site (the ones we care about) without involving a development team/person. This to me is one of the most important tips as there is nothing more frustrating than waiting on someone else such a developer to get things done. It’s frustrating and makes it even harder to launch tests which is why we built Banana Splash the way we did – designers and developers free.

Mike went on to show us how to track file downloads, outbound clicks, merge GA and CRM data and most importantly how to configure cross-domain & subdomain tracking all in one session!  Check out Mike’s incredible list of tips, links, screenshots, videos and tutorials here.

How to Be Specific: From-The-Trenches Lessons in High-Converting Copy / by Joanna Wiebe

Another great session that came as no surprise was by Joanna Wiebe of CopyHackers. In her session Joanna gave us some great actionable tips on how to grab our customer’s attention in email marketing and get them to perform an action rather than closing our email and never opening it again.

The first rule is simple yet extremely important – Make it obviously about me. This is also one of the main pillars of the emotional targeting and persuasive design course and probably why I connect with it so well. It’s easier to pay attention when it’s obviously about me. Walking us through an entire case study with Wistia, Joanna showed us how they optimized Wisita’s email campaigns for higher conversions by feeding their customer’s ego, connecting the email to their life, empowering the customer and using a call to action button in first person.

The second rule was “connect the dots for “ME” and tell ME exactly what and HOW to do it”.

The third rule focused on it being easier to pay attention to what customers can visualize. This is where Joanna made it clear for all those who doubt – people read copy whether long or short if it helps them. If it doesn’t they won’t even read your short copy.

Get the full presentation to see the play-by-play of how Wistia increased their conversion rates here.

The Secrets of how Amazon Crushes the Competition / by Bryan Eisenberg

While most people analyze the tactics Amazon uses to increase their sales, Bryan who did the opening keynote for Conversion Jam focused on the strategies Amazon uses and how all marketers can and should use them. My favorite tips and strategies include:

Obsess about customers – Apparently, everyone at Amazon has to spend 2 days a year working with the customer success team answering emails, phone calls and helping customers out. This is one of the ways Amazon ensures that everyone within the company talks to customers and optimizes their specific work according to their needs and feedback. Whether you’re in marketing or maintenance, talking to customers matters.

Continuous optimization – every year Amazon runs over 1,900 experiments. They don’t test variations for the sake of testing, instead they test big ideas addressing the little things that change processes within the company, for example “the ready to buy area”. The key to testing at Amazon is that they don’t just test for design, they test to change their business. Each test tells them more about their customers and helps them optimize their tactical operations such as shipping, packaging and much more.

Culture of innovation – Amazon spend a LOT on research, investing in new categories and ideas. As my favorite saying goes, Conversion optimization is not about your website, it’s about every part of the experience – finance, returns, customer success and more. Everything needs to be optimized in the company, from the cleaning process to marketing and robots that deliver the products. It’s all about customer experience and Amazon is nailing it.

Top 7 ways to sabotage your Google Analytics data / by Annie Cushing

Annie gave us the ins and outs of Google Analytics. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen her on stage and I absolutely love how nerdy she gets about data. She LOVES it and has a great way of teaching marketers on all levels how to take their GA skills to the next level. My favorite tips from this session include:

You know that annoying feeling you get when you check Google Analytics for traffic sources and just just “direct” or “other”? Well there’s a quick fix to reducing the amount in these channels by tagging all links you publish on social sites and email with campaign tags. It’s an awesome and simple solution that will prevent email traffic for example from showing up as direct traffic without these tags.

Another great tip for the channels issue and for finding misstagged campaigns is checking your (Other) channel in the Channels report by switching primary dimension to medium.

A last great tip from Annie that is true not only for Google Analytics data is simple: Don’t send your visitors away to do what you want them to do most (check out, sign up for an event, book a hotel, etc.). They take their most critical data with them!

Annie has a huge amount of , online courses and templates for rocking Google Analytics. Be sure to check them out.

One Click & Nothing to Purchase; Redefining News Media CRO / by Unn Swanström

Watching Unn on stage was a lot of fun. As a UX designer, she shared her experience working for some major publishers in Sweden and gave us a look into what she’s been testing to optimize content sites and blogs. Her most relevant tips discussed metrics you should follow and behavior to look out for:

How to give relevant recommendations:  It’s about understanding who your reader is and how you can create a better experience for them with relevant recommendations. To do that, Unn suggests to look at your data and start asking your customers questions that will start identify different segments and categories of readers that use your service in similar ways. Once you know what they’re doing and reading on your site, you can highlight those behaviors and encourage them even more.

Check: Are visitors really reading? Another important aspect for content sites and blogs is understanding not just what people are reading but how far they scroll, the time the spend on the site and how fast or slow they scroll. Don’t just look at one metric (time on site), get the whole picture of how people read and then optimize those sections in need.

Retention – The key to a better reading experience is giving readers a good experience in and to do that you have to combine the two most important parts of research: Quantitative data and qualitative data.

So, those were my top CRO and SEO lessons from these great conference I’ve spoken at. The last session I’ll share with you is my own.

The Mobile CRO Equation – How to turn more mobile visitors into customers

During this session I dug into the importance of understanding that mobile visitors are not mini desktop visitors. Because most marketers design for desktop and adapt to mobile, there’s a 270% gap in conversions. Which is why we have to start optimizing for a dedicated mobile experience.

My main points covered the psychological and behavioral differences between someone on their phone and someone on desktop, why we must create a personalized experience for mobile visitors and how to do so with the mobile web equation:

Mapping out the 4 most critical stages of a mobile journey, I showed how to address key pain points within your mobile funnel and how to optimize for them.

My next stop is at Google’s LCS Conversions event where I’ll be meeting the talented web psychologist Nathalie Nahai and the brilliant optimizer Craig Sullivan for 2 full days of mobile web and cross device optimization.

Stay tuned for some additional tips and sessions from my next conferences.

comments

Source

https://getuplift.co/6-cro-and-seo-lessons-from-top-speakers-at-mozcon-and-conversion-jam/

[ellibeans-blog]

Change of Heart, Chapter 4

The newest update to my Aleks/Reader fic, Change of Heart.

Chapters-- Wattpad: 1, 2, 3 Ao3: 1, 2, 3

There's a part of you that wishes you had more confidence.

It's been a couple of hours since you'd left the con, you and your friends had spent the evening out to dinner before heading back to the hotel. Now, you sit by yourself, staring at your hand, where Aleks' half faded number is still written. You had accidentally almost washed it all off at the restaurant. You were thankful that you hadn't, but now you had no excuse as to why you wouldn't be able to text him like he'd asked. You sigh, flopping back onto the hotel bed and staring at the ceiling for a good five minutes before you decide to move.

Soon, you're laying up toward the pillows, phone in hand while the TV is turned on with the volume lowered. You've entered Aleks' number, but you find yourself staring at the blank message box, unsure of what to even type. You spend god knows how long overthinking what to say, and how to say it, before settling on a simple text:

    -->Hey, its (Y/N). This is Aleks, right?

There is no immediate response, but you understand that. He's probably doing something; con weekends are always both busy and exhausting. You drop your phone beside you and reach for the remote on the bedside table. Before you pick it up, you're startled by the ding! that comes from your phone. You ignore it in favor of grabbing the remote, and flipping through a few of the channels that the hotel offers. When you finally settle on something that you're interested in, your phone dings a few more times. Wondering if it's either of your friends, you pick your phone back up, surprised to see that all of the texts are from Aleks.

    -->Hey (Y/N)     -->Yeah it's me     -->I wanted to apologize for acting shitty earlier, so I'm sorry     -->Sometimes when I don't understand shit I get defensive

You read and re-read the messages. It isn't necessarily the long apology you had thought it would be, but as short as he's being with it, he seems sincere. You think back to your small argument and cringe just a little. You probably could have acted a little nicer yourself. You ended up coming off a lot meaner than you would have liked.

    -->It's okay     -->I was the one acting shitty     -->I know I said this already but you helped me out and I wasn't exactly grateful to you for that. I really do appreciate what you did, you could've let that guy get away with my stuff.

He takes hardly a second to text back this time, and you feel an odd sense of satisfaction that he's not making you wait.

    -->I guess I could've, but I would've felt like an asshole     -->Idk who'd just stand by and let that shit happen

Your apologies are... Sort of out of the way, so you change the topic after a few more minutes of back and forth. Something you''ve been wondering ever since he'd texted back with so many messages all at once.

    -->You guys aren't busy or anything? You're texting back pretty fast. I know you guys probably have a packed schedule

    -->Brett said it earlier, we're just working on some stuff and chilling here     -->We get a little break on con weekends since we're filming here and not really worrying about other shit     -->Why? Are you busy?

You snort, turning onto your side while you shake your head at the thought. You have some work to catch up on for your channel, but after today, you just aren't feeling it. He's right about having a break during the weekend. You're no team or part of any company like Cow Chop is, but when your fans know you'll be attending a con, they're already expecting your content to take a little longer. It's a given, you're only one person. You can't handle everything yourself in one day, not when you deserve to have a little fun doing your own thing at the con.

    -->I probably should be, but I'm really exhausted after earlier

    -->Too exhausted to go out?

That confuses you, and your brow narrows as you read this text. You can't imagine where he's going with this, but you can almost feel yourself sink into the comfort of the warm, albeit stiff, hotel bed. You already know the answer to his question, and your fingers are tapping away at your screen the minute you read it.

    -->Probably. I don't know if I have it in me to do anything until tomorrow.     -->You trying to invite me out or something?

    -->Kinda

You bat your lashes at this text. You don't answer him right away, instead screenshotting the chat and sending the photo to one of your friends. You don't get a response from her either, that is, not until she's knocking at your door. You sigh, not wanting to get up but knowing she doesn't have a keycard to your room. You slink out of bed, leaving your phone on the bed as you head over to the door and open it up for her. She nearly tackles you when she enters.

"Oh. My. God. (Y/N). Did you reply to him?" "No. I don't know what to say." "You don't know what to say?! You say yes, is what you say, dude!" "But I'm tired!"

You whine your complaint to your friend, and she only responds by grabbing your shoulders. She even shakes you a little. "(Y/N)! Aleks Marchant himself said he wanted to invite you out! Isn't this like, your dream? I swear, the best things happen to you at the most inconvenient times, but I'm not letting you miss this opportunity. You're going."

You gently push her away from you. "But (F/N), I really am tired, I don't know if I want to go anywh--"

"Then ask him to come here!"

"What, to the hotel? By ourselves?" You question, looking at her a little incredulously. She can't be serious... But, the look on her face tells you that she really is. She wants you to spend time with Aleks, and you feel yourself relenting as she nearly begs you with just her eyes.

"Fine, I-- I guess I'll see if he wants to come over."

She does a celebratory fist pump as you head back to your bed, where a few more texts from Aleks sit in your notifications.

    -->That's not weird is it?     -->I know we kinda fought earlier and I get if you don't want to go out but tbh I was really hoping to talk to you     -->You seem cool and I really do like your shit on YT, I wasn't lying or anything     -->(Y/N)?

    -->Hey. Sorry, (F/N) came into my room and I was talking to her     -->I'm really not feeling like going out, but would you maybe wanna come to my hotel room? We can hang out here     -->That's probably a weirder offer than just going out

    -->No, that's not weird     -->I'd love to     -->You don't care if it's just me though?

    -->No, unless it makes you uncomfortable I don't really care

    -->Oh, ok     -->Where am I headed?

You text him the address of the hotel after googling it, and give him your room number. Afterward, you show your friend your phone screen. She seems giddy, but just to be sure, you ask, "Are you happy now?"

"Yes! This is so fucking cool, you don't even know." "It feels weird. I've thought about this type of thing before but now that it's actually happening I don't know what to think." "Just be cool. I'll leave you alone if you want." "I guess that'd be best? You can stay if you want." "No, I have to get back to (F/N) anyway. Maybe next time you can tell Aleks to bring James."

She laughs when she says this, half joking and half not. But, she heads to your door and, as promised, leaves you alone with a wink and wish of good luck. You're not sure how long it'll take Aleks to get here, but when he sends you a text that simply says 'omw', you decide to clean yourself up a little...

Not that you cared what you looked like in front of him. It's only so you don't look as worn out as you feel. Definitely not because you want to look nice for him. Definitely not because you feel giddy as the minutes pass and you wash your face at the bathroom sink.

Not because of any of that.

[kodedgeekthings]

yes. Just yes

humble contribution