#groups will be posting stories through the 10th so make sure to check back in!

[halbarryweekfeed]

Meant to Be/ Found Family/ “Give me your hand. Let us both be saved.”

Art:

@galaxy---ghost: Got Your Back/"You gotta carry me, don't you?" "Don't I always in one way or another?" on Tumblr

@itemreceived: Meant to Be on Tumblr and Instagram

Fic: (See the Ao3 Halbarry Week 2023 Collection!)

Día 6: "Pensar esta sobre valorado" by HisoNao

Barry siente que se esta volviendo loco después de descubrir que esta enamorado de Hal, para fortuna de él; el linterna esta dispuesto a ayudarlo con sus dramas románticos y darle algunos de sus sabios consejos.

(Barry feels like he's going crazy after finding out he's in love with Hal, luckily for him; The Lantern is willing to help him with his romantic dramas and give him some of his sage advice. via Google Translate)

Just the Two of Us (We Can Make It If We Try) Ch8 by @layspotatochipabs

It's been too long since they've seen each other. All that yearning must've led them to meet again, but was it Hal's will or Barry's hope? Or: Hal and Barry reunite on Odym and have fun times together. With marshmallows, of course.

Día 7: Familia encontrada by HisoNao

Hal tiene uno de esos días donde piensa en su padre y comienza a reflexionar acerca de lo que significa la palabra familia para él.

(Hal has one of those days where he thinks of his father and begins to reflect on what the word family means to him. via Google Translate)

@halbarry-big-bang has started!

counter people Ch1 by @bitchyblkqueer

Hal is reeling after quitting the Corps. Good thing he can count on Barry to have his back, right? Takes place after Green Lantern (2023) #1.

Relive Halbarry Week 2023!

Day 1 Recap

Day 2 Recap

Day 3 Recap

Day 4 Recap

Day 5 Recap

Day 6 Recap

[nissakii]

Top 5 anime that start airing this September! [2021]

After a turbulent summer full of different and interesting anime for us to watch, we are now officially rolling into the new fall season with another list of fresh anime adaptations that you can get excited for! Welcome to the movies and series you can look forward to in the next month of September!

If you haven’t caught up yet, make sure to check out Makii’s ‘Top 13 anime of July’ post first!

With the summer having brought us numerous exciting titles, and the winter months ready to do the same, the list for this month might look a little more scarce, but it doesn’t take away from some highly anticipated anime to come out.

Let’s review together and see what is coming up for September 2021!

Shika no Ou: Yuna to Yakusoku no Tabi (Formerly September 10th)

Our first anime will be a movie which has brought us a nostalgic yet refreshing atmosphere through the trailer, with the name Shika no Ou a.k.a the Deer King.

With the mesmerizing animation that reminds of the classic ghibli movie “Mononoke Hime” and an outstanding soundtrack, Shika no Ou tells the story of a seemingly beautiful friendship between a little girl and a veteran soldier who has seen the horrors of war.

With aspects of calming nature but also action filled scenes from the trailer, we can assume that a variety of interesting plot points will be unraveled bit by bit! The young girl named Yuna has a very cheerful nature and is a complete contrast to the gigantic and stoic Van who seems to be playing the role of the hero in this movie.

The movie is an adaptation of the fantasy novel with the same name written by Naoko Uehashi, and will be produced by the popular studio Production I.G, who have also brought us works such as Haikyu!!, Psycho Pass and Kuroko no Basket.

The original release date was scheduled for August, and has been pushed to the 10th of September which due to COVID-19 might be pushed further, but let's keep our fingers crossed that it will air soon!

The Ancient Magus' Bride: (September 10th)

Chise Hatori has nowhere else to go, so in her desperate attempt to find a new home she puts herself up for auction to bring herself into a hopefully better situation.

Based on the manga, the anime ‘the ancient Magus’ bride’ will now be continued with a three part OVA series that takes on the story of the 16th, 17th and 18th volume of the manga and thereby continues the popular slice-of-life romance drama between a young girl and the humanoid with a skull that has been anticipated by many fans of the show.

The OVA specifically is called “The Boy From the West and the Knight of the Mountain Haze” and deals with a new threat called the “wild hunt”. New characters get introduced next to the original cast and we find ourselves roped into a compelling new storyline concerning a young boy who wants to run from his problems.

What will Chise do to fend off this new evil?

Free! The Final Stroke (September 17th)

Here we are again! After three seasons, multiple recap movies and prequels, in splashes another continuation of Haruka Nanase’s story to swim to the top!

After the events of season three, this will show us Haru and his rivals at a whole new stage.

At the international stage, the drive, the pressure and the competitions are harder than ever before. With the past trials and tribulations hanging in the back of his mind, Haru promises himself to become worthy of standing on the top.

This movie will be split into two parts, the first being released in September while the second one is due to be shown in April 2022.

The trailer shows us the typical beautiful animation that is even more refined now, and it already promises a lot of dramatical elements, characters we know and love who will make a comeback and new ones that have that international flair.

It’s an accumulation of all experiences and characters we have seen so far in Free! and this movie seems to want to tie it all together with a final stroke!

Princess Principal: Crown Handler (September 23rd)

You always found history class a little more interesting than others?

Well then, Princess Principal should tickle your fancy!

As the fictional country Albion, modeled by Great Britain and its old name, is torn apart by a gigantic revolution, it is a sly act of espionage that sets the ball rolling in this anime. With a lot of action and steampunk elements this anime tells the story of a princess that works against her own royal blood to become queen.

After the anime with 12 episodes, now comes a six part film adaptation with the first movie already out since February, the sequel comes now!

The tone that this trailer sets is extremely promising, and the oddball group of girls that work together is a part of it that shows diversity and fun in a very original setting.

Hanma Baki - Son of Ogre

Punching his way through a third season, Netflix has announced the release of the next adventure of Hanma Baki.

Hanma Baki trains to become a fighter just like father, starting off with conventional training supported by his mother which he grows out of pretty quickly.

With the urge to become better and better, he finds new opponents and fights them in a no-limits combat style. With the very rough yet detailed animation style, Netflix renewed the already existing anime series that was based on the manga and brings the fateful encounter between father and son.

The feud that has been gnawing between the two will now be shown as far as the trailer is concerned, with lots of the typical bizarre fights and techniques we have already seen before.

The release was promised in September 2021, but Netflix has yet to disclose a proper date, which will hopefully be very soon for all the fans of this franchise!

Here we are at the end of the list, make sure to check out these new titles when they come out and feel free to leave a comment on your first impressions right here!

Let’s see each other again soon for another tea time~

-Nissa

[iamnightduchess]

HELLO QUEEN! Oh my gosh your latest updates have gotten me so hyped up and happy!! I love the feeling of seeing your post updates on my dashboard. I was wondering if you had time if you could possibly do some NSFW head cannons for It’s Gotta Be You universe?? I reread it again for the 100th time after reading your AYA update but I love that universe so much!

Hello dearie! I hope you've been doing well ever since. I apologize for the slight delay as RL is demanding a lot of my time. But, I hope you'll enjoy this! ❤

Reiner x Mikasa (ReiKasa) (R20+) Fic AU Headcanon #13

Universe: It's Gotta Be You (Modern AU)

(A/N: ‼️WARNING‼️Graphic/Explicit Description of very dirty smut with potentially provocative images ⛔ Please don't click Keep Reading if you're below 20 🙅‍♀️ Sorry kiddos! To my dear adult readers, please absorb this post's content with appropriate discretion & maturity)

---------

I've shared more of ReiKasa's detailed Modern AU sexcapades in this post and for this Ask, I'll explore the different preferences involved in their sex life. Based on this post, Reiner & Mikasa had a 10-dates rule before they actually become intimate with each other and that post describes briefly on their phenomenal sexual compatibility. Before they reach that 10th date goal, they decided to keep all their interactions chaste, which only adds up to the building sexual tension between them. These two has a spark that ignites from just a single touch. Therefore, it had been a truly challenging period for them to keep their magnetic pull in check.

When they were in high school, they've only ever held hands but has never even kissed. Reiner was raised to be a respectful gentleman and he's always letting Mikasa takes the lead. He waited until she was ready to get a little bit more physical with him, thus why he suggested the 10-DR. So when did they have their first real kiss?

On their 10th date.

First Time

Their first time with each other had been a literal afternoon delight. Mikasa missed out on their 10th date night because of an on-call emergency at the med centre, so they made up with a lunch date the next day. Sure, they've been clawing at each other's clothes from outside the car to his front door and had never even made it to his bedroom but they really made full use of his coffee table and his couch. If only those furnitures could talk, they would tell you very interesting stories that took place on that day.

Bedroom Jams

Reiner and Mikasa do not have a particular preferred soundtrack running in the background while they're getting down and dirty. But, they'd always have Linger by Cranberries or The Root's You Got Me to set them in the mood for some slow-dancing before revving up their engines for their inevitable sexy times.

One time, Reiner had jokingly put Boyz II Men's I'll Make Love To You on in the bedroom. Mikasa changed it immediately to The Devil in I by Slipknot. It felt like an out of body experience the whole time.

Reiner likes to do this little striptease dance to 90's boyband songs just to drive Mikasa up the wall 🤣 One time, he wanted to surprise Mikasa from work & started grinding against her booty with his sexy moves as soon as she crossed their living room, completely not realizing that his mother had also walked through the door as his wife had picked Karina up for dinner at their house. He got an earful from his own mother 😳

Sexting & Surprises

Reiner loves sending sexy text messages to Mikasa when she's at work or when he's away in Marley for work meetings. The nature of her work demands her to be on-call or be at work in longer shifts, therefore, his texts make her misses him even more. Mikasa would not admit it out loud but his naughty texts do get her in the mood to make a lot of love to him when she gets home 😏 Before someone asks, no, Reiner does not send his wife dick pics haha

Reiner is also the type who'd surprises her from a long night shift in the morning by making her breakfast in the kitchen with nothing but an apron on. Yeah, Mikasa had a good eyeful (and mouthful) of his buns alright *wink* Reiner would also surprise her with a hug from behind when she's doing meal preps in the kitchen BUT Mikasa would be the one slipping her hand in his pants while he's doing the dishes. These two really do love getting kinky in the kitchen.

Gabi accidentally walked in on them one time and poor girl was mentally scarred, she locked herself in her room the whole night.

Favorite Positions

Despite having athletic bodies and fit figures, Reiner and Mikasa do not experiment with odd, bizarre positions as much. Their favorite position is either tantric or golden arch as they love locking gazes while whispering their undying affection for each other (+more dirty-talking from Reiner!)

But when they're in the mood for a more rough loving, all fours in front of a mirror or standing/sitting wheelbarrow would be their favorite positions for them considering his superb upper body strength and her amazing flexibility (Reiner has those weekly yoga routines of hers to thank for!)

Dirty-talking

Reiner likes to do this a lot (even in public) that it'll always make Mikasa goes multiple shades of red. His dirty-talkings are adorable and dorky but although Reiner's very alert when reading the room, he also tends to forget in switching off his dirty-talking mode once he's in the mood.

One time, he was calling Mikasa when he's away for work training. She was driving and had him on speaker. He was feeling a bit frisky and told her flat out - he can't wait to come back home, get inside the showers with her and ram into her so hard that she can't walk straight that his Dr. Ackerman-Braun need to take sick leave for 2 days. Things went still and quiet from Mikasa until he heard Annie's voice from the other end.

Annie : Ram her with what, Reiner? Your 3-inch dick?

Reiner: Screw you, Annie.

Annie: Gross and hey, Armin's already doing a bang up job in screwing me. Besides, you don't need to worry about Mikasa missing you. I just bought her this brand new vibrator.

Reiner: Totally ignoring you, Annie. Mika, c'mon babe, you know the real deal's so much better.

Mikasa: Rein--

Reiner: I made you come three times before I leave. You don't need that thing right? Can you hold on until I get back, baby, please?

Mikasa: Rein, can we talk a bit later?

Reiner: It's just Annie there right?

Pieck: Hey, Reiner. I think you just terrorized Gabi.

Reiner: F**K

Turns out Pieck and an already traumatized Gabi were also in the car with Mikasa at that time. Reiner avoided showing his face in front of the two women and his own cousin for the next 2 months.

As mentioned, that wasn't the first time Gabi had such TMI of her cousin and his wife's sex life. Apart from walking in on Reiner and Mikasa in the kitchen, the couple had terrified her enough for life when she also walked into them doing the deed inside their own living room (They either forgot Gabi was staying the night or had thought she was asleep) Gabi never wanted to be near that couch ever again.

Public Sexcapade

They had a quickie in Grisha's basement during one family dinner with the Jeagers. Zeke almost walked in on them.

Reiner also owns a pickup truck. He likes to take Mikasa out for a night drive. He'll have the back boot of his truck all nice with warm covers and they'll park somewhere private uphill to stargaze. They'll make love underneath the stars in the open air and just hold each other afterwards. Mikasa loves to listen to Reiner as he tells her about his favorite constellations.

Body Appreciation

When Mikasa's body starts to grow when she's carrying their twins, Reiner develops a much higher level of appreciation towards her body because of the changes she's going through. Obviously he appreciates the tremendous increase of her cup size, but he notices every other parts of her that swells beautifully with every week of her pregnancy too. As shared in this pregnancy post, Mikasa had the upper side of her hormonal changes that Reiner was the one who's constantly be worrying that he'll poke the babies in their heads every time she gets in her special mood 😂 see, he's so adorkable!

Sneaky playtime(s)

Reiner & Mikasa would always have a burning fire in their marriage even as they grow older. The twins were not spared from the traumatizing knowledge of their parents' extracurricular activities, when they overheard their parents from outside their bedroom door one Sunday morning.

Miraé: Rémy, are Mama & Papa fighting? She said the F word to Papa. Oh, Papa said he's coming? To where?

Rémy: Jesus, Miraé. They're having sex.

Miraé: What's that?

Rémy: Aunt Gabi told me to stay away if we ever hear weird noises coming from Mama & Papa's bedroom because it means they're having their adult playtime.

Miraé: Let's just go next door and ask Uncle Armin & Aunt Annie about it.

Armin was speechless and red with embarassment while Annie cackled at the poor twins. Afterwards, Annie sent a photo of the twins in their family group chat with the caption "Please come pick up your kids at our house after you're done maintaining Mikasa's plumbing 🍆💧💧" 🤣

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Gosh, I really, really enjoyed working on this. Thanks again for the Ask, Anonie 🙈💕💋

[maggyoutthere]

Storytime with Maggy!

WARNING: Tws in the tags

Just getting this off my chest because this has been boiling up inside my head for a while. This will be a long one so don't bother to read it if u don't want to; this is legit just so I can get it off my chest.

-

Ok so

Some people that follow me here on tumblr know me from the BATIM Amino. I used to be very active there, even being one of the biggest content creators (I'm not saying that lightly I was literally on the Top 15 when it came to that weird reputation points system) . I recently left Amino as a whole because of something that happened there.

So the story goes like this: I was 13 when I started posting on Amino. Bendy and the Ink Machine Chapter 2 had just come out and I was drawing fanart of it. After a while I started talking more with other artists there, making ocs, just having fun. It went well for a few months until I met this person. For the sake of anonymity, I'll call them HWI (it was an acronym to their persona's name or something).

So I'd been checking out this HWI person for a while now. I really liked their art style and this specific character they had. They had this classy killer 1800s style and I'm an absolute sucker tor those. One day, I got the courage to message them with a small piece of fanart. They replied and liked it, and then the conversation went on.

We commented on each other's art, rp sometimes, we became really close. They later on introduced me to their other friends and we made a small group chat on Amino. We rpd a LOT to pass the time and just play with our characters. I remember staying up late just to talk to them about how my day went. I wasn't very social at the time and I had the bad habit of grabbing onto the first friend I could make like my life depended on it.

So 2018 came around. I was diagnosed with autism, at the time still called Asperger's Syndrome. All I knew was that I finally had a face to put on the problem of "being weird"; it wasn't a problem at all. It was different sure but I wasn't broken or less that anyone else. I didn't told anyone online about my diagnoses because well I was coming to terms with it myself first. This will come in hand later so stick with me.

With time I started realizing I had a favorite character of them that I just liked way way more than the others; that same oc I spoke about earlier. I had no fucking idea why I liked them so much it just??? it happened, and I believe HWI realized that.

We had these two ocs. One of them was mine and the other was their oc, and we kinda shipped them so we just made them a couple for the heck of it. I had lots of fun doing rps and fanart of those two but I never understood why. After a while, HWI started acting a bit weird. They did a total 180 on said character, randomly making them rude and unlikable. Now I know that it was just an rp and I shouldn't have taken it seriously, but it was bumming me out a little: the only place I had to vent out stuff and to take a break was now making me feel bad.

I was stupid by making those small moments the pillar of my self confidence. I was in a rough spot at the time and latched onto that group chat like it was the only good thing I had in life. I now know I shouldn't have done that.

I didn't had the guts to step up and tell HWI to at least don't be so rude so I kinda just took it. A few months went by and I finally had the courage to stand up against them. I had realized at the time that I was having a hyperfixation on said character and I told HWI to just not be that rude. They said they didn't meant it and told me they would stop. Except they didn't.

Then followed 3 years of having HWI dangle that character over my head like some treat for a dog. They'd threaten to stop using said character or to delete their stuff if I didn't behave in the way they wanted. If I had an opinion about something and they didn't liked it, they threatened me with that stuff. I now look back at it and realise "That was just some stupid random character why was I so scared and in panic?" But I was young, didn't had good role models and didn't knew better.

I moved to an arts school when I started 10th grade. There I met a lot of people who were like me; everyone had their very distinctive quirks and troubles they were coming to terms with, people were discovering themselves. Everyone was so different from each other, but everyone respected everyone and the whole school lived in harmony. I felt like I finally fitted in, I started making lots of friends and my life changed for the better.

In 11th grade, I finally told my friends about what had been happening for 3 years now. They knew about my previous problems at home and about my autism so they told me that they thought I'd been groomed by HWI. I didn't believed them at the time; HWI had been so nice to me and helped me through a lot in my life. Then I finally took a step back, and it hit me.

I never liked HWI. They were indeed very rude and manipulative, but they had something I loved so much that I'd become submissive to the point of believing that was normal, that it was the way to treat friends. They were 20 when I was 13. I thought it was ok at the time, until they started asking for fanart and favors in exchange for rp time, and pushing sexual rps onto me a lot. They would tell me that they were the only one who could understand me, that the rest of the world was just filled with evil corrupt people and I fucking believed in everything they said. They would bring down the mood of the whole chat with their negativity to the point other people started complaining about it. I remember having a breakdown mid-lunch break when it finally hit me. I'd been groomed.

But, thank goodness, this has a good ending. As I realized that I had to get out of this situation, I quickly came up with a plan. I had tried multiple times to go without said hyperfixation but I would always end up having panic attacks and just not feel well. So the plan was to try and get said character to my side and run off as quickly as I could. I knew they didn't liked the character at all and were just using it to control me so I knew I could do some kind of art trade with them and get the character. After a while of asking if I could have the character since they weren't using it anymore, they said they would give him to me in exchange of some fanart, demanding it to be very very good or either they would refuse to give the oc. I rushed to ibispaint, drew something I was dead sure they would like and sent it. And then it was done.

I stayed in the chat for some extra weeks as if trying to prove myself wrong; that HWI was a good person and this was all a big misunderstanding. But it wasn't. They continued being toxic and manipulative, but they didn't had anything to use against me now. I left the chat and a few months later the Amino as a whole.

So to anyone who finds themselves in a situation similar to this one, here's a piece if advice: get out of that shit as fast as you can. I know there are people who have it WAY worse than me, but I don't wish for anyone to go through something even remotely similar to what happened to me.

If you find yourself in a toxic relationship, get out of there as fast as you can. No matter how many lies they tell you, that no one else would love you or understand you, that only they can handle what you are; it's all bullshit. There are somany people out there who would protect you and fight for you with their life. Heck you find yourself with a toxic friend but are scared to leave them because they're your only friend? Hit me up! I'll gladly be your friend!

People deserve so much more than feeling like they're emotionally dependant on someone else. Self-love and self-worth were two of the best things that I learned to have since I left that toxic relationship, and everyone deserves to feel good and to be proud of themselves FOR themselves.

-

Wow this was... long XD so yeah. HWI is also on tumblr but don't go searching for them. I told them off and that's it. As the meme goes, the evil has been defeated XD I will be posting stuff with those two ocs since I'm kinda removing them from the BATIM fandom and making them kinda just their own thing. I still love them to pieces and want to draw them so so much!

So wow you've made it all the way down here? Have a snack you must be so tired 🍩🍪🍰🧁🥧🍫🍬🍭🧃

[lobster-peach]

The Girls Bathroom

•••

Part 2

Part 1-

This is a short story I wrote for my 10th grade creative writing class and I thought I'd share:)

*trigger warnings*

Eating disorders

Mental disorders

Drug/alcohol use

Violence

Child predator/abuse mention

Implied suicide

After a while she started getting reckless. She had left her cocoon of hiding, and wanted to numb the pain now. Night after night, party after party, she drowned herself in the adrenaline. 

He eyes were constantly held heavy with dark bags, and he step wasn’t always centered. She started missing more and more of our talks, but she would still call me once she got home to let me know she was safe. 

It was Friday, and Vanny had showed up to the bathroom. My heart leaped a little when I saw her sitting there. She looked up at me entering the stall. She smiled bigger than I had ever seen her smile before. Then I noticed her eyes. They were completely bloodshot. My smile back at her faltered a little, but I still kept it. She mumbled my name and urged me to sit down with her. 

    “You won’t believe what’s going on tonight!” she said excitedly.

“And what would that be?”

    “Well, Travis is throwing a party at Amy’s house while her parents are away on a romantic getaway which is both sweet and disgusting but anyways-”

I stopped paying attention after she  mentioned a party. It just wasn’t my thing. I didn't know these people, I didn't want to know these people, and I didn't care about these people. I started to zone out until a waving hand in my face interrupted.

“So do you?” Vanny asked.

“Do I what?” I said, legitimately confused by her question.

    “Go to the party with me siiiiiillllllyyyyy!” she drew out the last word in an exaggerated way.

I again was confused by this. I knew we were okay being seen together, but a party? Did she really want to be officially declared the "weirdo's" friend?

    “Won’t your friends ditch you if you’re seen with me?”

“Well we wouldn’t show up together, we would just meet up at the party! Everyone will be drunk anyways and they won’t notice.”

My heart sank a little at that. But it was sensible.

I looked into her eyes and sighed. If anything I could just keep an eye out for her and make sure she didn't drown in more alchohol than she already has.

And so, I said yes.

...

I could hear the music booming from across the street. Each step closer to the house was dreadful. Every ounce of my being was begging me to turn around and drive back home. But I  persisted. The yard vibrated with bass, red cups littering the blades of grass, and teenagers lied face up towards the sky, laughing at nothing. 

I became overly aware of my body when entering the massive house. It felt like every move I made was wrong. Every move, every look, every breath.

I tried to stay close to the walls, not daring to enter into the madness of the make-shift dance floor in the middle. I let my head smack against the wall in a heavy breath. Checking my phone I noticed 3 texts from Vanny.

“Tell me when you’re here”

“Are you here yet?”

“I’m gonna be on the dancefloor:”

I shot her a quick text telling her where I was and that she could come find me. Hitting send, I relaxed back into the wall. It felt like eternity until I felt someone grab my hand, pulling me away from the comfort of my wall. I was about to protest when I saw that it was Vanny who was pulling me. I let out a soft laugh and let her whisk me away. 

In less than a minute I was dancing in the middle of the dancefloor with the head cheerleader. We laughed at the moves we both made, trying to out-weird the other. But then, everything fell into slow motion. Maybe it was the lighting, maybe it was the music, but when I looked at the girl dancing in front of me, I could have sworn I had never seen anything more beautiful. The way she moved to the rhythm of the now slowed music, the way she messed up her hair, the way she was so focused on the music that it looked like she was in another world.

She was breathtaking.

I knew she was intoxicated, but I moved closer to her, copying her dance. She grinned at me and took my hand for a second time that night. We danced in sync, our bodies moving together like they were made for this dance. She held me close, her hair smelling like coconut shampoo. Suddenly, the atmosphere changed. I could feel her breath fanning my lips. She had her eye open, staring at me in a some sort of haze.

And then... she kissed me.

And I did something I never thought I’d do-

I kissed her back.

...

It felt like time had stopped. All I could focus on was the taste of her cherry lip gloss, mixed with vodka and peppermint. Together, it sounded revolting but I couldn’t get enough of  it. Each movement fed my new found addiction. Until she pulled away. And time started again.

    She looked at me right in the eyes and smiled. I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding. It felt as if the whole room let out a breath with me. Not even that, but the world.

It was almost like everything had led up to this moment. And all this time, we had just been waiting. 

Vanny and I held each other the rest of the night. Dancing to every song that came on until we collapsed. Liquor flowing through our veins like waterfalls. And it felt good.

Just to live in the moment, to forget about all of my troubles, and dance with a girl who embodied perfection. And that's all everything really was. Perfection.

But the morning was not so generous to me, or my head. Everything hurt. My whole body felt like a frozen mess of pain. Like I had been lit on fire, and this was the aftermath. I couldn't remember the ending of last night, but I knew what had happened. 

The kiss.

Was this going to consume my every thought? Was this going to be all that roamed my mind till I saw her again? I didn't know but I didn't care. Because that kiss was worth remembering. 

The weekend felt like years. And for once I was waiting for school to start on monday, hell, I was even excited. But when it finally came around it wasn't how I thought it would be.

When I walked into the building it felt like everyone's eyes were on me. Like bugs, glued to whatever sweet they could get. I didn't understand why. Why all of their disapproving eyes focused on me. That was until after the second period.

I headed toward the girl's bathroom when I was grabbed, and pushed into an empty classroom. A large hand covered my screams and I was slammed into the wall. I didn’t want to open my eyes.

 I wanted to disappear, I wanted disappear, I wanted to disappear. 

But my eyes ignored me and opened. And what I saw was horrific. Vanny was being hit by a group of guys. She was crying. She looked at me screaming she was sorry. I didn’t get it. What was she sorry for? what’s going on? Who are these people? Why are they doing this?

Why is no one else here?

How can no one hear this?

Before I could think of any more questions I was grabbed up by my hair. Some of the bulky guys had come over to me once they had noticed I had opened my eyes. I took a kick to my stomach, to my ribs, everywhere. I was so focused on the kicks I didn’t hear what they had all been saying. 

“You better take this, we are just preparing you for what’s coming. You think you could get away with all of this? You think you’d be safe? You’re so sinful it blinds you, f*ggots.”

My eyes widened in horror. The kiss. This was about the kiss. My heart beat faster than it was before, which seemed impossible. I thrashed my limbs in an attempt to stop the kicks. My ribs were broken by now. But by surprise, the kicking stopped. But not from my attempts. An adult voice had come in screaming for the boys to stop. But the world went black before I heard anything else. 

I woke up to fluorescent lights, and the beeping of a heart monitor. My parents were sat across from my bed, asleep. I tried sitting up but i was stopped by pain searing through my chest and torso. I winced, and laid back down. A nurse eventually came in to ask me how I was feeling and take my vitals. At that my parents woke up, and stared at me with a blank expression. We thanked the nurse and she left. My mom rushed to my side once she had left, and my dad kept staring. 

“They called us right after it happened.” she said with a watery voice,

“ you were already out when we got there but your… friend, Savannah, explained what had happened.”

    She pulled back after Vanny’s name was mentioned. They knew. My mom started crying harder, and my dad had finally turned his head away from me. Now it was my turn to cry. 

    The car ride home was silent. A painful silence that kept on cutting and cutting and cutting my heart.

    When we got home, they surprisingly left me alone. I went straight to call Vanny. waited for her to pick up. I needed her to pick up. But she didn’t. I tried 4 more times, but there was no answer, I slipped to the ground, and cried, for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. And there was this feeling in my gut that I couldn’t explain. And I just couldn't get rid of it. 

    I didn’t leave my room for a week. I kept calling and texting Vanny but she still never answered. I didn’t understand why, why she would just ignore me like ths, after everything that had just happened. How could she do this? 

When I finally went to school, I was determined to find her and speak with her. I didn't know what I'd say but I just needed to say something. 

Walking into the brick building I was greeted with solemn faces, sympathetic looks, and quiet. It was so unexpected but I figured the administration had told the school about the attack, so I carried on. 

My first period wasn't any better. We sat in silence doing our work and nothing else. I wasn't complaining however, I liked the quiet. I did jump however when I felt a tap on my shoulder. The teacher. Her face looked hollow, eyes empty. She didn't say a word other than "I'm sorry." And handed me a slip to the principal's office.

I was more confused than ever now. Why was she apologizing to me? I tried not to overthink it, but the thought lingered in my mind all the way to Mrs. Randall (the principal)'s office. She was wearing a black pantsuit, which was unusually for her. She tended to lean towards brighter colors, like yellow,blue and such. I slowly sat down in front of her, waiting for her to say what she wanted to say. 

"As you know, the attack that happened was unacceptable, and the boys who did it have been expelled."

I nodded my head in response. I would have gotten a lawyer if that hadn't happened. 

Mrs. Randall continued saying 

"I would just like to personally apologize for your loss however."

I made a a sound between a laugh and a scoff. My eyebrows furrowed. But she didn't look like she was joking.

"Pardon?" I managed to say.

Her eyes started to water a little, and she finally spoke.

"Savannah Lancaster… I'm so sorry, I knew you two were.. uh" she cleared her throat and finished with "throat."

Something dropped in my heart.

"What are you talking about…" I said my eyes widening a little and my words coming out in a slow, straight line.

Mrs. Randall held a hand to her mouth.

"I'm so sorry I thought you knew, I shouldn't have been the one to tell you, I'm so-" I cut her rambling off.

"What. Happened. " I choked out.

"She took her life a day after the incident." She whispered.

No.

No.

No!

This couldn't be happening. I felt my chest grow tight, and water stream out of my eyes.

I got up and ran to the bathroom on the second floor, hoping she would be there. I ran, crying out "no" repeatedly. I threw open the stall door to find it empty. She wasn't there. I screamed out her name. But no answer. 

My knees gave out from under me, making me crumple to the floor.

I couldn't see from the tears in my eyes. I wanted to disappear. I wanted to die. My face was hot, and my lips were bleeding from where I had chewed them while I sat in the principal's office. The tile of the floor was like ice on my cheeks. Giving a sting to my position. My ribs still hadn't healed, and bruised in my sprawled out form. I hit my head on the ground, over, and over, and over again. I wanted the pain to stop. I wanted to stop. To stop existing. To stop breathing.

But nothing I could do would change the fact that she was gone. 

She was gone. 

And I just wanted to be too.

[mujihigi]

For many turns whispers have filled the ears of Hingashi citizens; rumors of violence, darkness, depravity— a secret culmination of shadowy powers that work their hands in all manners of business throughout the whole of the One Sea. Even with the Garlean Occupancy, these families found ways to reconvene and keep their ever intangible power in place. These families, the ‘yakuza’ families of the East, found means by which not only to keep a revolving door of power in place: but also a means to orchestrate organized chaos for their very own entertainment.

And it rises, rearing its bestial head.

[BALMUNG SERVER]

From the shadows does the Mujihigi return to the world once more; a single crest that strikes a myriad of emotions into those who gaze upon it. For some, determination and excitement. For others? Fear. (A special thank you to @wayward-whelpling for helping me finish the emblem! Go check out his work!)

WHAT IS THE MUJIHIGI?

The Mujihigi is a b-monthly underground fighting event, open to all underworld/syndicate and yakuza RPers on Balmung, including those with links to gambling and trafficking. But it is more than that. The Mujihigi is a storytelling event, a story in which is open to all who want to participate!

In this fighting den, powerful criminal organizations/families and/or those with underworld ties from around the world will pit their fighters against one another for the glory of the champion’s title (Yokozuna), the riches acquired through bets (IC gil,) and for the honor of showcasing martial prowess and strength in the name of your family (This allows an FC/Group/Individual to name a champion on their behalf.)

Unsponsored Fighters will be placed within a pool of ‘potential fighters’ from the service pits (ie: loners, thieves, outcasts, prisoners who have requested freedom, indentured servants, etc) and will be ‘auctioned’ (for IC gil) to members of the Mujihigi’s many syndications to fight on their behalf for the event (a second to their own champion.) This allows lone rpers, characters who’s FC may not necessarily wish to be involved wholly, or someone who wants their character to foray through the fighting den to make those connections and gain potential reputation for their character.

Each Mujihigi consists of 9 fighters: Shin-Yokozuna (Current Champion) included and is preceded by ‘Hype Night.’

WHAT IS HYPE NIGHT?

Hype Night is an event preceding every Mujihigi that is more of a social gathering of aforementioned malignants where they mingle, place bets, make backroom deals and consider purchase of unclaimed fighters. It is a night of celebration, with performances and plenty of connections to be made.

Bets will begin on Hype Night and end as fighting starts on Fight Night!!

ARE THERE ANY PRIZES?

The person who can successfully guess the bracket results correctly (match by match, including the winner,) will receive a $25 mogstation prize of their choice. (Can be multiple items totaling to $25 as well.) || US & Canadian Residents only, excluding Quebec. No physical prizes, digital delivery, no purchase necessary.

The winner of the Mujihigi will receive a cleaned and colored sketch of their character in kesho-mawashi and haori reflecting the emblem (kamon) of their sponsor by @jeaart, to be delivered on the artist’s schedule.

Information for how to sign up and place your bets will begin on Hype Night!! Can you correctly guess how Fate will weave her story?

WHEN IS THE MUJIHIGI EVENT AND THE HYPE NIGHT?

「HYPE NIGHT: 10/15/2019 starting at 8pm EST」 The Hype Night (08/13/2019) for the Mujihigi will take place in Goblet; Ward 18 Plot 34 at 8pm EST:  Entertainment! Gossip! IC Gil Betting! IC Gil Fighter Auctions!

「MUJIHIGI FIGHT NIGHT: 10/17/2019 starting at 8pm EST」 The Fight Night (08/15/2019) for the Mujihigi will take place in Shirogane; Ward 14 Hidden Shores at 8pm EST: Put those bets to the test! Watch the carnage! See who will become the Mujihigi’s next Yokozuna!

WHERE CAN I SIGN UP TO BE A FIGHTER? WHAT DO I GET FOR BEING A FIGHTER?!

Please fill out the form located >> here. <<

Signups will begin with this post, and end on September 10th at 8pm EDT (or whenever we get the 16th signup. Make sure to sign up as quick as possible, these spots go quickly!). If we reach 16 signups before then, they will close early! If we do go over the slotted amount of spaces, we still want to include you!! So even if there are more signups than spots, you and your character will be offered a chance to fight in a Prelim-Fight for one of the available spots in the real tournament.

Any and all fighters interested will be given a chance to participate in the story, but for those lucky 8 that make it into the brackets, we will be providing custom banners! See an example below.

These banners will be posted in a separate advertisement once all prelim fights have been decided, and the brackets for the tournament becomes clear!

PLEASE make sure you are committed to seeing this through. We will be accepting only 16 fighters, and because of the structure of this tournament, the day of the Fighting could last several hours. Scheduling is key!

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The Hype Night (10/15/19) for the Mujihigi will take place in Goblet; Ward 18 Plot 34 of the Housing Subdivision at 8pm EST.

Similarly, the Fight Night (10/17/19) will take place in Shirogane, Ward 14; Hidden Shores, at 8pm EST with the area segmented as so:

HOW DO THE FIGHTS WORK?

Information about how the fights are run from a technical standpoint can be found here. Cut off is 09/10/2019 at 8pm EDT!

HOW DO I SPONSOR A FIGHTER?

It’s actually pretty easy! Sponsorship is simply bringing your organization/business into the fold and putting your IC gil up for sponsoring your fighter. These details can all be talked about in advance (or also rped out— whichever is more convenient!) A representative for your organization however must be present at both Hype Night and Fight Night. Please contact us (discord: jeaart#6354 /Bryte Darklyt#4586) for an invite to our discord server for more information!

I’M UNSPONSORED, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR ME?

Not a problem! Hype Night is the day where unsponsored fighters are put up to have their “fees” paid by an organization in exchange for their participation. This is a way to network, but also a way to further side stories by integrating your character with another’s in a way that may see their debt paid back either by winning, or by other tasks ordained by the sponsor. These side stories are absolutely important to have discussed OOCly, but that was what this event was for! Making stories! If you do not receive any bids, do not worry! The House will take on your sponsorship costs, and thus you will just be at the will of the Enforcers.

HOW DOES BETTING WORK?

No actual gil will be exchanged. The bets are entirely IC. Odds will be given on every fighter during the hype night. Winning wagers placed will ICly reflect these given odds in the payouts offered. When betting, please look for at betting representative at the desk or Camille Everardi during Hype Night. All bookies will have a [looking for meld] tag during hype night and will be near the desk of the event hall. You’re welcome to send a /tell or RP out the wager in the line at the betting desk with one of the bookies.

If you’d like an IC storyline to occur from a lost bet, please let us know OOCly so the House can continue the story appropriately based on the outcome if your character cannot pay for a wager that was made on credit. [Please remember all wagers are IC and no actual gil will be exchanged!]

On Hype Night we will be beginning the betting simulation! We will post a link to a google document that lets you decide your bracket based on how YOU think the tournament will go. To the person who gets it 100% correct from Round 1 to the Finals, we will be giving away 25$ in mogstation credit!! The link will be posted here after Hype Night ends, and will be kept open until fights start on Fight Night.

We Look forward to seeing you on the sands!

(Side note, WE WELCOME ALL CRYSTAL ROLEPLAYERS TO REACH OUT!!)

(ADDITIONAL SIDE NOTE! We have characters with apartments in the ward of the fight night location. If you or a friend NEEDS a teleport because you don’t have Kugane unlocked, find Tyalo Moro in game or contact us and we will get you hooked up!)

[noramoya]

TEN YEARS OF VINDICATING MICHAEL JACKSON. BY: — susannerb .

“Sometimes there are dates or anniversaries of which you don’t know whether to celebrate them or to mourn them. After Michael Jackson’s 10th death anniversary this year, we now have the 10th anniversary of the foundation of our Vindicate MJ blog. Exactly today 10 years ago, on November 21 in 2009, Helena sent this blog online into the world with these first words:

“Father, Forgive Them; They Don’t Know What They Are Doing…”, with Johann Sebastian Bach’s famous Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major called “Air” and with her explanation why she started this work.

Well, in view of the fact that nothing has changed since November 2009 and that we still have to fight for the truth, it’s hard to celebrate this 10 year anniversary. And meanwhile I believe it is fair to say that some things cannot be forgiven anymore – at least it is up to God to forgive the liars, our human souls are not able to do this. When faced with the ‘LN’ spectacle this year, it felt like we were thrown back to the beginning of our journey and have to start with educating people all over again.

However, what happened within these 10 years made us stronger and helped us to counter these new allegations with much more knowledge. There was so much research done by Jackson’s fans and supporters in this decade that we now can reply to every new claim and allegation with an enormous amount of facts like nobody else. This was harder in the beginning after Michael’s death than it is now. Of course, the media didn’t learn much during this time, they ignore most of the facts now as they did it in earlier years. This is a systematic approach! We cannot rely on their objective treatment of Michael Jackson and all the stories spread about him. When it comes to MJ, they are still not interested in doing the task assigned to them: detailed fact-checking and objective assessment and reporting of stories and allegations. But with all the research that was done by Michael Jackson “truthers” in an almost scientific manner since Michael’s death, we today can be very sure and convinced that we are right! That we are not mistaken! Because with every new fact we found out, our convictions were corroborated. And this is the joint work of international groups of bloggers, advocates and researchers, of which Helena is one of the most important.

On this day I want to highlight particularly the work done by Helena in the course of these 10 years, with so much passion that sometimes her health suffered severely from it. I remember the several public trials she covered arduously, writing posts every day and night, hardly sleeping during these weeks. I remember the attacks from MJ haters by impersonating the blog with lies and fake news. I remember her falling in a hurry and breaking her wrists which required her to stay in hospital for a while and leaving the blog to others, when she couldn’t write herself. The several times of absence from the blog always made the readers miss her very much – because she could not and never can be replaced. Her quick perception and excellent judgment and assessment of things are unparalleled and so much needed in difficult situations when false stories on Michael become overwhelming and people don’t know what to believe. In these times we need somebody with a clear view, with a wealth of knowledge and a good memory, leading us through the waves of rumors, untruths and biased reporting.

Certainly, nobody can do this amount of work on a daily basis for years. We need to stay healthy, we have families and have to care for other things and family members. So the temporal intervals between writing posts became longer over time, and it also didn’t seem necessary to repeat all facts any time new claims and lies on Michael came up. Principally, all was said on the allegations, and the facts speak for themselves. But this year was different. Leaving Neverland and the two liars and their director made us nearly vomit considering the filthiness and the impertinence of their lies. And also nauseating was the fact that the media and the entertainment industry embraced the film despite the transparency of the lies, as well as the fact that pedophilia doesn’t seem any longer a subject of disgust, but of entertainment and a new ideology (“children can enjoy sex with adults”). Moreover, the agenda to bring down Jackson’s legacy became so obvious. Seeing Robson and Safechuck going so far as to present themselves with their lies as movie stars (with even photo sessions showing them as the popstars they always wanted to be) was a shock – not a shock about the lies they told, because we already knew them – but a shock about how low some people can sink to make headlines and to take revenge.

The good thing that happened after the initial shock was the unity and the collective reaction of the fanbase and MJ advocates. And especially that many younger “MJ truthers” took over and stroke back on Twitter, YouTube and other social media, even in form of a great documentary, with joint forces and vast knowledge. This gives us a lot of hope. Helena and I are over 60 now, and we need the younger ones to take over and continue the work. It is necessary that younger fans carry forward the vindication work with the same passion and with new instruments and skills, and we are glad that we can rely on them. Now I would particularly like to say a big Thank you to Helena for her tireless work and commitment. She is one of the pioneers in the MJ blogger community that emerged after Michael’s death, and did a lot of the essential research we needed for today. And we hope that she will be here as long as possible and give us the light we need.

I think we can be thankful that we could keep the blog alive for 10 years now and that nobody could break us. Considering the new law controlling the internet in Helena’s home country, this cannot be taken for granted for the future. And now that a new Californian legislation enables Robson and Safechuck to return their cases to the trial court, there is possibly a lot more work to do and we are far from reaching our goal. But we hope for the best that we will be able to go on TOGETHER! The VMJ blog is an academic Chair for studying Michael Jackson, and it hopefully will exist another 10 years and longer, beyond our own lives, to educate next generations. This is our wish and we will take care that it remains safe. Thanks to all our readers who keep us going!

May God bless you, Helena !”

Categories: BRIDGE To Understanding Michael, LOVE SURVIVES, ROBSON & SAFECHUCK story, The MEDIA, Uncategorized

Tags: WadeRobson, #JamesSafechuck, #media, #MichaelJackson, #vindication #VindicatingMichael

[comicteaparty]

November 4th-November 10th, 2019, 2019 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from November 4th , 2019 to November 10th , 2019.  The chat focused on Princess Pop by carcarchu.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Week Long Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on Princess Pop by carcarchu~! (https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/princess-pop/list?title_no=173793)

You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Remember, though, that while we allow constructive criticism, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic. Below you will find four questions to get you started on the discussion. However, a new question will be posted and pinned everyday (between 12:01AM and 6AM PDT), so keep checking back for more! You have until November 10th to tell us all your wonderful thoughts! With that established, let’s get going on the reading and the chatting!

QUESTION 1. What has been your favorite scene in the comic so far? What specifically did you like about it?

QUESTION 2. What do you think Kizumi’s secret is that she seems to be hiding? Why is she convinced it would change how others saw her? Additionally, how does Ritsu know the secret and why is Ritsu willing to keep it a secret?

FeatheryJustice

Just started reading but I wish I knew more about the poor girl who left her spot for Kizumi. Must be so disappointed later.

carcarchu

@FeatheryJustice I actually have plans for her but it'll will take forever to get to them at the pace i'm going

FeatheryJustice

Ohhh! I'm glad, I want her to be actually really good and it's like the feels bad moment if she just was able to stay in line long enough she would have been able to get in XD

Also so far I don't trust Rain, bubbly girls make me scared XD

carcarchu

ok this is somewhat of a spoiler but goldie (girl who's spot got taken by kizumi)'s entire character gimmick is that she has horrendous luck. in season 1 she tried to audition but got horrible food poisoning and couldn't make it too. basically her greatest enemy is herself

FeatheryJustice

RIPPO I love her

RebelVampire

@carcarchu Just so you know, spoilers get archived along with the rest of the chat. So make sure it's something you don't mind the public knowing before posting spoilers.

carcarchu

Yep it's no problem! Thanks for letting me know!

RebelVampire

QUESTION 3. At the moment, who is your favorite character? What about that character earns them this favor?

QUESTION 4. Given Yuna originally didn’t do so well at the beginning of her own season, what do you think changed how she sung and eventually caused her to win? How will this play a role in Kizumi’s story?

snuffysam

3) Hmm... I'd say my favorite character is... Luna. She's abrasive, but she's very practical rather than just being mean for mean's sake, which I like. Like, I find it interesting that Luna's deciding to be Kizumi's friend even after she (allegedly) tried to screw her over, because Luna knows Kizumi can be helpful to her. 4) My guess as to how Yuna's story plays into Kizumi's story is that Yuna sees herself in Kizumi. Like, she sees the potential for Kizumi to go beyond like she did (which I'm guessing is why she was disappointed in Kizumi's team performance). As for what specifically caused that change... no idea. Could be something like "she sings from the heart", or perhaps a really rigorous singing practice regimen?

RebelVampire

QUESTION 5. What has been your favorite illustration in the comic so far? What specifically about it do you like?

QUESTION 6. What do you think Ritsu’s story is given how cynical and serious she is about the world of idols? Do you think her mind can be changed, or will she continue to suffer through everything?

jaciopara

5) any panel with Luna being a snob in it. Shes my fav. We stan a queen 6) shes gotta have some kind of like,, tragic my parents were celebrities bg or like a bad experience with kizumis kind of hopeful personality

RebelVampire

1) My favorite scene so far has probably been the group session where Kizumi enacts her plan to have everyone just skip solos. It was nice to see Kizumi and Luna work together, and I kind of liked that someone not Luna was the "villain" in that moment. It really spoke to the fact that no matter how nice all the girls might be, they're all also rivals. 2) I feel like Kizumi must have some past as a celebrity. Either through her parents, or maybe she had been a failed child star. Or maybe she was a baby in a diaper commercial. I kind of feel like this isn't her first time singing though, granted probably the first time singing for people on such a large scale. Which I think this must be how she knows Ritsu. Ritsu recognizes her for showbiz way back in the day.

3) My favorite character is probably Kizumi. I like her overly polite attitude, because I kind of relate to that in a lot of ways. That and I respect her attitude to just want everyone to get along. I also like that this is kind of a double-edged sword, where sure she can play peace keeper, but then she get walked all over and dragged into contests she didnt want to be a part of. So I just really like this cute and sweet aspect about her. 4) I feel like Yuna must have had some transcendental experience. Like maybe before she wasn't inspired and that although she tried her best, she didn't have the right motivation to win. And then she met a singer who really inspired her and who changed how she viewed singing in general. And instead of something that sounds nice, she strived to make her singing something that changed the hearts and minds of those around her. As for how this plays into Kizumi's story, given this mysterious Nagato figure, I assume that is who changed Yuna's life. The joke dark theory I have is a storyline ripoff from one of my fave mangas where the singer made herself sing better by tapping into sad emotions. Which she made herself sad by killing people close to her. So maybe that's what Yuna did.

5) It's definitely the illustrations from Yuna's performance. https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/princess-pop/chapter-12/viewer?title_no=173793&episode_no=15 I like the color schemes used, but legit, I am super biased this time in terms of favorites. I just honestly really love Yuna's outfit. I could look at that outfit all day. <3 6) I feel like Ritsu was happy go-lucky, maybe kind of like Kizumi, and then got super betrayed and super burned because showbiz is cut throat. And I also feel like she must have people around her who have put intense pressure that she has to succeed as an idol. So Ritsu feels trapped while also incapable of showing trust. So this makes her cyncical and mean because that is not a fun way to live. I feel like Ritsu's mind could be changed, but I think she either has to be convinced to trust again or convinced that showbiz is dumb and do things that make you happy. I feel like either is a challenge, but I do think Kizumi could help her since they have this mysterious past connection.

carcarchu

@RebelVampire THANK YOU for your long and thoughtful comments!! i won't say how close you got on some of your theories but it was a joy to read them!

RebelVampire

QUESTION 7. Which characters do you enjoy seeing interact the most? What about their dynamic interests you?

QUESTION 8. What do you think this story has to teach us about rivalry, competition, and how people handle it? In what ways do you think rivalry will get the better of the characters, and what ways will they triumph over those obstacles?

redbeanbunny

1. Favorite scene is definitely Kizumi making the plan proposal to Luna, and their meeting afterwards. It's one of the most intriguing personality bits we've seen of Kizumi, and it's cool to see that Luna isn't a cookie-cutter prissy rival. Kizumi is a nice girl but she's not just passive! I'm so interested in what Kizumi will bring to the table in the future! >:3 (alsoluna'soutfitsareallstylish) 2/4/6. I think Kizumi may be related to Nagato, the singer Yuna likes, whether he was a relative or maybe someone who she met up with randomly and joined during singing sessions. IDK, maybe in a park somewhere lol? There's no way she would just be a wildcard singer with no training or interest! Yuna was probably fibbing a little bit about seeing herself in Kizumi, she really made a connection between Kizumi and that singer even if it was just through her voice or style. Maybe Kizumi didn't want to be judged for being related to a celebrity. Or maybe... when she was a child she accidently did something in the past that prevented Nagato from continuing to sing. Depending on what it was it could possibly make people angry with her and she avoided a great opportunity for it. Is it really a coincidence her home is so near the filming site of this contest? :3c I think Ritsu knows about it from childhood bc showbiz and is angry at Kizumi for giving up on something she worked hard to get but was easily given to Kizumi, and maybe she knew Nagato too so thought that Kizumi wasted his efforts on her. Maybe she was involved secretly maybe accidentally and this contributes to her anxiety? Who knows.... but someone is definitely putting pressure on Ritsu maybe forcing her to stay in the biz.(edited)

redbeanbunny

3. My favorite character so far is Luna. She's kind of mean, but she's direct, confident and knows what she wants. Not to say she's not complex, but right now being straightforward makes her stand out from the cast. But my favorite design is definitely Yuna. I think I need to know more about everyone. 5. Probably the last panel of Ritsu in the group concert. Her pose is so powerful. It's so different from her backstage anxiety, makes me wonder about her! (I also love the endcard of Kizumi in a black dress and pink teddy jacket ) 7. It was short, but definitely Luna and Kizumi for the aforementioned reasons. They both have potential to be successful for different aspects and really compliment each other! Like Rain is nice too, but I feel like she doesn't have much going for her right now and it's also a reason she didn't have the presence to bring together her team. Marina is hilarious (I'm sorry for laughing at your suffering Marina but I can also relate to people not pulling weight on a big production T^T...) and I thought the scenes where she was reacting to Kizumi to be great, even if it's more as commentary than them interacting. 8. I think there will be lessons about taking what you're given and working with it to solve problems and move forward. You can only go so far without support, but you can't just go with the flow with others. You can already see the differences in the group elimination. I'm not really sure what the winner of Princess Pop gets, but maybe the girls will find something else out of their time on the show.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 9. What sorts of art or story details have you noticed in the way the comic is crafted that you think deserves attention?

QUESTION 10. Who exactly is Nagato, and why is Yuna so obsessed with them? What does this have to do with Kizumi? Additionally, how might Yuna’s obsession bias how she judges the contest, and what consequences might there be for that?

RebelVampire

7) I enjoy seeing Kizumi and Luna interact the most. At first, I thought they were gonna have the typical bully/rival relationship. But then not only did Kizumi willingly say "Hey, let's work together," but then Luna through a curve ball saying, "Hey, let's be friends." Nothing about their relationship is typical for what their characters would normally be expected to do, so I like this aspect of figuring out exactly what their relationship is. 8) I feel the story shows us that there are two ways we can go about rivalry. We can use rivalry to drive us to a better place and use it as motivation to do better, in a respectful and friendly manner. Or, we can let rivalry and competition bring out the worst in us in the most self-absorbed way possible. Sadly, I think this comic is true to life in that we've seen a lot more of the worst than the best, and that when it comes to competition, we should probably prepare for the worst (and not think ourselves immune). I feel like the characters will are going to overcome the obstacle of having to hate your rival. But I think there's going to be lots and lots and lots of betrayals as characters have to pick between new friends theyve known a short time and their lifelong dreams.

9) I've really enjoyed the inclusion of bits from the last episodes in the new episodes at the very beginning. I know this is one of those things people will feel really mixed on, but I think in terms of not reading the comic in bulk, it's super helpful in the presentation. Sometimes people need a refresher if it's been a while, and the moments are pretty short so it doesn't hurt the bulk read all that much either. 10) As I theorized earlier, I think Nagato is someone who Yuna was moved by and influenced her own singing to the point she won the competition. I would say that maybe Kizumi is Nagato's reincarnation, but not sure that's the direction this story is going. Maybe Nagato is one of Kizumi's parents or something though. Also, yes. Yes this obsession will totally bias Yuna. We already saw it happen since she criticized for not being able to hear each singer individually. And I think the others will pick up on the fact she has a preference for Kizumi and get super mad at Kizumi for that. It's legit probably just gonna make Kizumi's life hell. ;_;

RebelVampire

QUESTION 11. What do you think are this particular comic’s strengths? What do you think makes this comic unique? Please elaborate.

QUESTION 12. Given recent events, why do you think Luna is suddenly interested in being Kizumi’s friend? Is it genuine, or does Luna have ulterior motives? What do you think Luna’s backstory is in general?

jestershark

11. I think this comic's strengths are definitely in the character interactions -- like all good idol competition shows! I also think one of the most compelling things is the subversion of some of the expectations that you have going in. 12. I think Luna is both interested in Kizumi and in it for her own purposes-- I think she's genuinely curious and interested in Kizumi, but maybe thinks of it as more of a self centered move.

redbeanbunny

9. I think a plus point is that everyone has a really unique style that i think matches their personalities, even ahen wearing different clothes. I also like when the artist tries to do something fancier with panels for moments like showcasing Ritsu in the group song or for Yuna singing. 11. I think the comic's strength is where some of our expectations of characters are challenged, while keeping it light-hearted though. 12. I think its probably that she's genuinely interested! I mean Kizumi technically reached out first after all. But she'll probably be okay with some messing and around and manip, but not malicious. Its competition. And you know what they say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer xD

RebelVampire

QUESTION 13. What are you most looking forward to in the comic? Also, do you have any final thoughts to share overall?

QUESTION 14. At the end of the day, who do you think will win the current season of Princess Pop? Will it be Kizumi or someone else? What do you think will become of the winners and losers?

RebelVampire

11) I think this comic's strengths are how it kind of defies expectations. There are a lot of moments in the comic where you think the story is gonna go one way based on past story flows and general character types. But then it doesn't. Instead, it takes you to a new place, so each plot point is really interesting to explore since the outcome keeps you on your toes. 12) I think Luna sees Kizumi as useful. So instead of trying to oust Kizumi from the start, she's decided keeping Kizumi in the competition longer is more interesting and more beneficial in the long term. As for this longterm benefit, it's hard to say. Maybe Luna feels that Kizumi's lack of cutthroat passion to slay the competition at all competition makes her sort of a weak leak when it comes down to individual competitions. So Luna can essentially focus on getting rid of the opponents she feels are stronger first and then easily oust the weaker links, so to speak. As for Luna backstory, I feel she's the type of person who must of had parents who put constant pressure on her and told her winning was the only important thing. So Luna developed a personality that was highly geared towards being self-confident, snobby, and a little bit manipulative, since those are the things most likely that have helped her in the past to win.

13) I am actually looking forward to Kizumi coming to a head with her roommate (whose name escapes me atm). But either way, I feel the roomie is not as innocent as she pretends, and I want to see their relationship pushed as the competition gets more heated and they both come to accept they can't both win. 14) I don't think it'll be Kizumi. I feel like though the experience will inspire Kizumi to go on to have a singing career, I think ultimately it'll be someone else who wins. As for who, I'm torn cause I need more backstory. I think it's gonna depend on who reason for singing is simultaneously sad but filled with surprisingly innocent and sincere passion. I feel like the winners who wanted a singing career will get that. But I think a lot more of the girls will discover showbiz sucks and instead pursue other things that fulfill them more. Cause kind of how we see through Ritsu, showbiz looks glamorous from the outside, but is 100% not for everyone and constantly exposes you and make you vulnerable. And I think they'll also learn you don't have to have a professional singing career to sing for fun and spread music around, especially when the internet is all powerful.

Kabocha

It's gonna take me some time to answer questions, but I'm going to answer them out of order! Huzzah! 14. At the end of the day, who do you think will win the current season of Princess Pop? Will it be Kizumi or someone else? What do you think will become of the winners and losers? You know, I'm kind of hoping it's Luna? Ritsu might have the skill, but I think being showbiz is going to destroy her emotionally. Kizumi may make it to finals, but I feel like she might just step back at some point for someone else to win. Seems like her type, especially since she's only going forward with this because her dad suggested it might be a good idea. (Besides, what happened to the REST of Kizumi's life, anyway?)

3. At the moment, who is your favorite character? What about that character earns them this favor? My favorite character... I like Rain, honestly. She's so cheerful, and has such starry eyes... ...Literally, too. She's a cute. A shame it looks like she's going home. I wonder if we'll see her some more? Maybe on the outside, she'll exchange numbers or contact info to talk to Kizumi.

2. What do you think Kizumi’s secret is that she seems to be hiding? Why is she convinced it would change how others saw her? Additionally, how does Ritsu know the secret and why is Ritsu willing to keep it a secret? I kind of wish I knew what her secret is! I feel like the audience drama could be heightened by knowing what Kizumi's deal is, and seeing what the potential fallout for the other girls knowing that is. In any case -- I feel like maybe she and Ritsu met in school, but Rebel's suggestion of her being a model or celebrity in the past makes sense too. Maybe there was a singing competition for school or somesuch, and Kizumi did well there, but Ritsu understands the stress of being popular and saw how it ate Kizumi then, and will probably eat her again. Or maybe the secret's just as simple as "Well, you took goldie's place" and that's it. And everyone kiiiinda knows that, but...

4. Given Yuna originally didn’t do so well at the beginning of her own season, what do you think changed how she sung and eventually caused her to win? How will this play a role in Kizumi’s story? Someone in her life died. ...I dunno. I don't think we have enough information at Yuna to really theorize, tbh. But I mean, clearly Yuna had something happen, and it made her want to change. So she did. It could just be realizing that the prize money coulda been used to help someone? Or having the career woulda been beneficial to meeting her goals? Who knows.

9. What sorts of art or story details have you noticed in the way the comic is crafted that you think deserves attention? THE DRESSES Gawsh, they're cute! Just... hhh. Yuna's dress during her special performance kind of inspired me so maybe something will come of that. Who knows.

Kabocha

7. Which characters do you enjoy seeing interact the most? What about their dynamic interests you? I really like Kat and Lobelia - and I'm curious to see how they play off one another as siblings. Will they do any sort of duet outside of the group? Will they simply go solo? What if one of them wins? How's that gonna affect their relationship?

Honestly, I can't see that going well in some regards, but hopefully they'll find a way to work it out since they're siblings.

Kabocha

6. What do you think Ritsu’s story is given how cynical and serious she is about the world of idols? Do you think her mind can be changed, or will she continue to suffer through everything? I'm inclined to think that Ritsu just has issues with getting panicky in crowds. It might not be anything more complicated than that, and she's just like, "LISTEN, if you don't do well with crowds, this is NOT THE JOB FOR YOU" But I suppose we'll seeeeee~.

Kabocha

12. Given recent events, why do you think Luna is suddenly interested in being Kizumi’s friend? Is it genuine, or does Luna have ulterior motives? What do you think Luna’s backstory is in general? You know, I wonder. Luna seems like the type who might avoid making friends just on principle. In competitions like these, it would be difficult to keep friendships made among contestants, so it's just better to be standoffish. I wonder if she expects Kizumi to be less likely to backstab her if they're friends? It's hard to tell.

mathtans

I thought the topic for the comic looked interesting and I needed a break from doing report cards so I'm going to participate this week. O.o Will peek at questions before other answers.

1. The scene where Kizumi calls her dad stands out to me, I think because it helped to ground everything in a sense of reality. Having parents is a thing. Also amusing that he was a fan of the show.

2. Kizumi is secretly an android. ... Okay, no, but not sure aside from probably relates to her family. Ritsu knows her from way back, so that makes sense, and I think all of them would hold off on saying things they could use for blackmail. O.o

3. I'm leaning towards Rain. I like her mix of seriousness and goofiness. Also, nice entrance ducking down from the bunk above.

4. Yuna may have been like Kizumi in terms of just going along for the heck of it, until she realized she might have a shot - or possibly didn't want to see someone else win. So that could connect.

5. I kind of liked the Halloween costumes, am I allowed to pick that even though it wasn't canon? Though in general I like how the art flows down the page, a bit like how one's eye would when looking at someone singing. And there's some neat extra arts at the end sometimes.

6. Ritsu may have family issues, could also be why she wouldn't out Kizumi for family issues. She may feel like she has to suffer for her art.

7. I rather like the Kizumi/Yuna interactions. Feels like there's always something under the surface there. What with Kizumi feeling like not measuring up and Yuna kind of dancing around straight answers.

8. I feel like the plan of "flying under the radar" works well when there's multiple rivals, as we kind of saw, but that only works for so long. Not sure what else it will get into. I could see some of the more naive characters falling for ruses.

Kabocha

Yuna? Straight answers!? That would involve Kizumi actually asking a direct question, too XD

mathtans

9. I guess I already mentioned the flowing down the page matching the tracking of an eye. I also think that some of the art reuse is well done, not simply as a quick recap to start, but callbacks to people singing, or in the dream sequence... that was clever. And some of the explanation font stuff (like 'applause') doesn't come across as weird or goofy.

Kabocha: Heh. You're not wrong. She only really seems to have opened up to Rain, and then only in part.

Kabocha

Yeah. I kind of wish Kizumi would come out more with what her deal is - it would save her a lot of drama! But on the other hand, this comic does give me a very shoujo-manga sort of feel, and those sorts of misunderstandings are a pretty staple trope in the genre :3 So it's not a bad thing, it'd just be interesting to see where it went, yanno?

mathtans

10. I don't recall the Nagato thread, I've been reading very sporadically over the past week.

11. Well, the topic seems to have drawn me in. And it seems to have a good sense of which characters to bring to the forefront out of what is theoretically an oversized cast. I'm not great at this sort of analysis. O.o

12. Oh, Luna definitely has ulterior motives, but I think for the moment the offer is genuine in that she sees Kizumi as being someone who would hold her own. And better to be friends with that sort of person than on their bad side. The ulterior motive being a belief that she could win if it came down to the two of them. Something like that - Luna seems to be a strategist too.

13. It'll be interesting to see how the field gets narrowed, as it is the writer managed to cut the field in fifths with one contest. Pity about Rain, I'm wondering how she's going to handle things. Also some of those helpers/employees in the background got full bios, I'm wondering when and how they'll pop up again.

Kabocha: Also good points there too. And yeah, though I like that there's not so much misunderstandings at this point as much as secrets.

14. Goldie will win, in the most bizarre twist ever. Seriously though, uhhh? Maybe it'll be a tie. That'd be a twist too.(edited)

Kabocha

That's fair Math~ And oh god, if Goldie came back.. That would be really interesting

The final showdown is between Kizumi and Goldie! That could be amazing.

carcarchu

Ahahaha very interesting analysis's guys~ it's very difficult to sow all these seeds and then have to wait so long to be able to pay them off, i hope it will all be worth it in the end!

Kabocha

It'll definitely be interesting to see as it goes on!

I have to admit, that starry dress that Yuna wore was sorta inspiring in a weird way. It's sparked the urge to make some new brushes, too so we'll see what comes out of that. XD

mathtans

Been reading through the other comments. Interesting idea about Ritsu having been burned in the past, I can see it. (It's interesting how she was set up as a rival and then Luna became an additional wild card.) I didn't mention Marina, and that's an oversight because she was a fun character.

mathtans

Also, how could I NOT end by doing ships? With so many wonderful female characters? I mean, there's the obvious Kizumi-Rain, but I'm not sure I see that going beyond friendship. Kizumi-Yuna has potential. Ritsu seems like a bit too much of a lone wolf... whereas Reeni could pair with any of them, she's precious. Luna-Yuna I like for the name alone. (Lyuna?) But part of me likes Luna-Kat, having secret romantic walks in the morning.

redbeanbunny

13. I'm excited to learn more about Ritsu and Luna, and I hope some healing from Ritsu. They say that ppl are most critical of the flaws they have in themself, and for now she's still lashing out at Kizumi. Also to get to know the other contestants. I have no idea who the cannon fodder is right now and who will actually stay and make it to the end. For all I know Luna could get booted in the next round (noooo...). I think there are so many ways things could potentially go. And not to be shallow but more outfits for the gals, please!! Excited to see how things roll from here on out ^^ 14. We haven't met everyone yet, have we? So there's still others to consider. And I think that the other bickering characters haven't revealed their full potential yet. We don't even know the interns that well yet and what they have to put in. I mean there has to be a reason they have names I assume others will be getting their time to shine, so to speak. I just have this feeling the winner won't be Kizumi or Ritsu,,, but eh that's my gut. Who will win is one thing, I wonder who will actually continue their singing career. Maybe someone will get an image change (Ritsu? maybe she'll switch to a different style in the future). (Also Kizumi and Luna duet please at some point!). I think the real wildcard has yet to show up, kind of like how Yuna suddenly changed in the middle of the competition. This is one of the reasons why I'm so confused about what she sees in Kizumi (besides the whole Nagato thing and Kizumi possibly being his protegee). Could be Rain even. You know, like those shows that bring back the old contestants to raise the tension(edited)

Kabocha

13. What are you most looking forward to in the comic? Also, do you have any final thoughts to share overall?

I'm looking forward to getting ANSWERS! What is your deal, Luna? As far as final thoughts, I look forward to see how this goes forward. I'm glad I read this week's comic, honestly :3

FeatheryJustice

I didn't have time to finish reading but I have to say I like the concept at least

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB END!

Thank you everyone so much for reading and chatting about Princess Pop this week! Please also give a special thank you to carcarchu for volunteering the comic and creating it! If you liked Princess Pop, make sure to continue to support it via some of the links below!

Read and Comment: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/princess-pop/list?title_no=173793

carcarchu’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/kurumadraws

[coolpolarbear123]

Band Camp Day 1

I think I like this band

August 19th, 2019

Are you new to the band camp series? Well, here’s the gist: I’ve logged every day of band camp since I was in 10th grade, and I’ve heard that I’m funny but you’ll have to be the judge of that.

10th Grade | 11th | 12th | Freshman Year of College | Sophomore | All

This year’s posts: Day 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

These aren’t rants anymore:

It’s been a while since I explained what these are, so I’ll do so again:

Essentially I moved between my ninth and tenth grade year. I was really mad about it, and my anger levels skyrocketed when I went through my first day of band camp for my new band (2015)

They couldn’t play. They couldn’t march. They didn’t know the terms. Everything was different and sucked.

I went from playing every Friday of the season to playing maybe three games. Three competitions a year to zero. I hated it.

So I made a post every day of band camp to rant about how awful it was, mostly for my friends back at my old school could read them. I continued the trend through high school, ranting about how I hated my new school the entire time.

I couldn’t drop the tradition entering college--so I made them for my college band camp as well

And now we’re here, second year of college. Our playing and marching isn’t the best ever, but it’s better than my second high school (though maybe not the first). I like my section. It’s an improvement

And so these posts are more of a log than a rant. Now let’s get into the new season, shall we?

Remember 2016? If you read the posts, remember how excited I was to have friends? Okay, well, I never really went in depth on that, but they were “friends.” I wasn’t in the group enough to participate in stuff with them, but they were people I could have conversations with.

This year, I have friends. Like real people I’ve spent a ton of time with, made a point to see over the summer, and I started band camp with them. Everything from my junior year is weak compared to this

Like, seriously? I have friends

Also going into this year, I was terrified to meet the new freshman. Like, I’ve never truly dealt with entirely new freshman. Not like this

God this is gonna be long

This is all still backstory

SO TODAY

First check in, that was fine. My friends and I are in a suite (a picc suite)

Ate lunch with friend

Went to band

I have four friends. We make five total. That’s five of the six returning piccs. The sixth one is chill and my Mortal Enemy

We get name tags and stuff, we have an all band meeting

Meeting involves the five of us sitting in a corner and eyeing every freshman thinking are you a picc

EIGHT NEW PICCS IS TOO MANY PICCS

Especially with only like thirty new people what

Also every single person I saw that I didn’t recognize until this point I looked at and thought are you a picc

So like one of our drum majors is dropping out and we have to hold tryouts in the middle of band camp so that’s bandtastic

bandtastic

that was accidentally a thing

Okay so after the really awkward band meeting we broke off into sections to have chair auditions

We had to try and herd all the fish piccs and that was Difficult

There’s only six, two didn’t show up

Six returners, six new. Nice

I went first?? God I was a wreck from nerves--I had to get it overwith

So I did

spoiler I’m third chair (how)

Anyway because the five of us are crazy and super close friends, we were wild from the start (or most of us were--I’m,,, not the most extroverted person)

But I guess it gave off vibes because very quickly the freshman were sharing high school stories and we were all laughing and it was fun

I’m terrified of them

Yeah so the hour and a half of auditions went smoothly with lots of laughing.

It’s absolutely insane knowing this is the picc section

two years ago it was the exact opposite

maybe we’ll be recognized as a section this year

i mean what

so the Sixth Person is our section leader, and once everyone is done auditioning, she came in and said “hey, I’m X” (she was librarian from last year, and is this year as well)

Then we went upstairs and had meeting part two about not abusing instruments

we get it

please stop talking

oh my god this speech is taking forever

I’m sure people know how to take care of their horns

then we go to the band room to have indoor rehearsal

the band director ends up taking so long we had twenty minutes of rehearsal are you kidding me

but the piccs did some more story telling and Bonded so that’s cool

we played

then dinner

We sat together as a wholesome family and it was suite

suite get it

okay anyway dinner done did some prepping cool then we lined up at the music building to march to the practice field

but before we lined up we got to hang out as a section while waiting for people to be ready, so that was cool we did Even More Bonding

such as gossiping about band members and leaning into a circle to whisper and fun movie-esque things

Person: *points to person* *all of us look up from the circle and look at person, movie style*

Then we lined up, piccs in the back

marched down

learned fundamentals

Poor New Drill Instructor (NDI) (who is a close friend of mine) she’s doing great

I’m more scared of her than my old drill instructor because we’re close and she could do anything

She’s great though

Anyway she also had to demonstrate stuff with the rest of the drill instructors and I took pictures ahahaha

Some guy in a car drove by, honked his horn and yelled “YEAH GO BAND”

YEAH GO BAND

Some old people came up to us during a marching sectional and started talking to the freshmen and we didn’t know what to do because we had to practice but they wouldn’t go away

A puppy visited but stuck to the sidelines. I wanted to pet the puppy. NDI said “your puppy is here in marquette” rude

I’m Nervous did I mention that

At one point the trombones did a Thing but because they were on the opposite side of the field, we heard them from and then the fish piccs copied them with what they heard (which I won’t repeat, but it was something like d*ck d*ck d*ck d*ck d*ck etc) meme dance and all, and NDI and I exchanged glances like this is our section and we’re a real section oh my god

We did some culty singing things like normal at the end (fight song, alma mater) and then Dismissed

We miss mom and dad but these new freshman are super friendly and awesome, so I think this’ll be a good season

I’m heavily sleep deprived and panicky so this is fine

Next post: tomorrow--be ready for shenanigans

[jinwoowoohoo]

I've been thinking a lot about the beginning of my story with Astro.

November 10th, 2016, 3 days before my 24th birthday, youtube suggested me a video. A rookie group I hadn't heard of before covering Replay, the debut song from my at-the-time favorite boy group. I gave it a watch, and while the original is always the best I thought they did pretty well! Worth checking out their music for sure. So I did. I watched all 3 music videos out at the time, and thought, while they aren't necessarily my jam, I feel a ton of potential from them.

I didn't stan.

I just said that I would "keep an eye" on them in the future (i even commented such on the cover video)

But after I left the mvs and went on my merry way, I kept thinking about them. Just a little, just in the back of my mind. Then like a sign, the universe telling me to go back, to give them a second chance, I saw a post on here. Just an ask, something not really meant for me at all. The asker saying that you should stan Sanha because he is "soft like mash potato", and the askee replying "they all are tbh". It was such a silly, innocuous statement, but it piqued my interest. It was enough to make me look them up again. And what I found the second time were 1) the dance practices and 2) Puss in Boots.

Literally as soon as I saw their choreography, my response was "why did nobody tell me they could dance like that????" I was honestly a little miffed I hadn't seen/noticed their choreo more in the videos, it was so creative and energetic and such a pleasure to watch, not like any other choreo I had seen. I became obsessed with those two practice videos (seriously I'm sure I watched them approx. 1 Billion times)

I also became obsessed with the song Puss in Boots. While I had thought their other title tracks were fine on first listen, this was absolutely my jam right away, and changed my whole view on them.

From there I was interested enough to read through their whole wiki page, where I found out about To Be Continued and OK!Ready. I decided to jump into the latter right away (rip dramafever... you did a lot for my baby roha self). I didnt know anything about the members. I didnt know a single person's name. I didnt understand a lot of the jokes. But, I fell in love anyway. Immediately after finishing OkR I marathoned TBC, which I also loved a whole lot (and still do). From there I started watching any video I could find, and once I got into their Weekly Idol vids, I knew I'd be here a while. (my first post about them ever was their heights on weekly idol haha)

I remember, somewhere in between all of that, days at my previous apartment, the first one I ever lived in (with my very best friend) sitting in our living room watching  Breathless on repeat on our big tv. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize they were the bottles - I was just so mesmerized by the colors! And the cute and happy! The best friend i mentioned had already gone though my dive into f(x), and then a month later Shinee. And now here I was yet again, a few months more, with the third loves of my life (though I had no idea how deep it would go just yet).

I dont know why I remember this, but I remember very clearly watching the Breathless video for the umpteenth time, and that friend coming in, and my saying to her "this is a group called Astro". It was, yet again, just an innocuous thing. Something small, inconsequential. But I knew as I was saying it that it wasnt inconsequential. That it was another turning point for me, in my realizing how much they were creeping into the open spaces in my heart.

Now, 2 years and 3 months later, I am so grateful for every little thing that fell into place to bring these 6 boys into my life. For the youtube algorithm, to show me their cover the day it released. For the Aroha who sent that ask, and the one who replied. For fantagio, who scouted these stars and brought them together in the first place.

While they may not have helped me through the darkest points of my life like some other Aroha, they have brought more brightness than I ever thought possible. They are a constant reminder that there is good in this world. That there is kindness, and softness, and hope for the future. Even when everything looks desolate and terrible, Astro are always there, trucking on, continuing to push forward. And I am so, so very thankful for that.

Happy 3 years to our 6 shining stars, and to all the shining Aroha who welcomed me with open arms and helped give me a home, to be openly excited about things and have someone to be excited with. You all keep me sane 💖

[vicehectic]

Vongola Vigilantes (4/?)

Based on this post I made a while ago, or you know, just this:

“…instead of Class 1-A and the Vongola 10th gen being the same age, the Vongola are a long established vigilante group that’s a pain in police’s and villain’s sides (most heroes either have neutral opinions or quietly agree with the Vongola) while Izuku loves them and is their number one fanboy.”

Parts 1 / 2 / 3 / ?

Also on AO3

_________________

Sawada Tsunayoshi can barely feel his lungs as his feet pound into the ground, his short legs taking too long leaps for their length, but it doesn't matter to Tsuna. All that matters right now is that he gets to him.

It's one of those examples of a mother that gets the strength to lift a car that’s trapped their child when you consider how Tsuna’s stick legs got him this far.

Tsuna stops even though he’s so close because the front gate is crowded with reporters, to the point that Tsuna can barely see the school building through the cracks between people.

Tsuna throws his hands to his front pockets, then his back, and then around his whole body until he finds his phone in the side pocket of his cargo pants, trembling hands rushing to unlock it. Before Tsuna can even turn the dang thing on, a hand comes to his shoulder and Tsuna doesn’t jump ten feet into the air, thank you very much.

“Are you a parent?” an unphased gruff voice asks, somewhat muffled for a reason that Tsuna can’t quite place from just hearing it.

Tsuna whirls around immediately, trying to meet covered eyes, but he unintentionally focuses on the ridiculous over-the-top mask on the man’s face, “Yes! Err, no! Kinda?” he stutters through his words, “I'm a guardian! My ward is a student here! Class 3-A!”

The man, a hero - Tsuna briefly realizes, turns on his heel, his cloak flying out behind him, “Follow me.” 

Tsuna swears he hears the snide whisper of “civilians”, but he isn’t so sure to call him out on it. 

The hero leads him to a side entrance at a pace that is too slow for Tsuna's liking but he doesn't say anything to rush the hero. Tsuna, rather, decides to ask, “Can I ask what happened?” It's a rather harmless question compared to the first thought of "can you go any slower?"

The hero doesn’t even bother to turn back to reply, “There will be an official report later. We have the situation under control. We just ask that you pick up your… ward and go.”

Tsuna frowns, hating how standoffish and rude the hero is but knows that this isn’t the place or time. 

Everything inside Tsuna jitters with impatience.

The crowd at the side entrance is smaller in comparison to the crowd of reporters and is constantly moving with people who are coming and going. The school’s pro-heroes seemed to have set up some kind of temporary area for family to pick up their children. There are groups of students and adults with their children holding up tablets to seemingly sign them out. The hero stops right at the entrance and picks up a tablet from a table, and briefly Tsuna wonders just how much money the school has to have all these tablets, but the hero’s gruff voice jolts him out of his thoughts, “The name of the student?”

Tsuna almost shouts the name, “Bovino Lambo! Class 3-A!”

The hero stops and immediately snaps his head up, “You’re… Bovino’s guardian?”

Tsuna almost wants to laugh at the irony of that but nods, “Yes! Is he okay?” he ignores it because his anxiety is through the roof.

The hero nods almost flustered under all the layers and covers his costume gives him, “No, no, he’s completely fine. I’ll just have someone get him-”

“Tsuna-nii!”

Tsuna immediately throws open his arms and wraps his arms around a lanky form that smells of grapes, “Lambo,” Tsuna practically whimpers. His knees grow weak in relief and Lambo is gently setting the both of them onto the ground. Tsuna pulls back just enough so he can cradle Lambo’s face in his hands, “Lambo, I was so worried. Are you okay- what happened? Do we need to call-”?

“I’m fine Tsuna-nii,” Lambo says, his voice warm, putting his hands over Tsuna’s, “It wasn’t even my class and I was at the main campus. My classmates and I were sent out to watch the other classes with the civilian teachers when the heroes got the news. I’m completely fine.”

Tsuna finally feels like he’s breathing and presses his forehead against Lambo’s heart, “Oh thank god.”

“Aa, if it isn’t Tsuna-san making a scene in the middle of the sidewalk.”

Tsuna looks up frantically and see the eyes of students, adults, heroes, and police that watch him and Lambo; his face flushed red, “Iieee!” he yelps and jumps up.

Lambo sighs and pulls himself up to stand at Tsuna’s side - and that is so, so, reassuring -, “Fran, what are you doing here?” he calls out to his childhood friend.

Tsuna turns on his heel to see the apathetic, teal-haired, young adult wearing a hoodie and jeans standing there with a bored expression, “Fran! Are you doing okay too?” He immediately rushes to the man who is, sadly, just a bit taller than him and checks the thin man all over, “Has Rokudo-san been contacted? Do you need me to take you home?” 

Fran lazily just lets Tsuna fuss over him, knowing better than to resist as it’s much faster to go along with Tsuna when he’s like this, “I’m fine. Power Loader wouldn’t even let me get out of the class. Chrome-nee-san is here so I’ll be going home with her once everything is settled.” Before Tsuna could even open his mouth, Fran continued, “And Chrome-nee-san is perfectly fine.”

Tsuna manages a small smile, “I’m glad. I don’t know what I would have done if you two were injured.” And that’s the complete truth - Tsuna would have been lost if his younger brother and Lambo’s childhood friend, that he’s been acquainted with since he was a child, were gone. 

“Bovino, you ran off before you could finish your sign out sheet,” a voice calls out from behind Tsuna, “What happened?”

Lambo lets out a sheepish chuckle as he turns on his heel, “Sorry Midnight-sensei, my brother came to pick me up.”

Tsuna turns and briefly takes in the 18+ hero before he reels back to gape at Lambo, “You thought I wouldn’t come to pick you up?” he asks horrified.

Lambo shrugs, avoiding his gaze, “Well I knew you had work and you weren’t answering your phone so I just kinda assumed…” he trails off, his voice growing weaker, knowing how weak that excuse is.

Tsuna grabs at his brother’s upper arms, “Lambo, you are more important than my work. As soon as Chieko-san showed me the news I just ran out without thinking. I’m sorry that I didn’t answer my phone, but you have to know that I’m always going to be here for you.”

A hand lands on his shoulder and a woman lets out a low laugh, “Wise words from a caring man. It’s a shame I’m not exactly into that.” Shivers goes down his spine, standing frozen, as lips come close to his ear, “Such a sweet brotherly love,” hot air brushes the shell of his ear.

Tsuna is pulled away as his heart beats out of his chest and his face flushes a complete red. “Midnight-sensei, what the hell?” Lambo shouts for his defense as he stands between his teacher and his brother.

Midnight just licks her lips and winks, “Calm down Bovino, it’s just a little bit of teasing.”

Fran’s deadpan voice cuts through Midnight’s and Lambo’s bickering, “It’s impossible to me that she has never been arrested for harassment.”

Tsuna’s blood is still rushing in his ears but the hole in his stomach is no longer there. 

And that’s all that matters.

  _________________

“Yuuei Academy’s first year hero class, Class 1-A, was attacked at the school’s Unforeseen Simulation Joint, or USJ for short, by a group calling themselves the League of Villains-”

  _________________

“-hero students at Yuuei were saved by the Vongola!”

  _________________

“-the police are saying little on the matter-”

  _________________

“-luckily not many were harmed. The two teachers were easily treated by Pro Hero Recovery Girl and the only student injured sustained a broken finger.”

  _________________

“Can you believe this school? How lax does the security have to be to allow villains in-?”

  _________________

“The name of students involved are not being released to the public and the press is being pushed away before they can even come close to Yuuei!”

  _________________

“-people are asking how the Vongola knew about the League-”

  _________________

“Those two are alright right?” Haru asks with her hands on her hips, “Didn’t do anything stupid hahi?” 

I-Pin, who had been pacing the entire shop and had been so distressed that she wasn’t allowed to work for the afternoon, finally lets out a long sigh, “Yeah. They finally responded to our chat. Tsuna-san picked up Lambo and Chrome-san and Fran will be going home together once Yuuei clears out.” She runs a hand through her hair, “What did we expect though? Fran and Lambo are always the one who make Futa and I lose years off our life.”

“Haha, you make it sound like you don’t do the same to Futa-kun sometimes.” Yamamoto doesn’t stop laughing even at I-Pin’s sharp glare and Haru’s telling look. 

“You seriously never know when to shut up, do you?” Hana drawls as she primly shoves a piece of nigiri into her mouth. She points her chopsticks at I-Pin after she swallows, “But from the stories I’ve heard, he seems to have a point.”

I-Pin blushes a bright pink. “They’re very persuasive when they want to be,” she says weakly in her defense, like a child who was caught with their hand in the cookie jar. 

Hana hands Haru’s phone back to her, her eyes lingering on the picture of Yuuei Academy in the article before she turns back to the sushi in front of her, “You four are childhood friends, right?”

I-Pin brightens up immediately, “Yeah! Ever since Lambo and I were five. But it kinda feels like we’re still kids even though half of us are full-fledged adults.” And isn’t that the truth. This time next year, Lambo will be a pro-hero and I-Pin will, hopefully, be in the roster for nationals. They’ll be on their own soon. 

Haru giggles at that, “Kyoko, Hana, Chrome, and I felt the same way when we graduated University.” She remembers flashes of the days when they used to room together for the four years of their schooling. 

I-Pin seems to perk up at that, her expression as curious but no one in their little groups gets to say anything. 

“Yamamoto-kun, do you mind turning the news on?” a voice calls across the nearly empty shop, “I think channel 5 is doing an update on Yuuei right now!” It’s a customer and the three workers at Takesushi turn at the call. He’s a regular that is known for getting somewhat rowdy when he’s downed a couple drinks but always leaves with a cordial promise to come back when asked to leave. 

“Yuuei?” another customer asks from a different table with a furrowed brow, “Did something happen at Yuuei?” This customer isn’t quite as familiar but Haru swears she’s seen the exact assemble of a Best Jeanist jean jacket and Gang Orca t-shirt underneath on this woman. 

The regular barks out loud, “Haven’t you seen the news? Yuuei was attacked by some kinda gang of villains! Yuuei is being awfully quiet about it - probably don’t have an excuse for the way they put those kids into danger.” He’s the typical middle-aged man that doesn’t makes his own opinions and is too lazy to actually look into issues; he just takes news at its face value and believes.

Murmurs start across the shop and I-Pin’s face is pinched in distress. I-Pin may not go to Yuuei, but she’s heard a lot about it from Lambo and Fran to know that the teachers and heroes there are dedicated to their students. This is an isolated incident, she’s sure of that even though the two idiots haven’t exactly said anything to her. Just as I-Pin’s about to open her mouth and start a shouting match (she’s justified alright? She just spent hours stressing about if her two best friends were injured or even dead) Hana sets her empty tea cup down loud enough to silence the shop. 

The customers are stunned into silence as Hana’s attention-grabbing voice speaks, “Actually, Yuuei isn’t allowed to make a statement immediately because of the involvement of minors. A couple years back there was an incident at a school that wasn’t quite on this scale but after the school made too quick of a statement parents began to sue the school for releasing information about their children without their permission just because they wanted to save face.” Hana doesn’t even turn her head as she gestures for Haru to pour more tea into her cup, “Yuuei is legally not allowed to say anything without getting the facts straight with their students, the witnesses, the police, and the guardians of the students involved unless they want to face repercussions.” She gives the regular a sharp look, “Educate yourself before making wild assumptions.”

The regular sputters but Hana just turns back and puts another piece of sushi into her mouth.

Haru giggles quietly as she rubs shoulders with Hana, “Did you not get enough sleep last night?” At Hana’s dead look she knows she’s a hundred percent right. 

“Did you get that case settled?” Yamamoto finally speaks up again, in a low voice that can’t be heard over the jeers the customers are making at each other and the gossip of Yuuei.

Hana’s dull eyes become focused and she frowns, “Uncharacteristic of you to actually act like a monkey.”

Yamamoto laughs, “What are you talking about? You were complaining about a difficult case last time you were here right?”

Hana eyes flicker to the smile on the man’s face before looking into his eyes, “Don’t be stupid.”

“It’s hard to break bad habits you know,” Yamamoto says with mirth, “I never was very good at school.”

The two don’t look away from each other, one smiling and the other glowering. 

I-Pin takes the liberty to interject, changing the subject, “Yeah, when I ask Takeshi-nii for help with my homework he just says something like, ‘well you do whoosh! Boom! And bam!’” She crosses her arms across her chest, “It’s annoying.”

Haru brightens up, “I would love to help you with your homework if you want me to!”

I-Pin sticks her tongue out, “And have to learn from a genius that already knows the answer just from glancing at it? No way! I’d never learn anything. Geniuses are the worst teachers.”

Haru gasps dramatically, “Hahi? Excuse you, I am a great teacher! Hana-chan, tell her!”

Before Haru can entirely drag Hana’s attention away, Hana sends one last look at Yamamoto with a promise.

This isn’t over.

But Yamamoto just laughs that carefree laugh. 

  _________________

A League of Villains Attacking Yuuei

Written by: Sasagawa Kyoko

According to the Musutafu Police Department, at approximately 2:22 PM earlier today, a large group of villains infiltrated the top hero academy in the nation: Yuuei Academy. While twenty students of Yuuei’s hero course were training in their training facility known as the Unforeseen Simulation Joint (USJ), more than 200 villains infiltrated the USJ and attacked them and the two accompanying pro-hero teachers: Eraserhead and Thirteen. The police are saying nothing about why the villains infiltrated the USJ but has a released a statement stating that Eraserhead and Thirteen were healed by Pro-Hero Recovery Girl. The only student that was injured was quickly treated for their broken finger. The police went on to say that the students’ names would not be released to the public and cannot be asked to make a public statement.

However, there have been rumors floating around that the infamous Vigilante group, the Vongola, were at the scene and protected the students from the villains. While it is unclear where the rumor stemmed from, there is reason to believe that it may be true. The students that were attacked are in their first year, meaning that they do not have much fighting experience but the police, in their statement, reported that they arrested most of the villains. Not to discount the hero hopefuls’ abilities, but it’s highly unlikely the students were able to fend off the villains until their teachers arrived.

Reporters are being asked to leave school grounds as there will be an official statement from Yuuei’s principal later this evening. 

After the incident, students’ parents or guardians were asked to pick up their children regardless of year and course. Those parents and guardians who were otherwise occupied or too far away were escorted by sidekicks to their homes. 

Check back here after Yuuei’s statement for more updates. 

  _________________

Incident T#483

Date: XX/XX/XXXX

Hero License #: 181Z26A5291

Hero Name: Eraserhead

Incident: While at the USJ (Unforeseen Simulation Joint) at Yuuei Academy, the class of 1-A and Pro-Hero Thirteen and I were attacked by villains. They seemed to be after All Might - claiming to have only come for All Might. They expressed the interest in killing All Might and when they found out All Might was not here, they tried to use the students as an example to intimidate All Might. Communications went down and as such we were unable to call for backup. I engaged while Thirteen was tasked to protect the students. However, the students got scattered by a warp quirk, scattering them across the USJ. It seemed to be a luring tactic to get All Might to the USJ. While I engaged most of the villains, a villain by the name of Shigaraki Tomura used his disintegration quirk to disintegrate my elbow and he command the creature, (Unknown Element #: 1415U169441) Noumu, to attack me. The vigilante known as Giotto, from the Vongola, appeared to seemingly protect me. Called out to his comrades in the Vongola and they answered to confirm that all the students and Thirteen were relatively safe. Giotto froze and had Asari kill the Noumu and only escaped when the villains leave after other Pro-Heroes arrived. Giotto claims he came because he “heard the cries of children being targeted and had him and his group jump in” the fray. Giotto made it very clear that the Vongola would not stand with The League of Villains.  

  _________________

Tsukauchi Naomasa is frustrated. The main reason why he is frustrated is because the media is right. The police really don’t know a lot. All the students were questioned at the school after the students had calmed down. Most of the students saw what happened in the USJ from start to finish - with their own different points of view, of course. Iida Tenya was the one who ran to get backup and Mineta Minoru passed out early on; therefore, they did not see a lot of the action. Each of the students within the USJ were with members of the Vongola and claimed to have been saved or aided by the vigilantes. Except for Kirishima Eijirou, Bakugou Katsuki, and Aoyama Yuuga who were trapped in what they believed to be an illusion conjured by Daemon. Though Naomasa supposes that that’s Daemon’s own way of “saving” someone. 

Eighteen of the students and Aizawa Shouta had seen Giotto’s encounter with the League. The students were either all herded to the entrance of the USJ by the Vongola, escaped there themselves, or were shown what happened through an illusion.

So many eye witness accounts yet nothing. They weren’t any closer on Shigaraki, the Noumu, Kurogiri, the League, or the Vongola.

It’s frustrating.

It’s frustrating that Naomasa has to come to him for advice.

Rokudo Mukuro is a piece of shit on a good day. A good day. Today is not a good day.

Mukuro has his feet up on his desk and his fingers loosely laced together in his lap, “And how can I help you today, Detective?” He says “detective” like it’s a curse and with emphasis to make it seem like he’s capitalizing the word.

Naomasa wishes he could find something wrong with Mukuro’s investigations but he’s always clean. Somehow, even with the suspicion that Mukuro is somehow involved in something illegal, he’s always telling the truth. Sometimes, Naomasa believes that Mukuro is just a stubborn asshole. But Naomasa always listens to his gut and his gut hates Mukuro. Hates Mukuro for a reason he can’t place. 

Naomasa puts his hat down on the table, “I need all the information you have on the League of Villains and the Vongola.” The best thing to do with Mukuro is be direct as possible. 

Mukuro quirks a delicate brow and swings his feet off the desk, “I’m not an info broker, detective. I’m a private investigator. Most days I catch cheating spouses and find missing people. I barely interact with villains.”

Naomasa sighs, “You heard about the attack at Yuuei and, to be frank, we’re severely lacking information.” His voice drops to below a whisper, “Mukuro, I know that whatever you actually do isn’t exactly clean,” and he does, he just doesn’t have proof, “but I need this information.” And he does, for his friend who was targeted, for the students that were attacked, for the future safety of his country. Mukuro is uncharacteristically silent as Naomasa bows his head, “Children were attacked Mukuro. It was a class with two capable pro heroes and I know for a fact that your ward is working as an assistant to Power Loader. Who’s to say that the League won’t attack Yuuei again?” Naomasa is playing dirty, and he feels a deep shame inside because of it, but he doesn’t have a choice. He needs more pieces to this puzzle. 

Mukuro doesn’t say a word but he fiddles with something on his desk, the object tapping against the wood rhythmically as he finally begins to speak. “You and I both know I’m not stupid enough to not realize why the League attacked Yuuei and I know that Fran can handle himself enough to escape. I wasn’t interested before, Detective, but now?” Naomasa’s head goes up just in time to see the wicked grin that comes to his face, “now I am.”

Mukuro is piece of shit on a good day.

On bad days? Mukuro is absolute scum. 

  _________________

“What have the police figured out?”

The man’s eyebrow, from across the way from Kusakabe, twitches but no violent movement or threat follows. Kusakabe honestly considers that a win. 

“Nothing,” is Kusakabe’s blunt reply. “They’re hopeless when it comes to discovering anything about the League and the Vongola. We’re not going to get information from them besides the fact that the League was after All Might.” Kusakabe is kneeling in the shadows of Kyou-san’s dark tea room, and it's absolutely not dark because Kyou-san had just woken up from a nap before their guest had arrived. Kusakabe turns his head to his left and speaks, “What do we know about the League?”

The first voice speaks up, gruff but still somehow warm, “Ultimately nothing substantial. There’s someone with a warp quirk and a disintegration quirk and they have access to these big monster-like things that have quirks. Besides their goal of killing All Might, we don’t know much. They’re causing a ruckus in the underground, but most are laughing at their attempt.”

Kusakabe sighs quietly as his hand comes up his face, “I don’t know if I should be impressed or disgusted that your use of “ultimate” worked in a real sentence.”

Ryohei laughs from his gut, “It’s an ultimate word for any ultimate situation.”

A quiet, but not hidden, scoff comes from the side of the room that Hibari occupies but both men don’t acknowledge it. It’s not the time and one out of the two of them values their life. 

“What of Yuuei?" Kusakabe asks as he kneels close to the door leading to the hallway with his head bowed, "Their keeping their mouths rather shut," Kusakabe's eyes flicker across the dark room.

Hibari growls ever so slightly, "Trying to get anything about that herbivorous school is like pulling teeth." He bares his teeth in disgust. It’s the first he’s spoken since Ryohei’s arrival.

Kusakabe knows it’s best to cut Hibari off when he’s ahead, "Is there anything significant that the heroes are saying?" he asks Ryohei to change the subject.

Ryohei shakes his head, unknowing to what Kusakabe is trying to do, "Ultimately, it’s the same thing as we’ve always heard. Even though a lot of them have been told about the real events at Yuuei; people aren’t changing their opinions of the Vongola." Ryohei frowns, “It’s just causing a real stir in our neighborhood. I ultimately wish that this would all settle down.”

"Our group will continue our investigation into the League of Villains and All For One," Kusakabe says after a long moment of silence. "I will be sure to inform you of something as soon as it arises."

Before Ryohei can say a word in response, Hibari stands up and he’s out of the room, letting the sunlight stream into the room.

Ryohei chuckles at the distressed look on Kusakabe’s face, “Maa, it’s fine Tetsuya, I’m depending on you to back me up when things go bad around here!”

Kusakabe sighs tiredly, “Ryohei, how many times do I have to tell you that we’re licensed and allowed to use our quirks and abilities to protect people and that you aren’t?”

Ryohei just laughs heartily and Kusakabe knows that getting through to his friend is useless. 

  _________________

There's a woman standing in front of the class when they enter with Aizawa next to her. They quickly shuffle to their seats when Aizawa doesn't turn to acknowledge them and when the woman sends them a smile.

The woman is short, definitely shorter than Aizawa, probably around Midoriya's height. She has her violet hair in a tight bun on her head with two decorative needles sticking out of them. She wears a smart black blazer and pencil skirt, along with a white blouse. Her feet have plain black flats and her legs are covered in a black stocking. She wears a white eyepatch over her left eye and there's a soft smile on her face and a bright twinkle in her purple eye as she waves, “Hello.”

The class mostly remains silent, unsure of how to respond, but a few respond politely.

“Listen up,” Aizawa says, “I'm not going to say this twice. This is Dokuro Chrome, the school mental health counselor.”

The class stare at their slightly bandaged teacher as he just stops, asking with their eyes if that's all he has to say on the subject.

Dokuro, thankfully, steps up, “Thank you Eraserhead. Like Eraserhead said, I'm Dokuro Chrome but Chrome-sensei is just fine with me,” her voice is soft and almost fragile but it's warm and comforting as a small smile comes to her face. “Normally we would have been introduced at the school opening ceremony but a certain someone refuses to attend every year,” the woman bravely meets Aizawa's pointed glare for a second with a serene smile before moving on. “I am Yuuei's mental health counselor. That means I'm here from everything to friend problems, home problems, school work stress, relationship problems, and even traumatic villain situations.”

The realization of why Chrome is at the front of their class hits.

Chrome smiles, maybe seeing how their faces changed in response to their realization, “While I may not be a pro hero or inspiring to be one anytime soon, I know what a villain attack can be like. Especially when everything seemed so peaceful and normal and then everything changes in a second. So, if anyone would like to talk, I am here before school, during school, and after school from six A.M. to five P.M. If you ever need me, feel free to drop by my office near the teacher's lounge or make an appointment through my email.” She promptly turns and writes her email on the top corner of the board before turning back around, “Normally, I don't go to visit the hero course students well into their second year but unfortunately, your class has been subjected to something terrible.”

Her eye narrows, and she suddenly seems very serious as she looks out into the class. She doesn’t seem so meek or easily influenced anymore. She stands firm, like an anchored rock, “You all did well in that situation. Standing in the face of villains and coming out relatively okay with minimal casualties is admirable. The fact that you're still sitting here, more determined to be a hero than ever says a lot.” She smiles, “I can't wait to see what the future holds for all of you.”

And like that, Chrome is gone, the only trace of her the smell of violets and her email on the board.

  _________________

NOTE: I'm so sorry for the late update but I got swamped with the weeks leading up to finals and then finals at the end of June. As soon as my finals ended I went on a trip and I've just been recovering from that. I've also been writing scenes for this story and "Want Emancipation?" at the same time but the scenes also don't make sense chronologically so I have a lot of mess I need to piece together later for each story. Hopefully I will update quicker next time. 

Chapter 5 is halfway done and there should be a teaser up already or shortly after I post this so go ahead and read that!

Thank you for the love and support I've gotten already! I really appreciate it!

 _________________

Tag List:  @any-n-everything @kittyg4mer

If you want on this list just sent me a message!

_________________ 

[rkxluda]

rkfifth

I really can't remember my first rookies muse, but she must either have been one of my Soyeon muses, or Park Shinhye. I've tried to find her on the old main, but welp. But I do remember how I first found rookies. The first rp I ever joined was university themed one, which feels like forever ago. After it closed, I wanted to bring my muse somewhere else, so I asked if anyone knew any interesting rps and I was told to look at rookies. My first reaction was kind of... neutral. The whole idol thing had never interested me too much, never having been interested in being famous myself, so rping a muse who did felt difficult. Obviously I eventually decided to join anyways and that should've been around 4 years ago. I've had my fair share of muses here, most of them pretty short-lived, before Luda, the longest was a Soyeon for around 6 months I think. They all had a focus on singing and most of them were soft singer-songwriters, who wanted to make the world a better place with their music.

One thing that I saw a lot of posts mention positovely, used to be a big problem for me. Everyone always seemed to have so many friends here at rookies, but it never seemed to apply to me, especially during aim times, worrying whether the message really didn't get sent or whether I was too weird to plot with. So the reasons that I left often was feeling excluded, besides simply losing muse. But during those past 4 years I'd like to think that I've grown and learned some things and that rookies helped me with that. While I learned a lot of this offline, being here helped me understand that I wasn't always being excluded but that I was excluding myself, both while rping but also in my daily life. I still have problems with social situations (so if it takes me a week to answer, I promise I haven't forgotten, I'm just still worrying over how to reply. Even if I say I forgot that's just easier to explain if that makes sense. Any longer than that, though, and my birdbrain probably attacked), whether they're online (especially group chats) or in person, but I'd like to think I don't panic quite as much anymore when I try to reply to ims or dms and that's something. It might sound a bit much (and I promise the sob story will be over now) but rookies (and roleplaying in general) really helped me with that sort of stuff.

Back to my muses, though, I feel like I've had a lot more than I actually did. There were multiple Soyeon's (Laboum), a Park Shinhye, a Juniel, a Jeon Boram, former aoa member Choa and I think that's it? At least that's all the muses I remember/which's acceptances I've saved as screenshots.

And of course now I've got Luda! I can't believe I've had Luda for this long already. She was first accepted on the 29th March 2017, but at the end of the year there were some *coughs* technical errors on my side *coughs* so after missing an activity check, she was soon back at the 10th January 2018. She started out not being interested in becoming a singer as I thought developing that over time would help me keep the muse – finding a way into this together, so to speak. And it seems to have worked since I've still got her. From having her dreams crushed because she was overworked, to fleeing herself into the dream of idol-hood and joining the mgas on a whim, she's surely come a long way. I never expected (or even intended) for her to stick through the the mgas for so long, I was dead sure she'd be kicked out after the first round. She hadn't been practising for long after all and most of her development happened as solos, barely any development through plots with others. I honestly still can't believe she's made it this far! I know I've been saying that since the mgas ended, but I can't help it. And while I don't expect her to debut any time soon at all, having her be a trainee already gave me so much joy and excitement and I've got more muse for her than ever.

Even if I still kinda suck as a mun, being slow as a sloth and all, it's incredibly fun to write for her and I hope to bring a new muse over the next weeks, though I want to get things settled for Luda properly first, so maybe not before next year. I really want a muse being more the opposite of her though, so one day!

So in conclusion, while I may still be too awkward to really hold conversations for long, for the past two years I've felt super welcome at rookies and both muse and I have accomplished things, I'd never expected (even if that sounds super silly). I don't usually talk about personal stuff too much online, for the fear of coming off as weird, but figured what better time than this? I've read a lot of you describe rookies as a safe haven and I guess I can agree (after all, no matter for how long I was gone, I always came back in the end and now here we are).

[purple-moonlights-blog]

STRAY KIDS 10th MEMBER AU

INTRODUCTION

This AU is heavily inspired by @k-llama-llama ! If you don’t know her I highly suggest checking out her blog, she and her writings are really sweet (also some good drama just started in her AU). 🌸

I’m not 100% sure where I’m going with this AU, so please feel free to request and suggest what could happen. I really want to take in ideas from people who are interested in the story. Don’t be shy loves! ♥︎ 

☾☼ 

Btw. I didn’t use her name until the very end because my dumb ass forgot to give her a name.

Also, in this scenario, Stray Kids themselves aren’t very present since it didn’t really fit. However, I promise that next time will be a lot of Stray Kids content! 

▸ Check out the Profile HERE

▸ Request for the AU HERE

▸ MASTERLIST

Words: 2342

Warnings: Swearing?⎮ And weird grammar and spelling mistakes, English is not my native language⎮

I. NEW 〈NOVA〉

(gif not mine)

With her eyebrows knitted together and her upper-lip slightly twisted up, an expression her friend David stated to be her “trying to be polite but can’t help but judge“ look - or in other words, her being a twat visage - she stared at the man, probably in his mid-thirties, in front of her. 

For the past five minutes he spoke very fast and in a very strong Satoori accent, she had difficulties to understand, and thereby wildly gesticulate with his arms. The longer he talked the more he began to sweat and looked noticeably more nervous. She wasn’t intentionally trying to be rude by not saying a word the whole time, even though she was more than once encouraged to respond to his rambling. However, due to her having a hard time progressing what he was saying - her Korean might be quite good, thanks to her mum compelling her and her brothers too Korean lesson since the early beginnings of their childhood, yet she only learned standard Korean - and immediately doubting what he was saying to be true, she kept her mouth shut until she had a clear picture of what was going on. From what she could grasp, the man was responsible to recruit trainees for entertainment companies, which in the end should turn them in successful idols, that bring big profits and put the companies into positive spotlights. 

He explained that he was from JYP and that Park Jinyoung personally placed in order, after allegedly seeing a video of a street performance of her dancing and singing, to track her down and convince her to audition for his company. He further explained that JYP - the company - planned to form an idol group in the upcoming month of October through a survival show and JYP - the person - wanted her in it because she would in his opinion fit perfectly into the concept. 

Bullocks, she instantly thought when he told her that. 

She didn’t believe a word coming from his mouth. Yes, it was true that she appeared in multiple videos of street performances that are posted on YouTube, however, she was neither an outstanding dancer nor a Whitney Huston, at least in her opinion. The more he talked the more it sounded like the plot of a Wattpad fanfiction and as the result of her distinct sense of reality, which often came across as her being pessimistic, she knew stuff like that doesn’t happen in real life. It’s called Fan Fiction after all.  

The whole story sounded like a lie somebody, who kidnaps young girls and boys for human trafficking by exploiting their naivety and their dreams to make it big once, would tell. By that, she suddenly remembered her 14 years old cousin Junsuh conspiracy theory rant about the Korean entertainment industries. Two weeks ago she visited her relatives in Ilsan, where her Junshu, as usually, didn’t stop talking. According to Junsuh, the industry is through and through corrupt - a single stronghold of prostitution rings, human trafficking, child exploitation and even religious cults and a secret origination that controls the whole south of Korea. 

Even though Junsuh tends to get carried away with his theories - she strongly doubted, that one of the big three companies (he refused to tell which one) pays a religious cult to use black magic on the public, so they will only buy the albums of their artists - however, that it wasn’t only glamorous and that pressure and hard work take big role in the idols life, wasn’t a secret. 

Earning her livelihood through music has always been a dream for her. From small on she loved to sing - back then extremely out of tune - and dance around. When in 2008 her cousin Jia (Junsuh’s older sister), while she and her family visited their relatives in Korea, showed her Shinee’s debut MV Replay, she fell in love. Immediately she learned the dances and lyrics to the songs and dreamed of being an idol herself. The combination of vocal, rap and dance fascinated her. 

Yet, after time passes and she got older, her initial spirit disappeared almost completely. More and more she realized that she didn’t fit into the standard female idol category. Beginning with her appearance ending with her personality. She wouldn’t call herself a tomboy since she despite her boyish tendency still liked typical girly stuff. In end, she always thought of separating certain things in a boy and girl category as stupid. 

One day, her aunt took her to the toy store when she was made 5 years old. She asked her aunt if she could have Hot Wheels for her birthday present. The saleswoman, however, who should help her to find something, asked if doesn’t want something that is more fitting for a girl. Her five-year-old self suddenly feeling insecure choose a creepy doll, which the sale woman suggested - she ended up giving the creepy doll to the family dog to play with. 

„Look, you don’t need to say yes right now. But please just come to JYP building tomorrow for the audition. Well, it’s not really an audition, you are basically already in. You just need to say yes.“ The sudden change to a clean Seoul accent made her startle up from her thoughts. The man in front of her got now her full attention. He almost looked desperate. 

It is probably favorable for his career if he gets me to come to the “audition“. South Korea is highly competitive after all, she guessed

„Okay.“

„It doesn’t take long either you….wait, what?“

„I said, okay. When should I be there?“ He looked at her seemingly being genuinely surprised to hear her agree. Sure, she only accepted because she felt bad for him. Also, her class started in 5 minutes and she simply didn’t want to be rude and refuse after his effort. Nonetheless, the fact that he knew her name and where she went to University, still creeped her out. 

„Umm, well 10 a.m. Wait in front of the building, I will escort you in.“

„Good, I will be there.“ She said and then added quickly before she went ahead to run to the other side of the campus to still be on time for her class. „Have a good day.“

————

 At 09:30 a.m. sharp she was in front of the JYP building. She always tended to come over punctual, mainly because she included the time she will need in case anything goes wrong by her taking the bus - a short 25-minute ride - from Seongdong District on the north bank of the Han River to Gangnam District, which lies on the south side of the Han River. 

Traffic jam, traffic collision, plane crashes, nuclear attacks, apocalypse and what so ever. Her constant nagging anxiety back in her head made her throw her common sense out of the window more than once. 

Certainly, she didn’t expect anything, she highly doubted that the apparent JYP staff member was being legit. Either somebody was playing a prank on her or one of Junsuh’s theories will be confirmed and she is going to be sold. 

In a girl group, she would stand out and not in a good way like a pretty flower would. No, she would stand out like a purulent pimple in the middle of one’s forehead. Not like she was particularly ugly or different looking. The fact that she was not special looking was the issue. In general, she was glad about that. She was never big on being the center of attention. However, in the entertainment industry, like it or not, talent is not everything. And her being as interesting as an empty sheet of paper, surley didn’t take a chance. 

After awkwardly standing around for good 25 minutes, somebody came out of the building. She immediately recognized him as the man from yesterday. 

He wasn’t lying about working for JYP then, she thought. 

As he looked to his left and saw her standing there, he sighed with relief and beckoned her over to him. By his reaction, she assumed that he obviously didn’t believe that she will come. But she was not the type to do tell somebody she would be there and then shamelessly not come without giving the other person a notice.    

„You won’t regret this, believe me.“ He said as they walked through the lobby to the elevator. „They really want you in this group.“ Who he meant with they, she wasn’t sure. He chuckled awkwardly since she didn’t respond to anything he said but rather she just nodded and gave him a forced smile. Again, she wasn’t trying to be rude, for sure not, after all in her family having good manners was an essential part. Her very English grandmother would personally fly to Korea and beat her ass if she was being rude. 

In the elevator were already three guys, she guessed them around her age, absorbed in a discussion about, from what she could understand, song lyrics. 

„Listen, I swear it’s good.“ Said the guy, with the darkest hair of the three of them. „You can be Fiona today, I’ll be Shrek. Ugly kind immature swag.“

She snorted and quietly chuckled to herself. The guy closest to her with silver, curly hair her, who heard her laugh, looked over to her. He raised his brow’s at first and then gave her a shy smile, which she returned.

On the fifth floor, they left the elevator and male staff knocked two times on the first door in the hallway, before he opened it and showed with a quick hand gesture that she should follow him. In the room was big glass table where three men already sat. She immediately recognized the man seated in the middle. 

 It’s JYP, It really was not a joke after all.

„Ah, there she is. Please take a seat.“ JYP said and gestured on the chair opposite of him. She bowed and sat down. 

After he asked the staff member to leave he continued: „I’m really glad you are here. When I saw your performance I know you will fit perfectly.“ 

„I was told, if I would accept the offer, I will participate in survival show, right?“ She asked, slowing starting to feel excited. Even though, she gave up on her dream of being an idol a long time ago - better said, she never really tried in the first place. Deep down she still wanted to achieve that and such an opportunity she couldn’t refuse. Even if that meant she had to change herself to fit in. 

„Yes, exactly. I really hope you take this chance. Even though you don’t have a training period as the other trainees participating, I believe you have potential.“

„Okay, I’m in. Where do I have to sign“ she said, full of newly found elan. The three men chuckled surprised about her sudden enthusiasm.

„The formalities we will sort out later.“ JYP answered, „Stray Kids, the name of the group you might debut in, has currently nine male trainees, which your leader Bang Chan handpicked himself.“

„Boys?“ She questioned confused.

„Yes, the management and I decided by making Stray Kids a co-ed group it will be more favorable in the future.“ He continued undeterred. She had to stop herself from making a snarky comment and asking them if they are trying to be edgy be doing that. 

There is no need to act like a twat right now!

„But none of our female trainees fit in Stray Kids. So, I was obviously pleased when I found you. I hope I’m not going to regret this.“ The last part sounded bitter and her previous enthusiasm was slowly suppressed by the anxiety creeping up her throat, making her feel sick.  

She didn’t want to back away now. 

Maybe it’s better to be in a male-dominated group. It’s not like I fit in a girl group either, she tried to calm herself down mentally. 

However, the fact that all other trainees were chosen by Stray Kids leader personally and that she basically was being forced onto them, made her feel like she was going to vomit. 

„They are already informed about your addition to the group. In fact, I want them to get to know you right now. Teamwork is important and the faster you warm up to each the better!“ With that, he stood up, bowed to his colleges and told her to follow him. She bowed to the older men too and left after JYP.

„The kids are probably in the practice room right now. Since they got the chance to debut, they have been prating twice as hard.“ He said, obviously proud about the trainee’s dedication. „I heard they are very excited to meet you.“

Bollocks! I will be extremely out of place. No way any of them are excited for a possible female member. 

Despite, her anxiety she didn’t wanna give up this time. She can’t just run away every time there was a construction put in her way. At last, trying wasn’t going to kill. 

They went down to the second floor. At the end of the hallway, JYP opened the wooden door to the practice room and stepped in. As JYP and she entered, four guys who sat on the floor rushed to stand up and joined five other guys to bow to their CEO. Some looked very young to her. She would have guessed at least two of them fifteen years old at most.

„Please introduce yourself to them,“ JYP told her and encouraged her with a quick hand gesture to step in front. 

All eyes were on her now. Some of them seemed curious, others just stared at her expressionless. And then, there was the guy with the silver hair from the elevator. He looked at her like he wanted to burn her down with his gaze. She honestly couldn’t take offense at that. Like, she understood his seeming dislike of her. 

„My Name is Seol Nova and I hope we can work well together.

[directionlessbuthappy]

Dawn of the Draugr: p1

In a pre-apocalyptic world, there is Elyse, a 21 year old woman who was going to community college in her small town in Northern California, working on biology and medicine courses. Doing what young adults are expected to do at her age. But her future spirals into uncertainty with a pandemic spreading across humanity. An illness which infects and shuts down the body, reanimating the brain and turning the person into something only seen in repetitive shitty movies and your nightmares. Being on her own, Elyse would have to lose her morality or sanity to survive. Maybe both. However, she may be able to keep them now that she’s found Alex Lothbrok and his brothers. Or, she may lose it even faster…

Modern AU: Alex H. Anderson x Reader 

Warnings: graphic violence, language, blood, death

Note: I kept the last name Lothbrok for the brothers to distinguish characters vs reality. I doubt they are anything like the characters (based on them for visual purposes) I’m writing, so I prefer to add an element of unrealism here to reiterate this as fiction. Cheers xo

Tagged: @missrobyn81

It wasn't a normal day.

Everyone likes to think when the world ends, it'll start out totally normal, and you'll have no idea what's happening or whats coming. You won't see it until its too late. People sell it that way for drama, for TV shows and the movies, but its not real. The truth is, you do see it. The warning signs are everywhere, but without someone telling you to run, you aren't sure if you should. People are like sheep; they don't know what to do without instruction. When the epidemic spread from South America and Asia, nobody here was worried. We had central America in our path, and a whole ocean separating us from Japan. It seemed like the black plague at first; killed massive amounts of people over the last two years. But since there were minimal cases of it here in the US, nobody was worried. 

For a while.

My family was split; my mom and I were alone most of my life. She married a man who already had two kids. I was an adult at that point, indifferent to the pairing but still living at home. Going to community college. Everything seemed normal despite everything we were seeing on the internet and on TV. Coverage of the epidemic was getting less and less clear as more people were panicking and packing up their things. Our whole neighborhood moved out in a week. Northern California felt safe enough, we hadn't had any sightings/cases of epidemic here. There was some in Texas, and Arizona...

One day after a phone call, my mom told me she was going with her husband to go get his kids. It was their week to visit us, and their mom wasn't comfortable driving on the roads with how crazy it was getting out there in Washington state, so my mom and her husband planned to go get them. I was in denial, in a way...not really considering how bad it was yet. it felt eerie, being home alone after that. Our little three bedroom, one story house on Sweedland Way felt like a mansion while I waited for my mom to come home. I'd stopped going to school; we'd got an email that class was out due to teacher shortages. Out, indefinitely. I remember when I got my first taste that it was all real, not some widespread panic about the cold.

I was sitting in the living room, checking through a few websites that hadn't posted in over a week. I was studying animal medicine in college (when I was still going) so I understood a lot of technical jargon when reading on the epidemic. All the articles and different notes on the contagion were unfinished; even Wikipedia was useless in explaining what it was. Most researchers first found it in South America, comparing the disease to a virus hiding behind the symptoms of bacterial infection...making it less concerning in its early stages. Researchers didn't catch on until about 6 months in, when more hospital staff were infected verses healthy. Infection was mostly caused by saliva, whether its ingested, gets in your eyes, or most commonly seen in the reports I found...you get bit. Like a rabies virus on cocaine, the disease ravages your system and fries pretty much everything...except your spinal cord and your motor function. The nervous system was preserved by the disease and regenerated itself; the body would be able to function, move, and respond to things like noise. But otherwise...

I didn't like to entertain the idea the dead could come back to life. That wasn't true, it was science fiction bullshit. Granted, I loved cheesy movies where the dead would rise, but that was all they were. Movies. If anything, these sick people were just very sick...maybe it was a new type of cancer, that was why it scared people so much.

I was wrong.

...

"See the sight lined up to the chest?"

"Yeah..."

"Shoot it."

"But I need to hit the head."

"I know Elyse. Take the shot."

I swallowed and pulled the trigger. The gun popped against my chest like a light bump, and the bullet went straight through the target's "neck." I was surprised.

"It aims high!"

"Bingo," Alex replied. "Its the only red sight we have. Jordan can't get the tilt quite right but it still works eh? Now aim at the neck."

I do so, trusting his word now more than before. I squeezed and the gun pops; the bullet hole in my target's head was clear. With a giddy squeal, I aimed to take another shot, but missed. Alex grinned from behind me, I knew this because when I turned he was already doing it. 

"Nice shot."

"Shut up," I replied, faintly hurt. He chuckled and outstretched his arm for the gun. I handed it over, safety on.

"Wanna try with the handguns?"

"Actually..." I whined. Holding my arm up to show off the bruise blooming on my tricep, Alex frowned slightly. "Can we take a break?"

"Sure punkin," he shrugged. I still took the time to roll my eyes at him before sitting down on a hay bail. Our little training field wasn't too far away from the house; Jordan and Marco could still see us from the second floor's porch. We were safe, mostly. The treeline that surrounded the house on the hill made me the most nervous, especially at night. Jordan called them "fight nights" for fun, but he was good at making others feel better. I could see right through it. Just like I could see them coming through the treeline every other night.

Sometimes it was just one, sometimes a pack of them. They traveled in groups pretty often. They're always so listless, walking like they were drunk and heavy and yet they weren't slow in their pace. They'd drag their feet, and although they were responsive to sound, it didn't seem like they understood anything. From the material I've read and studied in the last couple months the disease is as unpredictable as its victims. Sometimes you'd die in a week...sometimes it only took 24 hours. But if you got bit at all, you were fucked no matter how long it takes to die.

"Jordan's still not worried about the ammo?"

Alex shrugged, taking a mag and shoving it into the cartridge of his 47. "We have enough to get us through a month of assaults. You and Marco are the only ones worried."

"We have enough for a month of assaults with automatics, Alex. Our handguns are limited. They're attracted to noise, and we can't haul ass with ten pound metal death machines on our shoulders!"

"We'll be fine. If you're really that worried, go down the hunt shop on West 10th. They'll have something," he replied coily. I scowled at him.

"That's not funny."

"Was I laughing?"

"Alex!" I snarled. He had the sense to look a little upset, sighing once he realized he'd actually upset me.

"I'm kidding Lees," he muttered. "I'll go with you tomorrow. Would that make you happy?"

"Are you being sarcastic again?" I replied warily, buttoning my flannel up and down with the same button. Alex took a few shots, turning the head of one of our dummies into swiss cheese. He put so many holes in it the head actually fell off. It made us both chuckle.

"Do you want me to go on my own?"

"No!" I squeaked instantly. Alex grinned and turned his back to me, lining up the sight of his automatic again. The kid was growing on me...

[meet-me-ln-the-afterglow]

Warning: A really long post for Taylor lies ahead

Hey @taylorswift, I kind of just wanted to write you a letter explaining how much you mean to me. 

I have been through so much these past few years and I owe A LOT of my survival to you. I have been diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety 5 years now. On April 2, 2017, I tried to do the unthinkable. I attempted suicide but was unsuccessful. I won’t go into the details, however I just wanted you and everyone else to know how incredibly important you are to me. The second time I started having suicidal ideations, I checked myself into the hospital. This was the worst decision of my life. Being locked up in psychiatric ward is one of the most terrifying things I have EVER done. I was alone, and scared, and I have MAJOR separation anxiety from my mom, even at 22 years old. I was locked up in the ward for 3 days. 3 of the longest days of my life. We were forced to go to group therapy sessions, there was only one small television in the corner that up 50 people had to share (most of the time, football was on and I’m not a football fan so you can imagine how unbearably slow time seemed to move), and the nurses that were assigned to each of us each day didn’t really seem to care about us. It got the point that my assigned nurse one day suggested that I spend time alone rather than trying to socialize with people to help myself feel better about the situation I was in. On top of all of this, I didn’t even get REALY clothes until halfway through my stay there. We didn’t even have really doors on our bathrooms...they had the saloon style doors...

Anyways, YOU are the reason I made it through my time there. The entire time, I tried to comfort myself by keeping myself occupied with singing your songs in my head. I had NOTHING else and this is how I entertained myself and kept my mind occupied so I didn’t cry and make it seem like I wasn’t fit to go home. You kept me safe, you helped me get back to my family, you kept me alive. “Clean” became one of my favorites and now has a strong meaning for me. It reminds me that no matter how bad today might be, the next day, when the rain has gone away, everything will be better. 

Looking back at my experience in the psych ward, I realize that it has actually traumatized me. I think about it frequently and I get major anxiety from it, a lot. I didn’t realize something like that could traumatize you until I googled it and found that SO many other people have been traumatized by their stay in a psychiatric ward. I had found so much meaning in your music that a lot of people don’t see. So many people think your music is just about breakups and make ups...not me. I see so much more than that. I see hope and beauty. Something that helped me live. I will forever be grateful to you Taylor. I only wish I had the opportunity to say “thank you” in person because i’m not sure what I would do without you.

On a positive note, I’m extremely excited to see you in concert for the second time on July 10th. My beautiful litter sister and I will be in section 140, row 23, seats 15 and 16 in case you want to see the smile behind the girl in this story.

Once again....thank you, Taylor. Thank you so much for doing what you do and being the amazing person you are. I will never be able to repay you. 

@taylorswift @taylornation

[daynamartinez22]

Weekly SEO Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 330

Click on the video above to watch Episode 330 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://semanticmastery.com/humpday.

Announcement

Right about now. All right. Welcome, everybody to Hump Day Hangouts, Episode 330. Today is the 10th of March 2021. We got almost everyone here, maybe her nominal show up here in a couple of minutes. We got a couple of announcements today some things we want to go over and then we are going to get into the questions but want to say hi, real quick. Get everyone. See how they’re doing. If you’re watching, by the way, go ahead and let us know how you’re doing. If you’re watching live, you can pop that right on the page. Say hello. Let us know what’s going on. So I’ll just go down my list here. I see Chris is first. So Chris, how are you doing today? Good. Glad to be here. Super excited.

Yeah, can’t complain. Whereas getting actually spring is almost here. Like is where it’s being really good here.

So I can’t wait to actually gonna lift the lockdowns at some point, hopefully. And it’s all outside time. Very nice. All right. Marco, how about you How you doing today? Let me see. Let me see. Let me see.

I started going off into that fake background, that fake co story comes back. It’s impossible for it to be this nice. 365. But you’ve seen it tight. It’s been actually March, February, we came to this house in February of last year, just before we got locked out. And you guys have seen it live for 52 weeks. It is what it is, man. It’s beautiful. I keep telling people, it’s the price I pay for the life I live, this is what I choose. This is not where I have to be. This is where I choose to be. If you want that moment if you want that. It’s called the POFU position of Fuck you. We do POFU Live, where we go in and we have a bunch of experts giving presentations, then there’s me giving you my mindset and not that I’m calling myself an expert. I just, it’s what I do. For both, we’ll try to get you in the right mindset so that you go and do the things that you need to do. And that you have to do. In order to be able to do the things that you want to do is funny how that works out. First, you have to do and you need to do. And then you can do whatever you want. Because you’re in that position where you can decide whatever it is that’s best for your life. So just fantastic. And we were just talking about how it is that we’re going to do it. And that’s coming.

Not only is that coming but I’ll just tease it a little bit Syndication Academy. Syndication Academy is in the can, the videos are recorded. We have 300 website updates to go through or over 300 there’s a couple of them that the syndication Academy, I don’t know what to say she’s just a fantastic director, we’ll just call her the instructor, the syndication Academy, instructor, the person who’s going to be guiding the person who’s going to be giving you support in Facebook to be in there daily, supporting the group. It’s an overhaul, it’s a complete overhaul, it’s a complete, completely different idea. The concept stays the same, you have to expand your entity, expand that footprint. let Google know everything that belongs to your entity, make it known, make it better hook it up altogether, so that the power flows the way that it’s supposed to. syndication Academy is fantastic.

Our trainer, instructor, she’s fantastic. She will be up to giving you webinar updates every month, he’ll come up to three websites.

And again, she’ll be in the Facebook group, I think it’s going to totally rock, and you guys for you guys wondering because somebody did ask me. Well, if you guys do it in syndication, Academy networks, and MGYB. Well, then why should I buy Syndication Academy? Well, I just said that we will be having 300 Well, looking through 300 websites to see how they can be manipulated, manipulated, and added into the syndication networks that we built. Our VA is It’ll take a while for them to catch up. And if we do offer the service we can offer everything that we will be adding to syndication Academy, we always had what’s most important what we think you must have, as far as that footprint goes as far as that entity, but there are others and we’re going to have fantastic opportunities like when we came across.

Now, it’s slipping my mind, but, oh boy, when we added all of the weekend and all the drive stacks, all of the folders and pro trees. Yeah, yeah. came across that and it was fantastic. And there wasn’t originally in it. It was a webinar update. And that became part of the syndication networks, or part of the ad ID, and yeah. I mean, it’s just a fantastic website. So all of those will be coming. There’s plenty of other website websites out there. So as a matter of fact, I was telling you guys yesterday one of the ones that already in the can, is a fantastic website. So fantastic semantic hub. And it’s just a really novel way to approach SEO. Yeah. Bradley coined that will be with us. She’s fantastic again and so I’m really really looking forward to working with her on expanding and making syndication Academy way better than what it is and it’s fantastic already.

Oh, Stan, I got nothing to add on to that I wanted to make sure we touched on it, it’s coming up and I just put on the Early Access opt-in so if you want to be first to be notified, there’s definitely going to be something special for people who are on the early access list. So if you’re pumped about Syndication Academy you just want to find out more you’re thinking hey this may be for me maybe for my client’s good way to make money a way to get more exposure better rankings more traffic all that hop the early access list. If you’re not watching this live and you’re checking it out on YouTube just go to semantic mastery comm slash each D questions and you can find the link there and get that all taken care of.

Let’s see as I go through here realize we haven’t said hello to Mr. Johnny come lately also known as her non How’s it going, buddy? I’m good, man. I’m banging on the door. And it’s rainy and cold outside and you guys won’t let me in, dripping wet on the outside looking in. Yeah, man. Come on. Let me in. I’m good, man. I’m happy to be here. Outstanding. Last but not least Bradley, how you doing? I’m good, man. Happy to be here. It’s freaking warm. All of a sudden, Virginia. And it’s like 70 degrees, almost 70 degrees outside. It’s crazy. It’s like, you know, three days ago, it was cold. And I had sweatshirts on and space heaters up here. And now it’s like,

oh, that time of year, man spring is around the corner. And I’m happy about it. That’s things get really busy for my tree. Contractors come springtime and stay that way all the way through fall. So I’m looking forward to this season for sure. Nice. Nice, nice. Well, Bradley, we had a cool conversation all of us did with somebody yesterday. So you mentioned the cold email mastery course that you went through. And you mentioned that on Hump Day hangouts last week, and we ended up hooking up with Daniel, yesterday and talking to him. So you might tell people a little bit about what we might end up what they might see from you and him. Yeah, we so I mentioned a really good cold email course that I picked up about, I don’t know, maybe three weeks ago now. And it was really good, and it’s inexpensive. There’s a ton of value for what you pay for it. And I’m not gonna mention it now, because we’re going to talk about it when with Daniel, I’m going to jump on a call with a video call with Daniel over the next two weeks or so. And he’s going to go through his methods that he teaches in the training and how to specifically apply it because he does email marketing for all kinds of stuff.

But he’s going to talk about how to apply his methods specifically for prospecting for clients, for consultants in for agencies. And so I think that’s going to be really valuable. It’s not going to be a live webinar, he and I are going to jump on and just him and I are going to banter back and forth. And he’ll go through some demonstrations that are all be recorded. And then we’re going to present that to you guys. Again, I picked it up for myself and I was blown away by I thought it was really, really good. Let’s put it that way. And so Adam reached out to him and got it set up. And we had a meeting with him yesterday. And he’s stoked in real cool guys a lot like Marco and that he’s not politically correct when it comes to speech and it’s great. I love that kind of instruction. And so it’s real punchy, real to the point no fluff and all that. And so I’m looking forward to having a video call with him that we can bring to you guys. For those of you that are looking to generate more clients for your business. It’s a really good strategy.

Awesome. Yeah. And I’ll just say for those of you who are listening, and again, if you’re not live, you can leave this on the replay on YouTube, if you guys have any questions about cold emailing. So b2b is what this is, right? You’re not just emailing people, you’re emailing references as an agency. If you’ve got any questions, pop them in there, you know, and if we can, we’ll work those in and get those answered, because he’s got a lot of background in that. I know Bradley. I mean, most of us, I think, have at least some experience, but Daniel certainly got a lot so that you know, just a quick met note for internal processes, we might want to post in our groups, a little survey about questions about cold email, prospecting, post them here and we can incorporate that into the video call I do within Yeah, that’s a good idea. Yeah, Bradley, just let me know when you’re gonna when you guys set up the call, and I’ll do that a couple of days before. So. Real quick. Before we jump into questions, just want to say to everyone if you’re new to SM and MGYB, I know we get new people. We see that a lot of people commenting and we love it. We know there are more people out there who just watched and that’s cool too. But if you’re wondering where to get started

The best place to you’ll hear us talking about stuff like the SEO shield and syndication networks and all this other stuff. But go to the SEO shield, comm grab that it free training, find out how you can shield your site, don’t worry about algorithm updates. And you’ll find out a little bit more about what we’re talking about why this stuff makes sense how it works, and then where you can get it. So as Marco mentioned, you can go get this stuff done for you, if you want, that’s great, go to mgyb.co, if you want to more, maybe understand the nuts and bolts or build your own team and start building this stuff out, then, of course, you know, we have the training available as well. Beyond that, if you want to find out more about getting repeatable SEO results, you can grab the battle plan of battle plan dot semantic mastery com. If you’re looking at an agency or you’re a consultant, and you want to grow and become an agency to x, your agency comm is the place to be, and then last but not least, if you’re ready to grow your digital marketing business, or for some people, they’re brick and mortar and they want to expand the online side, the mastermind is the place for you. You can find out more about that at mastermind dot semantic mastery.com. And with that, I think we should dive into the questions unless you guys got anything else.

No excited about the Syndication Academy launch. I’m going to be spending some time this upcoming weekend going through a lot of the training that SEO is recorded, you know, to provide some feedback and stuff and it’s gonna be pretty, I’m pretty excited about it. Because, you know, it’s been a few years since we’ve updated it. And this has been completely redone as Marco said, with just a ton of sites that we’re going to be expanding the foot, you know, entity footprint with. So as he’s going to be doing a training on each one of those sites, and that’ll be the monthly updates, or maybe even bi-weekly updates, depending on what we decide, because of the sheer number of sites that we have to expand upon. probably end up doing bi-weekly webinars in the Facebook group for that. So anyway, just looking forward to that, guys, if you have any questions about it, let us know. Otherwise, let’s get into questions.

Let’s do it.

got quite a few.

I think this is the newest one. We still don’t have the dates and times on here. Let me see. It should be right after I commented I think Jared Yeah, it was one Conrad is just before that. I don’t think we got to his.

Does All Of The MGYB Services Work For Non-English Sites?

Yeah, we did. Actually, you bounce. Okay. You had a call? Yeah. You had a call come in? And I answered that. But I was looking for you to reply to that one. Anyways, I said that we don’t do anything in non-English, but from what I understand applying non-English or English drive stacks to non-English sites will still benefit. Is that correct?

That was the question. I mean, yeah, Hernan and I worked on a Swedish website. Also, what we did is we actually went and had the team do it in English. And then the guy who was working as he translated it into Norwegian or Swedish, whatever it was.

So I mean, it works perfectly well. If you take the time to go then to then go in and target your language might not even have to, because what we’re looking for is relevance, the AI should be able to make the connection that is basically the same.

So yeah, I mean, the answer to that is, I don’t see why you can’t get the MGYB services, we don’t do it in your language, we will do it in English, and it’s up to you to go in. For example, syndication network, it’s up to you to go in and translate the profile, but it won’t take that long for the descriptions and everything else.

So that would be my suggestion, you go in and or you hire someone better yet, go into Upwork or something like that, and hire a translator to translate everything so you don’t have to, you can go concentrate and focus on something else.

There you go.

What Are Your Thoughts On AI Content Like Marketmuse, Frase, And Menterprise?

Alright, so Gerrards up first, for this week. He says, what are your thoughts on AI content with stuff like market news res enterprise, etc? Is it fine to use our money site with some manual editing and manually added content? Yeah, I mean, I use phrase.io is the tool that I’ve been using?

And yeah, I mean, I would, for money site stuff, I wouldn’t just, you know, use the content that it pulls back or creates without manually editing it. Maybe for link-building stuff. You could but I wouldn’t do that on the money side. I would still manually edit stuff.

But yeah, I mean, it’s I think phrases are good too. I haven’t used any others. So I don’t know. But I do actually use sprays for some of my projects as well. So what about anybody else in length is a go-to because of the way that we can relate the entity, the way that we can work with the entity and focus and I’m not going to go in-depth in that because

That’s something that was presented in POFU live. And I’m not going to share it out of purple light, but the way that he focuses the entity, not only within links but another tool.

Man, I’m slipping today because I’m presenting all of the software that we use SEO surfer or surfer SEO. So the way that that those two are used in conjunction, you can even put phrases in there. And there’s quite a few other software as a service SaaS software that you can use and really, really getting great content. Now what you get is a, or what you should be getting is a template, if it’s for your money site. And then you would use that template to write your content, I wouldn’t use what you’re given directly, I would edit it and make sure that that is hyperfocus for the bot. That’s how we do use the content. That’s how the VA was trained to use the content.

So the follow-up to that was can this be used to automate curation for our blogs the way Bradley does it? Thanks a lot. Again, I wouldn’t, you know, yes, you can use it to help kind of like, you know, augment, or supplement the blog posting for curated content, because it will actually pull in content based upon a search query or a question.

And it will pull in the top results. And, you know, so yeah, you can use that to help with curating content. But I wouldn’t use it again, not for money. So I would I use that as like, automated content production. Right, I wouldn’t do it for that, not for money site, all of the content that I, you know, for my clients is manually curated by my bloggers. So we don’t use any automated fashion. Now. I mean, you can streamline and make manual curation a lot more efficient. For example, we started doing social posting for tree contractors. And so we’ve been developing out the Feedly account, feed the pro account with a ton of content, I’ve been paying my one of my bloggers by the hour to just find and collect good content that’s relevant in all different types of categories, specific to tree services and landscaping.

And it’s crazy because, like, Feedly, has what they call, I think it’s called Leonard, meet Leonard or something like that, anyway, it’s, it’s some sort of AI system that’s built into it. And so when you like, save content articles into a content board and Feedly, then you can go through and select, you know, certain pieces of content that are in that board and tell Leo to go find content like that in overtime, it’s machine learning, right? It trick, you can train the AI inside of Feedly to go out and find content that matches what you’ve trained the bot to do. And it’s really cool because it will auto-start automatically finding content and adding it to your content boards or your pool of available content that can be used for curating. And so we’d like in just the last three weeks have amassed quite a library of content that’s categorized in specific categories, like, you know, tree services, General tree services, spring tree services, summer tree services, autumn tree services, winter, you know, and so on, and so forth through various categories. And it’s great because it’s giving us like this, basically, almost unlimited. And once you train Leo to go out and find content, similar content, it’s basically unlimited content that you can use for curating. So it makes it a hell of a lot more efficient to curate manually, when all you got to do is click into a Feedly content board and find articles that you can use for support content, for supporting content for art for blog posts. So again, I don’t do anything automated, except for perhaps finding content. Everything else is done manually, but in a very efficient manner, which is what Content Kingpin is all about. It’s still the same processes we use, there’s just Feedly has improved drastically over the last couple of years, especially with the addition of AI machine learning. So, you know, those are some of the things that I would recommend.

And yes, you can curate content and focus it on the entity and focus on the entity also, it works really well in conjunction with the Content Kingpin, all of the software that we mentioned earlier.

What Is The Best Way To Build Lead Gen Properties?

Alright, so the next question says, looking to get into lead gen and I have a nice domain I found aimed at contractors nationally, what’s the best way to go about building lead gen properties? these days? Would you just get a GMB and do a mass page? Thanks, guys. I mean, if you didn’t get a GMB, it’s still in my opinion, the best way to do Legion.

Good luck with that. It’s very difficult to get GMBs right now.

It’s really hard to do much of anything with GMBs right now. I found as far as new ones are making edits and stuff Google’s real estate suspension happy. So I would be really careful. And good luck trying to get it. I mean, I hope you can, but I know it’s been difficult to get GMBs recently or last for the last few months. So what do you say, Marco? Well, the spammed listings are not only hard to get, but hard to keep are the key. Because when you get them, as soon as you start going and making changes, Google suspends it. And then they make you show paperwork they make you re-verify, which is the whole point. I mean, their whole point they want to know if you’re in legit.

And if you can’t re-verify you can’t show the paperwork, then you can’t get it back. I mean, it just doesn’t make sense to try to recover something that you know, isn’t legitimate in the first place. makes absolutely no sense, however, are the method that you’ve always shown the Semantic Mastery way, which is going to peel box with street address still works really well. Those will sometimes get suspended. Yeah, even that, but it’s less likely to get suspended.

Oh, guys, I’m not gonna mention the companies. But be really careful when you’re using an API to publish content into your GMB to publish schedule content. Because some of those have a muddy IP. Google has tagged it with suspicious activity and it’s a really good way to get suspended. So be really careful what it is what you’re doing, what it is that you’re doing with those. To this day. The original training in local GMB process, add a manager Never Never again go back in as the owner, I stand by that. I’ve only had one, one GMB suspended with a manager. So out of all of this out of everything that we’ve been doing, the way that has worked for me, the original training in local GMB Pro, you add a manager and let the manager go in. And it’s like, well, I’m not gonna go through the whole training. But try not to make any changes once you’ve sent for the pin. Once you have that pin lie should never go in again, except for tempos, and add pictures. And that’s it. Never again do anything else no changes, because it will get suspended if you make major changes, especially the NAP category that attend any of those even slight changes. I once added a video to one of the VA added one I added a video. And it wasn’t even any it’s not anything major adding a video and they got suspended. But then again, it wasn’t something that was truly legit. It was, and as a matter of fact, the post office box was through with street address, but we recovered it, we were able to recover that. Wow. So just be really careful. Just be really careful what you do because Google is out for blood to right now. They’re suspending a whole bunch of them. And they’d rather suspend you and have you legitimize the GMB then to not suspend you and let you get away with an illegitimate or spam. GMB. That’s the way that they’re doing this right now.

Yeah, and you know, it’s interesting because I had a client or I have a client excuse me that when I plugged it into a GMB post scheduler through the API, it showed that there was like no physical address associated with the GMB and it was weird. And so, I actually reached out to GMB support and I was wondering why I was having such a hard time getting the GMB to move correctly or move like Porter respond to the things that I was doing to it like they normally do. And once I discovered that there was an incorrect back end, a physical location associated with it, or really not at all in one when I plugged in the API will show you and by the way, you can figure that out. Where the location is of a GMB by plugging it into something like right local as a geo grid search report tool now. So if you get the cid for service area business GMB URL and plug it in, it’ll show you the center point where it where it’s where Google thinks that the business is registered. And it’s interesting because this was like the way out in the middle of like, nowhere, it was weird. It was like, like in a park or some shit. Like seriously, like, like, some crazy big national park or something. There’s nothing there. No buildings ran. And so I’m wondering why it wouldn’t respond. And when I plugged in an API, that’s what revealed that to me. And that’s when I started like wrecking realizing that some GM bees don’t have on the back end and actual physical location tied or it’s incorrect for especially for service area businesses. So anyway, I contacted Google support. And they said, go ahead and change your like I got this reply back from Google support and said go ahead and add the GMB or the address even though it was a service area business. They said go ahead and add the address. But it’s likely going to end support told me this is likely going to trigger re-verification. And so I contacted the client and I said, this is what they replied. I say we go ahead, do it because the maps listings not responding the way that they should be. And I feel like we’re gonna constantly be fighting an uphill battle, they said, go ahead and do it. So I did it. And fortunately, in that case, because they have a physical location that was verifiable, all that was required, though, was the postcard, just use standard us mail verification. And within seven days or so we had the card verified, and it’s responding better, it’s still going to take a little bit of time, but it’s coming back. So if you can’t like well, Marga said, If you can’t reverify something, don’t even bother trying is really the point.

So the follow-up questions, would you just get GMB into the mass page? I don’t do mass page stuff, period. I just don’t I don’t like to do it. It’s not that it can’t work. It might work. But I’m not the person to ask her. I don’t know that we are maybe Marco can shed some insight on it. Land Solutions Network is a mass page built with WordPress like the front end was WordPress pages. Mass page builder, it’s there to the public. It’s there for people to spam to report. It gets the UCI to get leads to this day because I post them in the group whenever so one comes in, we’re in a place where I’m not working. I post one from Hawaii the other day, I posted another one from Arizona, there was some from Florida that I that Chris Pillman got Chris G got some.

So if you do it right, there’s a reason why mass-paid build can’t work. But it just requires a little bit more work than what people are willing to put in a kind of in air quotes to kind of legitimize to build.

Would The RSS Masher Cause Footprint Issues If You Use The Same Account That Has Adsense & Affiliate Codes?

Hector’s obviously I saw your old webinar about David Nelson’s RSS masher and eager to access it. Would it cost footprint issues though if I use the same AdSense or affiliate code for each site? Or set I get a separate account for each? I don’t know about AdSense? I just don’t say I don’t do anything like that. So I just don’t know. Does anybody here have an answer for him about that?

Okay.

Sorry, I can’t answer that. I just don’t know. Um, as far as AdSense, I don’t think affiliate code would cause a problem. I don’t know because again, I just don’t do affiliate stuff, guys. I haven’t even attempted affiliate marketing in two or three years other than occasionally we do a promotion for Semantic Mastery. I just do local stuff. So I suddenly he wants to use RSS masher, to push content into multiple websites. And in those multiple websites, he is going to use the same AdSense code from the same account. That’s what he’s asking, Oh, that looks like a really good way to lose your account. Well, there you go. So you have an answer. That’s what I was asking. I don’t know. I mean, I don’t really it to me. That doesn’t seem like a very good idea. Yeah. And it’s not something that it does. I mean, it seems like the footprint is the AdSense code, Google picking that out?

And then you’d have a problem with Google suspended the account?

Yeah, I don’t know. There’s got to be I’m sure there’s some groups and Facebook and shit like that, that where people do a whole bunch of heavy AdSense stuff that would that would be what I suggest or even go to YouTube and do some searches, I’m sure you can find the answers you’re looking for this is probably just not the place for Hector. And it’s just not something that really any of us do. So that’s why we can’t answer that one.

What’s The Best Way To Monetize Autoblogs Safely?

He says, What’s the best way to monetize these auto blogs safely? Would it be good to buy phone-verified Gmail accounts and run them in isolated browsers for this purpose? Thanks for all the great SEO stuff. Yeah, I mean, I think that’s good practice anyway, I mean, for example, I’m still using a browser to the old desktop version.

It still works if you right-click and open system Chrome. That’s the only way that it works. But it works. And I got, you know, dozens and dozens and dozens of profiles in there. And I don’t even change IPS, like it’s all just my IP, but it keeps the browsing sessions and gross ghost browsers want another one’s called session box. That’s one that I’m looking into. If I eventually switched from browser to eventually I will probably try the session box. I know ghost browsers. Good. We’ve talked about that a lot, a little bit more expensive, but I know it’s really good. So I think it’s best practice to do that anyway to keep sessions in browsers specific to accounts and that kind of stuff. But you know, so yeah, having different Gmail accounts associated with each one of those projects. I think it’s probably a pretty, pretty wise thing to do. You asked me. Does anybody want to comment on that? No, I totally agree. That’s that would be the same thing to do. Isolate each account. Yeah. So you don’t get tagged for any sort of footprint.

Is There A Way To Get A Virtual Office Address For A Service Business To Get Citations And GMB?

Okay, next one man in the SEO says, Hey, guys got a question about citations for a business that operates in different countries like the US and Canada. I would like to secure some citations from other countries but the business doesn’t have a physical office there as they are a service business. Is there a way to get a virtual office address so I can get citations? And potentially GMB if not a GMB citations would be plenty. Thanks for your help. Um, yeah, I mean, again, I think having a GMB is great.

For many reasons, if you could get a second location for it, like in the, you know, as you said, I guess we’re in Canada, for example, if you don’t have a physical office in Canada, physical office, excuse me, or location in Canada, but you would like to build citations there as well, then yeah, you can add a second location as long as, as we just mentioned, already today, many times, if you can get a verifiable address, that’s what I would recommend. It’s, you know, it would certainly help. And then you could have two sets of citations. I would tie that to a set separate that the second GMB, I would tie it to a location page specific for that second location. In other words, you don’t want if you’ve got to GMB, right, you don’t want both GMB is pointing to the same page, like the root domain or the homepage of the site.

Because that could cause some ambiguous ambiguity, right, some NAEP issues. So it would be because it’s going to be the same company name, right. And so as long as you have only one data point, and name, address, and phone number as the same or website URL, because it’s really four points, right, we always call it an NAP name, address, and phone number, but also includes the website address. So there are really four data points. And as long as you’re not, you’re not sharing more than one data point across those four, then you can do that. So in other words, if the company name is going to be the same, which it should be, unless you added a location modifier to the company name, which you can do, but if you want to keep the company the same in both locations, that’s fine. But then you should have a separate physical address, a separate phone number for each location, and a separate web page. So if you have a primary one, that the website URL is tied to the home or the route, you know, the homepage or the routing domain, that’s perfectly fine. But on the second location, you should have the website tied to a specific location page for that location. Does that make sense? So again, you want to only have one common data point across those for the name, address, phone number, and website, or else you can create any IP ambiguous ambiguity issues, which will cause both locations to not rank as well. That makes sense. Does anybody want to comment on that?

Yeah, I mean, you can get virtual office addresses all over the US that you can rent an office and have the postcard physically mailed that to that address. There are multiple ways to do that. I mean, there’s even a Craigslist that you can use for that. I mean, Craigslist. It’s worked for me in the past that I tried. Like, not too long ago, I tried one in New York City and got a dormant to get me a verified GMB. So you can still be done because you just have to be creative about how you go and get them to kind of legitimize what it is that you’re doing. And understand that if you lose it, it’s spam. There’s nothing you could do. Try it at first, you don’t succeed, try it again.

So that would be the only way I can think I would know nothing about Canada to know how the post office works there, whether you could get one there. But you could still get someone to verify a business for you. Or those virtual offices, man, virtual offices, they work really well. Yeah, Chris Genie was he provided me or I don’t have it to share with you guys. I’d have to go search for it. But there are virtual mailbox services now that, you know, you can register a physical location, right, so to speak, and they’ll receive the mail and scan it and send you an email with the images of the mail. So you might want to try I’ve never tried that. To be honest with you. I’ve never tried it. So I don’t know if that would work or not. But you know, it’s worth a shot, right? So you might want to consider that.

Can We Take The URLs From AWS For The Images And Build Tiered Web 2.0s To Pass Juice To The Money Site?

Right, next is Phineas and Ferb. Okay. Hey, so I’m wondering if we are using AWS or another cloud provider like Microsoft, for CDN? Can we take URLs from AWS and all our images and build tiered web 2.0s to them to pass us to the money site? Or could this cause a penalty? Curious to get your opinions? You know, that’s an old tactic. Jimmy Kelly talked about that way back in I think 2000. And what was it 14 when I went to the certification, networking power certification, I think it was 2014? Anyways, he was talking about that way back then when we were doing domain authority stacking, RYS, which worked like freakin gangbusters back then it was crazy how good that worked. And that’s what we would do like subdomain manipulation and all kinds of stuff that we would do.

And that was one of the things that I remember was taught way, way back then, which was seven years ago now was taking the CDN URLs and using those like for images and files and all that and just hammering them with backlinks and pushing domain authority into the entity or the root domain at that point, we weren’t really talking about entity based SEO then. And it worked. I don’t know if that still would have much of an effect now, because I just don’t really do domain authority stalking anymore. We, we do our methods, which is about relevancy, and entity and art.

So I don’t know if that would work or not. What do you think Marco? Yeah, I don’t see why you wouldn’t. Because you’re building tiered web two dot O’s to pass link power through. So the tiered web $2 would absorb most of it. Or if you’re building it into the AWS or Microsoft, or whatever the CDN of choice is.

It would still absorb, like any of the negative.

But I mean, to me, nothing like Google, nothing works like Google. That’s why we’re in the belly of the beast, not Google doesn’t trust anything like it trust Google. So we’ll stay in there for as long as we can until we can’t, and then we’ll figure out something else. Yeah.

Hey, it’s worth a test. Yeah, sure. I mean, all of these people come, and they come with these ideas, these theories? And the standard answer is, try and see, the only way that you would know is if you try to see because if you have us, or you wait for us, in the heavy hitter club, of course, if you wait for us to try, we have a long list of things to try, because we’re already getting result. And so what we would have to do is put it on the list, because it isn’t necessary with what we’re doing right now the system that we have in place.

And how we do it, we get results time. And again, it’s a repeatable process that we’ve built, that works, period. So to build all of these different things, right now, it doesn’t make sense, because we don’t really need them. It’s nice to have them in the chamber in case something happens. And so we do have all of these other things that we could turn to if something happens, but right now, it just isn’t necessary and hasn’t been for me for quite a while. But going on six years now that we’ve been using our methods and our system and the way that we do things.

Does Your Selection Of The GMB Service Area Option Have Any effect On Geographical Search In The 3-Pack?

That’s right, so Gordon’s up what’s up, Gordon, it’s been a while he says, Hey, guys, I need your help. And two quick questions. Does the GMB service area you select in your GMB listing have any effect on the geographical search area that gets Google to show your listing in a three-pack it does to a degree.

You know, Google tightened its proximity filters. A shit year and a half ago now. Time flies, I guess it’s been a while. But it used to be that. Yeah, you could get your maps in the show in your designated service area. Relatively easy, right? If it wasn’t that difficult, especially for like, again, tree contractors typically have a very big service area, like multiple counties. And so I would list all that, right. And a lot of the times I could get for some of the GMBs that were really powered up really authoritative, they would rank three cities away, right? Like because it was, you know, might be in an adjacent county altogether, right. And it was crazy. Um, but that’ll kind of change. A year and a half ago now, maybe two years ago, whatever, whenever the proximity filters got a lot stricter or tighter, narrower, so to speak. And so now it’s a lot more difficult. Yes, it can still be done. But it takes a lot of effort. And time, cumulative effort, in other words, in order to get that to occur, and that’s what we teach it local GMB Pro. So, you know, it is possible, but it does take consistent, repeated effort in order to end in a very specific way in order to do that. So what I’m saying is, is you can put a large service area, right, and it might be relevant to that business, but Google is likely only going to show the maps listing for people that are in close proximity at the time that they search for that service, unless you can force it to, you know, Marco, I suppose, expand the centroid by doing the methods that we teach in local GMB Pro. But it’s difficult to do that. I mean, it’s not that it can’t be done. It certainly can. But it’s difficult to do that. So, you know, again, Google is going to really show the maps listing to people that are in close proximity when they’re searching, especially if there are other businesses, like if it’s a very obscure business, that there’s not a lot of other companies that provide that product or service, then yeah, you can get maps listing to appear from I mean, you know, 10s or hundreds of miles away even That’s true, but it’s very rare. If it’s a type of business that is common, then and there are multiple providers within you know, you know, there are multiple competitors, I should say, then it’s, then it’s likely that the Google My Business profile is not going to show up in adjacent towns because of the proximity filter, and that’s what I’ve been experiencing. So I typically now really just focus in on an immediate local area, at least initially, and once I start getting that to rank then we start targeting, you know, expanded areas through content marketing, GMB posts, and all that other stuff that we teach in the local GMB pro market. What do you say? activity, relevance, trust, and authority, right? The more trusted and authoritative you become, the more that the centroid will expand. How you do that is in local GMB Pro, there has to be a reason why Google will display you to someone that further away than that they should be. There has to be a reason for that proximity factor not to kick in. We did that with the DC plumber, right? It’s a case study in RYS Academy Reloaded.

But it works perfectly well here where we built such massive trust and authority into that, that it became the keyword for the niche. And so because it has that trust and authority, it gets displayed to people outside of what you would expect the radius to be from the Business Center, the way that we did it. As I’ve said before, in New York City was a bike messenger server, the way that we did it in LA is Uber drivers. And I’m not gonna say how it was done, I’m just telling you, that’s what we used to just create massive trust and authority to relate, like, create relevance between where we wanted Google, to display to people to give us impressions, to put our results in front of people to get us in the map pack in front of people. And then I mean, if you’re there one to one or two, sometimes three people start clicking on it. And then that reinforces the trust and authority that Google is giving us and creates even more. The whole process for that it’s a local GMB Pro. I won’t get into it here.

Yeah, and I’m testing. You know, I’ve talked about many, many times over the last year and a half, two years here on Hump Day hangouts about click-through spam bots, and not using them. And I’ve just been using paid traffic from Google. But I, I have started testing, Michael bows, his Viper tools recently, because he’s been getting a lot of good results from people that I know in the space. And so I’ve actually just recently started testing with that. And that’s something that I’m hoping I don’t have any results yet, but I’m hoping that I can get similar results to some of the people that I’ve chatted with about it. And that could be something I mean, you could do paid traffic, which is what I’ve been doing but you know, you can specify like certain clicks to come to for within a certain geographic area, right? From a topically relevant audience or an audience that would be relevant to you know, what you’re sending them to, and that that works to, to kind of help with that stuff, too. So I’m actually testing the tool right now. As I said, Michael’s tool doesn’t have any results to share yet but I’m hoping that it works well. And if it does, I will let you guys know for sure.

Can You Create Massive Direct Backlinks Without Using Buffer Sites?

Alright, the next question was do you have to be careful when creating direct backlinks to GMB listings as you do when doing direct backlinks to the websites, or can you create massive direct backlinks without using a very small number of buffer web 2.0 sites as tier one layer, maybe even a tier two-layer and what parts of the GMB listing should be targeted with backlinks to get the most SEO bang for the buck? Thank you very much. We hope as usual as always greatly appreciated. That seems almost like a consultation question Gordon. It gets very intricate on how things we try not to do in Hump Day hangouts is don’t discuss the How is what people pay us a whole lot of money for who can tell you what we do but that this is kind of getting into how isn’t it? I don’t know unless you want to answer because I’m not. Yeah, no, I mean, I don’t have any problem running backlinks directly to GMB stuff for tier-one entity acids period. I don’t like to run direct backlinks to the money site. But to tier-one entity assets, we did I hammer everything.

That’s my answer. Do you want to comment on that? Anyone? You can hammer that as far as I’m gonna go. Okay. And that’s what I do Gordon distances short answer. All tier-one entity assets. I don’t game. Yep. Just Hey.

And that’s why we do what we do with the SEO SEO guy. That’s why it’s called the SEO shield. Right? It’s the SEO firewall, it shields the money site. So you can do all that really nasty, off-page SEO stuff to your shield, not to the money site. But that’s the whole point. Right?

So we keep the money site procedures. The first place they’re gonna go look is the money site. Yeah, the only thing I run directly to the money site besides syndication posts, like syndication network backlinks or press releases.

And that’s pretty much it, you know, occasionally I’ll buy some guest post links.

From a really good provider. They’re expensive, though. But even then, it’s only very, very specific circumstances. Other than that, I just use the same methods that we teach. So I do absolutely nothing to the benefit, sometimes a precedent, a precedent, but I’ll usually run press releases elsewhere to one.

How Does The Google Bot Understand The Schema Through The Tag Manager If There’s No Placement In The HTML?

So BB is up with a list of questions as usual. What’s up, bb, he says, Hey, guys, you said there is a way to the schema to add schema, I guess, through the Google Tag Manager. But how the G bot understands the page that there’s no placement in the HTML, it’ll render it. So it’s a script, right, the container will display the scripts within the container in Google Tag Manager. Now, Google even says in their help files, that that is not the preferred way to display JSON LD structured data on a website, doing it through Tag Manager is not the preferred way, as per Google’s own help files or documentation. However, it still works. And there are certain circumstances where that’s the only way you can do it. So for example, I have a website, one of my sites that has a website theme that there’s no way to add code to the home page. It’s really weird. It’s the home page is like built into the theme. And there’s no, there’s just no way to add code to the home page other than through Google Tag Manager. Or if I were to hack the JSON LD directly into the theme files, which I don’t like to do. So in that case, I just added the structure data organization schema, in that case, to the container code, and Google Tag Manager, and yes, it will render. Now if you go to a view page source, all you’re going to see is the GTM Tag Manager, excuse me, the container code, the Google Tag Manager container, but that’s all you’re going to see. But when you do a structured data testing tool test on the homepage, it will render the JSON LD code on the site. So you can actually see it in Google, excuse me, the structured data testing tool. So yes, again, it’s not the preferred method, if you can add the structured data directly to the code of the site using SEO ultimate Pro, which is what I use mostly, sometimes use as a header and footer plugin. Sometimes themes will have the ability to add code to specific pages or sitewide, globally. So you can add it there, although I recommend only adding, you know, like organization schema to the homepage or whatever, just as per best practices. So but you know, in those cases where you can’t Google Tag Manager is a viable alternative, even if Google says it isn’t because it still reads and recognizes the code. And he comments on that.

No, I mean, that that’s a perfect answer because that’s exactly what it is Google, it will render on the website as everything renders as HTML eventually, right. All it is all the Google tag manager does is it sets up a JavaScript call between Google servers and your server to render the HTML. That’s all it is.

Did Your Site’s Bounce Rate Increase After The Passage Index Update?

Question number two, did the bounce rate increase in your site after the passage index update? Don’t know, haven’t looked at it. It’s not a metric that I’m typically Chase.

So I don’t know I can’t answer that. Anybody have? No, I haven’t seen any changes. So and my metric is called my metric is form fields. My metric is what’s going on in that box? Any thoughts or takeaways on the new update? No, I honestly don’t have any sorry. Usually, I don’t even know about updates until somebody like you brings it to our attention. So and I mean that I don’t stay plugged in all that shit. I don’t I just look, if I start seeing some significant fluctuations in my own properties, or plant properties, then I go in and start digging into it. But if I don’t see any major fluctuations, why bother? I’ve got other things to work on. Do you know what I mean? So I honestly, I can’t give you an answer to that. I don’t have any opinion on it.

Or for the new update that will come out in May for speed testing? No, I mean, it’s Google PageSpeed. has been, people have said, it’s been a metric for a long time, but I really haven’t seen that. It’s, but it’s good for user experience. Right. So what I’m saying is PageSpeed for an SEO metric, a ranking metric is not something that I’ve seen it really have much of an effect on.

Even though people have been saying that for years, I really haven’t seen that in my own experience. But for user experience, it absolutely makes a difference. Especially on mobile, like if it was if a page loads really slow on mobile like people get irritated in the back out and go somewhere else. And so that’s really important, I think.

But as far as like what I know, I did read someone that I guess it was the experience update or whatever they’re calling it, where it’s, it’s, it covers a number of things. PageSpeed being one of them. You know, I really don’t have a prediction on that, because I just don’t know, we’ll see what happens when it comes. Any comments on that? The whole point of entity-based worry-less SEO is that to worry about those things. And again, I’ll go back to just measuring the metrics that matter, which is the four are the form fields, steady, and are the phone call steady. And it’s the clients’ bottom line increasing that, that my job is not to worry about bounce rate or anything else like that. Unless I see a problem with any of the metrics that really matter, then I’m gonna go and see if anything has happened to affect that. And then I’m on it. But by the time I’m on that, I’m past the period, where everyone’s panicked and everyone has gone and done whatever they could to try to affect the garden themselves in trouble, maybe even sandbox, I’m going to be past all that. I’m going to be passed that point. So I’m going to let the dust settle. And then I’m going to go in and I’m going to start checking, I’m going to look at the data and see what it was that happened. And why. And then I’m gonna go into fixing it. I haven’t needed to do that literally in Oh, I did just recently, but it will it had nothing to do with the core update. But I did have to recently go in and fix something and it can’t my back, everything comes right back. And what we continue seeing since Google started announcing updates until now, when we’ve been applying these methods is Google doesn’t update, and our shit gets even better, it gets stronger. If we hit more traffic, we get better results for our clients, our clients. Sometimes, it’s 10x, sometimes going from 8k a month to 80k. Going I don’t know from 100 to 150k. I mean, those kinds of results going from seven, 8 million to nearly 30 million a month. Those are the results that we’re talking about. I don’t care about anything else. I don’t care about Google. And I’m gonna stand by what I have said all along that the art of art the art of activity, relevance, trust, and authority trumps everything on the web.

What’s The Best Way To Merge Two GMBs Quickly?

Sweet. So Dee Dee is up he says, What’s up, he says brown new. He’s a mastermind member and has been for like, many years, I think since the beginning. So anyway, he says a proud new user of go I level through semantic mastery today. Thanks for all the info Bradley, you’re welcome to and great, great tool.

Let me know when you want me to cover more stuff in the mastermind about it because in fact, I’ve got I’ve been building an app in high level for my contract as my three contractors that I’m going to be selling as a SAS software, the software is a service, right. And it’s great because it’s a low barrier to entry, low cost. But super, a super valuable tool that they can use to help them get more leads from their existing web assets, manage those leads through automated conversations. And then and through like a pipeline a lead pipeline inside high level and then also solicit reviews and basically build up the reviews. So it helps us retain reputation. And it’s a really cool app, and I’ve just finished well I’m not 100% done with it, I’m gonna I’m meeting with my one of my first three contractors is going to be beta testing it for me, either on Friday or Saturday, I’m still waiting on a reply back. But this week, and so next week, it will be in use by a tree contractor so that I can start working out the bugs and stuff. But that’s going to be one of my leading products where my new agency is that app because it’s only I’m only charging $200 a month I level says you should charge 300 a month, but I’m doing it for a specific reason. Anyways. And I think it’s gonna be a really, really good tool to get my foot in the door at a low cost with contractors, right? So anyway, let me know if you want me to cover more of that in the mastermind, I’m happy to do so and I’m in fact, next Thursday when I have my next mastermind webinar.

My tree contractor who’s going to be beta testing it for me and working with me to work out the bugs, you know, he will have about a week’s worth of use out of it. So I’ll have some pretty good experiences to share with you on that point. By the way, guys, if you’re curious, go to semantic mastery comm slash high level. It’s an outstanding platform. It’s an automation platform for agencies essentially. And it’s a really, really powerful tool. There’s a hell of a learning curve, there is no question, but it’s worth putting the time and effort into learning because it can really help you to grow your business I’m using it for right now primarily prospecting for my own business and I mean it’s just great to set up all these things. Automations that just run like clockwork day in and day out to fill your pipeline full of leads. And it’s just, it’s crazy. I’ve only been running it for three weeks now. And I’ve got, you know, 6760 to 70. Some leads in my pipeline are in various stages of communication, but it’s crazy guys. It’s a really, really, really good tool. And I’m doing a ton of I’m going to be doing I’m developing training right now, that will become the semantic mastery mastermind training, like a 90 day or a 12-week program. And the high level is an integral part of that. So if anybody’s interested in that, go check out semantic mastery comm slash high level, it’s a 14-day free trial, that is our affiliate link, but then come join the mastermind because I’m hoping by, you know, the third quarter of this year, to have the training that I’m going to be rolling out to the mastermind available and ready. And once that is launched, we’re going to kind of restructure how you can even join the mastermind, the cost everything. So if any of that interests you now would probably be a good time to get in. So you’re grandfathered. Anyways, following up on that. He says I have a client that needs a merge of GMB accounts. I’ve been trying to get this done by Google for the last four months with no luck. I keep filling out the GMB form they provide and I don’t get any response Yeah, it’s weird I’m so hit or miss with Google support. Sometimes they’re really responsive like they were with that client that I just mentioned.

We contacted them about adding a physical location to a service area business they were actually really responsive in that case, but in other cases, I go three weeks without getting a reply back so I understand your frustration he says this is a legit business that moved and we do not have access to the previous listing as another company did it. Is there any other method to try to get this done that you know of? Okay, here’s one thing d I would suggest because you’re in the mastermind is post this as like asking for help in the mastermind within describing the issue. Because we there’s a lot of local Google Local Guides in our mastermind, myself included lane Clayton, Greg Greenberg, there’s a bunch of them in there that, you know, in the past, when we’ve had similar weird issues occur, we get high-level local guides to go in and suggest that it’s and after a handful of that those occur, then oftentimes the attics will the edits will go through. So let’s start a discussion in the mastermind. That’s what it’s for anyways, D and C, see, you know, we put all our heads together, we ought to be able to come up with something to help you or at least give you some additional ideas. That’s what the mastermind is for any comments on that guys? Yeah, ask Marco anything mastermind is tomorrow. Right? So just come in and ask that question. Because I do have some suggestions for you on what would work for this because someone just went through this and it was a nightmare. And the way that you’re trying to do it just filling out the form, not gonna work. They are not going to respond to that at all ever takes you’d never get anything when you fill out that form. And they don’t tell you what we’ll call you. Right right back. Never call. You never get any response and never get any emails. And I’ll give this in public.

You’re not the one that should be doing this. That GMB if it’s legit has an owner with all the documentation. That should be the person, not you. The owner. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. documentation should be the one that’s initiating all of the contacts. But let’s talk tomorrow. Let’s talk tomorrow. So I can talk to you in-depth on how to how to get through this. Yeah, there you go. And that’s good advice.

You know, from the primary owner’s account, if you contact support, you might get a response. So that owner, not the manager, not never the manager.

Alright, the last question, which is great and by the way, hey, Jordan, yo, yo, yo, you pretty people. I don’t know who you’re talking to join. But

Is Local Viking Good For GMB Postings?

anyways, this last question says is local biking, okay to use for GMB posting? Or is it one to be aware of, alright? I talked about this for the last couple of months, I switched to local Viking about two months ago. But, you know, according to some crazy shit that happened last week, apparently,

I have canceled my subscription. And I’m just not going to use it anymore. I’m concerned about the API connection being a flag. I’m not saying whether it is or not, I don’t know. But I have revoked local Viking access to my GM bees. And I’m not going to continue to use it. And it’s just because it’s better safe than sorry. And I’d rather be overly cautious. And I’m afraid that that might be a flag because of some of the issues that had happened a week ago. And it wasn’t just them. There were a couple of others as well.

And so I’ve literally revoked access. There’s only one app that I’m using right now for posting to GMB. That does in it, that’s all it does. It doesn’t, it doesn’t connect in any other way other than to allow for posting and it’s called fan booster fan booster calm. There are some limitations with that app though. So and I’m only testing that across like three locations right now. All my other locations are going to be manually posted to for right now by my VA logging into as a manager to those GMB locations one at a time and posting manually, which sucks, but it is what it is. And right now I’m afraid to use any of these like SEO-based GMB posts schedulers, a social media-based post scheduler, I think is different because it’s not scrutinized the same way that the SEO tools are by Google. At least that’s my assumption. It’s logical. I don’t know if that’s true or not. But fan booster is a social media posting app. That’s the one that I’m testing with right now. And that is pretty cool. There are some limitations. But there are also some really cool benefits to that. So I mean, I’ll share more information about that when I have it. But again, just to be 100% transparent, I have canceled my subscription to local biking and it sucks because I just worked it into my processes for my team. And I had to cancel it right after we got really good at using it. Fucking canceled it. But it is what it is Welcome to the world of online marketing, right? So any comments on that, before we wrap it up, my motto is always to protect what’s making you money. always protect the better to be safe than sorry. Some of those APIs were tagged for suspicious activity. I’m not gonna say which one.

Which ones it was more than one, they were just getting heavily spam that was being used for purposes other than posting. And so I mean, it is what it is, every time that I’m gonna put myself and spammers get hold of something. It gets muddy to get dirty, Google starts looking in. And their job is simply we’re gonna get rid of it. So we’ll just knock it all out. Yeah, we just knock it all out. We don’t care. They’d rather do that. Then take a chance of letting the spammers continue spamming. That’s the same thing that they’re doing with GMB period. Prove that if it gets suspended, prove that it’s real. Yeah, that that’s it. They don’t care. They don’t care if it was real to start with. prove that it’s real. That’s it.

Yeah, and I want to thank you, Marco, again, for bringing that to my attention last week, because, like I immediately went in and revoked access and fortunately, knock on wood. I still got my assets. So anyway, thanks, guys. We’ll see y'all next time.

Source: Semantic Mastery Weekly SEO Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 330 published first on your-t1-blog-url