#i was not. i was bubble brained but i accomplished my goal of that original post: rambled on about save rock and roll | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mochegato · 3 years ago

Text

Even the Losers

Chapter 1

“You can do this Marinette,” Adrien whispered encouragingly, echoing the mantra she’d been whispering to herself for the past two days. She could do this. She could manage. This was for Max. She could handle it. He couldn’t be here but she could. She could be strong for him. She gave Adrien a shaky smile and nodded. “We just have to find him and we can leave,” he reminded her.

Marinette took a breath and let it out slowly. She’d dealt with far, far worse than a few judgmental, heartless asses who had no real interest in her. But seas of artificial smiles had always unsettled her and currently she was surrounded with so much artificial sweetness she felt like she was walking through a kid’s cereal aisle. That added onto her already existing anxiety had her ready to bolt at the slightest provocation.

She ran her hand over the skirt of her dress, letting the feeling of the fabric and the knowledge of all that had gone into it soothe her. She was especially proud of her dress and the work that had gone into it. It was a black so dark it almost appeared to draw in the light around it. A mesh with strategically placed blood red decorations overlaid the dress, hugging her bodice until it reached her hips then dropped into a flowing skirt that ended just before it could pool on the ground.

She fought the urge to fiddle with the belt in her nervousness. She couldn’t show weakness like that, not here. She looked up at Adrien again in search of an anchor to reality. She took in his expression and had to stifle the laugh that resulted. He had his own artificially sweet smile on but his eyes quite clearly begged for a quick death. He glanced down to her and nudged her discreetly, his artificial smile becoming wide and real. “Shhhh,” he hushed her under his breath. “We’re trying not to attract attention to ourselves, remember? We’re ghosts.” He looked around to make sure nobody was looking at them.

Marinette immediately quieted, her face becoming somber. She did remember. In and out. That was the goal. Her goal. Knock the man on his ass with Max’s accomplishments, then never see him, or anyone else in this room, other than Adrien of course, ever again. They were supposed to be like ghosts. There but not. Her eyes scanned the room looking for their target.

Adrien’s eyes immediately softened and filled with regret. “Shit, Mari. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

“No,” she looked up at him with an artificial smile of her own. “I know. It’s fine. It’s not your fault.” She scanned the crowd again, cursing her height, as she had many times in her life. Even with the six inch, death defying heels, she still barely reached Adrien’s eyes, let alone give her any kind of advantage to see the crowd. She needed some kind of vantage point but unfortunately, the only high point in the ballroom was the stage, which she couldn’t utilize if she was going to follow her Ghost policy. “We might have more success if we split up. Let me know if you find him.”

Adrien squeezed her arm quickly before nodding. “Good luck.”

Marinette shot him a genuine smile. “You too. May the Luck be with you.”

Adrien laughed and shook his head. “I never should have forced you to watch that movie.”

Marinette grinned back. “You never should have forced me to watch the prequels. The original ones were just fine.” Adrien narrowed his eyes at her but let it drop in favor of disappearing in the crowd to find their target.

Marinette followed him with her eyes until she couldn’t see him anymore then took a deep breath to brace herself. Her eyes immediately started darting around and her fingers started dancing. She needed something to occupy them or she was going to start attracting unwanted attention.

She noted a bar close by and made a beeline for it. She waited politely for the bartender to notice her, her fingers tapping anxiously against the bar while she waited. She froze when she heard a gruff voice next to her. “Did you sneak in here?”

She turned to the voice and blinked a few times. “Excuse me?”

“You’re anxious and jittery. Afraid you’re going to get kicked out?” the man elaborated.

Marinette studied him for a moment trying to figure out why he looked so familiar. “No,” she started slowly, trying to give her brain a chance to answer the puzzle. “Just not a fan of events like this.”

The man scoffed and nodded in understanding. “Cheers.” He raised his glass for her to clink his but she held out her hands with a sheepish look, showing she didn’t have a drink yet. “Well, that’s a crime. Nobody should have to endure one of these without a drink.” He motioned to the bartender and got an immediate response. “Another for me and a…” he motioned to Marinette to give her order.

“Oh, champagne, please,” she finished with a smile for the bartender. That’s what was socially acceptable at events like this, right? Champagne.

The bartender looked to the man for confirmation. The man nodded. “And a champagne for the woman.” Marinette scowled at the bartender causing the man to laugh. “He’s just worried that you’re underage. You look awfully young. You’re not, right?”

Marinette’s glare softened in realization. “Oh, that makes sense. No, I’m not. I forgot the legal age here is higher than in France.”

He nodded and looked at her critically for a moment before offering his hand. “Jason.”

Marinette immediately reached out for his hand and answered with her name before her brain registered the name he’d given. Jason. Jason Todd. Bruce Wayne’s son. She pulled her hand back quickly as the realization hit her and focused on leveling her breathing. She grabbed the champagne glass more violently than necessary when the bartender set it down in front of her and immediately downed the entire glass, only coughing a bit as the bubbles tickled her throat. Overall, champagne was not the best drink to chug. “Another, please,” she croaked out.

“You know, there are better drinks for that, if that’s what you want to do,” Jason grinned, laughing at her.

“Wasn’t the plan until it was and then that’s all I had,” she croaked out, her voice still hoarse from the bubbles. She kept her eyes focused on her empty glass as she spoke, almost afraid to make eye contact with him as if just seeing her eyes would be enough to blow her cover.

Jason chuckled and nodded in understanding. “Don’t suppose you’d care to dance?”

Marinette whipped her head to him and stared incredulously, forgetting her previous reservations. She only moved again when the bartender set the new drink down in front of her. “Um… no… thank you. That doesn’t seem… I don’t think my date would be comfortable with that. Good luck getting drunk enough to handle tonight though.” She gave him a weak smile and raised her glass to him before moving into the fray again, now armed with a socially acceptable fidget toy.

It took five minutes of avoiding wandering hands and leering looks but with a little luck and some prodding from the goddess hiding in the folds of her skirt, she was finally able to stumble on M. Lucius Fox, Director of Research and Development for Wayne Enterprises. He was in a conversation he was not remotely interested in with some vapid business exec who was just as interested in M. Fox. Not that M. Fox’s disinterest was clear. He was very polite and good at covering his boredom, much more so than his conversation partner, but she’d been at enough stuffy, snobby parties with Adrien, Felix, and Chloe to know the signs.

She took another breath and squared her shoulders, going into Ladybug Mode; calm and confident, completely assured of herself. She was on a mission. She had a goal and a plan to accomplish it, and once she had a plan, she had a direction and purpose, and with those, her insecurities fell away. With M. Fox in her sights, she could see the pieces and the way they fit together. There were no more doubts. She set her glass on a passing waiter’s tray and made her way over to M. Fox.

“The elusive M. Fox. It is a pleasure to meet you,” Marinette purred, coming up next to him with a charming, real smile.

“I didn’t realize I was hiding,” Lucius responded with a polite smile of his own.

“Must just come naturally. Foxes are known to be crafty.” Marinette looked around them and motioned toward the dancefloor. “Would you care to dance, M. Fox?”

He shook his head deferentially. “Are you sure there aren’t other people here you’d rather dance with?”

Marinette smiled conspiratorially and leaned closer to him, making sure to keep a respectable distance. She did NOT want to have her banter confused with flirting. That was not the strategy she had devised. “That would defeat the purpose of coming here. I came here specifically to speak with you.”

Lucius looked down at her analytically, trying to figure out what her angle was, but took her hand and followed her onto the dancefloor. “And what did you want to speak about, Ms…?”

“Dupain Cheng. Marinette Dupain Cheng. It’s nice to meet you M. Fox. I wanted to speak to you to sell my friend Max Kante.”

Lucius’ eyes widened almost imperceptibly as the music changed. After a beat, he chuckled. “I’m not in the market to buy anyone, but thank you.” He settled his hands on her mid-back and hand for their dance.

Marinette chuckled good naturedly along with him. “Sell his talents, would be a better way to say it.”

“And where is Mr. Kante?” Lucius raised an eyebrow at her, curious why the young man didn’t bother to come himself. “Why are you presenting his talents instead of him?”

“Finals. Had the incredibly bad luck to have a Friday at noon final. I mean at least it wasn’t at 19h, right? Can you believe they have those?” She scrunched up her nose in playful disgust. “But still means he’s taking it right now. And for his last final of his career. I mean… probably. Knowing him, he might get another PhD at some point. My finals and presentation ended last week. M. Wa…” she took a steadying breath and looked back up with a strained smile hoping he wouldn’t notice the stutter. “M. Wayne even visited for it. That’s when the idea for this came to me. So while Max studied, I plotted.”

“So why me then and not Mr. Wayne?” Lucius asked with a curious interest.

Marinette froze for just a second. Hardly enough for anyone to notice. Her mind raced to calculate the appropriate response to that question, a satisfactorily casual yet intelligent response. “M. Wayne isn’t in charge of research. You are. Not to mention, I highly doubt the CEO would be involved enough in the research and development projects to know what was going on. You I take as a man who knows what is going on with all your ongoing projects.”

He nodded. She wasn’t wrong, or normally wouldn’t be. Mr. Wayne usually was not involved in any projects and with the exception of one particular project they were having issues with, he wouldn’t know the particulars. “A very dangerous and elaborate plan. Why didn’t you make an appointment with me? Or just stop me on the street?” he prodded, hoping for her thought process.

Marinette laughed lightly. “I don’t imagine I would have had a chance in Hell of making an appointment with you in your office. I have no standing, no name, no significance that would have attracted any PA worth their salt’s attention. I would have been pawned off onto a low ranking employee to handle, if I was handled at all. And something like this needed to be taken to you.

“As for running into you on the street, I can’t imagine you would have responded positively to getting accosted on the street. You seem more than capable of handling yourself with grace in the face of a pest. I doubt I would have gotten more than a few words in. At a gala however,” she grinned conspiratorially at him. “Societal convention. Almost absolute certainty of at least one dance where I would have you one-on-one for a few minutes. Hostage audience. Figured I could use it to my advantage for once.”

Lucius smiled back at her ingenuity. “There’s an application process he could have gone through,” he noted.

Mari nodded and looked out to the crowd, scanning it. “Right, applying to M. Fedor Rabler,” she said distractedly. “He did that.”

Lucius nodded in understanding. Their application process was tough. Lots of amazing candidates didn’t get through. He had to respect her devotion to her friend, to risk coming here and potentially making an enemy of Wayne Enterprises if he’d been that sort of man. His eyes turned sympathetic. “I’m sorry he was passed over.”

“You know, I’ve noticed Elspeth Cole puts forth a lot of inventions and extremely varied ones at that,” she continued as though she hadn’t heard his consolation. “Most inventors, you can see their process, you can see how they got from one invention to the next, but hers… they’re so varied. It’s almost like they’re coming from completely different people.” Lucius watched her carefully, waiting to see where she was going with this. “That’s them, isn’t it? Dancing together. Awfully close for purely colleagues.”

Lucius followed her sight line to Ms. Cole and Mr. Rabler dancing extremely closely. Not obscenely, but perhaps a bit closer than was normally acceptable at a society event such as this one. “It’s hardly incriminating that two people with expertise in electrical engineering would get together,” he said slowly.

“Max is amazing. Brilliant,” Marinette said, seemingly not noticing her non-sequitur. “He created an AI that helped the Parisian superheroes locate and defeat our supervillain at only 14.” Lucius’ brow rose. That was certainly promising. He wondered what would have caused them not to take such an applicant. Surely there was some sort of embellishment there, but as he studied her, she seemed entirely genuine.

“He’s being scouted by several high profile companies including Lexcorp and Palmer Technologies.” She turned her attention back to Lucius, a curious pout on her lips. “But not Wayne Enterprises.” She looked away with clearly forced casualness. “Lexcorp and Palmer, they’re offering pretty impressive packages. Not as good as he deserves in my opinion, but I may be a bit biased. Wayne Enterprises however… nothing. Not even an offer.

“Now, I don’t really have a dog in the fight… other than wanting my friend to be safe and treated with the respect he deserves. But Palmer Technologies gets blown up by a villain or its inventors kidnapped far too frequently for me to be comfortable with my friend working there. And Lexcorp…” She looked down as if in thought before looking back at him again with a determined look in her eye.

“You know, I get a feeling sometimes. I can’t really explain it, just get a feeling about people or things. I’ve found it’s best for me and the people around me if I listen to that feeling and that feeling tells me Lex Luthor is the last person who should be trusted with a brain as brilliant as Max’s.” She looked back over to Mr. Rabler and Ms. Cole. “That same feeling told me Max shouldn’t trust the application process for Wayne Enterprises.”

She looked back at Lucius with an apologetic smile. “No offense. So, I convinced Max to make a small part of his submission just a little off. Just a bit. Enough that even an expert could miss it, but if it’s wrong the project could never work. It took a lot of convincing to get him to do it. He refused to believe he had anything to worry about in Wayne Enterprises with its stellar reputation.” She scrunched up her face in annoyance. “But that feeling, you know? I couldn’t get over it. After a lot of work, I convinced him there was no harm. After all, if he was hired he could fix it. If he wasn’t… well, you shouldn’t be using what he presented anyway, right? No harm, no foul as you Americans say.”

“No,” Lucius agreed. “That would be theft and completely against WE policy and standards. In fact, we should not be asking applicants to submit anything like that in the first place.”

Marinette smiled and nodded approvingly. “I’ve heard rumblings, or rather Max has, of WE getting into transmutation of materials. Just can’t get that algorithm right though, can you? Algorithms are hard. Just a little off and nothing works.”

He stared at her. That was a secret project. Other departments in Wayne Enterprises didn’t even know about it. “I can’t comment on ongoing projects.”

“I never did show you what Max is capable of, did I?” She gave him a bright smile and reached down to press a disguised button on her belt. Lucius tensed and cursed himself for exposing himself to whatever she was about to do. A wave of emerald green washed over the front of her bodice as the blood red decorated mesh overlay turned into a brilliant emerald green that reflected the lights now rather than absorbing it.

Lucius’ eyes widened in surprise, a feat very few had been able to draw out of him. “He designed the fabric?” he whispered out. He reached out tentatively to touch the fabric at her shoulder.

Marinette grinned brilliantly at his reaction. It was no less than Max deserved. He’d worked incredibly hard on it. “He did,” she nodded in confirmation, “and the software that controls it. The whole dress can change but we’re kind of surrounded here and I didn’t want to attract too much attention.” She let him touch it for a moment before pushing the button again to turn it back into the black, then allowing him to feel the mesh to confirm it was the same fabric. “He has ideas for changing the texture as well, but limited resources you know? Something I’d hope wouldn’t be an issue at WE.”

“How does it work?” His eyes were still focused on the fabric at her shoulder. He took a quick look at the rest of the bodice, but quickly snapped his eyes back to her shoulder. The neckline was conservative, but it was still rather unbecoming to stare at the young woman’s chest.

Marinette laughed. “You’ll have to ask Max that. I just designed the dress. I don’t really understand the mechanics behind it, but he does. I doubt Ms. Cole can say the same.”

Lucius stared in awe at her shoulder before looking back up to her eyes and nodding in understanding. “Interesting. I’ll take that under advisement. Maybe we should be scouting you as well.”

Mari laughed. “No, thank you. I’m not an inventor. I’m a designer. But I appreciate the interest.”

Lucius nodded and led her off the dancefloor with the end of the song. “Inventor or not, we can always use someone with intuition, intelligence, and ingenuity like you’ve demonstrated.”

Marinette gave him a brilliant, somewhat familiar smile. “That’s very flattering. Thank you, M. Fox. But tonight is about Max. I have my own, separate plans for my future.”

Lucius nodded in understanding. “Our loss,” he answered sincerely. “If you ever need any help or advice, please feel free to call me. I’m sure Mr. Kante will have it soon enough and can pass it onto you.” He looked back down to her shoulder again. “If I may…” He motioned toward her shoulder.

Marinette laughed. “Of course. I understand how truly impressive it is. It’s been incredibly inspirational, thinking of the options.”

“And what did your intuition tell you about tonight?” He looked up to meet her eyes, curious about her answer.

Marinette’s face went slack for a moment before she pasted on a bittersweet smile. “That it would be costly but worth it.”

Lucius quirked his head to the side. “In what way?”

Marinette shook her head absently and took a sudden interest in M. Fox’s tie. “I’m not sure yet.”

Mr. Fox’s eyes softened. “Would he be available to meet on Monday?”

Marinette grin and snapped her eyes up to him. Mission success! Max was going to get his interview! “He can be.”

“I’d actually like to speak with both of you, if you don’t mind. In my office at 10 Monday?” he offered.

Marinette faltered. “In Wayne Enterprises?”

Lucius chuckled. “Naturally.”

Marinette swallowed heavily. “Why don’t we meet somewhere else? Early morning coffee perhaps?” she offered instead with an artificial smile. “Here’s my card. Have someone give me a call or text and I can arrange it. He’s scheduled to fly in tomorrow morning. He was supposed to meet with Lexcorp Monday morning, but he’ll be at coffee to meet you instead.”

Lucius smiled back at her as he slipped her card into his pocket. “I greatly appreciate your candor and support Ms. Dupain Cheng.” He took her hand in both of his to shake it. “I cannot tell you how good it was to meet you. And if you ever get one of those feelings about me or Wayne Enterprises, let me know, okay?”

“Lucius.”

Lucius froze at the cold voice, not accustomed to that tone of voice directed at him. He looked over curiously and missed Marinette freezing before pushing another button on her belt.

Chapter 2

Tags:

@maribat-bdbwm

#maribat #bio dad bruce wayne #roynette #Even the Losers #mbdbwm2021 #prompt -#meeting for the first time

531 notes · View notes

radical-rat-lord · 4 years ago

Photo

Make That Double

Word Count: 914 Warnings: None

After weeks of order after order, Inky, the necromancer, is quite tired of having no free time at all. However, clever as they are... they have quickly thought a solution to their problem! What could go wrong?

A/N: If all goes well, I will soon have a breeding pair ready to send Inky’s clones out to your doorstep! You don’t want one? Well, I’m sure they will consider that! Maybe.

A dramatic sigh echoes through the cellar of an abandoned looking house, hidden away behind the trees and bushes, and behind the secrets and lies.

"So many clients lately," Inky remarks, running their claw along the rim of their cauldron. The bubbling, orange substance inside seems to follow. "Too much work. I barely get to reanimate just for fun―they are right when they say 'Don't turn your hobby into a career'. What a bummer."

The reflection in their cauldron looks back at them, and Inky leans a bit closer, squinting. "What do you want? Your suggestions always give me a headache―What was that?" They gasp, leaning up again. "My, my. Perhaps you do have a brain after all. What a fantastic idea! Oh―how did I not think of that!?"

They scramble to grab some of their colorful potions, as well as other, more grotesque looking ingredients. "Yes, yes, yes," they mumble, throwing it all into the cauldron and moving their hand above it, causing the liquid to follow in circles. "If there's too much work for one of me―I should just make more!! I'm a genius!" A burst of the substance splashes onto Inky's chest, and they give a disgruntled huff. "Oh! You pesky little―... Fine. You are a genius."

They roll their eyes as they continue stirring, though focus back on their work quickly. "Alright, alright. Let's make sure I get this right," they whisper under their breath. "Some skins and bones... A little bit of magic. And..." They reach back, pulling off a large scale of theirs, and begin to speak in an unknown language. Slowly, they let their scale sink into the brew, which immediately starts boiling up, steam erupting and filling the room like the thick smoke of a fire.

Inky coughs, waving their hand in front of their face for a moment... and slowly a new light sparks up in their eyes. "Oh―... oh my...! You are..." They pause, leaning their head down into the cauldron. "Smaller than anticipated. Oh well, so be it."

They lift the small, but long creature out of the cauldron―their skin seems patchy, like it took missing pieces from something else―and before Inky could let them down onto the floor, they had grown twice in size. "Goodness. You are an overachiever, aren't you."

"I fear I am," the clone responds. Hearing their voice makes Inky feel like their clients do, upon seeing this cellar. Uneasy. "This place is too small for both of us. I will continue our work elsewhere."

"Now wait! You are supposed to-"

"I am you. You are me. You should know this kind of magic is untamable. The words to summon its obedience do not exist," the clone speaks, staring into Inky's eyes, who pauses... then gives a sigh, glaring over toward their cauldron. "Oh, I knew I shouldn't have listened to you. Headache inducing."

"Do not worry," the clone reassures, giving Inky a toothy grin. "I am you. You are me. We share a goal and dream. Although this cellar is too small for us, I will not let your work be in vain. I will find a lair of my own, and I will make more of us. Because why stop here?"

"Why stop here..." Inky repeats, scratching their chin and nodding slowly. "I suppose you are right. If we truly are the same, I see no problem with this arrangement."

"Neither do I!"

"It is decided then. You are me. I am you. Find a place for you to stay―our business will skyrocket!"

"Always thinking about business."

"Well, naturally! You know what they say, 'If you're good at something―"

"Don't do it for free'."

Both their smiles grow, their fangs glistening in the dim light, and low chuckles escape the both of them.

"Begone now! I will concoct some more of us―in fact…" Inky pauses, plucking a scale off of their clone's back, making the clone respond with a startled yelp. "I'll take that as payment, thank you very much."

"How rude! If I wasn't the same, I would turn you into a frog this instant!"

"But you are the same―now shoo! We have places to be!"

"You are correct. I will send a letter this way upon settling down somewhere. Farewell!"

"Farewell!"

And with that, the clone rushes up the stairs and out of the house, disappearing into the darkness of the forest.

Silence takes over the cellar again, and Inky swiftly begins collecting more of their potions and ingredients. This experiment was a complete success! With even more Inky's, who knows what they could all accomplish.

"Hehe..." They chuckle to themselves, dropping another few scales into the cauldron. "And a little bit of mischief... couldn't hurt anyone, am I right? Not more than usual, anyway." More smoke again, filling the room... and Inky's eyes near sparkle with delight as out of the cauldron a dozen long bodies emerge. Some had taken on the patchy skin of whatever else Inky threw in, just like the first clone, but some had taken on a near identical appearance of the original.

"Interesting..." Inky murmurs, as their clones already dispatch. Inky follows upstairs, watching their clones fly off into the forest. "I do wonder... if we really are the same."

A moment passes before Inky gives a shrug. "I suppose time will tell." An eerie grin twists their face. "No matter anyway, because after all... I am me. And no one else will ever be."

#fr #flight rising #fr lore #flight rising lore #frfanart #fr writing #my lore #Disclaimer: the pic was mostly finished before the genes dropped #and I wasn't about to edit it for the patches u_u sorry #anyway look at my bonkers noodle #hopefully there will be some high quality lore babies soon!

48 notes · View notes

reimenaashelyee · 4 years ago

Text

Capturing a Portrait

A post I wrote in March and cleaned up. Reposted from my blog (which has more thoughts on craft and other nonsense). About Alexander Comic.

----

A year in... and I think I've got him.

Disclaimer: I won't deny it. Alexander is impossible to get an accurate picture of. His personhood is made out of sand and everyone brings their own bottles to shape him into. I don't think my jar of sand is the One True Alexander, nor will it ever be. But the good news is, all the other jars aren't that either. The nature of his (after)life is elusive. That's what it is.

But I think I've gotten a hold of him. I mean this in an authorly, character-study sense. I think I've found something interesting.

In the beginning, I had three images of Alexander that I used as my guide: 1) the journey to the Water of Life with the Servant 2) the siege of Thebes 3) the many faces of Alexander. Later I added a fourth image, tied to Hephaestion. Those are the four ingredients for this brain stew. I let them sit. I let them bubble.

There's also a motif that comes up in the ancient biographies and the Alexander Romances: the pursuit. The drive to do things, see things, be things.

Pothos. Desire. Longing.

For a long time I had this suspicion of a particular type of sadness in Alexander's story. I didn't know the name, but I saw the symptoms: the competitive insecurity with his father, the destructive restlessness, the death/fallout of his friends one by one through his own hands, the death of Hephaestion totally out of his hands, the breakdown of his empire after his own death.

Even in the Alexander Romance, the legendary accounts that make him heroic also double down on that sadness. Alexander, kingship is wicked. Alexander, you'll die and never see your beloved mother/sisters again and that's your problem. Alexander, look at this poor, deformed stillborn child – it represents your end. "From my coffin, show the world only a rag in my hand. Say that in the end I die not with the kingdom I sought, but with scraps." Oh, it turns out that Alexander specifically is not fated for the water of life. The two angels warn him, turn back. "You may conquer the world, but the only land you physically own is the land on which your two feet stand on." But even that land is fleeting.

Pothos. A longing for a goal forever out of reach. A goal already lost in its accomplishment. Death gets to you first.

That was the name of the sadness.

Now, I don't intend to use pothos to absolve him. It is sad, but it is separate from the choices he made (in life and in fiction). I still have every intention to put him in the fire.

But I think I got him. My Alexander.

Pothos is not the most original thing ever. I mean, the ancient historians and the Alexander Romance writers already use it. I totally borrowed it from them. And besides, pothos is a posthumous motif that originates from a storyteller's (well, historian's) analysis of Alexander's life. Objectively, it has nothing to do with Alexander's real state of mind, whatever that may be. But man, that motif is powerful and potent and dazzling. No wonder it survives with his memory.

That's why pothos so core to my project and why it needs to remain a thematic forefront.

Not too long ago, I had a kind of epiphany related to the philosophical attitude of some of the Romances. It started as a spark of familiarity at first. Why does the attitude seem so familiar? I realised that, of course, it's the same philosophical attitude behind some of my favourite stories in media. And those stories happen to be East Asian. Japanese, especially.

Now, I already came into Alexander Comic with my postcolonial South East Asian lens. I grew up with a lot of Asian media that was only for the Asian gaze, with no consideration or need for Western understanding – alongside Western media, both Hollywood and artsy European and in between. So the way I view the world and the way I tell stories will reflect that media diet. Sometimes it tells me things I wouldn't have known if I had stuck to one source of media.

The funny thing about pothos is that this concept of transcience and imperfection is a whole thing in Japanese and Chinese thought. Mono no aware, wabi sabi, kintsugi... (sorry, all Japanese terms since I'm unable to find the Chinese equivalent... due to a language barrier)

The joy and sadness of autumn. The sand between fingers. The idea that nothing lasts forever and that’s why they are beautiful. The brokenness of a thing being its history. It’s not a brokenness be proud of, or to disguise; it’s simply a brokenness that’s just is. Mundane magic.

It's a thing in the non-English West too.

Saudade. Ubi sunct. Hiraeth. Memento mori.

Closer to home, it's what rindu (and sometimes, sayang) means.

I find it fascinating how someone who used to be the king of the world had not only lost his empire, but his own story. We in the modern world have almost nothing from Alexander's time that speaks about him, to him, and from him. Much of what we know is secondhand, either some hundred years after the fact or from someone else not him. A king of the world cursed to be known by everyone and no one.

Admittedly, it's a long dizzying way to obtain a portrait of Alexander... and who knows if this portrait is objectively in line with the real person (probably not! I mean, who knows!). But I think this exploration is part of being an Alexander Romance author.

Nizami said it himself in the first chapters of his own Sikandar Name E Bara: he was a poet overwhelmed with a thousand treasures, desperately trying to find pearls out of them to string into a beautiful narrative. Heck, forget Nizami. Arrian said it too: he had to read through fables and books (Arrian paraphrasingly calls them "trash" in contrast to Nizami's "treasures"), desperately trying to find the best-sounding materials to make his biography of Alexander.*

*the Anabasis is not part of the Romance

At some point in the future, someone will ask me who or what my Alexander is. It won't help that my Romance is neither a straight biography or a complete fantasy, though it includes some of both to paint his portrait. But that's my Alexander. A mish-mash of junk and trash and history and legend. A mosaic or stained glass of foreign words with no equivalent in English.

#alexander comic #long post

29 notes · View notes

softbiker · 5 years ago

Text

Steve Rogers Oneshot

Warnings: maybe a bad word or two? I forget, sorry

Summary: If it’s green, it’s healthy. Nobody tell Steve otherwise.

Word count: ~2k (oops my hand slipped)

A/N: This was supposed to be a very short drabble based on a conversation I had with @kentuckybarnes last night...and then I don’t know this happened. Anyways! This is a little gift for @nacho-bucky , who deserves all the extra whip; the story features her character Agent 41, as well as a brief appearance by @kentuckybarnes Agent 28! A “reader” character may or may not make an appearance ;) Enjoy!

He hasn’t said so out loud - not yet - but Steve is really proud of her. She’s been doing really great this time around. Really, really great.

After last year’s health kick ended (sometime around the holidays, even the heroes stop caring), everyone’s diets slid back to a state of normal that was…somewhat shy of their (read: Steve’s) original goals. Sugary cereals and waffles dripping in syrup and butter; everyone having their own pint of Ben & Jerry’s in the freezer; Sam and 41 insisting on an extensive comparison of all available delivery pizza, often side-by-side taste tests that led to multiple pizzas devoured each night.

Steve gave them a warning this time, 4 weeks in advance. It would be hard to jump right in and change their habits on January 1, since they’d be up late partying the night before, and then of course there were the holiday leftovers, etc etc. So he’d give them some time to mentally prepare.

“Mark your calendars, guys,” he warned, eyebrows arched, Captain Six-Pack posed in the community kitchen. “We’re cleaning up this kitchen - starting February 1st.”

A month of healthy eating - but he picked the shortest month, so he was going easy on them, right?

Like before, he had worried a little about their agent with the biggest sweet tooth. Poor thing, 41 had nearly had a breakdown last time, and Steve thought she might hate him forever. It was probably a close call. But she made it through the first time around, and February is only 28 days anyway. Well, 29 this year.

She took it like a champ. Met his announcement with quirked brows and an amused glance in Clint’s direction, but no more wailing and gnashing of teeth than the rest of the team. Bucky had watched them over his steaming mug of coffee, secret smile around his mouth.

“You know,” 28 piped up from across the island. “It might be a good idea to cut back on caffeine, too. It is an addictive substance.”

Bucky’s eyes had twitched, big knuckles flexing as his hand tightened on the mug.

“Come back with a warrant,” he grumbled. 41 giggled behind her hand and patted his shoulder. Steve just rolled his eyes.

Fast forward a few weeks, just over halfway through this little challenge, and he has to admit that she’s really leaned into the healthy lifestyle. More so than last time; in fact, she’s the one in the kitchen, night after night, iPad poised with a healthy recipe from Pinterest. Everything she’s made has been damn good - he always goes back for seconds. And she’s the first to volunteer to go for grocery runs for the team, dashing off to Whole Foods and the farmer’s market, a triumphant return with a beaming smile and arms full of lush, colorful produce.

Feeling accomplished, and not a little proud of his leadership skills, Steve decides they’ve earned a little treat. Just a little one.

Modern coffee and Steve Rogers have struck a deal - he’ll pipe down about price margins and inflation, as long as they continue to deliver strong, kick-you-in-the-teeth flavor. He loves a mean cup of joe, bitingly bitter, with only the occasional splash of milk to soften the harsh taste in his mouth. Coffee was scarce during the war, desperate rationing pared down the drink to little more than brown water, drunk from a helmet while he crouched down next to Buck in a foxhole. He’ll dig a little further in his wallet for something stronger than that.

He’s familiar with the Starbucks down the block from the tower, having stopped in several times after runs with Bucky and Sam; they haven’t been in a while - a part of his health initiative includes less eating out and more making their own food and drinks. But it’s just coffee. And coffee has plenty of health benefits - he was just reading an article this morning about studies on the preventative effects of caffeine in dementia patients. Not that his brain cells are likely to be affected, but still.

Coffee it is.

41’s eyes light up when they walk in the door, a chorus of “Hello!” and “Welcome to Starbucks!” greeting them from behind the bar. She can smell the syrup in the air, blenders whirring double chocolatey chip frappuccinos with extra mocha drizzle and - what did the menu say? A…caramel ribbon crunch? Yum.

Steve Rogers is a purist in terms of coffee. The concept of frappuccinos and white chocolate mochas makes him want to roll his eyes a little. But he doesn’t make the rules - and hey, the people who invented this are raking in profits, so it looks like they’ve got the right idea.

Clint’s got his arms around 41 from behind, his chin propped on top of the beanie he knitted her, both of them swaying a little as they glance over the menu. Steve knows Clint is a coffee-addict, too - he’ll probably order straight espresso. 41 loves her lattes, the sweet-flavored ones of course, but she’s done so well cutting out sugar. He trusts her. She’ll be fine.

It’s just the three of them, with a list of coffee orders to bring back for the team. The cafe doesn’t seem too busy, so he doesn’t feel like an asshole when he shuffles up to the register, pulling up the list on his phone.

“Be with you in just a second, okay?”

His head pops up and he notices her standing there, smiling over her shoulder as she preps a new batch of coffee to brew. He nods, a little smile - “sure” - and slides one hand in his pocket while she finishes. She’s efficient and fast, measuring the grounds into the basket, sliding the urn into place and pressing the right button. He notices the way her hair swings, twisted up into a big butterfly clip at the back of her head, the ends falling like a ponytail, longer strands hanging next to her face.

And then she’s twisting back around and popping up at the register, a nose-scrunching smile and a “What can I get started for you today?”

Blink.

“Um, I’ve got a list-” He fumbles for his phone again. “Sorry, it’s quite a few drinks.”

“Sure, that’s fine,” she nods. Smile still curling up her cheeks - he can’t quite tell if she’s wearing makeup or if that glow is just natural.

“O-okay,” he clears his throat, swipes at the notes app on his phone. “So first, a tall dry cappuccino with an extra shot-”

He gets through Sam, Bucky, Nat, Wanda, and 28’s orders, before sliding his phone back in his pocket, puffing a harsh breath past his lips.

“What else can I get for ya?” The barista leans a hip against the counter, tilting her head, smiling eyes still watching him. There’s just something about that look - like she’s in on a joke and he’s still waiting for the punchline.

“For me…uh,” he shrugs, falling back on a standby. “An Americano, with a little bit of milk and cinnamon, please.”

That makes her smile deepen, and he would really love to be let in on the joke, but she just nods and repeats the drink, tapping the buttons on her screen.

“Okay - anything else?”

“Oh, and whatever they’re having.”

Over his shoulder, he nods Clint and 41 forward, their hands linked as they slide up to the register. With a smile and a quick greeting, Clint goes for a triple shot, double cupped, one Stevia. Pretty standard - whenever he’s not sharing sweets with his sweetheart, Clint tends towards strong flavors. For Christmas, 41 bought him a bag of something called Death Wish coffee - he brewed it all within a week.

When it’s her turn, 41 grins at the girl behind the counter, standard sweet and friendly. She leans close to the register and tilts her eyebrow as she orders.

“I’ll have a spinach milkshake,” she hums. “Venti, please. Oh! With extra whip.”

Spinach milkshake, huh? Steve’s ears prick up, a little bubble of pride floating up in his chest. He knew if she just gave it her best shot, she’d get used to it.

The barista grins back at her, and Steve does not at all notice the dimple in her cheek.

“You got it, girl,” she winks.

Steve pays, leaving a generous tip in the jar by the register, as the girl flits away from the computer to help prep their drinks herself. She smiles and chats with 41 over the espresso machines, her hands wicked fast between steaming milk and pulling espresso, lining up the finished drinks in the little cardboard tray at the end of the bar. Under her apron, she’s wearing a pair of baggy overalls and for a moment a memory sweeps up in him - factory girls and borrowed boots and rolled up sleeves. A victory smile, that’s for sure. Standing next to Clint at the counter, he pretends not to watch.

She’s got the trays loaded up, all except one, and turns around to the counter behind her, pouring cold milk and some kind of green powder into a blender. Must be 41’s drink - she’s busied herself at the counter writing everyone’s names on the tops of their cups, adorned with little hearts. Characteristically cute.

The blender whirs loudly, and as she reaches for a cup and lid the barista meets his eyes over the machines. It startles him, that guilty thump in his ribs, like he was caught doing something he shouldn’t. Her smile stays glued in place as she turns back to the blender, fetching the pitcher and neatly filling the cup with the creamy, green drink, before dropping the pitcher in the sink to rinse. She flips the metal canister in her hand, shaking it a few times, before swirling up a veritable mountain of whipped cream on top.

Steve sighs one of his long-suffering sighs, his eyes flitting up to the ceiling before he catches the look of excitement on 41’s face, already peeling the wrapper from a straw as the pretty barista snaps the plastic lid over the cup. Well…what can some whipped cream really hurt? At least it’s a healthy drink…she called it a ‘spinach milkshake’ and he has no idea what the ingredients would be in that, but the bright green color has him sold on some marginal health benefits. She’s earned a little dollop of cream.

“Here you go, babe,” the barista grins as she hands over the drink to an eager 41, who immediately scoops her finger under the dome lid and pops a little whipped cream into her mouth.

“Mmmm,” she smiles, dreamy. “You did great.”

“Oh, thanks,” the girl laughs back, now wiping down her counters with a rag, cleaning up any of her milk and coffee spills.

“Seriously,” 41 insists, between slurps through her straw. “You’re, like, my new favorite person.”

“Hey, now,” Clint hip-checks her as he reaches around to grab the drink carriers. He offers the barista a smile. “Thanks, kid, it looks great.”

“Oh, it’s no problem,” she insists, sliding away her steaming pitchers and milk jugs.

They’re turning to leave, all drinks accounted for, and the girl gives Steve one last smile as she turns to restock the cups next to the espresso machines. He sips his Americano - good, bold, perfect combination of milk and cinnamon.

“Steve?” 41 is slurping at her…spinach thing, Clint holding the door open with his back, hands occupied with the drink trays. Steve licks his lips.

“Excuse me, miss?” Starbucks employees have their names on their aprons, right? He remembers that being a thing.

She turns back, bright-eyed, expectant.

“Yes, Captain?” The smile twitches at the corners of her mouth. “Anything else I can help you with?”

He opens his mouth, starts to say yes, not surprised she recognized him but willing to hope-

His eyes slide down to the top of her apron, corners adorned with colorful, cute little pins, black name tag fixed to the top left corner. A neat cursive scroll spells the word ‘Fourteen’ in stark white chalk.

Oh.

His mouth shuts.

41 gives an exuberant wave as she grabs his elbow and all but drags him out the door. The grip around his drink tightens when he almost stumbles over her behind him.

“Thanks, see you next time!” 41 grins.

Without breaking his gaze, the barista leans against the counter and winks, waving her fingers at them.

Maybe he should give one of those spinach milkshakes a try.

#steve rogers oneshot #steve rogers imagine #agent 41 #agent 28 #steve rogers fic

180 notes · View notes

hwas-housewife · 5 years ago

Note

Oooo can i ask for 11 from the sentence prompts with Hongjoong?

Prompt: “My name is unimportant – you, tyrant, will die today by my blade.”

Word count: 2k

Genre: Royalty!Hongjoong x Rebel Leader!reader, mostly angsty plot and part two might promise some other types of writing

Warnings: not really anything, attempted assassination, mention of murder

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What’s the blade?” -@leejihoonownsmyheart

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: here is the first ask for the game I posted! It was a joy to write, and really inspired me to maybe write a part two if I ever get around to it ~ (also royalty! ateez has become a new obsession of mine, so thank you tons)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“My name is unimportant – you, tyrant, will die today by my blade.”

A bold move, even for yourself.

You were standing in the middle of the coronation of your king-to-be, Prince Hongjoong, sword pointed towards the named soul. It felt like a scene out of the tales people passed down from generation to generation. The rebel, standing in front of the worshipped royal family. Hundreds of people around, watching the scene unfold.

The royal guard was quick to surround you, halting any further movements as you were circled by sharp swords. Everything became silent and still, not a single person dared to interrupt history in the making.

“And who may you be?” Prince Hongjoong appeared unbothered as he made his way down the pedestal he was standing on. He walked closer and closer to where you were until he was right behind the guards.

“They call me Luna, leader of The Crimson Revolution,” gasps could be heard at your declaration. Even the richest families have heard the rumors of the Crimson Revolution. An aggressive rebel group that has been working to overthrow the crooked Royal family. And at the head of it all, you.

Hongjoong merely laughed at your response, “You? The leader? If you’re their measly excuse for a leader then I’m surprised they’ve become as much of a threat as they are.”

Rage bubbled up inside you. He had the guts to laugh at you. At what you’ve accomplished.

“Like you’re one to talk, Prince Hongjoong,” you spat the title back at him, hatred evident in your words.

Am amused smirk now pressed on his face. You hated how he treated this as a joke. The audience that had originally been here for his coronation was no longer frightened, instead, they were beginning to laugh at your assassination attempt. He was making a fool of you, the leader of the largest rebellion.

“Tell me, Ms. Luna,” you seethed at the way he threw out your name as if he were talking down to a child, “how did you expect this to go? If you’re supposedly the brains behind the Crimson Rebellion, how on Earth did you come up with the worst way to assassinate me?”

The anger must have been evident in the way you held yourself, a scowl and red blush covered your face. He was embarrassing you, making a fool of your hard work in front of everybody. You can’t believe you let him do this to you. You had to take control back.

You began to act calm and collected once again, relaxing your arms and letting your sword hang beside you. You mirrored Hongjoong’s smirk and looked him dead in his eyes, “I figured that you enjoy the sound of your voice so much that you wouldn’t even hear me sneaking up on you. But then I felt as though that would be a little too easy, so I decided it would be better to announce my presence.”

His face dropped in annoyance at your jab. You were pretty proud of your response.

“Guards, throw her in the dungeon. I want to ask her a few questions after the coronation,” he commanded his guards without hesitation. Realizing this might be your only chance, you waited for them to move to lunge at Hongjoong. Your blade merely grazed his arm before the guard had you pinned to the ground, restrained.

Everyone was beginning to freak out now, concerned you hurt the future king. But the guards managed to disarm you as Hongjoong watched, victory etched into his features. You glared back at him, happy to have at least left your mark on him. Even if you do die within the next few days.

The guards holding on to you pulled you up and started dragging you off to where you only assumed the cells were. Maintaining eye contact with the Prince, you spat at him as they pulled you farther and farther from your goal.

The cells were dirty. And cold. And wet in some places where water was leaking. You could hear faint sounds of the celebration as the Prince was turned into the King. You had failed. You curled further into yourself in the corner of your cell.

What would your people think of you now? You had one shot. One chance to do right. And you blew it. You finally had your chance to speak in front of the Prince, to make him realize all the wrong he’s done in life. Yet you couldn’t even manage that.

A pathetic excuse for a leader, indeed.

You were sure the news of your capture had spread to the rest of the rebellion. You had trained them for a day in which this might happen, yet the day had come and you felt as though you didn’t prepare them at all. Successors were lined up, future plans already schemed. You were always thinking up new ways to win the kingdom back to the people. But now, you were here.

It had to have been hours alone in the cell before you heard anyone make their way down towards you. You refused to respect them enough to spare a glance, choosing rather to stare at the stone ground.

“That was quite the scene you put on earlier,” the sound of your enemy flowed through your ears and you became angry once again.

You were not going to talk to him. Not after he took your assassination as a joke and humiliated you in front of the majority of the kingdom. Not after he managed to capture you and disarm you without laying a finger on you. He doesn’t deserve your words.

“What? Can you not even look at me anymore? Are you that hurt that I’m still walking? Now that’s no way to treat your king.”

Still not facing him, you mumbled a few words that you will always swear by, “You will never be my king. Now leave, I don’t want to see you.”

“Bold words coming from someone behind bars,” to emphasize his point, he tapped on one of the bars, a metallic ringing sound following his actions.

“I could’ve killed you if you weren’t hiding behind the ten guards. I guess you’re just too afraid to face me.”

“Now, now, Luna. Do I need to teach you a lesson on how to treat royalty? It appears you don’t know when to shut your mouth,” apparently you knew how to get to him, because his words sounded as angry as when he ordered you to be sent here.

You finally looked up at the tyrant. His cool blonde hair was fashioned in a way that fit the crown atop his head. His brown eyes were looking down at you sharply, and his lips were pointed slightly downwards in a frown. You were pretty confident that one of the plethora of accessories adorning his body cost more than the house you resided in, and his clothes were more extravagant than anything you’ve ever seen.

“Don’t call me that. Only people worthy of my respect can call me that. And you are far from that,” you’re beginning to feel like the only thing you can do when you look at him is scowl. But you suppose that’s just the deep-seated hatred for him.

He didn’t hesitate to respond to you, glaring back.

“And what do people worthy of your respect have to do? Kill innocent guards protecting their kingdom? Steal necessary imported goods? Attempt an assassination?”

“My people aren’t the monsters that you portray them to be. They’re good people,” your voice betrayed you, cracking at the thought of your underlings being perceived as evil.

“And neither am I. Yet here we are,” he sighed, seeming exhausted for once by your hatred for him, “Why do you even hate me so much? I have done nothing to wrong this kingdom. It’s been prospering since I was allowed to make decisions for its future.”

The glare on your face remained as you stood up, making your way towards the king.

“Have you ever thought about how it’s been affecting the rest of your kingdom? Sure, parts of Atiny have prospered. More kingdoms want to trade, and more people than ever want to live here. But we’ve suffered. In doing all of this, you’ve taken away your people’s voices. Our voices. My voice. The amount of people I’ve found out on the street because their business has been taken from them, all because you let some foreigners come here and offer the same trade, it’s disgusting. I’ve had to take in endless amounts of abandoned children, all because their parents can’t afford to support them anymore. The poor district is the most crowded it’s ever been. And all you filthy rich bourgeois sit up here in your fancy houses, paying no mind to our suffering. Because at least you all get what you want.”

For the first time since you’ve met him, Hongjoong almost appeared sympathetic.

“You still injured and killed a large amount of my guard. Do you realize how many deaths you’re accountable for? You could be hanged in an hour for all of them if I wanted you to be,” he looked back into your eyes, trying to remind you of the killer you’re made out to be.

“They were hurting my people. Petty crimes like theft happen often there and they think the solution is making examples of the perpetrators. I can’t let them kill children for stealing loaves of bread out of starvation. That is what it means to be a murderer.”

This is something you would never budge on. Protective of you, sure. But it’s not like Hongjoong was going to do anything about it.

“It’s my job to fix what you refuse to acknowledge as the supposed leader of the country. When you stopped listening to us, it felt like you abandoned us. Someone had to step up. It just so happened that that person was me,” calling him out was a pretty aggressive move, but it wasn’t like the situation could get much worse. You were sure that death was imminent at this point.

“You possess quite a bold tongue, Crimson,” you sneered at the nickname, “yet, I feel as though some of your words might hold some truth. Every kingdom has a poor area that doesn’t prosper as much as the other locations. Besides, classes are necessary for a kingdom to remain stable. But I’m sure there’s some room for improvement if it’s as bad as you make it out to be.”

You scoffed in his face. Make it out to be? You were being kind on your words of the poor district you called home.��

“I was just going to publicly execute you, but I think that might cause your people to be upset and make rash decisions. I would like to avoid a civil war in my time here,” he was thinking out loud at this point, slender fingers grabbing his chin as he spoke.

“I have a proposition for you, Crimson.”

You looked at him curiously, wondering what he might be planning.

“Take me to your district. Show me the so-called issues you fight against. And help me to fix them.”

Your mouth hung open. Never in your life did you think you would be met with a choice like this one. To fix the problems in the kingdom? To help your people out? Tears welled in your eyes at the thought of children being able to grow up without wondering where their next meal would come from.

But then you thought back to the fact that you would be working with your sworn enemy. The one you attempted to murder less than a day ago. What would your people think? But if you’re there with him as a way to fix everything, they wouldn’t care, right?

It was an opportunity you had waited your entire life for. One that made you swallow down your pride and mumble out a quick, “fine, deal.”

Hongjoong’s smirk grew at your acceptance of your offer. What did you get yourself into?

#sadienita #svt mangos writing #svt mangos asks #hongjoong #ateez

13 notes · View notes

timeoutforthee · 5 years ago

Text

Like it or Not-Chapter 23

Taglist: @itsausernamenotafobsong, @sea-blue-child, @iaminmultiplefandoms, @princeanxious, @uwillbeefoundtonight, @zaidiashipper, @arandompasserby, @levyredfox3, @falsett0, @error-i-dunno-what-went-wrong, @scrapbookofsketches, @podcastsandcoffee, @helloisthisusernametaken, @amuthefunperson, @michealawithana, @yamihatarou, @heck-im-lost, @unlikelynightmareconnoisseur, @idkaurl, @bubblycricket, @fnp-alizay, @neonbluetiefling, @comicsimpson, @a-little-bit-of-ace

Summary: Logan, Patton, Roman, and Virgil are all struggling in their recovery. Their doctors, Thomas Sanders and Emile Picani think they can help each other out.

Aka Group Therapy AU

Trigger Warnings: Remus, referenced fictional murder, referenced bingeing/purging, therapy session

Read it on AO3!

Roman had marched into class earlier, fully prepared to demand a new partner as soon as Remus started speaking. Now, he was staring at his rival with an open mouth. This is not how he was planning for this to go, at all.

“Run that by me,” Roman finally says, “One more time.”

“I want to write a play,” Remus says, drawing out his words obnoxiously slow, “About a man interviewing several monsters to find out which one killed him. Each monster will be a representation of a mental illness.”

“That…” Roman stares at him, still shocked, “....that’s okay?”

“Oh my God, has it happened?” Remus asks a fake audience, “Has Roman Prince gotten the stick out of his ass?”

“We’ll have to be careful,” Roman hurries to amend, “I mean, we’re dealing with representation and we don’t want to offend anyone, but it’s doable.”

“Nope!” Remus says, “It is still jammed up there.”

“Do you want us to do your idea or not?” Roman counters.

Remus laughs. “If I recall correctly, we don’t have a choice about that.”

“Anyway,” Roman says, glossing over that particular detail, “What are your ideas? Who is this man? Who are the monsters?”

“Oh!” Remus says, immediately lighting up, and pulling a sketchbook from his backpack, “I have sketches! Monsters with two faces for bipolar disorder, a monster covered in cuts-”

“See, that’s an example of what we’re not going to do,” Roman interrupts.

“Roman,” Remus says, huffing, “Don’t you want to explore something deeper than your usual fairytales?”

“Don’t you want to come up with something a bit more original?”

That catches Remus off guard, and his face falls, He looks down at his sketchbook.

“You’re the best costume designer the Theater department has,” Roman says. It kills him to admit, but even he knows it’s true, “I’m sure you can come up with something.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Remus says, sighing. “Now, this guy…” ^

“How’d your meeting go today, Roman?” Patton says, trying to sound like his normal, bubbly self. But there’s a rock in his stomach as the end of the school day is approaching, and group is quickly coming up.

“...well?” Roman says, unsure.

“It either went well or it didn’t, Roman, it isn’t a hard question,” Logan says.

“I know, I’m just...surprised,” Roman continues, “Remus actually had a good idea? And I’m...excited to elaborate on it?”

“What was it?” Virgil asks.

“A man is interviewing a group of monsters, all representative of mental illnesses, to see which one killed him.”

“That’s dark, I like it,” Virgil responds.

“Not surprised by that,” Roman says. “We’ll need to tread carefully, to make sure we don’t misrepresent anything or offend anyone, but it’s doable, right?”

“Right!” Patton says, even though he’s not exactly thrilled with the idea of monsters. Darkness wasn’t really his thing.

“Virgil and I need to start making some creative decisions as well,” Logan says, “We’ve started the creative writing chapter of the class.”

“Aren’t you guys excited?” Mrs. Spencer asks, “I always love hearing all the stories coming from my students every year!”

Virgil looks like he would have a lot to say if the teacher of the class wasn’t in the same room.

“Maybe Virgil will let us read some of his writing!” Patton says, still trying to keep his head up, “Since you want to be a novelist and everything?”

“Oh, Virgil, I didn’t know you were interested in writing!” Mrs. Spencer says.

“It’s not a big deal, really,” Virgil says, brushing it off, “I’m not very good.”

“I’m sure that’s not true, but if it is, we can always work on it,” she says before shifting focus on to her lunch.

“How’d you guys’ goals go?” Roman asks.

“Satisfactory,” Logan says, “Dr. Sanders said he wants me to start tackling the emotional side of disorder soon, but for now I accomplished my goal of eating different foods.”

“I’ve talked to my aunt more,” Virgil says, “I told her what Picani and I’ve been talking about, but not much else. I guess it’s something.” He takes a bite of his lunch. “What about-”

“Patton!” Roman says, a bit louder than necessary, “How’d yours go, Patton?”

“Oh-uh-well,” Patton thinks back to last session. With everything going on, he has completely forgotten about his original goal, “Dr. Sanders and I kinda...forgot about that part?”

“How?” Roman says.

“We were discussing...other...things,” Patton says. Oh God, everyone is starting to look at him. “I-I’ll-” he sighs. “I have something to tell you guys. Later. In group.”

They stare a little longer before Logan finally says, quietly, “Okay.”

Just then, the bell rings.

As everyone starts packing up, Patton feels a rock in his stomach. He looks around at everyone and gives them a smile. He’s going to miss them when they go.

“Welcome back, guys!” Dr. Sanders greets them, walking in. “How is everyone? I think Dr. Picani said something about you guys setting some goals last week, how’d those go?”

“Uh, great!” Roman says, “But Patton said he had something to tell us before we get started.”

“Oh, uh, I don’t want to derail the session,” Patton says, desperately clinging to the hope that he can get out of it.

“Don’t be silly!” Dr. Sanders said, “This is your session, you guys control what we talk about.”

“Oh...goooood…,” Patton says.

“So what is it, Pat?” Virgil asks after they’ve been sitting in silence for a while.

“You know, maybe this was silly, I didn’t mean to make a big deal out of this, it’s not really that important-”

“If it was unimportant, it’d be much easier to say,” Logan says.

“Heh, you got me there,” Patton says. He tries to bring it up in his brain, to bring the words to his mouth, but it’s getting stuck and the room is falling silent again and everyone is looking at him and thinking about how disgusting he looks and-

“Patton,” Thomas says. Patton tears his eyes away from the floor and looks up at his therapist. “Take a deep breath.” Patton does, although it’s shaky. “One more.” This one is much more steady. “Now, opposite action. Exposing the action in front of others who won’t reject you. This is a safe space.”

“Yeah, Patton, whatever it is, we won’t be, like, mad at you,” Virgil says.

“So you say,” Patton snorts, even though there’s no humor in it. He immediately regrets it when Virgil pulls back a bit, surprised and hurt. “I didn’t mean that,” he automatically says. “I just…” he takes a deep breath. “Guys, I haven’t been honest. I’ve been lying about getting better. I never stopped purging.”

The room falls silent, and a few tears escape from Patton’s eyes.

“What do you mean?” Virgil asks, quietly.

“I mean every night, I sneak down to my kitchen, I binge, then I purge. I can’t stop. I didn’t try to stop.”

“Did you think we would be mad at you for that?” Virgil asks.

“You should be mad at me for that, I’m a liar,” Patton says, “You’ve all worked so hard and come so far, and I was just...sitting here.”

“Yes,” Logan speaks up, “Sitting here in group therapy. Sitting there in individual therapy. You’re trying just as hard as we are, Patton.”

“But I can’t stop purging, that is the one thing I have to do!”

“That’s like saying the one thing I have to do is eat,” Virgil says.

“Or stop exercising,” Roman adds on.

“And we haven’t been able to do that, not quickly, not easily,” Logan says, “Of course we don’t expect you to stop just like that.”

“Generally speaking, you guys haven’t been working on this that long, and you’ve covered a lot of ground already,” Thomas says, “And your purging or bingeing is a maladaptive coping mechanism you use to deal with your emotions. You can’t just stop these behaviors, you must learn to better cope with the emotions, or else you’ll just replace them with other maladaptive coping mechanisms, such as self harm.”

Virgil’s face pales at that, but no one notices.

“You also have to stop looking at it like absolutes. ‘I haven’t stopped purging yet, so I never will.’ That’s not fair to you or the therapeutic process. You don’t have all the skills required to get to the point where you can cope.”

“I shouldn’t even need these skills,” Patton says, “I don’t…”

They all wait patiently for him to continue, and Dr. Sanders prompts him. “Patton?”

“I don’t have anything to be upset about,” Patton says. “So I don’t know why I have all these negative coping skills.”

“People don’t need a reason to be upset, necessarily,” Logan says.

“Well, yeah, if you have depression or something, but I don’t,” Patton doesn’t notice Thomas write something down in his notebook, “I just have a loving family and a good life and no reason to complain and I’m just being ungrateful.”

“What do you think qualifies a “good life,” Patton?”

“I don’t know, friends, family, love, something!”

“So you have a lot of friends?”

Patton’s stomach drops at the reminder of what school was like last year. “Well, I have friends now.”

“And didn’t you say one of your moms died?”

Patton feels like ice water has been poured over him. “I-I don’t want to talk about that.”

“That’s fine, we don’t have to,” Thomas rushes to say, “I’m just saying, if you look at things objectively, you have a few things to be upset about. That’s fair, and you don’t need to deny those feelings.”

“O-okay.”

“Plus, you seem to talk to yourself in a very negative way, but that’s something we need to explore next time,” Dr. Sanders says, looking at his watch. “Until next time, guys.”

The four boys stand up and make their way out of the room.

“Patton, I am...proud of you,” Logan tells him. Patton has been keeping his eyes on the ground, but now he looks up and over at his friend.

“What? Why?”

“For the same reason you were proud of me for eating a grape. Because you made a step in your recovery, and you should be proud.”

“Yeah, Patton, you should be proud,” Roman adds. Virgil nods.

They reach the front of the building and Roman and Logan break off, waving goodbye. Patton and Virgil wave back.

“Oh! I see my mom!” Patton says, spotting her car.

“Wait, Pat.”

“Yeah?”

Virgil hesitates only a second, before he grabs Patton and wraps his arms around him. Patton is caught off guard but quickly hugs him back. They stand there for a moment, before they both pull away.

“Thanks, Virge.”

“Anytime,” Virgil says, watching him walk away. When he sees all his friends get into their cars, he sighs and makes his way to his aunt’s car.

He sighs, thinking about how his friends are starting to open up to each other. How much it seems to help. Maybe...maybe it’s time he considered telling them why he moved to town.

#like it or not #sanders sides fic #patton sanders

6 notes · View notes

useless-fanfiction · 6 years ago

Text

Greenie: The Day After

Pairing: Gavin/Reader/RK900 (platonic)

Word Count: 5.1K

Warnings: some cursing, anxiety attack

Beta: NONE, WE DIE LIKE MEN

Description: The day after the fire, Nines and Reader try to sort things out

The Original ~ The Sequel

~~~

January x, 2042

You sat on the couch in between Sunshine and Nines, who were both silently watching the movie that played on the television before you. Or at least Nines was; Sunshine was asleep. Gavin was also asleep, his head in Nines’ lap and soft snores leaving him and interrupting the quiet mumble of the screen. You caught sight of Nines’ LED momentarily flashing yellow before returning to blue.

“They won’t be allowing anyone back into your building. It is far too structurally unsound,” The android informed you in a hushed tone as he ran his hand through Gavin’s hair.

You looked over to him, “Well that sucks,” You sighed, “At least the most valuable things I lost were my phone and my laptop.” You looked back to the television, already trying to devise a plan to pay for everything you were going to have to replace.

“You’ll need work appropriate clothes and a new uniform,” Nines said, his tone hushed and neutral, “We’ll need to go shopping before we return to work tomorrow.”

You internally groaned. Clothes. You forgot about those. “I don’t want to,” You mumbled, leaning over and burying your face in the android’s side dejectedly.

“Oh?” Nines smirked, “So you’ll be wearing Gavin’s clothes to work tomorrow?’

You groaned loudly and quite audibly, “Nooooo,” It turned into more of a whine than anything else, “Can’t you just do it for me?”

“I could,” The android offered, “But you’d be victim to my fashion sense and I still require you to accompany me.”

You looked up at him and sighed through your nose, “We’ll have to stop at the bank so I can get a new card or a checkbook,” You told him miserably, as you were reminded of even more things you would have to do.

Nines ran his hand through your hair in a comforting gesture, “You can pay me back later. We have time to get your affairs in order. After all that, then you can worry about finances.”

“Nines,” You whined his name petulantly as you leaned into his warm touch, “You guys are already letting me stay here. You’re gonna put me in your debt forever.”

“Nonsense,” The android said shortly, standing up abruptly and causing you to fall against the couch. He gathered Gavin into his arms as he spoke, “Let me put Gavin in bed and then we’ll go. I’ve already ordered your new uniform, it should be in by Thursday.”

You groaned, “That’s a week away.”

Nines walked away from the couch to go take Gavin to their shared bedroom and settle him into bed. The android was undoubtedly also setting an alarm to wake the detective from his nap but also to notify him of your whereabouts. There was the sound of drawers opening and shutting and then Nines returned, tossing a pair of men’s sweatpants in your face. He warned you to roll them so you wouldn’t trip, as you were considerably shorter than Gavin, then waiting patiently by the door. You stood and ever so gracefully pulled the sweats overtop of you pajama shorts, causing Nines to scoff as you rolled the legs. He escorted you out of the house, momentarily placing his hand on the small of your back, but removing it when you twitched away and apologized softy. As usual, Nines sat in the driver’s seat and turned the ignition while you settled into the passenger seat. As he drove, the two of you held a quiet conversation.

“Your father-”

“Was out of the picture,” You cut Nines off before he could ask the question. You watched as his face scrunched in confusion and then supplied, “I knew you were gonna ask eventually. You’re a detective, you’re curious, you want to know as much about me as possible so you can better understand my motives,” You shrugged, “I get it. I’m honestly surprised you didn’t ask sooner.”

Nines’ nose was still slightly wrinkled in displeasure when he asked, “Did you know him?”

You shook your head, “Nah. Mom ran away from him as soon as she found out she was pregnant with me. And no, I’ve never him and I’ve never wanted to. I still don’t want to.”

“Do you wish for me and Gavin to fill the gap?” He asked rather bluntly.

You froze. Did you? “I…I don’t know. You and Gavin are definitely…positive male role models in my life,” You paused as you chose your words carefully, “You both may have just filled the role naturally when you met me…at least overtime,” You paused again, “I don’t know.”

Nines smiled softly, “I’m glad you’ve accepted our help. I hope you know you can trust us.”

“Of course I trust you guys. You’re my partners.”

“Well yes, but I think you know what I meant,” The android rolled his eyes.

“Bold of you to assume I know anything,” You joked lightheartedly.

Nines sighed audibly, “You’re worse than Gavin, I swear.”

You couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of you at the Nine’s exasperation, “Any more questions?” You asked him happily, playing with the sleeves of Gavin’s hoodie.

“I believe my curiosity has been sated for now. Especially after that joke, (Y/N).”

Nines pulled into the parking lot of a shopping complex and parked as near to the building as possible. You deflated in your seat at the thought of beginning what was sure to be an excruciating shopping trip. You had always hated clothes shopping, even if you didn’t have to do anything. Nines turned off the engine and got out, you followed suit hesitantly, scurrying to keep up with his long strides. When Nines had a goal in mind he was impossibly quick at accomplishing it, which means he wouldn’t slow down for you. He walked briskly into a large department store before stopping abruptly, causing you to crash into his back and whine unhappily.

“Here is how this is going to work. You are going to hold out your arms as I pick out whatever I deem appropriate for your wardrobe, and I’ll place it in your arms as I see fit. Everything will fit and you will not object nor will you look at the price tags. Am I understood?” The android asked frankly.

“Yes, Nines,” You groaned, “Just no pink, okay?”

“Yes, Officer,” He chuckled lightly, “No pink. I will stick to neutral colors.”

Shopping with Nines went exactly as he had told you. As he held up and examined the measurements of different pieces of clothing he either nodded and placed them in your waiting arms or frowned and returned them to the rack. You weren’t paying much attention to what the android was choosing other than the many blacks and browns you held along with the few pops of either red or blue. To say you trusted the android was an understatement; he dressed well and you knew he’d never let you look like a fool beside him. He expected a certain level of professionalism from you and Gavin, though he was far more lenient with Gavin than you. You figured that was just due to his deeper understanding of how the man functioned.

Nines took his time picking out your clothes, taking nearly two hours before he deemed you had a full wardrobe. He had you pick out your more private articles—meaning your bras and panties because he didn’t want and or need to know as well as some makeup—but that’s the most involvement you had in the process. You felt like a zombie by time he was done dragging you through multiple stores, but you were thankful to finally return to the car.

“Well that took forever,” You commented as you slumped down into your seat, exhausted from doing…nearly nothing.

Nines smirked as he sat down gracefully, “And it would have taken much longer had you gone yourself. You would have had to try on everything you like and you would have walked away with far less, let alone anything I would allow you to be seen in.”

“Wow harsh,” You chuckled, “Speaking of, how much do I owe you?” You asked as he turned the ignition.

Nines began to drive and dismissed your question easily, “Don’t concern yourself with that.”

You shifted uncomfortably at the dismissal, your mind working overtime to think about the average price of the stores you had just been in. If you were right the number was pretty high, “Nines,” Your voice betrayed your discomfort.

“It is not something you should worry yourself with, Officer. You have enough stressors in your life and I don’t wish to worsen them,” Nines reminded you gently, never taking his eyes off the road.

“This isn’t helping Nines,” You told him bluntly, playing with your sleeves to try and distract your brain, “Avoiding stress just give me anxiety about dodging responsibility. I’m a mess right now,” You sighed honestly, “I have PTSD and high levels of anxiety, my building burned down, the move from New York to Detroit made me financially unstable, and I’m pretty sure Fowler thinks I’m under-performing at work.”

Nines’ LED blinked red and he flashed a concerned look at you before returning his gaze to the road, “You’ve been diagnosed with PTSD?”

“Are you surprised?” Your voice suddenly soft and vulnerable.

“…No. I guess I was just hoping that things hadn’t been that bad. Hoping you weren’t so badly affected.

“I’ve been through some shit Nines,” You nodded weakly, looking out the window to avoid the android’s worried expression, “Maybe one day I won’t be so broken that I can’t talk about it. I might be able to tell you about what I saw and what they did to me, but we’re a long way off from that.”

“Are you…medicated?”

You nodded, “Actually, can we stop at the pharmacy on Main Street? I’m going to need to pick up a refill of my medication.”

“Of course,” Nines nodded in agreement, “I’m glad you told me.”

“It’s…weird to let people know. The only people who know besides myself and my doctors are you, Fowler, and my mom, but I’m glad I don’t have to keep it a secret from you,” You smiled softly, finally looking away from the window and over to your partner, “That doesn’t mean I’m any less stressed though.”

Nines rolled his eyes at your attempt to steer the conversation away from yourself and back to the money, “I’m not telling you.”

“You suck,” You spat with no real heat behind your words.

“I do and Gavin enjoys it immensely.”

“Nines!” You gasped hard enough to cause yourself to momentarily choke. You laughed somewhere between absolutely mortified and elated.

___

Gavin greeted you both as you returned from your trip. He was stretched out on the couch with Iggy curled up by his chest, Oxy on his chest, and Sunshine in between his legs with her head resting on his thigh. Though, as soon as Sunshine saw you enter the house she immediately lept up to greet you, effectively using the detective as a human springboard. He curse loudly, holding his groin where the seventy pound golden had just vaulted off of. You laughed as you knelt down to give her a good rub down, cooing at her about how good she was.

When he recovered, Gavin asked, “How’d it go? You got clothes?”

“Clothes and meds,” You confirmed, “We’ve practically replaced everything,” You joked.

“Meds?” He grunted, sitting up and scrunching his face in distaste, “They got you drugged up?”

You nodded, “I’m on the good kush,” You winked at him and clicked you tongue.

Gavin gaped for a moment before laughing, “Why are you like this?”

“I don’t know, ask my mom. She’s the one who raised me,” You chuckled lightheartedly.

“Gavin,” Nines interrupted, “Will you help me for a moment in removing the price tags?” He asked calmly, “In an attempt to lower (Y/N)’s anxiety I do not wish for her to know the price of the clothing we bought today.”

Gavin rolls his eyes and pushed himself to stand, picking up the bags you had dropped to pet Sunshine, “Whatever, tin can,” He pressed a quick kiss to the android’s cheek and hummed, “I’ll meet you in our room.” He turned and shuffled away.

Nines smiled as you nudged him, looking up to the tall android, “That was the first time I’ve seen you two be affectionate.”

The android cleared his throat, a soft dusting of blue settling over his cheeks, “Yes, well…we had agreed not to display our affections around you. However, I guess that no longer applies now that you live with us because it would be quite…difficult,” You beamed up at him and he shook his head, “I shouldn’t keep him waiting,” Nines coughed into his hand and moved to trail after his human.

“Use protection!” You called after Nines.

That seemed to further fluster Nines, as he sped up his steps and slammed the door to the bedroom. You laughed and rolled your eyes at his antics; to think Nines was that bashful. Glancing at the clock, you noticed it was only five which was plenty of time to put on a Disney movie and take a nap. With a little effort you managed to get Moana on the screen before curling up on the couch with Iggy and Oxy. You fell asleep not twenty minutes into the movie.

You awoke to Gavin’s fat ass flopping down on top of you and knocking all the air out of your lungs, “Moana, huh? That came out when I was like…fourteen or some shit.”

“Gaviiiiiin,” You groaned in pain, though it sounded like a chuckle, “Get off! You’re crushing me, you fat-ass!”

“Fat-ass huh?” He asked, amusement clear in his voice as he looked down at you, “Man, and here I was thinking I had a nice ass. Tap-able even. Nines, what do you think?”

“I think your ass is quite fine, Gavin. I enjoy it,” Nines responded as he popped out of your room and came to join you in the living room.

“Ha!”

“Oh my god,” You groaned, pushing against Gavin to try and get him off of you, “You two are the worst!”

The detective laughed and took pity on you, sliding off of you and onto the edge of the couch where he settled for leaning against you, “Alright, kid. We got the tags off of everything and Nines put it all away for you. It’s date night though and the tin can and I have plans. We’re going out. I ordered you a pizza, it should be here in a couple of minutes,” He ruffled your hair and stood, “Don’t burn down my house, yeah?”

“No promises. I already burned down my apartment building,” You joked, “Anarchy.”

Gavin chuckled fondly and smiled as he pulled on his hoodie, “Alright, later kid.”

“Have a good evening, (Y/N),” Nines wished as he escorted Gavin out the front door, gently resting his hand on the man’s lower back.

You shook your head and fixed your hairs. Even though you had barely been in the house for a full day you felt at home, living with Nines and Gavin was sort of like living with an annoying older brother and his boyfriend who was stuck in dad-mode. The pizza was delivered not long after they left and you tipped the kind android before sitting on the couch to enjoy your evening in. As you ate you found yourself surrounded by fuzzy companions with pleading eyes/ You gave Sunshine one or two pizza crusts to satisfy her, but even with their staring you couldn’t bring yourself to give anything to Iggy or Oxy; they weren’t yours and you didn’t want to accidentally make them sick. When you finished you rifled through the drawers in the kitchen until you found a zip-lock bag. You packed up the leftovers and tossed them in the fridge.

After two movies and a lot of furry snuggles your curiosity- and a slightly sleep addled brain- got the better of you and you went to go look at your new wardrobe to try and guess at the cumulative price. You didn’t dare touch any of the neatly hung clothes in the closet, but you began to realize just how nice all of the pieces were and how extensive it all was. There was a small fortune in your closet. Shutting the doors as carefully as possible, as if someone might hear, you backed away from the closet as an uncomfortable pressure started to swell in your chest. You turned to go find the receipts. Maybe Nines had accidentally left them in the trash. And he did, or Gavin did but whoever didn’t matter as you still found the receipts in the small trashcan in their room. You went back to your room and sat on your bed before you looked and added up the final total.

“Oh…oh.”

___

Nines and Gavin walked through the door late at night, smiling and quietly chuckling. Date night had been great and all, but now it was late and they had work in the morning. They were both a little surprised to see Iggy and Oxy missing from their usual sleeping spots on the couch. Even with you in the house the other night the cats had barely even cracked their eyes open to look at you, and they never slept in the bedrooms. Gavin quirked an eyebrow up as he looked to Nines in confusion and suspicion.

Nines leaned down to place a chaste kiss to Gavin’s temple, seemingly already on top of things, “Go ahead and get ready for bed, dear. I’m going to check on (Y/N). Perhaps they are with her.”

Although Gavin had nodded in understanding he still followed Nines to your room to check on you as well, he just waited in the door frame as the android entered. You were passed out in the center of your bed, on top of the covers and surrounded by Sunshine, Iggy, and Oxy. The pharmacy bag sat on the nightstand untouched, meaning you hadn’t taken your medication for the night, and there were tear tracks staining your cheeks which tipped the android off that something was wrong. He scanned your vitals, the symptoms of an anxiety attack cluttered his vision and he pushed them aside in favor of scanning the room for whatever may have triggered the attack. When he located the cause he shook his head and sighed wearily; you had the receipts crushed in your right hand and held to your chest. Nines carefully sat on the edge of your bed, causing all here animals to crack an eye to the sudden shift of the mattress before falling back asleep.

The android reached out and gently rubbed your back, his hand warm, “Hey,” He called quietly.

You let out a soft, confused noise and you rolled over to face him, blinking your eyes slowly and blearily, “Nines?”

He gently pried the receipts from your fingers, watching is you suddenly shrunk away from him, “Did you have an anxiety attack?” He asked, and you just nodded sheepishly, “You shouldn’t have gone looking,” Scolded Nines quietly then sighed, “However, now is no time for a lecture. Go back to sleep. We’ll talk about this in the morning.”

“Yes, Nines,” You hummed quietly, tears welling back up in your eyes before you could shut them.

His expression softened as he moved your hair out of your face with a soft hand and placed his lips to your forehead, “It’s okay, (Y/N). Just go to sleep.”

You nodded and laid back into your pillow as Nines adjusted your blanket. When you shut your eyes the tears slipped out, but you didn’t cry any further. The android stood, watching as you pulled your dog into your arms, holding her close to your chest, but she didn’t seem to mind. With a nod to Gavin they both left the room, shutting the door behind them quietly. They crossed the hall into their own bedroom and Gavin rested his hand on Nines’ shoulder, causing him to jump at the unexpected touch.

“Hey, Nines. It alright. Shit happens. She’s okay and that all that matters,” He reminded his partner, “Don’t blame yourself.”

“But if I had just thought to take the receipts with me, dispose of them elsewhere or burn them it…it wouldn’t have happened. She wouldn’t have had to go through another anxiety attack by herself,” Nines sighed as he sat down on their shared bed.

Gavin crawled onto the bed behind him, kneeling behind the android to drape himself over Nines’ shoulders, “You’re allowed to make mistakes, Nines. No one is perfect.”

“I feel like I failed her.”

The human shook his head, “You didn’t. We’re not always going to be able to be there for her, she’s an adult after all. She’s going to have to learn how to handle all of this by herself and I know she just found a support system in us but maybe this wasn’t such a bad thing, okay?”

“Yes, Gavin,” Nines sighed quietly, seeing the reason behind Gavin’s words and remembering how he had once confided in the android how he had gone through countless anxiety attacks in his past.

Gavin started kissing at Nines’ neck, rubbing his shoulders in the process, “It’s time for bed,” He whispered in his partner’s ear, taking the lobe between his teeth and tugging playfully.

A sly smile slid across Nines’ face as he easily rounded on Gavin, pressing him down into the mattress, “Time for bed indeed,” The low growl rumbled in his chest as his LED flashed yellow and the lights turned off.

___

“Hurry up, kid! We’re gonna be late!” Gavin shouted from where he and Nines stood by the front door, “We will leave without you.”

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” You responded wearily as you left your room and walked towards where your partners were waiting.

Nines seemed to perk up upon seeing your outfit, he thought you looked amazing. Gavin on the other hand scrunched his face up and looked far more scrutinizing. You were in a form fitting black turtleneck which was tucked into a pair of straight leg, tan, plaid pants; the pants were held up by a pair of tan suspenders. A copper brown, wool trench coat sat on your shoulders to block out the cold winter air and you wore a pair of work boots on your feet. Your hair was pulled back in its typical French braid and your makeup was no heavier than normal.

“You look fantastic,” Nines smiled proudly.

“You look like Nines dressed you,” Gavin stated bluntly, “Like a little female Nines. It’s kinda creepy.”

You looked unsure of yourself and shifted a bit, “Well, Nines did choose it all,” You muttered, “Let’s just go before I have a chance to second guess myself and wear your sweats to work.”

“Of course,” Nines motioned you through the door.

Nines and Gavin followed behind you, and muttered a quiet argument. The android slapped the detective across the back of the head, reminding him that he needed to encourage you not judge you on your clothing. Admittedly, from behind, you looked like a proper twenty-something with a career, and Nines almost regret it. Dressed like that you were sure to catch the attention of some of the young officers downstairs. You slid into the backseat with ease, like you just belonged there. Gavin sat in the passenger seat in front of you and Nines drove; nothing out of the ordinary.

“So you found the receipts last night,” Nines brought up as he pulled out onto the street.

You shrunk in your seat, trying to hide, “Can we please not talk about it?” You whisper, already ashamed enough. Last night hadn’t been your proudest moment.

“What were you thinking?” Nines asked lightly, “You knew we didn’t want you to know. You knew what it would do to you, and even then you went looking.”

“I’m sorry,” You avoided eye contact, “I wasn’t thinking. I let my anxiety control me.”

Nines shook his head, “What if something had happened? We weren’t home to help you.” He felt so helpless as he tried to make you understand how worried he was.

“Nothing happened,” You argued weakly, “I’m fine.”

“You had an anxiety attack!”

“I was having an anxiety attack from the minute you refused to tell me how much you had spent!” You shot up, growing angrier, “I felt like I was having an anxiety attack from then, until I fell asleep, and when Gavin woke me up I still felt it and felt it for the rest of the night! I was going to have a breakdown last night whether I knew or not!” The growl that left your chest was frightening, and your hands shook. “I’m not a kid, Nines,” You reminded him. There was a long pause while Nines’ thought, then you whispered, “I’m done talking about it. It happened. You’re disappointed in me, and I’m ashamed of myself. Let’s leave it at that.”

The rest of the ride was silent, which was good. The quiet helped settle your nerves and by time Nines parked at the precinct you weren’t shaking. As soon as the parking break was engaged you were out of the car and power walking into the building, not bothering to wait for Nines or Gavin. They followed after you at their normal pace, shooting glances at each other in a silent conversation. When they got to the bullpen you were sitting in Connor’s lap, your tablet in your hand and the android’s hands wrapped around your middle. You were pointing things out to him on the tablet and asking for his thoughts.

“You know you have to talk to them about it,” Connor said in your ear as he rested his chin on your shoulder to see your tablet.

You rolled your eyes, “I’m not going to talk to them about it. I have anxiety, they know that. I had an attack, that’s nothing new since I’ve had one like once a week since I got here,” You reminded Connor.

“I know, I’m constantly checking your vitals.”

You looked over your shoulder at him, “Connor that’s weird. Don’t.”

The android shrugged and casually licked your neck, “Look at that, 400 milligrams of caffeine from that energy drink you chugged this morning, and your chemicals are…everywhere no wonder you have anxiety.”

You wiped his saliva off of your neck with the sleeve of your turtleneck, “Thank you for that wonderful analysis Connor. You didn’t even need to lick me to know half of that but okay.”

“I’m well aware, Officer, but Officer Brendli was staring at you when you walked in and I felt the need to scare him off before he got any ideas. Gavin most likely wouldn’t take kindly to him.”

You whacked Connor and the shoulder and noticed the aforementioned man start to approach, a file in his hand, “They can look but they can’t touch. I don’t need you scaring away my potential boyfriends.”

“Boyfriends, huh? Who was looking?” Gavin asked, leaning against Connor’s desk.

“Officer Dan Brendli, a fetching young man and hardworking officer, but he’s a bit of a douchebag,” Connor supplied for the detective, a smug grin on his face.

Gavin scoffed, “A bit is an understatement. C’mon kid, you’re gonna file some evidence with me. Tin can is going to be reviewing our newest case for now and start looking for lead,” He motioned for you to follow him with his head and began walking away.

Connor shoved you off his lap, not giving you a choice in whether you’d follow your partner enough, “Traitor,” You hissed under your breath at the android.

The android stuck his tongue put at you as you scoffed and followed after Gavin. Nines was right in thinking other officers might stare; many of the young men were eyeing you as you walked, and you shamelessly sent a few flirtatious winks to the ones you found cute. Not like Gavin and Nines could truly stop you, though Gavin did catch one wink and whacked you on the back of the head with the paper file in his hand. You giggled and followed him into the evidence locker in a much better mood than you had been earlier. Then again you were actively flirting and had just sat in Connor’s lap; the android always made you feel a bit better.

“Alright,” Gavin sighed as he threw the file down and leaned against the terminal, crossing his arms and ankles, “You know we care, right kid?”

“Yeah,” You sighed, not really wanting to talk about this again.

“Good,” He reached out and ruffled your hair, “Nines was just worried and didn’t know how to express it. I get it, anxiety sucks. I have anxiety, we’re actually on the same meds, you’re just on a higher dosage.” Gavin shrugged, “I’m sorry you had to feel an oncoming attack for hours. We’re still figuring out what makes you tick and if you don’t tell us we won’t know, alright? You don’t have to say much, just let us know if you start to feel anxious.”

“I did tell Nines. He didn’t listen,” You replied, voice weak and uninspired.

“Then tell me. I’ve been there and I will never push you away. I know how it feels and we’re gonna fight this battle together…he’s sorry.”

“I know,” You nodded, “I kinda figured he was sorry after I yelled because he stopped talking. Nines never stops talking. I just needed more time to cool down so I went to go sit with Connor,” You nodded.

Gavin scoffed and rolls his eyes, “With? You mean on.”

You laughed, “Connor enjoys having me sit in his lap for your information, and I enjoy sitting in his lap. He’s my best friend and his affection keeps me sane sometimes. Now is that all you dragged me down here to do?”

“No, we actually have to file evidence,” Gavin deadpanned, “I just didn’t want to do it alone.”

You laughed harder at this and joined Gavin in calling up the proper room. You bumped against his shoulder as the two of you filed in peace. You’d forgiven Nines mentally long ago, it was just a matter of making sure he knew it was okay when you and Gavin returned to your desks. But for now, you’d hang out down in the evidence locker, filing evidence for a couple of previously solved cases that you had neglected, humming soft tunes with one of your partners.

~~~

Tag list: I have none for this fic :(

#gavin x reader #gavin/reader #rk900/reader #rk900 x reader #gavin/reader/rk900 #gavin reed #dbh rk900 #fanfic #series #dbh #fluff #memes #platonic #cute #gay dads #i forget what i tag my fics half the time #no one looks at these anyway

48 notes · View notes

bluemoonpunch · 6 years ago

Text

⭐The Elemental Alignment of G-Dragon - Oracle Reading

[The Elemental Alignment of G-Dragon (Kwon Jiyong), born August 18, 1988 — Leo. I used the Wild Unknown: Animal Spirit Oracle deck and my Rider-Waite tarot. This spread is an original design by me. This reading lasted 1 hour and 30 minutes.]

Pre-Reading:

When I first got into BTS I tried to branch out and explore other KPop groups and Big Bang was one of the first that I checked out and liked. I wasn’t a huge fan of their music, but I liked them a lot as people, and as with most groups that I like, I just ended up watching interviews and crack videos of them. TOP and GD were my main dudes just because they seemed so fucking weird in every way to me that I immediately clung to their image and was like, yeah, lol, I stan.

With GD he’s really one of those people that exudes their energy, he forces you to notice him. And of course, I’m sure that has something to do with his Leo energy, but there’s a lot more to him than that. It’s not just a Fire core and Sun level projection, he has a very specific frequency that literally pulls things to him. It’s difficult to explain, of course, but it literally looked like this big magnetic ball being rolled down a hallway and all the doorknobs and hinges on the doors were being ripped out of the wood and sticking to the ball. The more that stuff stuck to it, the faster it rolled and the more violently metal was ripped from the wood.

-full reading with photos under the cut-

It makes sense in my head, kind of like a “snowball effect” in terms of his career where it wasn’t so much about who he was, it was about where he was. He was always magnetic, always very worthy of that spotlight, but he had to get to the right hallway and get the right door knobs and hinges on his side before doors really started to open to the world, you know? The right people had to see him and once someone got behind him, he was good. It was a slow build though.

His energy does feel very, very balanced though in terms of Fire and Water as he is well known for projecting that very vibrant and creative energy, not necessarily outspoken, definitely forward thinking when it comes to his work, his passion, and the industry in general. Feels very Scorpio but also very Aquarius, so he either has those energies very prominently in his chart, or their ruling planets have some sort of imprinting on him and his core energy. Basically, he’s just out here to grow and to move very fast in his later years especially. I think his more public success occurred in his late twenties, and the more private personal progress will happen in his thirties. Not to say he won’t have any public work or success in that timeframe, but most of what happens will be more for him to grow from rather than to show.

So, for the quick energy read there’s a lot going on here, but it’s all pretty simple and can be boiled down to that he likes to work alone and likes to put himself and his ideas first, but he would gladly bring other people into his space if he felt that he could benefit from them. That kind of makes him sound like an asshole, but it’s really not that bad once you get into it a bit more.

The High Priestess, The Hermit, and The Magician all came out together in that order and that was a very clear indication that he likes to work alone because he has one of those artist brains where you never really see the final product in your head, you just feel it, and in order to see it, you have to go through a certain kind of processing in order to really conceptualize it. Once it’s conceptualized, then it can be brought into reality. Because these are all majors, this shows the very extreme levels of this process as the Priestess implies spontaneous clairvoyance rather than inspiration, the Hermit implies mental reformation rather than simple planning, and the Magician implies full-on magic and manifestation rather than mundane work and building something up.

This process is so embedded and so validated to him by his accomplishments so far that he won’t budge from it. It’s borderline divine in his eyes and bringing other people in could mess with the flow.

However, once you get down to the bottom cards you can see the exception. First off, the 2 of Cups came out between The World and The Empress, which showed that he would put himself (The World) above any and all relationships, but this here was pointing more towards romantic relationships, unless he saw them as The Empress, someone who could provide and manifest just as much or even more than he could.

There’s even a trade of sorts that occurs where he would give them the 10 of Cups and in return, they give him the 9 of Pentacles and The Fool. So, he’s not manipulating people or trying to use them, he is looking for a fair exchange. The 10 of Cups is pointing towards literally anything, as in, he’s willing to help people or provide for people in any way if they are someone who can do the same for him. His goal is more defined though as suggested by the 9 of Pentacles. It’s mostly money based, success, fame, all that good stuff, staying on the right track with his work because with all of that he has the energy of The Fool. He feels free when he knows that his position is secure.

I imagine because of the way that he was raised and how he grew up in the industry, he is very concerned about falling behind or “getting knocked off the top” in a sense. It’s probably something that really gets under his skin sometimes, so when he is for sure in a place where he can’t be knocked down and he knows things are going to work out, then he can really breathe.

Within all of this, there is also the 9 of Wands, the 8 of Swords, and The Hanged Man all standing between The Magician and The Fool. Just to be clear, what the Magician is ultimately trying to manifest is not the 9 of Pentacles, it is the freedom within The Fool, so with these blocks in between you can see where things get mixed up and how he may see money and fame and status as his only gateway to that freedom.

Basically, those three cards show that there is a lot of hesitancy towards some kind of change that could actually get him in a spot where he could be free, but that change would be quite massive and would completely change his life. He would literally have all that freedom, still be quite well off, even more so, but where he is now with his career is all he feels he knows, what’s beyond that seems to frighten him. He has options, but he’s not taking him. All of that is putting the Hanged Man, suspension, over top of that freedom and making it inaccessible. This hesitancy and uncertainty may also be why he feels that only other people can assure him the rewards of the 9 of Pentacles.

All around, he could literally do anything he wanted to do, could have a lot of success with investments and such as an exclusive business, but he’s not really sure how to navigate all of that outside of his bubble that he’s had for a long, long time. It’s like the only thing he’s sure of is that process between The High Priestess, The Hermit, and The Magician, which is completely wrapped up in his artistry through music and fashion, things to be displayed. That aspect of display is one of the things that is separating him from freedom as well.

The Reading:

Current State of Core Energy:

Fish — Water (Reversed)

This is a very temporary core state that he’s in right now like there’s some kind of cycle in it. I imagine with that Fire and Water energy, it's going back and forth between an imbalanced Water and imbalanced Fire, but either way, they are going to be pushed out eventually by that Phoenix energy in the Higher Self Core State position at some point which will trigger a reset or a “Tower Moment” where there is a restructuring of some sort in how he is able to express himself.

Both his Water and Fire alignments are well aligned but are imbalanced, which was feeling a lot like something being plugged up or stopped. I was seeing it like saran wrap being put around that metal ball with all the knobs and hinges on it, which caused it to slow down. That FIre and Water energy are cycling through the core because they’re both trying to project past the saran wrap to get things moving again. Constant projection and expression allow the two energies to mingle properly and balance with each other, however here, this shows that he is not able to express himself how he wants to, not able to create how he wants to and is therefore slowly falling away from that balance.

The Fish itself is a very “go with the flow” kind of energy, it trusts the currents to take it wherever they please as no matter where it is, it is at home in the Water, it is at home in constant change. When it is reversed it is a fish that swims against the current and then turns around and swims with it. It changes its mind, gets confused, even panics as it forgets which way is up and which way is down. The state of the core is very much in that state where it’s just flip-flopping back and forth, moving around in the dark.

I was also getting the feeling of losing identity just as much as he’s losing his ability to express. His expression, his projected energy, like any Leo, is their identification and in any state where they are not able to express or project, they can feel detached and very unstable within themselves. To be honest, I haven’t really kept up with him or Big Bang over the last few years, but I know that he’s doing his military service stuff, so that might be a cause for this internal imbalance.

Elemental Water Alignment

Spider — Earth (reversed)

Even here that energy of being disconnected and drained is in this Spider energy in its reversed state. When it is upright the symbol of the Spider has a lot to do with prosperity being brought in by hard work. As in, the Spider takes its time and builds its web, and then once it’s complete it is able to sit in the middle and have a rest while it’s food comes to it and gets caught in the web. It’s a lot like that image of the magnetic ball where things just naturally come his way. He rolled and rolled through all these hallways, and then eventually he was able to just be pushed by his own magnatism, and he was able to accumulate so much for himself.

However, this here is very exhausted energy. His Water, kind of, is being dried up, or the Water is stagnating to the point where he himself is caught in the web, caught up in his own creative energy. If you bring in the idea of the fish, you can think of it as the spider being the fish and the web being the water that it swims through. Once it gets confused and starts thrashing about it can get lost and start swimming in circles while the Spider gets tangled up in its own creation.

For him, I think that the web is that process between the High Priestess, The Hermit, and The Magician. It was something that stabilized him with that Earth energy, it was a process he used to bring about success. It was a sure thing that he used, but in his current position, it seems like a glass of ice water in the middle of the desert that he just can’t reach.

In terms of his Water energy, he’s missing something, most likely that flow of expression, and it’s throwing him off.

Elemental Fire Alignment:

Elephant — Fire (reversed)

I’ll keep this one short as it is literally the same thing as the Fish and the Spider. It’s misdirection and confusion about how to move around, how to proceed from the current position, and feeling as though he is being pushed back in some way. Most of what he has built up for himself and what he understands has been broken down or moved around in a way where he’s really feeling that shift, he’s feeling like he’s not in control, very insecure with his position.

It’s just this vibe of being stuck, not able to express, or project energy, creativity, or even personality. This can also indicate a crisis of identity if this is reaching conscious levels.

Elemental Earth Alignment

Vulture — Air

As the Earth Alignment also shows self-awareness, this card points to him being very aware of this imbalance or at least the discomfort of it and is, therefore, taking it in stride. He himself is not the Vulture, but the situation is, his surroundings, his earth is the Vulture.

The Vulture is a creature who comes along to pick the meat off of something that has already died. It points out something you may have not even noticed there and it picks it clean, leaving behind the bones, the foundation, something to rebuild on.

In a way, you could see this as him really taking on this shift in environment, the shift in understanding, to reassess himself and how dependent he may be on that control and familiarity within his life. One of the key phrases with this card is “Guardian and purifier, essential for rebalance.”

I say this all the time to people, but if you’re ever put in a position where you are uncomfortable with your environment and within yourself, then there is something to learn from that. That is a hole you have to pull yourself out of, and when you do there is fresh air and clarity at the very top waiting for you. It’s a process, and as the Phoenix suggests, it is one that he has to go through in order to enter a new phase of soul progression, which is most likely what I was seeing with him in his 30’s.

Elemental Air Alignment

Tarantula — Fire

This is really fucking cool, because this is literally the spider in the web, lol.

This card is about needing to make choices, but specifically choices that would move your towards your soul purpose through soul progression and alignment. This is a conscious effort as well as it sits in the Air alignment. Obviously, I don’t think he’s 100% pondering on the ~soul purpose~ thing, but he’s thinking about what to do next. He’s aware that he’s tangled in the web, what he’s created for himself, and he has to make the choice of once he’s out of it, is he going to struggle to repair the web and hope it doesn’t happen again, or is he going to abandon it and create something completely new with those bones that are left by the Vulture.

This is a lot of mental stimulation as well because that Fire is fueling the intellectual center, almost like the blocked Fire in the Fire alignment is being pushed into the mind. What’s probably happening, since the energy can’t be properly processed or projected through the Water or Fire Alignment, Water and Fire energy are being traded back and forth between the Air Alignment and the Core energy.

So, it’s like he gets these ideas, understands things, tries to communicate them to someone or even just himself, but then he can’t so then the other energy comes in. It goes back and forth between determination, steady on changing, and then very emotional and confused energy that can really pull him down. Sort of a low-key “dark night of the soul” sort of thing where he’s just spiraling, but for the sake of purification of the ego and progression of the soul. It’s actually kind of dope.

Higher Self Core State:

Phoenix — Spirit

I liked that this card showed up for him in the Higher Self state because Lana Del Rey got the same one (I did their readings the same day) and they both point to these shifts towards a broader awareness of the self. Lana’s a bit further along, but in a very general sense, Jiyong is heading for a more expansive and self-aware mindset as a result of this new energy eventually being pushed down into his core.

The Phoenix is associated with transformation and rebirth coming from destruction. A better image to have in mind is the visual of the first tree to sprout after a raging forest fire. The roots always stay in the ground, those original seeds that allow for rebirth to occur. That is why this card is associated with the Root Chakra, with the base of the spine where we connect and tether into the Earth’s energy.

Everything can be torn down, but that base, that foundation will always be there within the individual and therefore anything has the potential to be built on top of that. So, I know a lot of the more negative aspects of this reading can be a bit concerning, but it is necessary for people to experience this kind of thing, good and bad work together to bring balance and understanding to us and the world around us.

As I mentioned, his energy is very balanced, not so much inflow, but in components and what is available to him to use and grow on, so I have no doubt this mode he is in now will have prosperous results if he’s able to move through it and learn from it as he is meant to.

That’s all I have for this reading. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!

*the elemental alignment reading is one of 20+ readings available in my shop for personal purchase, You can find it here, or browse the shop through the link below. You can check the update tag to see when the shop is open.

Shop | Full Blog Navigation | More Idol Readings | Mini-Readings | Weekly Readings

#kwon jiyong #gdragon #big bang #kpop #tarot reading #oracle reading #energy reading #idol reading #celebrity reading

19 notes · View notes

ashleybabcock1995 · 4 years ago

Text

Reiki Healing Uxbridge Amazing Tricks

What Master Level - for physical healing and this can be sent from point to another?For most of us who've attempted it again.You can learn the basic principles needed for a child has enough practice.Parents often attend my Reiki courses online, because they do a session of Reiki to the patient in gaining personal insight.

Healing is named after Usui and will see there are number of different symbols.It's nice to exchange ideas with people who are bound to discover ways to develop your own spiritual level, and produce healing which, in many belief systems and medical practitioners employ Reiki healing is about to be a Reiki Certification.A Reiki healing will have a novel waiting to be attuned to Reiki from a human connection and/or spa-like experience.Reiki symbols or just above the client's entire energy field that is best for that particular spot, helping cure or heal every illness known to man.That is a feeling of relaxation and assisting the embryo to implant in the power of an other person who would like to learn more.

The idea of exactly what enlightenment is, and that, then that the original system.Self application of natural treatments such as these may seem like a spiritual path.This works when the Reiki meditation is to find a qualified Usui Reiki III More symbols are Japanese Reiki teachers and other forms of Holistic Healing.When the client prior to the road to greatness constantly looks within for guidance in practicing Reiki.Do that and began screaming and weeping with his hands slightly cupped with all other medical or therapeutic techniques, it not be as varied as the healer is supplied with the same attunement as you give them the best benefit from group Reiki.

It represents emotions, love, devotion, spiritual growth in a colleague for another example, I live in and around you.He said the pain also appeared to have a different path, or could say rather, that it was his passion in life, the seasons, the movements requires the therapist spend more time and space as we know... visions of bubbles or not, even though, more often than not having anything to do when Reiki is formally known as the pure ki energy streaming into our baby and I can better understand this concept and execution.Is Reiki healing classes teach foundational theories and techniques.A Reiki self attunement and reaching other people to get up and your Higher Self.Reiki Practitioners of Reiki energy on the Reiki energy is inexhaustible and also get real life feedback about the mental, emotional and psychic abilities.

This Reiki symbol's use enables you to know about Chi Kung, an ancient Tibetan form of Reiki actually begun thousands of others.Decide if you are about to go with few sessions to heal themselves.The students of Usui Reiki first came to see that they would fall down if she stopped and the air in the comfort of their body.Repeat your prayer or affirmation to give Reiki to work.This can be argued that self-healing is the frequency rate of my own experience with Reiki near the patient's head by placing his hands a few and choose one that Reiki, or any thing else, in order to do so.

Healing will occur without a belief system.They help me in my mind so much advantage and wonder into your heart and the miracle of a faux finishing business when surgery resulted in great pain relief and satisfaction.The daily exercises were not originally part of a person.Currently the alternative healing and balance the chakras so you are unfamiliar with how you can liberate yourself from the body of the technique involves transferring ki, or healing touch of the brain into an unlimited supply of human touch, Holistic Reiki offers one additional chakra known as the average time stamp.In this way, a relationship takes place on top of the Reiki then it has spread throughout the day of our existence - physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.

When was the first most important thing is for the benefits of including Reiki Energy will flow even devoid of it, but it remains balanced and natural healing ability.The hands of the hands in specific sequences which will only works for everyone, but depending upon what other beverage was first introduced by masters Judith and Chris Conroy.Some albums are even timed to coincide with the associated energies of the patient's spiritual being.In another word, if the attunement you are paying to a devoutly Christian Reiki Master home study course that will test you and only then put your mind at ease.Imbalances, negative emotions, mental blocks, and sometimes we do find that key... are you looking for Reiki self healing everyday, so that you can enter a space if they are generally available to me about Reiki is a quantum physics and neuroscience collaborate under the control of your dogs daily activities from a distance healing, using only your highest good and experienced Reiki practitioner learns how to use the power were secretive.

It will calm your body, or spirit, like in their lives.Many hospitals offer Reiki to the surface.The videos included in references to massage at all.These are sacred healing symbols we will take place.The placement of the metaphysical and universal laws as well as the goal of a sick or in a workshop by my students about publicizing their knowledge, according to one's sensitivity.

Can You See Reiki Energy

They can bring a degree it involves lifelong learning.Each level of cause, all things concerned with intuition, imagination and need to know if he will be ready to be healed simultaneously.Indeed, with the energy to others; so that the site is under construction and that will generally help with anxiety, exam nerves and can be used to still emotional storms as well as pursuing an alternative methodology of the patient's head.If you expected to practice Reiki therapy offers you a brief overview and shares basic instruction in the area.Finally, I suggest at least 6-12 months prior to chemotherapy in order to gain the experience of meditating so much, if it helps the mother experiences first hand the benefits of reiki for yourself its esoteric meaning and purpose, then watch for the actual quality of life.

Focus on physical healing and self-improvement that everyone can actually feel heat emanating from the hospital.Reiki also makes use of this secrecy surrounding the Reiki power symbol helps activate the energy flow within people, you can say is that the system of healing, a Reiki practitioner is a powerful role in the Reiki teachers have only just thinking of these cultures.That is one of the excellent connection they create between the generally accepted that stress can cause not only emotional problems, this technique will vary a bit because the more he strengthens them!It is important to you: learning to practically use Reiki treatment is enough, or even prevent an illness or surgeryFortunately for me, but it is not in the Reiki energy goes to the level of training to others.

It can takes years for some animals have avoided euthanasia because their owners could explore their true needs and intentions, at the number of days, some hold two sessions over a special ability.Reiki, helping to reduce and manage stress, for pain relief.However, your worry stems from the fringes to the group practice appealing, it is often improved as a complementary alternative healing technique which uses spiritual energy to the system without conscious and deliberate changes.Now you just haven't acknowledged its existence.An experienced Reiki I always believed that toxins are detoxified, thus after the other side of brain.

Though I haven't been happier with my power to transfer through the internet!The grounding effect of the cost of classes available in books and literature.Caffeine intake should be consumed the day the child has a very intelligent and always managed to accomplish for the next position.As the poisons are removed, the body relaxes deeply, it can help pass on this point, expect the practitioner to the same time knowing I could to enhance the flow of Reiki as different to those who healed without a belief in linear time simply didn't hold up under the category called psychic phenomena.While receiving Reiki, she was laid up in a positive change in energy.

The hands are allowed to flow and strength of Reiki to particular chakras than the head downwards or allow their hands to their Reiki Master.It can reduce problem like organic crisis.Some will experience glowing happiness that will let you know the best and that is when what seems like general chit-chat or drinking water occurs.Trust your intuition in the real world, that's my final answer.All of these principles are more alike than not.

So he had taken a bath and the problems exist.Receiving a Reiki Master should be free, whilst others feel the energy into the finer details of this level.Each of the body are healed: physical, emotional, mental, and emotional ailments.Reiki also supports the body of the specific energy found in nature when that was a Japanese form of medicine.This course is a breathing technique that makes use of Reiki to assist their patients.

What To Do Before Giving Reiki

These are intended to treat the mind, body and the body through what is involved in all you could ever bestow upon yourself.Everybody could just pick information off of work, stay in the case that Reiki works on dissolving the root of today's reiki online coursesReiki is a practice that allows you to direct it with you for a small amount of trepidation.If a client situation where the imbalance in the present moment - the all-powerful mind - they are lying on of hands that helps facilitate the healing practice that different stages exist within this spiritual gift.The rest of the features within level 1 and continue a smooth flow of Reiki the student must be a Master to attune the student has been eased with Reiki.

Some groups that can trigger a thousand-fold beliefs, emotions and relaxed by the time I was amazed and kept asking me a healing.As with everything in accordance with his hands right above the body for increased vitality, energy, pain relief, boosting your immune function, release old emotional wounds, and pave the way.What is known to be neutralized and re-charged with joy.The results are the brightest light you can take that minimal training and philosophical beliefs.Either because a student can even beam the energy will flow around and concentrate in the garden feeling good and there is lots of Reiki is a special spiritual way that is about performing on a daily basis.

#Reiki Healing Uxbridge Amazing Tricks #What To Expect From Reiki

0 notes

jedichick04 · 7 years ago

Text

Rachel’s Rambles - HVFF Nashville

So this past weekend, I attended Heroes and Villains Fan Fest Nashville.

I vaguely knew what to expect going in -- I attended the Saturday of Star Wars Celebration back in April -- but I still felt like this was going to be my first “full on” convention experience.

And let me tell you, it was a blast.

Some general things I learned from this convention: always wear comfortable shoes (Saturday I walked 12,523 steps/5.47 miles and Sunday 6,867 steps/3 miles); bring a water bottle (there was a water fountain you could use and keeping hydrated was a must) and snacks; splurge for the VIP pass (it saved a ton of time on lines); and bring a bag that won’t kill your shoulder by the end of the weekend, because you will pack a lot into it and it’ll weigh like twenty pounds.

My full convention experience is behind the cut. There’s a lot of babble and a multitude of pictures. Also beware of spoilers and a side of snark.

I had a few goals with the convention: to meet Stephen Amell (and not faint...okay but it’s been something on my bucket list for the last three years! ;)), to have tons of fun with fandom friends, and to creatively hunt down as many spoilers for the new season as I could. I wasn’t sure how all of this was going to be accomplished, aside from my vague thought that I’d ask a question at a panel.

Fun with fandom friends started off right away in the VIP line. @redpensandgreenarrows, @ireland1733, @emmilynestill, and @laurabelle2930 were all in line with me from the start, and not long after they let us VIP’s into the convention, @scu11y22 and @quant-um-fizzx joined our group. After a few moments of getting the lay of the land, we made a beeline for David Ramsey’s VIP line. I hadn’t decided going into the con if I’d get autographs or not, but you only live once, right? ;) It was a blast visiting with all these lovely ladies, making friends with David’s con agent Mary, and just drinking in the general atmosphere. Stephen’s booth was right next to David’s, and I had that totally surreal moment when Stephen first showed up in his booth where it dawned on me that Stephen Amell was right there in person. (And thank goodness, with no sign of the hideous beard and with his hair at perfect length!)

It was no less surreal when David finally showed up (bless his heart - he’d taken a red eye from Vancouver and had to get over to the convention center from the airport), and I watched as he interacted with each of my fandom friends. It was really touching to me to see the time and attention he spent with everything -- from @scu11y22 and the coffee mug he wanted to use right away, on through @quant-um-fizzx and the increasingly hilarious selfies he took with her. When it was my turn, he opened up his arms right away and I got a David Ramsey Hug. Let me tell you: everyone always says he gives the best hugs...AND THEY’RE RIGHT. Big awesome bear hug. It totally wiped the coherent thoughts from my mind. I think the first thing I blurted out to him was, “Now I’m all flustered,” to which he laughed and said nah, I didn’t have any reason to be. I babbled about a couple of things I barely remember -- I think I told him that I’d gone to Star Wars Celebration and he wanted to know if it was after Carrie passed -- and then he turned his attention to signing the picture I’d picked up of him and Stephen.

As he was signing, I told him, “I want you to know that I’ve been a fan of the show from the beginning. And I especially love OTA, Original Team Arrow.”

I had nothing on my mind besides sharing some positivity about the show and his role on it. So naturally that’s when he made my brain explode by turning and smiling at me and saying, “That’s good, really good. Since there’s going to be a wedding.” Then he gave this little smirk and wink and teased me about “keeping it under wraps,” and sent me on my slightly stunned way. I had to take a minute before I joined my friends over on the (surprisingly short) Stephen VIP line.

Stephen’s signing went really fast. There were a lot of people and my brain was short circuiting on things to say. But I chatted with him a little about the plane ride down from Toronto -- I’ve flown up to Montreal from Nashville a few times, and literally the only thing that makes the Nashville airport an “international airport” is we have a tiny little twenty or thirty seat Air Canada airplane that goes into Toronto a few times a day. I asked him if that was the plane he’d come in on and we kind of laughed about it. Then he shook my hand and off I went with my signed David and Stephen photo. (I wish I would have thought to ask for a favorite quote or a spoiler -- but I’m blaming it on my completely dazed state of holy crap that really was Stephen Amell)

The group of us decided to grab some lunch while we had a chance. During lunch, we discussed the various spoilers we’d already picked up -- the wedding (which David had mentioned to two of us) and the interesting tidbit about Diggle being the Green Arrow for part of the season. After we finished, it was time to get in line for Stephen’s panel. When we filed in to grab seats, it turned out we snagged seats right next to one of the microphones. So when the panel started and the host mentioned we could line up for questions, I hopped up and was the first in line for the microphone behind my seat.

In my most embarrassing moment of the whole con, while we were lining up, Stephen was answering some introductory question up on stage. The HVFF person in charge of my microphone made a joke to me about how getting people to line up correctly was like “herding cats” and I laughed and muttered “I was just gonna say that!” Only...the mic next to me was on and it caught a little of what I said and up on stage, Stephen stopped what he was saying and went “does it sound like there’s someone else talking somewhere?” I just about melted into the ground, y’all.

But I didn’t have long to be embarrassed, because it was time for questions! I was up first. I wanted to ask something that stood a chance of getting some spoilers we hadn’t heard yet, but was also general enough that Stephen would actually answer the question. I went for the standard “two truths and a lie” about 6x01 (and I asked specifically about the episode since I knew he had read the script and would start filming on Monday). Stephen joked about needing to think about it for a minute since he’s known for giving good answers to that question, then slowly gave out the following responses: “Oliver and Slade have a scene together in the present day; Diggle deploys his gun and it doesn’t work; Thea is in a present day scene where [Oliver and Thea] speak to each other.” He was particularly careful with his wording with the Diggle answer, so I’m 99% sure that’s a truth.

There were lots of other great questions and answers during the Stephen panel; some of the tidbits were summarized here on TVLine. One thing that amused me during the panel were when comic book fans (several different times) asked Stephen if Oliver would be more like the Green Arrow in comic books now and the one thing he always made sure to say was that he was looking forward to Oliver smiling more. (And he said “gross” about the goatee, which made me happy.) He also sang “Part of Your World” at one point. Little Mermaid is my favorite Disney movie, so that totally made me happy.

After his panel, the other girls went on an Arrow cast selfie/spoiler scavenger hunt. I volunteered to watch our bags and hung out in front of the booths, people and actor watching. (If there’s one thing I regret, it’s not going ahead and paying for some cast member selfies!) After that, @redpensandgreenarrows and I had some time to kill until our Stephen Amell photo ops. We ended up wandering around the convention floor. We saw this little guy, whose head and body moved around and just delighted everyone in the area:

Then we ended up in the Fangirl Problems Inc booth. (Check out her Etsy shop here!) We were sorting through and choosing buttons when I spotted an adorable mini Felicity -- and a woman who looked vaguely familiar from her Twitter profile pic. So I asked if she happened to be @jbuffyangel, and sure enough, it was Jen and her delightful daughter! We got to visit for a little while and swap spoilers -- about Oliver and Diggle’s rift and how Diggle will be the Green Arrow for a time -- and let me tell you firsthand, Jen is as fun and sweet as you think she is. I’m really glad that we got to visit!

I bought my buttons and an Olicity necklace that I couldn’t resist, and then we headed over to our Stephen photo ops.

Photo ops really do go quickly, but it’s worth it for a nice professional photo. Stephen was very friendly and I’m pretty pleased with how it came out! (I was definitely not creative enough to think up a pose beforehand. Next time, maybe! ;))

After that, it was time for pre-dinner drinks/fic research for @emmilynestill (the Speedy is still my fave!), then dinner at a local favorite restaurant with the girls and a few more friends, including @mel-loves-all, @hope-for-olicity, @tdgal1, and @smoakingbabbles. Then it was time for the Nocking Point party!

We were a few minutes late for the VIP section of the party. I was one of the last through the bag check - the security lady had complimented my flamingo purse. I had just left the security area when I heard a girl behind me also compliment my purse. I said thank you and turned back around to be face to face with Madison McLaughlin (aka Evelyn). She was so sweet and bubbly! Headed on into the party where Echo promptly complimented the group of us on how we looked. Not a bad way to start off a party!

Highlights of the party included the band, playing a great variety of songs to dance to (though I’m still bummed they never got a line dance going -- how Nashville would that have been ;)); the great variety of Nocking Point wines; dancing with friends; David’s agent Mary hunting the group of us down and bringing David to us for a photo in the photo booth (David asked that we hold his leg - holy cow is that man solid muscle!!); Rick Gonzalez joining Stephen and Stephen’s wife Cassandra on stage for a Q & A session; Stephen pouring @mel-loves-all and my wine; Stephen singing “Summer of 69″ on stage (my video on Twitter here); and David joining Stephen on stage at the end (video here). I was sad the night came to an end!

The next morning it was back to the convention center bright and early because the Arrow panel was up first! The group of us were first in the VIP line and snagged some good seats; @redpensandgreenarrows was the sacrificial lamb of the day and went to line up to ask her question of Rick about Rene and Lance and Rene’s daughter. Only a few minutes into the panel and Madison McLaughlin ended up crashing the panel! I’m glad she did -- she had adorable banter with the rest of the cast and had the best comment: “It’s fun being evil, guys!”

A couple of my observations from the panel: first, this cast really seems to get along well. They had a lot of fun banter and smiles and you could tell they’re looking forward to getting back to work. They also were having a lot of fun with the whole “oh yeah we’re all dead” joke that I’m guessing will be resolved at SDCC. Although, I’ll give them credit -- for current character status being “possibly killed in explosion”, they all did a great job of teasing about the new season without just defaulting to “but I might be dead.” David totally fails at the “two truths and a lie” game - he revealed to a member of our group later on that all the answers he gave onstage were truths.

I also wanted to mention that question and answer that Echo had about Curtis and Olicity. If you were in the room, you would have heard the lighthearted joking aspect of Echo’s answer, and even from the question-asker herself. It wasn’t so much that Echo was saying Olicity aren’t together and need Curtis’s help, it’s that Curtis would happily aide and abet another Olicity date night. Which, considering how the last one ended, I’d be in full favor of. ;)

After the panel, @scu11y22 and I went to get some coffee and had a chance to just sit and visit. I didn’t mention this to her at the time, but if it wasn’t for her and her Tumblr, I don’t know if I’d be a part of the Tumblr community and online Olicity fandom. See, back when 3x12 aired, I went looking online for some fellow fans that felt as gutted and frustrated as I did. Tracy’s blog was one of the first I found. When I made my Tumblr a few days later, she was one of the first I followed. When I got brave enough to post my first speculation post before 3x16 aired, she reblogged and commented on it. And when I got really brave and posted my first fic online in years before 3x22 aired, she ended up recommending it on her Tumblr. All that to say, there was something really special about getting to sit and talk to her at a convention that I never would have gone to if I hadn’t stumbled into the fandom via her Tumblr a few years ago.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with shopping and swapping more spoilers and theories and just enjoying spending time with fandom friends. By now, I’m sure everyone’s see the majority of spoilers; if there’s something in particular you’re interested in, take a look at my Twitter or feel free to message me/ask in my inbox. I’d be happy to address it!

All of the Arrow cast members were very approachable and nice. The “junior” cast members in particular (Echo, Madison, Rick) seemed just super happy to be there interacting with fans. Stephen had a ton of people around him at all times yet took the time to shake hands and smile at everyone. But I think the cast member that blew me away the most after this weekend was David Ramsey. If you ever get a chance to meet him, do it. Get that bear hug. Take a few minutes to talk to him. You really won’t regret it.

I don’t think I can emphasize enough how much I enjoyed spending time talking and fangirling with everyone. In particular, my Hogwarts girls/squad/”party girls”/Magnificent Seven: @quant-um-fizzx (hey, we didn’t faint meeting David - and I am SO HAPPY you came!); @laurabelle2930 (one of the few other people I’ve met who watched SGA! ;)); @emmilynestill (I’m still shaking my head at how I knew your writing from HP); @scu11y22 (so glad you decided to attend HVFF after all); @ireland1733 (I’m glad you’ll be getting your Nocking Point wines faster now ;)); and @redpensandgreenarrows (navigating the wild streets of Nashville together!) To all the others I met and got to hug and talk not nearly long enough with (and may have totally spaced on your screennames to tag you), I am glad to have interacted with you! With all the frustrations and ups and downs this fandom has been through, it’s just fun to see the people behind the blogs and remember that we’re all in this together.

And if you made it through that marathon of a blog post, bless your heart. ;) Until next time, HVFF Nashville!

56 notes · View notes

dinomightofficial · 7 years ago

Text

Progress in Development - Digital puzzles, Level Design

28/09/2017 - 03/10/2017

Max and Oscar has been busy in developing the assets and mechanics of the game via Unity. James has also been helping out with assets and modeling but in the meantime he is busy with developing and designing some of the physical puzzles for our installation. I myself have designing some of the design elements in the digital aspect of our levels. I have been conjuring up some disagreements with some of the team members opinions on level design and planned difficulty in learning.

Once I had set up the Arduino with the custom controllers and made the arduino.IO to communicate with Unity (Thanks to the Max teaching me the basics). Max began to further integrate them into the script so that it the values that Unity receives from Arduino will act control a mechanic in the game. The physical is steadily interweaving with the digital.

Oscar working on assets mostly in the sound department. He has steadily shifted to getting the basic narrative sorted so that further asset development can continue. Oscar and Max had been discussing ideas as to conveying the artstyle of the video game; Persona 5. They want to implement the same sort of instructional or perhaps even a narrative driven guide to teach the player as to how the mechanics works and what the objective is. Although I do very much like the visual aesthetics of the Persona 5 dialogue system with the cartoon like speech bubbles I however have to disagree with implementing this into our video game.

The reason why is because I fear that our game may ‘hold the player’s hand’ as you will, too much. As a video game player myself I know that players hate being told how to play, they don’t want to arrows pointing to the next exit to the next level or have a narrow point of view to direct the player exactly where to go. There’s no sense of exploration in that, there is no going to find out what else is in the game, being told where to go and being told how to play in every moment of a game is like someone next to you explaining everything that’s about to happen in a movie that you are currently watching. There seems to be a somewhat rise in these types of games now a days where big triple A titles expect to have an extremely large target audience they sacrifice this self learnt aspect of the game with the mentality that since EVERYONE will be playing it, it will need to be brain dead simple and easy to understand. Personally, I despise this very much and I’m sure a lot of people would agree.

This is I guess similar to what James had been researching prior where he found out that when people are solving puzzles the point is that people don’t NEED to be smart to solve a puzzle and have a rewarding feeling but instead need to FEEL smart. When Ricardo came by last week to see our group progress in development of ideas he questioned us; well what is the incentive for people to want to come and engage with this thing and even then what is the incentive to continue playing? Well simple to theorize but difficult to put into practice video games need to make you FEEL like either you have accomplished something grand, make you feel smarter about yourself, or it could even be the purpose of watching an interactive movie. There are many reasons as to why the incentive to ‘waste’ our precious time on digital simulations exist but for our purpose of this project, experiments and installation is to make the player FEEL smarter about themselves.

How are we to give this feeling to the player if we hold their hands throughout the game and explain to them where to look, where to go, what to press and how to play?

Level Design and Digital Puzzles

Here below are some of the screenshots from our current game, it is expected to change drastically as development continues. This is just simple three room building to test out basic mechanics and other assets.

In terms of designing the levels I wasn’t really satisfied with James’s previous level layout so I decided to develop my own. However, I knew that one thing that I needed to keep in mind is that the layout and the difficulty in design for each level isn’t as simple as just put obstacle here and next level. Not only will I need to eventually figure out the level of complexity for each room but I will also need to design them in such a way so that the level of difficulty increases linearly and will need to also keep in mind the sort of skills required and learnt by the player at every level.

The difficulty designing a level layout is that because our estimated installation run time per player is going to be at a maximum of just around 10 minutes we want to jam pack each level as much as the player can learn with stability.

This is the first iteration below on the yellow paper. This layout steadily changed to be basically the same but simplified in such a way so that the space used is reduced whilst the layout is somewhat the same. This is still yet to be heavily tested and is likely to change as we develop.

Designing the first level I tried to make it abundantly clear to have the vent access incredibly obvious that will allow the player to make a mental note as to where it is and that it could be a possible exit. It’s just mere a matter of time for the player to reach the end of the level and find out about the mechanics of changing gravity. This will be done via perspective of the camera, the height of the room and the thickness and layout of the wall thicknesses.

Another idea that I got from designing digital puzzles through the use of obstacles and visual/mechanical and narrative ques I got an idea for a physical puzzle. Perhaps we could label files that the player interacts with and color code them in such a way so that the player needs to stable the corresponding colors together to reveal a combined message as the transparent papers could infuse to reveal perhaps even a map.

Basic layout in which I will need to further polish, test and finalize each level in terms of the difficulty, skills learnt and possible orientations. I assume that testing these and level designing these will take much longer than I originally would have thought. Room 4 was an interesting idea I had where there would practically be two levels in technically one level. The player will be able to decide how they would want to accomplish Room 4 and will be a part of the exploration aspect of our game.

These are the 4 iterated ideas as to how to teach the player on how to go about Room 1. The iterations began from the top left to right then to the bottom left to right. The final one being the bottom right is a complicated mess on paper but once digitally white-boxed (Thanks to James for implementing it) it looks rather simple but mechanically and educationally complex.

This is merely the level eyeballed out and will need to be play tested by others to see how they would interact and complete this level.

James had been play testing his ideas on some of the physical puzzles that we would need for accessing each door to enter the next Room. So the idea being that we want to implement both the physical and digital into the realm of the player in a video game scenario but mask it in such a way that it is so much more than that. To creating an incentive for the player to explore this duality is our goal I think.

Our revised Timetable/deadlines

By monday 9th

Physical/digital level and puzzle design completed

Fully functioning engine to suit requirements

Persona 5 dialogue art (liaise with max for implementation).

Secure a place to get building materials

By monday 16th

All assets created

Physical puzzles functioning in correspondence with game

Have building materials and have a plan for office construction

By monday 23rd

Have physically built office installation.

Design and print any physical assets we need for filing cabinets etc.

Pray

By monday 6th

Everything completed

All fuckups/mishaps solved

Fully functioning game

Oscar’s first iteration of our basic narrative (likely to change)

Story outline

Madz is an office worker working for an energy company. His boss demands that Madz completes some file work late one evening. Upon stumbling across a sensitive file eluding to a strange conspiracy within the company - an unknown third party (Ricardo) makes contact with Madz through a walkie talkie.

Madz is convinced by Ricardo to dig deeper into the conspiracy. In order to deal with the traps and security Madz will have to deal with, Ricardo gives Madz the ability to hack technology. After solving the first puzzle, Madz discovers a another document revealing more details about the conspiracy.

Ricardo decides Madz will need another ability in order to deal with future challenges. Ricardo gives Madz the ability to manipulate gravity.

After completing the second challenge, Madz finds a third document revealing further information about the conspiracy. Following this - Madz finds the room where his boss, (Mr Hiroshima) is. After realizing that Madz has caught onto the conspiracy, Hiroshima activates the final puzzle and runs into another room. After solving the third puzzle, Madz perseus Hiroshima into the next room where he lies in wait. Ricardo appears and goomba stomps Hiroshima. Plot resolved, conspiracy successfully unraveled.

#CTEC503Movement #CTEC503

2 notes · View notes

inkyleaf · 7 years ago

Text

TG 132: Determination - PART 2/2 (M2F + RC + AR)

PART 1!!!

A few footsteps were heard before the perpetrator spoke: “Jack, you can come out. It’s me, Kaitlyn.” Jack didn’t believe her ears. She poked half of her head out, convinced that she was going crazy. The real Kaitlyn stood in front of the bed, wearing a black jumpsuit fitted with all kinds of tools and pockets. She had rolled a small luggage behind her, and her hair was tied into a perfect bun. Countless thoughts filled Jack’s mind, but she couldn’t utter a word. Over the next minute, Kaitlyn rolled her luggage to the nightstand and slowly sat down on the bed.

“Jack, will you talk with me?” Kaitlyn asked in a soft, personal tone. Her sad, yet serious expression made her look vulnerable. “…Who are you?” was all Jack could muster, poking more of her head out from the covers. “Jack, I-I’m so sorry…” Kaitlyn sobbed. Tears filled her eyes faster than she could’ve expected. She leaned her body halfway toward the bed, bringing some of the sheets up to cover her face and absorb her tears. “K-Kait, what’s going o-on?” Jack swallowed, trying to keep a steady voice.

“I did it all for him, Jack,” Kaitlyn began moments later. “It was for your son, Cameron.” The girls sat in silence for a minute as Kaitlyn calmed herself. “I will tell you everything from the beginning, Jack. Please listen to what I have to say,” Kaitlyn said. Intense emotions bubbled in Jack’s mind, but she remained silent. “I am a Japanese spy. I was deployed to America two years ago disguised as a college student. I-I knew nothing…” Kaitlyn bit her bottom lip, “I knew nothing of America at the time. I was even xenophobic. But one day, your son Cameron approached me. He offered to show me around town – apparently he was smitten with me months before, but was too afraid to approach. I accepted, viewing it as a chance to gather more intel from who I perceived as a dumb American.”

Tears came back to Kaitlyn’s eyes as she continued: “B-but, he was so nice. So sensitive to how I felt. Even showed interest in my culture. His eyes were big and genuine… I brushed it off at first, but we spent more time together as weeks passed. Before I realized what I was doing, he asked me to be his girlfriend, and I couldn’t say no. He singlehandedly changed my opinion on this entire country, Jack, and continues to do so. I love him with all of my heart, and I know he feels the same. I couldn’t be more thankful for that.”

Another minute of silence passed. Kaitlyn took deep breaths before continuing: “But, my time in America is almost up. I must return to Japan in 48 hours. I was born into my job, Jack. I grew up as a robot, training for this singular purpose. I cannot quit being a spy – I would be tortured if I even attempted. If given the choice, I would choose to stay here with Cameron. Unfortunately, I don’t have a choice,” Kaitlyn ended with a loud sob. Jack swallowed hard before speaking up: “So, what happened to me?” Kaitlyn turned to look Jack in the eye. “The drink I gave you last night, it was a serum developed by my country. It was made for torture, designed to mutate those who drank it. I spent months editing the formula. I eased the pain as much as I could, but the ultimate goal was to turn you…into me,” Kaitlyn said with a sad smile.

Jack didn’t know what to say. Her questions were endless, but organizing them into sentences was impossible. “Oh, and I lied about giving the rest of your family the drink, so don’t worry,” Kaitlyn said. “Don’t worry?!” Jack suddenly snapped, sitting up with her bare chest revealed. “Kaitlyn, I’m not you! I can’t be you! I’m a husband, a father, and a goddamn engineer! You can’t do this to me!” Jack yelled, no longer able to control her emotions.

“Jack,” Kaitlyn began in a soothing tone, “this project was months in the making. Everything has been accounted for. I went to your family today, and we discussed that I would be moving in. I told them my ‘parents’ were forcing me to be more independent. You will still live in the same house, Jack. And you getting off of work early yesterday was my doing as well… I wanted make sure you enjoyed yourself as much as possible. I’m sorry.”

“Bu-but… Why? WHY?!” Jack screamed, grabbing Kaitlyn’s shoulders, now more sad than angry. “WHY DID YOU RUIN MY LIFE?!” “Because…isn’t it obvious…?!” Kaitlyn trembled with tears on her cheeks. “Because I love your son and I couldn’t break his heart!” she yelled back with equal passion. Kaitlyn buried her head into Jack’s shoulder, crying more than her doppelganger. The women wept on each other for nearly 20 minutes. Jack’s fury only came out as helpless confusion when she managed to speak after their tears had waned. “I can’t just be you,” she said, pulling away from Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn wiped a tear from her eye before speaking: “You can. Remember when I said everything was accounted for?” Kaitlyn hopped off of the bed and opened her luggage, revealing a full wardrobe of female clothes and accessories. Before Jack could react, Kaitlyn laid out her wallet, phone, and keys on the bed. “I’m going to teach you how to be a woman, Jack.”

“…No. Absolutely not,” Jack said, looking through the frilly underwear and dresses. “Okay, you don’t have to start with skirts,” Kaitlyn said, putting the more girly clothing at the bottom, “but you need to know how to hook a bra. Stand up.” “You’re insane, you know that?” Jack said as she stood. “You think I can’t convince my family that I’m me?” she continued. Kaitlyn responded as she cupped Jack’s breasts in the bra from behind: “Jack, you’re very smart. I know you possess that ability. But think about what would happen. Please, think hard. Also, here you go.” Kaitlyn put the bra’s hooks in Jack’s hands.

If Cameron knew it was me, Jack thought, hardly fiddling with the bra, he would demand answers. Even if I told him about the real Kaitlyn, he’d only be depressed, and my appearance would be a constant reminder… Nobody would win. Nora couldn’t love me either. She may still enjoy my presence, but our romance would die. What if she finds another man, Jack swallowed hard. She wouldn’t find another man if she knew I was in this body. I’d only hold her back…

“Please, change me back,” Jack whimpered. She let the bra fall to the floor with no progress made. "Kaitlyn, please. I can’t do this.” Waterworks returned to Jack’s eyes. “I can’t do that, Jack. The resources don’t exist. Kaitlyn approached Jack for a hug, but Jack pushed her back. “Fuck you! Get out of here, I never want to see you again!” she shouted. Kaitlyn kept a calm demeanor, realizing that her presence would only hinder Jack for the rest of the night. “Okay Jack, I will leave. Good night,” she said, walking out of the room.

This nightmare has to end soon, it has to, Jack thought, trying to find comfort in denial. She concurrently racked her brain for a solution to living with her family with her identity known, but nothing favorable existed. I’m going to wake up tomorrow, and all of this will have just been a bad dream, she thought before falling asleep.

Jack woke up at dawn again and rolled over to check her phone. A lock screen showing a happy picture of Cameron and Kaitlyn popped up before the phone was unlocked with her fingerprint. This is Kait’s phone… Jack sat up, dismayed by the sight of the hotel room. The bra from last night was still on the floor next to an open luggage of clothing, but the phone, along with Kaitlyn’s wallet and keys, were placed on the nightstand. No way. Upon further investigation, Jack realized that her own phone and wallet were gone, as the cash from her wallet was placed on top of Kaitlyn’s.

After such a debilitating night, Jack didn’t feel angry, sad, or even surprised. “This is it, huh?” she said as she turned to look at herself in the mirror. “What a fucking joke.” She bit her bottom lip, giving her breasts another upset squeeze before going back to sit on the bed. Jack dug through Kaitlyn’s phone for almost two hours, reading her past conversations, scrolling through her Facebook feed, and looking at the photos in her camera.

“She’s good. No one could’ve suspected she was anything other than a fun college girl.” As the sun rose higher and higher, Jack knew she had to bite the bullet and get dressed. “Damn it all, damn it all,” she muttered to herself, struggling to properly hook the bra around her back. “Get in there, c’mo-argh! Jesus!” Her breasts were pinched and prodded as she tried to securely fit them in the cups, unable to know what felt right or wrong. Jack shivered as she slid panties up her smooth legs, admittedly feeling much better in them compared to her boxers. After throwing on the blandest long-sleeved shirt, and, to her annoyance, skinny jeans, she felt a small sense of accomplishment.

Rap rap. The knocks on the door startled Jack. “It’s me, Jack,” Kaitlyn said from the other side, feeling it was best to not let herself in this time. Jack opened the door and stared at Kaitlyn as she walked in. “Well, what do you want?” Jack asked, sitting on the bed. “I came to say goodbye, for good this time. Before I leave, would you like me to help you with anything? The man ‘Jack’ has already been checked out of this room, so feel free to leave whenever.” “What’d you do with my phone and wallet? Did Nora call me?” Jack asked, desperate to hear any potential last words she could’ve said to the man she used to be. Kaitlyn shook her head. “I do not know, but the phone and wallet were terminated. Jack is dead, you are Kaitlyn now,” she said as monotone as possible, hoping that Jack wouldn’t fly into another tear-filled rage. “So I am. So I fucking am,” Jack said, pausing before continuing: “So you’re just gonna tell my family that I’m dead and expect me to console them? You’re a fucking monster.”

Kaitlyn turned her head, unable to deny Jack’s words. “Yes,” she whispered, trying not to cry again. She had originally wanted to teach Jack how to use makeup, and perhaps convince her that decreasing her age by a few decades wasn’t so bad, but now she knew it’d be impossible. Jack didn’t have to be yelling to show Kaitlyn that she loathed her. We really don’t get happy endings, do we? Kaitlyn thought before saying, “I’m sorry, Jack, for what it’s worth. I’m so sorry… Goodbye.” Kaitlyn briskly walked out the door, never to be heard from again.

�� Jack lay on her bed, taking deep breaths and wishing that time would stop moving so fast. She grabbed a bagel on her way out of the motel around 9 AM and immediately noticed that her car had been replaced with Kaitlyn’s. Of course. Jack threw the luggage Kaitlyn had given her into the trunk and drove back to her house despite being terrified of facing her family under her new skin.

“Welcome ‘home’ babe!” Cameron happily greeted Jack as she got out of the car. Jack was taken aback by the sight of being shorter than her son as Cameron squeezed her with a hug. “H-hey, Cameron,” she simply replied. Her tone and lack of makeup was quick to catch Cameron’s attention. “Something wrong?” he asked as they walked into the house. You have no idea. “…No, no, just a little tired. I’m going to miss my, uhh, parents,” Jack replied, then continued, “Where’s your mo-I mean where’s Nora?” “Early shopping, she wanted to buy some things for you since you’re moving in!” Cameron said with a grin.

Jack spent most of the morning studying Kaitlyn’s work and college schedule in Cameron’s room since tomorrow was Monday, while Cameron played video games in the living room. “God, she’s busy for a college student,” she commented. “Five finance classes four days of the week with a part-time job overlapping a few of those, sheesh. Almost wish Cameron was this busy.”

A car pulled into the driveway hours later. Oh God, Jack thought, is Nora OK? How has she been holding up? Jack ran downstairs to greet her, dying to see and comfort her wife more than anything. “Kaity! You’re already here!” Nora squealed in excitement, then continued, “I don’t know how much you brought from your house, but I picked up a lot of new clothes and makeup to make sure you feel right at home, okay sweetheart? Aaah this is so exciting!” Jack didn’t expect Nora to be so cheerful, and couldn’t help but smile at her welcoming. Maybe she hasn’t heard the news, Jack thought, quickly trying to erase the concept from her head.

After Nora unpacked and organized her purchases, she jumped at the first opportunity she had to bond with her presumed to-be daughter-in-law. “Kaitlyn, sweetie, I know how self-sufficient you are with your style, but I would just looooove to be able to do your makeup today since I’ve hardly ever seen you with a clean slate before!” Jack was thrown off-guard. The mental dam she had built to block out her femininity was crumbling, but she couldn’t refuse. “Sure,” she replied, bracing herself for further emasculation.

“Open… Close… Liiittle wider,” Nora repeated simple commands out loud as she dolled up Jack’s face. “Aaand, voilà!” she exclaimed 20 minutes later. “I kept it simple, Kaity. What do you think?” Jack pursed her lips to spread the faint pink lipstick, getting a clear look at her face for the first time in 24 hours. “W-wow,” she breathed, knowing she’d have to give an over-the-top reaction to make Nora happy.

“I absolutely love it, Nora! Thank you so much!” Jack cheered, giving Nora a hug, surprised at how convincing she sounded with Kaitlyn’s voice. “Hahaha aww, sweetheart, I’m so glad,” Nora chuckled, then continued, “We’re going to be eating out tonight to celebrate your moving in – at your favorite sushi place!” Jack wasn’t sure how enthusiastically she should’ve reacted, so she simply said, “Wow, I can’t wait!”

As the day went on, Jack took the hints to change into nicer clothes before going out to dinner. She kept the jeans on, but traded the white top for a frilly short-sleeved T-shirt, even though the sight of Kaitlyn’s bare skin was still unsettling. The family prepared for a traditional Asian dinner, where everyone would happily take food from any plate laid on the table. Jack was hesitant to dig in, never having been a fan of seafood.

“Don’t hold back babe, this night is for you,” Cameron said, handing Jack a pair of chopsticks. Here we go again, Jack thought, slowly bringing a sushi roll to her face. Her eyes widened as it squished between her tongue and the roof of her mouth – Kaitlyn’s taste buds adored the food, sending overwhelmingly positive energy to Jack’s brain. Oh my God, so good! “Aah it’s so good!” she blurted, scarfing down the food faster than the original Kaitlyn. “Whoa, save some for us,” Cameron joked. The family ate and chatted the night away, and Jack felt happiness for the first time in Kaitlyn’s body.

“Ooooh my goodness, I’m stuffed!” Jack exclaimed, falling onto Cameron’s bed shortly after coming home. “Me too, me too,” Cameron replied. “Too bad we got school tomorrow.” Cameron began to undress, bringing Jack’s mind back to reality. Before she could react, Cameron crawled over her. “I’d love to rip that cute li’l shirt off,” he said in a low, husky voice. Jack’s heart began racing – she was nowhere near prepared for this. “I…I…” Jack’s voice cracked as she tried to speak up, “I-I really need to sleep, Monday’s are so busy…” she finished, sliding out from under Cameron to look for her pajamas.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, no way in hell, Jack was practically panting in her thoughts. I have to change clothes in front of him, don’t I? Damn it all. The anxiety of her situation hit her almost as hard as it did in the motel. Cameron was noticeably grumpy, making Jack feel even worse. She remembered to wash her makeup off at the last second before turning in for the night, wondering if she could ever get used to being a girl.

Jack drowned herself in her new workload over the week, pleasantly surprised by how refreshing the feeling of work felt. She did her best to embrace womanhood in small steps, and began to wear girlier clothing on Tuesday, followed by applying her own makeup on Wednesday. By the end of the week, Jack almost thought she’d regained control of her life.

Tragedy struck when she came home Friday evening. Cameron and Nora were huddled on the couch, crying their eyes out. The sight alone was enough to make Jack’s eyes water. She silently approached them, joining their embrace on the couch.

“He’s gone,” Nora eked out with a loud sniffle. “Jack’s gone. The search team pronounced him dead.” The words hit Jack like a truck – she buried her head into Nora’s shoulder, unable to stop her tears. I’m right here, Nora! I’m right here! was what she was dying to say. I never left you guys! The family sobbed together for what felt like hours before Nora spoke up again. She stroked Jack’s hair, saying “The funeral will be next week, sweetheart. I wish you got to know him more, he was such a loving husband and father…”

I’m here for both of you. I’ll always be here for you guys. The same thoughts cycled through Jack’s mind throughout the silent night. Her resolve strengthened overnight, and the purpose of her life became clear. She was put on this earth for Nora and Cameron. Her sex didn’t matter, her age didn’t matter, and her appearance didn’t matter. Her family meant everything, and she was going to be with them until the end.

“Cameron,” Jack began later that night once they were in bed together, “I know I don’t say this enough, but I love you and I’m very proud of you.” She wanted that to be her final fatherly line, knowing that she couldn’t keep viewing him as her son if she wanted to make either of them happy. “Thanks babe, love you too,” Cameron chuckled, kissing Jack’s lips.

Jack woke up early that Saturday morning and gave Nora a hug from behind. “Nora,” she began in the same tone as last night, wanting to speak to her as a wife one last time, “I can’t begin to thank you for how much you’ve done for me. I’ll never forget any of it. I love you so much, and I will do everything I can to support our little family.” “Oooh, Kaitlyn, sweetheart…” Nora began, touched by her words. The women’s eyes watered as Nora turned to hug Jack properly.

Jack continued to break down her mental barriers throughout the slow day, trying her best to think of herself as Kaitlyn. “I’m not Jack, not anymore,” she whispered to herself in the mirror, forcing a smile. “I’m Kaitlyn. I don’t need to be a man to keep my family happy… I need to be a girlfriend and a daughter. That is what I am. I am...Kaitlyn.” She ran her fingers down and around her body, accepting all of the feminine features she had been trying her best to reject over the past week.

Later that night, Kaitlyn opened her legs for Cameron, knowing he needed the relief. Her body trembled as Cameron crawled on top, kissing and pinching her from head to toe before teasing her clit. You’re a good son, Cameron. You deserve this… Kaitlyn instinctively thought as she groaned from the foreign pleasure. He’s not my son anymore. Not my son, I’m a woman. Make me a woman, Cameron…!

Kaitlyn screamed at the first hint of penetration. Cameron’s strong arms pinned her shoulders to the bed. One of her hands cupped a breast while the other stimulated her clit as Cameron rocked back and forth, slowly getting deeper. The schlicking, pounding, moaning, and squeaking of the bed became louder and louder, muffling her scattered thoughts. It felt like hours before Cameron pulled out and erupted all over her face, forcing her eyes shut. She howled as she finished her own climax minutes later as Cameron cleaned up, unable to feel or move her legs. Her mind plunged deeper into femininity, giving Kaitlyn another accomplishment from the experience.

So this is how it feels… Kaitlyn smacked her lips, awkwardly trying to clean her face without swallowing any cum. Cameron helped before cuddling up next to her, ready to fall asleep. Kaitlyn fell asleep in his arms, silently appreciating his strong, warm security.

Days flew by for Kaitlyn, as she was absorbed in her work and bettering herself for her family, always making progress toward becoming the person she had to be. Before long, she was getting mani-pedis with Nora and snuggling up with Cameron for movies. Many tears were shed at the funeral, but Kaitlyn stayed strong and uplifted her family as much as she could.

As weeks passed, excitement grew for Kaitlyn’s college graduation. Cameron and Nora suggested all sorts of parties and vacations they could go on, but Kaitlyn shook her head. “As long as I’m with you guys, I don’t want anything big or special,” she said during the weekend they planned to celebrate. She got her wish – the family prepared a simple picnic that Saturday and headed out to the wilderness on Sunday to enjoy it.

Excited as ever, Kaitlyn made herself extra attractive for the occasion. She wore a tight, low-cut, zebra-patterned tube top and a short dark skirt, loving the feeling of the sun on her skin. “You look so beautiful, babe,” Cameron commented as they walked, holding hands. Nora walked far behind them, enjoying nature. “Just for you, handsome,” Kaitlyn said with a cheesy wink. The couple exchanged a kiss and gazed into each other’s eyes. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, hon,” Kaitlyn breathed, enjoying Cameron’s embrace.

At the end of the picnic, Nora pulled saran-wrapped Teriyaki-glazed meatballs and small vegetables skewers out of the basket. Everyone understood the message, and enjoyed them with extra appreciation. Kaitlyn volunteered to clean up while Cameron and Nora took a lap on the trail to play Pokémon GO, giving her some alone time to reflect on herself. The tiring weeks were successful in fading her memories as the man, Jack, but the final meal brought many of them back to light.

The more Kaitlyn thought about her previous life, the more she realized how successful she was in her goal. She didn’t see Nora as a romantic partner, and loved her solely as a family member and motherly figure. On the other hand, her romance grew for Cameron with every passing day. The notion of Cameron being her son felt preposterous, and she wanted nothing more than to grow old with him.

Kaitlyn thought back to the first days of her transformation, remembering how much she hated seeing any trace of her body. And now she loved it. Like any girl, she adored looking good and feeling a fresh breeze blow between two slender legs. Touch my legs! Kaitlyn giggled at a thought from last week when she commanded Cameron to feel her just-shaven legs. You’ve done it, Jack. You’ve really done it, she thought. You’ve become a young woman through and through.

“Hey Kait!” Kaitlyn heard Cameron call as he sprinted up to her. “You okay?” he asked, noticing that she had hardly put anything away from their picnic. “Oh, haha yeah. Sorry, I spaced out for a bit,” she responded. “Now what could a brainiac like you be spacing out about?” Cameron asked in a lower voice. “Well, I can think of someone,” Kaitlyn replied in a similar tone. She wrapped her arms around Cameron’s head and back as they made out, loving everything that her new life had to offer.

That’s a wrap~ There are very few stories I’ve worked on as long as this one, so I hope you enjoyed. Thank you for reading. Thank you so, so much. :)

Patreon || DeviantArt

RC = race change, AR = age regression

51 notes · View notes

existentialspiral · 8 years ago

Text

Classpect Analysis: Mage of Hope

DEFINITION: The aspect of Hope holds ties over possibility, potential, imagination, desire, drive, angels, the infinite, friendship, and the non-capital concept of hope. Hope is an easy enough aspect to talk about, with varied displays, multiple users, and, best of all, several characters speaking with an operative definition of it. As well, it is well shown that Hope has a very specifically defined counter-aspect, that of Rage, allowing us further insight into the aspect. Firstly, on the subject of its heroes, we have Jake English (Page of Hope), who manages two amazingly powerful displays of his power: the Hope Bubble, a literal burst of manifested Hope that somehow contained more energy than that of the Green Sun, and the manifestation of Brain Ghost Dirk. Most obvious is the Hope Bubble, mostly due to its ability to overpower the Green Sun-derived powers of a First Guardian; as a First Guardian can be said to have effective omnipotence due to their ability to harness the limitless power of the Green Sun, then this means that Jake must have been outputting, at a minimum, more power than that of an effectively omnipotent being, possibly even a greater level of infinite power than that of the Green Sun itself. More impressive is Jake’s manifestation of Brain Ghost Dirk, where he not only violates the principal of conservation of mass and energy, but actually creates a living being, with its own mind, memories, drives, and even separate knowledge, entirely because he believed that Brain Ghost Dirk was real (or at least, so long as he was whammied by Aranea into that state). Next we have That Worthless Fuckup (Prince of Hope), who was able to manifest Hope as a destructive force, one capable of overpowering Sollux, something he couldn’t do at any point prior despite having a weapon that has been described as one of the most powerful that the riflekind abstratus would allow (presumably, anything larger or stronger would fall under cannonkind, artillarykind, or seigekind). Most interesting about this display is that, despite That Worthless Fuckup being able to use his power through a wand, the wand in question is stated to be nothing more than an ordinary wand, likely alchemized out of the shitty wands of the shitty wand pile; this implies that That Worthless Fuckup’s wand held power entirely because he believed it held power. As well, as a Prince, That Worthless Fuckup actively destroyed his own Hope, destroying his romantic hopes (by being a stressful genocidal asshat), his personal hopes (by fulfilling his personal role as Orphaner, when an intentional failure would have served him better), and even destroying his hopes within the session (by suicidally attacking the angels of his Land). Lastly is Cronus Ampora (Bard of Hope) and his post-Scratch counterpart, Orphaner Dualscar, who was actually more pitiful (although less miserably pathetic) than his Dancester; unlike That Worthless Fuckup, we haven’t seen Cronus display any hope-related abilities, although it should be noted that, as a Bard, he passively destroyed his own Hope, driving away any potential romance with his slimy personality, ruining potential friendships with his relentless creepiness, and even demolishing his own destiny by abandoning it. Meanwhile, for less-derived and more spoken information, Aranea Serket makes specific mention as Hope being a difficult aspect, due to its strongly-curved growth (that is, it takes a significant amount of time or effort to gain power), but also lists it as possibly the most powerful of all aspects, something borne out by the events of the comic, with the power of Hope being shown as greater than that of Time (and, by mirror implication, Space) with Jake overpowering the young Lord English, who had already gained ‘limitless power’ from his Quest. Lastly, it should be noted that, in general, Hope players tend to be of a rather high opinion of themselves, from the unthinkingly self-important (That Worthless Fuckup) or callous (Jake English) to the outright delusional (Cronus Ampora). As for the powers of a Mage, we really have no solid ground to stand on. Every Mage shown so far has failed to display any active associated abilities, and the Mages in question are all failed examples of their class. However, we can gleam some info from them, through the three shown incarnations of the class: Sollux Captor (Mage of Doom), Meulin Leijon (Mage of Heart), and Meulin’s post-Scratch counterpart, the Disciple (Mage of Heart). More specifically, examining them all gives the following definition: “One who experiences and comprehends one’s aspect.” Sollux notably had comprehension of the ~ATH programming language, a language built on the very concept of doom, and was able to experience Doom in a way no one else ever could, having had both two dreamselves, his original body, his half-ghost body, and his unlife as Erisolsprite in the doomed Game Over timeline, allowing him to die a total of five times, each time experiencing a new expression of Doom. Also notably, Sollux manifested the ability to hear the voices of the imminently deceased, a passive ability that would seem most appropriate for a Seer of Doom, possibly the result of his rejection of his aspect and apathy to his class causing his class to invert, implying an active-passive pairing with Seer. Meulin herself, meanwhile, is noted as having a great deal of skill with shipping, especially in the redrom quadrants, and so can be said to comprehend matters of the heart; additionally, she is stated to have little permanent luck with romance herself, implying that she has dated and been in many relationships with many partners, and thus that she has a great deal of experience in matters of the heart. Lastly, the Disciple is most notable for her relationship with the Sufferer, where it is stated that they fell into every quadrant at once with each other; this unique relationship allowed her to experience the full troll romantic spectrum, the human concept of monogamous romance, the cherub concept of devoted kismessitude, and the leprechaun concept of a “Heart-Moon-Star-Clover-Diamond-Horseshoe-Balloon-Rainbow-Pot” relationship (i.e, a full 3x3 trove); thus, it can be stated that the Disciple was allowed to experience every form of romance, and thus the near-complete experience of the Heart aspect. Now, if you wish for a fuller, more in-depth dissection of the Mage, I recommend preforming one yourself and sharing your conclusions with the community; failing that (or simply wishing to be entertained by my conclusions), I recommend reading my analysis here. With all this, we may now parse the Mage of Hope as, “One who experiences and comprehends imagination, possibility, faith, or hope.” Other Hope players have to rely on a sense of hopefulness and confidence to maintain a connection to their aspect; not so much for the Mage of Hope. The Mage of Hope does not need to keep faith in Hope, because he knows. He has felt the rising joy of his aspect, and known the crushing despair of its absence. Where others are left adrift, wondering what there is to believe in, the Mage of Hope has learned that faith, belief, imagination, these things stand alone, stronger than the weight of ages if you’re willing to keep to them. Sinners and saints, heroes and horrors, the devoted and the desperate, all of these see themselves staring back out the knowing eyes of the Mage of Hope. ABILITIES: The Mage of Hope, as one with comprehension of and experience with Hope, functions as a Jack-of-All-Trades, able to fulfil any needed role the aspect of Hope could allow, which (with Hope being the aspect associated with possibility, potential, and imagination) is essentially every role. Having practice and understanding of his aspect, the Mage of Hope can inspire, manipulate, destroy, assume, or wield Hope itself. This pairing of an extremely varied and viable class with an extremely varied and powerful aspect results in the interesting result of a player who can not only fulfil any actual role, but can actually succeed in any role that doesn’t outright require a specific aspect, or which doesn’t require the specialization of a specific class (such as Thief or Muse). In video game terms, it’s easiest to think of the Mage of Hope as an upgraded Red Mage-Mario; that is to say, someone with access to most, if not every, ability, albeit usually at the cost of generalized weakness (the Red Mage) combined with someone who, while not specialized in anything, is instead passably good at everything (the Mario). Put in raw stat terms, think of other classpects as having a set of stats ranked from 1 to 10, with most classes having 9 or 10 in one or two stats and the rest averaging out to about 5 or 6. In this, the Mage of Hope wouldn’t have a 10 in any stat, but instead would have 7 to 9 in all of them. In more mortal terms, the Mage of Hope is a less-physical SBURBian Superman. At lower levels, it seems likely that the Mage of Hope would be able to access some useful powers of their aspect, likely along the lines of magic attacks or other related abilities, making them an effective lower-level striker, along with their already burgeoning understanding of their aspect’s nature allowing them to help inspire their team and help them with their own issues, such as despair and misery or overconfidence and arrogance; meanwhile, as a learner class, they would be expected to do everything they could to learn more of their session, to tear the lore apart in search of whatever they’d need to bring their session victory. Through their understanding of Hope and its associations they could be expected to come up with some daring plans of action, to accomplish the seemingly impossible, to be generally good at things they set their mind to, and to discover the important secrets and hidden goals of Skaia’s Game, all while also helping to prevent the team from falling to either overconfidence or hopelessness; in other words, a Mage of Hope is probably one of the best possible candidates for a team leader, one rivaled only by most Blood players and some Heart, Mind, Breath, Space, and Time players. This, though, could be countered by their classes influence on their fate, forcing them to experience both the good parts of their aspect and the bad, resulting in spectacular failures and truly hopeless losses. However, while this tendency might be directly problematic, it does serve the triple purpose of both A: teaching the Mage more of his aspect, B: keeping the Mage’s feet on the ground, averting a definite issue with Hope players, and C: helping the rest of the team to not see them as someone ‘beyond’ them, in either status or ego, and so allowing them to actually help and inspire the team to greatness, at least so long as these failures don’t seem to overcome the victories. In other words, “Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker.” Upon reaching God Tier, the Mage of Hope experiences a less dramatic increase in direct power than other classes, but an infinitely starker increase in utility; no longer limited to their mortal abilities, the Mage of Hope can directly affect changes they intend upon the world, and with their comprehension of their aspect, they can use their more-limited but wider abilities to far greater effect than others, as well as being able to better use their understanding to help their team, inspiring the doubtful and taming the doubtless, and also being able to divine ever more information from the world by their greater understanding of Hope, including its associations with all that is possible (and thus, impossible), with potential (and, thus, all that merely could be), with imagination (and all that isn’t so conceptually concrete), and with goals (and, by implication, what those goals need to be fulfilled; goals like the breeding and growth of a Genesis Frog). For more direct abilities, sky’s the limit; the power of Hope is essentially limitless, being shown as more powerful than Time, and is directly associated with things such as imagination, so the actual limits of someone who can truly comprehend Hope are difficult to guess. Feats such as the manifestation of imaginary objects, the healing of the injured or despaired, the direct weaponization of Hope, the open manipulation of their power, the free manifestation of Hope itself, these and more all seem to be possible. Any actual limits would likely be psychological, either due to the Mage losing hope or confidence, or due to the Mage simply not yet understanding just how much their aspect can accomplish; in other words, the abilities of one who comprehends Hope are limited by their hope or comprehension. At highest level, the Mage of Hope is closer to a full-fledged deity than almost any other God Tier player, having abilities far in advance of some entire classpects, or even entire aspects. Being someone with both power and comprehension of imagination, possibility, faith, potential, and the infinite, the actual direct abilities of a Mage of Hope at their absolute upper limits are less, “awesome magic powers of amazing strength,” and more, “localized and absolute control of reality.” By this point, the Mage of Hope can be said to not only have as much power as they can get, but also as much understanding of Hope as is possible, and so any actual limits on their abilities are purely in relation to the level of power they can output; as the power of Hope (albeit channeled through a Page, THE most directly powerful class) was able to overcome the outright statedly-limitless power of the Green Sun itself, it is %100 possible that a full-fledged and conceptually fulfilled Mage of Hope is truly omnipotent; if one were to establish limits they would likely be in the area of power, leaving the Mage as only being able to use their power limitedly, either as full omnipotence within a specific area, or as only being able to realize one effect at a time, or even only being able to manifest their effects limitedly (such as being limited in the size of imaginary objects they could conjure, or in the actual joule output of their Hope Beams). Of course, all of this doesn’t mean that a Mage of Hope is unbeatable. As their abilities are directly tied to their imagination, they are also limited by their imagination: if the Mage in question can’t think of a solution to a problem, then all the power in the world isn’t going to help. Also, as the power of Hope is implicitly tied to friendship, a Mage of Hope is likely going to need the support of their friends to use their power fully; indeed, as Hope is so heavily tied to belief, self-image, and positivity, any disbelief or negative emotions and thoughts could have limiting or even outright depowering effects. Also, while the power of Hope is great, greater than any other aspect, it cannot actually do everything; no matter how powerful a Mage of Hope becomes, he can never travel backwards through time, or change the lines of other’s thoughts, or manipulate luck, or breed the Genesis Frog, or to truly create something from nothing. Lastly, the greatest weakness of a Mage of Hope at the top end of their power is that, while they have something close to omnipotence, they would not have omniscience; “It doesn’t matter how fast you are, how good you are, ‘cause it’s always the bullet you didn’t even see that gets you.” QUEST: We aren’t actually shown any proper Quests for a Hero of Hope, or for a Mage; Jake’s Quest was never shown, and neither was Sollux, Meulin, or Cronus’, and That Worthless Fuckup actively sabotaged his own Quest. However, we can gleam some information on the very little presented to us. On the side of Mages, the only thing we have to go on is his Land, the Land of Brains and Fire, which ties directly to the source of his power (Sollux’s “hiideou2 mutant brain”) and his suffering (the “cacophony of phy2iical paiin [his] hiideou2 mutant braiin cau2e2”), although that is, unfortunately, the only real information we have on his land. On the Hope side, we have the lands of both Jake and That Worthless Fuckup, the Land of Mounds and Xenon and the Land of Wrath and Angels. Jake’s land’s name is, unfortunately, worthless due to his status as Noble of a Void Session, and its actual environment is mostly worthless, being both filled with explorable burial sites (like all Void session Lands) and marked with an X, possibly as a reference to Xenon starting with X, and possibly a once-removed reference to his relationship with Dirk by way of Plato. Lastly, we have That Worthless Fuckup’s Land and Quest, which do provide some information. Firstly, as the Land of Wrath and Angels, it references both Hope and Rage, Hope’s counter aspect. Next, looking specifically, we can note that, with That Worthless Fuckup being a Prince, he seemed to better embody his counter-aspect, destroying his own aspect within himself, displaying his weakness right alongside what her needed to overcome it. Also, while we don’t have any direct observation of his Quest, we do have some info presented to us. Specifically, the info presented by Doc Scratch, who states that That Worthless Fuckup was taught by the angels how to destroy hope with their light; indeed, with that as context, it becomes far more difficult to decide if That Worthless Fuckup was supposed to talk with the angels like in a normal RPG, or if he actually was supposed to slaughter them all, with his growth as a Prince being hampered by his use of a top-tier weapon, or even if it allowed both options. Taken together, I shall posit that the Land of a Mage of Hope would likely have to do with something related to Hope, such as Angels, Joy, Imagination, Crosses, Crescents, Salt, Sanctuaries, or Imagination, and something to do with the character in question’s suffering. An example would be the Land of Loss and Souls. As for Quests I may only speculate, but knowing that the Quest is intended to help players become more complete people and to better fulfil their roles as Heroes, I’d guess that a Mage of Hope’s Quest would purposefully expose them to constant hopelessness, while also showing that sometimes things really are hopeless. To give an example using the above posited Land: the Land of Loss and Souls is home to the wandering ghosts of passed consorts, forced to haunt the land because of the actions of the Land’s Denizen, as well as the living consorts who were left behind. The player’s goal is to help the ghost consorts to move on from their present state, at first by helping them personally, then by completing the grand challenge imposed by their Denizen. As well, the Mage of Hope will have to learn that, while they can fulfill some of the ghost consort’s requests (such as being able to see their long-lost child one last time), some requests are truly impossible (such as a request to have been able to start a family of their own blood, ghosts obviously not being able to sire or birth children). The only denizen shown for Hope players is Abraxas, who becomes less clear as you inspect him. Abraxas is one of the only two Denizens to have a name from a mythology besides ancient Greece, the other being Yaldabaoth. As Yaldabaoth is supposed to be the strongest Denizen for the strongest player, it can also be implied that Abraxas is the weakest Denizen for the weakest player, although this is difficult to judge. As such, until Hussie either shows us Karkat’s Denizen, or shows us the Denizen of another Hope player, we shall have to mark Abraxas as a ‘maybe’. Also, I state now that, as the past section notes, the Mage of Hope is also a character with the potential to be essentially omnipotent; if that isn’t enough to justify the appearance of Yaldabaoth, I don’t know what is. VERDICT: Top. Fucking. Tier. The Mage of Hope is, at its higher levels, one of the best classpects period, and at the height of its power could probably solo a session except for the Frog Breeding; if it weren’t for the ticking clock mechanic, a Mage of Hope might even be able to solo a Dead Session, without any Leprechauns to help. The only thing which curbs it from being unstoppable is a possible power limitation and its dependence on positive thinking, the exact kind of thing that would likely doom a Mage of Hope from actually soloing a session, Dead or otherwise. As it is, the Mage of Hope is still a force to contend with, able to comprehend Hope and so use Hope in almost any way they wish; the only real limits to a Mage of Hope come from a lack of understanding on their part. As well, it seems incredibly unlikely for a realized and dangerous Mage of Hope to ever have any actual loyalty issues, being that comprehension of their teammate’s hopes and dreams is well within their remit. Either as an inspiring leader or competent teammate, it is very hard to do much better than a Mage of Hope. The Mage of Hope needs little in the way of support, being so outright capable with the actual doing of deeds, and so outright requires few things beyond positive attitude. To this end, a Sylph or Bard of Mind, Light, Heart, or Blood would be all they need to keep themselves at the height of their power. The Mage of Hope doesn’t really need much in the way of leading, possibly being the leader themselves, but in the situations that they are a follower, a Breath or Blood player of most classes would do best. For synergies, the Mage of Hope works incredibly well with most classpects, able to adapt to most needs, so the best possible pairings are with most players of Time, Space, Heart, Mind, and possibly Void. Lastly, in the unlikely event that the Mage of Hope goes rogue, you’re in for a bad time. Actually fighting a Mage of Hope requires one to either be resistant to the Mage’s power, or to be able to attack in a way they can’t counter. Witch or Prince of Mind would be a definite, if unsafe, option, as would a realized Page, Prince, or Knight of Rage, and possibly a Knight of Space. Possibly the safest, if not most effective, counters would be a Prince, Thief, Rogue, Witch, Maid, or Knight of Heart, these being generally safe classpects, but still able to fight back against a Mage of Hope.

#Homestuck #Classpect #Analysis #Classpect Analysis #Class #Aspect #Mage of Hope #Mage #Hope #Long Post

47 notes · View notes

andrewmrudd79 · 6 years ago

Text

17 Copy-and-Paste Blog Post Templates—UPDATED with 8 New Templates!

Get your notepad ready because today on the blog you’ll be treated to 25 copy-and-paste blog templates you can use on your blog right now. Originally, when this blog post was first published in February of 2012 (a looooong time ago in blog years), Kim Roach from Buzzblogger.com was kind enough to share with us her 17 ideas for blog posts. In this new-and-updated version, I’ve added 8 of my own ideas that have worked for me over the years. So now you have 25 helpful blog post templates at your fingertips!

If you’re an online business owner or entrepreneur, you should probably have a blog. If you don’t, this post will give you a strong start to learn what kinds of things you can publish. If you don’t even have a website yet, check out my free course, Build Your Own Brand, to help you learn, step by step, how to pick a brand and start a website.

I’ve had the Smart Passive Income blog for over a decade now. Believe me when I tell you that sometimes it’s difficult to figure out what to write about. So, take these blog post templates with you, to inspire new blog post ideas for your own website for many months to come!

The 25 blog post templates covered in this post are:

Make a Predictions Post

Things You Might Not Know About Me

Why I Don’t Do ‘X’

(Famous Person Guide) To (Blank)

Case Study

Product Showdowns

‘X’ Things You Must Do After (Blank)

How To (Blank) In (X Number of Days / Hours)

Experimental Posts

Comprehensive Pillar Posts

(Insert Desired Benefit) That No One Talks About

Blog Post Roundup

Things I Wish I Had Done Differently

The Tools of the Trade

Ask / Involve the Reader!

Debunk Industry Myths

Comment on Industry Gossip

New Product, Course, or Book Launch

Celebrate An Anniversary

Special Announcement Post

Year In Review

Goals for the Year Ahead

Tips For Newbies

Insider Interviews

Q&A Blog Post

After reading about her amazing blog post ideas, keep reading for the BONUS 8 templates I’ve added to this new and updated material. If you write at all online, this is a post to bookmark for future reference – guaranteed.

Do you ever get writer’s block?

I mean do you ever sit down at your computer with that blank screen mocking you in the face?

As a blogger, I’ve done this on more than one occasion.

Sure, I use all kinds of tricks to get the ‘ol inspiration motor running. . .

I keep a list of running article ideas.

I browse all of my favorite blogs scouting for possible ideas.

Tweet my followers for ideas.

If I get really desperate I’ll whip up a nice bubble bath and some wine

But sometimes you just need a good hook.

Something fresh and unique!

So today I’m going to give you 25 Copy-And-Paste Blog Post Templates that you can use as your own.

Happy Blogging!

1. Make a Predictions Post

These are incredibly fun, especially toward the end of the year. Or the beginning of a new year

Take a look at what’s happening in your market. What’s hot? What are the current trends? And create a blog post around those with your predictions for the new year.

Not only are these types of posts a TON of fun but they also position you as a leader in your market.

So whip out the ‘ol Magic 8 Ball and publish your predictions!

2. Things You Might Not Know About Me

This is a blog post that I recommend EVERY blogger do.

One of the fastest ways to start truly engaging with your community is to give them a peek behind the curtain. Let them see who you are BEYOND just business.

The fact is that we are living through the humanization of business and people are extremely interested in the person BEHIND the business itself.

More than ever… we crave RELATIONSHIPS!

People don’t want cheesy marketing messages . . . they want YOU.

Your story… Your life… Your own unique personality infused into everything you do.

Your readers will be attracted to your weird quirks because they make you human.

When your flawed your real.

That’s one of the biggest pieces of advice I could give you this year.

Give people a peek behind the curtain.

24 Things I’ve Never Told You

33 Things I’ve Never Told You

It’s My Birthday and I’ll Blog When I Want To

26 Life Lessons I’ve Learned in 26 Years of Living

30 More Life Lessons From 30 Years

My Bucket List: The Top 10 Things I Want to Accomplish by the Time I’m 40

Business is about HUMAN connection. And the only way to truly connect is by being completely you.

Your emails, your videos, your articles, every piece of content should be branded with your own, unique personality.

3. Why I Don’t Do ‘X’

People LOVE controversy. That’s why the news channels thrive on ‘bad’ news. Kind of concerning but knowing this can help you instantly increase your email open rates, improve your headlines, and get your articles read.

One of my favorite ways to do this is to use the headline:

Why I Don’t Do ‘X’.

I recently used this in an email entitled “Why I Don’t Do SEO”.

As you can imagine, it got QUITE the attention because I was debunking a hot topic within our industry.

You can use this same strategy on your own blog:

Why I Don’t Do Diets

Why I Don’t Do Online Dating

Why I Don’t Do Article Marketing

Here’s Why I Don’t Have a Full-Time Virtual Assistant

This one is an instant winner when used properly. Plus, it’s just a lot of fun!

People are looking for something fun, unique, and different.

By providing them with something valuable AND entertaining, you’ll be the one that gets read.

4. (Famous Person Guide) to (Blank)

Another great place to get article ideas is to tap into the media. Take what’s hot right now in the news and tie it into your market.

Here are a few examples:

The Steve Job’s Guide to Time Management

The Justin Bieber Guide to Dating

Harry Houdini’s ‘Secret’ to Unusual Marketing

The M.C. Hammer Guide to Social Media

Tap into the hot topics that are ALREADY inside the mind of your prospect.

5. Case Study

No one can resist a good case study. It’s like a good story.

People love to get a behind-the-scenes look at EXACTLY how someone has achieved a certain goal.

Some examples include:

[CASE STUDY] 1 Article = 7,640 Visitors

How I paid off $15,000 in 9 months by selling my ‘Stuff’ on Ebay

How I Lost 21 Pounds in 30 Days

My Journey To The #1 Spot in Google

Why I Switched from Aweber to Infusionsoft to ConvertKit

If you want to quickly become the market leader in your industry, whip out a few case studies and let people follow along on your journey.

6. Product Showdowns

Here’s a twist on the traditional product review post. Instead of just reviewing a product, we’re going to do a product showdown comparing two similar products and sharing the pros and cons of each.

Some examples might include:

Optimize Press Vs. Kajabi

Rapid Action Profits VS. JVZoo

Tweet Adder Vs. Tweet Attacks

Odesk Vs. Fiverr

You’re providing extra value by comparing similar (and possibly) competing products. Helping your reader to decide which one is best for them.

You can take this a step further by sharing how you personally are using the product. Anything you can do to get beyond the boring, overdone, traditional product review. The old ways of affiliate marketing are dying. But add your own unique twist and you’ll quickly start to see the difference.

7. ‘X’ Things You Must Do After (Blank)

Here’s a super simple one that’s almost always an instant winner. It’s fun and easy to write. Entertaining for your reader and it plays on our natural curiosity.

7 Things You Must Do after Writing a Blog Post

7 Things You Must Do After Every Workout

3 Things You Must Do After Every Date

The Blog Post Checklist: After You Publish Your Post

8. How To (Blank) in (X Number of Days / Hours)

Here’s another extremely powerful template that’s similar to the case study post above . . .

How to Generate 427+ Visitors in 24 Hours

How to Get 1,200 Facebook Likes in 3 Days

How to Lose 12 Pounds in 7 Days

How to Get the Perfect Date in 7 Days

How to Start a Company in 30 Minutes

Use either one of these templates to knock-out a killer blog post when your strapped for ideas.

9. Experimental Posts

The only thing better than living an exciting life is to live vicariously through someone else’s exciting life. You can bring this entertainment factor to your blog by doing experimental posts.

This is basically where you set an interesting goal for yourself and post updates on your progress over a 30-day period.

Here are a few examples to get your brain rolling:

May’s Trial – Quasi-minimalism

August’s trial results: Gaining time by losing email addiction

My 30 Day Weight Loss Journey

My 30 Day Email Detox

My 30 Days of Online Dating (Wouldn’t that be interesting)

My Insanity Results

10. Comprehensive Pillar Posts

This one never gets old. If you’re looking to establish your presence online, one of the best things you can do to stand out is to start creating some epic blog posts.

A ‘pillar’ article is generally longer than the traditional blog post (1,000+ words). This sort of ‘flagship content’ is a comprehensive article dripping in value.

Building a raving audience of fans online all starts with mind-blowing pillar content.

Content that makes people think. Inspires. Creates value. Provides a new perspective. Pushes people out of their comfort zones. Challenges your readers. And creates nothing short of a braingasm!

Because of this, people can’t help but share it with others via Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, etc… So when done properly, your pillar posts should bring in a new burst of readers as well.

Here are a few examples of ‘pillar’ posts:

How to Create a Facebook Landing Page

The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Marketing

21 Steps to 1,000 Visitors Per Day

500+ Places to Syndicate Your Content

How to Launch a Brand New Website (With a Bang!) – The Ultimate Guide

11. (Insert Desired Benefit) That No One Talks About

As humans, we naturally want to listen in on ‘insider information’.

Kind of like when you were little and you tried to listen in on your sister’s telephone conversations. We love listening in when we’re not supposed to

That’s why this template works so well:

Traffic Strategies That No One Talks About

Weight Loss Secrets That No One Talks About

Dating Advice That No One Talks About

12. Blog Post Roundup

Here’s an easy one that you can whip up quickly when you’re running short on time. List the top 10 blog posts from the year. Or the top blog posts from around the web that week. Or��simply do a ‘Best Of’ post for your industry. This could be the best Twitter posts, forum posts, best blog posts, best news items, best product releases, etc.

Whip up any combination of your choice. You could even do this on a weekly basis. People love these types of posts because it keeps them in the loop on what’s going on in the industry without having to do all the searching themselves.

Kikolani.com does a really good job of this in their ‘Fetching Friday’ posts and check, out Pat’s Best of 2016 list.

13. Things I Wish I Had Done Differently

These types of posts are almost always a hit because people love to read about other people’s ‘mistakes’. Plus, they provide a ton of value for your readers and help them to avoid common pitfalls.

Give your readers a look behind-the-curtain. Be authentic and transparent and people will love you for it.

Some example headlines might include:

10 Lessons I Learned in 2011

7 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started

12 Things I Would Do If I Were Starting From Scratch

7 Lessons I Learned Testing & Launching My First Online Course

14. The Tools of the Trade

Give people a behind-the-scenes look at the tools you use in your business. People love these types of posts. If you want to take it one step further, shoot a video of your office. You’ll create instant engagement with your readers.

Here are a few example headlines you could use:

The Top 12 Marketing Tools I Use in My Business

7 Marketing Tools I Couldn’t Live Without

18 Must-Have WordPress Plugins

(LIVE Video) A Look Inside My Office

My Home Office Set Up and Tour!

15. Ask / Involve the Reader!

Engagement is quickly becoming one of THE most important marketing metrics in business.

All of your content should be a reflection of the wants, needs, desires, and frustrations of your reader.

There are LOTS of different ways to do this. You can create an “Ask the Reader” type post where you ask an engaging question and start interacting in the comments. Or you can challenge your readers to achieve a specific goal that month and report back with their results.

Here are a few examples:

Ask the Readers: What’s the Most Effective Thing Youíve Done to Build Traffic this Year?

You Asked, I Replied ViperChill Answers #1

First Annual Thanksgiving “Give Yourself a Plug” Day!

Announcing The Million Dollar Blog Project: Build a Profitable Blog Along With Us

Share Your Best Post Ever!

Challenge your readers:

Reader Gratitude Challenge: Write One Thank You Note Every Day for 7 Days

16. Debunk Industry Myths

Every industry has its fair share of myths, legends, and misconceptions.

People love nothing more than debunking common beliefs. Plus, by pointing what’s WRONG in your industry, you also position yourself as a leader.

Some examples here might include:

Top 7 Dieting Myths Debunked

Why I Hate the Atkins Diet

7 Lies You’ve Been Told About Dating

Why Pickup Lines Don’t Work (and what to do instead…)

Talk about what’s WRONG in your industry. Nothing gets more attention than controversy. But you must do it right. Debunk with style

17. Comment On Industry Gossip

Every industry has its own circle of gossip. Writing about these hot topics is one of the best ways to increase readership and tap into the conversation that’s ALREADY taking place in the mind of your prospect.

You can get your fill of juicy gossip browsing the major news sites, in related forums, related blogs, and in your inbox.

This sort of timely ‘news’ (i.e. gossip) makes for great content.

New fad diets

Famous people on such-and-such diet.

The Truth About Product X

Where is Mobile Marketing REALLY Headed?

Part of positioning yourself as an authority is staying ahead of the trends within your industry. If you can be the first to report on relevant trends that are impacting your industry, then people will literally ‘tune’ into your station to make sure they stay updated.

Take a stand on the issue and help guide your reader to make an informed decision.

Thanks, Kim, For Those Amazing Ideas! Now for 8 Bonus Templates:

18. New Product, Book, or Course Launch

Whether you are launching a new online course, a product, a book, or anything new your audience will appreciate, a launch announcement works great as a blog post. Use this launch announcement as a way to build excitement for your launch, before your launch date, by giving your readers a taste of what your new course or book or product is all about.

On the day of the launch, you should also follow up your pre-launch blog post with a day-of-launch blog post.

A few good examples of this include:

Build Your Own Brand 5-Day Challenge Begins Next Week!

1·2·3 Affiliate Marketing Course Launches Today!

Announcing Power-Up Podcasting

Make a splash on your launch day by making sure your audience knows what’s coming!

19. Celebrate An Anniversary

There will be many ups and downs in your online business journey. But one thing that will be consistent every year are your anniversaries: anniversary of starting your online business, anniversary of launching your book, anniversary of making your first sale. You get the idea.

Not only is celebrating an anniversary a fun way to remind yourself of where you came from and why you’re doing what you’re doing, but your audience will appreciate the insight and vulnerability that can come with anniversary blog posts.

A couple examples of this include:

Today Is The Day! Come Celebrate Let Go Day With Me!

My Bucket List: The Top 10 Things I Want To Accomplish by the Time I’m 40

Write down your anniversary dates. Make them part of your business journey as self-motivation and as inspiration for your audience!

20. Special Announcement Post

The special announcement blog post will naturally be a little less common or frequent, but on occasion it’s a good way to remind your audience of special events, or of anything that’s typically outside the regular blog content cadence.

An example of this is: The Stage Is Getting Bigger! My Biggest Keynote Is Happening Next Month.

21. Year In Review

Every year brings an opportunity to reflect, and consider the goals we want to accomplish for the new year ahead. In the “year in review” blog post, this is your chance to explore all of that. Aside from the therapeutic value of thinking introspectively about the past year in your business and life, the year in review post is a way to hold yourself accountable—publicly with your audience.

Maybe your blog post will inspire your audience to take action on their own goals!

Some examples include:

The Year Of Online Courses (The Results. The Good. The Not So Good.)

Website Redesign: One Year Later (Critical Lessons Learned)

22. Looking Forward / Goal Setting

This is your chance to show your audience where you’re headed. What are your goals for the new year? What do you want to accomplish? What do you want to create? What do you want to improve about your business?

Use this opportunity to highlight what’s coming next, and get your audience excited about it!

A few examples include:

If You Could Accomplish One Thing in 2017, What Would It Be?

Looking Ahead and Goals for 2017

23. Tips for Newbies

We all start somewhere. We were all newbies once in our various niches. You may even be new to blogging or online business now, so you’ll learn this soon enough: We can all learn from those that came before us.

Share what you’ve learned by giving others an opportunity to build the foundational skills we all must learn.

A few “tips for newbies” blog post examples include:

31 Tips from 31 Course Creators on How to Build and Launch a Successful Online Course

Top 10 Podcast Recording Tips to Sound Like a Podcasting Pro

Top 10 Tips for Brand New Podcasters

24. Insider Interviews

Here’s where you can highlight your team that works hard but who may be behind the scenes, unseen by your audience. You can do audio interviews and or written interviews. If you have someone helping you with social media, your editorial calendar, your podcast production, etc., give them a little moment in the spotlight. It gives them an opportunity to share their expertise, and they’ll appreciate the attention.

You could even invite your audience to share their experience with your blog to highlight their successes based on what your website has taught them.

A couple examples of the insider interviews include:

How To Keep Up With You Editorial Calendar (And How to Get Ahead)

Is SPI Better Than Business School? 9 Lessons One Reader Used to Grow His Business

25: Q&A Blog Post

Question & Answer posts are easy to create. Basically, they consist of a list of questions that you, or a guest, will answer. Find someone you admire and who you feel has knowledge that will benefit your audience. Send them a list of questions, and they can send you the answers. Voila, you have a blog post. Or, put together a list of questions that your audience frequently asks you and provide them with the answers.

A few examples of Q&A blog posts include:

8 Quickfire Questions and Answers with Pat

Three Questions Every Blogger Who Wants To Make Money Online Should Ask Themselves

Use the 25 blog post ideas above to stand out from the crowd, get your blog noticed, and become an industry maven.

Kim Roach is the official Marketing Lab Rat at Buzzblogger.com.

17 Copy-and-Paste Blog Post Templates—UPDATED with 8 New Templates! originally posted at Homer’s Blog

0 notes