#grow busines

[digitells]

 From Visitors to Customers: The Conversion Tracking Blueprint

What is Conversion tracking in digital marketing ?

Conversion tracking in digital marketing is a strategic process that involves monitoring and measuring user actions on a website to evaluate the effectiveness of online advertising efforts. It enables advertisers to track specific activities, known as conversions, which represent desired outcomes, such as purchases, form submissions, or other goal completions.

To implement conversion tracking, advertisers integrate tracking codes provided by advertising platforms into their website's relevant pages. When users interact with ads and land on the website, these codes record their actions. If a user completes a conversion event, such as making a purchase, the code attributes the success back to the specific ad or campaign that led to the action.

The data collected through conversion tracking offers valuable insights into the performance of different advertising channels, campaigns, and keywords. This information empowers businesses to assess the return on investment (ROI) of their marketing efforts accurately and make data-driven decisions to optimize their strategies for improved results.

How does it work?

Conversions can encompass a wide range of activities, such as product purchases, form submissions, newsletter sign-ups, or any other desired user interaction. The process of conversion tracking involves embedding tracking codes or tags within the advertiser's website. These codes are generated by advertising platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads and are strategically placed on the webpages where the conversions occur, typically on confirmation or "thank you" pages.

When a user engages with an ad and clicks on it, the tracking code deploys a unique cookie onto the user's browser, identifying the ad source, keyword, and other relevant information. As the user navigates the website, the tracking code records their activities, and if a conversion is completed, such as a successful purchase, the code attributes the conversion back to the specific ad that brought the user to the website.

The data collected through conversion tracking is aggregated and analyzed within the advertising platform's reporting interface. Advertisers can access detailed metrics, such as conversion rate, cost per conversion, and return on investment (ROI), enabling them to assess the effectiveness of their marketing efforts.

Moreover, conversion tracking facilitates cross-device and cross-channel attribution, allowing advertisers to comprehend how users interact with their campaigns across different devices and platforms. By gaining actionable insights from conversion data, businesses can optimize their advertising strategies, allocate budgets more efficiently, and enhance overall campaign performance, ultimately leading to better business outcomes and increased ROI. Nonetheless, it is essential for advertisers to prioritize user data privacy, ensuring compliance with relevant regulations and obtaining consent for data tracking to build trust with their audience.

Main types of conversion tracking?

Pixel-based Tracking: Pixel-based tracking involves placing a small piece of code, called a tracking pixel, on the advertiser's website. When a user completes a conversion, such as making a purchase or submitting a form, the pixel sends information back to the advertising platform, allowing it to record the conversion and attribute it to the corresponding ad campaign.

Cookie-based Tracking: Cookie-based tracking relies on cookies, which are small data files stored on a user's browser. When a user interacts with an ad and clicks on it, a unique cookie is placed on their browser. This cookie enables the advertising platform to track the user's subsequent actions on the website and attribute conversions to the specific ad source.

Server-to-Server Tracking: Server-to-server tracking, also known as postback or callback tracking, establishes direct communication between the advertiser's server and the advertising platform's server. When a conversion occurs, the website server notifies the advertising platform, eliminating the need for tracking pixels on the website.

Offline Conversion Tracking: Offline conversion tracking bridges the gap between online marketing efforts and offline customer actions, such as in-store purchases. It employs methods like unique coupon codes or customer identifiers to track offline conversions back to online ads.

Phone Call Tracking: Phone call tracking monitors and records phone calls generated through online ads. Dynamic phone numbers are displayed to users, enabling advertisers to track which ads led to the calls and attribute conversions accordingly.

Cross-Device Tracking: Cross-device tracking connects user interactions across multiple devices (e.g., desktop, mobile, tablet) to understand how users engage with ads on different platforms before completing a conversion. This is especially important as users often switch devices during their buying journey.

These various conversion tracking methods empower advertisers with valuable data to measure the success of their marketing campaigns, optimize their strategies, and allocate resources efficiently. By understanding the performance of different advertising channels and attributing conversions accurately, businesses can make informed decisions and achieve better results from their digital marketing efforts.

Why is it important to track conversions?

Tracking conversions is of paramount significance in the realm of marketing and business performance evaluation. It serves as a crucial metric to assess the efficacy of marketing endeavors and campaigns, enabling data-driven decision-making for resource allocation and optimization. By meticulously monitoring conversions, businesses can accurately gauge the success of their marketing initiatives and determine which channels, strategies, or campaigns yield the most substantial results.

Conversions provide valuable insights into the return on investment (ROI) of marketing activities. This precise measurement helps businesses ascertain whether their investments in marketing efforts are generating favorable returns, thereby justifying further allocations of resources and investments in future marketing initiatives. It facilitates the optimization of marketing strategies and website performance. By analyzing user behavior and interactions, businesses can identify potential bottlenecks, areas of improvement, and customer preferences. Armed with these insights, they can refine marketing messages, tailor product offerings, and enhance the overall user experience to augment the conversion rate, consequently leading to a heightened number of successful transactions or desired actions.

In addition to gauging marketing success, conversion tracking offers invaluable customer insights. By discerning which customer segments are converting and understanding the drivers behind their actions, businesses can customize marketing strategies to better meet customer needs and preferences. It serves as the foundation for conducting rigorous A/B tests or split tests. These experiments allow businesses to compare different variations of marketing materials, website layouts, or product offerings to ascertain which version yields superior results in terms of conversions. By continuously iterating based on these findings, businesses can optimize their marketing efforts incrementally.

Prudent budget allocation is another significant benefit of conversion tracking. By focusing resources on channels or campaigns that generate the most conversions, businesses can maximize the impact of their marketing activities and ensure optimal resource utilization.

Additionally, conversion tracking assists in identifying potential issues or barriers that impede users from converting. Whether it pertains to website usability, checkout processes, or messaging, pinpointing and rectifying these obstacles can lead to a more seamless user experience and higher conversion rates. It provides historical data that aids businesses in identifying trends, seasonal fluctuations, or long-term growth patterns. Armed with this information, they can better strategize for future marketing initiatives, set achievable goals, and ensure sustained growth.

Tracking conversions is integral to measuring marketing performance, optimizing strategies, comprehending customer behavior, and making well-informed decisions. This indispensable practice empowers businesses to maintain competitiveness, enhance profitability, and foster enduring growth in the dynamic landscape of contemporary commerce.

Here are high-intent audiences that can boost conversions on Facebook and Instagram:

Website Custom Audiences (WCAs): These are people who have visited your website previously.You can create different segments based on their actions, such as all website visitors, those who visited specific pages, or those who abandoned their shopping carts.

Lookalike Audiences: You can create Lookalike Audiences based on your existing customer lists or website visitors. Facebook and Instagram will find users with similar characteristics and interests to those in your source audience.

Engagement Audiences: Target users who have engaged with your Facebook or Instagram content, such as people who liked, commented, or shared your posts.

Email Subscribers Custom Audiences: Upload your email subscriber list, and Facebook and Instagram will match it to their users, allowing you to target your existing subscribers or exclude them from campaigns.

App Activity Custom Audiences: If you have a mobile app, you can create custom audiences based on users' in-app activities, allowing you to target or retarget them.

Offline Event Custom Audiences: If you have a brick-and-mortar store and collect customer data offline, you can create custom audiences based on that data, such as purchases made in-store.

Interest-Based Audiences: Facebook and Instagram provide a wide range of interests and behaviors to target. Focus on interests related to your products or services to reach people who are more likely to be interested in what you offer.

Retargeting Audiences: Set up retargeting campaigns to reach users who have previously interacted with your ads or website but haven't converted yet.

Exclude Audiences: To refine your targeting, create an audience that excludes previous converters or existing customers. This will help you avoid wasting ad spend on people who have already converted.

The insights gleaned from conversion tracking provide the foundation for informed decision-making, allowing you to optimize your allocation of resources across different advertising channels, refine your messaging, and pinpoint the most fruitful keywords. With a data-driven approach, you can continually refine your efforts to enhance your return on investment and drive your business toward sustained growth and success.

[violetflowerswrites]

Sweetheart

Pairing: Logan Howlett X Female Mutant Reader

Era: X Men 1 / Trilogy

Summary: Logan and the resident therapist for the mutant school grow closer due to Logan’s resistance to her emotional manipulation powers. A friends with benefits situation naturally leads to falling for each other.

Word Count: 6.5k

Disclaimers: smoking, mentions of cheating, mentions of mental health issues (PTSD, trauma, self-harm/suicide), swearing, explicit sexual content. Consensual kissing, touching, oral sex, and p in v sex. Logan has a bit of a pain kink. 18+ mature only. Minors DNI.

A/N: I recently re-watched X1 because Logan has been on my mind since the Deadpool and Wolverine movie this past summer. And holy hell Hugh Jackman is SO cute and SO sexy and SO flirty in X1 that I couldn’t help but write this absolutely depraved, incredibly smutty (and soft!) fic. Seriously, it just kept getting longer and longer because of all the smut scenes. Enjoy!

…

The first thing you noticed was the hairy forearm laid heavily on your stomach. The heft of it acted as a natural weighted blanket, lulling you into that peaceful haze between wake and sleep.

But the laughter and squeals of kids playing in the freshly fallen snow outside your window invaded your mind with happy energy.

Excitement and adrenaline.

Winter morning sunshine and the holiday spirit.

Too bad you still hadn’t quite mastered how to dial the volume down of the outside world so you could sleep in.

With a contented sigh, you turned and gazed at the weather-tanned face of Logan, aka The Wolverine.

He was scruffy, rough around the edges, and altogether too much of a flirt to be boyfriend material.

But that was exactly how you liked your men.

Emotionally unavailable?

Check.

Morally ambiguous backstory?

Check.

Utterly ravishing in bed?

Check.

Logan and yourself definitely had a friends with benefits situation going on. Not that anyone would have bothered to say anything. Although you hoped Professor X wasn’t spending his free time dipping into the confines of your mind.

You see, you were the in-house therapist. You knew everyone’s secrets so they didn’t dare share yours. It was the best insurance policy in a school full of mutants you could have gotten.

Ever since you were young, you had always been “in-tune” with others’ emotions. Uncannily so.

Somehow you didn’t question this, but the obvious career of choice was to become a therapist.

It wasn’t until your college boyfriend cheated on you and you felt so overcome with rage that you told him to drive himself off a cliff.

And he did.

But not really.

He was so upset that you caught him in bed with another woman, that he stopped paying attention to the road on the way home and got into a little fender bender. A trip to the ER and a few bruises and a cracked rib later, it was more than enough to scare you into thinking that perhaps your influence was more than just a high EQ.

So you tested your powers. First, getting your roommate to stop stealing your food from the fridge. Then, helping your sister reconcile with your mom over Thanksgiving dinner. After that, soothing crying babies in seconds. Calming down PTSD patients in relapse episodes. Catching students in mental health crises before they did something they could never take back.

Before you knew it, you were making six figures post-grad at a fancy private clinic for celebrities in Hollywood whose biggest problems were having way too much money and convincing themselves that they had every disorder in the DSM-5.

Then, Professor X found you. And hired you on the spot to be the school counselor / therapist / shrink / lady-who-you-talk-to-lying-on- the-couch, at his school for mutants.

Sorry—at the “Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters” as it officially said on your business card.

…

The peaceful inhales and exhales of the human heating pad next to you put you in a nostalgic mood. So you burrowed down deeper into the covers and remembered handing that exact business card to the burliest man you’d ever seen in your little office.

That was the first thing you noticed when Logan walked in through the mahogany wooden door almost half a year ago now. How he filled up the door frame with not just height, but pure mass of muscle.

Jesus Christ, is this man on steroids? You remembered thinking.

The second thing you noticed was the hair. Thick and dark and messy, but pointed and shaped exactly like ears.

The third thing was his hands. Almost always in fists, as if he was ready to fight in a moment’s notice.

Which he probably was.

Ah. You had thought to yourself then.

This is why they call him The Wolverine.

“Good morning!” You greeted him warmly, trying to exude as much welcoming energy as you could.

It was met with a brick wall and a single grunt of acknowledgment.

Not fazed in the least, you gestured to a plush deep espresso-colored leather sofa that matched the soothing wood tones of the room.

“You’re not gonna ask me to lie down on that, are ya?” Logan gruffed out.

”Totally up to you.” You tried to disarm him with a smile, which he resolutely ignored. So, you handed him your business card and he begrudgingly took it, though he barely glanced at it and tossed it on top of the cushions.

Then, Logan pulled out a lighter and a cigarette from his leather jacket and took a long drag.

“Mind if I smoke?” Logan asked afterwards, with an arched brow.

Clearly he was trying to get a rise out of you, so you ignored the blatant lack of manners and simply shook your head and tried to make a joke.

“Not if you’re willing to share.” You half laughed, half coughed.

“I doubt a pretty lil thing like you smokes Malboro reds, much less a shrink.” Logan exhaled another thick column of smoke.

“You don’t know where my mouth has been.”

The words slipped out of your smiling lips before you could catch them, and you mentally slapped yourself for letting your intrusive thoughts come out.

Logan’s jaw dropped open, before he quickly shut it and kept a firm grip on his cigarette before it fell and burned a hole into Professor X’s very expensive carpet.

You felt a shift in the room. Logan’s energy was defensive, reluctant, and suspicious when he walked in.

Now, it was undoubtedly aroused.

To you.

Goddammit.

“I apologize. That wasn’t very professional of me. I’m going to be straight with you because I know that Professor X requested that you to come here. He specifically asked me to help you recover some memories, possibly work through some PTSD and figure out who…” you hesitated, searching for a polite way to phrase what you wanted to say next.

“Fucked me up with their experiments?” Logan laughed bitterly. “No need to sugar coat it, sweetheart.”

“Ahem. Yes. But now I’ve clearly given you mixed signals—“

“Mixed signals?” Logan grinned impishly. “I’m just picking up what you’re putting out.” He leaned back into the sofa.

“Well, that’s not exactly it. You see, I have the ability to read emotions.” You explained, “and influence the emotions of others.”

“Really?” Logan looked intrigued, but not quite convinced. “Tell me what I’m feeling right now.”

”You came in unwilling and totally against seeing a therapist.” You took a breath. “And now you’re curious, and a little attracted to me right now.”

“Not just a little, Doc.” He took another drag of cigarette.

“I’m sure you tell that to all the girls.” You waved away his comment, trying to not let him make you blush.

“Nah.” Logan exhaled. “Tell me I’m lying.”

“Well, I can’t do that. But I can change how you feel.” You offered.

“Try me.” He sat up in his seat, leaning forward in a challenge. “Make me not feel attracted to you.”

You furrowed your brow in concentration. Emotions were a finicky thing to manipulate, but your powers helped you “see” the feeling, almost like an aura or energy around the person.

Logan’s right now was pulsing, wafting off his body towards you, as his locked eyes with yours.

So you tried, pushing it back. Changing its shape, its color.

Its taste in your mouth.

But it stayed the same.

Sweet, sultry, and utterly addicting.

“What the hell?” You muttered. Your professionalism fell away as you were caught by surprise yet again by this man.

“What?” Logan murmured.

“It’s not…I can’t…” you trailed off, perplexed.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” Logan teased, “powers don’t work on me?”

“Holy shit.” You whispered to yourself. “Holy shit.” You emphasized the expletive in shock.

Logan’s face fell when he realized you weren’t messing with him. Your powers actually didn’t work on him.

“Stay right there. Don’t you dare leave!” You thrusted a finger in his face and practically ran out the door, your eyes shining in excitement.

And you left a very confused Wolverine in his seat.

It turned out, The Wolverine had very strong resistance to psychic-type powers. Your powers were much weaker than Professor X, or even Dr. Jean Grey’s, so it was easy for him to subconsciously block them off. When you were first hired, you worked with Professor X and Jean a lot, trying to improve your manipulation abilities, but they could always tell when you were trying to change their emotions. Others like…say…Cyclops for example? Not so much.

You chuckled aloud at the juvenile pranks you pulled with Jean, like making Cyclops feel so confident he sober-karaoked on a night out, and you and Jean recorded his performance, clutching your sides with laughter.

He was actually an excellent singer, but he never let the two of you hear another note again. After all, your powers changed emotions, but not memories.

…

Logan shifted on the mattress, feeling the vibrations of your quiet laughter, and he let out a sleepy groan. You held your breath until he settled back into stillness, not meaning to wake him just yet.

Your mind wandered again to another memory.

“You’re gonna give yourself wrinkles, sweetheart.” A rough voice interrupted your concentration and smoothed your forehead with an equally rough thumb.

“Stop calling me sweetheart, it’s distracting!” You playfully shoved Logan in the shoulder and he didn’t budge an inch. The man was built like a tank and had absolutely no qualms attacking you.

With his constant, less-than-subtle flirting that is.

“How’s this for distracting?” Logan grabbed your waist and plopped you right in his lap. Your tight black skirt rode up your thighs in a decidedly unprofessional manner. Logan’s eyes immediately flickered down to your exposed skin, before he brought your hands up to the sides of head.

“Jesus Christ Logan, I’m trying to get better at this.” You huffed out exasperatedly, but you could feel Logan’s emotions charging up, along with your own.

Attraction.

Magnetic, sensual, delicious attraction to each other.

It didn’t take mutant powers to see that the two of you had chemistry. The tension had been building for months since that first day Logan stepped into your office. Now, it was another matter entirely to test if you had sexual chemistry. Which Logan always seemed to push the boundaries on.

Because now, here you were, sitting on the lap of a man who you were supposed to be helping, training with, and trying to practice your powers on.

And your attention was wholly on how thick and hard and firm his rolling thigh muscles felt under the pliant flesh of your ass. You subconsciously sank down further into his lap and Logan closed his eyes in a slow couple of blinks.

“Careful there, sweetheart.” Logan’s voice came out with more gravel than he intended.

“Oh, are we feeling a little distracted?” You whispered in a smirk, your hands practically grasping the thick aura of attraction between the two of you.

The strength of Logan’s emotion was quite literally making you feel drunk with arousal. You could tell Logan noticed the increase in the thrumming of your heartbeat and the speed of your hot breath so close to his face.

“What am I feeling right now?” Logan searched your eyes, his tone filled with barely masked self-control, desire, expectation.

“Tell me.”

You sucked in a shaky breath. “You wanna fuck me.”

“You’re damn right I do.”

Logan’s strong hands tangled in the hair at the back of your head as his lips, teeth, and tongue clashed messily with yours. He didn’t hold back anything, and it felt like he was devouring you whole. Your hands clawed at his shoulders, pushing the leather jacket off and you dug your fingernails into the thick muscle of his biceps.

Logan released your mouth with a growl, and he wasted no time nipping, sucking, and licking all over your neck and collarbone.

Meanwhile, you were transfixed by how the bright pink lines of your scratches were healing on his tanned skin. Curiosity got the better of you and you tried scratching him again, harder this time.

“You trying to hurt me, sweetheart?” Logan grumbled hotly against your ear.

“Mmm maybe?” You giggled, sighing into his lips that were pressing kisses against the side of your face.

“Good.” Logan kissed down your throat, ripping apart the buttons of your work blouse as he went. “I like a bit of pain when I’m fucking.”

You peeled off the top and your lacy black bra, exposing your bare breasts to Logan and he promptly buried his face in your flesh, clearly enjoying himself with your body. Unseemingly moans continuously poured out of both of you and your lust-riddled brain somehow remembered that it was the middle of the workday and you were in your third floor office that anyone could walk by.

“Logan, hold on—I need to…” You gasped out in stuttered breaths.

“Mmph” he grunted back, his teeth having found your perky nipples and he was clearly too focused on that to hear a thing you said.

So you grabbed a thick tuft of his hair and yanked his head back, to which the man actually snarled at being interrupted.

Unafraid, you laughed with delight and kissed him deeply. He tasted of cigarettes and salt and a delicious musk that solely belonged to him.

“I need to close the curtains and lock the door, Logan.” You reprimanded.

Resigned, Logan spread his arms to the back of the couch as he watched you secure the room. Even with your back turned, you could feel that his gaze never wavered from you. The lust poured off of him in waves that pulsed with every breath he took.

It was a deep red, thick like a fog, and it filled your nostrils, your head, your senses entirely. You’ve never felt your powers be so entirely overwhelmed by a single person before.

But Logan was not just anyone.

“I can feel so much from you.” Your voice dropped down into a strained whisper as you stepped back towards him, in between his man-spread legs. You reached a hand behind you to unzip your skirt, and Logan licked his lips once he saw the little black thong you had on underneath. He quickly undid his belt buckle and threw it to the side with a clatter. You slid your hands up his chest slowly, inhaling his scent as you kissed the side of his neck, finding a single vein throbbing with his increased heartbeat.

His white tank fell in a heap on the floor. A second later, dark blue jeans followed suit. Finally, you used your free hand to yank his boxers down and he was completely bare before you at last.

“What do you feel?” Logan could not stop staring at you, at your body, and following every motion of your hands.

You straddled his lap, a knee on either side of his thick thighs. Logan released a breath he didn’t know he was holding when you sat your bare bottom on his lap once again.

Instead of replying, you whispered into his mouth, “Cut off my thong.”

Thrill licked up your spine as you watched a single blade release from his right hand, and Logan oh-so-carefully sliced the string of your panties along your hips. Silently, you both watched as it slid off your heated skin.

You rewarded him with another kiss, running your tongue along the inside of his mouth. He nudged his nose into your cheek, desperate for more.

Meanwhile, you reached down between your bodies and found his painfully erect member. Your lips swallowed the needy growl that escaped the back of Logan’s throat. It made a slow smile spread on your face.

This man wanted you as badly as you wanted him. And neither of you could wait a second longer to devour each other like animals.

“I feel your desire.” You finally answered his question, just as you pulled his thick cock towards your ready core, and you sank down in a single motion.

You both released the most guttural groan at the same time. Logan was a huge man and he had a cock to match. The head pushed against your cervix and you felt positively stretched out trying to accommodate his girth.

Logan filled his hands with the supple flesh of your hips, pulling you up only for you to slide back down, your slickness coating him well.

You braced yourself on his shoulders, raising yourself onto your knees until he was nearly slipping out of you. You glanced down between your two bodies, getting a glimpse of his glorious cock.

“Stop teasing.” Logan panted into your chest, his own already shining with sweat.

You smirked and lowered yourself again, slowing down even more.

Tantalizing The Wolverine with the hot suck of your pussy.

Pressing your soft breasts into the mass of hair on his chest.

Your mouth unrelentingly kissed his scruffy face and wet lips.

“Sweetheart.” Logan’s nickname for you was strained out through clenched teeth.

Laced with warning.

You paid no heed, continuing your teasing movements until, with a roar of impatience, Logan sunk his fingers into the soft fat of your ass and thrusted upwards as hard as he could.

You released his lips with a yelp of surprise and he set a brutal pace. Logan’s length drilled into your hot core, stretching you, spearing you far deeper than you could have ever expected.

“O-oh my god! Logan! S-slow down!” You implored, but Logan had other plans for how he was going to wreck you.

Every thrust was met with a hard slap of skin on skin, and the most you could do was simply dig your nails into his biceps, this time, drawing blood with how hard you were holding on to him.

The pain however, simply goaded him to keep railing you like a rag doll. His cock buried itself to the hilt only to pull out and push back in again, over and over, as if it could never be satisfied.

You had a feeling that Logan had stamina for hours. The Wolverine could just keep going until both of you lost the ability to move. As much as that sounded incredible, the thin trails of blood running down his skin forced you to reconsider how much sex the two of you could handle. At least for the moment.

“Logan, s-seriously. You’re bleeding.” You finally managed to say.

“It’ll heal.” Logan ground out. But, he did slow down until you sat back in his lap, running your fingers along the cuts your fingernails had caused. He wasn’t wrong; each small wound was closing up at a remarkable speed.

“I don’t want to hurt you each time we have sex, Logan.” Even if he liked pain, you didn’t feel comfortable inflicting injury on this beautiful man. Or getting too rough too fast.

“You could never hurt me, sweetheart.” Logan assured you, holding you more gently now, his breath coming in heavy pants. But, he could see the worry on your face, so he kissed the sweaty furrow of your brow.

“Okay. We’ll take it slow. I won’t be so rough, unless you say so.” He murmured against your skin. The both of you were drenched in sweat as if you had run a marathon.

You carefully untangled yourself from Logan’s body and stood up on wobbly legs. You were already feeling a dull ache of soreness between your thighs.

“Hold on-you said ‘each time we have sex’ as in…” Logan questioned.

“Oh we’re not done. You haven’t even made me cum yet.” You grinned at him, walking over to your desk.

You sensually bent over, presenting your slick-shiny slit to Logan.

“I doubt you could stay away from me after you’ve had a taste.” You teased him, the desperation for this man to give you an orgasm making the dirty talk stream out of your lips. Your outside persona as the put-together empath long gone in favor of the filter-less, horny, and needy slut you really were.

Logan immediately crossed over to you in a few strides, holding the weight of his still-erect cock over your waiting entrance.

As he pushed into you, one hand holding you down onto your desk, he corrected your statement.

“You’re wrong, sweetheart.” Logan explained. “I couldn’t stay away from you before you let me fuck this sweet pussy.”

His deliberate slowness was absolute torture on your body. He filled you up in a way no man, no mutant had ever done before.

“Oh! Right there, Logan!” You moaned out, barely hearing what he said. His cock now pushed against that delicious spongy center in your cunt. He then pulled out, admiring the way your juices coated every thick vein on his member.

He entered you again, just as slowly, making sure both of you felt every inch of his invasion. Your hands reached over to the other side of the desk, your white knuckled grip clutching the edge. You needed to hold on to something, anything to ground yourself or you were going to lose it with how Logan was tormenting you with his cock.

“P-please, keep going!” The desperation in your voice turned whatever you said into a whine.

A few thrusts later, and you could feel that familiar tightening in your core. You were getting so close, and you were sure that the helpless moans that kept coming out of your mouth were an obvious indication to Logan that you were about to cum.

“I knew I wanted to make you scream my name with my cock the very first day we met.” Logan finally concluded, his voice hot in your ear as he pressed his chest onto your back. At the same time he gave this sinful confession, he reached a hand down to find your swollen clit and touched you in just the right way, as if he had done it a million times before.

Your eyes squeezed shut and you came immediately.

”Oh—!”

In the haze of the most explosive pleasure you’ve ever felt, you registered three sensations at the same time.

First, wet jets of his expend painted the hot skin of your back.

Second, a rough hand clapped over your mouth, muffling the orgasmic scream of The Wolverine’s name that was ripping through your lungs.

Third, fireworks. You’ve never seen a man cum so hard that your powers registered an orgasm as fireworks. It was usually a quick flash of light like an old-school camera, but Logan came so hard that his pleasure was literally illuminating your senses like it was the 4th of July.

It was beautiful to witness.

And even more satisfying to participate in.

Breathless, speechless, and completely and thoroughly fucked, you turned around and simply grinned at the sexiest, horniest, hottest man you’ve ever had sex with.

It didn’t take long for the two of you to set up regular “Friday Fucknights” after that.

…

You slowly unfurled your clenched fists from the comforter that you didn’t know you were squeezing tight.

Goddammit.

All the memories of the first time you and Logan had sex made you decidedly horny. Even after Logan had given you a good rough fucking the night before.

Flashes of last night whipped through your brain.

Your face buried in the mattress, your moans disappearing into the fabric.

The cold breeze on your bare ass, raised up to meet Logan’s face.

The scruff of his beard rubbing against your skin.

His nose inhaling your sinful scent.

His lips and tongue eating you out for dessert after he surprised you with a date to a local steakhouse.

It was one of the few dates Logan spontaneously took you out on and it would always start the same way:

“Wanna go for a ride?” He’d ask you.

“Sure.” You’d reply.

And you’d end up at some isolated restaurant with Logan inhaling a monstrous slab of meat as you complained about all the teenage drama you were trying to counsel students through.

A few drinks and naughty kisses in the back corner booth later, the night always ended in your usual sex.

And you know you were clear to him that you just wanted the sex, no strings attached. You told him from the get-go that dating wasn’t really your thing. Due to the nature of your powers, you could never be sure if your partners actually loved you or if it was your love for them influencing how they felt about you. After all, if your powers influenced most mutants, then regular humans were even more susceptible.

But sex with Logan was perfect. Even those random dates were guilt-free and stress-free, because you could finally just be with someone who you didn’t have to worry about any of that with.

At the same time, Logan was intense. It was probably a good idea that you basically saw each other once a week for sex and stayed the hell out of his way the rest of the time.

Honestly? You could only handle The Wolverine in doses.

Between his traumatic hidden memories that emerged in daily nightmares…

And his overwhelming sexual desire for you…

The man was going to be the death of you.

…

A pained sound, almost like a whimper came from Logan. You could see a few beads of sweat break out on his forehead, and you quickly grabbed one of his clenched fists. Your hands gently rubbed over the knuckles where his blades lay hidden beneath a thin layer of skin. In a moment, Logan’s face relaxed and his eyes began to flutter open.

You sighed in relief.

Unfortunately, even though you could only handle Logan once a week, it was clear that Logan wanted you much more than that.

After that first month of Friday Fucknights, Logan had quickly figured out that spending the night with you acted as a natural sleep drug. He suspected it was your powers, or maybe it was just you.

Because somehow, when you were in his bed, he could finally wind down and slumber nightmare free. You noticed it too - his aura turned to a soft, amber yellow when he was sleeping next to you. The emotion of peace and contentment.

“Morning, sweetheart.” Logan murmured, his fingers now interlaced with yours. He brought your entwined hands up to his lips so he could press his lips to it.

Goddammit. There it was again.

The unmistakable feeling of love - pink, swirling wisps floating gently in the air. The smell of those quintessential roses and a deep warm fuzziness in your belly that felt like home.

Logan reeked of it.

…

You first noticed it at the date last night. You were complaining about some adolescent love triangle that Bobby and Rogue and Kitty had tangled themselves up in and Logan was teasing you about it. He was nursing a beer, chuckling as he laughed both at you and with you.

And there was a pause right after the laughter faded where you recognized the emotion he was feeling. You clocked it as soon as he took a sip of his bottle and looked right into your eyes.

Something that you hadn’t felt before from him.

Love.

You immediately deflected by saying something sexual to distract him from thinking too hard about what he felt and his aura quickly switched to that familiar red-hot lust.

That’s all you wanted from him.

That’s all you needed from him.

Right?

From there it was an illegally-fast motorcycle ride back to the mansion for some rough fucking.

…

Trying to hide your unease about his feelings, you hoped he didn’t notice the elongated pause before your reply this morning. Your thoughts were racing about the implications of The Wolverine falling in love with you.

You shouldn’t.

You couldn’t.

Fuck, you needed to distract him.

And yourself.

“Good morning, Logan” you finally snapped out of it and smiled at him. “You feeling alright?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” He opened your palm up and kissed it again, this time, giving your skin a little teasing lick.

“You were tossing in your sleep a little.” You explained, “but I’m about to make you feel all better.” Your voice dropped flirtatious and low.

“Is that right, sweetheart?” Logan’s lifted a brow as you burrowed under the blanket, feeling the waves of heat emanating off of him.

You quickly shimmied down until your face was right in front of his thick cock. After all the sex last night, Logan hadn’t bothered to put on clothes again before he fell asleep.

Neither had you.

Your tongue found his shaft first, while your hands gently caressed his balls. They felt heavy and warm in your palm as you licked up and down his cock.

Above you, Logan immediately twitched and grunted at your touch.

“Mmph - that’s—!” Logan could barely say.

“More?” You teased from under the covers.

“Y-yeah. Please, sweetheart. Give me more.” He groaned, one hand tangling itself to your hair. He gave you a slight, sharp tug that made your arousal flare up.

You took a deep breath before closing your mouth onto the head of his cock, and sucking hard and holding him hostage in return.

“Fuck!” Logan swore, blood rushing down to his member. You could feel him growing in girth, opening your jaw wider, your tongue sliding under him. You refused to let him go, hollowing out your cheeks, drawing him deeper until you had to surface for air.

“Yummy.” You grinned devilishly, swiping away the trail of saliva down your chin.

“My messy girl.” Logan pulled your chin closer until his lips pressed against your mouth. You threw the covers off of the both of you, and climbed on top of him.

“Mmm.” You moaned, his tongue was dancing with yours and it was driving you crazy. “As much as I love kissing you Logan, I think I’d rather ride you today.”

“Be my fucking guest.” Logan smiled against your mouth before releasing your face with a filthy wet smooch.

You admired the ripple of his abs as he leaned against the pillows, his huge arms thrown behind his head. The sight made you lick his taste off your lips, and liquid heat rushed to your core.

“You know what I’ve been thinking about all morning?”

You knelt beside him, your knees squeezing into his hips as you reached below you. God, he was huge. A fact you admired every time you took his substantial girth into your hand.

“What, sweetheart?” Logan gazed at you with a bemused expression on his face.

“The first time we had sex.” You continued. The head was breaching the tight ring of your pussy now.

“That was a great day.” Logan’s chest rose as he sucked in a breath, holding it as he watched you sink down until your bottom was flush to his strong thighs.

“That was a fucking incredible day.” You moaned at the feeling of being so full, so full of him. “And I was sitting pretty in your lap, just like I am right now.”

“Y-you spoil me, sweetheart.” Logan released his breath in a whoosh, his words starting to stutter just like his hips.

“Ah ah ah.” You pulled his hands away from your ass and up to your breasts. ”Don’t rush me.”

Logan responded with a frustrated groan, even as he kneaded your soft flesh and pinched your nipples.

“Fuck that’s good.” You praised him and rewarded him with a roll of your hips. You let his cock slide out only to suck it back in with your next movement.

“I want to feel you, Logan.” You leaned down to press a kiss onto his open mouth. “All of you.”

Without waiting any longer, you bounced your ass on top of his cock, suddenly riding him like your life depended on it.

Logan wrapped his arms around your back as you buried your face in the crook of his neck.

Expletives flying and a whole host of unseemly sounds spilled out of the both of you.

But nothing compared to the sweet sound of his cock and balls slapping against the soft cheeks of your bottom.

And the messy wet squelch of juices that were streaming out of your pussy and coating his length.

“S-sweetheart! I c-can’t!” Logan’s whine almost made you laugh. Your pussy was so good that it made The Wolverine beg to cum. What a fucking power trip.

“Cum for me Logan!” You encouraged him, your pussy was throbbing with need. Something animalistic was unlocking inside of you and you just had to feel his release inside of your cunt.

After all, you did say you wanted to feel all of him.

And that included his hot, delicious seed.

“Let me—” Logan started to pull you off of him before you grabbed his hands and ground down onto him.

“N-no!” You panted out, still bouncing on him hard. “Cum inside.”

Logan’s eyes widened. With a roar, he sat up and locked his arms around you, his hips jutting up into you once, twice, three times.

And you felt his cock release inside of you at last.

“Oh my god!” You bit into his shoulder, seeing fireworks again, not just for Logan, but for both of you. The room was heavy with the smell of sex and lust and sharp bursts of light that danced across your vision. You could vaguely feel yourself falling back down onto the bed with him, your cheek pressed into his hairy chest.

Your mind was somewhere in space, simply overwhelmed with sensation. This man, this mutant, this Wolverine, gave you the most explosive orgasms every time he fucked you.

Then, as if the sky had cleared after a storm, you saw the fireworks fizzle out. And creeping in from the corner of your eye, you saw it again. That pesky pink fog and the smell of roses.

Love.

…

“Goddamit Logan” you muttered out, lifting your head up to look at the man before you, and your heart immediately softened. His eyes were closed, chest falling and rising rapidly as he recovered. Seeing Logan in that post-sex glow always felt special to you.

He was beautiful.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” Logan’s eyes shot open on high alert and he stiffened underneath you, picking up the annoyance in your tone.

You blew out a breath and pushed yourself up on his chest, staring at him before deciding what to say.

What to do.

What to feel.

Logan’s eyes darted across your face, searching for an answer as you battled internally. You could feel the heat rise to your cheeks and your heart started to beat in double time.

Fuck it if he was falling for you.

You were addicted to this man.

You were not about to let him go.

“I can feel you, Logan.” You confessed, “I felt it last night, and just when you woke up, and right now.”

“What is it?” Confusion, and a hint of trepidation flashed across his face.

“Love.”

Logan’s brows shot up and he stared into your soul with wide, chocolate-brown eyes. But you stayed silent, waiting for him to deny it, confirm it, something.

With a rustle of sheets, Logan carefully sat up, and you with him. Then, he deliberately placed two warm, calloused palms on both sides of your hot cheeks.

And he kissed you gently.

So fucking gently.

Somehow, that simple kiss felt way more intimate than any of the sex the two of you had ever done.

“Would it be so bad if I loved you?” Logan asked in a low murmur against your lips.

In that instant, your mind recalled everything you loved about Logan.

His gentleness with the students, especially the ones that had powers that were more dangerous or harder to hide. He understood what it felt like to be an outsider. To be feared when you just wanted to belong.

His “I don’t give a fuck” energy when he did, in fact, give a lot of fucks about those he cared about. It showed up in the way he asked about how your week was, and patiently listened to all your complaints before taking you to bed. The way he noticed when you were stressed, or tired, or just needed the comfort of not being alone. The way he put your emotions first before his own.

His ridiculous reputation as the resident flirt, when he was actually so loyal to you. He might have made moves on Jean or Storm or every eligible and un-eligible lady at the school, but you were the only one he called “sweetheart.” You were the only one who saw what Logan looked like when he was afraid, when he was vulnerable. When he was in love.

And of course, his deep respect for Professor X, who he was always just a little bit more well-mannered for. He had changed so much since coming to the school. You could see it In the way he fought on X-missions even though he was so used to fighting for himself, by himself. Now, he was a soldier. A protector.

“No,” you slowly replied. You paused, and covered his hands with your own. ”It would be wonderful.”

Your ears were blessed with the most unbridled, joyful laugh from Logan as he smothered you with his 200 pound body and rained a cascade of kisses all over your skin.

Every press of his lips against your own felt like an I love you over and over again.

“Logan!” You couldn’t help but laugh with him. “Stop!”

“I can’t,” Logan lifted your leg up to his shoulder and drove into your pussy. You were so overwhelmed with his emotion that you hadn’t even seen his cock engorge itself again.

“L-Logan!” You cried out his name again, this time in pleasure.

“I can’t help myself, sweetheart.” Logan kissed you soundly. “Not when I love you this much.”

You held his face, caressing his rough beard and staring into his eyes, shiny with emotion that mirrored your own.

“I love you, too.”

The rest of the morning, laughter and kisses and smiles flooded the room, basking the two of you in the soft, pink glow of the best emotion there is.

Love.

[acapelladitty]

Batman: Arkham Session #1

Summary: After an incident at work, Edward Nashton is assigned to Dr. Jonathan Crane for psychological assessment. A decision which places both men in the firing line.

One half of an exchange with the incredible @skxtchyghost who has the absolutely amazing art half of this little encounter here!

Fic Masterlist /// Link to A03

From the moment he laid eyes on him, Jonathan Crane could tell that Edward Nashton would be less than an ideal patient. From the way that he lounged carelessly in his chair to his casual gaze which swept along the many achievements and objects which littered the walls of Jonathan's office.

Every inch of the lanky frame screamed difficult and Jonathan found his mood worsening as he shifted past the meagre introductions which had been shared.

Jonthan flicked his eyes over the notes he had been provided from the incident report as his left hand rose to adjust the bolo tie which hung loosely around his throat.

"You destroyed a workstation in a fit of," Jonathan lifted the top sheet of paper from his clipboard as he quoted the report directly, "obvious rage while using considerably inappropriate language. These are not the actions of a rational man."

Unapologetic, Edward spread his hands in a wide gesture as a defensive smile stretched across his lips.

"I'm the only rational man in this city."

"Oh?"

Really having a limited interest in whatever nonsense Edward was about to spout, Jonathan made a quick note on his clipboard - ready to simply diagnose him with some asinine anxiety disorder and throw some medication at him to quell the worst of his obvious symptoms.

"The others are so willing to ignore the corruption," Edward continued with a growing irritation, "how unbearably stupid and foolish the criminals that rule this city choose to be."

"Harsh allegations."

"Only because the evidence is routinely destroyed. Weeks of work erased in an instance because a particular name would rather not be associated with the actions investigated." His tone snappy, Edward was clearly not at peace with his treatment and Jonathan frowned at the sudden emotional outburst. "Weeks! Good work. No recognition. Only a sharp reminder that our job is to catch real criminals."

"I can imagine the frustration."

Something in Edward's expression shifted and Jonathan tensed as he took in the change in body language, the immediate aggression which crawled into his leaning frame and clenching fists as Edward met his gaze without flinching. It was an open challenge and Jonathan would not back down as he accepted and adjusted his glasses to allow him to keep Edward's attention.

"You bore me. Don't feed me the words I want to hear, Doctor."

"Interesting. Do you see me as your enemy?"

Wary but slightly more interested in his patient, Jonathan asked the question with the smallest of smiles.

"Yes. Your work is as corrupted as mine even if your corruption comes from a more personal insistence."

Jonathan's blood ran cold.

"I do not know you, Mr. Nashton. Neither do you know me."

He couldn't know.

No one knew.

Especially not a jumped up technician from the GCPD.

No.

He was just fishing for information, attempting to claw back the control of the situation by fabricating infor-

"Your purchasing history is interesting, both online and in your role within this asylum." Edward grinned, his body language relaxing into something almost smug. "Meaningless to a layman, but a small touch of research and critical thinking goes to show just how dangerous the various chemicals and research papers you collect could be. Pair that with the increased reports of catatonia which patients under your care have been reduced to and we have something approaching a pattern."

"Mr. Nashton, these delusions do nothing to further yo-"

Rudely, Jonathan found himself cut off by a childish wave.

"Your business is your own and I have no reason to care for any of the degenerates in this building. My work is almost finished and I have my own important business to attend to. Where our paths cross is that I require a clean bill of health to leave my job with the appropriate supports in place."

Smiling widely, his glasses pushed tight against his eyes, Edward perched his fingers on the light-coloured vest which covered his shirt as his cheap shoes tapped a soft rhythm to the carpet. Opposite him, Jonathan felt much more uptight - the shift in dynamic having put his teeth on edge as the urge to regain control of the situation tempted him into dangerous territory.

"You're blackmailing me." Jonathan gritted out.

"If you choose to view it as such then yes. I choose to view it as a mutual exchange of services." Shrugging, Edward caught his hands between his knees. "You clear me, and I erase some of the more unsavoury purchases that you have unsuccessfully distanced from your name."

Seeing each other plainly, Jonathan abandoned any pretence of playing the game and his expression soured into open distaste, regarding Edward with contempt.

"And what guarantees do I have that you are speaking the truth? One word from me and you will be locked away with the worst that Gotham has to offer." Flashing a cruel grin, filled with yellowing teeth, Jonathan tilted his head. "I could have you in a shared cell which houses violence that would easily end a man like yourself."

"All my information is due to release at a specific time if I am not available to prevent it. Risk it all and see."

Reclining once more, Edward presented his hand before himself as he investigated his nails with a forced nonchalance.

"So, Doctor Jonathan Crane, how are we going to move past this?"

[tonyboneysblog]

MOTHER: PREQUEL

parings: none!

wordcount: 3.3k

notes: lmao yall im back…for like five seconds

warnings: pregnancy, very angsty 😬

Summary: you’re an upcoming hero with a good family, amazing boyfriend and now a child you never wanted.

————————————————————————

you hands shake softly as you purge whatever breakfast you had into the bowl below you.

You mother knocked on the door, you could practically feel her concern seeping the door.

“Y/N, sweetie are you okay?” Her voice is slightly wobbly, lined with worry.

You rub your mouth with the back of your palm, “M’fine mom.”

You flush the toilet and stumble out the bathroom, your mother twirls her fingers together. Concern on her face.

Your mother was quite the looker, deep, jet black hair with dark feathers sprouting from the back of her neck, she had small wings on her back that matched her hair.

You father looked almost exactly like you, he had the stronger genes, your mother always said.

Your mother speaks up again, “are you sure you want to see your boyfriend today? You could be contagious..”

You sigh softly, “mom, it was just something I ate I swear.”

You straighten up your skirt, walking towards the front door as your mother tried to tell you just to rest, but you can’t really- you already planned a date and you wouldn’t wanna cancel so late.

You stop at the front door, “Mom, I’m fine- I’m gonna be a hero anyways and sometimes I just need to power through.”

Your mother sighs, looking back and forth towards you and the bathroom that you had just used.

“Fine, but call me if you start to feel worse.”

You smile, “yeah, I will.”

You met your current boyfriend at the hero school you were attending, Minato Wantanabe, kids would pick on him since his head was literally a crow but you thought it was kinda cute.

It pays off to be nice to people, now you have an amazing, cute, bird boyfriend.

Your feet carry you towards the local dinner, it was Minatos favorite, he loved the pancakes.

You can spot his beak peeking through the diners window, the diner was painted in a vibrant red but it had gone dull from the last decade.

You walk through the double doors with a small ding from the bell above them, Minato looks over towards the noise only to see you.

You happily make your way over towards the booth before kissing Minatos cheek and sitting infront of him.

“Evening, Y/N.” He says with a small smile.

You look towards him with a coy grin, “evening..”

The date proceeds as planned, you always enjoy time with Minato.

You just had to ignore the steadily growing nausea growing in your stomach.

Minato offered to walk you home but you declined, he probably couldn’t keep up with the speeds that you’d have to go to make it to the bathroom.

maybe you should’ve told your mom when you first felt it.

You try and jog home but that just made it worse, you run faster, doesn’t help.

You make it to your front door, opening it up quickly with your house key the booking towards the bathroom to clear out the poor, delicious pancakes you had earlier.

there was absolutely no way you could’ve been sick, you felt fine aside from barfing your guts out.

You flush down the gross mix of stomach acid and pancakes, washing your hands and walking towards your bedroom.

you were fine, you had to be.

Hero’s would never let a silly cold get them down.

But it continued, you threw up every morning.

Now, you were aware you had an irregular period, either from all the stress of work or your birth control.

So why would you be worried if you missed a couple days?

You only got worried when one of your school friends decided to open her mouth.

“Y/N I know this sounds so rude- but have you been gaining weight?” Her voice is quiet.

You look at her confused, “what? I mean I could’ve but, im always training.”

She nods, “yeah thats why I’m so confused, like are you over eating?”

though slightly offended, you respond anyways.

You hum softly, “that could be it?”

Why would a future hero like you “overeat”.

Really why was it any of her business that you were gaining weight.

“I’m mean- girl to girl, I heard boys really hate extra weight- I mean Minato is a nice guy but he’s also a guy yknow?” She rambles, her voice only increasing as she speaks.

You wave her off, “Mhm, thanks Hina.”

You try not to storm out of the locker room. instead walking towards your closer friend, Tori.

What does she even know, Minato loves you.

He wouldn’t leave you after something so small.

You groan quietly, “Hina just basically told me I’m a fattie.”

Tori chuckles softly, “shes a ditz Y/N.”

“I’m aware, she even started talking about Minato.” You lean against a near locker.

“Maybe she wants him?”

You chuckle, “oh please…”

Tori looks at you, slight concern lining her eyes, “I mean, your stomach is looking a little plump but that’s probably just bloating.”

You look at her confused, Tori’s supposed to be on your side.

Tori places her finger on her chin, something she does when she’s “deep in thought”.

“How’s that nausea problem you have?” She mumbles softly.

“Still going on, I’m not worried.”

Tori’s brows furrow, “you haven’t seen a doctor yet?”

“No- probably some stomach virus, I’ll throw it up-“

Tori cuts you off with a groan of your name.

You try to explain but Tori stops talking, looking away until concern fills her face again.

She leans in you ear, “you and Minato aren’t like- active?”

Your brows furrow, “I-i mean yeah..”

Tori sighs softly, her face suddenly serious.

“I think you should go to the doctor.”

You scoff, pushing yourself off of the locker, “Tori, I’m not pregnant.”

but what if, right?

Tori shrugs her shoulders as she returns to whatever she was doing in her locker.

It couldn’t hurt right? You’d like to stop throwing up anyways.

So after school, you take the train towards the doctors office.

You fill out your name on the sheet and sit down and wait until they call your name.

You’re not pregnant, no way- you and Minato are always careful.

“Y/N?” The nurse calls your name softly.

You perk up and walk through the door, you follow the nurse. Is it bad you’re a little worried?

You explain to her why you’re here, then they just do a basic procedure. Taking blood, height, weight, etc.

You kick your legs gently against the floor, waiting patiently for them to just tell you you’ve got a stomach virus and pump you full of drugs.

The nurse knocks before opening the door, she has a gentle small on her face.

“You’re pregnant!” She says.

she continues talking but, you block her voice out.

Pregnant? Fucking pregnant?

What would your mother say- your father?

what would Minato say.

The nurse taps your knee softly, “I know it’s a lot to hear for someone of your age, 16 and all.”

not to mention you where going to one of the best hero schools.

what about your future?

What would this…thing- do to it?

Your zone out through the rest of the visit, you sit quietly and alone on the train back home.

you walk back to the house, unlocking the door and walking in, your mother and sister and sitting in the living room laughing.

They look towards your distraught face.

Your mother mouths something along the lines of, “come here sweetie.”

You sit on the chair that’s next to the couch.

Your voice dies when you try to speak.

“Sweetie, what’s wrong?” You mothers voices shakes, you stare at your sister.

You’re setting a terrible example.

your mother always said you could talk to her.

but this? how would she react- how?

“I’m pregnant.”

The room is silent before your mother covers her mouth.

her eyes blown wide.

Your sister mumbles a small, “what?”

Your watch your mother curl into herself as she starts to sob.

You don’t understand why you can’t cry.

Your father quickly stomps down the stairs at his wifes cries.

“What’s wrong?” He asks loudly.

Your mother points a shaking hand at you, “she’s fucking pregnant!”

You can hear the distain in her voice.

Your father only takes a deep breath in before resting his head against the wall.

You thought you would make your parents proud by being a hero, but now look at you.

You need this baby out of your life.

The rest of the night is a blur.

The rest of the week is a blur aside from the conversation you had with your father.

“You’re gonna be a hero Y/N, you don’t need a child in your life.” He voices is more stern than usual.

“I know dad.”

He cups your hands gently, “you need to get rid of it.”

You voice shakes when you respond.

“I know.”

“It”, he says.

Were you referred as that when your mother was pregnant?

You take the train to the doctor’s office, you don’t need a kid in your life- you barely know how to take care of one.

You’re only a kid too.

When you walk towards the front desk, the nurse recognizes you.

“Mrs. Tokoyami! Came to check up on the baby?” She smiles.

You stay quiet for a moment, no- no you came to get rid of it.

She stares at you with those kind eyes.

“We could do an ultra sound if you want?”

No, you need to get rid of it.

you have to.

Just tell her Y/N.

Your brows furrow, “a what?”

the nurse chuckles softly, “an ultrasound? So you can see your baby.”

No, the thought repeats over and over. Thought the words never come out of your mouth.

Your voice is barely audible when you respond, “I’d like that.”

Your father would be furious.

The nurse walks your towards a room with a machine.

Your mother is already disappointed.

She lays your down on the table, its soft.

look at the example your setting for your little sister.

The gel is cool when she places it onto stomach, she looks concentrated.

Look at what person you’re becoming.

Until a bright smile comes onto her face, “there they are.”

You look towards the screen, it’s a little hard to make out but you can see them.

it’s small.

She hands you a photo when you come back to the front desk to pay.

it’s the baby.

When you take the train home you can’t stop staring at it.

You were supposed to get rid of it.

You walk into your house, knees on the brink of buckling.

your family sits in the living room, they’re expecting something.

Your voice breaks, “I couldn’t do it.”

Your father rolls his eyes with a sigh, standing up quickly and walking past you.

Your mother places her face into her palms, sighing deeply.

“I-I was thinking of giving them to another family.” you say quickly.

You mother perks up, “alright.”

Your try to continue speaking but your mom ends up blocking you out.

You stumble your way up stairs towards your room, you walk past your sisters but she’s not in her bed.

She’s in yours when you open the door to your room.

Your sister looks up at your, she’s sitting on the bed.

“I over heard that your keeping it.” She tries not to smile.

Your face scrunches, “Why’re you happy about that?”

Your sister excitedly pats the space next to her, you sit on it.

“I wanna be an auntie.” She grins.

You sigh softly, “you can’t, I’m giving them to another family.”

Your sister pouts, “why, she’s yours..”

“Don’t assume the gender.”

Your sister groans, “I want it to be a girl!”

You crack a smile, “too bad, he’ll be a boy.”

a boy, it’s a nice thought.

“You don’t know that.” She playfully pushes you.

You push her back, “I’m the mom so I decided the gender!”

Your sister giggles as her back hits the bed.

You slam yourself next to her staring up at the glow in the dark stars on your roof, you forced your dad to put them up when you were younger.

“Can I name it?” Your sister asks excitedly.

“No, fumiko.”

She groans loudly, crossing her arms together tightly.

Your room stays quiet for a considerable amount of time, you almost believe that your sister fell asleep but she’s still staring at the room with you.

“I think you should keep it forever.” Her voice is small.

“I want to be a hero.”

You have to be.

your sister hums then gets up and leaves you alone.

it’s just you alone in your room.

you feel like it’s always been that way.

You have to tell Minato, you have a date tomorrow anyways.

At that little diner, the one with the red, dull paint that’s cracking off the walls.

The next day, you meet with Minato.

you sit in-front of him, you look slightly drained he notices.

“Everything okay?” His voice breaks you out of your trance.

You grab his hands softly, “I’m- I’m pregnant.”

Minatos jaw drops slightly, “and it’s mine?”

You nod softly, but Minato takes his hands away from yours.

You look up confused, Minatos face is scrunched up in…anger?

“We’re done.”

what?

You try to bargain, “Minato-“

“Y/N I’m trying to be a hero, not- not a father?!” Minato stands ups quickly and storms out of the diner.

you can feel the eyes on you, the judgement.

this thing, is ruining your life.

the next month is a blur, you talked to your sister a lot, Tori noticed a change in you but she never asked.

You go back to the doctor, apparently you’ve been pregnant for about three months, they say they can find out the gender of you wanted.

you couldn’t stop yourself from being curious but you declined anyway, no point in creating an attachment to something that you’ll give to another family soon.

One that they deserve.

You’d be a shit mother anyway, that’s what you think.

worst part about it is that your starting to show more, kids at school are starting to notice.

Tori does too.

You’re sitting down near a tree eating your lunch when she confronts you about it.

“You’re pregnant, aren’t you.” Her voice is calm.

You nod softly, Tori sighs a sits next to you.

“What’s the gender?”

You shrug, you wouldn’t know- you didn’t care to ask.

Tori hums, “what do you want it to be?”

You pull your knees into your chest, not responding.

“I think I’d like it to be a cute little girl.” She smiles looking off into the clouds.

“A boy.” You mumble quietly.

Tori gags, “boys are terrible!”

You giggle softly, “yeah, they are.”

Tori wrap her arm around your shoulder, placing her head onto yours.

“You keeping it? Or putting it through the whole adoption thing.” Her voice is soft, considerate.

“Adoption.”

Tori stays quiet for a moment, “I could help you, if you wanna keep her.”

You look down at your feet, “I’d have to quit school.”

Tori groans dramatically, “Being a hero isn’t all that anyways, I’d know cause I’m in the support course.”

You stay quiet as Tori continues talking about how hero’s truly aren’t amazing, that they’re enough in the world and no one would be angry if you decided not to be one.

“You could be a nurse yknow, you’d still be helping people.” She pats your shoulder.

You hum, being a hero was always your dream. Would you really give up all the hard work you’ve done over some kid?

“He’ll be better off with a different family, I don’t want him.” You say quietly and stern.

Tori giggles- why is she laughing?

your being serious aren’t you?

“Referring to it as a he, even thought you don’t care? whatever you say Tokoyami.” Tori ruffles your hair as she stands up.

You look up towards her, brows furrowed.

“Call me if decided to keep “him”, okay Tokoyami?”

You nod softly, watching her walk away towards the school building. Your next class is about to start, maybe you should join her.

You stand up and jog over next to her, walking quietly beside eachother.

maybe this pregnancy won’t be so terrible with Tori next to you.

Month 6, your parents called the principal and convinced him to let you off of school until the baby comes.

So now alll you can do is stay at home and wait.

At least you won’t have to see Minato anymore.

Month 7

Tori comes over to your house a lot, always bringing the most disgustingly “pregnancy craving” foods you’ve ever seen.

It’s the thought that counts though right?

Your mother continues to either ignore you, or nit pick everything you do.

your father doesn’t really talk to you like he used to.

Your sister won’t stop talking, about the baby specifically.

You wish it would stop.

Month 8

It’s closer to your due date, your just want him out.

Him.

Why do you keep referring to it like that, it’s not yours so what’s the point.

Maybe it’s to spite Tori, she wants it to be a girl- so does your sister.

it doesn’t matter though, once he’s- it’s. Once it’s out you can continue your dream of being a hero.

you have to.

Month 9, Tori won’t stop talking about him.

“Aren’t you excited? Even a little bit?” Her voice shows it, how happy she is.

your voice is bare, “excited to get him out? Yes.”

Tori is quiet.

then you are quiet.

“It wouldn’t be terrible to be a mom.” Her voice goes soft.

“You don’t understand.”

Her voice rises, “I’m trying to.”

And then it’s quiet again, would it be terrible?

you think it’s the worst thought ever to be thinked.

The thought becomes even worse as you walk around your hospital room, in pain.

Your parents decided they didn’t want to be there, that’s fine.

everyone will forget this little bump in your life.

the numbing pain that flows through your body when you go into labor.

the tightness of your grasp as you hold a nurses hand, later she says she feels like it almost broke.

the pain your head experiences as the thought, “get out” repeats.

then, it’s calm.

it’s out, your free.

why isn’t it crying?

you look up, your eyes are blurry- your heart feels heavy.

Is he okay?

Then he cries, you let out a breath of relief you never knew you had.

“It’s a boy.” The doctor says.

Then he is placed next to you, his fingers are so small.

everything else goes away, it’s just you and him now.

Then they take him away.

And you can finally rest.

Later your woken up, Tori’s next to you.

“He’s cute” you hear her say.

You laugh, Tori smiles.

Your sister walks in, she wanted to come- begged your parents to take her.

She excitedly sits down next to you.

“Fumiko…” you say softly.

She replies but you never comprehend the words.

Then later they ask you what his name will be. maybe it only took you a minute or two to name him.

You liked the way it rolled off your tongue.

Then you were discharged from the hospital, your son in your hands.

It’s weird to think that you made him.

Is it bad you felt some sort of pride in your chest?

Tori let you stay with her, you couldn’t face your parents.

The room the lent you was small but it was enough for the two of you.

You and him.

He is cute isn’t he? Small fingers, a face that looks just like his father’s but it didn’t fill you with hate- only love.

Instead of being alone, he was there with you.

His eyes are big, he coos softly.

“Hi Fumikage…” you say softly.

It’s just you and Fumikage now, maybe being a hero can wait.

You want to be his hero.

————————————————————————

AN: wazzuppp guys…so i definitely have been a tiny bit busy but i decided to finally sit down a finish this prequel! (Don’t ask me when I’m finishing accidental nab bro) don’t know what my next fanfic will be about…figuring it out currently cause now i actually have time to write.. ANYWAYS LOVE YOU GUYS SMMM I MISSED YOUUU!!

[orion4ever]

Author's Note: I was inspired by a recent post of mine about Cliff's protective nature towards MC and how he reacts when Baxter and MC reunite and get back together. I believe Cove keeps Cliff updated on EVERYTHING!

This would take place after the events of the Baxter DLC, The timing is up to you!

Pairing: Baxter Ward x MC

Cliff Holden was currently unboxing some new shipments When he heard the store's front doorbell ring a few times.

He emerged from the backroom to see his son and his group of friends. He instantly had a huge grin on his face as he welcomed them.

"Hey, Bud." He greeted nonchalantly, earning a small 'Hey' from his son.

"Oh! Hello, Terry and Miranda! It's always nice seeing you two" he greeted warmly, earning himself an enthusiastic "Heeyyyyy!" from Terry and a small wave from Miranda.

"And of course, MC and-" he paused when he saw the new face standing next to MC with a sheepish smile. He looked familiar but he couldn't put a name to the face.

"Oh! Hey! It's always nice seeing a new face, I am Cliff" he greeted with a grin.

The 'stranger' smile grows a little. "Hello. We've already met before...I was staying in the condo next to yours five years ago..?" The black-haired man said. "Baxter Ward?" He added.

Cliff deflated for a minute. He had remembered, now that Baxter hiked his memory. Cove had updated Cliff on the entire series of events about Baxter and MC.

He was told how the eccentric monochromatic tourist had gotten together with his long-term neighbor and son's best friend.

He was also told about how the same eccentric monochromatic tourist had dumped MC at the end of the summer and vowed to never see them again.

Baxter had always been very neighborly and amiable towards Mr. Holden himself, always greeting him and giving tidbits about his plans for the day.

But...

He couldn't forget how heartbroken MC was over the breakup. It always seemed like they had some unheeded feelings that will most likely never be addressed or explained; leaving MC confused and sad over it all.

Like Noelani and Pamela’s first reaction to the reappearance of Baxter; His excitement melted in the California heat.

“Oh.” Cliff mumbled.

He then walked to stand behind the register took out a long box and continued to talk with everyone.

“So , What brings you back in town, Baxter?”

“Well.-“ Baxter was then promptly interrupted by the sound of a box opening and a metal clanking sound hitting the counter.

Cliff casually unboxed a box of fishing harpoons while staring right at Baxter.

“Well, we wanted to visit the shopping district again to relax.” Baxter finished , he had his usual grin but it looked a tiny bit wobbly.

“Uh-huh,” Cliff said, placing another fishing harpoon on the table casually again. “Ignore me. These are new shipments.” Cliff reiterated, with a slightly forced smile.

Not wanting to stay in this awkward and slightly threatening silence, MC speaks up.

“Mr. Holden , me and Baxter are back together; don’t be too hard on him” they said both in a jokey and genuine sense.

Cliff chuckled a little. “I won’t , don’t worry!” He smiled , shining the threatening harpoons.

Miranda giggled a little , either out of nervousness or whatever was going on. Terry being the social butterfly he is bounced right back.

“B-man invited everyone to lunch so we gotta head out soon!” He stated , giving Baxter a friendly pat on the shoulder.

“Yeah. We just wanted to stop by , Dad” Cove said with a smile. Cliff nodded to that. “I appreciate you for thinking about your old man, Cove.”

“Your not old , Mr.Holden. Your only like 49.”

“Pfft-, 49?!? MC. I promise ,I am not that old” he cackled lightheartedly. Before he started waving the group off. “You kids go on now, You don’t have to stay to keep me company.”

As they all began exiting , he stopped Baxter. “Uh , Baxter. A word?” He asked , a serious tone in his voice.

Baxter didn’t say anything but he did move to properly look at the older gentleman. He had a abased frown.

“I don’t want any funny business with you,” Cliff said, crossing his arms. “MC has been a massive support to both Cove and myself for a long time. It would be sad to see them be heartbroken again.” He continued, he wasn’t joking around.

Baxter Ward stood up straighter and said. “Mr. Holden. I assure you that this time, I am here to stay.” He said, putting a pale hand to his purple button-up.

“I understand your concern. I haven’t made a good impression by doing that years ago. I am sorry for that. I truly do care for MC and I want to be with them.”

He finished it off with a slight bow of his head.

Cliff unfolded his arms and gave Baxter’s shoulder a strong but not painful squeeze. “Good. I hope we can become good friends then.”

Cliff then let Baxter go to join the rest of the group with a small hopeful smile.

[growingstories]

Growing stories

[armoricaroyalty]

𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐄'𝐒 𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 / ❛ boy crazy ❜ part two (@nexility-sims)

When Zofia walked into a room, everyone noticed. It might have been the enormity of her hair or the constant noise of her rings and bracelets or else the overwhelmingly sweet scent of her favorite body mist, but she was captivating in every sense of the word. Hannah had been jealous of her, once upon a time. It would have been impossible to grow up with her without any jealousy: next to Zofia, everyone became shabby and dull. Ranks didn't matter at all, no title or royal honor could ever compete with that kind of natural charisma. Hannah loved her, but there had been days when she'd hated her, too. Now, though, she was only grateful. When Zofia walked in, nobody noticed the rest of them slipping out.

read part one here

author's note: @nexility-sims and I have been working on the zofia/rui romance since....early 2022? some time in 2021? since #rufia has completely dominated 2/3 of our joint brain power for years, it seemed fitting to finally let them out of our DM's to celebrate Love Day Valentine's Day. Happy V-Day, everyone!

Transcript under the cut.

CHEF | Aren't long nails against dress code, anyway? SERVER | [laughs] Girl, I don't give a fuuu— SERVER | You wanna know who else is wearing acrylics tonight? CHEF | [bored] I dunno, who? SERVER | Oh, nobody, just the Princess Zofia. CHEF | [gasps] CHEF | Shut. Up. You actually talked to her? What was she like? SERVER | She's fucking gorgeous. Like, obviously, but up close, she's even more beautiful. CHEF | Yeah, yeah, but what was she like? SERVER | Okay, so I didn't actually talk to her because she was all over her new boyfriend. They were like, so into each other. It was so sweet. CHEF | Really? I heard it's just a PR relationship so people will think she's over Sigis. SERVER | No way! They're obviously crazy abut each other. You can't fake— UNIDENTIFIED MAN | [offscreen] EVERYBODY OUT! HUGO | What, do I gotta say it again? All of you, clear out! HANNAH | [sighs] Please excuse us. HANNAH | My cousin and I need somewhere to speak privately. Will you please excuse us for a moment? CHEF | ??? SERVER | [shrugs] HUGO | ...anyway, did you see it? HANNAH | See what? HUGO | That stupid little hair flip. He did it a million times. HANNAH | He's growing it out for her. HUGO | Really? Hard to believe, he's so fucking vain. HANNAH | She told me she asked him to grow it long. [deep, beleaguered sigh] She thinks it's sexy. HUGO | What, are you for real? HANNAH | Oh yeah. She's always had a thing for guys with long hair. HUGO | ...huh. HANNAH | Anyway...what's your take? Personally, I don't see what she sees in him. HUGO | [snorts] He's better than Marshall. HANNAH | That's the world's lowest bar. Subterranean, in fact. HUGO | So what are we going to do? HANNAH | He's not a dog, we can't just run him off. HUGO | Well, you can't, but maybe if I— PIDGE | [offscreen] HEY! What are you two talking about? PIDGE | ...and why are you hanging out in the kitchen? ARTHUR | ....hi. HUGO | [icily] Farrier. HANNAH | It's late, Pidge. What are you still doing up? PIDGE | Uh, excuse you. Mama said I can stay until midnight. ARTHUR | ...you two aren't talking about Rui and Zofie, are you? HUGO | ... HANNAH | ...no. PIDGE | You two are such LIARS! PIDGE | Both of you are judgy control freaks! I thought he was really nice. HUGO | He could barely string a sentence together. ARTHUR | I mean...Armorican is his third or fourth language, isn't it? HUGO | Whatever! He gives me the creeps. HANNAH | Well, she says she's in love. HUGO | [scoffs] In love? They've known each other for six months. PIDGE | So? What if it was love at first sight? HANNAH | [exasperated] Pidge— HUGO | Just ignore her, she's fourteen. PIDGE | For your information, I'm fifteen. And I'll be sixteen in May, sooo— HUGO | Yeah, a baby— ARTHUR | Can I remind everyone that Zofia is twenty-two? She's an adult, she can make her own choices, and this is none of our business. HUGO | You're right, Farrier. It's none of your business. HANNAH | [offscreen] Hugo, enough. PIDGE | [mouthing] Rude. HANNAH | Arthur, what was your read? ARTHUR | I don't know, and I don't want to form a judgment until I've actually gotten to know him. He seems...fine? On par with the other guys she's dated. HANNAH | [sighs] "On par with all her other boyfriends" is the entire problem. HANNAH | I just don't want her to get hurt again. This happens every time, you know? She falls hard and fast and then the guy turns out to be a scum-sucking lowlife. PIDGE | [laughs] Hellooooo, what about Van? He was— HANNAH | Probably thw worst of all of them. Trust me, Pigeon. He's...he's no good. HUGO | [jokingly] You see, baby bird? That's why you're not allowed to date until you're thirty and why Hannah's gonna join a convent— PIDGE | No way, that's not fair. HANNAH | [tiredly] Hugo, shut up. No one asked. PIDGE | Yeah, Hugo. No one asked. ARTHUR | Look, I think we should at least give the guy a chance. HANNAH | [sighs] I guess we owe her that much. PIDGE | Guys, I actually talked to him, and trust me: he is like, sooo nice. HUGO | ... HUGO | I bet I could take him. PIDGE | Hey! Hannah, did you hear what he just said—

[hahanamegobrrrr]

Cuddly, Rainy Days (ATLA)

Avatar the Last Airbender, Sokka/Zuko, 688 words

lee!zuko, ler!sokka

this is a tickle fic :)

~

It was a rainy day. Cold and dark, with a constant pitter-patter of droplets colliding with the roof above their heads. It was the perfect type of day for staying indoors, cuddling by a warm fire with a cup of tea or hot chocolate.

And that is exactly what Sokka and Zuko were doing, snuggled together on their couch with some Netflix show buzzing in the background. A fuzzy blanket was thrown overtop of them. They were curled up together, paying far more attention to each other than to the T.V.

Sokka was mouthing slow, gentle kisses on Zuko’s face, starting on his cheek and lips, moving languidly down to his jawline. As Sokka reached Zuko’s neck, he could feel the muscles tense slightly underneath his lips. Zuko held his breath, suddenly going very still.

Sokka glanced up at Zuko’s face, noting the quickly rising blush in his boyfriend’s cheeks.

“Hey, you ok?” Sokka checked, wanting to make sure he hadn’t accidentally crossed any lines.

“No, yeah, it’s totally fine,” Zuko said, the blush spreading to his ears. “You can… you can keep going, if you want. I don’t mind.”

“Ok, if you say so,” Sokka said with a smirk and an eyebrow wiggle, which made Zuko roll his eyes. As Sokka returned his lips to Zuko’s throat, Zuko’s breath caught again and he shifted slightly. Sokka looked up again, with a questioning look.

“It’s really ok, I promise,” Zuko said quickly, the blush on his face somehow getting even redder. “It just… tickles, is all.”

“Oh, is that so?” Sokka smirked, a mischievous look growing on his face. “And you want me to keep going?”

Zuko’s face may as well have lit on fire at this, but he did still nod nevertheless.

When Sokka returned to Zuko’s neck this time, it was with purpose. With intent. He trailed his lips slowly down in a featherlight touch, Zuko squirming slightly underneath him. He kissed at Zuko’s collarbone, kissing his way back up his neck until Sokka was nibbling lightly behind Zuko’s ear. This made Zuko twitch, hard, and quietly, breathily start to giggle as Sokka didn’t stop.

Sokka grinned, feeling far too powerful in this situation and enjoying it probably a little too much. He snuck one of his hands slowly up to rest on Zuko’s neck as well, noticing how this made Zuko gasp and hold his breath again. Sokka looked up to assess Zuko’s face again, taking in the bright red color of his cheeks and ears. His good eye was slightly squinted and twinkling, his bad eye was closed, and he had the brightest grin on his face that he couldn’t have suppressed if he wanted to. 

Sokka twitched his fingers, watching as Zuko jolted, throwing his head back onto the arm of the couch they were laying on. He started slowly tracing his nails along Zuko’s jaw and neck, reveling in how Zuko scrunched his neck and wriggled around, not really trying to escape the sensations at all.

Zuko lifted his hands up to cover his face, getting very visibly flustered by this whole ordeal. Sokka, not being able to resist, quickly poked into Zuko’s newly-exposed underarms. This made Zuko shriek, quickly pushing Sokka away and moving into a far more defensive position.

After a moment had passed to process what happened, Zuko started grumbling.

“You’re a jerk,” Zuko said, and Sokka laughed at his face as he was now visibly pouting.

“Aww, I love you too,” Sokka replied, making a kissy face at him. That was the point at which they brought their attention back to the T.V., where Netflix had paused on the “Are you still watching?” screen. Sokka grabbed the remote, pushed yes, and they settled back down into their comfortable positions. 

Zuko let himself lean back into Sokka, resting his head on Sokka’s chest and hugging into him. Sokka wrapped his arms around Zuko too, and they both let themselves get lost in the warmth of the other. If the evening was sprinkled with a few more tickly encounters between the two, well, that’s their business, isn’t it?

[rey-jake-therapist]

Someone said that Elrond's kiss created a love triangle similar to Jacob/Bella/I forgot sparkling vampire's name, where Bella = Galadriel, Jacob = Elrond and Vampire guy = Sauron. And you know, I actually think I cracked the code?!

Celebrian will end up being Galadriel and Sauron's daughter ( Celeborn will remain dead, replaced by Sauron or Elrond, as you wish. There's no room left for him in this equation 🤡), as soon as she will be born she will spot Elrond and will say, "MINE!". Elrond will first day "duh idk," but then the girl grow up looking like the spitting portrait of her mother, and since Galadriel never loved him back and has been actually always uncomfortable with him because of this kiss busines, he will settle for the daughter.

What a beautiful story they're cooking us, I can't wait 🤩🤪

[phanfictioncatalogue]

Domestic Bliss Masterlist

A love that grows (ao3) - krissyxlove

Summary: Prompt: Dan and Phil with a daughter.

a thousand words (ao3) - marina_rocher

Summary: Looking at Dan through the lens of Phil's camera is its own form of art.

baby blue and bubblegum pink (ao3) - phantasticworks (steddieworks)

Summary: Dan paints his nails. Phil wants to try it.

easy for you to say (ao3) - phantasticworks (steddieworks)

Summary: Phil tries to convince Dan to throw away the grey shirt. Dan can’t do it.

Five Times Dan Got Jealous… (ao3) - JenCollins, WordsAblaze

Summary:  …And the one time jealousy was the last thing on his mind, ft. collabs, puppies, misunderstandings, unbuttoned shirts, twitter selfies, and a happily ever after. Enjoy!

food fight (ao3) - MiniGoose

Summary: A lazy morning that involves pajamas, food fights, and sticky kisses.

Forever (Can Never Be Long Enough) (ao3) - phantasticworks (steddieworks)

Summary: Phil wakes up on the morning of his 33rd birthday with sleepy cuddles. He and Dan make plans to make plans.

home remedies (ao3) - t_hens

Summary: Dan fixes the haircut phil gave himself

i'm half doomed and you're semi sweet (ao3) - dolcedeath

Summary: “Does it sound pathetic if I say I missed you?” Dan murmurs into his skin, his hands flirting with the hem of Phil’s shirt and pushing it up his back.

“Not anymore than usual.” Phil teases, running a hand through Dan’s hair and tilting his chin up with the other. Dan kind of looks like he wants to slap him across the face, but he brings their lips together and feels Dan melt against him. He grins into it, feeling triumphant.

“Say you missed me back.” Dan pouts, crossing his arms in front of his chest and falling back on the bed petulantly.

Just Need A Light (ao3) - dandrogynous

Summary: “Cuddle me,” Phil says. Sleepy, petulant, drunk. Dan loves him. “Cuddle me, let's get drunk, stay longer in Florida or I’ll miss you,” he teases as he pulls his shirt up over his head. “You are so needy.” Phil makes a face at him without opening his eyes.

Let Go Of The Reins (ao3) - natigail

Summary: Dan did not want to go home to his parents’ house the summer after his first year of studying law - which he was failing at - so when a friend suggested a simple job that would keep him busy for three months and give him a place to live, he couldn’t say no. Granted, shovelling horse shit wasn’t glamorous and he was afraid of horses, but the Lester Stables had other things going for it.

Phil was newly graduated with a video editing degree and moving home to his parents’ horse stables, even if he still would not get back on the horse since what happened earlier in the year. He had a complicated relationship with horses to begin with and he had decided he was done riding. When the new stablehand help arrives, Phil finds himself going out to the stables more often despite trying to stay away.

Letting Someone in Can Change Your Life (ao3) - winstonlives

Summary: “Fine. I will let you in. But I am not buzzing you in I'm coming down. And bringing my phone and a weapon.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

Dan shoved his phone in the pocket of his hoodie and grabbed the tennis racquet he had by his front door for protection. Once downstairs he looked out to see one of the most beautiful men he had ever seen. He very much regretted not putting on actual clothes. He ran his fingers through his hair trying to smooth out the unruly curls he knew were there from his shower. He pushed open the door and the man smiled, his bright blue eyes flashing.

“Thank you so much! I thought I was going to be locked out all night!” He said, shaking the rain off of himself as best he could while clutching a soggy pink bakery box. “I’m frozen. Sorry, uh my name is Phil. I live in 301.”

“Dan, 503.” Dan said as he followed Phil up the stairs. “So when did you move in? I haven’t seen you before.”

Of Dogs and Disobedience (ao3) - jestbee

Summary: The five times they tried to have rules for their dog, and the one time they gave up.

Pressing Business (ao3) - TeddyAsInLupin (Medliwaith)

Summary: Dan and Phil iron some clothes as they pack last-minute. Banter occurs.

soft silence / softer lips (ao3) - orphan_account

Summary: A short, simple and self indulgent one shot in which Dan and Phil enjoy a lazy summer morning.

But Dan quietly reflects on how he can never hear his lover laugh, moan or cry, and Phil wonders how he stumbled upon such a beautiful person.

The city is so loud (but you drown out all the noise) (ao3) - natigail

Summary: Phil's pack might have kicked him out for mating with a human, but his love for Dan was much stronger than anything he'd ever experienced before. It wasn't easy to adjust to living with Dan in his - now their - small flat in London, but Phil would do it again in a heartbeat. With Dan by his side, Phil was sure he could get used to all the weird things humans did.

The Perfect Pizza (ao3) - sakurainrain

Summary: "This is the ultimate pizza order. Okay. We have decided this over years, and we always get this because it's the best thing."

A fic in which Dan and Phil decide what it takes to make this ultimate pizza order.

your love is my turning page (ao3) - buggieb

Summary: the one where dan and phil get a dog

[digitells]

Title : SEO Unleashed: Your Guide to Dominating Search Engine Ranking

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) plays a crucial role in enhancing website ranking by optimizing various aspects to improve its visibility and relevance in search engine results. A well-executed SEO strategy can lead to increased organic traffic, improved user experience, and ultimately, higher conversion rates. Let us delve into the ways SEO can bolster website ranking in a comprehensive and professional manner:

Increased Organic Traffic: SEO aims to optimize the website's content, structure, and keywords to align with user search queries. By identifying relevant keywords and strategically incorporating them into the content, meta tags, and headings, the website becomes more discoverable by search engines. As a result, the website attracts a larger audience through organic search, without the need for paid advertising.

Enhanced User Experience: SEO entails optimizing website elements such as page speed, mobile-friendliness, and user-friendly navigation. When users find a website that loads quickly, adapts seamlessly to different devices, and offers easy access to desired information, they are more likely to stay longer, explore further, and engage with the content. Positive user experience signals, like lower bounce rates and longer dwell times, are favorably considered by search algorithms, contributing to improved rankings.

Quality Content Promotion: High-quality and relevant content is fundamental to SEO success. By creating valuable content that addresses the needs and interests of the target audience, websites can establish themselves as authoritative resources in their industry. This not only attracts more visitors but also encourages other websites to link to the valuable content, signaling credibility to search engines and bolstering the website's authority and ranking.

Backlink Acquisition: SEO efforts often focus on acquiring high-quality backlinks from authoritative and relevant sources. Backlinks act as endorsements from other websites, indicating that the content is valuable and trustworthy. Search engines interpret these backlinks as a vote of confidence, attributing higher credibility and visibility to the website, thus positively influencing its ranking.

Technical Optimization: SEO involves technical enhancements to ensure that search engine crawlers can effectively crawl and index the website's pages. Proper use of title tags, meta descriptions, and structured data markup provides search engines with clear signals about the website's content, enabling them to display relevant snippets in search results. Additionally, optimizing URLs, sitemaps, and robots.txt files enhances the website's crawlability, leading to improved visibility in search results.

Adherence to Search Engine Guidelines: SEO involves aligning the website with search engine guidelines and best practices. Avoiding "black hat" techniques, such as keyword stuffing or link schemes, ensures that the website avoids penalties and maintains a positive reputation in search engine algorithms.

Geographic and Local Optimization: For businesses targeting local audiences, local SEO strategies are crucial. By optimizing the website for location-based keywords and claiming and updating Google My Business listings, the website gains prominence in local search results, attracting relevant local traffic.

Monitoring and Adaptation: SEO is a dynamic process, as search engine algorithms evolve regularly. Regular monitoring of website performance, keyword rankings, and competitor analysis allows for continuous adaptation of the SEO strategy to stay relevant and competitive in the ever-changing search landscape.

 An effective and professional SEO approach can significantly contribute to improving website ranking. Regularly update your website with fresh and relevant content. Keeping your site up-to-date signals to search engines that it is active and relevant, which can positively impact your ranking.

Remember that SEO is an ongoing process, and it takes time to see significant improvements in your site's ranking. Stay informed about the latest SEO trends, algorithm updates, and best practices to ensure you stay ahead in the competitive search landscape.

Improving your site's ranking (SEO) is crucial for attracting more organic traffic and establishing your website as a reputable and relevant source in search engine results. Here are five effective strategies to achieve this:

Mobile-Friendliness: Ensure that your website is responsive and works well on various devices, especially mobile phones. Google and other search engines prioritize mobile-friendly websites in their rankings.

Keyword Optimization: Identify and target specific keyword phrases for each page of authoritative content. Conduct keyword research to understand what terms your audience uses to find relevant information. Use these keywords naturally and strategically in page URLs, titles, headings, and throughout the content. Avoid keyword stuffing, as search engines prioritize user-friendly and readable content.

Publish Relevant, Authoritative Content: Quality content is the cornerstone of successful SEO. Create valuable, authoritative content tailored to your target audience's needs and interests. Address their queries, provide useful information, and showcase your expertise on the topic. Engaging content attracts more visitors, improves site authority, and boosts relevance, leading to higher search engine rankings.

Regularly Update Your Content: Search engines favor fresh and regularly updated content. Schedule periodic content audits to identify and update outdated or less relevant information. Consider maintaining a blog to provide additional content rich in relevant keyword phrases, which can further enhance your website's search engine rankings.

Metadata Optimization: Optimize the metadata of your web pages, including title tags and meta descriptions. These elements provide concise summaries of your content to search engines and potential visitors. Use relevant keywords and compelling language to entice users to click on your website in search results.

Link-Worthy Site: Aim to create a link-worthy website by offering valuable, authoritative, and unbiased content. Websites that provide high-quality information and help users learn more about their interests are more likely to attract backlinks from other reputable websites. These backlinks signal to search engines that your site is trustworthy and relevant, positively influencing your SEO ranking.

User Experience (UX): User-friendly websites with easy navigation, clear calls-to-action, and well-designed layouts tend to perform better in search rankings. Positive user signals like low bounce rates and longer dwell times

 Utilize alt tags for images and videos. Alt tags are alternative text descriptions that provide context to search engines about your media content. Properly describing your media using alt tags ensures that search engines can index your page accurately, making it accessible to users who rely on text-only browsers or screen readers.

Implementing these strategies with a focus on providing value to your audience will contribute significantly to improving your site's ranking in search engine results. Remember that SEO is an ongoing process, and staying up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices is essential to maintaining and enhancing your website's visibility in search engine rankings.

SEO Ranking and Local or Small Businesses

A high SEO ranking fosters credibility and trustworthiness. Users often perceive websites that rank at the top of search results as more reputable and reliable. This positive perception enhances the business's credibility, especially for new or unknown brands, and encourages potential customers to choose it over competitors.Websites optimized for SEO tend to have better navigation, faster loading times, and relevant, high-quality content. A positive user experience leads to higher levels of customer satisfaction and increases the likelihood of repeat visits and customer loyalty.

Moreover, local businesses can particularly benefit from local SEO strategies. By optimizing for local search, these businesses can target customers in their immediate vicinity more effectively. Local SEO enables the business to appear in Google's Local Pack, Google Maps, and other location-based searches, making it easier for potential customers to find and contact the business physically. It offers a cost-effective and sustainable marketing approach, giving small and local businesses the opportunity to compete with larger competitors. In today's digital era, investing in SEO is essential for any small or local business looking to achieve significant growth and success.

[beawritingbooks]

Hazbin Hotel Headcanon:

(In this scenario, a lot of character growth would have happened and Husk would finally be freed from Alastor, but he and Alastor would've decided to stick around the hotel anyway.)

Husk: Here's your drink, Al.

Alastor: Why, thank you! You know, it's nice that we can get along even after all of that nasty soul owning busine-

Husk *does that cat thing where they knock stuff off of the counters & the glass crashes to the floor*: Oops. Sorry.

Alastor *eye twitching*: That's quite alright. As Charlie says, accidents happen.

Husk: That they do...Here's another.

Alastor: As I was saying-

Husk *begins slowly pushing the glass towards the edge while making direct eye contact*: Go on...

Alastor: Don't you do it, Husker.

Husk: Don't do what?

Alastor: You know exactly what. *switches to a harsh static-y whisper* It's behavior like this that made me call you a stinky little bastard man when I owned your soul!

Husk *smirks and knocks the glass off of the counter*: I. Am. Not. Your. Pet.

Alastor *becomes furious and starts to grow into full demon form*: Why you little-

Charlie *appears and sprays Alastor with diluted holy water*: You have to learn how to control your temper!

Alastor *reluctantly calms down and faces Husk*: You knew she was there.

Husk: Yep.

Alastor *grumbling*: Stinky little, bastard man.

Husk *smugly*: I know.

[f1-disaster-bi]

Oh i love lando and egg 💕 can we have something about lando maybe being bullied and they think his dragon also will be small and no thread an then egg just apearibg behind lando makibg himself as big as possible wings outstreched and everythibg scaribg the shit out of them? 😂

Lando and Egg are just the best honestly 🥺

Lando just wandering around maybe outside the dragon pit where the dragons sleep. He's just minding his own busines, maybe on the way to sneak in and given everyone treats despite George telling him to Stop Doing That when he runs into someone he knew as a kid.

This person is from a noble family, but not one with dragons so dragons were always a sore spot. This kid tried hard to get the unbonded dragons to choose him but none of them were interested, and they threatened to burn him a few times so this guy, being older than Lando and angry about not having a dragon, took it out on Lando who had a dragon egg but no dragon.

He used to corner Lando with others and joke about stealing the egg so someone 'true' could have it. They called him bastard, pretender, worthless, just lots of horrible stuff that George tried to stop but they always managed to get Lando alone.

Eventually, the families had a family had a falling out and this kid stopped coming around but now they're adults and he appears for some meeting. Of course there were rumours about a new dragon having hatched, but no one outside of where Lando is really knows it's Lando so when he finds out, he starts making comments about it because "has anyone actually seen it? or are they just saying it hatched', 'it's probably defective" and says this to Lando's face, not knowing that Egg, who is a couple of months old and growing rapidly, is lurking until BAM.

There is a dragon behind Lando, standing up on his hind legs, big ass wings spread as wide as possible and roaring at the guy until he falls over and starts scrambing backwards while Lando just stands there unbothered. Egg is letting out some smoke, possibly a little flicker of flames (he hasn't gotten there yet, but he's trying) and Lando just grins like "big enough for you?"

The guy runs away and then Egg is just lowered back down again, and he is only about hip height on all fours, but he can be scary when he wants thank you

[guardianoftheotherside]

What Darksiders would give you for your Birthday?

(bc, today is mine 🎂)

War: He would give you weapon to protect youreself, while awkwardly whishing you happy birthday. Today he is more focused to making you safe than anything, so be ready to extra hard training. But at the end of a day he will give you hug and tell you that you did great today and how happy he is to be your friend.

Death: He did not understand the concept of celebrating birthday( you are just one year closer to your death whats wrong with you?!- his words not mine), but he will give you book he think you may like and will be nicer to you.

Strife: Oh boy. He will give you hug, something he found( probably this horse toy), throw you a party and best wishes. You are his friend and he may sure to show it to you.

Fury: She will wish you happy birthday in „ leave me alone already, i Don’t care” tone, but later you find weapon with note” Don’t think lot of it” and will be watching you while you are showing it to everyone. Don’t be mad at her, you are her first friend and she have No idea how to act.

Azrael: He will wish you happy birthday while giving you warmest hug and book you wished to read. At the end of the day while you are watching sunset he tell you how great is to know you and how he is happy to being your friend.

Vulgrim: This demon merchant will not try to convince you to sell your soul to him in this special day, but give you 50% discount to his goods. Busines is busines, sorry.

Samael: He would give you the finest neklace he posses and wishing you happy birthday. He never say it out loud, but he grow fond to you.

Draven: He is not sure what to do. He is not sure what modern humans are doing to celebrate friend’s birthday, so he will wish you happy birthday, give you your around castle( while making sure nothing disturb your time) and later made a little show off while training.

[tomblomfield]

What is "founder mode"?

We held a YC event a couple of months ago where Brian Chesky from Airbnb gave a passionate talk about his experience running Airbnb over the last 17 years. He believed that as Airbnb hired more professional managers, he lost a close connection with the details of the end product and the company suffered as a result.

It clearly touched a nerve with a lot of people present. It was uncomfortable to realize that I made many of the same mistakes when I ran my startup, yet somehow comforting to know I was in good company.

Paul Graham wrote an essay about a few weeks later, the now-famous Founder Mode, which I want to explore today.

Leaders in "manager mode" will “treat subtrees of the org chart as black boxes. You tell your direct reports what to do, and it's up to them to figure out how. But you don't get involved in the details of what they do.”

On the other hand “there are things founders can do that managers can't” - this is “founder mode” - and it’s left largely undefined. PG’s essay is perhaps best read as an invitation to founders to compare notes to discover a better way of running companies at scale.

But the essay left me questioning whether "founder mode" and "manager mode" are useful labels. They certainly generated a lot of controversy online, but if you hire bad executives and let them run your company with minimal intervention or oversight, you’re in for a bad time whether you’re a founder or not. 

And, empirically, we can point to numerous examples of both founders and hired CEOs who have either been extremely successful or totally useless. Whether someone is a founder seems largely orthogonal to whether they’re a competent leader. 

Maybe my quibble is just a semantic one - these labels distract from the debate. I do believe there is a really interesting question here - how do good leaders stay in the detail and run great companies at scale? Are there areas where founders really do have a persisting advantage?  And that’s what I want to explore in more detail here.

I think the general pattern that Brian was identifying was the following. A young, inexperienced founder with limited management experience is running a rapidly scaling company. Famous VCs invest a lot of money and join the board. Headcount passes 100 and quickly grows beyond 1000. The VCs (who often have never run anything themselves) encourage the founder to hire "executives" with "scaling experience".

The founder is told to "empower" these executives, who typically then implement techniques that worked for them at previous companies. But, too often, these techniques fail in the new company. The founder is too nervous to intervene - these people are supposed to be "experts" - or is rebuffed by the experienced executives for "micromanaging". Things don't go well, and the company slowly stagnates. The founder gets sad and eventually quits or is pushed out.

Now, it's very common to hire executives who are ineffective. Every CEO has that experience. But it's not sensible to give those executives unverified trust and free reign from day one. I don’t think any competent CEO should treat "subtrees of the org chart as black boxes". 

As a leader, of course you constantly need to do skip-level meetings with people further down in the organization. You need to have your finger on the pulse of the company and be able drill down into each area when necessary.

The process of building and maintaining trust between a CEO and an exec involves the CEO repeatedly going incredibly deep on niche subjects, verifying that the exec really knows what's going on in their department, and has a good grasp on the problems. As the exec builds trust, these deep-dives can become less frequent, but they never totally disappear. If the exec repeatedly doesn't have a good grasp of the details as you dive deep into their domain, you quickly realize that you need to replace them.

To do this, leaders need an extremely detailed and nuanced understanding of their business. There’s a cliched idea of clueless MBAs jumping from company to company, treating them as black boxes that might as well be making widgets. They clearly don’t have the domain expertise to dive into any kind of detail. This is not a successful way to run a company.

Over time, and without constant pruning, companies do seem to accumulate layers of management who do very little. These managers spend their time coordinating people, trying to establish consensus, and padding out their promotion packets to ascend to the next rung of the corporate ladder. Instead, I believe that great leaders have to be able to dig into the details, have an incredibly high bar for quality, and ultimately do great IC work themselves. Great managers have to manage the work - they should primarily be responsible for quality and speed of output. Managing people must be secondary to managing the product.

At Monzo, we experimented with some pretty wacky management structures at times. There was a period when our middle managers were basically just responsible for "pastoral care" of each employee. They were not connected at all with the output that the ICs were producing. It was totally insane and overlapped with our period of lowest productivity by far.

As you scale a company, you do have to figure out which executives you can trust with what kind of work, and delegate decisions to them appropriately. The limiting factor in any scaling company is usually management bandwidth. I believe one of the best articulations of this idea is Keith Rabois's Barrels vs Ammunition (at 14:32, but the whole video is excellent)

If you think about people, there are two categories of high-quality people: there is the ammunition, and then there are the barrels. You can add all the ammunition you want, but if you have only five barrels in your company, you can literally do only five things simultaneously.

Finding those barrels that you can shoot through — someone who can take an idea from conception to live and it’s almost perfect — are incredibly difficult to find. This kind of person can pull people with them. They can charge up the hill. They can motivate their team, and they can edit themselves autonomously.

Once someone demonstrates "barrel-like" ability, you should quickly put more on their plate. Often, the best leaders at your company will have been promoted from within, over a period of several years. They’ve established huge amounts of trust and have deep domain knowledge. Constantly micromanaging these people is a waste of your time and will actually limit the great work your company can do. You must empower them.

On the other hand, trying to hire in senior executives from outside the company is fraught with difficulty. Sadly, many really are just “professional fakers”. These people have run hundreds of job interviews in their career and are experts at “managing up” to a CEO. This makes standard interviews almost entirely useless. Instead, I would try to pick previous projects they’ve run and dig into as much detail as you can. See how granular they can go on the problems they encountered, the decisions they made and the results they achieved. I would do a very large number of reference checks - try to find bosses, peers and subordinates and talk to them in detail about the person you are about to hire. Every time I failed to do detailed reference checks on an executive hire, I deeply regretted it. Spend significant time with the person before hiring them. I spent about a year meeting TS Anil (the now-CEO) before hiring him at Monzo, and 9 months meeting with Sujata, the COO. They are two of the best executive hires I ever made, and I’m sad I didn’t get to work with them for longer. 

Once you’ve hired someone, you need to ensure they’re doing a good job before giving them free-reign in your company. Are they really a “barrel”? Sadly, at least 50% of executive hires don’t work out. It’s essential that you identify these people early and weed them out. And the way you do this is dive deep with them into their domain and see if they can keep up. When a CEO takes their eye off the details, the career politicians and bureaucrats thrive.

I've heard from many founders that their senior managers - C levels and VPs - react badly when young founders want to dig into the details. They seem to say "You hired us to be the experts here. Now you need to get out of the way while we run the company." As PG's essay says, "Founders feel like they're being gaslit from both sides — by the [VCs] telling them they have to run their companies like managers, and by the [execs] working for them when they do." They "hire professional fakers and let them drive the company into the ground." This is also the pattern that Brian identified in his talk, and I think it’s absolutely destructive. 

I have to say that this generally wasn't my experience - I had access to all metrics from across the company, on dozens of pages of real time dashboards. I'd frequently roam the office and sit next to a random employee and start talking to them about their work. Teams would often have their dashboards up on walls and I loved digging into what the data was showing. I had an obsession with extremely granular metrics - it cost us £4.40 to onboard a single customer, split between KYC cost, debit card manufacturing, postage and packaging. Our CAC varied between £10.50 and £14.00 depending on channel. Our NPS started at +78 and declined to +71 (and we spent a really long time trying to figure out why). The average customer transacted on their Monzo card 7.4 times a week, with an average spend of £14.10 per transaction. They deposited £600 month (which grew to £950 after 18 months of using Monzo) and they opened the app 22 times per week. I could go on and on - I was obsessed with these metrics. 

We insisted that everyone at Monzo - including the entire senior management team - do customer service for one day a month. This was a great way to make sure everyone stayed closely connected to the issues customers really cared about. We stopped doing this in about year 4 or 5, and it seemed to coincide with a sharp reduction in the pace of execution.

Sadly, I hired a number of bad executives, but the techniques above generally allowed me to identify them pretty quickly, and we ended up firing a lot of senior people. There were certainly times when I was too busy and didn't have the time, or I didn't feel like I had the expertise to really dive in. Certain teams' work was so alien to me that I couldn't effectively go deep. In retrospect, they were also the lowest performing teams when I was there.

I think that the final part of successful leadership is the ability to make hard decisions in the absence of complete information. At some point or another, companies will encounter these bet-the-company moments, and maybe this is one area that founders do have an advantage over professional managers. Having the moral authority to take a really hard decision comes with the founder title. Zuckerberg’s decision to go all-in on mobile 2012 is an example of this. Professional managers inevitably have a level of risk aversion due to the insecurity of their job position - if it goes wrong, the founder is less likely to lose their job. Zuckerberg’s bet on the Metaverse would probably have gotten a professional CEO fired.

But there are relatively few of these bet-the-company decisions. Everything slows to a crawl if the CEO needs to be consulted every time a decision needs to be made. You want your (competent) execs and your top ICs to be making great decisions every day - and you as the CEO should dive in only occasionally to spot-check these decisions. This is how you scale leadership. 

I’ve worked at a startup where the founder CEO came in every Monday with a new idea. He seemed to spend every weekend talking to investors and then turned up with heaps of enthusiasm for a new initiative. But we never had time to actually make progress on the idea before he’d change his mind again. This kind of leadership thrash is depressingly common with inexperienced founder-CEOs. 

I encountered a similar thing at my own company - I learned that I had to be really careful about sharing half-formed opinions and ideas, especially with less experienced team members (and as the company grew past 1000 people). I would sometimes get enthusiastic about a new half-formed product idea, or make an off-the-cuff remark about something I found interesting. Without intending to, I’d derail an entire team for weeks. You need to be deliberate and intentional about CEO-level interventions when you’re running a company of thousands.

I learned that if I wanted the company to focus, I had to have a singular message that I repeated endlessly. I would write a 3-4 page letter to the entire company about every 6 months, outlining the one or two things we needed to focus on. At our weekly all-hands, I would just repeat the same message in different ways. I think I said “fix unit economics” several thousand times in 2018. It became a meme at the company. But it worked.

I sat in every weekly product review meeting with my CPO and CTO, even as we got to 2000 team-members. Our main input to the teams was typically to try to cut scope and launch faster. 

I learned to save my open-ended product brainstorming for a much smaller group - VP Marketing, VP Design, CPO, CTO, and a couple of very senior engineering ICs. We’d meet every 2-3 weeks and spend a couple of hours jamming on the kinds of things we could build in future. These meetings were the most fun I had at Monzo. Some of these became a core part of the product, others were just a fun way to blow off steam without distracting the company.

I’m not saying I have all the answers here - and I was far from a perfect CEO. I don’t think I really ever figured out how to balance the extremely onerous regulatory constraints of running a bank with a desire to move quickly and delight our customers. Especially as we grew past 500 people, I think we lost a lot of the early intensity and focus that I loved so much. We raised hundreds of millions of dollars, so when new employees turned up to a fancy office with catered lunches they believed they had joined a company like Google, and everything slowed down. 

Personally, I was in the detail to such an extent that I couldn’t ever really disconnect from the company. I treated every criticism of Monzo as an attack on me personally. I found it impossible to keep a sense of perspective or any balance in my life, and ultimately I burned out. I believe this is the biggest danger for founders once they’ve hit product-market-fit.

I return to the original questions - how do good leaders stay in the detail and run great companies at scale? Are there areas where founders really do have a persisting advantage?  I’ve shared some of my views here - I would insist that all CEOs stay connected to the details of their product, have an incredibly high bar for quality, manage for output, and delegate only to the extent that your leaders have earned your trust. Don't feel embarrassed about the way you want to run your company.

I would love to hear how others run their companies, whether you're founders or not.

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