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ddaenghoney · 4 years ago

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chapter nine

masterlist link in blog description.

As a successful songwriter, you want nothing more than the acknowledgment that the chart-topping musical pieces are your own creations. But contracts, relationships, and the difficulty of facing the stakes involved head on, keep your mouth shut until pressure builds too much.

Pairing(s): Park Jimin x Y/N, Min Yoongi x Y/N

disclaimer: any characters depicted do not represent the actual personality of the respected idol in real life.

Series warning(s)/genre(s): Chapter-based written fic, Slow-burn relationship(s), Fake-dating, Unrequited love, Songwriter/producer!oc, idol!Jimin, idol/songwriter/producer!Yoongi, friends with benefits, drama, romance, smut, angst, fluff (updated as needed)

Chapter warning(s): none, yoongi is just so sweet.

Word count: 5008

if you enjoy please, please let me know!

Yoongi uses his left hand to type into the keypad of his apartment, digits beeping while you stare down at the base of the door. His other appendage remains gripping onto yours, a silent comfort that you didn’t stop appreciating from the second he led you from the party. Your cheeks are stained with the treks of tears that ceased dripping only minutes before arrival, trying to will yourself to calm down because you already had to bother Yoongi with going back to his place to retrieve your clothing from the daytime.

The lightning flashes through his windows when you both step in, causing Yoongi to glance at it, frowning at the sight of never-ending rain. It trails from the sky to the ground in a violent barrage that grew with strength along the way home. By morning the forecast is supposed to be clear like it had been all day, so opposite of the way it is currently that Yoongi never anticipated rain to begin with. Explaining the dampness of your outfits from the short walk inside, and the way his heavier honey locks cover more of his forehead.

You finally release his hand to hurry and find your clothing, along with typing in for a new taxi to come and take you home once you do. Your hip bumps into the corner of a coffee table in the travel to his room, making you freeze to make sure the lamp stays steady. Yoongi comes shortly after, watching you step back from the furniture with a sigh,

“I’m sorry, I’m acting like such an idiot-”

“You’re not.” His head shakes, eyebrows creasing to try and assure you that he’s not bothered. “You are a little bit tipsy though.” He acknowledges in a polite observation, more to lead into his next point, “I’m sort of worried about you going home like this.” You now shake your head quickly, trying to convince him otherwise,

“I’ve gone home worse-- I mean, think about that night where everything got fucked up at Joon’s bar after the club party--” You huff, rubbing your face with an irritated tremble that contrasts a short spout of spiteful laughter. “I was stupid that night too. It’s a theme-”

“Y/N,” Your hands lower as Yoongi calls your name with conviction having stepped towards you, he leans slightly so that he’s at eye-level. You notice the stubborn sincerity of his eyes underneath little locks of hair stuck to his face from the rain. “You’re not stupid. You don’t need to feel bad about all of this and keep putting yourself down.”

“I am stupid.” You instantly say again, eyes narrowing at him trying to defend you from your own words. The idea of you being anything other than idiotic for all the things you’ve gotten yourself into feels far removed. You thought you were a genius signing that contract and ruining everything around you in the present by doing so. “All of this is my fault.”

“What is?” Yoongi asked in complete confusion, disbelief. Not believing you at all. It angers you in the oddest way that he’s so convicted against your thoughts. With everyone else at the company likely thinking of you as the biggest fool for the decision of giving away all of your credit-- everyone including Jimin thinking you don’t deserve credit for your work after you signed your name, how could Yoongi think any different. He’s been in the business around the same amount of time as you, and succeeding in an entirely different light. Everyone knows whom Yoongi is. He has not allowed an opportunity for his name to be erased from whatever he’s participated in. He leaves his mark beside every song title produced, featuring, and involved with at all. You doubt he’d even give a moment of consideration to let anyone overlook his hard work. He stands up for himself, and you let yourself get walked over for a short-term prize.

“Everything!” You practically yell out in frustration, surprising Yoongi only enough for his eyebrows to raise though he remains the same pace from you as before. His lips part to combat your words, you know he’s going to tell you that it isn’t true, but you don’t believe him, you can’t believe him at this point so the words rush from your own mouth as your body trembles from the frustration of each word.

“I was a stupid college kid who thought it’d be so great if SoundWave took even one of my songs after I submitted five for their dumb competition. I’d get like one hundred bucks, I thought. That sounded great then, a few things could get paid for-- so when they call back that they’d use them all, I thought it was the lottery. They offered me a contract and I thought that everything was too good to be true, but I let myself be ridiculous and fall for the chance of a lifetime bullshit.”

Your breathing heaves your chest forward and back with the air, watching as Yoongi’s expression shifts from confusion to sympathy. His shoulders appear tensed from frustration but only after mention of a contract, and for that split second you think maybe he gets why you’re so angry with yourself. You don’t know why you want him to be angry too, but it feels deserving. After all of your complaining for your name to be heard, why should you when you fell right into the luster of money.

“I didn’t even bat an eyelash when they started telling me about not being given credit for anything. I just heard them say their idols would use my music,” Your eyelids blink as tears blur your vision, releasing fresh ones onto your cheeks, followed by new streams when Yoongi frowns in response to your words. You don’t understand why he does, everyone else knows you deserve this, so why does he look at you like he wants to help you escape all of the sadness you feel. “I just thought it’d be okay for then-- I mean, I don’t even have college debt.” The single chuckle chokes in your threat, as you reach to rub your eyes free of the salty liquid escaping again. “I should be grateful for it all, and I’m here trying to be selfish instead.”

Whimpers leave your lips when you try to hold back anymore tears, frustrating yourself that you’re unable to stop. Unable to stop crying, unable to get over any of this like you should. You’ve had enough time to cry, you shouldn’t dwell like there is an opportunity to change that doesn’t cost the entirety of your career or reputation in the music industry. You’re trapped, that’s it. You should be used to it.

“I,” You wipe continuously at your eyes as the tears keep spilling, unable to see any of Yoongi’s reactions anymore, but you can’t imagine you look anything respectable as you are. “I just want to stop being invisible to everyone, I didn’t think that’s such a bad thing, but it’ll ruin everything for everyone.” Your voice empties your small wish at the core of all of your anguish as a series of cracked words and trembling voice. “It’s my fault it’s like this, it’s my fault.”

As your voice trails you give up, allowing the flood of tears to continue while you find yourself unable to think of anything else. All there is to conclude is that the state of your career and your relationship with Jimin were fixable with the slightest foresight. You should have known better-

Within a second the cry hitched in your chest escapes at the contact of your face flat against Yoongi’s chest. You don’t consider stopping him as his arms continue to wrap around you in an embrace. Comforting you. Gently, barely his hands on your upper back soothe little ways up and down, trying to rub away the tremble of your spine at every whimper that leaves with your tears. You shift only so that your hands can leave your face to grip wrinkles onto the front of his shirt, but he’s unbothered. Simply continuing in soothing your cries as they continue to muffle against his top, effectively staining the white fabric with any of your makeup.

“You may not believe me, but I don’t think any of this is your fault.” His voice feels like an extended hand searching for you. Trying to help you out of the rut you feel glued to, lost in. So sure that he’s wrong, your head tries to shake though your throat croaks before you can say something against it. “SoundWave took advantage of your situation, Y/N. You shouldn’t blame yourself like this.”

Yoongi holds you against him, the tiniest of sways occurring as another attempt to help you calm down after the release of so much torment. He recalls Hoseok calling him the year prior to tell him that he doesn’t think he’ll get help from their old company in the early stages of his scandal. Where they were supposed to protect Hoseok they let him fall, and where SoundWave shouldn’t have baited a young student by means of financial security they signed you into a trap. If anyone should be blamed it’s the companies for their manipulation. The two of you shouldn’t be blaming yourself for the problems you face when they aren’t your faults to begin with.

“Jimin,” Your voice croaks, and you pause to try and blink back the tears in your eyes as far as possible, but it’s useless. “Said that I’d ruin all of their careers if I try and change anything-- I can’t do anything and hurt them all-- hurt him.” A fist on Yoongi’s shirt grows tighter, clumping it into a wrinkled ball and tugging it free of where it’d been tucked into his slacks, but you’re unaware. Too wrapped in the clutter of your mind that wants you to still stand up for yourself, but feels entirely overpowered by the idea of bringing trouble to so many people you know. “I love him and he said he loves me too, but he can’t be with me like this--”

The memory affects you, silencing your voice from continuing while it plays over in your head. Jimin was so close, your relationship with him always on the line of being realized, only to find out that your worst fear of it all is the truth. You let slide his constant stream of shrugging off your desire to go against the company continuing to erase your name, forcing yourself to believe that you overthink his obstinance, or attributing him not realizing how strongly you felt about the issue. But it’s just that, and to the most extreme form where the choice of not helping you is more desirable to him than being with you.

Yoongi understands pieces of this from your short flurry of statements. His jaw tightens when he considers how painful it undoubtedly is to have Jimin, who you love, pick something else over you, especially given that he even told you that he loves you in return. Yoongi’s hands feel the breaths that rumble in you, escaping against his shirt as small cries, and it’s difficult to witness, knowing that there’s nothing he can do for you other than let it flow while he holds you. Only able to offer you the security of solidarity, when a piece of him wants to tell Jimin off for stringing you along to this state for at least as long as Yoongi’s been a part of the company.

“If I was anything like you I wouldn’t be stuck like this.”

Yoongi’s irritation at the decision Jimin made drifts from his expression as you speak your last sentence, slightly stumbling his thoughts in the implication of you thinking himself to be something greater than you are, at least in the way of his decisions thus far. He shakes his head though you’re unable to see, rambling quickly, “No, I’ve made my own share of shitty decisions, Y/N.” He bites his lip, contemplating them shortly, but decides it’s not worth getting into a conversation of leveling your perspective of him in that moment. “And like I said, this isn’t your fault to begin with-- here, come on, I’ll run a shower for you-”

“Yoongi,” You bring your head away from his chest, shifting only slightly back so that his arms release you enough to put air between your bodies. “I’m not going to annoy you by using your shower-- I cause you enough trouble…” Your words fade off as he all the sudden chuckles down at you, smirk framing the sound of his laughter like you were saying something incredulous,

“Look, friend of mine, it’s what friends do.” You catch the way Yoongi stresses the role of friendship, not in a way that separates you both with a line, but rather as a means to express to you that he’s sincere in wanting to help you, just in the same way that you care about not overexerting his kindness. “Besides it’s not trouble. It’d make me feel better knowing you’re not risking getting sick standing here wet like this-- your dress is beautiful, but it’s not doing much to preserve heat on your shoulders and neck.” You bite your lip as his bordering teasing tone, but the sound of it relaxes you. Makes you feel safe and indeed like this isn’t an obligation for Yoongi. He just wants to.

In that moment you realize the grip of his shirt still well within the confines of your hands and quickly release it so that it flutters back down, while your lips tighten into an embarrassed line at the fact you’d been clinging onto him so harshly. It’s then that Yoongi’s arms also fall from where he’d stayed holding you, one hand straying to brush back his dampened bangs from his forehead. With a new gentle way of selling his idea, that is mentally fueled still by the worry of sending you slightly buzzed and alone back to your apartment where you have no one to comfort you, Yoongi tries in a small voice, “The shampoo and conditioner smell like daisies…”

You nearly snort at the innocent plead, covering your mouth with your hand to stop you from laughing. He smiles a little at the breakthrough, but stays quiet while you contemplate for a moment. Eventually your head nods once, letting yourself try to relax into the prospect. “Okay… Daisies sounds nice.”

You wander back into the living area after the refreshing feeling of shower water washing away some of the thoughts, if only to give yourself a break. The plush, dampened towel is a bundle in your arms, glancing around the room to find it absent of Yoongi who said he’d also shower. You nibble on your lip, not hearing the sound of shower water coming from anywhere, and you step forward more until you’re able to glance into the kitchen.

“Oh, you’re out?” He asks from a bar stool where he appears to have been fiddling with his phone with a bowl in front of him, contents out of your sight. You nod, noticing the same brand name on the chest of his long sleeve that’s present centrally in the sweatshirt he loaned to you after insisting that your top from earlier that day wasn’t going to keep you warm. “Ah, you didn’t need to gather the towel,” He says getting up to move towards you, hair now soft and fluffy after being cleanly washed and dried. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, and thanks for letting me take a shower. I feel a bit better after it.” You tell him meekly as you hand over the towel, catching Yoongi’s lips curl upwards as he appears relieved by your words. “More sober too.” Small joke as you rub your neck, happy its effect goes over well as he nods chuckling. “I’ll call a taxi, I can wait on the ground floor-”

“It’s,” He all the sudden frowns, genuine fret appearing on his features that grows as he averts his eyes back to the rain that falls from the sky. “Still pouring really hard outside, Y/N. And it’s almost two in the morning. Why don’t you just crash here until the morning? You can use my guest bedroom.”

You bite your lip, not uncomfortable with the idea, but more so still thinking yourself to be using him a little too much. But as lightning floods the sky with light followed by a loud rumble, you grip onto the sleeves that overtake your hands, shoulders shifting as the option weighs, “It’s not a hassle for you is it?”

“Are you kidding?” Despite the depth of his voice, Yoongi sounds bright. Happy you’re agreeing like it’s a weight off of him to know you won’t be alone. “That bedroom could use someone using it for once.” He smiles, finally beginning to walk off with the laundry in his arms, “I’m going to put this in the hamper.”

You nod as he exits from the kitchen and then remain in the space, having no opportunity earlier to view it properly. Not that you needed a tour of his apartment, but you find it interesting to see how the abode actively appears like Yoongi lives there. From the monochromatic decor that is consistent throughout each room you’ve seen, you’re still able to find the touches of him that don’t necessarily follow a theme. Like the sparse grouping of pictures attached to the refrigerator by means of cute dog shaped magnets, and the kitchen towel hanging off the oven that appears to have a large rose pattern printed onto it though it’s obstructed from being fully seen because of how it’s folded.

You walk to the refrigerator, sparing a glance towards his scribbled grocery list, and instead glances at the biggest of the pictures that you saw from the distance and recognize now that it’s of him and Hoseok. By the looks of their clothing--Hoseok’s in particular that appeared in one of his first music videos, you’re led to assume it was taken behind the scenes of the day it was shot. Taken during movement, they’re both a little blurry but equally ecstatic about something-- overcome with large grins and not even paying attention to the camera to begin with. The sight of it makes you smile softly finding their slightly younger-selves endearing, and thinking it’s nice that they appear to still have a solid friendship.

“We took that when he was working on Just Dance.” You don’t startle when Yoongi comments, having heard his slippers skid on his tile with his steps to return to the kitchen. Instead you hum, then take a moment to quickly take in the remaining few pictures; more of him and Hoseok along with another celebrity whose name left your mind, one of him and his family, then a picture of him looking not too much younger lay out on plush grass with a tiny fluffy, brown dog on his chest.

“Your pictures are all cute.” You comment gently as you turn to face Yoongi, finding him off to the side and reaching up into cabinets. “I didn’t realize you and Hoseok were such good friends.” Yoongi nods, walking towards you to hand you the two bowls he’s brought out, before opening up the freezer,

“Yeah, we were trainees together. Actually we almost were put into a group, but then at the last second they made us soloists.” He pauses, squinting a little like he’s in thought, and for a second you think it’s about what he’s said, but then Yoongi turns his head towards you. “You like vanilla or strawberry ice cream?”

“Ice cream?” You repeat watching as he removes two containers of the sweet desserts, making you giggle softly. “Vanilla.”

“Good choice,” He sets the strawberry one back in, then shuts the refrigerator as you take the hint and move to the counter to help him scoop some out. “Hoseok likes strawberry,” Yoongi begins after placing the ice cream next to the bowls and scurrying to find utensils. “Which, it’s fine,” He says in a somewhat sarcastic manner and with a shrug that makes you laugh softly while he continues along. “But vanilla is the most popular for a reason.” You nod at the definitive, passionate way Yoongi speaks about ice cream flavors. Your smile completely humored as he returns and begins scooping you both hefty amounts, “But Hoseok does something that is worth a bit of praise.” He admits with concentratedly pouting lips while trying to get the last scoop to properly fall into a bowl.

“Oh yeah?” You play along, taking the vanilla ice cream container from him as he finishes so you can put it back in the freezer. Yoongi nods, hand grappling around the base of the bowl that he was in front of him when you first entered the kitchen.

“Smashed oreos and chocolate chip cookies.” As though he just unveiled the invention of the century, Yoongi proudly showcases the crumbled cookies in the bowl. To which you awe in thought, actually quite happily surprised that he included toppings into the middle of the night ice cream meal. “Genius, right?” He smiles as you nod at the idea, letting him divide the treats equally on top of each bowl.

“Do you just have that on hand for whenever?” You ask curiously, taking the bowl from him when he hands it to you with the spoon in it clacking around. Yoongi looks at you for a long moment, suddenly turning sheepish as he begins to fiddle with his bangs, then speaks in an equally small manner,

“Well, no. I usually only do it when needed, so,” He shrugs, avoiding eye contact with you as he scoops the first bite onto his spoon. “I guess I was sort of banking on you agreeing to stay the night so I could make you feel a little better. It’s kind of embarrassing to admit like this though.”

Yoongi continues to keep his eyes on his ice cream, shoving another small bite into his mouth and trying to ignore how silly his words could be taken, but you can’t help feeling genuinely moved. A small thing sure, but an action he didn’t have to consider. You think that Yoongi must feel as safe to Hoseok as he is to you if he’s used to helping out by means of ice cream and small talk.

Considering your earlier interpretations of Yoongi’s character, you feel upset with yourself for believing in his image throughout the media. When you know how personas are played up to be something separate of who the individuals truly are, you should have given him the benefit of the doubt, and been so much less worried about interacting with him like you were months ago. You finally take a bite of the ice cream, once you notice the small beginnings it melting, happily chewing the cookies, and then swallowing to settle his worries unknowingly as you speak softly, “You’re really sweet.”

Yoongi glances to you, taking in your relaxed person, and no remnants of the hurt emotions you let out before taking a shower. He finds your appearance soothing, and he’s gladdened more than he comprehends when you make the comment. It’s a nice feeling to be thought of warmly. It’s a nice feeling to see you happier.

Within half an hour, you’re curled into the corner of his couch. Yoongi sits on the opposite end, facing you where behind him on the end-table you nearly knocked over earlier rests the empty bowls of ice cream. He’d let you take the lounge blanket, finding it silently impressive that the somewhat small square of fabric is able to cover you up as well as it does.

“Did that conversation with Seulgi go okay, by the way?” You ask him, head sinking into the cushion and Yoongi wonders if you realize how tired your eyes appear. Then the question registers and his tapping bare foot on the rug ceases, while he shrugs a shoulder.

“Yeah, as well as I’d expect.” He doesn’t sound like the experience was pleasant, and it takes you a moment of biting your inner cheek to verbalize a testing comment, trying to discern where he stands with giving you answers like he said in passing he would hours earlier,

“You seemed to be really uncomfortable about her.”

“She did some shitty stuff to Hoseok.” He nods, now resting his head against the couch’s cushion as well, causing his cheek to puff a little. “Without boring you about all of the stuff that happened with them last year, she should’ve helped him through his scandal even a little. I don’t like her much anymore because of it all.”

“I’m not trying to push you to,” Yoongi’s head angles better to see you as you speak somewhat timidly. “But, like you said to me, if you wanted to ever talk about something, I’d listen.” You’re able to maintain eye contact with his, hoping the sincerity of your offer shows through. Then you consider again how different the present is from when you met him, how back then this conversation seemed alien, and now you really do want Yoongi to heed your perspective and know you’re also willing to be a safe outlet for him like he is for you.

Yoongi realizes this. Understands that you hope to assert your place for him as a trusted friend. The shyness of your voice makes the side of his mouth curl, realizing then that he feels sleepy. “Thank you, Y/N.” He rubs his hair from his forehead tiredly, while you yawn across from him, using a sleeve-covered hand to mask your mouth. “If I wasn’t about to fall asleep, I’d tell you about it all.”

“You’re about to fall asleep? Can’t relate.” You mumble as your eyelids close shut and Yoongi chuckles in response. You smile at the sound, relaxing yourself further into the comfort of his couch. “Your couches are always so soft, why aren’t you an interior designer instead of a musician?”

“My couches?” Yoongi stretches out his arms, while sinking back into the armrest he lies on.

“The one in the studio,” Your sentence trails when you again yawn, then change the subject light-heartedly. “Crying’s exhausting.”

“Mm, I bet.” He rubs his face, willing himself off the couch to stretch his neck and then take a step towards you, “C’mon, let’s go to sleep.”

“I could sleep here, it’s so cozy.” Yoongi notices the drop of volume, and the fact nearly makes him properly laugh at how quickly you’re able to fall asleep. But he doesn’t, instead snickering before yanking away the blanket, leading to the eruption of a discontented groan out of your lips. “Rude-”

“Not letting you sleep on my couch, when there’s an entire bed you could be on.” He gives you a moment to rub your eyes and then squint them open apparently already not used to the lighting in the room. Then Yoongi’s hand reaches in the air beside you so you can use him as a means to stand up, so used to the prospect of hand holding that he doesn’t give it any thought. Neither do you as you take hold of his hand, finding familiarity in how his fingers grip around yours. Yoongi gently tugs you up, steadying you by use of his free hand on your waist, as your empty one finds itself flat against his chest.

Nothing overthought.

Yoongi yawns, as he begins leading you towards the hallway, listening to you quietly complain that his yawning is going to make you do the same. Then Yoongi grins sleepily when you indeed yawn a second later, your hand squeezing around his as a silent way to tell him to stop. “It was perfect timing though-”

“You caused it.” You grumble as you both come to a stop abruptly to you who hadn’t been paying attention, so your empty hand finds Yoongi’s long-sleeve to stop yourself from tripping up on his heel. Yoongi takes no mind, just opening the door to the guest bedroom and turning to you afterwards, smile looking increasingly quaint when taken into view with his slightly messy, fluffy locks.

“Yeah, yeah, it was my fault. Now go to sleep before you pass out on my floor.” Yoongi watches you smile, gratefulness mixed into your tired features, and then you step beyond him. Your hand leaves his to give a small wave, the sleeve of his shirt bunches beneath your wrist as you tiredly thank him again and wish him goodnight. The door shuts softly, like you were being delicate with his household, and Yoongi loiters for a second.

His now empty hand ruffles the hair on top of his head, thinking about the separately bad conversations you both had to have at that ridiculous party. Yoongi turns to the door across the hallway, entering into his bedroom as he considers the words Seulgi spoke to him in the mixture of air on the tiny balcony. He huffs as he lets himself fall onto the plush of his comforter and mattress.

“You could’ve helped Hoseok back then if you hadn’t only thought of yourself.”

Yoongi stares towards his ceiling, hand still fiddling with his hair while the sentence plays in his head over and over again. She didn’t need to tell him that, as though he didn’t know. Remember it whenever Hoseok brings about the idea of a comeback, while Yoongi can only reaffirm his distance on the issue. By public silence and private support.

Yoongi thinks about Jimin being so worried that he drops his relationship with you, about Seulgi following what her group wanted her to do so she doesn’t ruin everything for them, about himself consistently half-trying to help his friends. It feels old.

And he doesn’t want the fear to control him anymore.

if you enjoy please, please let me know! i hope you enjoy the series, i’m working really hard on it! : )

tag list (send an ask to be added): @jaiuneamesolitaiire @tsvkino-usagi @xionysus

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spiftynifty · 7 years ago

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LGBT representation in Voltron

UPDATED: I realized I wasn’t coming off as neutrally as I’d like and there were hints of shipping peeking through. I also didn’t feel I had expanded properly on certain aspects. I’d like this particular post to be as neutral as possible so that it’s accessible to people from all ships and headcanons.

I’ve seen a lot of discussion lately about LGBT representation in Voltron. From shipping wars to insistent demands that headcanons be fulfilled, it’s all getting a little bonkers. I wanted to step back, encourage everyone to take a breather, and discuss the potential of any LGBT on the show, including and excluding popular expectations. So here we go, a post on LGBT representation in Voltron and in cartoons, and why it's not as simple as we'd like it to be. It’s a little long but don’t worry, there are pictures! AND A COMIC!

DISCLAIMER: I do not work on Voltron, nor do I work for Dreamworks or any of its properties. I'm just an animator who's worked on dozens of cartoons for a number of studios and the following is based on my experience in this industry. This post is NOT meant to indict any of the parties involved in the creation of Voltron or other cartoons. Making cartoons is a complicated, collaborative process and no one is a villain.

Here we go:

Before we can talk about LGBT rep & Voltron, we should probably talk about LGBT representation in cartoons in general. In case it isn't clear, I'm speaking specifically about Western cartoons that primarily air in Canada/US. Anime is a whole other category and one that Voltron does not fall under. I'm also removing cartoons that were made explicitly for adults.

LGBT in cartoons is a really recent development. If we include adult cartoons it can date back as far as 20 years (South Park showcasing some SUPER GREAT gay stereotypes :|) but if we're including cartoons geared towards kids (age 5-17)... we're talking this being a thing in the last FOUR years. And the number of times it's been done is so minimal, it can be summed up in these few images:

(left to right, top to bottom) 6Teen, 2010 CANADA ONLY - An incidental female character revealed she liked women. I don’t think this show ever aired in the States but it ran on Teletoon for years. The show also had an episode with an incidental gay character in 2008. Gravity Falls, 2013 - The sheriff and deputy are repeatedly hinted at being in a relationship. I believe in the series finale their relationship is more clearly identified. It was later confirmed by the show’s creator.

Legend of Korra, 2014 - The two female leads, after having previously dated the same male character, are strongly implied to now be dating each other as they hold hands and walk into the Spirit World together. This was as explicit as they were allowed to get with their relationship. The comics continue their relationship romantically and also highlight other characters from both series who are (or were) LGBT). Steven Universe, 2013 - The show doesn’t shy away from its LGBT romances, in particular Ruby and Sapphire and Pearl and Rose. Star vs The Forces of Evil, 2017 - in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it panning shot, two background male characters are seen kissing. Clarence, 2013 - The main character has two moms. In one episode, a handsome male background character is shown greeting another man for a date by kissing him on the cheek. Initially they were supposed to peck on the lips until other countries’ censors demanded the change. Loud House, 2016 - The main character’s best friend, Clyde, has two dads.

I’m also going to toss out an Honourable Mention to Adventure Time for Princess Bubblegum & Marceline, whose past romantic relationship was sort of hinted at in the show but only confirmed outside of it.

If we take that list and cut it down to just (broadcast TV) primary or recurring characters, we're left with this: Korra, Steven Universe, Clarence

I should also mention that while I repeatedly use the term LGBT, what I’m really referring to is more LGB. I would love to see a trans character in a broadcast cartoon. I’ve heard Amazon’s Danger & Eggs has a trans character, which is AMAZING and a solid start. However progressively speaking, broadcast cartoons tend to lag a little behind live action TV and movies aimed at older teens and adults, and those genres are still struggling to feature trans characters.

So why is this?

Firstly, and more importantly, a lot of these shows air in countries that aren't nearly as open about LGBT as USA/Canada are. To say "screw those guys! They should keep up with the times!!" is to cut out a major consumer base and most companies are unwilling or unable to take that financial hit. This doesn't make them evil. Animation, just like filmmaking, may be an artform but it is first and foremost a BUSINESS. Major companies like Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network won’t lose money, but the production studios they hire to do their shows will suffer the brunt of it and could lose the business of these powerful corporations. It��s happened time and time again that a show initially animated in the US or Canada has been taken away from that studio in favor of a cheaper, overseas option. In some cases they’ve closed.

Second, even in 2018 there is still a lot of pushback from homophobic or “family-oriented” groups with decent clout and numbers. Also, there is a strange pervasive idea that LGBT is something that is Not For Children, likely because too many foolish people still associate heteronormativity with love and everything outside of that with sex.

Additionally, you may have noticed that on the list of the three shows showcasing LGBT relationships in a primary or recurring character way... ALL of them feature women. The social discussion about why that is honestly merits an entire other post (or 5) so to put it plainly, broadly speaking, people tend to be more comfortable with female queerness over male queerness. We have yet to see a m/m relationship that has any iota of history or character development behind it, or a recurring queer male character.

With this in mind, Voltron, which features a primarily male cast, and thus has more chances of featuring a male LGBT character, has its work cut out for it.

___________________________________________________

Fresh off the heels of Korra, a series that in the 11th hour featured the two female leads ending up with each other, it's no surprise that showrunners Lauren Montgomery and Joaquin Dos Santos( along with other cast and crew) have fielded a barrage of questions about their intention to depict LGBT on the show. At NYCC when asked about it, this was JDS & LM's response: "It's very important to us... we’re fighting to create as open and as broad a spectrum of characters as we can."

Which is a pretty interesting way of putting it, and a pretty understandably CAREFUL way of putting it. Again, I want to reiterate, I don’t work for any studio involved in the production of Voltron so this is largely conjecture.

So here's how the hierarchy works, as far as I can tell.

I'm not sure who approached who to get a new Voltron made, but primary creative decisions would fall to JDS and LM, who are in charge of things like major plot points, characters, and arcs. When they've figured this stuff out, they pitch it in a multitude of sessions with Dreamworks People... and that's when the battle begins. Pitching a show is always a tug-of-war. Let's be clear: No creator has ever gone in with a show and walked away with every single aspect that they wanted. Compromises and concessions are made because while the Creatives are focused on their story and character, their client is concerning themselves with budget, timelines, audience targets and $$marketing$$. Before they even got to the matter of LGBT, JDS/LM had lost and won battles over some plot and character decisions. You can actually feel it sometimes when you watch the show; key emotional moments that never happen, or character stuff that gets shaved in favor of action or the reuse animation of the lions forming Voltron.

This show is still aimed at a young, male, market Dreamworks wants to believe is going to buy their incredibly limited line of related toys, and that is a market that is difficult for executives to see as being interested in romance, let alone a queer one.

The point is, as much as JDS/LM seem to want LGBT in their show, it is a negotiation that I'm sure has been on the table since Day 1 and probably one that is ongoing. Here's a vague idea of what MAY have gone down:

Dreamworks: We will consider the idea of two of them in a relationship, but the third has got to go. JDS/LM: .....we appreciate you considering the relationship aspect. Dreamworks: In addition, we feel that to balance the scales so to speak, at least one character needs to be overtly heterosexual. You know, hit on a lot of female characters, maybe even fall for one of them.

(sorry would have finished the comic but I sprained my wrist and I’m not supposed to draw rn but I cheated a little, also can you tell I love Saga)

This is very probably not what happened, but it is an example of what could have. I know there is a lot of support for a certain character in Voltron being bi, not least of all because of something LM drew.

I think the placement of the characters holding the signs were less about associating the character with the header and more about making sure neither of the two warring ships were represented; it would have incited a new level on the shipping wars and the message and intent behind this art would have been lost.

There is a weird association with relationships and how they define a show if they aren’t hetero. Have only one relationship on a show about space battles and if it’s LGBT, people will start associating Voltron with being “the gay space battle show”. I don’t want to get into Discourse about This Thing because debate gets lost quickly in favor of toxic insults, but I think it’s important to touch on Bi!Lance. To be entirely neutral about it, it is possible that Lance was originally intended to be bi. But if there was the potential for other characters to be LGBT, the showrunners might have been asked to “strike a balance” so to speak, so that Voltron wouldn’t just be “the gay space battle” show since its hetero relationships would outnumber the queer ones. I don’t think Lance’s character has changed at all since his inception; the show needs a funnyman for levity and ridiculousness, and he is absolutely the charmer of the Paladins. He may have been intended to hit on just about any attractive being in his orbit (there are shades of what one might call a “man-crush” in regards to his Shiro hero-worship). While it would have been awesome to have a bi male character in a cartoon, changing his attraction dial from “all” to “female” doesn’t really affect his storyline, especially since it’s hard to contest that the show has been angling in potential for endgame Allurance in seasons 3&4. I realize that sounds dismissive of the bi experience, that’s really not what I’m trying to get at. I’m saying that in the grand scheme of things, it may have been easier to sacrifice an LGBT Lance in order to win another LGBT representation battle. Like I said, making cartoons that maintain the creative, storyline, and character goals you walk in with is a tug-of-war, and you’re going to lose something along the way.

But it’s not all about Lance, and again, that’s all theoretical. It’s also possible that Pidge was at one point NB or even trans. There are hints of Coran having a close friendship with Alfor. The original blue paladin is hinted at flirting with a fellow male character in a “did he just--” moment that most people missed. Lotor surrounds himself with female generals but never seems particularly attracted to them. Keith’s undying devotion to Shiro could be interpreted as romantic. There are a dozen main characters whose orientations are nebulous at best and thus have potential to be queer.

So what does this mean for the future of LGBT on Voltron?

The short version is: I'm actually, really, really hopeful. For a number of reasons.

1) JDS/LM as they've said, are fighting really hard for this to be a thing. Jeremy Shada has said "You'll be really happy" when asked about LGBT on the show. People may feel he’s referring to his character Lance, but I think he’s just hoping that people will be happy with any character who could be explicitly stated to be LGBT.

2) Netflix isn't a TV broadcaster, which means they can operate under somewhat different rules. Sort of. They certainly don't shy away from LGBT content but they may be regulated under rules of "what is appropriate for children in certain age groups" which frustratingly, for kids 12 and under, does not often include LGBT content. Netflix notoriously doesn't release their viewership data so this is just speculation; but I wonder if the biggest audience taking in this show is actually people, primarily women, aged 14+. Taking this into account won't influence the plot, but the bumped up age could show an increased likelihood of LGBT rep as it pushes the show outside of the "content too sensitive for young children" zone.

3) It would be really nice to see explicit, unambiguous affection between two same-sex characters. However there can still be canonical queer romance without it, shades enough of “just friendship” that they can get past the censors and bigots while those who are more aware of what’s going on can recognize the relationship for what it is. Remember, some people still refuse to believe that Victor and Yuuri kissed in Yuuri on Ice, all thanks to the clever placement of an arm. Furthermore, LGBT doesn’t have to be portrayed through relationships but just the character itself. A character could make a passing comment that alludes to their sexuality. It’s not quite as satisfying as having it out in the open, but DW’s hands may be tied by the stipulations of the contract outlined by Netflix.

4) Despite what certain world events would have you believe, people are becoming more progressive and supportive of LGBT rights and content. We've seen it happen in movies and live-action television. More and more cartoons are going to be including LGBT content, in broader and more overt ways. There will be other cartoons who feature main characters who identify as LGBT, recurring characters in LGBT relationships who are allowed to be affectionate and cutesy with their partners, who are represented no differently or reverently than hetero cartoon romances. Voltron will likely end within the next two years, and within those next two years more and more cartoons will be taking "risks" and more and more broadcasters will feel emboldened to allow them to do so. If Dreamworks keeps its content steadfastly heterosexual while fellow producers embrace LGBT, it's going to reflect badly on them.

People are desperate for representation in this show and it’s not hard to see why. It is not only one of the few serial cartoons out there, but one that deals with surprisingly adult themes considering it’s aimed at elementary schoolers. I think it’s really neat that people have so many headcanons about the LGBT rep in this show, and I think it’s great that it’s an element that has sparked a lot of passion in people. However, everything is still conjecture, the series is but half over, and putting all your LGBT demands onto one character or one relationship is unhealthy. It’s also pretty insidious to attack or harass crew, cast, or fellow fans whose views on how the LGBT should happen don’t align with your own. The show’s arcs and plot points have been written, the characters decided, but the internal fight over LGBT rep could still be going on. The creators aren’t going to cave to pressure from people who really want their ship or their character to be the sacred cow. Ship what you want to ship but recognize that while LGBT on the show may not happen the way you’d like it to, it’s still important to support its existence no matter what form it comes in.

In the next part I’m going to cover one relationship in particular as neutrally as possible and whether or not it has potential to become canonically romantic.

#anim vld #meta #voltron #vld #voltron meta #voltron legendary defender #klance #sheith #sorta #lgbt

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wineanddinosaur · 5 years ago

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The 10 Best Drinks Movies of All Time (and What to Sip While Watching)

Relaxing with a great drink in your hand and an excellent movie cued up on your screen is one of life’s great, simple pleasures. It’s also something many of us have more time to do now than ever before.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that many of the best movies of all time include a heavy focus on imbibing, from ongoing thematic references to entire booze-soaked plots: The night of excess and its regrettable decisions; the plot hatched in the bar’s back booth; the frat house party; the alcohol-fortified hero.

If discovering the perfect match between a glass of wine and a bite of cheese amplifies the pleasure of both, then why not do the same by finding the just-right drinks to pair with the best drinks movies?

Of course, even if you’re stuck Netflix-and-chilling by yourself, there are now ways to get friends in on the fun virtually. For instance, with Netflix Party, you can synchronize playback through Google Chrome while participating in a group chat through the same interface.

From iconic films to debauched comedies, here’s what to watch — and what to drink while you do.

10. The 007 James Bond Franchise

Few movie characters are as inclined to imbibe as James Bond. Author Ian Fleming both giveth and taketh away, though. While he’s responsible for the creation of the Vesper, his words haven’t always been to the betterment of booze: Some say that “shaken not stirred” stunted the advancement of cocktails for decades. (Hate-mail disclaimer: Martinis are a personal matter, so make them as you please).

As you’re working your way through the anthology and arrive at “GoldenEye,” switch up your drink to the cocktail of the same name. It’s the house cocktail at the GoldenEye Resort in Jamaica, and was concocted by Chris Blackwell, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, creator of Blackwell Rum, and owner of the estate since the mid- 1970s.

According to Blackwell, the drink, which fittingly is a visual match for its name, was a creation of convenience. “I simply put equal amounts of pineapple juice and rum in the cocktail shaker and took a sip,” he says. “It was too sweet, so I added some fresh-squeezed lime to taste. And there it was.”

It’s a welcome drink for his guests, and a new drink for you to sip on while watching Brosnan-era Bond. Blackwell is even collaborating on a 007 Limited Edition of his rum, which will be released this fall in conjunction with the franchise’s 25th effort, “No Time To Die.”

9. Wine Country

The newest edition to the list of best drinks movies is 2019’s “Wine Country.” Directed by Amy Poehler, and starring a six-strong cast of female comedic heavyweights, the movie is centered on a 50th birthday weekend getaway in Napa Valley.

When you can’t head out for a weekend of in-person wine tasting, bring the wine into your living room. A number of Napa Valley wineries are currently offering virtual tastings. The list includes AXR Winery, B Cellars, Clos du Val, Round Pond Estate, and St. Supéry Estate Vineyards & Winery.

Sign up for one, do the tasting, then start the movie and polish off all those bottles you just opened. Or pair with any Napa Valley wine to feel the “Wine Country” vibe.

8. Cocktail

��Cocktail” stands tall 32 years later as the zenith of bad 1980s cocktail culture. Neon lights, flair bartending, and cringeworthy shot names — it’s all there, now with some measure of nostalgic appeal (who doesn’t want to sidle up to a beachfront bar these days?).

Of course, there’s no shortage of options for what you should be imbibing while watching. One needs only to pull up the “The Last Barman Poet” scene, in which Tom Cruise mentions a dozen different concoctions: “The Sex on the Beach, the Schnapps made from peach, the Velvet Hammer, the Alabama Slammer. I make things with juice and froth. The Pink Squirrel, the 3-Toed Sloth. I make drinks so sweet and snazzy. The Iced Tea, the Kamikaze, the Orgasm, the Death Spasm, the Singapore Sling, the Ding-a-ling.”

Thankfully, if you can’t quite settle on any of the above, Cruise’s character has mercy on us at the end of his recital: “America you’re just devoted to every flavor I got. But if you want to get loaded, why don’t you just order a shot?”

7. The Frat Party: Animal House and Old School

“Old School” and “Animal House” together represent the classic new and, well, old school takes on the frat movie. You’re probably never going to agree with your dad on which is better, either. It’s a generational preference whether you lean into the John Belushi-powered 1978 film, or the 2003 flick with Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, and Luke Wilson.

What everyone can agree on is that you’re drinking beer for this movie-drinks pairing; there’s no way around that. And not a 4-pack of your favorite triple dry-hopped, semi-naturally fermented, seasonal farmhouse hazy IPA, either. This calls for a case of your cheap, collegiate, macro beer standby. Maybe it’s Schlitz, maybe it’s PBR. You do you.

6. The Hangover (Three-Part Series)

We’ve all been there. A night gets a little out of hand. Memories are foggy. Everything hurts. Of course, this doesn’t usually involve tigers, Mike Tyson, potential kidnappings, and hastily arranged marriages. The antics only continue in later films, from Tyson-style face tattoos in Thailand to hasty trips to Tijuana. That’s what makes “The Hangover” great: It’s hilarious and relatable while still letting you off the hook, in an “at least my friends and I aren’t that bad” kind of way.

The truth is, you’re most likely watching this while nursing your own hangover. So mix up a Bloody Mary or something low-ABV with fresh juice to bring yourself back up to speed.

5. Swingers

“Swingers” sports the classic scene of Jon Favreau ordering a Scotch, “A Scotch on the rocks, please. Any Scotch will do, as long as it’s not a blend, of course. A single malt. Glenlivet, Glenfiddich perhaps. Maybe a Glengow… any Glen.”

The movie is also a favorite of the drinks industry today. “I love the movie ‘Swingers,'” says Elayne Duff, a consultant and strategist with Duff On The Rocks. For her, the 1996 movie brings back memories of the era. “We had a very cool version of this secret bar with a swing band [in the Lower East Side of New York]. I went there almost every Saturday night and drank Cosmopolitans; it was the ’90s, after all. This movie was money, as they like to say, so many great lines and Vince Vaughn was at his best.”

“Maybe I’ve been incepted by all the movie posters I’ve seen with Vince Vaughn, Martini in hand, or maybe it’s the way I can relate to both Mike and Trent at different times in my life, but I don’t think I’ve ever watched that movie without some form of drink in hand,” says Trevor Frye, the president of Wash Line LLC, who has also been running the B.A.R.E. SolidariT-shirt fundraising project, selling shirts and stickers to provide donations to hospitality professionals.

So drink a Cosmo, a Martini, any Glen you can find, or, in Frye’s case, just the whiskey of your choice. “I’d sip on a whiskey with some bite to it. E.H. Taylor Barrel Proof and Noah’s Mill are currently open on my desk, and either would do just fine,” Frye says. “And water; like a deli quart’s worth of water.”

4. Casablanca

If you asked any film buff to name the most famous movies, “Casablanca” would likely be on the list. This Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman vehicle happened to be set, predominantly, in a nightclub and casino, Rick’s Café Américain. (Word to wise: Don’t bother if you and when you find yourself in Morocco; the actual establishment may fall short of what you’ve envisioned).

There’s plenty of drinking in the movie, as you’d expect, and much of it is centered around Champagne. You’ll want to drink some bubbles yourself while watching, ideally out of a coupe glass to match the stylish, classic vibes. Intersperse that with the occasional French 75 or Champagne Cocktail, both of which are mentioned, to keep the mood going all night long.

3. Lost in Translation

What does Bill Murray whisper to Scarlett Johansson in the final scene of “Lost in Translation”? We may never know. What we do know is the line he says over and over again while filming his character’s television commercial, “For relaxing times, make it Suntory time.”

Unless you’re sitting on a secret cache of Yamazaki 18 year-old or Hakushu 18 year-old — in which case, we’ll be right over — a Highball is the way to go here, deploying a blended whisky like Suntory Toki and your favorite high-carbonation soda water.

2. Sideways

We all remember Paul Giamatti’s infamous quote: “I am NOT drinking any f*cking Merlot!” So devastating was the impact, that a decade and a half after the release of “Sideways,” California Merlot is only recently rebounding in the mind of consumers.

When you watch, consider doing the opposite of Giamatti and finding an excellent bottle of Merlot to accompany the film. There’s no shortage of serious, truly delicious Merlots coming out of California right now.

1. The Big Lebowski

The Dude and a White Russian. Name a more iconic duo; we’ll wait. The comedy classic from the Coen brothers is the perfect excuse to wear your pajamas all day long while steadfastly maintaining a drink in one hand.

The cocktail is easy to make, too: Just pour two ounces vodka and one ounce coffee liqueur over ice in a rocks glass. Top with an ounce of heavy cream. A flick of your wrist is the only stirring you really need. Up for an epic drinking-game challenge? Drink not only when The Dude drinks, but when the word “dude,” is spoken, which is apparently 160 times. Good luck!

The article The 10 Best Drinks Movies of All Time (and What to Sip While Watching) appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/10-best-drinks-movies/

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isaiahrippinus · 5 years ago

Text

The 10 Best Drinks Movies of All Time (and What to Sip While Watching)

From iconic films to debauched comedies, here’s what to watch — and what to drink while you do.

10. The 007 James Bond Franchise

9. Wine Country

Sign up for one, do the tasting, then start the movie and polish off all those bottles you just opened. Or pair with any Napa Valley wine to feel the “Wine Country” vibe.

8. Cocktail

“Cocktail” stands tall 32 years later as the zenith of bad 1980s cocktail culture. Neon lights, flair bartending, and cringeworthy shot names — it’s all there, now with some measure of nostalgic appeal (who doesn’t want to sidle up to a beachfront bar these days?).

7. The Frat Party: Animal House and Old School

6. The Hangover (Three-Part Series)

The truth is, you’re most likely watching this while nursing your own hangover. So mix up a Bloody Mary or something low-ABV with fresh juice to bring yourself back up to speed.

5. Swingers

The movie is also a favorite of the drinks industry today. “I love the movie ‘Swingers,‘” says Elayne Duff, a consultant and strategist with Duff On The Rocks. For her, the 1996 movie brings back memories of the era. “We had a very cool version of this secret bar with a swing band [in the Lower East Side of New York]. I went there almost every Saturday night and drank Cosmopolitans; it was the ’90s, after all. This movie was money, as they like to say, so many great lines and Vince Vaughn was at his best.”

4. Casablanca

3. Lost in Translation

2. Sideways

1. The Big Lebowski

The article The 10 Best Drinks Movies of All Time (and What to Sip While Watching) appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/10-best-drinks-movies/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/618095375287517184

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ddaenghoney · 5 years ago

Text

chapter seventeen

masterlist link in blog description.

Pairing(s): Park Jimin x Y/N, Min Yoongi x Y/N

disclaimer: any characters depicted do not represent the actual personality of the respected idol in real life.

Chapter warning(s): quite a bit of unsettling/paranoia themes around the middle of the chapter (again in regards to stalking from fans). Also, some making out that alludes to more after it !

Word count: 5481

if you enjoy please, please let me know!

Headlines of multiple news sites, trending hashtags, and seemingly hundreds of threads in online forums center around the topic that goes viral the day after. With SoundWave wasting no time to act subtly, choosing to take a blunt rebuttal of the independent release of music, they announce a separation of SUGA from the label. Without offering much other than the central reasoning in the official statement attributing a lack of loyalty, and openly rebellious attitude in the way of involving his personal relationships into his music without consent of the company, Yoongi’s public reputation takes a giant strike.

The primary attitude of his fanbase is startled confusion, as is similarly the feelings of pop culture commenters, who all agree that this action made by SoundCloud seems incredibly rash considering how high of status the title SUGA has in the music industry. A threshold of rumors contaminate social websites, all trying to gauge underlying motivations for the company’s decision to completely drop Min Yoongi from the label, feeling like there has to be more words each side could make but holds back.

With slowly passing weeks of conversation stirring faster from the sensationalized wonder that accumulates in the silence of both involved parties, fandoms grow impatient. A future tour scheduled to begin early next year is obviously squashed, and the subtle hints of new music thrown far from any burner of focus. Worry holds a multitude of loyal fans who are eager for clarification from their favorite idol, but no answers are clearly given. Blurry images of Yoongi to and from SoundWave only serve to prove that there are talks going on, especially when sightings of him and Taehyung begin growing consistent as well as thought to be moving vans relocating assumed sound equipment.

Naturally, frustration builds. Latching in tight grips onto every instance your name or image appears on the internet, angry shouts question your involvement with this entire ordeal. Confused as people are, they have little doubt that you deserve the bulk of blame for this dissent between Yoongi and SoundWave. After all, everything had always seemed steady in growth for SUGA’s career before your public involvement with him.

You realize this isn’t true. So much of the situation still lingers in the darkness, far from cameras and microphones to state the severity of everything that led the sequence of events to this point. You know that this whole problem isn’t entirely your fault, but it feels like it. Words cling to your psyche every time you try to peruse even the filtered social media feed of those you follow on instagram, but the comments still remain and grow on every one of your own posts, making you delete the app after only three days into the chaotic situation.

Apologies become common, though usually squashed within your reply to whenever Yoongi tells you them. Worry brims in his eyes just as well as his chest every time he notices anything off in your expressions that relate to all of the responses online. You’re quick to state that this isn’t his fault either, and not to worry about the silence he’s forced to keep while legal affairs are being handled. You’ve already settled yourself with the high chance that he won’t ever be able to make a statement that gives out the picture, just like you won’t ever be able to without losing every royalty you have.

While the online response does burn on your nerves, you can calm yourself by remembering it will eventually blow over to a new topic. It could take a lot of time, but eventually you’ll be able to not be the villain in every assumed narration of Yoongi being fired from SoundWave. Instead, concern wraps around any thoughts you have towards a new job.

With your work history visibly clean of any ink on your resume, you don’t have much to say to combat the fact. And as such you simply use your degree as well as projects from when you were a college student to talk yourself up. But you aren’t naive-- you realize that the gap of time from you receiving your diploma to the current date unease potential employers.

At this point, you’re no longer surprised. The man sitting across from you sits tapping his pen on papers in front of him. They’re spread in a controlled mess on a folder you brought. His eyes scan the words over, but because of the minute hand on the clock behind him reaching a new number, you’re inclined to believe the silence so far isn’t favorable.

Answering the initial questions isn’t usually difficult. In fact, you believe you win over a few uncertain glances in the way you speak with experience, but any opinion gained usually diminishes at the skinny portfolio you present. Every time you’ve passed it, you also feel underwhelmed by the humble sight of it, garnering none of the weight you should have the thin wings filled with. All of that is within your mind.

All of the tension in your mind fills more and more, contemplating what there is to take away from your meager showings of visible experience. This tension comes to a throbbing disappointment when the majority of those who have looked at the portfolio mention Yoongi’s name under their breath.

A large part of you becomes increasingly defensive from these tiny comments. Controlling your mouth from blurting questions in reply to their intentions is a difficult task, especially when the issues have been consistent. Multiple misinterpretations veil over the actual situation underneath the media’s depictions and what your residual contractual obligations to SoundWave will let you fix.

The man’s eyebrows furrow, his head tilting as something he sees perplexes him. You don’t openly react, simply sitting in the chair, legs not particularly tensely poised on the floor and your back only erect enough to be formal. Posture forgot a few interviews ago in favor of knowing glances at the employers body languages when reading through. This subtle confused realization on his face is familiar, but you smile politely as he gets up stating he needs to step out for a moment. As though he’s the first one to go ask questions about you to other people.

Walking into the lobby from the small meeting room, you do little more than sigh, reaching to rub your shoulder as you contemplate your next action. The man’s voice when he came back to the room and stated you’ll get contact in the future if they’d like to explore job opportunities was entirely monotone, and you can’t even be offended by the fact at this point.

Still, reality weighs on your shoulders, growing uncomfortably nagging, and at quickening paces when televisions like the one hanging on the opposite wall post pop news stations with Yoongi’s pictures and titles of dissention between himself and SoundWave.

“Oh,” A voice from the side disrupts the settling glare in your eyes. Softening your expression to one of surprise you turn your head as a figure comes to you. A smile on her face that seems disingenuous, but fitting when matched with the consistent brand name on each article of clothing apparent. “It was Y/N, right?”

In the medley of companies you set out to try landing jobs at, you didn’t take into consideration their current idols. More interested in just getting a place to continue working. But as Seulgi approached you from the way of the elevators, there’s a piece inside of you somewhat glad you’re likely to be rejected from this one. “Yeah.”

“What a coincidence to run into you here.” She says as she places her phone in her handbag. “Looking for work? Heard that you’ve taken a chance at the music production world.”

For the sake of pleasantry, you don’t irritably sigh from having to deal with this immediately following an unsatisfying industry. Instead just shrug your shoulder, “Something like that.”

“Guess it hasn’t been going well,” You’re unable to stop your eyebrows from narrowing at her, but Seulgi is unhindered from your evidently growing annoyance. “It’s a hard thing getting through scandals, especially when you don’t have anything to show for yourself.”

“Such a hard thing that you didn’t mind shoving your boyfriend into it.” You roll your eyes, head shaking as you start to walk away.

“Well, actually,” She catches up to your pace, overlapping you to cut off your trec to the front doors. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Hoseok could use a hand, right? If you want to try to get some work, why not ask him? Independent work is good to help build a resume-- though, I guess Hoseok’s reputation and Yoongi’s current one don’t make companies feel comfortable-”

“What are you trying for here?” Your tone causes a falter of expression in Seulgi’s face, shifting it into a muted shock. Her smile replaces itself with pursing lips, then eventually the picturesque way she poses her shoulders also deflates. Appearing much less superficial, though now openly tired with frustration from the little act she tried to play with you.

“What? I can’t try and do a nice thing for my ex?”

“Ex that you threw under the bus.” Unhesitant. You cross your arms. “Why in the world would I think you’re not trying to gain something right now too?”

“You’re just like Yoongi--I get the relationship now.” She sighs, playing with her hair as her eyes trail off to nowhere. “Well, the relationship you ended up getting yourself after all.”

Your arms tense over your front, quietly startled that she seems aware of the false beginning with your relationship with Yoongi, and even acknowledging that it’s currently real. Part of you wants to question how she’s found out the tidbit of information, though it’s not a top concern of yours. The small fact that she has methods to get information throughout the industry is odd, but you doubt it needs to be a worrisome issue.

“Anyways, I was just offering a suggestion. Three songs aren’t going to cut it to get top companies like this one to let you in.” As if you needed her to say that when the past week has only been proof of that. Seulgi adjusts the hoodie she wears so that it no longer falls off a shoulder, and her eyes appear introspective for the moment of silence before speaking again. “You’re not going to get anywhere without stepping on a few people along the way. You can’t play along with all the rules and expect to succeed.”

If her tone remained snarky, you would have shot a comment in return, as the instant thought in your brain relates Seulgi’s words to her actions against Hoseok in the past. However, the simplistic way she spoke was calm, almost bordering into a somber timbre hidden beneath the surface. At that moment you feel like you see something inside of that shadow, but you don’t have the liberty of pondering it.

“Seulgi, I thought you were using the big dance studio right now.” A voice enters into the conversation, making Seulgi’s head turn back towards the entrance. Looking beyond her, you see a face you again would have expected if you took any consideration to the companies you were skipping through for interviews. “Oh,” Jeongguk’s eyes widen, catching sight of you, a smile forming as he speaks on in happy surprise, “Y/N! It’s been a while since I’ve seen you.”

“Hi, Jeongguk.” You give a little smile and nod as a greeting.

“Yeah, I’m late.�� Seulgi speaks up while she takes a step to begin a smooth leave, eyeing Jeongguk then you in curiosity of how there’s a mutual connection. But her final words have nothing to do with questions. “Sorry about that whole thing at my party, by the way. Taking your date and all. Just getting a conversation Yoongi owed me.”

Her vague insinuation makes your eyes narrow, following her figure as she casually goes. Already knowing the content of the conversation she had with Yoongi, you’re left to assume that she speaks in a way to ingrain seeds of uncertainty or jealousy under your skin, but all the needless comment does is further you from any positive opinions of Seulgi.

“Something about that seemed hostile.” Jeongguk states as the two of you watch Seulgi disappear down a hall. Instead of screaming out intelligibly from the frustration of your day so far, you just exhale a long sigh, turning your head back towards Jeongguk. His mouth curls into a slightly uneasy smile, not sure of what he just stumbled in on, “Everything okay?”

“I can’t wait to go home and sleep, to be honest with you.” You admit, trying to get humor into your voice, but you’re sure your expression betrays any chance of a joking ambiance as Jeongguk slowly nods bouncing his long locks of soft, warm-toned pink. “Your band is going to be performing at the river festival this weekend, right? Saw online.”

“Yeah, we have a set in the late evening. You going?” His demeanor is wholly casual, pronounced further in the relaxation of his shoulders and lazily situated hands in the pockets of his big hoodie.

“I would, but now’s not really the best time for me to be doing much out.” You smile as your eyebrows furrow a bit. For a moment you consider the fact that he may not know anything, as you recall him not being one to peruse comment sections of social media sites. But as Jeongguk’s lips cast into a frown, he recalls the news your words refer to,

“Oh, right; I heard about that all.” He bites his lip, while removing a hand from the confines of his pocket to push back hair from his face. “Actually, I’ve been out of the country with my group for almost six months now, and, it’s not really my place to ask, but have you been okay since,” He pauses, quickly taking a scan around the area like others may be listening in. “Well, you know.”

You nod your head, understanding that he means to inquire about your state of mind since breaking things off from Jimin at the beginning of the year. “For awhile I really wasn’t,” You admit, but find yourself able to smile as you continue on with full assurance, “But I’m more than okay now. My career may be sort of crazy, but I have people that care about me, so I’m fairing a lot better than I would’ve ever thought.”

“That’s good.” Jeongguk smiles, and parts of you are sure that perhaps he’s even the smallest bit sad that there isn’t hesitation in your voice because his friendship with Jimin would likely root for the fact. But he’s not unfair in that regard, always having been a supportive, close friend of Jimin, but not to the extent of harboring ill sentiment about things like this. “If you’re looking for song writing work just let me know; my band liked the three tracks you and Yoongi released, and I always thought it’d be cool to work with you on lyrics anyways.”

“What?” You blurt in surprise, eyes widening from the easygoing proposition, “Wait, really?”

“Yeah,” Jeongguk grins in return, wondering silently if the offer is odd because of your reaction. “I mean, why not, right?”

“Even if I’m not an employee here?” You question, still in disbelief at how simply he’d asked for even bits of collaborative work in the future. Where you have been learning to anticipate a lot of hesitation, and even flat out refusal from all of your interviews so far, Jeongguk breaks the cycle out of nowhere. Perhaps you should not be as excited from the simple prospect as you are, but you’re unable to stop yourself from the little success making you vibrant with joy.

“You don’t need to be an employee of any company, Y/N, your skills already speak for themselves to me.”

When you step outside of the building, Jeongguk’s words remain at the forefront of your mind. You type a location on the map digitally showing on your phone screen, unconsciously setting up a call for a taxi, but you think only of the small piece of hope given to you from the offer. The more you consider it, you believe there exists a deeper lesson from that small interaction. It’s like he said to you; the company isn’t as important as your own skills.

You bite your lip, thinking of any contacts made throughout the years. Frankly, not many people beyond SoundWave met you because of your job, but there were still some small acquaintances you’ve gained. Some friends as well, though fewer than you could count with your fingers perhaps. It’s unlikely many would jump at the opportunity to work with you in light of the current news, but perhaps there’s something to consider down that avenue.

Your spine tightens slightly, and suddenly you feel overly aware of the area around you. You lift your eyes from your phone screen to across the street beyond cars going along to wherever. People walk normally as the beginnings of evening traffic occur as they would any day of the business week. With a small shake of your head, you ignore the suspicion in your nerves, letting yourself check notifications on your phone instead as the taxi descends towards you from a few blocks away.

Alerting Yoongi that you’re going to head to his apartment to help him move around items delivered from the company, you eventually press the lock on your phone screen and turn your attention down the road to see if you can spot your taxi’s license. In the same direction is the stairwell into a subway station with its constant flood of people in and out that never remain in the area longer than it takes them to walk. But perched with their elbows on railings overlooking the descent into the subway is a small group of three similar in age to the ones assumed to follow you to Namjoon’s cafe.

Your eyes linger on their figures for a noticeable amount of time, and you don’t believe them to care that they’ve been spotted. You bite your inner cheek, and look back to the taxi app for the time of arrival. Your stomach knots, but you try not to focus on it, because of this occurrence being more regular in the past couple of weeks. If you kept your mouth shut and thoughts from roaming frantically, it would be over just as soon as you stepped into the taxi.

A bump on your shoulder startles you, shaking your heart around in the ribcage, as your throat assumes the worst by trapping air. A businessperson continues along, however, simply going up the road as they chatter away on their phone, completely unaware of the tiny collision. You swallow the air back down, squeezing your phone tightly as it vibrates a tiny series of beats to signify the taxi is soon to arrive.

As you look on at the back of the random person, you notice more eyes in your direction. These ones from a college-age duo, you think. But they’re clearly focused on you, walking on the sidewalk in your direction. Your leg muscle tightens, becoming highly alert of the phone’s they have clutched close to their chests with the camera lenses evident.

The abrupt stop of brakes in front of you brings you back to your current position as does a quick honk from a car bothered by the stop of your taxi as it drives around. Without hesitation you enter inside, stating an affirmative as the driver asks if you were the one with the given destination on his GPS. You can’t contain the sigh of relief flooding out of your lungs as he merges into the flow of traffic and away from the individuals whose walk stopped to stare at the leave of the taxi.

You have high doubts that if the people were truly fans that they would berate you or angrily yell, but nonetheless you didn’t want the onslaught of questions they more likely had prepared to be said in civil voices. You already had the displeasure of weaning along a forceful and awkward conversation on a subway train days earlier. Leading you to start avoiding that means of transportation entirely now.

Arriving at Yoongi’s front door, your finger presses to ring the bell. Listening to the muted sound on the inside you feel your shoulders jumping ever so slightly at the sound, but you shake your head to rid away the sensitivity. Really no one had been belligerent towards you, you were overthinking any of the things that could have happened. Another twitch in your shoulders induces with the knob twisting and with it the door opens to reveal Hoseok whose face eventually slips into a pout,

“Wow, don’t look so disappointed.” He teases you as you roll your eyes and walk inside. “You should be thanking me since I did most of the heavy lifting before you got here.”

“Thanks,” You smile at him in an overly polite manner that causes Hoseok to scoff and shake his head in amusement. “I’m sure you were more than willing to since Yoongi offered to get you a fancy dinner as payment-”

“Wait, don’t tell him that; I was going to avoid it.” You turn towards the way of the bedrooms as Yoongi walks into the living area from it, hair tousled from moving furniture and a loose t-shirt hanging off his shoulders comfortably. You watch him grin as Hoseok shouts an irritated rebuttle about Yoongi’s deflection of payment for helping. As Yoongi comes to a stop a mere couple of feet from you his eyes look towards you and before you know it the teeth peeking from his joke drift away while his brows furrowed with concern, “Angel, what’s wrong?”

You shake your head, trying to disburse the worry in your shoulders that you apparently had not been successful to not think about. Wordlessly Yoongi steps closer, initiating a hug that you finish by clinging your arms around his torso.

Hoseok frowns in confusion since you had seemed fine when he opened the door, but glancing up at Yoongi whose eyes are just as unsure of the problem Hoseok decides it’s probably the result of some kind of build up. “‘m going to get that last box unpacked.”

“Thanks.” Yoongi says as his hands rub trails on your back, waiting for Hoseok to leave the room before speaking up again, “Baby, do you want to talk about it?”

“No, I’m just overthinking something.” You mumble against the cotton soaked in the familiar scent of laundry detergent. With a small sigh you adjust yourself to look up towards Yoongi whose attentive gaze meets yours. Gently he presses a small kiss against your forehead, settling his hands on your sides to give a little comforting squeeze.

“Was it more people following you around?”

“Yeah,” You hide your face against his chest again as you put the problem in the air. “It really, really wasn’t anything much. I just want a hug. It’s been a long day because of the whole job interview session parade I went on too.”

“I can do hugs,” Yoongi nods before perching his chin atop your head. The moment lingers on, granting a warming comfort as you remain encapsulated in Yoongi’s arms. But he can’t help a final, quiet question that is likely the reason for the rate of his heartbeat in your ear. “Did anyone do anything to you, angel?”

“No.” You squeeze your arms around him. “I doubt any of them really would. They probably just want to get information. It’s just uncomfortable.”

“Yeah, it is.” Yoongi’s chest fills from the breath of an inhale as he thinks of all the other instances since news of him being let go from SoundWave released. “I’m sorry, angel, once all the paperwork is done, I’ll try and figure out something to say to the press about everything.”

“It’s okay, Yoon.” You pull away to press a pecking kiss against his lips. He notes your expression to be considerably calmer than minutes earlier. “Really, it’s okay. It’s not your fault anyways. But besides that all, I do have some good news.”

“Oh, yeah?” He keeps his hands on your waist while your arms drop from their gentle encapture of his frame. Your quick nod matching the beginnings of a smile on your lips give Yoongi more cheerfulness as well, “Tell me then, sweetie.”

“I saw Jeongguk earlier and he said he’d be willing to work on songwriting together sometime.” You explain, allowing the excitement you felt then to take over the bulk of your tone. Inquisitively Yoongi’s head tilts,

“Jeon Jeongguk? Where did you see him at?”

“His company after I got interviewed--oh, right, I don’t think I’ve mentioned to you I know him.” You ramble along earning a chuckle from Yoongi as he nods to that fact as well. “Well, I met him through Jimin a couple of years ago, but he’s really nice. It was just an innocent offer on his part.”

“Yeah, I believe that-- he’s really easygoing.” Yoongi nods, turning his head to the hallway as yours looks in the same direction at the sound of Hoseok cursing as he hops on one foot into view while his other foot stays clenched between his two hands.

“I hit my toe on the corner of the door into the room-” He says with a wincing voice, “Didn’t mean to interrupt the emotional fest-- it just really hurt, and I think I should be owed more than just a fancy dinner because of it-”

“If it keeps you from suing me.” Yoongi shakes his head and refrains from laughter like the kind leaving your mouth as you listen to their conversation. Yoongi goes back to resting his head on yours, this time pressing his cheek on top of your scalp when you hug him once more. “But I’m picking the place to eat at.”

“That doesn’t even make sense if it’s supposed to be a payment to me.” Hoseok scoffs as he dramatically hobbles to the couch where he collapses himself onto it. “Y/N, if you asked your best friend to help you move your heavy equipment and this same friend stubs his toe doing it-- and this best friend and you are also getting into a partnership, would you just give him a dinner as payment?”

“Partnership?” You repeat as your eyes narrow, honing in on the one word that slipped into Hoseok’s monologue. “And no I’d buy my friend at least a house.”

“See!”

“A house,” Yoongi murmurs through pouting lips as Hoseok claps his hands to your method of penance. “He already has a nicer apartment than mine-”

“Wait, what did you mean about a partnership, Hoseok?” You ask, poking Yoongi’s stomach to get him to quiet from the tickling sensation. Hoseok actively twiddles his thumbs instead of a verbal. He glances towards Yoongi who responds to his antics with a sigh as he tugs himself off the comfort of hugging you.

“He and I were thinking we’d start our own label.”

“What!” Your eyes grow wide glancing towards Hoseok then back to Yoongi. “Your own music label? Like an idol company too?”

“Well, yeah.�� Yoongi says without a lot of conviction as he shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t know how many people would actually want to become an idol through us, but at least for Hoseok and I it would be a good way to keep doing music. And on our own terms.”

You stand looking at him awestruck, not at all anticipating the two of them to come to this type of business plan for the future. Frankly, you weren’t sure at all what Yoongi intended to do without SoundWave, but you would have sooner assumed he would simply relocate to another company. The requests for him to do so would no doubt flock after a month or two of the current news becoming history.

“Hey,” Hoseok gets up from the couch, phone in hand as the two of you look over to him. “I’m meeting a friend in a while, so I’ll get out of here. Don’t forget that you owe me a really fancy meal-”

“I get it, I won’t.” Yoongi rolls his eyes as he follows Hoseok towards the front door to see him off. You simply watch, still in a stupor from their casual way of telling you that their idea is to create their own fucking company. You wave at Hoseok as he shouts out a goodbye to you and walks out the door. Yoongi turns towards you as it shuts with an electronic click, finding you still baffled by the news. He rubs the back of his neck as he returns towards you. “We sound crazy?”

“No,” You shake your head and let it tilt as your imagination takes over to see an outcome where the two of them operate a successful idol company. With their production skills and overall talent with music, it didn’t seem far fetched that they at least make a small company that runs well. “I think you both should do it.”

Yoongi smiles gently at the hopeful gleam in your eyes. His hand falls from toying with the small hairs on the back of his neck to find itself entangling your own appendage with a delicate hold. “You’re free to do anything you want, angel, but I was thinking--and Hoseok agreed-- that you could join us and be a producer if we make a company.”

“Me?” Your voice barely mumbles the response, eyes struck wide in surprise at his offer.

“You don’t have to at all--I really understand if you don’t want to take the risk of it instead of finding a place that’s already settled, but,” Yoongi bites his lip, fiddling with your hand as he holds it. He finds your eyes as he sweetly smiles “It can be an option for you.”

With the two happy surprises of the day swimming in your chest, you stand in a stunned quiet as you take them in. For Yoongi and Hoseok, despite their respective scandals, you don’t have any doubt that they could definitely make something out of this idea for themselves. Especially happy about Yoongi being able to do as he wants for himself if they start a company. He’d be completely in control of his representation in the way that he hasn’t had ever since his debut.

And his offer gives the same freedom for yourself to create songs like you’d always wanted as well.

“Of course, I’m sure there’s a lot we have to do to get everything going, so really don’t feel bad about saying no-”

Interrupting his sentence by pressing your lips onto his chattering mouth, You let your arms wrap around his neck, silently grateful for Yoongi's hands steadying the two of you by finding a firm grip on your hips. “I say yes.”

Anticipation and excitement ricochets throughout your chest, exuding outwardly in your smile that you find Yoongi quickly returning with a growing grin. Running his hips in lips trails along your sides, he keeps silent in favor of kissing you again, practically bruising your lips with his own. Your hands mesh into soft locks of black hair, keeping Yoongi held in place as the kiss deepens into an oxygen depriving attachment.

Allowing time for air only when your mouth gasps as Yoongi’s hands find your backside and with a squeeze pulls your waist against his own, your eyes open along with his as you both take in quick sips of air, momentarily frozen from continuing action. Yoongi’s jaw clenches shut as you very obviously allow your hips to grind friction. He watches the beginnings of a smirk take over your expression, and stops the teasing attitude to dip his lips down to your neck.

There his trails tiny molten kisses along the skin, searching until your fingertips curl against his scalp and a small whimper casts out of your mouth. Attaching to the spot, his mouth blisters in a garden meant to flourish red and purple by next sunrise, and his hands continue to press into your ass riding up the fabric of your skirt as a moan escapes your lips, “Yoongi-”

“Do you want me to stop, angel?” He asks with a rough timbre the contrasts the soft ministrations he trails from the love bite to reach your mouth once more. Kissing the outline of your jaw, he hums against the skin waiting for your reply which comes as your hands remove from his hair to cup his face and bring his lips back to yours,

“Not at all.”

if you enjoy please, please let me know via ask, comment, rb with tags– however ! i’d just really appreciate feedback 🥺 i hope you enjoy the series, i’m working really hard on it! : )

also yes ik this chapter cuts off right before the smut lsjkdfkfdghg it’s also not going to be continued into the next chapter sO lkjdsffgdsfjkfg if it’s something you’d like to read as a blurb on its own lmk while commenting on this chapter hehe shameless incentive and i’ll try to write it as an additive piece to the story!

tag list (send an ask to be added): @jaiuneamesolitaiire @tsvkino-usagi@xionysus @baebyjoonie @honeyoongles @betysotelo18

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bluestonepm · 4 years ago

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How Has Coronavirus Affected The Rental Market?

Media Distancing – Rental Market Snapshot – Fast Facts Covid-19 Vs Bluestone

Media Distancing:

We should be exercising media distancing when they continue to frequently and intentionally scaremonger and sugar-coat housing industry stories. Most people have a home, so the media know these stories get attention.

Fast facts on how COVID-19 has effected Bluestone tenancies:

Governments eager to appease announced that Tenants impacted by COVID-19 should request assistance from Landlords and both parties should come to a mutual agreement.

While many Tenants mentioned financial hardship due to COVID-19, only a couple of Landlords did, but we know many more are experiencing challenges due to these unprecedented times.

Media scaremongering triggered some seemingly unaffected Tenants to request reductions in rent on lease extensions.

Several Tenants expected Landlords to waiver portions of their rent, but we said numerous Landlords are in similar positions where they rely heavily on rent to pay Mortgages, Rates, Utility Connections and Land Tax and the Banks, Councils, Utility Providers and Government are only deferring owners payments.

We had between 75 and 80 Tenants mention hardship due to Covid-19.

26 of these Tenants emailed us formalising their request for rent reductions with some requested up to 50% off.

Naturally, we notified the owners of these 26 properties.

To update affected Landlords and Tenants accordingly, we invested countless hours over many weeks researching and deciphering the information which was not only inconsistent but also frequently changing and regularly updated. Additionally, some information is ambiguous and open to interpretation leaving industry professionals like us confused.

On the 22nd of April, the QLD Government made temporary reforms (COVID-19 Emergency Response) to the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Regulation.

New forms were legislated; the two main forms are a Show-Cause Notice and a Variation Agreement.

We send show-cause notices to Tenants in arrears who have mentioned hardship due to COVID-19.

The variation agreement is used to vary the rent on the lease contract and also establish any payment plan.

Our team designed Bluestones Covid-19 Tenant Hardship Application Forms so Landlords could make fair assessments of Tenants request for financial hardship.

Only 2 Tenants were eligible for assistance under the QLD Gov’s temp Covid-19 temporary reforms.

Please note that unless the Landlord and Tenant sign the new COVID-19 variation agreement:

The updated legislation still requires Tenants to continue meeting their financial obligations under the General Tenancy Agreement (Lease).

The Lease Tenants signed is a legally binding contract, so breaches to their financial obligations are legally enforceable.

If Tenants rent falls into arrears, the regulations require Bluestone to continue issuing arrears notifications, Notice to Remedy Breach (Form 11) and Notices to Leave (Form 12).

Do you know why the governments are pushing hard for Landlords and Tenants to work it out between themselves, and if they can’t, they are promoting the RTA’s dispute resolution conciliation service and QCAT hearings?

Other than keeping a roof over Tenants heads and Tenants in Landlords properties!

Because as we suspected you have a legally binding Contract (Lease) where the Tenant agrees to pay a stipulated amount of rent for a fixed term!

How do we know this? Because we couldn’t facilitate a rent renegotiation, we lodged for dispute resolution and conciliation with the RTA.

The RTA then called only to inform us that the RTA is not facilitating dispute resolutions or conciliating on COVID-19 rent disputes, because there is a legally binding contract for Tenants to pay an agreed amount of rent to the owner. This info somewhat also confirms that QCAT can’t adjudicate on rents stipulated on Leases, which we also suspected.

The RTA added that the RTA and QCAT could only suggest owners and Tenants agree to a reduced amount with a payment plan to pay off the difference.

The RTA issued a ‘Notice Of Unresolved Dispute’ which is required to lodge for an urgent QCAT hearing.

The waiting time for urgent hearings at QCAT is 20 weeks +.

Rental Market Snapshot

Some rents were prematurely renegotiated before the government passed and released legislation protecting Landlords triggering a decrease in rents.

Under the Government’s temporary regulations, only a relatively small number of Tenants are eligible to renegotiate rents bringing the median rental price down.

Naturally, some owners are worried about losing their Tenants, so offering or accepting reduced rents to retain Tenants further reducing median rents.

International student numbers have virtually ceased, decreasing demand.

A lot of short-term accommodation like Airbnb & hotels are already rented or advertised for long term occupation, increasing supply.

Supply is also rising because some Tenants are either sleeping on friends couches, or mum and dads’ home on beds of nails.

Despite many parents best efforts, some bunkers will take a while to give up the cheap room and board, reducing demand.

Uncertainty within the market has caused vacancy rates to increase significantly.

By 2021 (next Census) the number of renters is continuing to steadily rise with the Tenants expected to make up 40% of the Australian housing market.

Supply and demand ultimately dictate rental prices. The likely winners, in the long run, are Landlords.

With the situation continually changing, please do not rely on Bluestone to keep you updated. Ultimately it is your responsibility to keep yourself informed so you can make educated and well-informed decisions.

Image Credit and Source – https://www.michiganradio.org/post/auchters-art-lets-try-social-media-distancing

Bluestone Property Management & Sales is the real estate agent that savvy Investors use when renting out their rental property/properties in Brisbane Queensland (QLD). Why because Bluestone’s Property Managers maximise the rental yield and minimise the stress involved in managing their units, apartments, townhouse and houses. Additionally, Bluestones Property Management Fees (commission charges) provide excellent value for money, so if things aren’t stacking up with your current agency give the Team at Bluestone a call.

COVID-19 Vs AUS-PROPERTY-20 (Coronavirus Vs Australian Property Investment Market)

Webinar Video – THE SINGLE BIGGEST MISTAKE INVESTORS MAKE …and how to avoid it

Should I Manage My Investment Property Myself

Video 1: Why You Shouldn’t Choose Your Property Manager on Fee Structure Alone

Disclaimer The information provided by Bluestone Property Management is of a general nature only and is not intended to constitute legal advice under any circumstances. Individuals should consider their own circumstances before proceeding to rely upon any information provided by Bluestone Property Management. Whilst care has been taken in best practice advice provided, and the information contained in it has been obtained from sources that Bluestone Property Management believe to be reliable, Bluestone Property Management (including its directors, officers, employees and contractors) does not warrant, represent or guarantee the accuracy, completeness or fitness for purpose of that information. Bluestone Property Management (including its directors, officers, employees and contractors) accordingly does not accept any responsibility, liability, loss or damage whatsoever resulting from the use of the information provided. By using the services of Bluestone Property Management, Clients acknowledge that they have read, understood and accepted this disclaimer of liability.

The post How Has Coronavirus Affected The Rental Market? appeared first on Bluestone Property Management & Sales.

#property management #management agency #investment

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donnadacresny · 5 years ago

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Atlanta, GA – Car Accident with Injuries on GA-402

Atlanta, GA (January 23, 2020) – Around 6 a.m. this morning, a car accident involving multiple vehicles led to injuries in one or more victims on a major highway.

The collision, according to Atlanta Police, took place in the eastbound lanes of GA-402 around the area of Fulton Industrial Boulevard and I-285.

Law enforcement officials, fire crews, and paramedics were present at the scene of the accident. EMS crews assisted those with injuries. Multiple victims were injured but it is not known if any were hospitalized.

At this time, the investigation into the circumstances of the collision is ongoing.

Our thoughts are with the injured victims and their families in hopes of a full recovery.

Car Accidents in Georgia

Hundreds of victims are harmed in Georgia car accidents in just one week’s time. In fact, in one hour, over 70 car accidents occur, some of which lead to injuries to the victims involved. In some of these cases, victims incur life-altering injuries such as spinal cord injuries, broken bones, TBIs, burns, and more. When a victim is harmed in an accident that is not their fault, it is especially imperative that they speak with a car accident attorney immediately.

Your rights should always be protected after an accident so that you do not have to feel stressed. Our skilled attorneys at Kenneth S. Nugent, PC understand the turmoil that a victim might feel after they have been harmed by another party’s negligence. We strive to help victims obtain compensation for a wide array of aspects when they are feeling alone. Please contact our law firm in Georgia to find out what options are available for you at (888) 579-1790.

Note: We have constructed this post using outside sources, including news bulletins and first-hand accounts from outside sources. The details concerning this accident have not been independently verified and so, if you have identified false information, please inform us immediately. We will adjust the post to reflect accurate content.

Disclaimer: At Kenneth S. Nugent, PC Attorneys at Law, we are always looking to improve the quality and safety of our state and have been saddened by the outcome of many accidents across Georgia. We hope to inform those in our community about these accidents in the hopes that they will work to avoid serious Georgia accidents in the future. These posts are not to be taken as a solicitation for business. The information within should never be misconstrued as medical or legal advice. We hope that all involved in these accidents will receive a speedy recovery. The photos depicted in these posts are not representative of the actual accident scene.

The post Atlanta, GA – Car Accident with Injuries on GA-402 appeared first on Kenneth S. Nugent, P.C..

source https://www.attorneykennugent.com/atlanta-ga-car-accident-with-injuries-on-ga-402-2/ from Kenneth S. Nugent, P.C. https://attorneykennugent1.blogspot.com/2020/01/atlanta-ga-car-accident-with-injuries.html

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latesthollywoodnews · 6 years ago

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Woman Reportedly DRUGGED At Jake Paul's Party!

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Roy O. Hollywood. Roy Oliver Hollywood (June 24, 1893 – December 20, 1971) was an American businessman, becoming the partner and co-founder, along with his younger brother Walt Hollywood, of Walt Hollywood Productions, since renamed The Walt Hollywood Company.

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Robert A. Iger is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Hollywood Company. As Chairman and CEO, Mr. Iger is the steward of one of the world’s largest media companies and some of the most respected and beloved brands around the globe.

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Police have started an investigation after a woman claimed she was drugged at Jake Paul’s party over the weekend.

What’s up y’all?! It’s Emile Ennis Jr. here with Clevver News and we’re getting more updates about what potentially went down over the weekend. Jake Paul threw a party at his Calabasas mansion for Desiigner’s 22nd Birthday. He posted a series of pics and videos on his Instagram page showing just how epic the party was.

He captioned the post saying “soo @lifeofdesiigner asked me to throw his bday at my house.. so we turned it into a movie.”

Most likely he actually does plan on turning this into a mini movie for his YouTube channel, but like with most movies, there’s a plot twist that comes out of nowhere and this fun movie has turned into a drama. After the party was over, one of the attendees moms wrote in the Facebook group titled “Moms of Conejo Valley” to inform them that her daughter was drugged.

She said QUOTE, “A big warning to those with teen daughters: My daughter was at a party in Calabasas last night for YouTuber Jake Paul. The house was a mansion filled with young people. She ended up in the hospital with eight other girls who had been drugged and ended up at West Hills Hospital incoherent. Something was put in their drinks. The girls were all half naked and unable to walk or talk. They were made to sign a disclaimer at the door. I’m sharing this in hopes that you will talk to your teens and young adults. I’m sharing this in hopes to help someone. I will be reporting this to the authorities.”

We’re not sure if this post is from the mom of the woman who went to police, The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department released a statement saying, “On Sunday, May 5, 2019, the Malibu Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station was made aware of a possible single occurrence of unwillful impairment related to a party attended on May 4, 2019. Detectives are in the beginning stages of information gathering for the incident.”

Of course, Jake Paul has been notified of the situation and his attorney is speaking out. His attorney, Larry Stein, spoke to TMZ saying “We take this claim very seriously, and are working with authorities to make absolutely sure we do our part to uncover the truth.”

Buzzfeed News reached out and a representative for Jake Paul revealed quite a bit. The anonymous representative said that Jake has not been questioned by police and that he QUOTE “certainly wasn’t involved”!

They also then went on to say that of course with that many people some are going to push their limit with drinking and get sick. Buzzfeed also reached out to some attendees who all seemed to say that they didn’t see any drugs, but they did see a woman who seemed out of it. One said they saw a QUOTE “inebriated” woman taken out of the party by security and another said that she looked “super intoxicated”!

This story is still developing, but we’re hoping that if she was drugged that justice is served and they get whoever is responsible.

It’s time to hear from you! What do you think about this situation? Let us know in the comment section below and hit me up on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube @EmileEnnisJr. After that click right over here to watch another new video and don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and click that bell to get notified whenever we post. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you soon.

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growlegalweed-blog · 6 years ago

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Legal Weed Resources

Check out... https://legalweed.gq/420/florida-medical-marijuana-its-time-to-get-rid-of-vertical-integration/

Florida Medical Marijuana: It’s Time To Get Rid of Vertical Integration

If you wish to re-publish this story please do so with following accreditation

AUTHOR: Dionne Kellier, Hoban Law Group

PUBLISHER: CANNABIS LAW REPORT

Dionne Kellier is Counsel to Hoban Law Group and an Attorney-at-Law licensed to practice in the State of Florida and Washington, D.C. Dionne received her B.A. in Legal Communications from Howard University in Washington, D.C. and her Juris Doctor from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Most recently, Dionne received her LLM in taxation at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

Prior to getting involved in Tax Law, Dionne was a litigator for several years, representing Lenders, Banks and Servicers in Foreclosure actions. In 2015, she moved to Colorado and became very interested in the Cannabis Industry, and made it her mission to provide proper planning and advice to those in the Industry, especially regarding Banking and Taxation.

Recently, Dionne moved back to Florida but has maintained her mission of seeking to help those in the Industry plan properly. She is in private practice in Downtown Fort Lauderdale at Dionne M. Kellier, PA and her practice consists of Tax Resolution, Tax Planning and Business Planning.

In Florida, operators of Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers (MMTCs) are required to handle all aspects of the cannabis trade, including growing, processing and dispensing. This means that an operator either needs to have expertise in all of these areas or very quickly go into business with someone who does and create a business structure that would be acceptable to all included parties and the State. This structure is different than in Colorado, for example, which allows separate, legally operated businesses to provide services in which they have the expertise to medical marijuana businesses.

I lived in Colorado for a few years, and had the pleasure of working with a logistics company that legally transported money and products throughout the entire State. This type of setup is beneficial to all parties. Why? Logistics alone is a force to be reckoned with. Setting up routes and ensuring compliance with both the Department of Transportation and state medical or adult-use marijuana laws is difficult. Each day brought its own set of issues, whether a driver was out sick, or a dispensary had an emergency order that needed to be picked up or delivered, it accounted for a huge utilization of resources.

One entity cannot be proficient at everything. It is beneficial to the businesses, and even more so the patients, that MMTCs focus strictly on patient care, rehabilitation and addressing issues treatable with medical marijuana, while other reputable businesses focus on their areas of expertise. Nurseries should be a separate entity that focuses strictly on plant growth, care and maintenance. Logistics should be handled by an entity that understands the implications of ensuring vehicles, protecting loads and providing adequate security for these transactions.

In August, Leon County Circuit Court Judge Charles Dodson ruled that the State law requiring vertical integration was flawed, and he stopped short of issuing a temporary injunction. This matter has not been settled yet but based on the swift actions I have seen with Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis, I anticipate this issue will be resolved within 2019 and vertical integration will no longer be required in Florida.

Dionne Kellier is Counsel to Hoban Law Group and an Attorney-at-Law licensed to practice in the State of Florida and Washington, D.C. Prior to getting involved in Tax Law, Dionne was a litigator for several years, representing Lenders, Banks, and Servicers in Foreclosure actions. Residing in downtown Fort Lauderdale, Dionne has made it her mission to provide proper planning and advice to those in the cannabis Industry, especially regarding Banking and Taxation. Her practice consists of Tax Resolution, Tax Planning and Business Planning.

This article has been prepared for informational and general guidance purposes only; it does not constitute legal or professional advice. You should not act upon the information contained herein without obtaining specific professional advice. No representation or warranty (express or implied) is made to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this publication. Hoban Law Group, its members, employees, and agents accept no liability, and disclaim all responsibility, for the consequences of you or anyone else acting, or refraining to act, in reliance on the information contained in this publication or for any decision based thereupon.

#Florida #Integration #It’s #Marijuana #Medical #time #Vertical

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completeautoloans · 6 years ago

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Electric Car Charging Stations

How do Electric Car Charging Stations Work? Electric cars global sales shot up creating a new record in the year 2017, with one million cars sold. Currently, electric charging stations are increasing rapidly in the US. According to recent studies, the number of public charging stations in Canada and the US categorized as DC fast charging and level 2 fast charging was 22,000 as at September 2018.

Statistics published in the fuel economy website indicated that there were approximately 168,000 gas stations in the US alone. In this report, the number of gas stations was on the decline due to various factors such as declining gas margins, stringent environmental regulations, and enhanced competition.

Is 2019 the year of electric cars?

The year 2019 seems promising for the electric vehicle industry with various vehicle manufacturers looking forward to launching state of the art electric vehicles. These include BMW, Audi, Jaguar, and Mercedes Benz. It’s worth noting that the price of batteries has been declining over the years with reports saying that between 2008 and 2014, the price dropped by 70%. What’s more, the mass market production of electric vehicles is inspiring more customers to deliberate on converting to electric.

The introduction of long-range electric vehicles in the market which will feature larger and more robust batteries are aimed at calming down vehicle owner’s misgivings on the EV. as a result, this new range will need larger charging systems to accelerate battery charging. Vehicle manufacturers can either depend on third-party networks or construct their independent networks. Their choices will go a long way in determining the future of electric vehicles. Already, Tesla has taken the initiative to build its chain of patented superchargers. While the project is expensive, it is giving Tesla a competitive advantage.

Suggested reads:

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Is getting auto financing after a repo hard? Here are some tips

Our top pick cars for handicapped drivers in 2019

How much does it cost to charge an electric car at a charging station?

There are numerous reasons why you should consider purchasing an electric car. Apart from the massive environmental benefits, an enjoyable driving experience, the energy security promise, and low maintenance, one the most critical benefit are that EVs operates on low cost. Still, some electric vehicles will be more efficient compared to others.

The average electric vehicle requires approximately 30 kWh of electricity to cover 100 miles prior to setting out on a journey. For instance, the Nissan LEAF EPA rating is 30 kWh for 100 miles. A Tesla Model S 60D is ranked at a joined 32 kWh for every 100 miles and utilizes more energy because it’s more robust and much heavier compared to the LEAF.

The Chevrolet Bolt is today the most efficient EV. It features a joined 28 kWh for every 100 miles consumption rating. Interested parties can view the consumption data for the available electric vehicles on the fuel economy website.

Is Charging an Electric Car Cheaper than Gas?

There are numerous financial benefits you stand to gain by adopting electric vehicles. The initial investment cost of electric vehicles is more compared to gas-powered vehicles. However, they come with long term benefits with many EV owners saying that operating them is much easier and cheaper. You will make huge savings on fuel too. Today, the cost of regular gasoline costs$2.75 on average according to reports made by the United States Energy Information Administration.

On the other hand, residential electricity costs $.11 per kilowatt on average. According to Nissan, charging the Nissan Leaf will cost $2.75. While there may be no difference in terms of cost, you need to make further calculations to ascertain the difference. For instance, the Nissan leaf will cover approximately 100 miles while Nissan Versa will cover 30 miles on a single gallon of gas which will be approximately $9.00 dollars. Many electric vehicles allow you to make savings by selecting when they should charge.

You can lower your energy costs by choosing to charge your EVs during off-peak hours. Currently, a home-based charging stall costs approximately $2,000. According to estimates by the EPA, a Nissan Versa consumes up to $1,359 in gas annually. This means you can save enough to pay for the Electric vehicle charging system in 18 months. However, these numbers have only factored in the energy your electric vehicle needs to be able to move around but don’t include maintenance and insurance costs. Still, it’s evident that running the EV is much lower compared to running an ordinary car.

Finally

The popularity of electric vehicles is expected to surge in the near future. However, there are challenges surrounding the industry that need to be solved. From the description above, it’s evident that electric vehicles are not only cheaper, but they are also easy to maintain and eco-friendly.

Hottest topics this April!

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a-breton · 6 years ago

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Is Your Brand Breaking the Law on Social Media?

Ambiguous rules and lax enforcement of resharing original content on social media has perpetuated the theft of the creators’ intellectual property. But that’s changing as the creative class – photographers, videographers, musicians, et al. – are more likely to enforce their legal and moral rights in the growing multibillion-dollar social media industry.

If your brand doesn’t rely solely on commissioned or in-house content, you could have potential legal exposure from the images you use on social media. That’s why you might want to rethink or at least review your social media content policies.

Unless your #socialmedia images are commissioned or created in-house, you may be breaking the law. @allen3m ‏ Click To Tweet

U.S. copyright law provides statutory damages up to $150,000 per image for willful infringement. And, though you may not read about a lot of court decisions on copyright infringement, remember many cases are settled out of court, never to be shared publicly.

Mitigate your and your brand’s risk by understanding some key intellectual property (IP) insights and following a few hints I’ve found helpful even though I’m not an attorney.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Avoid Legal Action: Take Proper Steps to Own the Content

Bots and automation make finding infringements easier

Google Images has a reverse image search feature that allows users to click on the camera then upload an image and view the websites using that image. Companies like Getty Images automate similar technology to find instances of unlicensed use and automatically dispatch letters seeking compensation for commercial infringement. Here’s one way to respond if you get a copyright infringement letter.

Technological improvements will continue to make it easier and cheaper for content creators to find stolen images, and properly licensing images is a simple way to avoid costly penalties.

Do this: License your images from stock photo sites or directly from photographers to avoid potential liability. Use a digital asset management (DAM) system to track your content licenses.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Use Content That Isn’t Yours

One brand’s permission doesn’t mean everyone can use it

Tagging the originator of an image doesn’t give the poster a legal license to reuse content. And given that images are reposted then reposted then reposted, original attribution often is lost. In other words, you might not only illegally post an image, you might credit the wrong person or brand.

Tagging the originator of an image doesn’t mean you have the legal license to reuse the content. @allen3m‏ Click To Tweet

A large fashion publication with 3 million followers recently reposted an image that appeared on the Instagram account of French hotel Domaine des Hauts. It didn’t seek permission or credit the photographer. Perhaps the media outlet thought it was OK to repost the image without permission because it was a marketing image. But fans of the photographer Jamie Beck recognized the reused image and cried foul. Although the publication quickly removed the image and licensed another one from the original photographer to the satisfaction of both parties (and their followers), the incident is a prime example of how the appearance of a brand’s content in social media isn’t a blanket license for others to use at will.

Do this: Avoid reposting other user’s content, even marketing-related content, unless you have explicit permission.

“Fair use” isn’t what it sounds like

People often cite “fair use” as a defense for breaking copyright law. But the concept is frequently misunderstood. U.S. copyright law poses the following four characteristics to evaluate the question of fair use:

Purpose and character of the use (including whether the use is of a commercial nature or for nonprofit educational purposes)

Nature of the copyrighted work

Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole

Effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work

Examples of commonly accepted fair use include but aren’t limited to educational purposes, criticism, and satire. Brands rarely repost images under these contexts, thus their use is unlikely to pass the fair use test.

Brands reuse of images is unlikely to pass the “fair use” test, says @allen3m. ‏ Click To Tweet

Images from or about the news and celebrity images are frequently reposted without permission. Neither is considered fair use. In fact, there’s a decent amount of case law supporting the rights of the creative creators. Even reusing an image of your brand or you may not constitute fair use. Model Gigi Hadid posted a photo of herself taken by Peter Cepeda to her Instagram account. Presumably, she believed she had the legal right to publish a photo of herself. But the photographer sued for copyright infringement, and the case was settled out of court.

Infringement gets murky when someone uses another brand’s content (e.g., product or campaign image) on their blog or social media post. From a legal standpoint it shouldn’t be done because the republisher doesn’t know the licensing terms between the original brand and the content creator. Though, from a practical perspective, brands usually want their content shared, so it’s unlikely that this usage would run afoul. But you never know. Use Google Images to see if the image is original to the brand. Checking the provenance (e.g., did it come from the brand’s website?) can mitigate your risk.

Do this: Don’t rely on fair use as a reason to avoid paid licenses. Create and enforce a content licensing and permission policy.

User-generated content is a largely untested area

Brands love user-generated content (UGC) because it’s free and builds affinity. There are many methods of collecting UGC (e.g., contests that require users to agree to a set of terms and conditions – one of which is giving the brand the rights to the UGC). Some brands rely on hashtags to cull UGC content, then use the hashtag as evidence of permission to repost.

Calvin Klein’s ongoing #MyCalvins campaign generates a seemingly endless supply of attractive millennials looking to become Insta-stars. One might plausibly argue the hashtag is specific enough that a consumer wouldn’t randomly use it without knowing it was part of a UGC campaign. (And Calvin Klein likely seeks explicit permission before it reposts on its Instagram account of 1.3 million-plus followers.) But I don’t know of any case law to suggest a hashtag alone represents a usage license, and brands need to be careful about interpreting it as such.

Hashtags provide user-generated categorization – an incredibly helpful taxonomical device that enhances discovery on social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter. But brands need to be careful in assuming the presence of a hashtag equates to permission. It almost certainly does not meet the threshold in most cases.

Don’t assume use of your brand’s hashtag equates permission to reuse the image, says @allen3m. Click To Tweet

Do this: Even if you encourage your audience to use brand-specific hashtags, seek written permission from the content creator before reposting.

Know the platform’s rules

Social media platforms have distinct personalities with different content focuses, but it’s important to remember most content is legally owned by the content creator. Although Instagram is a massive repository of over 40 billion photos, it is not a free stock photo site. In fact, its terms of use prohibit infringement of a third-party’s rights:

You represent and warrant that: (i) you own the Content posted by you on or through the Service or otherwise have the right to grant the rights and licenses set forth in these Terms of Use; (ii) the posting and use of your Content on or through the Service does not violate, misappropriate or infringe on the rights of any third party, including, without limitation, privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, trademark and/or other intellectual property rights; (iii) you agree to pay for all royalties, fees, and any other monies owed by reason of Content you post on or through the Service; and (iv) you have the legal right and capacity to enter into these Terms of Use in your jurisdiction.

And Instagram’s API Platform Policy prohibits violating other users’ rights. In 2015, Groupon was hit with a class action lawsuit for stealing location-tagged photos from Instagram and using the images to promote those businesses with Groupon deals. Interestingly, the main claim wasn’t copyright infringement, but using a person’s likeness (rights of publicity) to promote a business without the person’s consent.

Do this: Always obtain permission before reposting content. Tagging and/or adding a copyright disclaimer won’t provide you legal cover in infringement cases.

Always obtain permission before reposting #content, says allen3m. #copyrightlaw Click To Tweet

It’s confusing

The threat of lawsuit has forced the largest social media and content-sharing platforms to automate copyright infringement detection and monetization capabilities. For example, YouTube allows musicians to “cover” popular songs without obtaining a mechanical or synchronization license because they have deals in place with some of the major music publishers to automate the process. Automation simplifies accounting, but the artist might incorrectly believe that no licensing is necessary to use someone else’s intellectual property since the process is obfuscated. There’s no substitute for directly obtaining a license and using a system to manage compliance.

The average consumer rarely deals directly with licensing so it’s easy to be ignorant of the law. But the risk for brands is undeniably high. A corporate content policy is a starting point for risk mitigation (and don’t forget to involve your legal counsel).

Disclaimer: This article does not constitute legal advice. Always consult with a lawyer.

Technology is playing a growing role in copyright infringement monitoring and enforcement. Be one of the first to learn about how those issues will be tackled in 2019 at ContentTECH. Sign up today to be notified when registration opens.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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lucyariablog · 6 years ago

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Is Your Brand Breaking the Law on Social Media?

Unless your #socialmedia images are commissioned or created in-house, you may be breaking the law. @allen3m ‏ Click To Tweet

Mitigate your and your brand’s risk by understanding some key intellectual property (IP) insights and following a few hints I’ve found helpful even though I’m not an attorney.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Avoid Legal Action: Take Proper Steps to Own the Content

Bots and automation make finding infringements easier

Technological improvements will continue to make it easier and cheaper for content creators to find stolen images, and properly licensing images is a simple way to avoid costly penalties.

Do this: License your images from stock photo sites or directly from photographers to avoid potential liability. Use a digital asset management (DAM) system to track your content licenses.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Use Content That Isn’t Yours

One brand’s permission doesn’t mean everyone can use it

Tagging the originator of an image doesn’t mean you have the legal license to reuse the content. @allen3m‏ Click To Tweet

Do this: Avoid reposting other user’s content, even marketing-related content, unless you have explicit permission.

“Fair use” isn’t what it sounds like

Purpose and character of the use (including whether the use is of a commercial nature or for nonprofit educational purposes)

Nature of the copyrighted work

Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole

Effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work

Brands reuse of images is unlikely to pass the “fair use” test, says @allen3m. ‏ Click To Tweet

Do this: Don’t rely on fair use as a reason to avoid paid licenses. Create and enforce a content licensing and permission policy.

User-generated content is a largely untested area

Don’t assume use of your brand’s hashtag equates permission to reuse the image, says @allen3m. Click To Tweet

Do this: Even if you encourage your audience to use brand-specific hashtags, seek written permission from the content creator before reposting.

Know the platform’s rules

Do this: Always obtain permission before reposting content. Tagging and/or adding a copyright disclaimer won’t provide you legal cover in infringement cases.

Always obtain permission before reposting #content, says allen3m. #copyrightlaw Click To Tweet

It’s confusing

Disclaimer: This article does not constitute legal advice. Always consult with a lawyer.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

SaveSave

The post Is Your Brand Breaking the Law on Social Media? appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

from https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2018/10/law-social-media/

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crowfunding-blog · 7 years ago

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Godwin’s Law: Hitler and the Paradigm of Evil

Disclaimer: It is very likely that someone has already talked about this before, probably in a clearer way and involving way more science than this humble piece. This is just an idea I had that I thought was interesting enough for other people to hear.

If you have ever read or participated in an online discussion, you will have noticed that the more time passes and the more heated the exchange becomes, the more likely it is that Hitler or the Nazis will show up. While arguments fly around chatroom, citing and correcting each other, someone will inevitably say something along the lines of “Well, you know who else thought that? Hitler and the Nazis”. At which point everyone knows that the discussion is over and that that´s enough Internet for today, everyone can go home now.

As savvy Internet users may know, the official name of this phenomenon is Godwin’s Law. Named after American attorney Mike Godwin, who popularized it, it states as follows:

As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.1

Or, in other words:

The theory that as an online discussion progresses, it becomes inevitable that someone or something will eventually be compared to Adolf Hitler or the Nazis, regardless of the original topic.2

Contrary to popular belief, the Law by itself is neither limited to online discussions nor inherently bad. Its bad reputation stems from its fallacious application. This fallacy is called reductio ad hitlerium and can be summarized as an idea being “bad” just “'cos Hitler said it”. It should also be noted that it usually does not apply to legitimate discussions about the politics and actions of the Nazi Party or to actually appropriate parallels, such as neo-Nazi groups. (Although it is not impossible; after all, the Law refers to needless comparisons to the Nazis, and no discussion is ever fully safe from that).

Nevertheless, Godwin´s Law, due to its recurring appeal to reductio ad hitlerium, is considered a staple of bad debating for various reasons. Firstly, it employs an association fallacy, i.e. “these ‘bad’ people thought that, therefore it is bad too”. It also generalizes the opposing ideas or characteristics of the opponent, ignoring or contradicting the specific features in favour of broad strokes of vague “undesirable”. This deliberate blindness ultimately prevents any productive conclusion from coming out of the exchange. Finally, it is degrading for everyone involved: the one being compared, for the sudden association to one of the undoubtedly most negative men to have ever walked the Earth; the one making the comparison, for being unable to come up with a better argument; and the events referenced themselves, for the reduction of one of the blackest periods in human History to a cheap gimmick to try win an argument.

But it is not the intention of this piece to trash Godwin’s Law. Instead, we are going to attempt to look deeper into the matter and answer some questions: Why do we do it? Why specifically Hitler? Why, when we argue, do we return to the Nazis again and again?

The answer, I believe, lays in what I will call “the paradigm of evil”. (There are probably other more accurate terms for it, but at this moment I can’t recall any of them and so I will be using this one). The core idea to understand this is that we as human beings like to think in extremes. We are always pondering how far can a thing go. We are not content with knowing the height of a tree: we need to catalogue the heights of all the trees and see which is the tallest and which the shortest.

The purpose of this tendency is comparison. It helps us get a sense of the scale of a phenomenon. Let’s say, for example, that right now in your city the temperature is one of 25° C. That might be hot or might be cool; we can’t know unless we know in what range the temperature can vary. If, for example, the hottest the city has ever been is 26° C and the coldest is -5° C, we can positively say that it is very hot. Likewise, if the lowest temperature reached in the city was of 23° C and the highest was of 35°, we could affirm that it is quite chilly.

Depending on the scope of one’s vision, these “extremes”, which we will call paradigms, may include more or less variables. Following the last example, you might also compare the temperature in your city with the ones in other cities; we might think 10° C is rather cold, but compared to the -15° C of Moscow, a paradigm of coldness, we can say our city is actually pretty warm. (Arguably, the average temperature may also be considered a paradigm by itself, but for the effect of this piece it is not necessary to include it).

This is essential to the way we perceive and process the world. Data in a vacuum has no value on its own; it is only through comparison that we can grasp its dimensions. Like Lao Tzu said in the Tao Te Ching: “Under Heaven all can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness. (…) Long and short contrast with each other; /High and low rest upon each other; (…)”.

Let us now turn our attention to another default setting in humanity: morality. We are obsessed with knowing whether we are doing right or wrong. For a long time, philosophy and religion provided us with the moral compass we craved. However, with the advent of a new era dominated by freedom of speech and the marketplace of ideas (both of which I am a big fan of, mind you), this more or less unified truth was shattered. The price to pay for this new age is relativism taking hold of the situation, which meant that all versions presented were equally right until proved otherwise– even the wrong ones. And boy, is it hard to disprove them.

The thing when discussing the rightness or wrongness of an idea under a relativistic frame is that both parties must first agree to what are the axioms to consider, or in layman terms, what are the basic truths valid during that specific discussion. This is not only practical, but also indispensable to leading the discussion to a productive outcome, since only then can both factions accept assertions put forth and reach a greater understanding of the subject (assuming, of course, that both sides are indeed working towards a greater understanding and not just arguing for the kick of it). Sadly, most online discussions lack this agreement. As a result, they degenerate into vicious flame wars, where the focus is less on the ideas and more on the chance to ad hominem all who disagree with you.

Nevertheless, people do want their ideas to get across, so they instinctively seek a common ground. This usually comes at the beginning of their argument, when they present some facts they expect to be recognized as non-debatable (axioms of a sort) and build the rest of the from that. However, in the increasingly polarized world we live in, finding common moral ground becomes harder and harder. A conservative and a liberal can interpret the same information in completely different ways, to say nothing of what their more extreme counterparts might make of it.

This is the problem we currently face when arguing: we want to communicate one idea, namely, the idea that what you are saying is morally right or wrong (usually the latter). Yet we live in a context where there is no definite morality. So, what do we do? We search deep into our collective experience for a common ground, a reference point. We want to find a something, a someone, whose morality surely we can all agree was utterly, thoroughly wrong. In other words, we want a paradigm of what is evil. It is here where Hitler comes into play.

Hitler is widely considered the ultimate evil person. Barring a few exceptions, everyone can agree that the acts committed by him and the Nazi Party were the lowest of atrocities. In our secular imagery populated minds, Hitler has replaced Satan as the representative of all that is evil in the world. In fact, the Third Reich has arisen as a new conception of Hell, with the Nazis acting as the demons that torture and hunt poor souls, incarnated here as the Jews, the Polish and other peoples that suffered under their regime.

The reasons of this generalized mental perception of the Nazis are complex, owing not little to the fact that they did indeed perform the acts they are accused of. Nonetheless, I am positive I can assert without falling in apology to Nazism that Hitler and the Third Reich’s actual evilness has been blown out of proportion. They were, after all, just people; people that committed terrible, monstrous acts, true; but who thought they were doing what was best at the time. As much as we would like to ignore it, Nazis had families and dreamt in their sleep, too. By this, I do not intend to condone or minimize any of the acts done by the Nazis, but to show that they, as historical figures, are not exactly the stereotyped caricatures painted in the media.

I personally believe one of the main causes of the extreme demonization of the Nazis stems from American media. For better or worse, America has been a major player in changing the global cultural landscape throughout the last century, aided chiefly by the movie industry. As such, it has disseminated all over the world American values, viewpoints and pop culture. It is no surprise, then, that it has also spread the American perspective on World War II.

WWII flicks are so popular that they are almost a genre on itself. It is my very non-professional opinion that they are so beloved because they are the last great conflict that could be seen in terms of black and white, before globalised communications and mistrust in the government muddled everything into a messy grey. According to this version, on one side were the evil Nazis, greedy beyond measure in their plans of world domination, not to mention the perpetrators of horrors like the Holocaust. On the other side were the noble Allies, defending liberty and democracy against hordes of fascists. (It helps that in the movies Americans are usually the valiant heroes that come to rescue weak Europe and save the day). What other war since can possibly be qualified in such terms? There are too many records for them to become myth. Not even the War on Terror, arguably the best justified of the lot, was exempt of controversy.

The downside of such epic showdowns between good and evil based on real events is that someone is bound to be the “bad guy” in the public consciousness. In this case, and as I said, not wholly undeservedly, it was the Nazis. Nowadays they have become a synonym to villainy, even when other regimes, such as the soviets under Stalin, committed similar depravities and could be seen as objectively worse than the Nazis themselves. At this point, the image of what the Nazis represent is more important than what they actually were. As Orwell said, ‘The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies 'something not desirable’. Hitler and the Nazis are become the paradigm of evil; or in other words, the referent of the lowest a human being can sink.

As we said before, paradigms serve a function: they are handy tools with which we can perceive the world better. In the case of the paradigm of evil, it helps us measure the morality of views or actions by the method of comparison. When we invoke Godwin’s Law, we are inviting our opponent to consider how “hitlery” an idea is and pass judgement accordingly. Moreover, since everyone more or less concedes that Hitler and Nazism is not a good thing, it is a perfect common ground to support one’s ideas (and shoot down the other’s). This is the reason we return to the Nazis again and again when we argue: they are practical to mention, they are definitely not-good and they are well known.

(It is also noteworthy that with the same logic we can configure an opposite paradigm of good. However, unlike with Hitler, there is no general accord on who this figure is: depending on one’s background and views, it might range from Jesus or Gandhi to Martin Luther King Jr. or Carl Sagan. I think that this absence of consensus is the result of two factors: a) how, although we do have an idea of what is not right, we seem to be unable to define what is right; and b) matching oneself with the paradigm of good might be pleasant, but not very useful at attacking the opponent’s ideas.)

It might come as a surprise to think that Hitler was not the first paradigm of evil, but it is only logical considering our natural tendency to take things to the extreme. In the past, Satan and other such spirits of malevolence were the representatives of all that is wrong in the world. TV Tropes mentions the Nepharious Pharaoh and Judas Iscariot from the biblical tradition as previous paradigms of evil in a subsequent Christian worldview. It is not difficult to imagine the collective groan let out by a group of Middle Ages people when that one guy said: “Ho, doth thee knoweth who else bethought like that? Judas Iscariot”. Under this perspective, Hitler is just the last iteration in a long line of figures against which we can judge our own morality.

I will leave you with a final warning. Useful as Hitler and the paradigm of evil may be, we must be careful not to abuse it. Even if it is a neat mental shortcut with which we can get our point across, it is a mental shortcut nonetheless, and it should not be confused with actual reasoning. We have already seen how quickly can it degenerate to fallacy. When we use Godwin´s Law without a good measure of caution, we risk not only the depreciation of the dark events that inspired it, but also our own arguments becoming empty rhetoric meant only to seduce the masses.

And you know who else used empty rhetoric to seduce the masses? Hitler.

Sources:

Definitions and general information:

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/godwin%27s_law

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GodwinsLaw

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_Hitlerum

The speech of the Judas guy was made using a Shakespeare translator:

https://www.shmoop.com/shakespeare-translator/

Finally, the quotes came from here:

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/39403-the-word-fascism-has-now-no-meaning-except-in-so

http://www.wussu.com/laotzu/laotzu02.html

#godwinslaw #hitler #also first post #actuallyratherlong #just so you know #nazis #paradigm of evil #cite your sources

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iotraj · 7 years ago

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Blockchain Choking Hazard

Blockchain technology has radically transformed and gained traction in the capital markets industry as one of the most revolutionary technological developments in the recent history. The last few decades was about the ‘Internet of information.’ Now the internet is entering an era based on the blockchain. The industry is witnessing the rise of ‘Internet of Value.’ In the era of the Internet of Information, the industry experienced the convergence of computing and communications technologies, while the Internet of Value will be powered by a smart combination of mathematics, cryptography, software engineering and behavioural economics.

The blockchain technology which is also called the distributed ledger technology promises to disrupt industries by challenging how we define value, structure society and reward contribution. The technologists strongly believe that blockchain will disrupt the business and redefine organizations and economies. Blockchain technology is although, in the early stages of R&D and Prototyping of use-cases, has significant potentials and helps create value by simplifying business processes and create trust, reducing the settlement times, safe records of transactions and business agreements, minimize counterparty risks, increase transparency for regulatory reporting, improve contractual term performance and User controlled networks.

Today, almost every company be it a start-up or a corporation is trying to create their own blockchains with specific use-cases to disrupt an array of industry sectors like Manufacturing, Healthcare, Trade Finance among many others. According to a survey conducted by “World Economic Forum, predicts that 10% of global GDP will be stored on the blockchain by 2027.” Even though the majority of the blockchain technology is in the finance industry, there is increasing interest in exploiting the application of the blockchain technology in other sectors especially in the manufacturing industry is growing.

Knowledge and Understanding of the Blockchain technology remains one of the principal challenges of the blockchain as there is lack of awareness and understanding of how it works, especially in sectors other than the banking industry. The blockchain will be able to create the most value for organizations only when they work together on areas of shared opportunity or pain, especially issues related to each industry sector. However, the problem with the current approach is that they are stove-piped – Organizations are developing their independent blockchains and applications to run on top of them. Hence, in any one industry sector, there are many different blockchains being developed by so many organizations for many different standards. This defeats the purpose of the distributed ledgers as it fails to harness the network effects, becomes inefficient in the current approaches that the industry is adopting.

Several big companies and start-ups are investigating the application of blockchain technology for supply chain management and auditing. Recently, IBM and Maersk recently announced a joint venture to create and deploy the world’s first blockchain based electronic shipping platform that will digitize the supply chain and track the international cargo in real-time for the manufacturing industry. The objective of this project was to reduce the paperwork and effort involved in the shipment. It is an end-to-end shipping solution which will give all the parties involved in the global trade a single view of where the cargo is and allow authorities to grant electronic approval for its movement. Blockchain will enable a single view of all the goods and shipping information via a virtual dashboard for the concerned parties right from manufacturers, shippers, port authorities and government agencies. IBM and Maersk hope to reduce the shipment costs dramatically, by reducing the paperwork, providing critical information rapidly and frequently, and prevention of shipping fraud. To learn more about this use-case, please refer to the link here

However, the problem which I foresee might arise say for, e.g., Maersk has their containers across the world. The containers are lifted from London and shipped to Dubai where Maersk��s has its own terminal, but if Maersk wants to ship to an ‘X’ country where it has no terminal and is represented and operated by a local vendor since the ‘X’ country might not allow for direct investment. Likewise, in every country, if Maersk were to go through a different vendor, there might be a possibility of a massive problem as Maersk might have to work with various blockchain technology platforms in each of these countries with the individual suppliers. Assuming Maersk has one million suppliers and one million transit points of its different suppliers how are IBM and Maersk going to solve this problem?

Similarly, the world’s Metal Exchange (LME) is based in London just like the United Nations, or NewYork Stock Exchange is in the United States. The registrar of shipping is in London. Let us assume that country ‘Y’ might disagree to get the metal rates from London. Similarly, every country might come up with its own challenges. For, e.g., With Iran, India has signed a deal for trading in ‘Indian Rupees.’ Hence, India has been able to circumvent the sanctions against countries – Iran, by being able to work out an agreement for transacting with them in Indian currency.

These challenges have led companies to develop their own blockchain platform for authenticating their transactions or claims for a particular currency or product for that country alone since they would own millions of nodes or computers within their network to provide solutions to the businesses and countries for smooth operations and expansion of their business across the world. The idea of eliminating the intermediaries or the traditional cumbersome processes has led to the companies swarming with use-cases using blockchain technology to disrupt the conventional way of doing business and adapt to simplified ways of doing business era of digitization.

The blockchain is touted as the world-changing technology in many ways. Imagine with every company getting into blockchain; they will need to own millions of computers for building the blockchain network or platform of high-performance systems or nodes powered on for authenticating the transactions. This has led to the growing demand for high-end systems which in turn has led to the increase in the hardware, software, service and infrastructure costs. Besides, there might be a potential demand-supply issue to meet the market demand.

However, these technological advancements potentially might lead to server overloads, bandwidth issues, and a significant increase in the power consumption. With millions of systems in use and every node having to authenticate a transaction, it might become the cause of critical outburst for data storage given that all data will have to be stored on Cloud, and the cloud infrastructure shortly might enter a zone where the incapacitation of the data storage is bound to happen.

Johann Snorri Sigurbergsson from Icelandic energy company HS Orka told BBC that, “The energy used by Iceland’s bitcoin mining market is experiencing “exponential growth,” and data centres may use more energy than all of the country’s homes in 2018.” He also said, Iceland “won’t have enough energy” to power numerous new data centres that have been proposed. This indicates that the world is going to face a severe demand-supply challenge for Energy and Power Supply; with the growing number of data centres, high-performance computing systems owned by both organizations and individuals would require energy which might not be available.

Amazon has already stepped up in addressing this issue by announcing the launch of 18 wind and solar projects across the United States with 35 more to come to address its ever-expanding global network of fulfilment and data centers. These projects will generate sufficient energy to power 330,000 homes annually and also provide hundreds of jobs and millions of investment across the country for now and globally in the future.

The next issue is the growing electronic waste which poses a massive risk to the environment and human health. E-waste management is a critical issue in today’s digitally dependent world, where the use of ever-increasing electronic devices are polluting the environment beyond one’s imagination. Only 20% of the approx 10.5 million metric tonnes of all e-waste was recycled. What happens to the remaining 80% of the e-waste un-disposed? Many start-ups along with their Government are coming up with solutions for recycling and disposing of the e-waste. The ramp up can only be possible with corporations investing and supporting the effort.

In my opinion, blockchain technology would work wonders if it is regulated and follows the Industry standard and methodologies. The solution which I am proposing is that every industry should develop their own industry-specific blockchain which is authorised and approved by that particular industry bodies globally with well-defined relevant industry-specific Standards, Policies, Legal and Regulatory Frameworks. I believe this will create a ‘Secured and Trusted’ Industry-specific ‘Shared Network.’ This solution will eliminate the need for an individual company to build their independent blockchain platform and this by itself will resolve many of the above challenges which I have raised.

To summarize, any new transformation has its underlying challenges which could pose significant roadblocks on the path of implementation if not address early-on. However, blockchain technology will evolve in the coming years which I predict to be a ‘Trillion Dollars’ Market, and after all, just like nature, technological advancements will find their way around the artificially constructed barriers as they evolve.

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(Disclaimer: Please note no part of this blog may be copied or reused or republished or reproduced in any way, except to share using either the share feature of LinkedIn or posting a direct link to this blog. An excerpt from the blog can be quoted while sharing it in an above-mentioned manner. Any other form of reuse must be done only after obtaining an explicit written consent of the author)

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Rajashree Rao (Raj) is an Industry Thought Leader & Visionary for IoT/IIoT/Smart Cities, Digital Evangelist, Speaker, Writer, Mentor, and Entrepreneur. While Raj writes on a wide variety of subjects, her favorite topics are IoT Technologies, Digital Transformation, Leadership, Women’s Empowerment, and ‘Self.’

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Source: Rajashree K Rao(#IoTRaj)

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#IoT #IoTRaj #Block Chain #Block Chain technology #cryptography #Healthcare #IoT Raj #Manufacturing

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