#i wonder if they also go to the customers to solve their problems. maybe that was meant in season 4 if the mover mobile is actually used

[redgearsmovin]

i wonder if there's times where the movers help more customers in a day, but it's simply 'problems' instead of idea emergencies.

[friskarm]

tentatively putting my thoughts into the tag. for context i am an anime-only watcher but i've been really, really enjoying the mage exam arc and i was definitely a little surprised to find out that this arc has a lot of people frustrated!

one of the strengths of this arc, i think, is seeing how frieren interacts with characters and personalities we've not seen her encounter before. fern and stark are both relatively placid as people; they're generally content to go along with what frieren says.

lawine and kanne are two very strong personalities that frieren initially doesn't know how to deal with at all! they have a whole thing going on and frieren's choice is to. not handle it at all. rather, she spends much of her time quietly observing the two of them until she can speak with each of them individually and figure them out, just a bit. she really struggles to get a grasp on the situation until she does that; it's lawine and kanne who are acting first within their team.

then, secondly -- frieren's plan is so. elf with a lot of time to spare. the impact of the time limit is felt so strongly by every human character on the field; everyone is in such a rush! fern's team are stoked they caught a stille so early. the team that attacks them are desperate to steal it asap. after lawine freezes the lake, the other teams are desperately trying to thaw it, for a quick solution.

frieren, though? frieren's solution takes a shitton of time and involves her essentially meditating by a pond for god knows how many hours. it's such a frieren plan; i feel like only someone with a relationship with time like frieren does would come up with it.

tldr; frieren's capacity to form relationships and understand people and her relationship with time are shown off in a really interesting way wrt the way frieren solves the stille problem.

that, and... it seems a bit silly to say this about a show with a certain character in the title but... i do not feel that frieren is exclusively about frieren. it is certainly a story about her adventures but frieren is by no means the only important character! fern is also there! and stark but hes on vacation. so let's talk about fern.

the one fight scene fern has is so unbelieveably crunchy to me bc we learn so much about the world (now) and about the world (part)/frieren's view on magic from it! the girl she fights has really impressive magic; we know that this is generally considered a time of peace, the demon lord is dead, etc. magic is not necessarily a means to an end. i wonder if this means magic has entered a sort of renaissance? a time period after a period of great upheaval, where social structure is thrown out the window and great advances are made in technology, science - and maybe magic!

the way fern uses magic is very indicative of how frieren feels about magic. fern says (that frieren said) that "this is enough to defeat mages of this era", which is so interesting to me bc yes, ofc, fern does win! with her simple magic and full auto fire. but does that automatically mean fern is a better mage? it's complicated...

you hear a lot about the different philosophies of people who use magic in these episodes, and what i'm really interested in seeing is mr war guy meet frieren, bc i think they'd be the most interesting contrast -- a warrior of the past, and a warrior of today.

specifically bc -- frieren is basically a custom-designed warrior. the way she can mask her mana is very specifically designed to be able to weaponised against demons, flamme did that to her very purposefully. the way she's trained fern is also indicative of that; fern's immense firepower and stamina being "enough to defeat mages of this era" without being flashy so to speak indicate, at least to me, that this sort of thing was common in frieren's time! but this is a type of magic very specifically made for battle against a very specific enemy.

no wonder frieren likes collecting weird spells so much... i wonder if she's had much time at all in the past to play around with magic for the sake of anything but fighting and training to fight?

[panlight]

I'm not sure if its possible to get something like pigs blood from a butcher in the US, but i feel like someone like Esme would prefer that over hunting animals.

And maybe Carlisle and Rosalie would work on a blood alternative, kind of like TruBlood, for vampires.

What are your thoughts on that?

My understanding is that it's tricky in the US to find it, but with the Cullens' money they could probably pay off some local butchers to save blood for them. Just imagining Esme being like "oh I make authentic black pudding and sell it online!" as an explanation and they make like a fake online store front for it and then people start trying to actually order it and she's like, oh crap I guess I have to make some now? Like when you read stories about restaurants that were really fronts for mob activity but someone wanders in and the mobsters have to get their mom to cook some pasta for the oblivious customers.

But, really, if SM were more interested in 'vampire slice of life' stuff AND if she had more room in her story for the secondary characters to have desires and motivations outsides of either facilitating or resenting the main romance, of course Carlisle would have been trying to make a blood substitute, and of course Rosalie and Edward, with their various STEM degrees, would be helping him. And OF COURSE they would have researched the myths surrounding vampires having children long before Bella got pregnant. It's absolutely impossible for me to suspend my disbelief to accept that the Cullens and especially Carlisle were just like 'wow we literally never thought or wondered about this until just now' when Bella gets pregnant. Esme and Rosalie LONG for children! SURELY they've researched this before!?!? I could accept that they researched it but found no concrete evidence and thought it was just a myth made up by the Volturi or whatever but just the 'literally no idea . . . even though apparently there are books in our library about it, and our groundskeepers on Isle Esme know about it, and there are websites online about it' does not make sense to me unless the Cullens have just literally been standing around like unplayed Sims waiting for Edward and Bella to need them for something.

I also think the Cullens probably should have been working on some kind of sparkle-suppressing vampire make-up. I've seen people asking why they don't just use make-up to hide the sparkle or look older, but since their skin is so different from human skin, normal make-up probably wouldn't work that well. But again, you've got Alice the fashion maven and bunch of other vampires with backgrounds in biology and they can't put their heads together and come up with some kind of vampire-friendly, sparkle-proof foundation?

Again, I get it: at the end of the day Twilight is a romance, and romances generally and understandably have a narrow focus on the central relationship. But romances don't usually have so MANY side characters, either. Realistically, I would expect the Cullens, with their various medical and scientific studies, abundant free time (no sleep!) and unlimited wealth, would have already solved a lot of living-as-a-vampire problems by the time Bella showed up.

Assuming they can be solved, of course. Maybe vampire venom on the skin really just makes any make-up lasting for more than a half hour impossible. Maybe a blood substitute just doesn't work because there's some magical 'blood is the life' thing going on here. Maybe pig's blood is just too impractical to get from a butcher in the volume they need it. Maybe the act of hunting helps them release tension and they realize they miss it.

But yeah I'd have loved to have seen more of this. There's some stuff in Midnight Sun that hints at the stuff the Cullens get up to, but it's more like, Emmett and Jasper's complicated chess game with multiple boards, or Alice and Rosalie designing clothes on the computer. I don't think SM really thought about 'what would a vampire doctor who wants to be as human as possible be researching in his spare time?' and so we missed out on some of this stuff.

[fregolicotard]

24.09.2024

Remember when I complained yesterday about my "uber adventurous and packed day". 💀 Such a sweet sweet summer child I was...

07:00 am – Wake up, bleary-eyed, and drag ourselves to the airport. Completely unaware that we won a ticket for an obstacle course disguised as air travel.

12:30 pm – We finally take off from Berlin, fashionably late by an hour. No big deal—just leaves us with a razor-thin 40 minutes to catch our connection in Madrid for Dallas. Who doesn’t love a little adrenaline with their layover?

15:30 pm – Land in Madrid and immediately get an email: Good news: we’re rebooked! Bad news: it’s to New York at 16:20. Because why go straight to your destination when you can collect cities like trading cards?

15:40 pm – Andrzej calls Iberia, and they inform him that, surprise, the New York flight is also cancelled. Meanwhile, the monitor insists it’s boarding. Who do we trust? The airline or reality?

16:00 pm – We run to the gate for New York like two racehorses. The gate agent tells us we can board… but our luggage isn’t coming with us. So we’d have to file a claim in New York to get it to Dallas. Hard pass. She sends us to customer service to get rebooked instead. Because clearly, that’s where all problems are solved.

16:10 pm – Join the purgatory that is Iberia’s customer service line. Forty people ahead of us, two agents “helping” with the kind of enthusiasm you’d expect from people about to perform a root canal on themselves. Meanwhile, Andrzej is calling Iberia and then British Airways, trying to find a way to Dallas.

17:30 pm – Victory (ish): Andrzej books us on a new flight… to Chicago… in two days. I suggest we keep waiting in line, just in case customer service has something earlier up their sleeve. Maybe they'll take pity on us?

18:00 pm – Eighteen people still ahead of us. Food and water? Nonexistent. Assistance? Please. No one gives a tossing fig about us.

18:10 pm – Just as I start wondering if I’ll grow old and die in this line, the agents announce their shift is over and walk out. Mayhem. Everyone starts screaming. We’re directed to another desk—because why stop at one disaster when you can have two? It’s a 30-minute hike across the airport, because of course it is.

19:00 pm – Desk #2. We split up: Andrzej tries to file a luggage claim, while I get in yet another line. I sweat these are actually East European post offices disguised as customer service desks.

20:00 pm – After what feels like eternity, the desk agent tells me to go to bus stop #7 for the hotel shuttle. Which hotel? Who knows. Apparently, that’s classified information. I try to ask, and she snaps at me to “just go to the bus stop.” Customer service is dead, and she’s the one who killed it.

20:20 pm – Standing outside at bus stop #7, surrounded by luggage, rushing vehicles and men who look like they will say at any time: "Hey, gorgeous". A bus finally pulls up, but the driver looks at us like we’ve asked for a free ride to the moon and refuses to take us. So Andrzej heads back inside, leaving me to babysit 123 kilos of baggage, increasingly convinced I’m living in some twisted social experiment. Maybe I died on the flight to Madrid and this is purgatory? Straight to hell old girl?

21:20 pm – An hour later, Andrzej returns, saying the bus stop is somewhere else and that “Jorge” is waiting for us. Whoever Jorge is, he’s our only hope.

22:30 pm – We’ve now been waiting an hour, and shocker: Jorge hasn’t shown. Our fellow passengers are skedadling one by one, calling Ubers, tired of the lie that Jorge is coming to rescue us. What if I made Jorge up?! Maybe I'm so hungry that I'm imagining Jorges is shining armour coming up in a shuttle bus??

23:45 pm – We join the others, booking a hotel ourselves because dignity is for people who didn’t trust this airline. I call an Uber van big enough for our suitcase bonanza.

00:30 am – Arrive at the hotel, a hollow shell of my former self, wondering if life was ever anything other than an endless airport queue. Energy depleted.

00:45 am – Tapas. Flavor profile: Optimal. Resource expenditure: Excessive. Emotional satisfaction: Temporary. Take a selfie because surely they don't allow you selfies in hell?

#268of366

[trivialbob]

The more I fly with an airline, the nicer they are to me. I get upgrades and free drinks.

The longer I’m with my cable company the worse they are to me. The price creeps up a few dollars every few months. Oh, I’ll deal with this some other time, but I’m not going to worry about $2 right now. It’s the frog in the pot of water on the stove business model.

Service went out last night. I tried the usual online help/chat.

Q: How many cable boxes are not working?

A: Two

Q: Select which one it is.

There were other similar dead ends. Finally I had enough of “Please unplug your set for 30 seconds” and called a human. Nowadays calling a person isn’t necessarily less aggravating for me than trying to “chat” with a computer, but it couldn’t be worse than the chat.

Many years ago, with AOL dial-up (eeeeeee-awwwwww, boing, boing) service, I had some problem. Via my landline I reached a techie guy in the US who was genuinely eager to help. Maybe it was his first week on the job.

When he said, “Oh Dude! I see the problem! Here’s what we gotta do...��� His demeanor made me smile. Some people HATE being called dear, sweetie, or dude, but I sort of like that informality in some settings. A grocery store cashier recently said to me, in a bit of a Southern drawl, “Hey hun, you dropped your card.” It cracked me up.

Today’s help desk person was nice. It’s frustrating to be asked to re-do all the steps I tried on my own. They have a script to stick to; I get it. I can also picture this iknstruction in the script: “Be sure to thank the customer at least every 2 minutes for being one of our valued customers.”

From some research I did online for my particular error code, away from the cable company’s web site, I suspected a billing snafu, despite my last payment posting on time and no new payment being due yet. One brief error message on my TV even indicated something about billing, but I wasn’t able to recreate that message.

I asked the person about billing. “No, no. You’re account is in good standing. And thank you for being one of our valued customers, Mr. Bob.”

Then we waited on the fifth or sixth reboot. She also indicated she was starting the process to “escalate the ticket,” because nothing was solving the problem.

She must have sensed a little frustration on my part, though I was very polite the whole time. She ended up changing something that cut my bill a little and even bumped up internet speed (despite my current speed being awesome already).

I had to acknowledge the billing change via a text she sent me. The moment I clicked Yes my service was immediately restored. I said she no longer need to escalate the ticket to a higher level. She seemed happy the problem was resolved. I bet she wondered what happened too.

It’s not a free drink and more legroom. I appreciate the discount. Except it started with a problem, not because I’ve spent a lot of money there over the years.

[prayers-to-hyliarceus]

I. suppose I ought to explain my... blog header.

The—? Oh.

i was... wondering about that for a while, honestly, but i didn't want to bring it up.

You do not have to, little bird.

I know but I— I just want to.

I understand.

...So. When I figured out all of the customization options that I could adjust, I wanted to change the title. And I'd coincidentally heard of a Pokemon move called "moonblast", and it made me think of a little play on words I could use. Hence, the bloo

blood. moonblast.

I did it just because I thought it would be... funny. Maybe it would also lessen my oversensitive reactions whenever something so much as vaguely mentioned a subject in the blood moon's direction— you know, kill two birds with one stone, but obviously it didnt work. not in the slightest.

nothing i do works anyway.

that's not true. that is really, really not true, speaking as someone who watched you start rebuilding Hyrule from the ground up.

but

Speaking as someone who hasn't seen that, even, you put so much time and effort into researching ancient relics and you have always worked tirelessly wherever you go. Those things work, even if you overshadow them with your downfalls.

Which, as we can all agree, you should not be doing. Forgetting your accomplishments for your failures, I mean.

i just think its so ridiculous that i can t look at my own blog heade rwithout getitng panicked anymore

That's okay, Zelda. This is all... complicated, but it is not ridiculous that you feel this way.

All we have to do is find a way to get around this hurdle. You are good at problem-solving, no? Besides, we are here for you whenever you need help.

would it help if you changed the header so it says something different?

that feels. cowardly

it really isn't.

i... i want to do that.

[chaotic-aro-incarnate]

Only Friends main cast and how & why they hook up with each other headcanons

Boston & Nick, Sand & Ray, Boston & Top: already happened so we know how that'll go

Top & Mew: with all their 4D chess that they're playing, something's gotta give at some point and that's how they'll finally have sex

Top & Sand: Sand mentioned being hit on a lot + having one night stands somewhat frequently and Top goes to the bar that Sand works at. Totally feasible that they hooked up at one point. Though in the preview for Ep 3 Sand says that he only has sex with someone once if it's just a hook up, which I wonder became his rule before or after Top

Ray & Boston: messed up proxy fucking where they're both thinking about Mew and Top respectively and are making things worse for themselves by doing it

Mew & Boston: happens after Top hooks up with Boston again and before Mew and Top actually have sex. Mew finds out about Top and Boston and gets revenge on Top by hooking up with Boston instead of him (also a very pointed "well I had to see what was so good about him that you'd pick him over me" from both parties)

Mew & Ray: alternate way where Mew gets revenge on Top for cheating on him, sine it seems like Boston is planning to play on Mew and Ray's relationship to make Top sleep with him instead (Mew: oh you thought I was messing around with him so you got with Boston? well, I guess now I actually do need to hook up with him). Poor Ray doesn't know how to say no to Mew, even if he knows he's just being used to get back at Top

Sand & Boston: similar situation to Sand & Top. Boston is a frequent customer at the bar where Sand works and hooks up with people all the time, statistically it probably happened and neither one thought too much about it and have kinda forgotten it happened and only remember when Boston runs into Sand after hooking up with Nick at their apartment.

Sand & Nick: they're roommates who have both been dragged into this mess of a friend group and are both in less than ideal situations with their fuck buddy/friend with benefits. enough depressed heart-to-hearts about the matter and they decide it might be better to simply fuck each other instead

Ray & Nick: Nick finds out that Boston is still sleeping with other people and has a crisis, Ray is being self-destructive and gets into an argument with Sand. they run into each other without knowing all the connections between them and hook up in a hopes of solving their problems, completely unaware how many more problems that they are causing for themselves

Top & Nick: Nick finds out that the guy Boston is still hung up over is Top and decides that he's going to fuck him as well because why shouldn't he? If Boston can do it, he should be able to do it too and maybe he'd find out what all the fuss is about. Probably after Mew found out about the cheating so he's not talking to Top at the moment, and Top figures out that he might as well sleep with the guy propositioning him because how much worse can things get?

Ray & Top: this is just straight up hate-fucking, no two ways about it. Ray resents Top for hurting Mew, Top doesn't like Ray due to the jealousy as well (since Ray's closeness to Mew seems to be what breaks him with Boston). Mew is mad at them both and off doing something (or someone) else. They run into each other at the bar while drunk and then pick a fight that escalates to them having sex

Mew & Sand: I don't know exactly how this would happen, I just know it's probably the worst thing to happen to Ray and he will make some bad decisions if he finds out it happened

Mew & Nick: .......ok I've been thinking but I seriously can't come up with a situation where they would end up hooking up together. they might be the only ones who won't have sex within the main cast because I'm at a loss of thinking how this one would happen. unless Nick and Top hook up and Mew finds out and then goes on a mission to have sex with every boy that Top has in order to prove a point to him

[theowritesfiction]

Hi @theowritesfiction !!!

I just wanted to say that I absolutely adored chapter 30. It was a rollercoaster. Aang and Sokka are something else, aren’t they? So are Azula and Zuko. Can’t even behave at Kiyi’s birthday. Though I would posits that the entire thing with the candles was Zuko’s fault. Also it was weirdly sweet to see Azula sticking for her friend. If violently. Though I’m pretty sure that Mai has already moved on with a new fiancé…😉

————

I also had a question/prompt I just thought up for ya. It’s an ATLA/BGIII idea.

In one of the Karlach endings, the character that the player well plays (being either a custom/Tav, the Urge, or another origin) can choose to accompany a romanced Karlach to Avernus.

Say Azula at some point is sent to Avernus through a strange spirit accident. Either during her early childhood, the night Ursa leaves, or at some point during or after the show.

Once in Avernus, Azula is quite understandably shocked at what’s going on. After wondering for a few moments she is accosted by a passing patrol of Imp. Depending at what age Azula is sent to Avernus she either deals with the imps herself or nearly killed.

While Azula is accosted, a nearby Karlach and character that romanced her see what is happening and swiftly intervene. Rescuing Azula.

From that point onwards, Azula is basically adopted by Karlach and the (formerly played) character.

Sure, Azula is in one of the hells. But she is raised by Karlach so it evens out no? Even if she has to live in the blood war. Constantly hunted by Zariel as the de facto adopted daughter of Karlach. During that time, Azula is also on a relentless quest to fix Karlach’s infernal engine.

Of course, no ATLA related thing is complete without Azutara. So at some point in time Katara (and possibly other members of the Gaang/dangerous ladies) is either sent to Avernus via spirit tomfoolery, or Azula is somehow sent back to the world of Avatar. Though I don’t know what kind of big conflict Azula and Katara would fight against. Perhaps there is a devil or a demon they have to fight against. Maybe even Zariel, on a quest to rescue Karlach? Perhaps one devil wishes to merge their plain of hell with the mortal world of Avatar. Amin to Molag Bal’s plan in Elder Scrolls Online.

That the idea! Or at least a preliminary idea for your consideration.

Hi, @745voiceofthepeople ! Glad to hear you enjoyed the latest AKN update! Yes, Aang and Sokka had to take a little dumbing down for comedy's sake. ;) Azula and Zuko are the worst - and Azula probably wouldn't have cared too much about Zuko and Mai breaking up, but Azula just finds it very offensive that Zuko would choose Jet above her best friend.

Speaking about ATLA and BG3, I actually encountered that ending for Karlach in my game. My tiefling bard romanced Karlach and ended up joining her in Avernus. Oh, and Wyll came along with them, probably to carry their bags and do butler stuff.

Avernus is a very fiery place, that's for sure. Maybe Azula could end up there because the spirits very angry with her if she maybe used her firebending to do something bad, so perhaps it was a kind of punishment for her.

I think Azula and Karlach could have a very interesting relationship. Karlach is a rather simple girl and she would need time to understand why Azula is the way she is. But Karlach also has a good heart and Azula is just a kid, so she'd try to be patient with Azula. I think Azula would be frustrated that Karlach's default approach to problem solving is to chop them with an axe. But Azula would come to appreciate Karlach's loyalty and she would become invested in helping fix Karlach's engine.

Bringing in the other ATLA characters in this scenario might be a challenge, though. I currently have no clear ideas how I would do that. :) But thank you so much for the interesting idea!

[hearthandheathenry]

Hmm, it's not really a big thing, but I think I like writing, but my language is not really advanced, but I have good ideas… I like solving psychological problems and solving puzzles, even though I'm not that good… I like singing… I like cooking sometimes… not a lot, but I think These hobbies have nothing to do with the major I may pursue at university.

These are all great things you can incorporate into helping people or making a difference!

With writing, you can idea-pitch, write inspiring stories, or write articles or blogs about bringing attention to something or a cause. Maybe you want to spread awareness about something or educate others. Take my blog posts about cost-savings with groceries for example, I had an issue with how to save money while eating healthy and I researched and shared my findings to try to help others. Or maybe you just want to write fun novels that others may find comfort in while connecting to your story or characters. Maybe you like poetry and you'll move people with your words and express things they cannot.

Singing is also wonderful! Maybe you can create your own music or collaborate with other artists. There's many who have inspiring works where they can express deep emotions or other things while singing and songwriting.

Perhaps your love of cooking will blossom and you'll learn ways to help people via food. Maybe it'll be meal-planning for the elderly, working in a soup kitchen, or simply finding ways to feed your loved ones. Like because of my continued learning with cooking and my grocery savings, Ive started bringing food to my elderly aunt while she was recovering from back surgery. It helped her tremendously and I felt good that she could eat well and healthy while recovering.

Maybe instead of focusing on the job your major will bring you, focus on the skills you're learning at university. I learned a lot of psychology, nursing, science, and writing while I was at school, I learned how to collaborate with others and manage projects. Those are all skills I use in my career and everyday life, even though I don't have an official degree. So check out those skills your learning and honing to help think of more possible future routes, rather than trying to narrow it down to one specific job/career. Like I know my skillset and what im interested in falls in the customer service industry mixed with animals. So jobs that fill those two roles tend to be enjoyable to me and it leaves the door open to new opportunities and roles I wouldn't have thought to go to. Whats meant to be will always find a way, and things that are meant to be will happen so coincidentally that its funny. You'll literally look back and laugh at how things worked out. We never know where we're at in our journey, but we always end up finding our way in the end. Thats why hindsight is 2020 and why people continually progress even if they felt like they havent. The universe is always working to align you with where youre meant to be at any given time. So just do your best to steer your journey day by day by making small choices that feel right to you in the moment. Learn to trust your intuition and instincts.

[lovesick-rambles]

You Belong

commission for: @cherrypieships

summary: Steve, Eddie, and Melody go grocery shopping for the first time since they all moved in together and Eddie is feeling a little insecure about himself.

word count: 2.2k

author’s note: this was so fun to write! Thank you again Olive for giving me such a sweet plot!

banner credit: cafekitsune

The grocery store was oddly busy for a weekday this afternoon, especially for a little town like Hawkins. It’s normally very busy on weekends since that’s the only time most people are off from work, but today was seemingly different. Melody, Steve, and Eddie tried their best to navigate around the sea of people in their way, but it was getting difficult because it seemed like more and more people were choosing to flood this specific store.

Eddie reached out and grabbed two grapefruits and held them up to his chest, “Oh, look at this! I think I grew a cup size! I just hope that there’s a store that carries a bra that’ll fit me.”

Melody playfully hit his arm, “Eddie! Put those back! People are staring!” She tried to seem serious but she couldn't hold back her laughter, “I can’t take you anywhere without you causing a scene, can I?”

He laughed back and put the grapefruits back where they belonged, “Is that why this is my first time accompanying you on this marvelous adventure?”

“It’ll be your first and your last time if you continue that act.” Steve joked, eyeing the grocery list in his hand, “We should try to hurry up to get home sooner. I don’t want this to take longer than it has to because of all these other customers.”

“Sounds good, Steve!” Melody smiled at him, “Maybe we should split up to make this quicker?”

“Nah, that’s not necessary!” He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her towards him, “Besides, I don’t want to lose you amongst all these people. You’re not getting lost on my watch, Mel.”

Her face grew warm and she giggled sheepishly, “You’re such a dork! I’m not going to get lost!” She started to get flustered from the sudden PDA from Steve, but she wasn’t exactly opposed to receiving it.

“Yeah, because I’ll be holding you and trailing behind you like this the entire time.” He rested his chin on her shoulder and smirked, “Problem solved.”

Eddie watched them and how they interacted with each other. He awkwardly rubbed his arm, feeling a little insecure as he watched them act lovey. This was their first time out grocery shopping together since he moved in with them. Since they all started dating, actually. It was new for him, feeling loved and being in a fresh relationship. It was huge for him, actually. Which was embarrassing for him to admit, even to his own relationship. Who gets this excited about going grocery shopping? Eddie didn’t have any way to answer that, but it was true. He couldn’t help but feel slightly down because of that, though. Melody and Steve worked well together, they knew each other so well. They had been together longer than all three of them have and Eddie wondered if he was an awkward addition to what they already had. He shook his head a little, as if trying to shake away any negative thoughts he was having about himself, “Alright, alright, let’s get dinner. I’m starving here! I’m afraid I might perish if I wait any longer.”

“Yeah, I agree. We should get this done sooner rather than later like you said, Steve.” Melody pulled herself away from Steve’s grip, still giggling a little, “Since you have the list, you’re going to have to be my guide and tell me what to grab.”

“I am also at your service, my lady.” Eddie dramatically bowed and grinned up at the two, “I am here to help defend you from the treachery that is the grocery store and make sure that all three of us are well fed and energized for our next grand adventure.”

“And it is so appreciated! An extra pair of hands will help this go by quicker!” She smiled and grabbed a cart, “Let’s go!”

The small, buzzing, insecure thoughts persisted for Eddie while they all shopped. It didn’t seem like they really needed a third pair of hands. If they needed anything, they were already in the aisle for it and Steve was more than ready to grab it for Melody. So, he trailed behind Melody and Steve, waiting for them to need him. He noticed how in sync they were with each other and it only added fuel to his already self hating thoughts. He felt a little guilty for feeling so upset since there wasn’t that much of a reason to feel this way in his eyes. Both Melody and Steve were making sure to include him, it wasn’t like they were ignoring him or he was a third wheel in his own relationship. They were talking to him, asking him to run to another aisle and grab something for them while they stayed put, and asked for his opinion when it was wanted. Eddie wondered if he was just being sensitive over nothing but, he couldn’t deny that he felt a small pang in his chest when he saw how in tandem they were with each other. He also couldn’t deny that he worried that he wasn’t a good fit for this relationship, especially knowing that Steve and Melody were together long before he was even considered. He fiddled with rings the entire time they were shopping, only stopping when one of them talked to him and pulled him out of his head. The entire time they were there, he silently prayed that the next aisle they visited would be their last so that these awful feelings could go away. Finally, as if some divine being heard his thoughts, they were in line to checkout. Almost home. Thank God.

“Are you okay?” Melody turned to Eddie and asked, tilting her head to the side.

He shook his head and let out a small laugh, “Yeah! Yeah, I’m fine! I just uh, I’m not a fan of grocery stores!” He looked around the store and smiled, “All these old people, you know? They give me the creeps.”

“Aww, I’m sorry! Are you uncomfortable?” She asked, grabbing his hand and squeezing it, “Maybe you should’ve stayed home?”

Her asking that made Eddie’s smile fall a little bit. He knew it was innocent and she just wanted him to be comfortable, but he couldn’t help but feel like that was a subtle way of telling him that he was an unnecessary addition to this shopping trip. To their entire relationship in general. She and Steve were already so happy together before he came along, why did he have to ruin such a good thing? He composed himself quickly, “But then you’d be missing out on all my wonderful jokes!”

“Oh, like what? Your grapefruit boobs?” Steve chimed in, rolling his eyes slightly before turning to the cashier, “Haven’t seen that one before.”

Eddie only responded with an uncomfortable chuckle, not knowing what else to do. A spike of insecurity hit him again, so he mumbled something about putting the cart away and squeezed his way through the checkout line. Melody watched him, noticing that he was acting a little odd but she didn’t want to press. She helped Steve bag their groceries while wondering if everything was okay with Eddie, silently going over everything that happened in her head. She couldn’t remember if she said or did anything untoward to make him so uneasy. Once he returned, she started to feel a little better but was still a little anxious. Melody figured that if something was wrong, Eddie would come to her and Steve and talk to them about it. The last thing she wanted to do was pry and make him feel cornered.

“Sweet, sweet freedom!” Eddie sang as he walked through the doors, holding two bags in each hand, “We conquered our greatest challenge we have ever faced together! We should rejoice by making a hearty meal!”

“That’s the plan, Eddie!” Melody smiled at him while waiting for Steve to open the trunk of his car, “We’ll get started on dinner right when we get home!”

“We cannot have dinner without entertainment.” He wiggled his eyebrows at the two of them, “What do you say? I can serenade you both with my melodic voice. A melody for my Melody!”

She started to giggle and blush at his flirting, getting flustered again. Her hand covered her mouth to hide her goofy grin, “Or we can just watch a movie? Maybe we can rent one on the way home.”

“That’s a great idea,” Steve shut the trunk and ran his fingers through his hair, “We should check out the new releases before anyone else gets a hold of them.”

They all collectively agreed that picking out a movie would be the perfect way to spend their evening, save for Eddie jokingly trying to convince them that he should seriously lull them to sleep by playing Metallica with his amp cranked up. The sky was very slowly shifting between being bright blue to turning a warm orange, the clouds looking fluffier in the new, dim light. The trio went back and forth while in the movie rental place, trying to argue for their pick and why the others should pick it too. Finally, after taking at least ten minutes to decide on a film they all were content with, they were ready to head to their home and make dinner. Eddie and Steve carried as many bags as they could while Melody unlocked their door. She let the two of them enter first and held the door for them.

“Finally home,” Steve sighed, placing the bags on the counter, “Thank God.”

Melody hummed happily as she followed her loves inside, “Yeah, I’m happy too. It was crazy in the store today!”

Eddie remained quiet, his thoughts still consuming him. He tried his best to make himself look busy by focusing on putting away the food. Melody was still aware of his unusual behavior, growing worried about it. She waited patiently for him to say something first, still not wanting to press and make him feel forced to talk. But, once he continued to avoid eye contact, she couldn’t wait anymore, “Eddie? Are you okay?”

He looked up at her for the first time since they came home and gave an unconvincing smile, “Of course I am! Why?”

She shook her head, “You’ve been acting funny all day. What’s up?”

“I don’t know what you mean.” He lied, starting to feel embarrassed about his actions.

Steve stopped what he was doing and turned his attention to the two of them, “Hey, we can be honest with each other. If something happened, you can tell us. That’s what we’re here for.”

“Really, I’m cool!” Eddie waved his hands, trying his best to seem alright.

“Please?” Melody frowned, “If I did something, or if we did something,” She gestured to both her and Steve, “We want to know. I don’t want you to be afraid to talk to us.”

He froze, feeling sheepish. Sighing, he confessed, “No, you guys didn’t do anything wrong. I’m just…uh, listen, I’m not used to this.” He pointed at the three of them to show he is talking about their relationship, “And um, I’m just worried, I guess.”

“Why are you worried?” She asked him, slightly relieved that he was opening up.

He sighed, “I’m worried because…what if I don’t really belong? I guess that’s the best way of putting it.”

“Belong? Like, you mean with us?” Steve questioned, crossing his arms. Eddie only nodded, feeling silly for getting so upset over this. Steve frowned a little and grabbed his shoulder, giving it a loving squeeze, “Hey, you belong. I know simply saying that doesn’t make it go away, but you do. I swear it.”

“But you and Mel have been together for so long and you guys are just perfect for each other.” He played with the ends of his hair to give him something to focus on, feeling too awkward to make eye contact with Steve, “I just feel like a clumsy addition.”

“It’s okay.” Melody cupped his face in her hands, “It’s okay to feel this way. I understand why you would, given how often you were bullied in high school. But, like Steve said, you belong with us.” She gave him a warm smile, “This sort of thing is a bit new to all of us, so we’re all a little clumsy at it. Mine and Steve’s relationship prior doesn’t define what we have. We’re here for each other and we love each other deeply. We love you, Eddie. Please don’t ever doubt that.”

He gently placed his hands on top of hers, melting into her touch. His thoughts were still being mean to him but, knowing just how much he was loved made him feel better. For the first time today, he was able to ignore those self hating thoughts. The rest of the night was better for him, especially since he was honest about how he felt. They made dinner together which resulted in the kitchen being a mess, so they played Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who would have to clean it. Steve played paper to Eddie’s scissors and did not take losing very well. But, they all collectively agreed that cleaning the kitchen can be forgotten about until the morning because they had a movie to watch. The evening ended on a good note, with all three of them nestled in each other’s arms.

“They’re right.” Eddie thought to himself, looking at Melody and Steve, “I do belong.”

[cleric-of-jank]

companies can make additional money in a variety of ways. some of these ways are anti-entropy and advance the pareto frontier for society:

1. increases in productive efficiency 2. solving the problems of new consumers they didn't realize could be solved 3. motivating workers to do something they're passionate about 4. dissolving stupid social conventions into thin air to further realize people's talents and desires

but some of them are basically just zero-sum wealth transfers

1. refusing to pay your bills until your suppliers give you a discount 2. using deceptive marketing to convince gullible customers to pay more money for your product than they needed to 3. forcing your workers to work harder than they were bargaining for at a job they dislike with the implicit threat of starvation 4. damaging third parties that your transactions implicitly affect because of an incomplete legal reckoning of property rights

the government would like to incentivize actors to focus on the former set rather than the latter set, but the market doesn't really see a difference between the two. the typical recompense here is for the government to simply regulate in such a way to mitigate the latter set or else hope competition makes it not a productive option, but there are a variety of issues with these approaches

1. it's hard to distinguish between these two sets from the point of view of a regulator, so regulation can muck things up and 2. the market will have more or less competition at any given time depending on a litany of factors so it might be ineffective at resolving problems 3. regulation makes it harder to compete because of increasing barriers to entry

so i've been thinking of alternative solutions. thought for a while about forcing holders of some given company to also be "exposed" to that company's suppliers/consumers/workers/environment so any attempt at going the zero-sum route just wouldn't do anything for the shareholders, but that doesn't work mathematically - it basically requires the company own the whole economy.

what if you took a different tack? try to align management, not capital. run some sort of selection mechanism over your suppliers/consumers/workers/environment to select some random group of people who will care more about their condition as suppliers/consumers/workers/randos than as agents of your company, and somehow make them have some authority over your decisions.

okay the reason I typed this whole post up was originally because I was going to poke a hole in my own idea by pointing out that doing this would technically be indistinguishable from bribery on the supplier/environment (assuming you're talking to an actual bureaucrat and not some dude off the street) fronts because you'd surely need to compensate them to waste time going to your meetings and that would look awfully like paying them to treat you better but I actually don't think that's much of a problem - suppliers are probably much more interested in your business than some random consumer who probably spends less than a thousand dollars a year on you, so you could probably get away with not compensating suppliers/politicians at all. You'd need to compensate retail consumers, randos if you talk to them, and workers, but suppliers, b2b consumers, and politicians would probably be fine at the table without extra incentive.

obviously doing this makes it harder to make a profit so most businesses aren't going to go for it but I wonder if you could get a bunch of smaller, privately owned businesses to do it, maybe start a big marketing thing around it like organic farming

(since this is the communist website I suppose I should pre-empt the whole “or just abolish the firm :)” thing -  your anarchist communes and central planning committees have just the same incentives to ignore people who aren’t in the meetings, and even if you have great mechanisms for the whole thing to be as open and responsive to outsider feedback as possible that somehow don’t get subverted by the people responsible for putting this whole edifice in place you’ll still have a great preponderance of people who’d rather have more time in their day than needing to sit through a meeting that mostly doesn’t concern them. compensating random people to sit in your meetings and have some say might help to make sure you don’t run into alignment issues is the big point in what i’m saying here)

also while i was writing up this post i thought of an analogy between this and telemetry. i didn’t bring it up because i thought it’d be mostly a distraction but now that i’ve written it i can think of an application for that context. while a lot of privacy advocates really decry telemetry because it’s so often been used to pivot software from fulfilling what users installed it for to being an adtech company that undermines user privacy for the benefit of third party buyers, well-intentioned devs still often think it’s often more valuable than other feedback collection mechanisms because it gains feedback from less engaged users. a way to do telemetry without running into trust problems could be to, instead of asking for data from all users, instead only ask for it from a very limited selection of users, and then compensating them for it. you’d need to have an actual budget which is beyond the capabilities of a lot of open-source projects and you’d need some way to prove users are authentic and not just redownloading your software a lot to try to win the lottery but if you solved those problems it might be neat

[robertnelson2-blog]

People First, Opportunity Second

Have you ever wondered what do you not know about money?

Join me on this episode of the virtual entrepreneur I am your host, Herbert Enos, and today we're going to be exploring some of the things that we wish we knew about money, but maybe, just maybe, we don't fully know what we wish, and we thought we knew, especially about money.

So, when I first.

On our previous episode we talked about how to set up goals, goals, that will allow you to help set up goals the correct ways that you can reach your goals and your targets, and one of the things that we really focused on was using proven methods that other people use, and we looked at a method from Tony Robbins. Combine that with Grant.

With Grant, as well as with Brian Tracy's method, right, so we're combining those we've got a fairly clear view of what that means. But there's a lot more that goes into that, than just looking at the key methods, there's also the principles of success.

If you're not going to look at that episode, go back, you can find that episode on our previous episode you can find that information on our previous episodes. You can also find the notes to that episode at Herbet marketing help.com that is h e r b e r t marketing help.com Now.

On today's episode as I said, I want to explore what do we not know about money. And the reason why I wanted to explore this particular aspect of business, or this particular aspect of what exactly it is that, you know, we do is intrapreneur which is solving problems in exchange for the cash value and relationship values in our businesses and things like that.

One of the questions that I've been looking is Grant talks about this concept where he says, if you're not getting enough money consistently if you. That means you don't know something about money.

If you don't, if you don't have something.

That means you don't know something about it. Right. If you're not in relationships because you don't know something about relationships.

If you don't have money, that means you don't know something about money.

Right. And if you don't have health, that means you don't know something about health. Right, so I was looking and I was looking at this question. And as intrapreneurs, sometimes we get lucky.

Right. And what I mean by the idea that we get lucky, is sometimes the conditions are correct.

And we build something.

And we make some something out of what it is that we built.

For example, you may start a business, and use all the first initial approaches. Right. The fact that you don't know and you don't ask too much may play at your advantage, talking to people around you, your friends, and they may actually help you promote and cross a certain threshold where a certain point where, you know, you are getting these customers without spending too much money, but you are really building this business, not because you know how to build it. But because you have been lucky enough to play your cards, the right time.

And because you may be doing okay. You may continue to be doing that.

Right. You may continue to be doing that, because it's not failing, and it's not working so perfectly. It just seems to be okay. It's working. It's okay. Right, you're getting just barely enough cash going in, maybe breaking even, maybe losing some days, winning on other days. And so, you know, averaging out.

And for a lot of entrepreneurs actually the majority of entrepreneurs. This is where they are right, breaking even or losing a little bit or making a little bit. This is where the majority of business owners are.

Right. And what I've realised is just because you made your first business. And it doesn't mean you know how to repeat that process, and that means, as an entrepreneur, we may still not know what we don't know about money.

Right, this thing that we hopelessly depend on this being that we, we've assigned such a huge value over. We work for it. For the majority of our lives, right, you know you got to get that education, get secondary education and to get, you know, higher education, just so you can get this resource.

Right. But we may still not know fully what we want to know about it. Right. So when I heard him say what do you not know about money, and taking this challenge on this challenge, I took 1000 years, and I said I'm going to build a business with it and trying to rebuild that I came to realise something for a lot of entrepreneurs.

They only succeed and become success on the last few years, right, and their success grow exponential exponentially, essentially, maybe very very slow. And it's only by the time you're talking to them you realise, only the past two, three years, that they're getting and reaping the fruits of their labour. Right. But before that was preparation, and learning to good me wonder, how do you go about learning all these, what you learn about money from people.

Because one of the things I've noticed is, a lot of entrepreneurs we tend to chase money so vigorously, that we forget some of the key principles. For example, one of the few principles that I keep having to remind maybe I've had to learn is, you know, first of all what is your target.

What is your outcome your desired outcome you want in money. Right. And one thing that was really pointed out was, you know, for a lot of us intrapreneurs we don't really even have our own targets we've taken someone else's targets, you know, we have other people's dreams, and we think they're ours. Right, we've heard, we've been hypnotised by the media, by all these information.

And we have taken all this information.

Other people's goals and dreams that we see and we've made them our own.

Right, so we've made them our own and over time we've just built on that you've just built on that, and you've kept going until to where we are today.

So that was one other thing you need to consider to consider that I was seeing that is you know, the first thing is, what do I not know about money and what do I know about money.

Can I recreate can I get it at will. So if I were to start all over again and I want to get it, do I know how to do that, because for a lot of us we have these ideas of what we will do, but we actually don't know if it will work.

We don't know if it will work.

Right. Another thing is, especially if you're trying a different industry. We don't know how to do work. Another thing is one thing that I heard was, you know, the problem essentially is the distance between me and the money. Now what do I mean by this. This is a very interesting concept, because for some Allah grant for someone like grant one of the things that he's talked about was.

Money isn't the problem. The problem is the distance that exists between me and the money, asking myself, you know, who has the money that I can trade them for something. Who is that person, where are they, where are they at and what can I do to make that transaction happen.

Right, so this is the question that I am seeing.

And the final statement that I'm hearing is this.

We know you need to first find, not so much the money. You know, you need to go for people first. Opportunities second.

Right.

So, people first and then opportunity second because people become our contact right there those relationships, becomes transactions. So, there's a few things here, I've been learning, and I hope they'll come together very nicely at the end of the first is, what do I not know about money. Second is, what exactly is my target. My target not someone else's target. What exactly is my goal.

And third is, how do I close the distance between the person who has the money versus how far I am. Because if I can close that gap. If I can solve that problem, then that will help that who initiate the transaction. And the interesting part is this for all the so called gurus and all these business people.

One thing that they don't say is, they themselves learned to sell, knocked on door to do before they created their turn, they are in easy push button solutions that they're selling to naive, entrepreneurs, who don't know how the world works, just yet. Now I know this sounds like a very harsh cold truth.

But the reality is this, take any business owner selling you something that is probably not the first business. If they're showing you how to build a business that is probably not their first business, and as an entrepreneur who is so desperate to create a business to build a success to build an empire.

You're essentially being sold and dream attached to any type of vehicle, but the thing you have to realise is that people selling you the dream.

They didn't get that dream overnight, they worked for it over and over and over and over, they've tried so many things until they found the thing that works. So for you to come and just take that, you know cream on top and hope you have the entire cake and then nutrition. It doesn't work that way you're just, you're just getting the ice frosting right. Think about it.

Building that cake takes very long time, you need the ingredients, the baking the temperature setting all those things up, mixing and everything, the frosting the pretty part where you see. Let's just frosting on the top with a strawberry, which takes the least amount of time to put.

Right. And when you're eating the cake.

The majority of what you eat is what took the longest time to make. So there is this thing here, where I'm saying you know, a lot of successful entrepreneurs will sell you these solutions.

But the truth is if you want to succeed, you have to do, not what they're saying. But what they did what they do. And one of the things that I've noticed what they do is, for grant, he prioritises people heat sets such big goals. Right.

So, the first thing is setting very big goal prioritising people, finding a person, and asking yourself, what kind of advantage, can I give them what kind of skill set, how can I sell myself to them, how can I demonstrate them a very valuable skill that they want to hire me.

Right. And once I've done that I've built a relationship, leveraging that relationship with the other person and have noticed all the entrepreneurs who have done really, really well. This is the approach they actually have per person first. Build a relationship and then transaction comes after the essentially the 8020 rules.

The 8020 rule, where you get so the idea that you know, focus on the 20% that works. Yeah, but it took 80% to learn that 20% That works. Right. It takes 80% to learn the 20% that works.

Right. So, as an entrepreneur, there's no shortcut you have to learn because sales is skills, being a CEO and running a company managing a team is a skill. Right, being able to manage, inspire, as well as, you know make sure these, all these processes in place is a skills and to master those skills takes time, there is no shortcut.

So while that is not the best sales pitch, you, you will do selling a very nice shortcut. Easy Button software, but it does say one thing. Very very simple and true.

It's going to take learning about. You could learn from other people's mistakes, such as finding and looking at what they're doing, and then more doing that rather than listening to what they say. Right. So one of the things that I've learned is a sure way that I see every single intrapreneur I admire has done is they've taken the call their student the stage, and they've knocked on people's doors and they went, selling, and they sold, and the practice, the practice until they got perfect at it.

I haven't met any, any entrepreneur who took the shortcut.

So, this is what I want to share with you. So, what do you not know about money and how can you learn that.

So I hope that was useful. Now today's episode was a little bit different compared to the other episode, but again I took this challenge, as a challenge to learn about business, about real business that brings you wealth, not get rich quick schemes that, you know, they tell you do this to be simple thing does that make you money. The truth is, those things don't work.

And as an entrepreneur. You can also waste so much time working on building those things. But the truth is until you switch to building a real business. It won't matter.

So there is that I want to thank you so much for tuning in. Now while I said all these.

Once you know what you want to do know about money, I think it makes sense that you were able to repeat that and was able to repeat that. It also makes sense that you can shortcut, how fast you can go about benchmarks to take those skills, so maybe you may shortcut.

Some of the aspects that, you know, approaches, but you will still need to spend time mastering that skill building that skill because at one time you're going to face a client that's gonna say no, no thank you. You're gonna face a client who you did so much for them but they're gonna complain, and you're gonna fail, you know, you're also going to face a client who you're just gonna love working with them so much.

So even those are experiences that you can't trade you have to go through that, to know what you're doing. So look, thank you so much for tuning in on this particular episode of the virtual enterpreneur. I hope you got a tonne of value from it.

[almostnoisydonut]

𝓣𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓼 𝓘 𝓦𝓲𝓼𝓱 𝓘 𝓚𝓷𝓮𝔀 𝓑𝓮𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓮 𝓕𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓭𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓜𝔂 𝓞𝔀𝓷 𝓒𝓸𝓶𝓹𝓪𝓷𝔂

The journey to become a successful business owner isn't smooth one. It's filled with bumps, forks, and unexpected detours.

Surprisingly, most business owners wouldn't have it any other way. It's a badge of honor that we proudly display.

Perhaps the biggest misconception about starting your own business is that you're only focused on chasing your passion. In other words, you're not just going to be making handmade jewelry, cooking on your own food truck, or designing websites 24/7. That's maybe going to consume 15% of your time.

Instead, you're going to spend a bulk of your time on developing business strategies, marketing, selling, interacting with customers, and doing administrative tasks like bookkeeping, invoicing, and payroll. In short, you're a business owner first and then a web designer, chef, or creator of handmade jewelry.

I know this isn't what you signed-up for, but the sooner you realize this fact, the sooner you'll be able to launch and maintain a successful business.

While you obviously need to turn a profit, that's not your goal. Your focus should be on helping your customers solve a problem or make their lives better. You could be an extremely knowledgeable consultant, but if you're just preoccupied with making money, how is that going to benefit your clients in the long-run? It's not. And, you're going to deliver mediocre results.

Make no mistake about it. Cash flow is the lifeblood of your business. When you don't properly manage your cash flow you end up spending more money that you're bringing in. And, how long can you expect to stay-in-business when you don't have enough money to pay your necessary expenses?

The most effective way to manage your cash flow is by creating a budget and justifying every expense so that you know exactly where your hard-earned money is going.

Business is tough, and there’s no way around it: You will be stressed out. Some relationships in your life will be able to withstand the stress test of your starting a business, and others will crumble. You’ll need support and patience from those around you, and I eventually learned that it was better to let go of the relationships that had run their course rather than trying to salvage them in the midst of all the other chaos.

You will learn and grow more than you can understand over the course of this process. As such, your interests will probably shift a bit. Luckily, because running a business (and especially a startup) forces you to network more than you’ve ever networked in your life, you’ll end up meeting a ton of great people. As someone who started their company as they were nearing 30, I truly had no expectations of making new friends. Two years on, though, I have met some very close friends who are or were also founders and could really relate to my experiences.

Leaving the corporate world behind and never reporting to another manager or being beholden to ideas you don’t care about ever again is a nice idea. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for most founders. If you fundraise, you’ll be beholden to your investors. If you get big enough, you’ll be beholden to your board. And even if neither of those things happens, you’ll be beholden to your customers.

None of these are necessarily bad things; this is just something to keep in mind if “being your own boss” is your main motivator.

“The only source of knowledge is experience.”

— Albert Einstein

It’s not just for your own sanity. Don’t put the futures of your team, investors or yourself through unnecessary pain if you’re not ready to lead. The best salespeople supported by outstanding talent is no substitute for hands on experience.

When shit hits the fan (and it always does) only those who have “been there, done that” will be able to keep calm and carefully lead their organization through the madness.

You’re probably wondering: “What if I don’t have experience in the field where my passion lies?”

To that I say: wait. Don’t start a company until you have the necessary experience. Work for someone else. Learn on their dime. It’s not worth the time, money and relationships that you’ll lose by entering an unfamiliar marketplace, regardless of vigor.

Another question you may ask: “How will I know when I have the necessary experience?”

That’s easy: if you’re asking that question, you don’t.

Reach out to people who have experience in the space- people you know and some you don’t.

Add value to get value. Do favors without expecting anything in return. Ask questions, but most importantly, listen when they’re answered.

Running a business sounds appealing, but the reality of it speaks for itself. As an entrepreneur you step into a world where nobody is telling you what to do, or what to avoid, and your income depends solely on you. Having been an entrepreneur for a couple of years now, I don’t think I’ve arrived. But I am further on my journey than some of you.

This is my final, but very important point for today. Recognize and celebrate your accomplishments, write them down to make it easy to get back to them later. I used to have a separate folder on my computer where I would store all my client’s testimonials, thank you’s, pictures of gifts as well as my own notes. I now store this information in my “Gratitude Board” notebook in Evernote, but it’s still the same idea. I come here often when I need to remind myself why I do what I do, why I need to keep going and keep improving. Take time to celebrate. You’ve worked hard, you created the results and you need to learn to enjoy the moment.

What lessons have you learned in your business?

Are you looking for more tips to kick start your business?

[zayaeze]

Zaya's gaze on him remained, it was not what she was selling. It wasn't wrong in her mind for him to want to know, but she made gold for what she sold, gold that in this land she needed. It would have been nice to not need it, she would give her knowledge and her creams easily if she got knowledge and goods as easily in turn, but she didn't. "You wish to know, you pay to know," she responded, not assuming this would be offensive since it was this place's custom, tapping her container down on the counter for him to place gold on it.

His description of his studies, that more was needed to be absorbed, made her face scrunch up. "What a waste," she insisted of his notion. Trying to determine where was the best place for her to start. He stated 'beyond magical abilities,' and she hoped he meant beyond her own because there was no getting around the innate magical abilities of ones body. Even her own held some, while they did not keep her young or make her less susceptible to injury they allowed for her body to connect to that of her bonded soul.

"You have studied," she repeated of his admission. "So you felt - or saw - a body wanting the blood but it not working, yes?" she asked for clarification but also did not wait for it. "Cravings probably increased," Zaya continued, like being in the coean when you were thirsty, you couldn't drink the water, it would make you sick, but it increased your bodies awareness of it's need, she imagined for vampires this was even worse because they did not just need blood for their physical survival but to feed whatever magics they had.

"More than cravings, more it's just uh...," she tried to think of a way to explain it. "Putting out mouse traps when you have a fox in your barn." Solving a problem that doesn't exist, and wondering why the one that does hasn't been solved. "Your interest is that I am using so little to prevent desiccation," Zaya followed, making sure she was focusing her words on what he wanted, while still giving a short enough reasoning to her process so if he did not understand he could ask, not wanting to find herself off on tangents of things he knew. "So you know the issue isn't that you need more, it's that it can't get in. It's too thick and the skin is protective, so unless you cut them open, even if you can allow for the skin to let anything in, blood is far too thick to be good."

"What I have," Zaya tapped the top of the container. "Needs to be good for skin to have, for dead being, to be taken in it had to match skin acid of the dead. So oils taken from high acid plants like, what I picked - blue hydrangeas." Zaya did not know the term for pH, she didn't know that when she said high acid, she meant low ph.

"I also need blood, that is what is sustaining your magicks keeping you from desiccating but blood is hard, it's so thick. You know it's easy to know what parts of it you don't need. You don't use it for air, you don't breath. You don't use it for iron because, at least for most of you, beings of fed magic rather than transfer beings like me, maybe have a natural aversion to it. You don't need it for hardened blood wounds because you don't pump blood. So blood offers nothing to you that it would to me. You need what feeds your magicks," she continued, at least at this point explaining her thoughts so he could follow how she had come to her choices. "Most magicks are feed on nature and nature loves balance. What in blood would balance your nature? A life without life? A part of the blood that I would grow ill without, but that if the other components were removed and it was all I had would certainly kill me."

Plasma, she didn't know the word. "The element you need won't go through your skin, it is still too thick, so I looked at other species. Insects were the best option, the part of them that offers the same natural balance is very very thin, perfect, but harvesting it without the proper tools or, more importantly, the amount of insects, would be near impossible, and I'm not fighting one of those scary big ones in the woods. So...," Zaya opened the lid, the clear navy blue cream within exposed. "Octopi. It's thicker but not so thick as the blood of humanoids, easy to fish for octopo. Not separated from the creature the blood would be, ai, horrible to drink," she noted, scrunching her nose like she knew biting one would be grotesque, not sure if he'd ever tried to drink blood from a being without the same transport system humans had. "But removed it's possible to be absorbed with the right aids."

With the lid opened she wondered how many of the other elements within he could smell beyond that of the octopi and the hydrangeas. "You are right it would not be enough to work on you asleep, but you don't use all of your magicks when you sleep, your body will try and take it in as if you were because your magic is not innate but fed. So you need to trick it, lie it is innate and absorb only as much as you need to stay pretty, no strength and speed and your other gifts. Many beasts in the woods hibernate and their magicks hibernate with them, so oil, from the skin of a Stranielle Azmyths that have been brought here, they hibernate in the summer months, unable to handle the light," she concluded, the creature a bat like being from the regions underlife in Withermore, often pets of Drow and Duergar.

"You want to buy it now? Even if you don't take a long sleep, go to bed each morning? Best sleep of your life, all that magick energy still strong as when you put the lid on," Zaya pushed the cream toward him, a hope he would pay for it as well as for the information, and implying thoughtlessly he slept in a coffin.

Her explanation, put simply, was amusing. If he had been someone else entirely, he believed he would have been sold to her cream and bought one promptly, but his inquiry for the why was not the one she had presumed so he clarified, "I have no question that your methods are effective, for both on vanity and vendor, but I wish to know why it works." Valentin inhaled once again, the action subtle as was most of his expressions, only for himself so that he could attempt to discern more of the ingredients she had within that pot of cream. "What is in it beyond magical ability that enables such alteration to the physical body? I have done some study on the absorption of blood through the skin as a method of preventing desiccation in vampires. Generally it requires a larger amount to be effective. This cream you're peddling only has the essence. So why does it work?"

[ssadumba55]

Nightfall (Priya Mangal X Reader)

Request: Could you do a Priya (Turning Red) x Reader? Reader can be Gender neutral. (also it's confirmed that Priya is queer, possibly bisexual) Could you do something cute and fluffy?

Mei Lee had the coolest group of friends at school.

Okay, so most people wouldn’t agree with you, but you’re sticking to your guns on this one. They were all super cool! They were outspoken, not afraid to speak their minds and one of them could literally turn herself into a red panda at will. That was cool!

But, of course, the best member of the group in your opinion was Priya. She was mysterious, she liked romance novels, she was clearly smart and- NO YOU DO NOT HAVE A CRUSH ON HER STOP THINKING LIKE THAT!

You just think she’s a great person and wouldn’t mind becoming friends with her, or maybe more if the opportunity arises. Even though you don’t have a crush on her, it’s important to keep your mind open. Healthy even!

“I just think your opinion is trash, Tyler,” Priya said, walking by with the newest addition to their crew. You heard Tyler scoff, fighting the urge to watch them walk away. You were already considered the school weirdo, half your class couldn’t remember who you were and the other half made fun of you relentlessly. You’d never live it down if you were caught staring at someone.

The sound of a slam and a panicked cry, however, caused you and everyone else in the hall to turn their heads, wondering what that sound was.

It was Priya. Her book, one of the many in the infamous series that was Nightfall, had fallen out of her bag onto the floor where a huge puddle sat. Upon seeing what happened to his friend, Tyler tried to snatch it up and fan out the pages, but as he opened it several fell out because they were so damp.

“My mom is going to kill me!” Priya groaned as everyone around them moved on, realizing it wasn’t as huge a deal as they had thought. “She, like, just bought me that book and I’ve already ruined it. No way am I getting a new one, and the libraries are like totally devoid of them because it’s so popular.”

Tyler gingerly held the wet book away from himself, grimacing at it. “Maybe the hairdryers in the bathroom will fix it?”

As they tried to figure out a plan to get money for a new one, you felt your feet propel you over to them. You had never spoken to either of them and your heart pounded as you approached, a little worried that maybe they would think you were weird for listening in to their conversation.

“Hey… Um, if you want you can swing by my parents bookstore after school. We just got a new shipment in and I can give it to you for free.”

You knew your parents wouldn’t mind, they would be psyched that you were even interacting with someone your own age. Tyler tossed the wet book over his shoulder, it hit a kid passing by but he didn’t seem to care.

“Boom. Problem solved. See, I told you not to panic.”

“You didn’t say anything like that,” Priya rolled her eyes and turned to you. “Thanks though, that would be a real lifesaver. I can meet you at the front doors after school.”

You smiled and nodded “See you then.”

Throughout the day, it felt like Priya and her group of friends were looking at you. Maybe it was just you, but you could’ve sworn you’d heard giggling when you’d passed by their table at lunch. Every time you looked over at them to confirm though, they acted as if they weren’t doing whatever it was they had just been doing. It was driving you slightly insane but at least the school day did eventually come to an end.

You met up with Priya at the school doors and the two of you walked to your parents bookstore. Along the way, you filled the awkward silence with anything and everything you could. Priya didn’t say anything, though you weren’t surprised, she hardly talked to anyone outside of her friend group.

Inside, your parents were preoccupied with customers, so you waved her to follow you into the back and began searching through the boxes to find the book.

“Do you know what’s in all of these boxes?” Priya asked as you dug around, she opened one, looking inside curiously.

It was the first time she’d spoken to you since school had ended and you were sort of relieved. You had been right, she was probably just awkward and didn’t hate you. Looking up from the box you were digging through, you nodded.

“Yeah. But sometimes they get a little mixed up. My parents have me run the store when they’re busy with other things.” You returned to digging through the box as she silently watches from where she’s stood.

Eventually, you found the book you’re looking for and raised it up triumphantly. “Haha! Here it is!” You turned to her, expecting her to be where she was when you’d last turned around, but finding her much closer to you. Your face heated up as you handed her the book, noticing how her fingers brushed yours.

“Thanks again, you have no idea how my mom would’ve freaked if she’d seen the wet book.”

“I like you!”

She raised an eyebrow. “What?”

You felt your face heat up, oh God, this was not going well at all. Why did you say that? You mentally kicked yourself.

“N- No. I meant, you’re welcome! I’m so sorry!” You tried to take a step back, so you weren’t so close to her and tripped over a box falling and knocking over a bunch more boxes, pouring books everywhere.

You felt like crying. Great, you’d told her you liked her and fell into books creating a huge mess you’d have to clean later. She placed the book you’d given her to the side and held her hand out to help you up.

“Are you okay?” She asked, worried and you nodded, brushing yourself off.

Pulling your hand from hers quickly, you sighed. “You should probably go. I’m going to have to spend a lot of time cleaning this up.”

“I can help.” She kneeled down and started collecting books. You watched her, confused. Why would she help you? “You helped me with the book, so it’s only fair. Plus, you’re pretty cool. I wouldn’t mind hanging out for a little bit longer.”

The two of you set to work, tidying up the little storage space. Then, when you’re done, the two of you perch yourself on boxes and read the book she was reading together. You have no idea what’s going on or why there’s a werewolf and a vampire, but she’s so close to you, it’s nice.

“I had a lot of fun tonight! See you tomorrow at school?” She asked as the two of you made your way to the front of the bookstore.

“Yeah! Definitely!” You waved to her as she began to walk herself home. Once she was out of sight, you squealed loudly.

This was the start of something beautiful for sure.

[peachyysugaa]

scream

― youtuber!park sunghoon x streamer!gn!reader

it's hard to stream horror video games when your neighbor is always filming dangerous mukbangs and screaming.

genre: e2l, neighbors au, angst to fluff, humor

wc: 3.2k

warnings: horror game mentions, cw food and mentions of cooking live things (inspired by this youtuber), sunghoon's a jerk at first :<, one mention of underage drinking (don't follow mc's example pls fisnfkskf), a few swear words

part of my youtuber enhypen series, the last upload! feel free to read on its own! ♞──────────────────────────♞

"AAAGH!" and there it is. your brows furrow upon hearing your neighbor's cry. does he not understand how thin these walls are?! there's a reason only college students stay here! grimacing, you ignore it and move your mouse to look around the dark house.

"oh shoot, i wonder if he's behind me?" you say to your audience while watching your viewers fill the chat with your custom subscriber emojis. "i'm going to do it, everyone, just―"

"OHMYGODOHMYGOD WHYYY?!"

more like why couldn't you be quiet?! you close your eyes in frustration but attempt to keep a straight face for the people watching you. "sorry if you heard that, i guess someone's having a bad day?" you chuckle nervously as you turn around in the video game to see a black slender figure. "oh! whoa, okay, i'm just going to run over here."

you got out of the creepy house and made it to the back of it to see a piece of paper on the wall. "oh, here! okay, this is going to be my last piece unless―whoa!!" the jumpscare comes up, and you're left taken aback as the game over screen appears. laughing at your shocked self, you're filled with glee upon seeing the audience laugh or scream with you. "that was really fun, everyone. i got some homework to do though, so i'll see you all next time i stream! bye bye!" you wave goodbye to the camera and watch as the viewer number drops gradually. after a few minutes, you shut off your stream, place your headphones on its stand, and push back in your secret labs chair with a sigh. "why did i have to live next to a maniac...?" you grumble.

you got out of the creepy house and made it to the back of it to see a piece of paper on the wall. "oh, here! okay, this is going to be my last piece unless―whoa!!" the jumpscare comes up, and you're left taken aback as the game over screen appears. laughing at your shocked self, you're filled with glee upon seeing the audience laugh or scream with you. "that was really fun, everyone. i got some homework to do though, so i'll see you all next time i stream! bye bye!" you wave goodbye to the camera and watch as the viewer number drops gradually. after a few minutes, you shut off your stream, place your headphones on its stand, and push back in your secret labs chair with a sigh. "why did i have to live next to a maniac...?" you grumble.

as if on cue, another scream is heard from the other side of the wall. "EEE! oh my god, i'm going to do it, i'm going to do it!"

what on earth was this kid doing that he was screaming every weekend? you didn't even scream that much, and you played horror games for a living! your stomach growls as you're thinking this and as a living human being, you listen to it and get up to make ramyeon. however, even as you're making your dinner and even as you're trying to enjoy it with some show playing on the tv, of course, you have to be subjected to your neighbor's loud yells. once you're finished, you notice how oddly quiet it is and decide to give whoever this guy was a piece of your mind.

marching over with your keys in hand, you knock aggressively on apartment no. 505 until it opens. behind the door is a tall male with a face so well-proportioned you're thinking it's possible that some being above sculpted it themselves. his nose is accented with one mole on the side of his nose bridge and another a few centimeters under the opposite eye. "can i help you?" his rich voice asks with a slight sting to it.

you snap yourself out of it by blinking, incredulous that you almost forgot your mission just because he has a handsome face. "yea, you can help me by being quieter," you boldly state with your arms crossed in front of your chest. "you realize you're not the only one living in this complex, right? the walls are so thin, i can hear you screaming every time."

the male raises an eyebrow at you and scoffs to the side as if he can't believe what he's hearing. "can you just deal with it? some of us have to make a living."

"news flash, dude, that's all of us! the only people who would be willing to live in this place are college students! listen, i stream horror games for my work, and i don't even scream as loud as you," you retort and point your index finger from you to him. "so i think you should learn how to keep your volume down."

"and why haven't i heard these complaints from anyone else?" he tries to debate back.

"maybe because they're just quietly tolerating you. as for me, i can't anymore, so take this as your first warning, room 505." you turn around quickly with a huff and speed to your apartment next door.

as you're above to close the door, you hear him shout back at you. "my name's park sunghoon, room 506. remember it, because i'm going to make your life a living hell."

"l/n y/n, park sunghoon. we'll see about that." with that, you both simultaneously shut your doors with a slam that causes the walls to shudder a bit.

oh, he kept his promise alright. from stare-downs in the hallway, to bringing weird live animals in the elevator at the same time you're in there, to snarky remarks at the entrance that almost always lead to fights, park sunghoon has definitely made your life hell. to make matters worse, his screaming got even louder. you're sure that's a violation of some rule, right? wrong, the management for the building doesn't care all too much, as long as he's not doing anything illegal and nobody else has complained. you get what you paid for is the right saying here.

you were not having it. as a streamer and college student, weekends are your days with the freest time, and he took that from you. you found out that he was not just a college student but a youtuber, one that filmed dangerous mukbangs with live animals that he would then cook and eat, and because of that, he had also chosen to film on weekends. that was exactly why you had always encountered his screaming on days you were streaming, and now, tired of how petty he was, you decided to just cram your weekdays with school and streaming.

at first, it was fine, but as your days became packed with more studying on the weekends at the library to avoid sunghoon, you grew tired: tired of the crammed weekdays and for god's sake, tired of living your life running away. taking out a bottle of peach soju that your upperclassman dancer friend had snuck for you, you pop it open and make your way to the balcony that you barely used.

as you take a swig of the alcoholic beverage, you prop yourself onto the railing and gaze at the buildings before you, their lights blinding you from the stars of the night sky. maybe it's the alcohol, maybe it's your low energy state, but something compels you to scream. "i'm so tired!!" you yell out to the skyline. letting out a sigh, you plop down into the spare plastic chair and go for another drink.

"drinking your worries away? that's not going to solve anything," a male voice speaks up. your eyes catch sight of sunghoon, who has slid open his own balcony door. he's dressed in a casual beige hoodie and sweats as if he had spent the day just relaxing.

"as if you care," you mumble with your lips pressed against the green glass. "you're literally at the root of all my problems."

he scoffs at your statement. "this again? look, i'm getting tired of you placing all this blame on me when i'm—"

"are you so sure about that?" you calmly and sternly interrupt. the alcohol really has unlocked your usually inhibited thoughts. "why did i move my streaming days onto the weekdays when i normally spend them studying? because your screaming on the weekends always got picked up by my mic. why do i get 4 hours of sleep every day and study all night at the library on weekends?" it's like when sunghoon had taken a stick to prod at you, the floodgates burst open. you weren't stopping until you gave him a piece of your mind. "because i have to cram my streaming schedule and studying schedule to accommodate to your filming one. maybe i am blaming you, but i've tried my best to do my job all while studying and having to deal with an asshole like yourself who's so inconsiderate that he can't even do one thing for his neighbor who's practically dying to adjust their lifestyle because of someone else's."

your neighbor goes silent after that, choosing to just sigh and go back inside his apartment. you relish in the silence that comes after he shuts the door and down the rest of your bottle before heading back inside yourself. strangely after that incident, you heard less and less of sunghoon on the weekend and thus were able to return to your normal schedule. even while passing by him, he kept his mouth shut and would just nod a cordial hello. you guess what you said that night really got through to him.

and he proves that because after about three weekends, you hear a knock on your door. upon opening it, you're surprised to see sunghoon behind it, his hands behind his back as he shifts side to side. "oh, hello sunghoon," you greet him awkwardly, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear.

"hey y/n," he returns. the youtuber stops fidgeting for a moment and bows after gathering up some courage. "listen, i just want to say i'm sorry." he looks up at your face, searching for some sign of hatred and he thankfully finds none, so he continues. "i didn't realize how much of an asshole i was until you said that. i was just thinking about myself and not about you or anybody else. i hope i was able to prove it to you these past three weeks, and i promise i won't go back to my old habits."

your silence is not so reassuring, so sunghoon nervously lifts his head to peek at your face to find an astonished expression. you stammer a little bit and hold the doorframe to keep yourself in place. "u-uh... gosh, i don't know what to say, sunghoon," you stutter. then, you notice another neighbor exiting the elevator, looking at the two of you strangely since sunghoon is still lowering his head. "oh! you can stand up straight now! please."

he does as you say, smiling sheepishly, and you notice how much better he looks smiling than the usual smirks he had sent you before. "apology accepted, sunghoon."

"r-really?"

you nod. "i mean, you really have proven yourself lately, so i don't see why i shouldn't."

"great!" his smile grows wider, making you blush and look anywhere but his face. "then i have a surprise for you to start over." you shoot him a confused look that he disregards out of boyish excitement. "close up, come over to my place for a few."

"o-okay, give me a moment, i'll be right over," you say as he rushes back to his apartment. you hurriedly grab your keys and look in the mirror next to your door to smooth out your hair before you're scolding yourself for caring about looks when he literally just saw you. closing the door, you lock up, head over to room 505, and knock.

"it's open," his voice calls from inside, and with that, you push the door open to find the living space of your own apartment, except totally flipped. to your left is a small living room, complete with a two-seater couch, a tv stand, and a tv. whereas to your right, there was a dining room fit for two, the kitchen right behind it before a hallway leads to the single bedroom and bathroom. you're too busy taking in this opposite room that you don't notice the fish tank on the round table full of live fish. "come over here," he says with an enthusiastic grin.

"yah, park sunghoon. what in the world is this?" you say flabbergasted.

"i'm showing you what i do for a living and cooking you a fresh meal," is all he has to say as you grimace and reluctantly move towards him. "this is my second time cooking it, so it should go a lot better."

"and what exactly is... it?"

"mudfish, way less than what i usually have for mukbangs though." you know, you had completely forgotten what the guy did on youtube since his handsome face distracted you for a handful of moments, but now reality had set in for you: he was going to do this live in front of you.

if you're uncomfortable with cooking live fresh food, please skip to the next italicized line!

"i swear to god, park sunghoon, if you do anything stupid, consider this restart invalid. you'll be hearing from my lawyer," you unsuccessfully warn him as you watch him put on some gloves and grab a cup of salt.

"relax, you're with me. i'm practically a pro," he tries reassuring you, but then he sprinkles the salt inside the tank. the fish start splashing around violently, causing you to let out a small yelp as some splashes of water get on you. "yaaah, this is way better than last time!"

"is this what you do every weekend?!" you shout at a low volume and cover your eyes with your hands.

"you can look now, it's fine," sunghoon says, pointing at the fish. you peek through the gaps between your fingers to see that the fish have stopped moving. sunghoon smirks as you take your hands away from your face. "see? i'm a pro."

coating and deep frying starts here!

he starts to coat them one by one in egg and flour and lays them down on a baking pan lined with paper. you watch as he handles each one delicately with concentration. "do you want me to start the oil?" you offer.

"oh! that would be great, thanks! the wok is already on the stove, just turn it on," he explains. you find the wok exactly where he had told you and turn on the gas stove accordingly, as if you've been here hundreds of times before, but in reality, you just have the same appliances. by the time the oil has been heated to the right temperature, sunghoon has already finished coating the fish. the two of you work together to place each one in the oil, listening to them sizzle and pop.

"we make a good team," sunghoon comments once every fish has started frying. you take care of the tongs and move them around when appropriate. "you should come by and guest star in one of my videos."

"if it's anything like today's, no thank you," you politely reject.

"what if... i invite you to eat after i cook?" he shoots his shot again. rolling your eyes playfully, you see that the fish are all thoroughly fried and turn off the fire. with his own tongs, sunghoon puts the fish on the plate as you go off to prepare two bowls of rice. the small dining room table gets cleaned up, so the two of you can start your meal. "okay, your answer?"

"depends on how good this mudfish is," you reply, holding up a fried fish with your chopsticks. he follows suit, and you two cheer your meals together.

"i'll eat well," the both of you say in harmony. finally, you take a bite of the crispy fish and hum in satisfaction, your eyes widening.

"mm! it's really good!" you compliment as he takes joy in your pleased expression.

"i'll take that as a yes to my question then?"

"hoon, i'll come over whenever you want me to," you exaggerate.

"deal," he accepts quickly so that you can't take it back. and that's how your first meal went with park sunghoon. soon enough, one meal turned into two, to five, to ten, until you're basically spending a lot of time with the youtuber. pretty much every weekend, you and sunghoon set it up so that you would cook and eat together in the afternoon so that you would have the rest of the evening to stream.

at some point, you find out that his major is biology, which is similar to your own in biochemistry, so your time with sunghoon extends to studying together and eventually gaming. one of you is always at the other's place and vice versa like you couldn't be without each other for a single moment.

you're eating takoyaki with said boy in your apartment this time, staring at his well-proportioned facial features as you chew slowly and think. he catches your unwavering gaze and chuckles. "is there something on my face, y/n?"

"i'm just thinking," you vaguely reply.

"about the thing on my face?" you shake your head at this. "then what is it? i know i'm really handsome and all, but you literally see me all the time."

"that's exactly my point!" you cry out as if you hit eureka, shocking him in the process. "we're together all the time. we were literally enemies at first, and now it's like we're dating! what is this, some kind of shitty fanfiction?" yes

"well, do you want us to date?" luckily, you had just swallowed the last bit of your takoyaki ball because that could've made you choke. instead, you suddenly start coughing, and he pushes your water towards you.

the coldness of the water does nothing to help your rising temperature as you take big gulps of it. "wh-what kind of question is that?" you ask, patting your mouth dry with a nearby tissue.

"a serious one," he answers nonchalantly. "because i like you." stream dreamcatcher BEcause

"huh? since when?" you're practically in disbelief. no way sunghoon liked you back. you had just discovered your own feelings not too long ago when you had tucked him in after an intense study session and he whispered your name. ever since then, you got butterflies in your stomach around him, and not because he made it a mukbang. (but you wouldn't put it past him?)

the male rubs the back of his neck. "it's been a while. i just know that i like you."

"st-stop saying that!" you wave your hands in front of your face frantically to hide the redness you know that has spread all over.

"oh? or what, room 506?" he gets up from his seat across from you to prop his elbows on the table, getting a closer look at your cute, embarrassed appearance as he rests his head on his hands. "make me," he prods some more.

reminiscent of the first time you cooked together, you peeked through your fingers to witness his adorable grin waiting for you. as if wanting you to seal the deal, he closes his eyes and smiles with just his lips. you shyly reach out to grab his cheeks, taking a moment to brush the fringe out of his eyes so you can adore the moles that dotted his face, and slowly bring your own lips towards his to press them together in a kiss.

it's short but sweet, and soon you're pulling away and finding your fingers more interesting. sunghoon's eyes flutter open and fondly gazed at you. "be mine?" he speaks up.

"if you stop making my heart scream, then yeah," you mumble, stealing a glance at his smug smile. he laughs, stands up, and walks over to your side of the table. turning your chair around as if you weighed nothing, he places his hands on the table behind you, engaging you in between his long limbs.

"sweetheart, that's the whole point," he says, leaning down to chase your lips and kiss you until your heart can't take it anymore. you're both screaming on the inside as your hearts keep pounding in your chests, but at least this time it's from your pure feelings towards each other.

a/n: omg this is the last of captured on camera EEE thank you all so so much for being here with me on this journey of my first one-shot series <3 this really shows my growth as a writer, and i'm so glad i could share it with y'all! i hope you all look forward to my next one-shot series~

taglist: @cha-raena @imjustme-things @misoiishi @rikitaiyaki @fiantomartell