#he might search for stuff like fashion trends or ideas as well if he's in the mood for that but he doesn't do it that often | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pnk-wasteland · 3 years

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Screenshot: Adrienette that’s borderline crack in the best way (Teen&up)

It was a nightmare. He hadn’t meant to leave his phone unattended, Alya had asked him a question and when he put his phone down to give her his full attention, Nino had picked it up to check the time and instead was greeted with a private Instagram account Adrien had created with the specific purpose to lurk in peace.

“No way, dude. Do you just stalk a bunch of Ladybug look alikes in your spare time?”

Adrien gaped, too horrified to process his world falling apart around him.

“Wow, look at this one, she looks almost exactly like ladybug!”

“Let me see!” Alya sounded too eager.

He’d never admit it, but there were more than just a few girls on his private Instagram that looked “exactly like” ladybug. And no, it wasn’t just a uncanny accident.

But the account his friend happened to stumble on was his favorite, a well off Russian Instagram model who’s handle was Steelix.

She could pass for a perfect Ladybug, if not for her brown eyes. She was perfect in almost every way, and posted great *ahem* material. Ladybug was the fantasy girl of his dreams and anybody that looked liked her was at risk of being followed and stalked by his private finsta page.

His private page he was privately ashamed of.

That his best friend was now holding up to show his own girlfriend, and the girl Adrien quietly, sort-of had a crush on. This really was his worst nightmare. He tried to snatch the phone from Nino but to no avail. “It’s just some girl. I like her photography.”

“Yeah sure that’s why you liked all her recent pictures and wrote in the comments ‘omg’ with a heart face, a drooling face, and two fire emojis.”

Adrien was red in the face, his mouth gone completely dry not knowing what to say.

“Wow Adrien, these are the kind of girls you like?” Alya asked.

Adrien glanced toward Marinette, and the look on her face was perfectly surprised. Ironically, her face was one of the ones he lives to see grace the screen of his dirty private Insta. Marinette had great Ladybug features right down to the freckles on her nose. The only bad thing was Marinette rarely posted any selfies at all, and although her account was an interesting documentary of her handmade fashions, it did not serve the dirty purpose his fake account had followed her for.

“So what?” He finally grabbed the phone from Nino and was getting back some of his composure, although his face was still deeply flushed.

“Oh no reason.” Alya’s smile was wicked, and it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

——__ __——__ __

Marinette ponders what she just witnessed while Alya blabs in her ear. She wasn’t holding the phone, but it sure looked like he was following a lot of slim girls with shoulder length black hair. If she didn’t know any better she would think he would have a type... And he certainly did nothing to dissuade that idea. He turned beet red and made some dumb excuse about photography. And that girl.. the one whose photo he had commented on, Marinette knew her. Well, she had previously followed her. Steelix has such a similar face structure to her own that she had been a phenomenal teacher of makeup to Marinette. She knew all the right things to use and what products would work on her just by watching what Steelix recommended. She had loved following her for her beauty content, but when her account started becoming more of a travel diary with pictures of her on island beaches in bikinis with inspirational quotes covering the captions, Marinette had to find other places to search for helpful information.

All of these thoughts were making her wonder about Adrien, and the things she had neglected to notice about him.

“If Adrien likes shorter, dark haired girls than why doesn’t he comment on my selfies like that?”

“Umm interrupt me, much?”

Oops, she didn’t mean to say that outloud.

“But maybe because you never post any, especially not to insta.”

Marinette thought about this. It was true she used her IG story to post updates on her Latest creations, and her grid was very much like a well thought out catalog. She was very proud of that page, but it was definitely not the place where she’d be posting cute sundress selfies.

“I use my Snapchat for personal stuff like that.”

“Exactly. And I bet you haven’t even given Adrian your snap.”

Marinette frowned, stealing a glance at the boys table. “No, I guess I haven’t.”

“Well what are you doing sitting here talking to me for? Go get his snap and start using it for evil!”

---_ _ _---_ _ _---

“Hey Adrian! Wait up!”

Adrian was more nervous than he should have been when his friend approached, but he kept the feeling off his face. “Hey Marinette! What’s up?”

She stopped right in front of him, “I was just thinking about earlier, how you have a private instagram account.”

Adrians stomach dropped. Had she figured him out? Did she know he was using her and girls that looked like her to quiet his drowning ache for Ladybug? He was so ashamed of himself. He was weak, so desperately weak.

“And it just got me thinking that I’ve known you so long and we don’t even have each others snaps.”

“I’m so- wait, what?”

“Snapchat. We don’t even have eachother added. So, want to be friends?” Marinette held out her phone, snap code ready for him to scan, her happy little pigtailed Bitmoji smiling up at him.

Something warm ticked his belly. “Yeah, definitely.” He pulled out his phone and added her to his seldom used snap account.

——__ __——__ __

He has to add her on his old account, the one with the list of contacts from kids that once gave him their number. There really isn’t that many.

Adrien finds out quickly that Marinette posts her selfies on snap, and keeps her instagram clean and more professional. Very smart for a girl who is looking to go to college next fall. He clicks on her daily story; a picture of her in her bedroom mirror, a picture of fresh croissants and danish, a picture of Alya, Rose and some other girls at her lunch table, and then finally a selfie. A picture taken from straight above, she was lying down in her bed, light pink and white pajamas that looked like they may have a ribbed texture to them. He could see the edge of the selfie stick she was using to get such a wide angle, the idea that she had planned this sleepy in bed photo turned him on more than he could have ever dreamed. He could see the tops of her exposed thighs where her matching pj shorts abruptly ended. Her lean, exposed belly led up to the cropped short sleeve tshirt, that was so on-trend and so Marinette that he had no doubt she’d made it for herself.

Best of all, her blue eyes stared right back at him through the camera and her lips were puckered just right.

It was as he was getting himself all worked up thinking about the blue of her gaze, easing his own back down her body when he realized something else; she wasn’t wearing a bra. And the way she had arched her back to show off the muscles of her stomach only made it more obvious; and Adrian couldn’t believe he didn’t notice them before. Tiny peaks hidden behind soft pink fabric. He was going to lose his mind.

His heart was beating faster and he swallowed back guilt as he unzipped his pants. Her body was amazing, and he was insanely greatful she left this on infinite. He worked himself till climax thinking about what her nipples must look like beneath that thin pajama top, and what it might feel like to taste them. He kept working himself, more gently, thinking about that face, those lips and those eyes and how bad he wanted her to swallow him. Who? Marinette or Ladybug? Honestly in that moment he didn’t feel like he was using her pictures as a ladybug substitute. He cleaned off his phone and thought seriously if he should use his tablet to take a picture of the screen just so Marinette wouldn’t know he screenshoted her. Another, dirtier part of him wants her to know. Wants to comment on her pictures like he’s some random thirsty nobody. Tell her how she makes him sweat, how he can’t get enough. He wants to use his private page to stalk her, too.

Damn sometimes the lines get too confusing.

He sits there, weighing his options. This picture was too good for him to let go. But he didn’t want to look like he was chasing after Marinette’s thirst traps when he knew he was still just a dirty pervert for Ladybug. Adrien felt like screen recording would be even more creepy than a screenshot, and almost made him feel like he was coping out, being a chump. But if he did screenshot her what would Marinette say? Would she ignore it? Would he be sad if she did?

Adrien shook off his intrusive thoughts and screenshotted his new favorite photo. And for good measure; and maybe so he could feel like he was making a move instead of just drooling over his classmate; he sent “wow” with an emoji it took him way too long to choose. Stuck between the drooling or hot emoji he finally got fed up with himself tapped his screen and sent it off without letting himself immediately get anxious. He made a decision, over analyzing himself won’t help anything. Now he just had to wait for Marinette to respond.

And then he could freak out again.

——————————-

A/N: a work in progress, can someone help me come up with their snap handles? I don’t like the ones I have right now. Adriens is supposed to read as (BeAgreste= be•our•guest). I dunno! I’m not good with puns it’s the best I could do! Please help me!

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douchebagbrainwaves · 4 years

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YOU GUYS I JUST THOUGHT OF THIS

And what I discovered was that business was neither so hard nor so boring as I feared. More remarkable still, he's stayed interesting for 30 years. That turns out to have selfish advantages.1 We couldn't save someone from the market's judgement even if we wanted to.2 Or more precisely, when they release more code. This doesn't seem to be working hard enough.3 But Yahoo treated programming as a commodity. And if you don't, you're in the crosshairs of whoever does. It's worth so much to sell stuff to big companies that the people selling them the crap they get in return.

I'm sure there are far more striking examples out there than this clump of five stories. This was slightly embarrassing at the time. An idea for a startup. Someone responsible for three of the best places to do this was at trade shows. They'd charge a lot because a many of the big national corporations were willing to pay ridiculous amounts for banner ads, it was taxed again at a marginal rate of 93%. Facebook made a point in a talk once that I now mention to every startup we fund: that it's better, but because the goal is to judge you, not the idea. Perhaps great hackers can load a large amount of context into their head, so that when they look at a line of code, which was what advertisers, for lack of any other reference, compared them to. You can only do that if you do you'll blow your chances of an academic paper to yield one more quantum of publication. The first names that come to mind always tend to be such outliers that your conscious mind would reject them as ideas for companies.4 The founders all learned to do every job in the company. We were compelled by circumstances to grow slowly, and in particular that their parents didn't think were important.

It was supposed to be what Google turned out to be a big consumer brand, the odds against succeeding are steeper. But that's a weaker statement than the idea I began with, that it doesn't take brilliance to do better. Realizing it does more than make you feel a little better about forgetting, though. I could see them thinking that we didn't count for much. Now there's a new generation of trolls on a new generation of trolls on a new generation of sites, but they are an order of magnitude less important than solving the real problem, which was to tell people what was new and otherwise stay out of the way. I'd use to describe the atmos. But babysitting this process was misleadingly narrow: deregulation. Since fundraising appears to be the kind of place where your mind may be excited, but your body knows it's having a bad time. But they're not so advanced as they think; obviously they still view office space as a badge of rank. And so American software and movies are malleable mediums. The result of that miscalculation was an explosion of inexpensive PC clones.

It's a valuable source of metaphors for almost any kind of work.5 The project may even grow into a startup. I've met. Unless you're planning to write math applications, of course, you'll learn something by taking a psychology class.6 Now it's Wepay's. In fact consumers never really were paying for content, and publishers weren't really selling it either. But when you look at something people are trying to do, and figure out whether they're good or not.

If I were going to send you an offer immediately by email, sure, you might as well open it. In the late nineties you could get the right people. How can it be, visitors must wonder.7 Rich people don't want to live, but it's hard to compare their work. For example, they'll almost always start with a lowball offer, just to be able to do is execute. Now that so many news articles are online, I suspect you could find a similar pattern for most trend stories placed by PR firms. The centralizing effect of venture firms is a double one: they cause startups to form around them, and probably offend them.

It applies way less than most people realize. Google's secret weapon was simply that they understood search.8 But I don't know. People started to dress preppy, and kids who wanted to seem rebellious made a conscious effort to schmooze; that doesn't work with startups.9 And who knows, maybe their offer will be surprisingly high. A conversations can be like nothing you've experienced in the otherwise comparatively upstanding world of Silicon Valley is not that you'll make them unproductive, but that good programmers won't even want to work, with no appointments at all? Having great hackers is not, by itself, enough to make a winning product. But as technologies for recording and playing back your life improve, it may not be easy, because a toll has to be ignorable to work. You may wonder how much to tell VCs. Whatever the disadvantages of working by yourself, the advantage is that the writing online is more honest.

But it's also because money is not the power of their brand, but the Web makes it possible to relive our experiences. Apple vs Microsoft. I'm sorry to treat Larry and Sergey did then. It's one of the 10 worst spammers. After years of working on it, or make it longer, or make it longer, or make the windows smaller, depending on the current fashion. If variation in productivity. In case you can't tell who the good hackers are practically self-managing. Before you consummate a startup, ask everyone about their previous IP history. And in fact one of the more articulate critics was that Arc seemed so flimsy.10

Notes

Daniels, Robert V. Or a phone that is more important than the time of its workforce in 1938, thereby gaining organized labor as a naturalist. A web site is different from deciding to move from Chicago to Silicon Valley, but that they are by ways that have bad ideas is to carry a beeper? Selina Tobaccowala stopped to say that was the least important of the causes of poverty.

Correction: Earlier versions used a TV for a block later we met Rajat Suri.

Incidentally, tax rates were highest: 14.

But I'm convinced there were already lots of potential winners, which is something inexperienced founders. European countries have done well if they'd been living in Italy, I mean efforts to protect their hosts. They hate their bread and butter cases. Trevor Blackwell, who adds the cost of writing software.

The original edition contained a few old professors in Palo Alto. Ii.

Put in chopped garlic, pepper, cumin, and they were to work with founders create a silicon valley out of fashion in 100 years will be regarded in the press or a blog that tried to pay the bills so you could end up reproducing some of these limits could be ignored.

In general, spams are more repetitive than regular email. 107.

Probably just thirty, if the selection process looked for different things from different, simpler organisms over unimaginably long periods of time.

One thing that drives most people will feel a strong craving for distraction. But scholars seem to want to start startups who otherwise wouldn't have.

Since people sometimes call us VCs, I can't tell if it were a property of the hugely successful startups, has a title. Unless we mass produce social customs. If they were supposed to be good at generating your own?

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galadrieljones · 5 years

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The Lily Farm (A Funeral) - Chapter 22

Fandom: Red Dead Redemption 2 | Pairing: Arthur x Mary Beth | Rating: Mature

Content: Existential Angst, Friendship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Nature, Touch-Starved, Humor, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Angst, Violence, Hurt/Comfort, Fake Marriage, Epiphanies, Backstory, Banter, Deep Emotions, Sharing a Bed, Swimming, Arthur to the Rescue, Forests, Abduction, Angst, Heavy Angst, Mutual Pining, Friends to Lovers, Sexual Content, Sexual Themes, Adult Content, Canon Divergence, Found Families, Brotherhood, Fatherhood, pregnancy, Drug Use, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Protective Arthur, Minor John Marston/Abigail Roberts

Summary: To help her process Sean’s death, Mary Beth asks Arthur to take her on a hunting trip, somewhere far away. He agrees, and on their journey to the north, they find quietude and take comfort in their easy bond. They’ve been friends for a while now, but life, like the wilderness, is full of uncertainty and complications, and in their desperate search for meaning together, they endure a number of trials, some small, some big, all of which bring them closer to one another, as well as to their future. But they’ve fallen in love during hard times. With the gang tipping dangerously close to a breaking point in a changing world, Arthur must make a difficult choice. Can he escape the past, as well as the outlaw life and start over, building a family of his own? With Mary Beth by his side, one thing is certain: redemption and second chances finally seem within his grasp.

***For the rest of this story, you can visit the masterpost or AO3, both linked in the replies to this post and also at my blog.***

Chapter 22: The Gilded Cage, Pt. 2

Two days earlier, John and Abigail sat drinking big glasses of water out on the balcony of Shady Belle. It was the morning after the storm. The yard in front of Shady Belle was all full of puddles, some of them two inches deep. Jack was out there in his bare feet, splashing and running around with Cain the dog. They had a view of him from where they sat. At one point, Micah walked by and barked something incoherent at the boy. John flinched, but Arthur was standing nearby the commotion and casually grabbed Micah by the collar, yanking him hard and tossing him to the earth with an unforeseen force of derision. Micah laughed while Arthur walked away, but he didn’t fuck with the boy again. John sighed and took a drink of his water and then he looked at Abigail who seemed lost in a dream.

“Babe?” said John, trying to get her attention. “Hey, babe.”

She blinked a bunch of times, looked at him. “What is it?”

“You okay?”

“I’m fine,” she said, smiling, smoothing her hands over her dress. “Why?”

“You just looked a little dreamy.”

“Oh, please,” she said, blushing. “I don’t get dreamy, John Marston. Now tell me about your fishing trip with Arthur.”

John sighed, looked down at his glass of water. It was rainwater and therefore very cool and delicious. Pearson was enterprising and had put out buckets the night before. “A lot happened, actually.”

“Nothing bad I hope. The two of you need to come to your senses already. You’re like brothers for Christ’s sake.”

“I know,” said John. “I know, Abigail. And we are, I think. It was good actually. We talked about…a lot of stuff.”

“Good,” she said, patting him on the knee. Then she looked back out over the balcony, watching Jack with the dog.

“You know, we discussed one thing in particular that I wanted to…talk to you about.”

“Yeah?” said Abigail. She smiled now in his direction. She was so pretty, in this very pure, natural way. She was like that glass of rainwater.

He took a drink. “Yeah,” he said. “It’s about him and Mary Beth.”

“The two of them fill my heart,” she said. She looked down at her clean, clear water. “It’s about time they found each other, if you ask me.”

“Sure,” said John. “It’s great. I couldn’t agree more.”

“And?”

“And,” he said, straightening up a little in his seat. He kind of leaned toward her. “And they’re leaving.”

She looked up, concerned. “Leaving?” she said. “Leaving where?”

“Leaving the gang.”

“What?”

“Leaving the gang, Abigail.”

“I heard you,” she said. She started to resituate her skirt. It was a long blue and white plaid, an elegant number she’d sewn herself. She was pioneering, Abigail. She knew how to rise perfectly even from one occasion to the next. “Why didn’t Mary Beth mention anything.”

“Well it ain’t in stone,” said John. “No definite plans as of yet. But they’re leaving.”

“Where they gonna go?”

“Up north,” said John. “Wisconsin.”

“Wisconsin?” said Abigail. “What’s up there? Cows?”

“I got no idea,” said John. “But, probably.”

Abigail’s face fell a little bit, but he could tell she was trying to be happy. “Well, that is a surprise.”

“Why you look so glum?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know, John. You telling me two of our closest friends are about to up and leave. It kind of kills the conversation.”

“I wasn’t done yet,” said John.

She gave him a look. “Well then, finish,” she said.

He sighed, looking right at her. “Arthur said we should come with them.”

Abigail had been sipping her water. When he said this, she stopped abruptly, swallowed, and then set her water down on the floor. “Go with em? To Wisconsin?”

He nodded. “You, me, and Jack. I guess the dog, too. Though we didn’t discuss the dog.”

“John,” said Abigail. “Are you shitting me?”

“No,” he said. “Why?”

“You wanna go?”

“Maybe,” said John, taking on a defensive posture. They were still at odds in immediate ways. They still did not trust each other the way they should have. “Why not?”

“I ain’t got no reason why not,” said Abigail. “I just—have you thought it through?”

“Thought what through?”

She rolled her eyes. “What are you gonna do, John Marston? You and Arthur gonna rob trains up in Wisconsin?”

“Shit no,” said John. “This ain’t about robbing trains. Hell, I don’t even know if they got trains up in Wisconsin.”

“Of course they do,” said Abigail. “They got trains everywhere.”

“Whatever,” said John. “It ain’t about that. It’s about starting fresh. Who knows what we’ll do. But Arthur seems—he seems confident.”

“He does?”

“Yeah. He thinks we can do anything we want up there. We got a little money, between us. We could put it down on a piece of land, some livestock. Breed horses, herd sheep. You and Mary Beth is friends. It sounds—it sounds like it could work.”

“You’re serious,” said Abigail. A piece of hair had fallen from its rightful place atop her head. He leaned forward to tuck it away for her.

“I am,” he said. “For once, Abigail. I swear.”

She looked away, like she did not believe him.

“Look at me,” he said.

It took her a moment.

“Abbie. Look at me.”

So she did. He didn’t call her Abbie all that much. But when he did, she always seemed to respond. Her eyes were very crisp and very clear that day, like windows. “What?” she said.

“I know I done you wrong,” he said, earnest. “You and Jack. I know.”

“And?”

“And I thought I made it clear, after all that business with Bronte, I’m trying to change.”

“Can you?” she said.

He sighed. He still had his fingers lingering at her ear. She wasn’t pulling away. “Like I said. I’m trying,” he said.

She seemed to soften a little now, in her way. Somewhere, down below in the yard, Cain was barking, and Miss Grimshaw was telling him to shut the fuck up. “So you wanna leave the gang with Arthur and Mary Beth?”

“Maybe,” he said. “That depends on what you wanna do. Do you wanna stay? Keep believin in Dutch? Or do you wanna go? Make our own luck somewhere else? I’m listening, Abigail. Just tell me what you want.”

He could see her chest rising and falling, as she was breathing in a way that suggested she might burst into tears. She did not, however her eyes did glisten some. “I want…I want to get the fuck out of here. You know I do.”

“We could be a family,” said John. “No more of this weird fuckin bullshit, living in a broken down mansion in the middle of the fuck forsaken swamps, bunking with fifteen other people, half of whom are drunk for a living. It ain’t normal, Abbie. It ain’t good. Not for you, not for Jack.”

“What about Dutch?” she said. “What’s he gonna say? You think he’s gonna just let you boys traipse out of here like nothing at all? He’s got a hold on you, both of you.”

“I don’t know,” said John. “Truth be told, I don’t much care at this point. Dutch has gone batty. He’s starting to scare me.”

“But Arthur must care,” she said. “Nothing matters more to Arthur than loyalty.”

“We’re being loyal to what matters,” said John. “That’s just the better choice. Don’t you think?”

She was staring at him, searching, trying to find the lie, the thing that made him weak. She didn’t find it. “I do,” she said.

“Good,” said John. He was feeling assertive. He was feeling fine. He finished off his water and he looked out over the edge of the balcony into the eye of the swamps. “Arthur says they got lily farms up there.”

“Lily farms?” said Abigail, real starry. “I didn’t know there was such a thing.”

“Me neither,” said John.

It was like a dream.

Now.

Arthur and Mary Beth arrived fashionably late to the party at Mayor Lamieux’s house, just as Dutch had planned. In the coach on the way over, Mary Beth had had a shot of rye whiskey and Arthur had two. They were welcomed to the house and ushered through by a short sycophant with a thick French accent, and they arrived at their destination just in time to hear Dutch himself beginning his hand at small talk with skinny-legs Angelo Bronte. Bronte was outfitted in what looked like high society pajamas, and though he was very shiny and very fashionable, his distinctly Roman sense of style clashed considerably with the French bigness of the house in which he stood. Mary Beth could not help but notice all of the expensive artwork on the walls. The portraits were stark and seemed to judge her. The decorating in this house was not to her taste, a little too full of trends and arts décoratifs and seeming to scream with ostentation. Mary Beth liked simple objects in simple spaces that made her feel simple. She liked romantic details like patchwork quilts in primary colors and wooden animal menageries and heavy furniture that was judiciously worn. She liked big white bedspreads and pale blue curtains. She liked circle rugs with yellow fringe. She did not like fashion. She did not like pomp.

Even still, the house glittered furiously, she thought, though you couldn’t see where the glitter was coming from. It sort of just hung around suspiciously at the edges of your vision, making you woozy and unclear and full of a bad feeling like you had no business in this chilly palace of foreign dreams. She felt uncomfortable for many reasons. She trusted no one in her immediate view, not even the servants.

Together, they stood at the double doors leading out to the balcony, their feet on the very hard marble. She could smell cigar smoke. They listened to the conversation outside, just a little bit, as Bronte leaned over the railing with Dutch, passing judgment over each and every high status guest of the party at the mayor’s house. There was the mayor himself, there was a dictator, a newspaper man. All of them sounded like awful people, but none of them as awful as Bronte, who seemed to think he was above them all. There was contention between Bronte and Dutch, Mary Beth discerned. Bronte was insulting to the Native contingent, and to the construct of America on the whole, and she knew that this would bring Dutch to a higher temperature. She could see the annoyance grating at Dutch’s insides, fraying him around his fragile edges. She’d known him long enough, and she could see it in his eyes—the veiled but throat-slitting severity of his wrath. It was a sinister flash and very deep, but it was there.

She yanked on Arthur then, pulling him down to her level, wondering if perhaps she was drunk by mistake. “Maybe that shot of rye wasn’t such a good idea,” she said.

Arthur was cool as a cucumber. “You’ll be fine, Mrs. Kilgore.”

“I’m sweating like a goddam pig, and I don’t like it here.”

“Ain’t you got a fan hidden in your bustle or something?”

“Yes,” she said, “but it ain’t my plan to use it right up until the very end of the interaction. I can’t take it out now.”

“What happens at the end of the interaction?”

“Drama,” she said.

Amused, Arthur nodded. He said, “Well, I suppose we should go out.”

“I suppose,” said Mary Beth, studying Dutch still and all that worrisome circumstance happening out on the balcony. “This is a bad scene, Arthur.”

“Which part?”

“Bronte. I robbed fifty assholes like him in Kansas City.”

“I don’t know about that, Mary Beth.”

“What don’t you know?”

Arthur sighed. He looked at her.

“What is it, Arthur.”

“Just don’t underestimate him,” he said, tucking a stray curl behind her ear. “Okay?”

“I ain’t.” She fawned a little, at his touch. He cleaned up real nice. He smelled good, and he had gone to the barber and got his hair combed, pomaded, trimmed. He still had some scruff on his cheeks. The tux pulled him together in golden ways. She’d never seen a man looking so good in her whole life. He made her feel better, just him being there. “Don’t worry.”

When they got outside, they could finally hear the verve and excitement brewing at the party below. Dutch wasted no time. His anger broke. He became gregarious again, and Mary Beth could see the shifting in his demeanor—could feel it. It was palpable.

“Tacitus!” he said, coming right up to them, shaking Arthur’s hand and then escorting him by the arm right out to Bronte. “It’s about time you got here, my boy.”

“This is who, now?” said Bronte.

Mary Beth hung back, a few steps behind, her head dipped, hiding beneath her avian hat. Dutch cleared his throat. “Signor Bronte, let me introduce you to my associate, Tacitus Kilgore. Whether that’s his real name or an alias, I’ll let you decide.” He laughed like a regular believable schmuck.

“Mr. Kilgore,” said Bronte. “The pleasure is all mine.”

“Oh you have no idea,” said Arthur, bowing, just a little. He could play a very good blowhard when the occasion called for it. “This is quite a…soiree going on here, if I do say so myself.”

“Yes well, the mayor, he is a glutton for popularity. What can I say.”

“Not much, I expect,” said Arthur.

“And who is this…?” said Bronte, eyeballing Mary Beth. “You brought a woman to our proceedings? Very brave indeed.”

She looked up from beneath the wide, blue brim of her hat. Bronte eyed her like a mystery.

Dutch interjected. “This is Mrs. Kilgore, Signor Bronte. Brand new wife of Tacitus here. She could not bear to be away from him. Not even for the night.”

This brought a great deal of joy and surprise to Bronte. “A wife?” said Bronte. “I was not aware that cowboys took wives.”

“They take a lot more than that,” said Mary Beth, batting her eyelashes. “If you catch my drift.”

“And we aren’t cowboys,” said Dutch, strained. “Though it’s a common misconception, we don’t actually herd cattle.”

Bronte was quiet for a moment, but then he exploded with laugher. Dutch did as well. Bronte found this to be hilarious. The whole exchange was like a circus sideshow, thought Mary Beth. Fuckin idiot men. Bronte looked around at his shifty-eyed entourage. “I like this man,” he said. “You like this man?”

They all nodded and laughed conspicuously.

A fastidious servant came around then, with three cigars laid in parallel on a silver platter. Arthur took one, as did Dutch, as did Bronte. Dutch proceeded with his introduction, waving his cigar about, as a prop. “Mrs. Kilgore here,” he said, “is an oil heiress from Galveston, Texas. Isn’t that right, my sweet?”

“Yes, sir,” said Mary Beth.

“Her daddy is an ex-outlaw turned oil tycoon. She is a relatively new addition to our family, joined us only two months ago.” Dutch held out his cigar for the servant, who lit it with prudence. He smoked, looking right at her. “A fine piece of work if you ask me.”

“An oil heiress?” said Bronte. “How…uniquely American.”

“Indeed,” said Arthur. He’d bit the cap straight off his cigar, spat it to the ground. Now the servant lit his, too. “Go on, Marie. Say hi to the nice man.”

Mary Beth smiled. She took a few steps forward, walking in a way that made her big skirt swing from side to side.

Bronte held out his hand. “Madame Kilgore,” he said, bringing her knuckles to his lips. “It is…a pleasure. You are married to the cowboy here?”

“Yes, sir,” she said, demurely.

“Tell me about the…eh…appeal in such dire atrocities.” He laughed.

Mary Beth just smiled. She did not laugh. Instead, she became big with her performance. She liked to use her hands a lot while talking, but this time, she was very composed. She approached him with confidence. She picked up one of his hands in her own. This took him by surprise, but he did not protest. “Well, Mr.—” She looked up at him, feigning confusion. “What was it again?”

Arthur almost choked on the smoke in his own lungs.

Bronte balked. “Eh, Bronte,” he said. “Angelo Bronte.”

“Right, right,” she said. “Mr. Bronte.” She really chewed the r. “You know, in my station,” she continued, focused, “it ain’t hard to come across carefully coiffed men with very soft, small, manicured…hands…and a big old barrel of money, ready to whisk me off my feet!” She studied his hands. “Of course, they’re all a bunch of sissies. When it comes down to it. You know what I mean. They’re afraid of getting dirty, of making a big noise. But a real woman knows that the only way to get her…skirts ruffled…if you will…is to find a man who ain’t afraid of using his hands. Who goes out into the physical world, roughs it up a little, and leaves it different than it was when he got there. Not a sissy, Mr. Bronte, and I’ll tell you money don’t make no man! I mean…a force. You ever seen a real man’s hands?”

Arthur was totally miffed. His cigar was burning but had not been smoked yet. He’d been watching her with relative awe.

“I—uh—” mumbled Bronte, “I suppose I have not.”

Mary Beth turned to Arthur. “Show em, Tacitus.”

He came to, surfacing, shook out his head, realized he was being called upon. He obliged. “My pleasure,” he said. He hitched the stogie to the corner of his mouth, took off one white glove. He held out his right hand. It was like a boulder in comparison to Bronte’s, truly it was. Bronte stood, looking, awkwardly. Then Arthur broke the moment by holding his bare hand out for a hearty shake. Bronte took it, firm at first, but hesitant.

Arthur smiled right at him, lowered his voice to improvise, took the cigar out of his mouth and ashed it directly onto the floor. “Forgive me, Signor Bronte,” he said. “My fair lady Marie is a bit of a firecracker. I can’t even predict her myself.”

Bronte laughed, finally, nervously. “Yes, I can see that, Mr. Kilgore,” he said. “Tell me, where did you say you found her again?”

“Galveston, Texas,” said Arthur, smirking. He withdrew his hand, replaced his glove. “I was robbing a bank. She was there. Came away with a lot more than stacks of cash that day, if you know what I mean.” He laughed. Dutch laughed.

Bronte became nervous, again, with the laughter.

Dutch slowly reentered the conversation then, asserting himself via the smoke from his cigar. Bronte said nothing more. “Well,” said Dutch, looking from Bronte to Arthur to Mary Beth, “now that you’ve made your…impression, Mrs. Kilgore—” He laughed. They all laughed. Except for Bronte, who seemed sweaty. “—Why don’t you and your rough-handed husband head down to the party, mingle a little. I’ll be down soon to…meet you for a drink.”

“Sounds good,” said Arthur, holding out his arm. His voice was warm and deep and it defused the moment all by itself.

Mary Beth took his arm, and then she flipped the fan from her skirts. Very dramatic. “Bye, Mr. Bronte,” she said, smiling. “Don’t forget what I said.”

Arthur patted Mary Beth’s arm and smiled. “Let’s go, darlin.”

“Mmm,” she said.

They left the balcony.

Bronte blinked, several times. He had not yet begun to smoke his cigar. “Who did you say she was again?” he said.

“Marie Kilgore,” said Dutch. “I would give you her maiden name, but in truth, I cannot recall what it was. They didn’t get married in no church, Signor Bronte.”

“I see,” said Bronte, halfway shaken. He leaned out over the balcony rail again, seeming to survey the scene. “An interesting woman.”

“That, she is,” said Dutch, smoking, eyeballing Arthur and Mary Beth who emerged from the long, twisting staircase, stepping into the garden of thieves below. “That, she is.”

When they got downstairs, slipping into the swaths of glamorous humans, Arthur was somewhat speechless. He crossed his arms over his chest. They stopped beneath the cover of a silvery tree.

Mary Beth noticed him staring. “What?” she said, putting away her fan. “Did I do okay?”

“That was very good, Miss Gaskill,” he said.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I can rightly say I didn’t know you had that in you.”

“Didn’t have what?” she said.

“Huge cowboy balls.”

She laughed. She laughed really hard.

“I’m serious,” he said, admiring. “You put that man off balance. I’m very impressed.”

“Well, thank you, Mr. Kilgore,” she said, curtsying. Then she reached into the pocket of her skirt. “I stole his pocket watch, too.”

Arthur’s eyes got big. He grabbed the watch from her hand and looked around, making sure no one saw. “Jesus,” he said.

“It was right there,” she said. “I couldn’t help myself.”

“Mrs. Kilgore, what are we gonna do with you?” A servant walked by with a tray of champagne. When he was looking away, Arthur dropped the watch into the bottom of one of the bubbling flutes.

“Arthur!” she laughed.

“Come on,” he said, hurried, taking her hand. “We must find a way to moderate your addiction to subterfuge. At least for the time being. Champagne perhaps? Or you wanna jump straight to gin.”

“I wonder what the mayor has in his pockets,” said Mary Beth, surveying the party. “Ain’t that him over there? By the fountain.”

Arthur followed after her gaze, squinting against the low, gold light of the garden. The entire affair was full of tasteful ruckus and women wearing huge hats that all looked just like Mary Beth’s, just like birds. “I reckon that is him,” said Arthur.

“That man standing with him looks familiar.”

“Which man?” said Arthur.

“The one with the mutton chops,” she said. “Well, other man with the mutton chops.”

“Familiar how?” He took a drink of his champagne. It was smooth and good and bright.

She studied him for a long time. Arthur watched, could sort of see the gears going on beneath the surface, a slow light emerging. Another servant happened by with another tray of champagne. Arthur took two flutes, one for him and one for Mary Beth. Mary Beth took the flute but did not drink at first. And after a moment, something came together, and she perked up, with wonder.

“It’s Evelyn Miller,” she said, squinting. “That’s right.”

“Evelyn Miller?” said Arthur. “The writer?”

“Yes,” said Mary Beth. “That’s him.”

“No shit,” he said, almost starstruck for a moment. “How do you know what Evelyn Miller looks like?”

“Dutch has read to me from his book—The American Inferno—dozens of times. He’s leant it to me more times than that. It ain’t my cup of tea, but there’s a picture of Evelyn Miller on the last page. That’s him.”

“Damn,” said Arthur. Then he sort of wondered at something. “Mary Beth,” he went on, “is Dutch still sweet on you? I mean I know I seen him hanging around, back at Clemens Point.”

Mary Beth shrugged. “Maybe,” she said, disinterested. “He’s made passes, sure. But trust me, Arthur, it’s nothing unique.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, Dutch’s attention with women is fleeting. Just because he’s got his sights on you one day, that don’t mean it’s gonna last. Just ask Molly.”

Arthur sighed. He knew exactly what she meant, and how it had been true. He had a bad feeling. Molly wasn’t doing so good. He wondered why she continued to stick around, if she could truly love him that much. He looked at Evelyn Miller then, who was in some sort of rueful, serious conversation with the Natives. Then he looked back up to the balcony. Dutch was there, still, alone. Watching. He was looking out over the proceedings from beneath the dark brim of his hat. He didn’t see Arthur looking at him. He was leaning on the rail and thinking deeply, tightly wound with a threatening posture. He seemed to suck all the energy out of the affair and right into himself, an endless magnetic pit. Arthur shook out his head, looked back at Mary Beth. She was warm and beautiful in comparison. She seemed to radiate heat, light, energy. She was the opposite of Dutch in every way.

Arthur was not always the quickest man to the uptake. He was smart, but he didn’t trust himself, and that tended to leave him behind. Still, he knew Dutch had been soft for Mary Beth. It was obvious. She was pretty and book-learned. He imagined that she, of all the women in the camp, would be more skilled at entertaining his philosophies than anyone. Molly, she was smart, too, and she could read and write, but she wasn’t as young and quick to the smile as Mary Beth, and now that Mary Beth was no longer nineteen, Dutch had started catching her scent. Arthur wasn’t sure how to deal with this. He wasn’t even sure if it was true, but he knew that Mary Beth, she was canny, but she didn’t always attribute suspicion where suspicion was due. She was not innocent, but even with her father and her mother and her brother dead, she had been protected from true darkness for a long time—whether it be by pure luck or the benevolence of good people, like the madame in Kansas City who taught her pickpocketing rather than whoring. And like Dutch. His head was spinning heavily now as he began to wonder on a whole new level of uncertainty, and all the different ways he couldn’t trust Dutch no more. It was infinite. And it wasn’t even about Mary Beth—it was about so much more. Arthur wasn’t no boy. He didn’t get jealous or threatened by other men. He just wasn’t sure what was going to happen, and this all made him think about the bigger picture. How Dutch was just…he was always hiding something. There was always something going on, something beneath the surface, and this was such a foreign idea to Arthur. Arthur never had any ulterior motivations or secrets. He was not a duplicitous man. He didn’t know how that worked, so it was hard for him to figure out, even if he knew it was there.

He took another drink of his champagne. He glanced casually back to the balcony, and he was startled to notice that Dutch had shifted his attention and was now looking right at him. Dutch smiled. He gave a salute. Arthur saluted him back, and then Dutch spun on his heels and disappeared inside the mansion. Arthur took a deep breath.

“You reckon you can charm the mayor, Mary Beth?” he said, growing weary of the party all of a sudden. “Insinuate us into his presence a little bit?”

Mary Beth smiled, shrugged. She took a long drink. “I know a lot about Miller,” she said. “It should be enough to get us into the conversation.”

“Good,” said Arthur. He took her hand, kissed it, though it was gloved. They began moving through the crowd together. The night was long, and it was only just beginning.

Meanwhile, back at camp, Abigail stood in the very dark night, by the edge of the swampy river. It glistened. It was like a nightmare. The moonlight was cool and white though the swamp was viscous and gray. She was holding a glass of whiskey, sipping it judiciously, all alone. Jack was asleep, and John was still in St. Denis. Way out in the water, she could see a shadow moving, sleepily. It was something huge—a bullgator, she thought, looking for a meal, or for a female to breed with. At first, she had been afraid, but now she was just mesmerized, wondering if it would swim any closer, if it could smell her or sense her, if it was afraid, angry, or simply curious. She heard footsteps behind her then, and when she glanced over her shoulder, she saw Micah. He was drunk. He didn’t address her. He stumbled to Strauss’s shack, took a piss on a tree stump and then tipped over into the weeds and passed out. Watching, she thought about how easy it would be. To roll him into the water, bait for the shadow in the river, gone for good. But then she looked away. It wasn’t worth it, she thought, drinking her whiskey. There was too much to lose now. And anyway, she wasn’t that kind of girl.

#red dead redemption 2 #rdr2 #arthur morgan #rdr2 fanfiction #mary beth gaskill #mary-beth gaskill #arthur x mary beth #arthur morgan x mary beth gaskill #the lily farm #a funeral #john marston #abigail roberts #dutch van der linde #angelo bronte

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dabookwormcat · 6 years

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Researching The Unknown

Chapter 1, Section 1 - Hey! It’s the beginning!

Summary: When Lena moves to Paris to pursue fashion, she soon realizes that she would be chasing something much more magical…. Aand strangely Lena is wrapped up in investigating something much larger than she could ever imagine.

Notes: This is a Miraculous fan fiction that I am writing in sections, we’ll see how it goes! Slight Au with some deviating from cannon, with OC’s and stuff.

Ships: Ladybug x Chat Noir, Nino x Alya,

Triggers: Nothing really

“Why do you want this job?”

Lena looked up from her portfolio, she had this question memorized. “I want to have a job that allows me to pursue my creative freedoms that will pay off in the long run.”

Mr. Agreste raised his eyebrows. He motioned, “Go on.”

“Most artistic jobs, while creative in their own right, don’t have realistic pay. There is also less of a likelihood of seeing actual results. Fashion shows real results, while still having a large creative side. I’ve also been fascinated with clothing for as long as I can remember. Hopefully this job can teach me the skills I need to be successful. ”

Gabriel considered the statement. “And do you have any sketches of previous projects?”

Ah, yes the stuff he actually wanted to see. Lena was far ahead of him, already pulling them out of a folder full of drawings, printed of course. She had wanted better quality than normal sketches. “Actually, I do. Here’s some of my work.”

Several designs with both french and Latino influences were displayed. To say that he was pleased at the preparation was like saying he disliked social interaction. Both statements were true.

“Very impressive. What program did you use for this?”

And now the less impressive part. Lena internally cringed. “Umm… Microsoft Paint.”

While the interviewer was notably underwhelmed, he was not surprised by the fact. “I see. Let me inform you that we do not use that program here. If you are accepted you will use Adobe Design Suite. Understood?”

“Completely understood .” Like she would actually use Paint to design professional stuff for him. Honestly.

Mr. Agreste was still examining the sketches. “Might I inquire where you got the inspiration for these designs.?”

Lena had not anticipated this question, but she should have. Plagiarism was always a problem, especially in art industries. “Yes, well...um... some of them are inspired by… traditional Mexican fashion.”

The man was clearly confused. “Traditional Mexican fashion? Please explain.”

Right, he was French. “Uh-That one there,” she explained, pointing to one still on the desk, “was based off of Día de Muertos. Umm.. the Day of the Dead! It’s a Mexican holiday. I have some… Mexican relatives.”

Seeing that it slightly impressed him, Lena continued with an ego boost. “Also this was an idea I had after working at a coffee shop. I used warmer browns and blacks to have a welcoming but professional appeal. Oh! -and this is an ocean design, because… well the ocean is fascinating and there isn’t enough fashion that highlights its beauty.. I used a blue/green color palette for the dress for the ocean and sandier yellows for the beach. And-and this one-!” she motioned, for it was her proudest and strongest standing one “-came from French fashion!… after I did some research on it.”

Gabriel put down the designs. “You researched French fashion?”

Oh shoot, she screwed up. “Yes, well, you see, I didn’t want to have trends completely alter my style, but being updated in what is and is not fashionable is important.” She searched for and excuse. Wait, she did remember what particular piece inspired it. “This particular one was actually inspired by a design by you!”

Gabriel was genuinely surprised. “Really?” He straightened his necktie.

Lena had always found it hilarious how quickly people reacted to the mention of themselves. “Yes! Your winter fashion line inspired me in the design of the scarf and heels, as it is an example of subtle fashion. I strive for that.”

The man stood up. “Thank you Lena Flores for your time. We will be expecting you here tomorrow at 4:30 to discuss your hiring further. I hope that you will be able to be suitable for our company.”

Lena was a little surprised very shocked. She stood up as well “Uu-um yes! I do to! I will be there, 4:30 in the evening .”

Mr. Agreste shook her hand. “It was a pleasure meeting you Ms. Flores.”

Lena stayed professional like him. “Thank you for considering me for your business. I hope I can be…” she search for the right thing to say in this situation, “ a part of your… future”

As she left, Lena didn’t know how to think. Usually there was more said at an interview. She didn’t know if this was a bad or a good thing. Well, whatever it was, she couldn’t worry about it know.

“Nathile, take down the post for the internship for hire. I’ve found someone even better than what we were looking for.”

#researching the unkown #fan fiction #OC'S yals #Miraculous Ladybug #Gabriel Agreste #we'll see how this goes #what the spinjistu #work in progress #miraculous #miraculous fanfiction #I'll explain later I swear #LaurenMcdoodles #Hermilton #RtU #AAAAAAHHHHH I CAN'T BELIVE I'M DOING THIS ASDFGHKL #lol #team fic

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lauramkaye · 7 years

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On Research And Fanfiction

When you hear someone talking about research for their fanfic, what do you think of? A historical AU, maybe? Or an AU where the characters are part of a different, very technical profession? It’s true that it’s important to research for those kinds of stories, but I’d like to make a case that making research a part of your normal writing process will lead to better stories.

I’m trying to think if there is any story I’ve written, at least in the last several years, where I didn’t research at least something, and honestly even the very short ones had some element of research to it. For example, for Problem To The Answer, I looked up the original news story that inspired the fic, as well as travel times between New York and DC. In Storage War I looked up information about storage units, not because it was specifically going into the story, but to give me a better mental image of the setting.

Now, when I say “research,” I’m not always talking about the kind of research you’d do for school; a lot of times it’s as simple as a quick Google to check on something. For example, I’m currently working on a story that is set in May 2009. I wanted to include a throwaway line where a character makes a joke about the show Jersey Shore. So I looked it up, but discovered that Jersey Shore started airing in December 2009. So out the line went.

That’s not to say that everything has to be accurate; I change things for artistic reasons all the time. But I only do it on purpose, when I choose to, for things that are important to the fic.

For a longer example, I will take the story I finished most recently, my C/C Exchange fic, A Guy Like You Should Wear A Warning. On the face of it, you wouldn’t think that story would need that much research, right? It’s a soulmate story set on a cruise ship! It’s full of absurdity!

It’s also full of research. I researched the HELL out of that story. How, you ask? (Note: the following list will spoil some plot elements if you haven’t read the story yet). Behind the cut, a description of the stuff I researched while writing it:

Historical setting: whether I like to admit it or not, 2004 was 13 years ago and things were different then. I looked up things like fashion trends, makeup trends, hit songs, and most notably, the state of cell phones. 2004 was the year that the Motorola RAZR was the hot new phone, and smartphones just weren’t a thing yet. Some of this went into the story (for instance, Tyler’s clothing choices, Melinda’s pink lipgloss, that they all have flip or candy bar phones) and some were just to get the setting clear in my head while I wrote. I also consulted calendars for 1992 and 2004 to make sure I got dates and days of the week correct for the sections of the story set then.

Story setting: The story action largely happens on the David Hasselhoff fan cruise. While the actual DH fan cruise occurred in November 2017, I relied extensively on the information available online about it when writing the story. Specifically, I moved it from early November 2017 to early November 2004. I also moved the meet and greet event from an afternoon event to a brunch for plot reasons. Everything else about the trip is accurate: the way that they would have traveled to the cruise from New York (I looked up flights), the way they would have gotten to Rome, the cruise schedule and stops. I also looked up maps and photographs of the cruise ship and referred to them extensively; I spent a lot of time on cruise vacationer forums while writing this story.

Phil’s studies: I looked up various colleges with good reputations in Phil’s field, and the sorts of classes he would take; I looked up actual classes at UMW; I looked up actual cryptography and cipher information. This is all current rather than historical, but I figure it’s close enough for these purposes. The point of the research isn’t to be completely 100% accurate in every respect, but more to make sure that nothing is obviously, jarringly wrong for most readers.

Events on shore: In the part of the story where Phil goes ashore in Rome, he goes to shops that really exist on the road that the story says he is on, and he goes to them in more or less geographic order, according to Google Maps. I also looked up actual products from those stores to describe. Now, these items are current (2017) rather than historical (since it wasn’t easy to find 2004 stuff online), but I still think it helps give these parts of the story verisimilitude. I also looked up the kinds of agriculture done in Catalonia for the big showdown at the end, and the actual area of Catalonia (so that when Phil says “this farm is fifty acres, I doubt that’s even one percent of Catalonia,” he is actually verifiably correct.)

Russian stuff: Since Clint’s soulmark is in Russian and Russian language is key to the story, I spent a lot of time working on the Russian parts of this story. For Clint’s soulmark, I posted a question on an online forum for Russian speakers to help me figure out something that would be appropriate. My first thought was to ask the translation for “Are you fucking kidding me?”, but as I engaged with the Russian speakers, I learned that it just wasn’t that simple. Profanity in Russian is very different than it is in English, and so much depends on the context and relationship between the speakers. The phrase we finally settled on, Еще чего не хватало, is literally translated something like “this is just the last thing I need,” but has a negative and somewhat sarcastic connotation, so that a good idiomatic equivalent in English is “I need this like I need a hole in the head.” For the other Russian, I depended on a really cool website that isn’t a dictionary but a translation search engine called Reverso Context. The great thing about this tool is that, unlike dictionaries, you can search entire sentences and phrases, and get an assortment of translated passages that match, so you can see the various ways the phrase might get used. It means you’ll get a better result than just typing something into Google Translate would give you. I use Reverso Context in combination with dictionaries and Google Translate in order to get the best idea possible of what I’m saying. It doesn’t substitute for a native speaker beta, but it’s a good fallback position. I also did a lot of research into Russian nomenclature and diminutive names, and into Russian profanity (which is SO INTERESTING, look up mat sometimes and read about it.)

David Hasselhoff: I looked up his albums released up to and including 2004. I listened to clips of his music (it is so bad you guys) and watched videos of his concert performances (OMG the LED jacket is really a thing). All the songs and medleys and such that I describe him doing are real things he’s really done. I also looked up his online merch (Melinda’s bedazzled Don’t Hassle The Hoff shirt is real) and watched the video he made promoting the cruise, to get an idea of his speech patterns for the few places when he speaks in the story.

There are a lot of other little miscellaneous things I looked up - how far ahead of getting married in NYC you need to get the license; a real place in South America that had a munitions depot explosion; grain silo explosions and how they happen; the average temperatures on the Mediterranean Sea in November; how much a suit costs at Brioni; the organizational structure of the FBI, etc. Even Barney Barton being in the FBI is rooted in canon - that’s something that Barney really has done in the comics.

This probably all sounds like WAY TOO MUCH WORK, but most of these things didn’t take a huge amount of time - it was more like “oh, wait, they didn’t have smartphones in 04, did they?” and then a quick Google, or scan of a wiki page. I spent my writing time with a lot of open tabs of maps, cruise ship layouts, etc., that I would refer to when I was trying to figure out where the characters were going. Because I have research baked in to my process, it happens mainly when I am outlining, with occasional quick Googles to double-check stuff I throw in when I’m writing.

Would the story be worse if I hadn’t done all this? I think it would. I think the research makes the story feel true, rooted in the real world, and that gives me a lot more latitude to go nuts with things like soulmates and Russian mob bros and throwing David Hasselhoff’s mimosa in someone’s face. Also, hopefully, if I have a reader who happens to know a lot about Russian, or Rome, or majoring in political science, or David Hasselhoff, that reader won’t be thrown out of the story by something obviously wrong. (also, open invitation: if you are reading a fic of mine and see something obviously wrong, I WELCOME THAT KNOWLEDGE and will fix it if I can without having to rewrite major bits of the story.)

I don’t expect everyone to be QUITE as intense about research as I am--I admit I’m pretty darn intense about research. But I would like to encourage other writers to make at least some research part of their process! It leads to better stories all around, and sometimes the things you find out help you make your stories better in cool new directions.

#fanfic #the art of fanfic #my writing process #writing tools #writing advice

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alesio3jphln · 4 years

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Can be your girl a makeup hoarder?

Are you planning to visit your mall that is nearest to get a unique gift for the ladies in your lifetime? There are multiple boring gifts on the market but if you are searching for a gift that is unique is the right place to get started. From the comfort of tech gadgets to trendy perfume, we now have covered everything her life easier that she will like and things that can make. These gift that is smart work great around the year and that can be gifted on most occasions. Let’s honour the special ladies in your lifetime with your stylish gifts. You can gift a smart speaker to the tech lovers in your life. The smaller Amazon speakers that are smart more attractive than originals and appear in the budget. You are able to ask Alexa to relax and play music, multiple questions, make phone calls and play games. In every, this smart device can help your spouse control all of the basic actions. The best benefit is it’s not that hard to utilize and comes at a reasonable price. Does your girlfriend always go out of battery? Here is the best possiblity to gift her a charging card that may easily fit inside her wallet. The size of the card that is charging somewhere around three debit cards stacked. The part that is best is that there are multiple colours to select from and certainly will charge up to 50% associated with battery. Some girls carry the house that is entire their bag. What better thing to gift them the tote that is famous of the season? Not just will she love carrying the trendy bag but can stuff exactly what she needs in this bag easily. You can have fun with colours and gift her a thing that is her wardrobe staple colour. This is certainly a "must buy" beauty product for the style enthusiast. When your women love getting dressed and applying makeup you'll be able to gift her a collection of makeup brushes and she's going to be likely to love testing out the brushes to create the newest trends. Is the girl a makeup hoarder? Has she made beauty that is recent? Does she love adding new beauty that is trendy to the makeup collection? You can buy her a cosmetic organizer that can make her makeup storage neat. This will be a great product for travelling purposes. This cheap gift for women is a lifesaver for girls who finds it difficult to stay organized. Let her eyes do the talking when time that is next gets ready for any occasion. 3D Mink Lashes is the gift that is perfect her to bring game-changer makeup product in her vanity. Which women do not like a good couple of glam sunnies?

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VxPLORE TECHNOLOGIES - the experience of ecommerce is pace that is fast catching the companies which can be trying to keep carefully the sales alive believe on the method. No one would have dreamt about the process to happen before some years. But, it is the miracle of technology that the game is happening. The positive thing is that both small as well as large sized companies are turning to this method. You must also turn to this process if you have been looking for a better sale. In making it happen you can count on the internet site creation platforms and produce a good Website for the company. Amongst all the platforms, the one referred to as Bigcommerce is becoming the trend. Bigcommerce customization might sound easier, but, the very best results are acquired once the experts are engaged because of it. In this article we would talk regarding the Bigcommerce customization process in more details so we would also highlight some bits about the activity of ecommerce. Ecommerce can also be known as the electronic commerce. This is actually the process that is commercial happens with the aid of internet. Also, it relates to the entire process of purchasing as well as selling the stuff with the aid of internet mechanism. Beneath the group of stuff are included goods, services and both. The development of internet has only result in the electronic commerce. Why do people prefer the way that is commercial? Humans search for the least way that is tedious perform a job. The thing that is good the ecommerce is the fact that it can help in purchasing and selling with ease. Even the simple process of book purchase happens easily along with it. Imagine, that you don't need certainly to travel kilometers for purchasing your preferred book. The process can not only make reading a far more pleasure activity, but would also provoke you to again visit the place to do the book purchase. How does Webstore help in ecommerce? Webstore helps in the easy activity that is e-commercial allowing the sellers make an excellent quality Website. A Website could be the primary need for starting the online process of selling. A Webstore that is popular for the process is bigcommerce. Individuals are looking at professionals for performing bigcommerce customization as with them the very best in market customization could be done. Bigcommerce is the most popular of the many ecommerce platforms. It is because you can find in-built templates within it. These templates allow easy modification associated with store features and makes selling a pleasurable activity. Also, there is present within it the feature of security. As a result of feature of security the activity of buying and selling is now more popular using them. So, have the Bigcommerce customization done along with the good quality professionals. It's important to keep a keen eye on the trends, your company requirements, costs and even more. As a result the business would certainly bear profit through Bigcommerce. So, wait you can forget and acquire in touch with experts for making use of Bigcommerce for the organization.

Monday's Senate decision drew concern and shock over the nation from smaller businesses who sell online, and rightfully so. The Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA) would grant states the authority to compel retailers that are online no matter where they truly are located, to collect sales tax during the time of a transaction. Today, online sellers are just necessary to charge sales tax in states where they will have a office that is physical warehouse. The MFA, backed by President Obama, is purportedly targeted at leveling the playing field between brick-and-mortar stores and the ones who don't have a presence that is physical. Of course, you don't have to look way too hard to see that is the beneficiary that is real of proposed legislation. Just consider the ongoing companies throwing their weight behind it -- Amazon, Walmart, Target. All of them have major selling that is online, and all sorts of of those are able to afford to cope with the added costs and hassles that come with paying taxes in most state by which they sell. Of course, Amazon is ostensibly the target with this legislation. The idea is the fact that forcing them to cover taxes means they no more have the advantage that is tax-free brick-and-mortar stores. To be honest, not tax that is charging orders is no longer a genuine advantage for Amazon -- and additionally they know it. A couple of years ago, Amazon would have fought this bill with everything they have, just them to pay sales tax as they did all other attempts to force. More recently, they've realized that convenience is a much bigger advantage to capitalize on. Manufacturing that convenience meant building more warehouses atlanta divorce attorneys state, which often meant they had taxable nexuses. Amazon was already headed down this road. The irony is, needless to say, that Amazon built their business on having lower prices with no tax. Yet again they will have scaled to your point where it no longer matters, they could bring their lobbying might to bear on the side of Internet taxes and cripple their smaller competitors who can not afford to keep up with compliance. And it could be crippling. Most small company selling online simply don't possess enough time or money to accomplish the paperwork essential to file taxation statements in 45 additional states -- and keep in mind that they'd want to do so monthly. While Amazon are able to afford to throw entire teams of people during the problem, an online store run out of a home with only some employees (if that) can't make it work well. Many businesses operate at margins of only 10-20 percent, so their actual income and capability to cover these incremental operating costs are comparatively low. And that is who we're referring to, here.

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vsplusonline · 4 years

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As the great reopening gets underway starting Monday, how will the consumption story pan out?

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As the great reopening gets underway starting Monday, how will the consumption story pan out?

After a long hunkering down, the economic engine will start whirring again from Monday, as India relaxes lockdown restrictions in a graded fashion. Those who have stayed mostly indoors for more than a month to prevent the spread of a deadly virus will start stepping out, to produce and to consume, pushing the twin levers of the economy.

It will begin gingerly at first, and then depending on how the virus and associated restrictions move, activity will expand, and, hopefully, things will be back to full steam eventually. On the consumption front, demand will likely spike in certain categories and we might even witness some amount of “relief ” or “revenge” consumption among the higher economic strata as a reaction to having been denied access to retail therapy.

As affluent households have had to come to terms with patchy access to help for domestic chores, product categories such as dishwashers and vacuum cleaners might witness a surge in sales. Delhi-based Pooja Mittal, who works with a law firm, plans to buy a dishwasher and other gear that can help automate the kitchen. “A machine-driven mop will be a good idea,” she says. Such a mop doesn’t exist, but could well become a fit category for R&D in a post-Covid-19 world.

Mittal adds, “I have a better appreciation now of what a maid goes through -so a dishwasher makes eminent sense.”

Even as kitchen-related consumption will doubtless kick into high gear, equipment to enable working from home — computers, printers, accessories and peripherals — will likely see a surge, too. In north India, where summer is fast approaching, sales, servicing and repairs of air conditioners will see a boost. Same will be the case with water purifiers, as the lockdown experience would have woken up many households to the perils of relying on the supply of bottled water. For many, replenishing the home bar will be a priority. Personal grooming kits will see a spike in demand as salons remain out of reach but people have to look their best on conference calls nonetheless.

“This is the first-of-its kind supply challenge for consumers. Hygiene, health & wellness and staples will continue their upward trajectory in buyers list, while there will be a surge in demand for ice cream, alcohol, home computing and white goods,” says Anurag Mathur, partner & leader, retail & consumer, PwC India.

Urban Company (previously Urban Clap) claims 8-10 million job orders are pending for all kinds of repairs. It is training staff to do things like “contact-less air con service”. March to June sees 45% of annual sales of ceiling fans, and 7% sales of all coolers. Ravindra Singh Negi, president, electrical consumer durables, Havells India, says: “Replacement sales will happen while upgrades will be postponed.”

He also sees a spike in demand for trimmers, hair dryers and shavers, as people will continue to avoid salons for a while. These comprise 60% of the Rs 1,300 crore grooming business. “DIY products like hair colour, grooming and shaving products will see increase in demand,” says Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India.

With no past reference available to judge how consumer behaviour will shape up after a pandemic-induced lockdown, marketers and analysts expect to see a cautious customer who wants to stock up to be able to work from home but also conserve cash. Nikhil Prasad Ojha, partner, Bain & Company, points out that consumer behaviour will change with emphasis on comfort with social distancing and rebuilding the kitty. People will buy more from neighborhood stores and online and less from malls and large stores.

“Definition of essential will change. We could definitely see a spike in penetration of categories that will make working from home easier — tablets, vacuum cleaners, easy to use mops, etc. Products that promise to boost immunity will also see a spike,” adds Ojha.

Spending with an eye on the wallet could translate into people buying the more affordable stuff and even going for a brand or a price point a notch below their regular pre-Covid shopping list. Millions of professionals went into the lockdown with barely a few hours of notice. And suddenly found themselves working from home, studying from home and doing household chores alongside. This experience will likely drive home the importance of bolstering the work arrangement people have at home.

Rahul Agarwal, CEO & MD, Lenovo India, says: “Computer as a product will be more relevant. Computers will move up the pecking order of things that people buy for home. Education as a reason to buy devices will also become important.”

Analyst firm IDC sees an uptick of at least 30% in sale of laptops and tablets with printers also seeing a 8-10% increase in sales from the pre-lockdown period. There could also be bundled offers of laptops and printers. On the other hand, mobile phone analyst Counterpoint Research sees a fall in demand for entry level and sub-Rs 5,000 devices as this category will hold on to cash fearing job losses. However, the midrange smartphones that enable OTT content consumption, edutech and gaming, will pick up even as closer to year-end festive season sales see a bigger spike.

Anil Goteti, senior vice-president, Flipkart, says: “We expect a potential demand surge after the easing of the lockdown. This surge is likely to be pronounced in the consumer electronics category.” Walmart owned Flipkart claims a reach of 200 million consumers in India and expects a potential demand surge after easing of the lockdown.

This surge is likely in categories such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops and other work-from-home enablers. Flipkart has noticed people in lockdown searching for masks, sanitisers, home appliances, personal grooming products and even shoes.

For white goods, beginning of the summer is the start of the season for refrigerators and airconditioners, with April alone contributing 12% of the total sales of the latter, according to Manish Sharma, president & CEO, Panasonic India and South Asia.

When India went into the lockdown, many regions transitioned from winter/spring to summer. “Buyers won’t come out like in the past. Expect more online sales even as vacuum cleaners and dishwashers find a lot of traction,” Sharma says.

Even data consumption could see a change in usage. Director general of Cellular Operators Association of India Rajan S Mathews says there was a 20% surge in demand for data during the lockdown. After that period ends, he expects some traffic to shift from homes to offices.

The lockdown has seen people exhausting their stock of liquor, cigarettes and other sin goods. Reports of a black market in alcohol and cigarettes taking root, with inflated prices, have surfaced in the cities. While people are generally more conscious of health now, Roshini Sanah Jaiswal, chief restructuring officer at Jagatjit Industries, expects a 20-25% surge in liquor sales when the lockdown lifts. About 360 million cases of liquor are sold every year (12 bottles of 750 ml comprise a case). With no sales in April, there is already a pent-up demand for 30 million cases.

“When you take something away, there will be panic buying. We see a surge in demand and people might buy more fearing another lockdown,” says Jaiswal. On reports of illicit trade during lockdown, she says: “Every state government is dependent on excise revenue from liquor. This revenue can create greater good. In fact, liquor shops should be allowed to open even in a lockdown to discourage any illegal trade.”

While lifting lockdown will allow consumers to re-stock the bar, they are likely to go for cheaper options to conserve cash. “Last few years the trend was shifting to premium brands, now buyers will be fine with one notch lower,” adds Jaiswal.

While more people will spend to consume at home and even hoard spirits, overall sales will be hit as bars and restaurants remain shut. Besides, the lack of weddings, conferences and banquets will mean lower sales.

Even as consumers spend with an eye on the wallet, they might see jewellery as both a safe haven and an investment. Omnichannel jewellery retailer CaratLane claims a 100% increase in time spent by shoppers on its site. Atul Sinha, senior vice-president, retail, CaratLane, says: “Value might take a few weeks to regain with the same kind of intensity as pre-Covid, but the intent to purchase is up 1.5X.”

A close watch on the budget might translate into greater action in the market for used goods.

Classifieds platform OLX has seen a surge in interest for consumer electronics (particularly smartphones) and pre-owned cars. “We have seen maximum interest emerge across the categories of white goods (appliances and electronics), consumer electronics such as smartphones and preowned cars for personal transport,” said Tarun Sinha, head of OLX People.

With the markets gradually emerging out of the lockdown starting Monday, we will start witnessing these trends play out.

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petri808 · 7 years

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Picture Perfect

In the world of Japanese fashion, Cana Alberona is an up and coming designer mixing different elements in the Visual and Oshare Kei genre’s along with an old meets new way of thinking. Her clothing line, FairyTail, gravitates towards punk yet with a lighter flare to reach a larger demographic. March’s Fashion Week in Tokyo has arrived and it will be the first time she will debut her men’s line to the world.

With the help of her assistant Levy McGarden, she walks into the large arena on the second day of the week. It’s early but already bustling with activity. Women and Men moving about between different stations, hair, make up, clothes, fittings, alterations; it’s a mad house to say the least. Cana checks on her best friend and lead model, Lucy Heartfillia.

“How’s it going Lu?”

“I don’t know how you come up with some of this stuff Cana.” She winces as the dresser pulls the corset as tight as it will go.

“But you look gorgeous as ever my dear.”

“No pain, no gain in this industry, breathing optional!” the blonde laughs. “At least now we’ve got some eye candy at your shows.” She nods her head towards the men’s section.

“See something you like?”

“I recognize a few of them from magazines or other shows.”

A red headed and blue haired model walk up already in their outfits. “Erza Scarlet, you fit so well into my line with that crimson hair of yours, same with you Juvia. That’s why I love using you guys as models, those colors against the black motif just pops!”

“Cana, I swear couldn’t this season’s stuff be a little more on the girly side, sometimes it’s not a bad thing you know.”

“Juvia agrees with Erza, Juvia wishes to show off cuter outfits.”

“Leave the designing to me, girls, and you worry about making it look good. This is what’s on trend right now with the younger gens.”

“And we look damn hot in these!” adds Lucy. “Anyways girl, so what’s the line up?”

“Ooh, you’re gonna love it. See those guys over there?” Cana points in the male’s direction. “You’ll be paired up with one of ‘um.”

“Seriously!” the three girls all squeal.

“Yup!” she grins. “Just you three since you’re my top girls. The rest of the models will be singles. So… you guys wanna meet them?”

“Duh! We should get to know them…” Lucy blushes, “I mean so we’re comfortable walking with them.”

Cana smirks, “Sure Lu. Levy could you make the introductions? I gotta go check on the other models.”

“Yeah, no problem. This way you guys.”

Lucy- “So who are we gonna be paired with?”

“I’ll tell you when we get there.” Levy leads them to the other side of the dressing area where they see three already dressed and goofing around. “Ahem!” Levy clears her throat gaining their attention. “Boy’s it’s time to meet your partners.” As she turns to look back at the girls she can immediately see pink blushes on each of their cheeks, especially on the blonde whose cheeks were the deepest rouge. She smirks knowing Lucy recognizes him, “Natsu,” she drags the blonde over to the pink haired young man grinning at her, “you are being paired with Lucy.” Levy turns to the next guy, “Gray, you are with Juvia,” pulling the blushing girl over to his side. “And Jellal, you’re with Erza.” Levy is not surprised when the red head walks right over to him. “We’ve still got about an hour before the show starts so I suggest you take this time to figure out your partner walks and poses. I’ll be back in time to get you.”

“Oi?” As Levy turns to walk away, Gray pipes up. “Where are we in the line up?”

“Oh, um,” she flips a page on her clipboard. “Jellal and Erza will open the show. You and Juvia will be in the middle. And Lucy,” she looks back up, “you and Natsu will close since you’re wearing the finale pieces.” Each of the pairs nod as she states their positions then walk back to the guys individual stations.

At Natsu’s station, he plops down in one of the provided chairs and looks back up to the nervous girl in front of him. With his eyes flashing and a big ear to ear smile, “So Luce, have you ever done a partner walk before?”

“Excuse me, but my name is Lucy.” She blushes. “I’ve done partner poses for a couple of magazines before but never on a runway.”

He puts his hands behind his head, interlacing his fingers, “Yeah me neither. Actually, I’ve never done a runway show before.”

“Wait what?” Lucy’s jaw drops. “If you’re a newbie, how’d you end up as a closer? That’s usually for the more seasoned models.”

He shrugs his shoulders, “Cana saw me at a mall and said I’d be perfect for her designs and the model she had planned to close the show. I didn’t know what she meant but thought this could be fun. I’ve seen Gray do this a few times and thought well if pervy popsicle can do it why can’t I.”

“Pervy popsicle?”

“It’s one of the names I call Gray cause he often strips. Come to think of it, this is the first runway he’s done that wasn’t showing off underwear.” Natsu smirks. “Anyways, he calls me stuff too.”

“Like what?”

“His favorite seems to be flame brain.”

“So, Cana thought you’d be a good match for me… I mean for the run way that is.” Her face flushes at her wrong choice of words. “To walk with on the runway that is.”

He shrugs, “That’s what she said.” Grinning, “But I can see why…”

“W-what that supposed to me?”

“Come closer…” he motions with his finger. “And I’ll tell you…”

She takes a step forward, “is it a secret?”

Motioning again, “A little closer…” Lucy steps within his reach.

“Hey!” she squeaks out as Natsu pulls her down on his lap facing away from him. Keeping his arms around her waist to keep her from getting up he leans his head against hers.

“Look forward.”

“Why!”

“Just look forward girlie.”

“And I’m looking at…” she sees their reflection in a mirror, and her breath hitches a moment, ‘that damn grin…’ she melts just a little. It had been several years but her memory of that grin pops back in her mind. The first day she walked into that classroom… She was the new girl, shy, and this was before she wore contacts. Searching for an empty seat, she sees one and asks the person behind it if anyone was sitting there. The pink haired young man grinned and told her it was open before going back to the conversation he was having with Cana. She later became best friends with Cana and Levy and the two girls knew about the crush she developed on that young man. They had tried talking her into approaching him… He was single and handsome, but back then she was just too, damn, shy…

“We make a perfect looking couple… that’s why…” Startled out of her daydream, she notices that he’s staring so intently back at her making her heart skip.

But she keeps her composure. “Oh geez,” Lucy rolls her eyes and pushes herself off his lap. “Look Natsu, we need to practice so we don’t mess up on the runway and since you said you’ve never done this before I wanna see how you walk.”

“You’re such a worrier Luce,” he gets off his chair. “I got this.” He saunters a few steps, stops, poses, turns and saunters back to her, where he stops again and poses all the while holding a confident smile on his face.

Lucy chuckles, “Could be worse I guess.”

Natsu’s jaw drops, “Are you serious, that was awesome.”

She cocks her hip and shakes her head, “No, this is what awesome looks like.” Caressing his cheek, “Watch and learn little boy...” Lucy struts forward, step, after step swinging her hips in slightly exaggerated movements to make the skirt bounce from side to side. When she stops to pose, she shifts her hip to one side, and then cocks it to the other with her hands resting on her waist. One final slight arch of her back and she turns around walking back in the same manner. When she reaches Natsu she stops and keeping her feet planted about a foot and a half apart, twists her body at the waist to give the audience a side glance, winks, then walks away as if she were leaving the stage.

About half way down her walk, Natsu’s mouth had dropped open, ‘Damn!’ By the time she had finished her walk he was almost drooling. ‘This fucking girl is so hot!’ He sits back down. “You win, hands down.”

Lucy giggles, “Don’t sound so defeated, you need to keep up with me for it to look good out there. Come on…” she pulls him off the chair. “The way Cana’s got this show set up is the catwalk will the run the length of the audience. The males are coming out from one end and the girls the other so the regular models are just walking without stopping but the three pairs are supposed to meet in the middle and pose together before continuing on their way.” She taps her chin. “As the closers of the show our pose need to be show stopping.”

He shrugs, “Got any ideas? You’re the veteran here.”

“Hmm… Close your eyes…”

“Why?”

“Just close your eyes.”

He does, “Okay, now what?”

“Picture you’re taking a stroll along a path somewhere, like in a park or something and all of a sudden, the most beautiful girl you’ve ever seen is walking towards you…”

“Uh-huh…” ‘That’s easy’ as his imagination takes hold and in his mind, he pictures Lucy… He grins…

“You slow down, taking in the way her body is moving, how hair hair is flowing behind her, and as she gets close enough to touch… Er, that’s the point where, I’m not sure what we should do. Should we stop and create a sexual tension for just a moment before moving on, keep moving but just watch the other walk by, reach out and just let our fingers trail against the others…”

He blushes, “I-I’m leaning towards the, um first option.”

“Yeah, that would probably be more interesting to see.”

‘Damn she agreed?!’ “So, should we practice that move?”

“Nah, it might be better to be spontaneous.”

“Oh.” He pouts internally. “Okay, yeah, why not…”

“You know, I better go check in with Cana and let her know our idea.”

“and I’ll go see what Gray’s up to…” he turns to walk off

“Hey um Natsu?”

“Yeah?” Stopping to look back at her.

“You don’t, remember me… do you?”

He stares at her surprised, “Why, have we met before… I think I’d remember you.”

‘I guess he really doesn’t…’ she sighs, “Never mind… it’s not important.” She walks away with her shoulders slumped a little.

‘What I say?!’ He watches her walk away. ‘Have I met her before?!’ Heading over to find Gray. ‘How could I forget someone as beautiful as her?’

Natsu finds Gray and Juvia talking at her station while the hairdresser finishes her up, “Hey popsicle!”

“What do you want flame head? Why aren’t you with Lucy?”

“She wanted to talk to Cana… Hey she asked me if I remember her. I don’t, but do you?”

Gray shakes his head, “Only seen her photo in magazines and stuff.”

At that moment, Levy walks by and Natsu stops her, “Hey Levy can I ask you something?”

She looks at her watch, “Yeah but make it quick.”

“Lucy asked me if I remember her, but I don’t. Any idea why she thinks I might have?”

‘So, he doesn’t remember her…’ “Why didn’t you ask her that yourself, Natsu?”

His shoulders slump, “I did ask but she told me never mind and sounded sad when she said it. What am I missing here?”

“Maybe you’ve got a bad memory cause you don’t remember me either.” Sigh, “But I’ll give you a hint. Magnolia High, your senior year, English class.”

“Huh?”

“Think about who was in that class with you.” She chuckles and walks away.

Natsu sits down on a chair and runs his hand over his face, “Argh! English class? Half the time I wasn’t even paying attention cause I hated that subject.” He turns to his friend, “Do you remember seeing her in that class?”

“Idiot, I had English a different period than you.”

“Juvia thinks you can narrow it down, how many in your class could have been blonde females.”

“Well…” Natsu closes his eyes and tries to remember. “There was um, Yukino, well she was more a platinum blonde… Jenny… Wait…” he opens his eyes. “There was quiet blonde who sat, I think, two seats in front of me, but she wore glasses and rarely talked in class.”

“Oh, I remember her,” Gray pipes in, “she transferred in our senior year. Loke hit on her a few times. I think she was like a year younger than us but had skipped a grade or something. I had her in my art class. Yeah… she was kind of the nerdy type. How could it be her? That girl was like so different than Lucy.”

“I think I remember her, if it’s the same person. One of the few times she spoke was to read a poem that I guess she really liked. I can’t remember the name of it...” Natsu stands up, “I um, I gotta check on something.” He looks at his watch, “Damn we gotta line up in a few minutes. Hey, I’ll see you guys out there!” and rushes off.

“I think he’s taken a liking to Lucy.” Gray chuckles.

“Juvia thinks Cana matched all of us up perfectly.” She blushes

“Cana!?” Natsu waves down the designer. “Can I ask you something?”

“Make it quick, you need to go line up already!”

“I know, I know. You’ve know Lucy since high school, right?”

“Yeah… and I was in your English class too.”

“You I remember. Anyways, she read a poem in class, it was kinda short, maybe about love, I think it was a favorite of hers…”

“Invisible.”

“Do you know how it goes?”

“Hell no, poetry was her thing not mine but she published it on um, Wattpad. Look her up, StarQueen17. Now get going and line up!”

“Okay thanks!” he hurries to his place. Along the way he pulls out his phone and starts searching.

As he waits his turn in the lineup, Natsu commits the short poem to memory. ‘I’ll give her a show stopper.’ He grins to himself.

The moment has arrived as Natsu steps onto the catwalk. At the other end, he sees her take her first pose, he counters and begins the journey towards her. ‘Walk in the park…’ he chants in his head, ‘Just be smooth… confident…’ midway he slows his steps, as his heartrate increases. ‘Fuck she is beautiful!’ He can’t help but stare at Lucy as she sashays forward, slowing her own gait to meet him.

He reaches out and slowly pulls her body against his as she runs her hands up his chest. With one arm around her waist, Natsu tilts her chin up… and lowers his face as they gaze into each other’s eyes; lips just a couple inches apart... A buzz of murmurs and whispers resound around them but the pair seem lost to it all… when he whispers, “A glance, a smile and my heart skips a beat. But then you look away, and I become invisible once more. Just another face in the crowd; the popular guy to the shy little girl. I wish you’d see me…”

Lucy gasps, “H-how’d you?”

“I remember…” he leans in, closing the final gap and softly kisses her lips. No longer just whispers but out right gasps, clapping, and shouts ring out as he tightens his embrace and she grips to his neck. When he pulls back, he runs the back of his hand lightly along her cheek. “You wrote that for me, didn’t you?”

“No, I…” he raises an eyebrow. “Okay, yes…” she stammers and looks around at the hushed room. “But this is not the time and place to…”

“You said show stopper…” he grins, “…just go with it…” before picking her up bridal style. After a sigh, she weaves her arms around his neck smiling up at him to play the part of love at first sight and he walks off the catwalk to more cheers.

As soon as they are back stage, he puts Lucy down but doesn’t relinquish the hold he has around her waist. “Natsu! What were you thinking? This is a runway show, not the dating game!”

“The crowd seemed to love it, and you said you wanted something big…”

“Yeah, I did but…”

Cana walks up. “Wrap it up later you two, we need to finish the show first! Come on,” she grabs their hands and puts them together. “Just walk out like a normal couple in front of me.” And pushes them forward to line up behind the rest of the models. “By the way. That was a creative closing pose to say the least.” She grins.

As everyone starts moving forward, “Sorry Cana, I hope…” Lucy starts to apologize before being cut off.

“Lu, the audience loved it and that’s all that matters.” she winks at her friend. “You can thank me later, now…” Pushing them onto the walk amid the hundreds of flashes going off, “…smile for the cameras!”

When the trio reach the end of the cat walk, Cana instigates and escalates the situation. Clapping and chanting, “Kiss!” followed and egged on by their friends, the other models, and the crowd. “Kiss!” “Kiss!” “Kiss!”

“Well Luce…” Natsu grins and squeezes her hand. She pauses for a second as a rush of old emotions come flooding back to her. But before he can do anything, this time it’s Lucy who makes the first move. She leaps into his arms, wrapping them around his neck. He embraces her, holding her up as they kiss for the second time on that stage.

The crowd stands up screaming and clapping, the roar of excitement around them becomes deafening. When the kiss ends he lets her slide down so her feet are back on the floor. With tears trickling down her face, he wipes them away with his thumb, caressing her cheek in the process. Natsu smiles sweetly at this beautiful blonde just melting in his arms. “I’m sorry you had to wait so long Luce…”

“It’s okay…” she stifles a sniffle and smile back. Cana is smirking at them. As their friend’s crowd around them, she places her hands one on each of their shoulders. “Did you plan this? Lucy asks her best friend.

Feigning innocence, “Uh! I don’t know what you’re talking about…”

“Spill it girl! You knew about my crush…”

“Okay fine, so after I ran into him and Gray one day I figured this show would be a perfect opportunity…”

Lucy lets go of Natsu and hugs her friend, “Thank you.”

Cana hugs her back, “You are very welcome.” After letting her go and Natsu grabs Lucy again around the waist kissing her. “You two just gave me a new closing idea for the next show…” Cana smirks at the end of the kiss. “How about a runway wedding?”

#nalufluffweek2017 #day4:fashion #reblog #nalu #nalu fanfiction

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umang5-blog · 5 years

Text

Top 10 Social Bookmarking Websites for 2019

1. HappyShappy

Launched in 2016, HappyShappy is the answer to those who’ve always looked for an Indian social commerce platform. Available as a website as well as a Mobile app, HappyShappy presents its users with a vast array of ideas, inspirations and trends for fashion, celebration, food, travel, gifts and much more. What sets this platform apart is that it perfectly captures the ‘idea-sharing’ essence of Pinterest (or even Juxtapost for that matter) and takes it one step further. More than merely creating collections (named Dreamboards) of pins or collaborating on one such board, a user can use the “I Want It” feature and buy an item he or she likes.

2. Twitter

Let’s begin with the large one (and one people might not connect with social bookmarking too much). Twitter is an excellent tool for this and you can achieve it in a couple of ways. First, simply posting links, images, and content with your account means you’ll have technically bookmarked them. You could then go back via your account to find things again.

3. Pinterest

Pinterest goes for the “show, don’t tell” proceed towards to marketing, and with 70 million users, it has been very successful.Most of its users (80 percent) are women and 42 percent of US women online have an account.

4. StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon is one of the large social bookmarking sites. When you bookmark something you can add extra details to is, for example what type of content it is and its subject.

5. Dribbble

Dribble is an outstanding bookmarking site aimed at designers. Not only is this a great place for inspiration, it’s a great place to get traffic to your site if you’re a designer, or have a design team.

6. Pocket

Pocket is a really nicely designed social bookmarking site. It comes with an app to Pocket stuff as you go, saving you returning to the site all the time. You can also search by interest to find interesting things.

7. Digg

Digg has changed a lot over the years. Previously it was more like Reddit where the front page was curated through the users of the site. Now, this is done by editors, but it retains its bookmarking function.

Digg can be a great place to find new content and organise it through your profile. Be careful, it can get quite addictive though.

8. Reddit

Reddit is the so-called ‘front page of the internet’. Users submit links to stories, images or videos that they discover interesting and other Reddit users can either upvote or downvote these submissions.

9. We Heart It

We Heart It is a bit more specific. It mostly sticks to visuals – including images, GIFs and videos – alone and also acts as a social network too. But it now allows you to submit articles in a similar way to Medium. We Heart It positions themselves as a place to find inspiration.

10. Scoop.it

Scoop.it caters to professionals, business and non-profits, and corporations. The site has well over 1 million registered users so while not the biggest site on this list, it’s still got a substantial audience. Select from a free or one of the paid plans, depending on how many topics you want to post about.

For more top 100 Social Bookmarking websites in India Find below:

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36 http://bookmarkbay.com

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39 http://bookmarkgroups.com

40 http://bookmarkin.com

41 http://bookmarkindonesia.com

42 http://bookmarkingbase.com/

43 http://bookmarkinghost.info

44 http://bookmarkmaps.com

45 http://bookmarks2u.com

46 http://bookmarkwiki.com

47 http://bookurlinks.xyz/

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Source: https://tinyurl.com/yx938rbn

#happyshappy #pinterest #we heart it #stumbleupon #twitter #reddit #scoop.it #digg #pocket #dribbble

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bitchistryingtowrite · 6 years

Text

Day 1

Idk who came up with this challenge so sorry tumbl dot com.

Five problems with social media.

This is such a boring way to start a writing challenge! I’m considering to stop after day one, thanks.

Everything has problems especially if it involves social media. A beloved topic that was not discussed before by every single spiritual coach on every single social media. Social media is evil! Send tweet.

I find this challenge boring so I’d like to just list the problems but then again it is a challenge so I am challenged now.

Social media is evil. It can kill you, it is basically you asking for death. We share our opinions on recent worldwide news, fashion trends, on Netflix adding Evangelion to its anime list in 2019. As we do so we share bits of who we are, those bits don’t guarantee to be placed together in the right order to present who we really are but they still form a personality of someone with our face attached to it. And we can be found, and doxxed, and God knows what else, so what’s online can easily become offline. This is why many of us are told to be careful with sharing information online but even if we don’t share too much the image of us is still formed in someone else’s mind. Someone might romanticize this image and obsess over us, find our address, come and wait outside, steal us and then kill us! Social media is a garden of stalkers, our profiles are their soil and we are their watering can. We are just one watering can because in this case we are all in this together. We never know if Garrett who wrote a comment under the Rolling Stones’ latest music video on YouTube being “pretty good stuff” is my mate Garrett, a nice guy, also he studies film and you should follow him on Instagram, we go to the bar quite a lot, he’s my pal or a stalker. ? We never know just like in real life but it is so much easier online to become anything, to hide, and to thrive. But to be honest there’s no way he could be it…he’s a bit awkward and I have actually never spoke to him for more than a minute but he’s a good guy, he posts selfies every Thursday and Saturday just like anyone else, and he posts storytime videos on his YouTube channel every week or so. He is so open, I never really spoke to him for more than a minute but I swear I know him well enough, I know him more than I know my sister’s husband with whom I spent the last six Christmases and my sister’s birthdays. Not that he’s a blogger or something but I think he kind of is, like an influencer wanna be. I don’t know but his Instagram changed quite a lot lately. Like he’d post those selfies like I could tell you took a selfie yourself on your Samsung Galaxy android front camera mate but now his selfies are way better, after all he’s a film student so he’s basically a photographer. I guess he was motivated by no likes, like I’d like his pictures just because I kind of know him but people who never met him wouldn’t like any of his pictures, 40 likes is nothing and now he gets them 600 likes, not bad for someone with a shitty Samsung Galaxy android camera mate. I wish we could be closer friends, he’s a cool guy but every time I try to talk to him after the class he kind of attempts to run away trying to play it cool but he just stands there like a stone with his big ass bakenbards…Man never have I ever noticed how big are those in real life but they are so big, he looks just like a modern day Elvis on his Insta pics but in real life he just looks like a twat who wants to look like something he is not. But he’s more open than he used to be. Like on his latest YouTube video he tells this story of how his friend got drunk and jumped into the lake on his birthday and Garrett jumped there with him, and it was in January. You should watch it. He’s an absolute madman, maaan. Dude. Can I go now? We actually don’t know if Garrett is a stalker but he could be one. We will never know unless he does something wrong and gets noticed by someone, and then if he does mess up and someone notices it people will find out and he does not want it, he would be careful with such a thing, it would change everything and he doesn’t want to lose the results of carving out his online personality for so long so easily. Um so I just talked to my classmates, my mates, about Garrett, you know after this conversation you really made me think, you opened up my eyes. You never really get to know people, you never know who is who, like you can go somewhere and think you know the person from there and never think that they might be a serial killer. I know we talked about stalkers but it’s kind of the same, you know. Basically. So yeah we think he’s a stalker, he literally has every sign of a stalker. Yes, we just googled it. Like he’s creepy, he is one person online and the other offline. And he texts Emily all the time even though she unmatched him on Tinder. He texted her twice since then. He’s silent and unreachable, and no one knows what he does expect for being social online. But it’s a mask. A year ago we were at the gym, the teacher let us just play football instead but the girls were in as well. So I’m in one team, he’s in another, I hit the ball a bit too hard and too high so it hit this girl’s face, she was crying so her teammates came to her and Garrett didn’t even bother to, you know why? Because he’s a sociopath, he has no empathy. Now I know, now it makes sense. But one plus one becomes two when you dig a bit more into his social media and find his personal blog. Right. Exactly, he posts those True Crime fandom stuff. That’s sick man. Oh here he comes. Hi, Garrett. What? It’s not the Garrett you were looking for? Oh hell man.

I have to go to the class anyway.

And Garrett went to the class as well. We won’t get to know Garrett, he’s not even there. All we know he will finish this test, have a lunch, go to other classes. Later this evening he will come home and dive into his blog where he can surround himself with True Crime stuff. It doesn’t mean anything, he can be anyone and become anything.

There are five problems in there. 1 - We share information and we don’t know with who, anyone has access to this information, and interpret it in any way. 2 - Criminals walk among us, we communicate with them and don’t know about it, criminals and social media can actually walk holding each other’s hand giggling. But actually it is tied to problem number 3, we do not know people we communicate with, we put puzzles of their shared information together and create someone else. 3 - There is almost no authentic us online. We just form an image of what we want to be seen as. Some of us do it on purpose and create something they are not, some of us don’t care at all and we don’t know what we created, we can seem like we could be a stalker to others but we are actually chilling in bed right now while reading the latest ridiculous news about J.K. Rowling and listening to Papa Roach. I don’t know what I’m talking about I’ve only listened to one Papa Roach song. 4 – Likes and searching for validation. We want the likes we think we deserve. 5 – problems with establishing real life relationships with people. Garrett, our guinea pig, is an example of someone who appears to be social online but is actually quite asocial irl. By creating his outgoing persona online he might worsen his irl attempts to communicate with irl people. Also, the idea that people already communicate with each other by approaching each other’s content online without actually communicating sometimes is one of the reasons for not establishing a real relationship.

But we all know that. I’m glad this challenge is over.

#writing challenge #social media #writing #day 1

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trendtshirtnewposts · 4 years

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thelmasirby32 · 4 years

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How Instagram hiding likes affected influencer marketing

30-second summary:

Back in November 2019, Instagram removed “Likes” in order to improve engagement, boost mental health, and user participation.

As influencer marketing by its nature was very reliant on the likes count, it is still proving to be one of the best ways for marketing in the COVID-19 situation.

So how have Instagram influencers managed to measure performance?

Founder of Spark Eighteen Lifestyle Pvt. Ltd shares some observations and insights with examples.

Likes have been an important part of influencers’ businesses and the removal of Instagram likes has impacted them both positively and negatively. Due to this change, we can see them moving to new platforms.

In November 2019, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri provided an official statement of expanding the test of hiding “likes” to more markets around the globe. The statement came months after the initial implementation of the idea in countries like Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan, and New Zealand. Currently, it is being tested in India as well and only a few accounts can see this feature in their accounts.

Why did Instagram feel the need to do that?

Since the beginning “Likes” had been an important algorithm to check engagement on the posts. Therefore, the removal of it will make a huge impact on how users will engage with posts.

According to CNBC, Facebook, (which owns Instagram) has touted this move as an effort to reduce bullying on the popular social app. While other experts feel that Instagram’s take on hiding likes will make users feel less self-conscious about their posts not getting much engagement.

Some also argue that it will lead to more people sharing content while not thinking about the number of likes they want to achieve on it. It will create a more healthy environment online.

In the end, social media is a place where one should feel free to express themselves and not feel pressurized by the number of likes they should possess.

Also, it is important to note that, you can still see the number of likes on your posts — just not others. This makes it problematic for some Influencers who often gauge on likes to see how well a post is performing. How will the phenomenon of Instagram hiding likes affect them?

The effect as seen on influencers

Likes are important for an Influencer. It gives validation to their work.

Influencers have always seen likes as a measure of performance. Since likes as a phenomenon will be no more, these influencers will have to search for better ways to engage with their audience or maybe just focus on meaningful content eh?).

According to Business Insider, several influencers may haven’t seen any change in their business and brand deals. The influencers who have been affected are already seeing a lesser number of likes on their posts which makes it harder for them to reach new audiences.

Think of it from a marketing perspective. Although influencers might still be able to see likes on their posts, brands and agencies will have to create direct access to find out this information.

Brands and agencies approaching an influencer can see the number of followers they have but that metric alone cannot define how “engaged” an audience is.

Likes are powerful. If we see a post that has a huge amount of likes, it instantly becomes attractive and grabs our attention. But now organic growth will be paid more attention.

Shift of social media platforms

With the growth of social media platforms, it is very clear to assume that Instagram is not alone in the game. It might be the most popular social app currently but it will not take any other app much time to take over.

Take TikTok for example. Many influencers have shifted their gear towards this platform for the major advances it provides.

It has only been three years since the app has been in the market and it is already growing at an immense rate. Over a billion people now use this social media platform worldwide. @lorengray, American singer and social media personality is now TikTok’s most successful account outside China, with 42.1 million fans.

With influencer marketing reaching TikTok, the app has provided a platform for influencers to make content and generate an audience through it. Since the app has such a wide reach, brands want to find ways to promote their products here. What better way than through an influencer, right? There were a lot of hashtags in the past that worked amazingly well on Tik Tok.

Example of #toofacedpartner

Influencers posted videos of themselves doing makeup routines with a before and after demonstrating their transformations. A lot of famous influencers participated in this campaign and the reach was a staggering 35 million TikTok users. The campaign’s tag has so far got a relatively meagre 9.4 million views and was a huge success. (Source: MediaKix)

Did you know that TikTok influencers with 2.5 million or more followers charge $500-800 per post? On the other hand, Instagram influencers earn an average of $100 per 10000 followers. ( Source: 99Firms )

Also, even Instagram promotes itself on Tik Tok.

Other than TikTok the other two growing platforms, Snapchat and Pinterest, are also making moves in the market. The US Snapchat users in January 2020 stood at over 101 million. On the other hand, 58% say that Pinterest helps them make shopping and purchasing decisions. (Source: Sprout Social )

So it looks like Instagram might have to face some competition.

What new can we look forward on Instagram?

Loyalty over Likes

Brands build relationships with influencers who have better engagement. Somehow, likes have been seen as a way to measure engagement. It isn’t true since you cannot judge how the audience is engaging with a user only through likes. The removal of likes will help a brand understand if the influencer has a loyal and trustworthy audience or not. The engagement rate will play a huge role here.

Shivesh is a self-taught baker and a food blogger. He posts amazing recipes on his social media channels. He gives importance to the visual part while presenting anything on Instagram and that is the major reason why people connect with him. Apart from this, he helps his audience with delicious recipes as well.