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nat-20s · 4 years ago

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PROMPT! the first time the s1 archive gang hangs out outside of work (any variation of the group, doesn’t have to be All of them)

This is only the Archive Assistant sqaud, bc I’m sorry Jon, but no bosses allowed. Also it’s VERY silly and soft bc sometimes u just wanna write nice things u know

(also also fuck I lovecompletely missed that this said “first time” they hang out but uhh. I hope u like it anyway.)

Tim Stoker like to think that, sometimes, not to toot his own horn, but he can be something of a genius. When a cousin’s cousin had offered to let him use their cozy little cabin for a night or two in exchange for help with moving, he had been struck with what could only be humbly described as “inspiration of the most divine nature”. For, as nice as a Friday evening away from it all by himself sounds, it’s so much nicer for a Friday evening away from it all to serve as Archival Assistants Bonding Time™. Or well, more like Tim and Sasha, Who Are Already Best Friends Forever, Figure Out What Martin’s Deal Is, Because For A Guy So Chatty, He Sure Is Mysterious Time™, but that’s not nearly as catchy. Truly, his plan was brilliant, bringing two compatriots and an excessive amount of food and drink to a spot away from the prying eyes of the world and bosses, and feast in the openness and silliness that comes from having a great fucking time.

His plan, and his genius, were tragically derailed. While he knew on their drive up that the air was rapidly getting cooler, Tim couldn’t have even pretended to predict that an hour into their stay would bring a freak blizzard that means they’re snowed in for the next three days, which was 3 times longer than he had accounted on spending with his coworkers/friends. There was more than enough food to last them, and almost enough alcohol, but as Sasha so kindly put it:

“First you make us reenact the first scene of every bad teen slasher movie, now there’s a fucking white out. If we lose power, I’m telling you, there is absolutely going to be a murder.”

“Pfft, no way. The guy who owns this place is one of those weird ass prepper types, there’s a back up generator for the back up generator. And even if we did lose power, we’re all much more the “huddle for warmth under a shared blanket in front of the roaring fire” types than the “get panicked and stab someone in darkness” types, right? Back me up here, Marto.”

Martin, who at three shots in is both hilarious and mean, directs his response to Sasha. “in the event of a black-out I vote we kill Tim. I can take him down and you can finish the job.”

Sasha tips her cup at him, saying, “I like the way you think,” at the same time that Tim yells out, “Hey! Why am I the one dying?!”

Sasha tells him, “Duh. This whole thing was your idea, which makes you the Dr. Black* of this situation. Any good mansion murder mystery dictates the the host dies first. Then, in a moment of entirely unplanned synchronization, her and Martin start chanting, “Host dies first! Host dies first!”

“Okay, you know what? Fuck both of y’all, it’s not my fault that you’re both thoroughbred city slickers that can’t handle being in a cabin with plumbing and running water and electricity. Didn’t either of you go camping as kids?”

Sasha replies “No I’m far too pretty for that,” while Martin bursts out laughing. It takes about 20 seconds for him to settle down. Wiping away a tear, he elaborates, “Sorry, sorry, just. Can not imagine my mother on a camping trip. I mean, sure, she probably hoped at one point or another that I’d be lost in the woods as a child, or maybe even now, but I think that’s a bit different.”

Tim leans over the kitchen counter, placing his chin in his hands as he says, “Oh shit, Martin lore. Spill the deets.”

Sasha, who’s loyalties tend to sway towards whatever’s most interesting in the moment, piles on with, “You called her your mother, not your mum. That’s means she’s pretty much a right bastard, or a member of the aristocracy, which is just another term for right bastard but you got to grow up as a rich kid. Am I right?”

It’s clear the the two of them have made a grave mistake. All joviality flees Martin’s expression, and he shrinks down both his physical presence and his voice to something that could easily be overlooked if someone wasn’t paying attention. “Oh, um, well, I definitely didn’t grow up as a rich kid. And, it terms of the ‘right bastard’ thing, she’s not- er. That’s to say, she’s- she’s sick and. She’s doing the best she can, given, given everything.”

Martin pointedly looks at his hands while Tim and Sasha panickedly look at each other. They go to either side of him, and when he doesn’t flinch away, they each place a comforting hand on his shoulder. Tim immediately feels the itch to fill the heavy quiet, and he happens to know he has quite the talent for blazing on ahead after these kinds of moments. It’s how he’s survived basically party for the past decade. “Ooookay, I’m gonna go ahead and say that all depressing familial reveals shall be held off until at least the second night of being trapped. While Sasha may have irritatingly few skeletons in her closet in that regard-”

“I have Tory grandparents?”

“We all have Tory grandparents Sash, that’s absolutely nothing. As I was saying, while Sash’s family is boring and semi functional, you and me are gonna do some fuckin’ commiserating on our journey from work friends to friend friends. However, I’m going to have to be 40% drunker, go through a decently strong hangover, and then once again get hair of the dog drunk before I can even start to consider heading down that path. And in that spirit, I think it’s time to start up the drinking games. Truth or dare might end up a bit too heavy for our needs, but Never Have I Ever should suit us just fine. I know I’m gonna regret saying this considering Sasha is 100% going to target my ass, but I think we should establish that whoever puts all ten fingers down first has to chug the rest of the box wine.”

Sasha pipes up with, “Ugh, no, not drinking games, that’s such twenty-something bullshit. I expected better from you.”

“Hey, Martin is a twenty-something, so that still works fine actually-”

“Tim!”

“What?”

Martin’s directing wide, bordering on frantic, eyes at him, and Tim is almost certainly missing something, though he can’t for the life of him figure it out. Sasha’s head is bobbing slightly between the two of them, and shes apparently able to parse what Tim has not. “Oh! Martin, uh, I already know that you’re 2, and it’s cool.”

“Did..did Tim tell you or?”

Tim scoffs out an “I wouldn’t!” even though there’s a distinct possibility that, entirely on accident, he would, and Sasha makes a reassuring coo. “No, no, babe, nothing like that. It’s just that, uh, the Magnus Institute is kind of notorious for not doing any background checks pretty much ever, so when I get a new coworker, I..do it myself.”

Martin’s face blanches, and his eyes somehow get even wider. “Oh god, please don’t tell Jon or Elias, I know I don’t have the credentials, but I really need-”

“Woah, woah, I’m not gonna do that. First of all, archival assistant squad, we ride together we die together in a snowed in god forsaken log cabin, secondly, it’d be hypocritical as fuck if I got up your ass about qualifications. Not a single one of us is qualified for our jobs, not even Jon. Maybe especially not Jon. It’s like, raise your hand if you have a degree in library sciences. No one? Okay, cool, that’s not weird at all for an archive. Actually, maybe bring that up next time he gives you shit. He’ll be all like ‘bluh bluh, you didn’t document this spooky bullshit well enough, it’s not up to the High Standards here at Spooky Bullshit Emporium’ and you can be like ‘whatever buddy, you’re an English major, what do you fuckin’ know?’. It’ll be devastating. He’ll be devastated.”

Martin laughs in the manner of someone who knows that they shouldn’t be, and his shoulders relax into a lower position. “Why would you want me to devastate him? I thought you guys were friends?”

“We are, which is why we all collectively need to get back at Jon for acting like such a prick. He’s always been a bit temperamental, but I honestly don’t get what his deal is, especially with you. I mean, c’mon, you’re great, being mean to you is like kicking a puppy.”

“Thanks? I think?”

Tim pipes up with, “Oooo, since drinking games are apparently too childish for Sasha, what if instead we play ‘What’s Jon’s Deal Anyway, Featuring, Seriously, Why Target Martin, The Baby of The Archives’-”

“-That feels a bit reductive of who I am and I also I think I’m technically older than Jon?-”

“-Whoever comes up with the best explanation, and by best obviously I mean most entertaining, gets an all expense paid trip from the other two to one of the charity shops I know we all frequent.”

Sasha snorts, “Wow, a whole twenty quid, who could resist such temptation. But also, I’m in, I think I have a winner and I have a violent need to out-cardigan Jon.”

Martin’s relaxation is gone again, which Tim thinks need to be fixed through aggressively passing a glass of wine towards him. He takes it without protest, takes a long drink, and says, “This seems more like 3 am conversation than a 9 pm one.”

Sasha gives an encouraging nudge, prompting another drink, and replies, “Yeah, well, I am not gonna make it to 3 am. I’ve got about an hour until the Alcohol Sleepiness sets in, and I know Tim will be right behind me.”

“Sashaaaaaa, you’re ruining my reputation as a young-at-heart, party-all-night kind of guy.”

“Babe, you’ve complained about your bones aching often enough that you’ve never had that reputation.”

“Surrounded by mean drunks, that’s what I am. I should be pitied.”

Martin shoots a glance towards Sasha, then replies, “You’d be more pitiable if this entire thing wasn’t, you know, entirely your own fault.”

Sasha nods sagely, “It’s true. If you were pitiable then maybe you wouldn’t have to die first.”

“You know what? I am uncomfortable with the energy that’s been created in this room, how about we divert some of that towards complaining about our bosses, as coworkers who are hanging out and having a good time and not bullying me are supposed to do.”

Sasha giggles slightly as she leans down and presses a kiss to Tim’s cheek. “Aw, sorry, Tim. I promise to double cross Martin when if becomes killing time.”

Tim melts a little, even as he’s replying, “Wait, when?” Martin takes another sip and says, “Whatever. I could take you both.”

How the hell are you supposed to resist a set up like that? With an over the top wink and cheesy grin, Tim says, “I bet you could, big guy.”

He’s expecting a slightly flustered reaction, maybe a higher pitched voice and a blush, if he’s lucky. He gets all of those things, but it’s Sasha saying, “Oh my god.” Martin only gives him a raised eyebrow and level stare, and Tim makes a mental note to reevaluate his dedication to only considering Martin in a strictly platonic fashion. Sasha continues talking, cutting through the..tension? with, “Okay, now I am uncomfortable with the energy that’s been created in this room. Tim, tell the studio audience what you think is up with Jon.”

Tim blinks, hard, gives a shake of his head, and says, “Oh, obviously the Jon we know is dead. His ‘promotion’ to Head Archivist was actually Elias killing him off and replacing him with a robot that has the command If: see Martin Then: be dick. Don’t worry Marto, now that Sasha is aware of the issue, she’ll surely be able to reprogram him.”

Sasha hums a bit, then says, “I buy it. I think my explanation’s better, but Elias does seem the “kill a dude and replace him” type. Like if I was gonna suspect any particular person of murder he’s in the top five.”

“Seriously? Elias? Somehow has middle manager vibes even though he’s the head honcho Elias? Mr. ‘I probably wore boat shoes and khaki shorts for the entirety of university’ Bouchard? Voted most likely to put a thin layer of mayo in between two pieces of white bread and claim it’s a sandwich Elias? The area man that’s almost certainly gone on record as saying that golf and networking are his favorite hobbies Elias? He’s far too boring to have committed a murder.”

Tim’s looking at Martin with shock and delight, and he knows Sasha is wearing the exact same expression. “More of this. Please describe more of the things that Elias is.”

“I mean, sure? Uhh, guy that would pay $80 for a dime bag because you told him it’s a premium strain. Person that ironically says things like “kids these days” and “the youths” and you know he’s talking about people well into their 30s. Genuinely believes that if you can afford a cell phone then you shouldn’t be complaining about being poor, because apparently a one time purchase of around a hundred bucks is the same as trying to pay monthly rent. Tells people to haul themselves up by their bootstraps. Thinks he got to where he was ‘without anybody’s handouts’ even though he’s had a trust fund since he was 15. Writes weekly editorials to the local newspaper complaining about the liberalization of media, and they’re like ‘sir, please stop submitting to us, we’re just trying to talk about Lisa’s gardening club’ because they can’t professionally tell him to fuck off. Thinks salt and pepper are the only spices one could ever possibly need, everything else is simply excessive. Somehow gay and homophobic. Like, yes, he’s taken a male lover, but he’s also seconds away from calling you a slur at any one time. Actually, no, that’s too interesting, and I refuse to believe he’s had a lover. Legally, he cannot have a lover, I’ve decided, so just gay and homophobic, both in theory alone. Has said that Boris Johnson is “a bit much, but really not so bad, and much better than any of the alternatives, really.” All of the cousins in his family banded together and officially got him banned from any sort of major holiday dinners. Basically every shitty boss you’ve ever had, especially if you’ve worked retail, rolled into one.”

Tim lets out a low whistle. “Damn, all right. Get fucked Elias.”

Sasha emphatically agrees, “Get fucked Elias.”

They all clink their glasses together, and then there’s a beat of silence before Martin says, “I’m pretty sure robots can’t get eye bags.”

Tim and Sasha let out a “huh” and “hmm?” respectively, so Martin elaborates. “You posited that Jon had been replaced with a robot. Pretty sure robots aren’t able to look that tired.”

Tim snaps. “Drat, you’ve pointed out the one flaw in my impeccable logic. So what d’you think is up with him? I know you don’t have the Before The Archives comparison, but I think you could provide a fresh perspective.”

“Oh, fuck, I don’t know. Two months ago, I might have had some choice words, but first off, you all genuinely got on, so it didn’t really make sense for him to be awful all the time, and secondly ever since the, um, worm thing, he’s actually been pretty nice? I haven’t heard any snide comments, and whenever I mess something up he’s a lot more, um, gentle about explaining what wrong. He actually complimented my work the other day so. I guess I think Jon’s deal was that he was stressed out and I was very nervous and not very good at my job and he picked up on that?”

“So you think he’s like a horse.”

“Explain.”

“He sensed your fear and he became skittish and irritable in kind.”

“Horses can sense fear?”

“Horses can sense everything.”

“That’s fucked up.”

“Right?”

“Guys, we’ve gone on like four different tangents in one conversation. Martin, I’m very glad to hear that Jon’s changed his behavior towards, because it means I don’t have to yell at him on your behalf, you’re getting to see the person that me and Tim both know who is actually pretty cool, and also mostly because it feeds perfectly into my winning theory.”

“What, you’ve got something better than Martin’s ‘accurate but boring’ reasoning or my ‘super cool but now that I think about it for .5 seconds actually kind of a bummer robot’ knowledge?”

Sasha’s incredibly self-assured when she says, “I sure fuckin’ do. Jon’s secretly been in love with Martin the whole time, and he’s been previously overcompensating by acting like he hates him.” which makes Tim choke on air and Martin emphatically reply, “Fuck off, he is not.”

“No, no, hear me out, I have, I have receipts, as the kids say. First point of evidence: Martin’s stupid hot, and there’s no way that Jon is straight, so obviously he’s not gonna be impervious to that.”

“What?”

“Oh come off it Martin, it’s just a fact. Like, me personally? I don’t even do the whole romance thing, but the first time I ever saw you I blacked out slightly and thought ‘Now there’s a man I could raise some ferrets with.’.”

“I, um, I, well. Is that...supposed to be a euphemism for something?”

“What? No, I’ve just always wanted ferrets, and asking someone to raise pets with you is like the height of romance, I’m pretty sure. Back me up here Tim.”

“On the ferret thing or the Martin hot thing?”

“Either? Both.”

“Aight. Yes, asking someone to raise ferrets with you is basically a marriage proposal if that someone is Sasha, and I hate to break it to you Martin, but you’re incredibly good-looking. We’re all incredibly good-looking, to the point where I think the only qualification for the archives staff is being a straight up hottie. OH! We should name the group chat “straight up hottie squad”. Anyway, yep, point for Sasha.”

“Not a point for Sasha, even if I believe you about about my, em, physical attractiveness,-”

“-Don’t have to put belief in a fact, Marto-”

“-that doesn’t mean anything. By that logic, he’s equally as likely to be in love with either of you, and my money would be on Sasha if it was anyone, because you’re clearly his favorite.”

“Ah, but that’s exactly why it isn’t me, but thank you for the transition into my second point which is: Jon is the kind of person that sees anything that might make him vulnerable and starts aggressively defending himself against it, and what’s more vulnerable than a crush? He’s not crushing on Tim, because Tim’s fucking great, but sometimes he’s also the walking, talking embodiment of sensory overload, and while I myself I love that, Jon clearly gets a bit overwhelmed by it at times. He’s not into me, because he knows better than that, and overall I’m pretty non-threatening to his whole thing, so of course he’s going to be the most relaxed around me. You, on the other hand, are single, hot, kind to animals and people alike, and make a great cup of tea. Incredibly crush worthy, thus incredibly threatening, thus Jon acting like That.”

“Hmm, this still seems like something that comes from watching one too many corny rom coms, and that’ s coming from someone who loves corny rom coms.”

“I also love corny rom coms, but that’s completely beside the point. Because, okay, sure, if Jon had just been a weird asshole to you, I wouldn’t be like ‘oh, yeah, that’s a classic case of covering for something’ but you’re right about him being nicer since the worm thing. So nice, in fact, I shall be bringing in Timothy as my star witness that’s going to blow this whole case wide open. Martin, you may not have heard how Jon has started to talk about you, but me and Tim sure have.”

“God, yeah. Like if we thought he wouldn’t shut up about you before-

“-which he wouldn’t-”

“it’s gotten way worse now.”

“I think the whole life threatening worm woman flipped a switch for him and now he’s all fuckin. ‘Oh, Martin should stay in the archives, let me give him the place that I sleep.”

“Oh, Martin, I don’t think he should go out on too many research trips anymore, I’d much prefer for him to be ~nice and close~”

“Oh, Martin, good lord, did you know that his tea is quite good? I’m think it might actually be the best I’ve ever had.”

“Oh, Martin, his work’s rather improved, don’t you think? It’s really quite impressive, especially considering all the stress he’s had to endure.”

“Oh, Martin, I just want him to take me into his big, strong arms and whisk me away from all of this.”

“He did not fucking say that last one.”

Sasha throws her arms up in the air. “He may as well have!”

Nodding sagely, Tim replies, “This whole thing holds water. I vote Sasha gets the shopping trip. Martin?”

Martin stares at his drink as if it has any ability to give him any sort of answers, then lets out a sigh with his entire body. “You know what? It’s probably nicer than whatever the fuck is the truth, so sure, why not? Let’s get Sasha her cardigans.”

Sasha lets out a whoop. “Hell yeah! Can’t wait for spree, assuming all three of us get out of this cabin alive.”

“Okay, nope, clearly Sasha needs another distraction. Got any suggestions, Martin?”

“Uh, wasn’t a karaoke machine part of the sales pitch for this place?”

“Martey babey, yes! I wouldn’t have thought you’d spring for that sort of thing!”

“If this were a public bar or something where I’d have to listen to drunk strangers and they’d have to listen to me, then no, I’d rather have my brain pulled through my nose a la mummification. But with only you guys and fourish drinks in? I’m down to clown.”

“Sash, you with us?”

“Dunno, what songs are there?”

Tim shrugs, and heads to the storage closet that contains all the various entertainment equipment. It takes a bit of searching, and a bit more digging, but he’s able to unearth the ancient portable karaoke machine. He also grabs some of the jigsaws, mostly on the thought that sometimes a bitch just wants to hang out with their friends and do a puzzle. Also because in light of the fact that they’re stuck inside with no sort of access to the outside world for two days longer than planned, there’s pretty much no way that they’re not going to reach a point where they all say fuck it let’s do a puzzle.

Plugging in the machine, it takes a solid several minutes to boot up, which is the perfect length of time to take it upon himself to take one for the team and chug the box wine himself, with Sasha and Martin chanting in the background. When he finishes, they cheer, and then Martin immediately shoves a glass of water for him to down as well, muttering something about how he wants him to be alive in the morning. Tim can tell he’s well inebriated by now, because the simple thoughtful gesture is enough to make him a little bit misty-eyed, and Sasha can attest to alcohol turning him into the world’s biggest sap. In order to avoid prevent himself from becoming the kind of person who says “I love you” in a gradually more sloppy repeat, he starts flipping through the discography of the now running machine. “Alright y’all, it looks like we got 80s songs or...80s songs. Ooo, they have the Grease 2 soundtrack.”

That gets him a well deserved “No!” from both parties, with Sasha adding on, “Not even if it was Grease 1. I’m putting an embargo on musical theater in general.”

“Oh come on, some musicals are better than other. Right, Marto?”

“I’m with Sasha on this one.”

“Boo. But fine, what do you want?”

Martin and Sasha glance at each other, and Tim’s amazed at how well the bonding night-turned-long-weekend has gone so far, considering they seem to have already mastered the art of silent communication. Martin speaks first, with, “They got Dolly Parton?”

The process of scrolling through individual letters to type is achingly slow, but luckily all he needs to get through is “DO” before she shows up. “They do.”

Sasha says, “Do they got 9 to 5, by Dolly Parton?”

Tim’s eyes light up with realization as he says, “They do,” and in a moment of spontaneous understanding, all three of them know that they’re not simply going to sing 9 to 5. No, they’re going to do a full blown music video for the benefit for nobody but themselves, because why the fuck not.

The next hour is spent in a very silly fashion. They figure out how to use the cabin’s layout to their advantage, assign various parts of the song to each person, and practice their inexpert choreography a few times with the song tinnily blasting from Sasha’s phone. The final result is hardly of professional quality, but it is of making them all giggle quality. It starts off in a relay like manner, each of them in a different area to coordinate with “Tumble of out bed and stumble to the kitchen” (Sasha on the couch), “Pour myself a cup of ambition”, (Tim at the coffemaker), and “Yawn and stretch and try to come to life” (Martin at the fridge), with them finally crowding around the karaoke machine together to scream sing the chorus. Despite their practice, they quickly go off key, and while they might end up with low points for accuracy, they get full marks on enthusiasm.

When the song ends, it takes them a few minutes to settle down into something less giddy. As they do, Sasha, out of breath, says, “Fuck me, I’m sleepy now. What the hell?”

Tim hums in affirmation. “Goddammit, I’m tired too. Let me guess, Martin, you’re young enough that you could go all night?”

“No? I’ve never pulled an all-nighter in my life. Actually, I know that it was supposed to be in case the power went out, but huddling together under a blanket in front of a fire sounds really nice? I mean, um, if you guys were down.”

Sasha leans her head against Martin’s shoulder and takes on the expression of a deeply content cat. “Mmm, I call Martin, he’s warm.”

“Absolutely not, I also want to leech Martin’s warmth. You good with being in the middle?”

Martin’s practically beaming, but his voice manages to almost fake being put upon. “I suppose it’s a sacrifice I could make.”

With Sasha already half asleep, Martin brings her over to the couch, while Tim gets them all set up. He manages to find the kind of big, fluffy blanket that all cabins should contain and wraps it around their shoulders. Luckily for them, the fireplace is gas lit and can be put on a timer. He sets it for 30 minutes, even though all three of them are going to be long passed out before them. Sasha is already softly snoring away, and Martin’s head keeps drifting down and snapping back up. Tim curls up against Martin’s other side, and even though all three of them are going to wake up with aching backs and worse heads, he thinks he really just might be a genius after all.

*Why is Mr. Boddy’s name Dr. Black in the UK. I hate that. Why would you not have the dumb joke of naming the victim “boddy”. Hey brits explain your crimes.

#anon #replies #nat fic #tma #martin blackwood #tim stoker #sasha james

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aelinbitch-archive · 6 years ago

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unpopular opinion: i don’t like rowan/rowaelin. i’m not here to convince u to unstan lol ppl are allowed to like/dislike things w/o feeling bad about it omg but i hate that some rowan stans are so insensitive when it comes to those who don’t like him! they’re so thirsty for him that they condemn anyone who doesn’t stan him & then excuse his problematic/lowkey triggering actions bc he’s hot and it’s gross. AGAIN not saying ppl can’t like rowan it’s ok lol but it’s more about some stan’s behavior

That’s totally fair my angel. I dislike the vibe that some people are locked out of the fandom for not being a cheerleader for every aspect of the series, and I hope that my followers/mutuals know that if they dislike stuff I like, or like stuff I dislike, expressing their opinions regarding that won’t ever cause me to cut them off (unless it’s like, some truly gross shit, which disliking rowaelin isn’t).

Also I have to say, even tho I do like rowaelin, I understand where you’re coming from about people excusing his actions because he’s hot. I’ve toooooootally seen that. And I’ll just be 100% honest - no shade to anyone, but some of the rowaelin content on this website disturbs me a little bit, in terms what’s considered hot/romantic/acceptable when writing or depicting them in art. I’ve seen some weird stuff defended as hot or even just “not that bad.” Which isn’t necessarily a problem with canon, but your ask was more about stans anyway, so yeah.

A while ago I actually wrote rowaelin meta in response to some other peeps (which was more about Aelin in relation to Rowaelin and how she’s included or not included in discussions of the ship, but it has some thoughts relevant to this ask) so I’m gonna just copy and paste what I wrote below and feel free to read if u want. (It’s like very overdramatic and fiery lmao but anyway).

I agree with a lot of this, but (at risk of derailing ms aelinapologist’s amazing post) I do have a few things to say, which are

1. OP took two whole paragraphs at the beginning of her post to say that the point wasn’t to discourse about rowaelin being abuse or not abuse, it was to talk about how the conversations centering around said abuse consistently display a disturbing lack of empathy for the character who should be the main concern of the debate. So I just find it a bit funny/odd that the replies (including a portion of the one I’m about to make, I admit that) have been like “Yeah great post! And now to discourse about Rowaelin-” but I digress.

2. I have consistently loved reading about Rowan and Aelin and they’re one of my favorite fictional couples. So nothing I’m about to say is intended to be like “GOTCHA they suck and you suck for liking them!!!” Because I like them as well. A lot. And in addition, nothing about this reblog is intended to be shady or confrontational in any way shape or form. I just think this is a great and very needed discussion I’d like to contribute to, so here goes.

3. Even if we look at HoF alone and ignore how things play out later: yes, they are both mean to one another, yes, they are both in a dark place and end up having a mutually positive effect on one another (so I definitely agree that, at least for HoF alone, it’s not a “douchey guy changes for the heroine story”) but. There IS still a power imbalance. I don’t think it’s entirely accurate to say “they were both bad The End” without also bringing up the fact that Rowan is 300 years old and Aelin is 18, and that Rowan is training Aelin and is in a position that gives him a massive amount of control over her, and that he is stronger and more powerful than her physically, magically, and socially (he is a prince and legendary warrior, she is a AWOL teenage princess currently working as a scullery maid).

Maybe I’m reading into it too much, but I really just don’t think that Aelin, a 17 y/o girl going through an unimaginably shitty time, being like “fuck you!!” to this 300 y/o jerk who doesn’t know shit about her is on the same level as aforementioned 300 y/o jerk hitting her, biting her, and telling her she would have been of more use to the world if she’d died when she was eight.

And in addition to that, we see that his behavior effects her a lot more than it effects him. When he verbally tears her down, we see her experience genuine and devastating despair and shame, whereas everything she does and says to him, no matter how snarky or outright cruel, is not having that same effect on him. People always seem to think they’re giving Aelin credit for being a Strong Woman™ by saying “she’s tough! she can handle it!” when in reality… we have evidence for the fact that she kinda can’t handle it. That the way he treats her in the beginning is slowly wearing her down and sending her deeper into a depressive state. And I don’t understand how it somehow reflects poorly on Aelin (or is even misogynist) to acknowledge this. Women, especially literal teenage girls, should not be measured by their tolerance for mistreatment.

All I really wish is that somewhere along the line we’d gotten a genuine apology from Rowan for this besides a throwaway line in KoA about regretting their “brawling.” And again, none of this is to say “see!! it IS abuse!!” it’s just to suggest that, even as an enemies to friends to lovers story, the “enemies” part was not exactly on a level playing field.

4. But with that being said, I could probably forgive the imbalance in their early relationship, mostly because their later relationship, as both friends and lovers, is so amazing and supportive in pretty much every way. And the great thing about enemies to FRIENDS to lovers, like you said, is that 1) none of the assholery occurred during any kind of romantic or sexual relationship or a transition into one, so it was sort of “fair and square” in that way, and 2) they had the opportunity form a solid, platonic foundation of trust and caring before they crossed into the lover territory.

Aaaaaaaaaand then Sarah did a retcon job on HoF which negated… pretty much all of that. I can totally be down with “good old fashioned mutual hatred thaws into caring which grows into love” but once we start hearing shit like “‘Sometimes, you’d be sleeping beside me at Mistward, and it’d take all my concentration not to lean over and bite them. Bite you all over’” and “‘That was the first time I really lost control around you, you know. I wanted to chuck you off a cliff, yet I bit you before I knew what I was doing. I think my body knew, my magic knew. And you tasted… So good. I hated you for it’”……. hhhhhhhhhhh.

I can’t think of many arguments for this NOT contributing at least a little to the “he’s mean because he loves you (and stick it out because someday he’ll figure it out)” trope. And while it might be a bit different because Aelin was quite mean as well, her behavior was just… meanness. Not some sort of weird outlet for repressed sexual attraction/love. I guess I just get flashbacks of “No sweetie, that boy in your class kicks your desk, pulls your hair, and calls you names because he likes you and doesn’t know how to express it.”

And I think this decision on Sarah’s part to go back and say he was into her all along is 1) a result of the mating bond thing she’s so fond of and 2) kind of a panicked backpedalling to the backlash she might have gotten over Rowan’s behavior in HoF? Which is…. so ironic because she made it SO much worse. In my humble opinion, she should have just doubled down on what she originally wrote as enemies-friends-lovers (and had Rowan bring up his early behavior and apologize in some way), and the problem would have been solved. And while I personally feel that I can recognize this for what it is - a shitty retcon - and enjoy the relationship despite it, I don’t think we should talk over people for whom this is a deal-breaker for the ship.

5. I don’t think about all of this and have the reaction that so many “anti tog” people seem to have of “FUCK Rowan he’s ABUSIVE and PREDATORY and I wish he was DEAD!!!” I think there are things to criticize about his behavior and about the way Sarah decided to spin their relationship, but they have had many great moments, especially in the later books, and I don’t think I or anyone else is “shipping abuse” by enjoying that. All of this is just to emphasize how, in OP’s very succinct words, “your inalienable right to enjoy two characters’ dynamic does not outweigh the right to criticise it.” Because there ARE valid things to criticize, and we as Rowaelin shippers (lol.) need to be careful not to conflate ugly hatred with valid criticism when we speak over it.

And because there IS so much ugly hatred for Aelin and her relationship with Rowan on this website, I completely understand why there’s a kind of knee-jerk reaction of jumping to defense of this ship we love. But that impulse, quite frankly, means nothing to me if defense of Rowaelin includes the erasure of Aelin’s canonical experiences. And maybe this is wacky and controversial, but I’m pretty sure we can express our enjoyment of Rowaelin AND keep Aelin as an individual from being swept under the rug.

6. More than saying any of that what I really really want to do (and have been trying to do in the previous paragraphs, but maybe unsuccessfully) is bring the conversation back to OP’s original point which was not “abuse!” or “not abuse!” but about how the ways in which we discuss “abuse or not abuse” often includes a stomach-turning lack of concern for Aelin and some frustratingly reductive arguments. And somehow I have the sneaking suspicion that Rowaelin shippers are reading this post and missing the point, which that this is happening on BOTH sides of the argument.

Everyone is perfectly entitled to ship Rowaelin and argue their opinion about its merits or lack thereof, but when we cover our ears and say “she was mean too she was mean too she was mean too she was mean too la la la la la la la” that’s completely ignoring the genuine pain that she did experience in HoF and the power imbalance that she was subjected to, no matter whether or not we personally feel that it was sufficiently rectified in later books.

And I see this ALL THE TIME, in both the fandom and “anti-fandom”, and I’m honest to god quite sick of it. I’m sick of the willful ignorance of a teenage girl’s pain in order to further an agenda. Yes, it’s more stomach-turning when the agenda is to prove what an evil bitch she is or whatever, but it’s not excusable if your agenda is to prove Rowaelin is great, either! And I don’t understand why we have to throw all nuance out the window and ignore how Dorian hurt her, ignore how Chaol hurt her, ignore how Rowan hurt her, fucking hell, ignore how SAM hurt her, just so we can make our arguments! Because as much as the antis love to scream about “WHAT MESSAGE IS THIS TERRIBLE SHIP SENDING THE TINY GIRL-CHILDREN WHO READ THE BOOKS???” it’s also like, what kind of message is our ongoing discussion of it sending by sweeping a teenage girl’s experiences under the rug when we argue about her relationships?

And like OP said, what have we even got to show for it? No conclusion has been reached, nothing has been achieved besides valuing a romance (or the hatred of that romance and preference for a different romance) over individual characters, namely an individual character who happens to be a teenage girl that has suffered an ungoldy amount - suffered, sometimes, at the hands of male characters we like.

In conclusion, the mass allergy everyone seems to have to giving a shit about Aelin unless its to further their agenda is sickening. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve had to hear about how poor Manon’s character was “ruined” by Manorian (although not directly by DORIAN, of course, because apparently Saint Haviliard can do no wrong) I’d have enough money to buy a lamborghini and drive it off a cliff like I wish I could every time I hear someone’s terrible hot take about how Aelin is complicit in her own alleged abuse. Yet somehow I’ve never heard anyone complain about the damage done to Aelin’s character by any of the male characters, including Rowan. It’s never “Rowan ruined Aelin’s character!!” it’s “Rowaelin sucks and so does Aelin.” In fact, one of the REASONS Aelin sucks in the first place IS Rowan/Rowaelin! What a great implicit message to send to people reading your “critiques”: if you are annoying and #problematic enough, your suffering will be used against you and you will receive no sympathy for it. Cool!

And for other ships, too: it’s never “Chaol and Dorian, while at points a very good for Aelin, also caused her a lot of pain” it’s either “Chaol was right about Aelin in QoS and both he and Dorian are ruined because of her #chaorian” OR, from the fans, who, again, are not off the hook, “Chaol and Dorian and Aelin are BFFs forever #originaltrio.” And as a teenage girl myself, who loves and identifies with Aelin, who is more invested in her story than anyone else’s… I’m just tired. And more than a little appalled. And I wish we could do better.

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itsfinancethings · 5 years ago

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Margaret Keane, CEO of Synchrony—a company that financed $140 billion in purchases for American shoppers last year, via a range of credit card programs—has lived all sides of the debt equation. When she was 10, growing up as one of six kids in Queens, her father, a police officer, developed a costly and ultimately fatal illness that she says left her family burdened with thousands in medical bills. “We were getting calls to shut the electric off,” she says. “I don’t think you could ever forget that.”

She put herself through college working as a debt collector, earning $5.50 an hour, making 90 calls a day, while a student at St. John’s University. She excelled and ended up in the management training program at Citibank before rising to run Synchrony, where she now presides over an army of employees approving loans, and also collecting them when borrowers fall behind.

The ability of consumers to keep paying their bills will play an outsized role in the post-pandemic recovery. So far, Keane is not seeing a spike in delinquencies one might expect given the plunge in economic activity, though the stimulus is clearly aiding those bill payments. “The consumer is definitely hanging in there,” she says.

Keane, 60, recently joined TIME for a video conversation on the mindset of the American consumer, the impact of small business health on any recovery, and what corporations need to do to help address systemic racism in society.

Subscribe to The Leadership Brief by clicking here.

(This interview with Synchrony CEO Margaret Keane has been condensed and edited for clarity)

Your company was founded in 1932, another time of great financial distress, to help people buy appliances on credit. Now there are tens of million of Americans out of work. What parallels do you see?

What’s interesting about our company is the culture and the roots of how we came about was really during a time of crisis. And honestly, back in the day, when you think back, I know it doesn’t feel innovative now, but actually lending people money was a big deal.

What products were being sold?

Back in the ’30s, people would literally go to their local corner appliance store and pay weekly to get the appliance. You can imagine people weren’t working and GE wanted to sell appliances. So they came up with this idea, ‘Okay, how do we finance appliances?’ And that’s how the company started—GE wanted to sell appliances. Appliances were still relatively new for them. Having that at home was a big deal. It allowed the average American to have access to those kinds of luxuries back then.

How concerned are you about the health of the American consumer right now?

Coming into the crisis the consumer was very strong. People were paying their bills. Right now, we are not seeing real change to our performance on delinquencies. There’s two big unknowns. The first unknown is there’s been a lot of stimulus for people. I’m sure you’ve read, people put a lot more in savings.

Savings are at a record rate, right?

Record high, and then a second piece is people are paying their bills. Now the question is, is it the stimulus that’s helping them pay their bills, tax returns? What’s interesting to me is that consumers are being conservative. They’re being thoughtful about how they’re using their dollars. So what we need to do is say, ‘Okay, what happens when the stimulus stops? And then when the stimulus stops, how many people actually get back to work?’ That’s really the piece that’s a little uncertain right now.

With your partnerships with so many big retailers such as Lowe’s, Sam Clubs and the newly announced Verizon card, you have a lot of insights into consumer behavior. What are people buying now?

There’s a lot being spent around the home, home improvement. You can’t find plants now.There’s a lot being spent around the home, home improvement. You can’t find plants now. You can’t find vessels to plant in. Furniture obviously dropped, but didn’t drop completely. People are still buying online. What we did see though is that the ticket size was smaller because you didn’t have a sales person saying, ‘Oh, if you’re going to buy that chair, you might want to think about this table.”

Anything else?

Bikes. Fishing rods. All outdoor stuff now is kind of hard to get. I was just talking to someone who said you can’t find kayaks right now. People have just said I’m not going to take vacation. So I’m going to have vacation at home. And then there are people who say, ‘Okay, I really want to make my house more of my vacation.’

I’ve heard you mention that all of these Zoom calls are going to drive demand for another service that you finance.

We have our health care business, CareCredit. We do a lot with plastic surgeons. And I joked that the plastic surgery business is going to take off. And sure enough, it has taken off now that things have reopened.

Is that true? Do you think that’s driven by Zoom?

I use myself as an example. I’m looking at my face every day and there’s some things I should be getting. [LAUGHTER]. One of our employees, their wife is a nurse in a plastic surgery center, and she told her husband that she saw 32 patients in one day. It’s the most she’s ever seen in her entire career.

What economic indicators do you monitor to tell how consumers are feeling financially?

We look at things like are people paying less than their minimum payment? Are payment levels holding? And honestly, all of that’s holding. So that’s a sign for us that right now, the consumer is definitely hanging in there.

Purchase volume is the number of times people use their credit card?

Yeah, these are purchases on our card. Our cards across our merchant and retail and health care networks. When we started the pandemic, it started out, in March we were down 26%. It moved down to about 31% [in the first half of April.] And it’s now down 10% (in late May.)

TIME for Learning partnered with Columbia Business School to offer a series of online, on-demand classes on topics like effective leadership, negotiation and customer-centric marketing. To sign up or learn more, click here.

How are brick and mortar retail stores going to come out of this?

We have been over-retailed for a long time. There was a retail transformation happening even before COVID. And there were a number of retailers that were struggling. What the COVID experience has done is accelerate that transformation. And we’re seeing more bankruptcies and reductions in retail. We’re seeing, obviously, more and more people buy online than ever before. But people still like to go to a mall and get out and see things and touch things.

I know your view is that some of the problems in retail went beyond competition from e-commerce, right?

Online is not the only driver of why retail has had its troubles in opening. I think there were some fundamental challenges underneath. Too many stores. No investment in the stores themselves. Lack of inventory. I was in a store before this whole thing happened and, honestly, I had to really search to find someone to pay for something. You’re like, ‘Oh, my God, why am I even here?’

What is your biggest concern about the economy?

I’ve been through many crises before where we’ve modeled a lot of things out. We tend to model unemployment. I don’t think we’ll be at this 40 million unemployment number. I think the real concern that I have when I think of employment is more around the small business constituents here. And how many of them actually survive, right? I think the real question is how many people survive in the small business segment, and then what does that do to unemployment?

Subscribe to The Leadership Brief by clicking here.

And what are your models showing right now?

It will be a double-digit unemployment number we think going into 2021.

What’s your favorite letter these days to describe the expected shape of the recovery?

I think it’s going to be somewhat of a U, but it’s going to be a little elongated It’s going to be a little slower coming up.

How important are small businesses to the American economy overall?

We need a robust small business community here to make our economy in the U.S. work. Studies show they employ the most people. They keep our communities strong. As a country, small business is the heart of who we are. [On June 17, after the interview was conducted, Synchrony committed $5 million to support small business; $2 million of that amount is directed to minority and women owned businesses in underserved communities.]

And people still value the connection with local businesses.

I live in a little town here [In Connecticut] and I walk down my Main Street, and I keep saying ‘I love that store, I hope they’re going to be back. And that store, I hope they’re going to be back. The restaurants, I hope they’re going to be back.’ These are real businesses with real expenses that have been shut for quite awhile.

The majority of your 17,000 employees work in call centers. How is that going in the pandemic?

We moved the entire company to home. That’s much easier said than done because we literally had to give everyone the technology. We had to create a whole logistics process. We put those packets, if you will, together: Their work-at-home technology. And then they’d come into our call centers, pick it up. We had like a whole process. We have some funny stories of people driving in the middle of the night to meet the FedEx guy to get the headsets because they weren’t going to make it in the morning.

What’s in that kit?

It’s a laptop, it’s a camera, it’s headsets, it’s speakers. A mouse. But in addition to that, we had to work with them and make sure their network could handle it, too. There was a lot of back-and-forth on just getting them set up in the right environment at home.

That sounds expensive. What did that cost?

I have no idea how much we spent. I know it was a lot. But I didn’t even ask. If we weren’t in a pandemic, we would have had our 55 meetings before we got to the decision of, Okay, we’re going to move everybody home. Then we would have done the budget. Then we would have said, well, whatever. We didn’t do any of that. We moved.

When you were a debt collector back in the day, did you have a good spiel? Did you go off script?

Look, I always try to tell people, what you do learn in collecting is there are people that have real tragedies and really are trying to pay and they’re lawful. And there are those people who are trying to beat the system. And I think the trick of a collector is figuring out who those other people are, and just making sure you have empathy for the people that have hit something.

Did you have a good nose for the people that are trying to beat the system?

You don’t have it at the beginning. But then you do. I went into it with a very rose-colored kind of glass thing, And then you’re like, ‘Okay, now I realize what people are talking about.’ It’s the repeat offender that gets you.

How is your workforce doing, mental-health wise?

You know the whole work-at-home is a good thing, but it puts a lot of stress, particularly for women who are trying to home-school.If you asked our staff out in the field, they’re saying this is the biggest challenge we’re facing right now is a lot of anxiety, a lot of depression. You know the whole work-at-home is a good thing, but it puts a lot of stress, particularly for women who are trying to home-school.

How do you respond to that?

We were working on mental health before COVID because it’s been very clear to me that we have a very stressed environment in our work right now. And there’s a lot of people who need extra support. So we were actually piloting some things in our call center, where some wellness coaches that were actually there at the site. So we now just transformed that to wellness through telemedicine. And we’ve expanded to offer free consultation with psychologists.

What has been your response to the outpouring of support to address systemic racism in society?

I have to as a leader recognize that we have some real work to do in society and the country. And we’re part of that. What can we do internally?

I didn’t want this to be like a check mark, like, We sent the note out. We all said ‘We’re sad.’ And then move on. This is a pivotal moment in our country that Synchrony can play a role inside its company, and then we’ve got to think about what we do outside the company. [On June 25, Synchrony announced a $5 million donation to organizations supporting social justice and equity.]

So corporations should be involved in this solution?

There’s no way we’re going to solve this, because there’s so many things that need to be solved, without corporations stepping up, engaging in our communities, and engaging with government. I think it’s all about how we lift everybody up through this. There’s how do we hire more diverse people in our company? How do we give more people of diversity, no matter what diversity, the opportunity inside our company? And we’ve been working on a lot of this. And we were very focused coming into this year on Black and Hispanic leadership. And particularly Black … because we don’t have enough. We’re doing a lot of soul-searching because we could pat ourselves, great places to work. We get all these awards. We’re great. But like let’s look at the numbers on some of these things and how we make a difference. We have to double down on all this right now.

KEANE’S FAVORITES

BUSINESS BOOK: I like leadership books. I loved Hamilton. I loved the Grant book. I love historical novels of people who have led. I’m very into those types of figures because look, they made a lot of very difficult decisions to bring our country together both times.

AUTHOR: I’m a big Nelson DeMille fan. I actually like his older stuff better because they’re so good

APP: Twitter. I use it to really stay abreast of what’s happening.

TIME MANAGEMENT TIP: I never go to sleep with an unread email. It’s zero every night.

PREFERRED STRESS RELIEF METHOD: In the middle of the day, I try to make an hour of time for myself to go take a walk outside. Just getting outside has a whole different feeling. And it’s funny because it’s not like I did that in my office. I would work all day, but for some reason I just need to get up, get out, clear my mind, and come back a little refreshed.

(Miss this week’s The Leadership Brief? This interview above was delivered to the inbox of Leadership Brief subscribers on Sunday morning, June 28; to receive emails of conversations with the world’s top CEO’s and business decision makers, click here. The Leadership Brief will not be published over the Fourth of July weekend. The next weekly edition will hit your inbox July 12.)

#IFTTT #Blogger

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newstechreviews · 5 years ago

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Subscribe to The Leadership Brief by clicking here.

(This interview with Synchrony CEO Margaret Keane has been condensed and edited for clarity)

Your company was founded in 1932, another time of great financial distress, to help people buy appliances on credit. Now there are tens of million of Americans out of work. What parallels do you see?

What products were being sold?

How concerned are you about the health of the American consumer right now?

Savings are at a record rate, right?

With your partnerships with so many big retailers such as Lowe’s, Sam Clubs and the newly announced Verizon card, you have a lot of insights into consumer behavior. What are people buying now?

Anything else?

I’ve heard you mention that all of these Zoom calls are going to drive demand for another service that you finance.

Is that true? Do you think that’s driven by Zoom?

What economic indicators do you monitor to tell how consumers are feeling financially?

Purchase volume is the number of times people use their credit card?

How are brick and mortar retail stores going to come out of this?

I know your view is that some of the problems in retail went beyond competition from e-commerce, right?

What is your biggest concern about the economy?

Subscribe to The Leadership Brief by clicking here.

And what are your models showing right now?

It will be a double-digit unemployment number we think going into 2021.

What’s your favorite letter these days to describe the expected shape of the recovery?

I think it’s going to be somewhat of a U, but it’s going to be a little elongated It’s going to be a little slower coming up.

How important are small businesses to the American economy overall?

And people still value the connection with local businesses.

The majority of your 17,000 employees work in call centers. How is that going in the pandemic?

What’s in that kit?

That sounds expensive. What did that cost?

When you were a debt collector back in the day, did you have a good spiel? Did you go off script?

Did you have a good nose for the people that are trying to beat the system?

How is your workforce doing, mental-health wise?

How do you respond to that?

What has been your response to the outpouring of support to address systemic racism in society?

I have to as a leader recognize that we have some real work to do in society and the country. And we’re part of that. What can we do internally?

So corporations should be involved in this solution?

KEANE’S FAVORITES

AUTHOR: I’m a big Nelson DeMille fan. I actually like his older stuff better because they’re so good

APP: Twitter. I use it to really stay abreast of what’s happening.

TIME MANAGEMENT TIP: I never go to sleep with an unread email. It’s zero every night.

#Blogger

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topicprinter · 6 years ago

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Hey /r/Entrepreneur, I’m Denver, aka /u/LoomaHome!I’ve lurked here for a very long time, and being a follower of this subreddit + /r/MaleLivingSpace has been a big part of starting my business, so I’m excited to share.Along with my business partner, Ishaan, I’m a co-founder at Looma, makers of expertly curated and ethically-sourced bedding sets (and more decor stuff soon). We’ve been working on the business for almost a year now and we just launched yesterday!We’ve been on two quests: building a modular ecosystem of bedding and home decor products that fit seamlessly together and figuring out how to sell the softest possible organic, and fair-trade products for half the price of everyone else, and we think we nailed it.One of my favorite things are “How I did it” posts, getting an insider perspective on how Redditors have built their businesses, usually in industries I don’t know anything about. Since /r/Entrepreneur has helped me during this journey, I’d like to lay out my “Mental Framework” for how I approached business, in hopes that it could give someone out there a starting point for chasing their big idea too.But first, a little context, so you know how I got started. Backstory[TL;DR below]After graduating from college, I bounced around between the East and West coasts for different jobs. With every move, I’d go through my stuff and ask, “Is this really worth taking with me?”Usually the answer was “no.” So, I was arriving in my new city with few belongings, which meant I had to start all over to furnish my space. I’d get a few cheap things, live in the new city for a while, take another job offer, move again, leave behind all the cheap stuff, repeat. I absolutely hated redecorating, because it was so hard to make each new place feel like home. First a bedframe and mattress, then sheets, an area rug, side table, desk, wall art, and so on. I was becoming Ikea/Target’s #1 customer. Browsing aisle by aisle had become an obligatory pastime, and I kept asking myself “Why is this such a painful process?” and “How can I find someone else to do this for me?”Around that same time of my bedroom/existential breakdown, I had a month and a half between my move and my job’s start date, so I visited my one of my best friends from college, Ishaan, who’s from India. I had planned on spending a week with Ishaan then tour around to see all of the big sites (obligatory Taj Mahal pic). But instead of touring the country, I was mostly fascinated by Ishaan’s family business. He had gone back after college to run the textile mill his grandfather’s grandfather had started in the 1800s. Coming from a world of corporate offices and Excel spreadsheets, I was fascinated by the processes, the people, and the business behind textiles. Watching raw materials go in one side and finished products come out the other was incredibly satisfying.Back in the US, I was still thinking about that mill, while sitting in my studio apartment filled with hodge-podge decor that never quite right. Like Steve Jobs’ once said in one of my favorite speeches ever, the dots only connect when you’re looking backward. It hit me: What if Ishaan and I started a business that provided modular decor? You pick a theme you like, and then simply buy everything, from sheets to rugs and small decorations, that’s been curated for you in that same theme?Given that Ishaan could manage the raw materials & production aspects, and that bedding is one of the easiest and fastest ways to change the look of an entire room, I figured that bedding would be the logical first step, and then we could expand our offerings from there. I pitched my plan to Ishaan, he was onboard, and Looma was born!TL;DR version: Recent college grad got tired of figuring out how to redecorate every time he moved for a new job. Goes to visit friend in India while between jobs. Finds out friend’s family is in textiles, becomes fascinated by the business. Goes back to the States and starts a company with friend, to help people easily decorate their spaces with curated looks, and figures bedding is a good place to start. Looma begins! Analyzing the MarketWe had a vision for the customer pain point we wanted to solve, but we still needed to figure out exactly where we would fit into the broader market, and how things operate today. We broke down our market research into 3 buckets: supply chain, distribution, and consumer behavior.If you’re wondering where to find this type of info a great start is a google search of: “industry primer”First a size check: We knew the market was big, but not this big. In the US alone, home textiles (bedding, rugs & bath) is a $15 billion market annually.Supply Chain: Despite online & direct to consumer models starting to pop up, we found the vast majority of volume of the global home textile market is via outsourced manufacturing and brand licensing agreements. Much like Luxxotica owns 90% of the eyewear market, the same 4/5 manufacturers own 90% of the brands you’ve bought bedding from. It works like this: Manufacturer A pays Brand X, Y and Z to sell sheets with the Brand X, Y or Z labels on it. Brands love it because its free money for zero effort, but the problem for consumers is that most manufacturers are more concerned with volume than quality, with the overall effect being a reduction in competition – causing prices to steadily rise while quality doesn’t.So I can assure you, Tommy Hilfiger didn’t actually design any beds, someone at Indocount or Himatsingka did.Distribution: The distribution split in home goods is around 75% in-store 25% online, with the online portion growing extremely rapidly (less than 20% of sales 3 years ago). In-store distribution is split between big box brands who wholesale other brand’s products (Target, Bed Bath & Beyond) and specialty retail (West Elm, Crate & Barrel, etc.) who primarily sell their own brand. Online is split between Amazon and independent e-commerce (Brooklinen, Parachute, et al.).Consumer Behavior: Consumers repurchase rates are moderate tending to replace sheets every 18-24 months. There were fewer resources that specifically catalogued consumer behavior when it came specifically to bedding, so we used SurveyMonkey & Google Surveys to gather our own data. Based on our survey work we found that consumers brand recall & brand loyalty is extremely low. The surveys also showed that the future of online sales was bright with over 55% of customers considering purchasing bedding online for their next buying cycle.Our major takeaways from the research were:· The overall market is massive· The supply chain is dominated by incumbents with no incentive to improve quality· Online is the minority today but explodingEach finding pointed to the huge growth prospects for digital-first brands. Despite how overhyped “Millennials are killing [x]” headlines are, new buying habits (online) paired with general distain for the current players means a huge opportunity to cater to consumers in a new way.We want to create a brand that delights consumers, creates loyalty, and will become the no brainer go-to when buying anything for a bedroom. To do that, we know we have to do things that others aren’t. The Business BlueprintPutting the pieces together, we centered everything around one question: how do we delight the new breed of digital-first customers?Product: How do we delight customers with our product?The first step was to think of product as not just the physical goods, but the buying experience too. As I thought about my own hatred for decorating, it really boiled down to not knowing how to put pieces together in a cohesive way. We wanted to bring the same curation & ease-of-purchase focus that is so popular in Apparel (“shop this look”), to home goods. Today, whether it’s online or in-store, most bedding is sold piece by piece in separate sheet sets, duvet covers, comforters, blankets, throws, pillows etc. So we created a product line is focused on bundling and pre-curated bedroom “recipes” that are guaranteed to look good together. By making our product both the physical item and the more streamlined path to purchasing it, we're hoping to set ourselves apart from the average buying experience.Price & Quality: How can we delight customers with high quality materials and a mass market price?The vast majority of people we surveyed were “meh” on their bedding, except the group in the luxury segment. The luxury consumers totally reversed the trend with strong brand recall and loyalty. The takeaway: quality benefits exist, but you have to really spend to get it.So the question was: how to bring luxury bedding quality & loyalty at a price point that the other 98% of the market can afford? Brands like Parachute and Boll & Branch successfully brought Frette quality ($1,200+ sets) to the $450-650 price range by going direct to consumer and cutting out the retail/wholesale markups, but to bring that quality to the $250-$350 price point would require far more than changing sales channels from offline to online.This happens to be our secret sauce. Back to the origin story, Ishaan & his family have been in Textiles for over 100 years. I came to him to ask if it was possible to bring that $1,000 sheets quality to the mass market. The answer was no. Not if we went to the outsourced manufacturers like in-store brands and the other direct to consumer brands like Parachute. The only possible way would be to deal with the farmers growing the ultra-lux organic cotton directly rather than buying from regional or national cotton traders (not an easy task, most organic cotton is grown on small independent farms, so we’d have to reach out to a number of them individually), then we’d have to bring most of the major finishing processes in-house (like spinning the cotton yarn, weaving it, and cutting & sewing it). People outsource for a reason: it’s much easier. But with every outsourced process comes another markup, and we couldn’t afford that.So we followed the plan. We’re bringing the absolute highest quality GOTS Organic, Fair-Trade Certified linens to the market at a price that is literally unbeatable. Check out a quick comparison chart. Our complete foundation set (sheet set + duvet cover) is just $279. Compare that to Parachute at $550 (Organic but not Fair Trade), and Brooklinen at $249 (Not Organic, Not Fair Trade, Value Quality at Premium Price).ChannelWhere to sell? Amazon, wholesale, our own website? Where can we best meet our customer to give them a delightful experience?Right off the bat Wholesale wouldn’t work for us. Typically when brands sell wholesale they have to take a 40-60% cut on their regular retail price. So that effectively means brands that wholesale spend less than 30% of the retail price of the product on the actual materials & construction.Amazon has a ton of benefits, primarily built-in foot traffic. It’s a marketplace with high intent customers that are already searching for bedding and probably already have their payment information saved. On top of that, if you use Fulfilled By Amazon, they take the headache out of shipping. That’s super compelling. On the downside, Amazon takes a fat commission on sales, limits customization of the listing page, knows your exact sales data & popularity (Hello new Amazon Brand in your category), and generally owns the user experience throughout the purchase. In the end it’s something we’re going to continue to consider, but not right for us at this point.So we settled on selling via our own e-commerce website. Pros for us were the ability to customize the user experience with things like style quiz flows, owning all of our user data, and most importantly no marketplace commissions on our sales, but the cost was high, and not for everyone. When choosing independent e-com you have to balance with knowing it’s very expensive to bring traffic to your site, there’s a big upfront cost to developing a scale-ready website, and other headaches like integrating your sales systems with logistics systems. Sourcing & Other ResourcesIn Looma’s case, we haven’t had to search for manufacturing partners the same way most new companies do, but after working with manufacturers for non-core pieces of the business (like packaging) here are my thoughts on sources & best practices for reaching out:Alibaba: There are entire guides for this, but 1) always check how long each supplier has been in business + what their revenue last year was. If it’s less than 2 years old and/or their revenue is under $1 million, that can be a red flag that they’re not a reliable supplier, or too new to know their reputation. There are probably 10 other options in the same category with a more reliable background, reach out to them. 2) Reach out to at least 5 suppliers with your list of requirements for any product you’re looking for – even if you see a listing that looks perfect. A lot can be learned from the speed and level of professionalism in responses. After you narrow down to a few attentive suppliers don’t be afraid to push back on Price or Minimum Order Quantities. These responses are valuable too for determining who might be a good long term partner, not just supplier.IndiaMART: The Alibaba of India. Unfortunately they are much less organized and don’t have an internal chat feature like Alibaba. Be prepared to receive 10s of calls from suppliers if you give them your number. One big upside is that it can be a great place to source if you put in the effort, and a lot of the time I’ve found suppliers on IndiaMart are more willing to lower MOQs for new accounts.PortExaminer.com: While this isn’t a source supplier, you still shouldn’t overlook this resource. This is a bit of an insider secret, but import records into the United States are public record. That means you can look up your competitors and figure out exactly who they’re buying from!Sometimes you can’t find the exact records you’re searching for, but if you can, you can contact the same source suppliers your competitors are using, and ask for quotes for products that are similar to your competitor’s. Once you have a quote, you know how much your competitor is spending to manufacture their product, and you can figure out if you’re able to beat that price, and with higher quality.PackagingThere are two ways to go here. US companies like BoxUp.com, Packlane.com or Lumi.com tend to be expensive, or you could test the waters of direct from China packaging on Alibaba. For the seasoned expert, Alibaba makes sense, but if you’re just getting started, I 100% recommend a more expensive US option who will ensure quality.LogisticsGreat! Now your product is in a cool box, ready to be delivered by...someone. By far, my favorite freight forwarder is Flexport. Hands down the easiest, most intuitive, and modern freight forwarding service out there; I highly recommend them.PlatformFor our eCommerce we decided to use Shopify. They had the lowest barriers to entry and offered acceptable levels of customization.For our inventory management, we chose Ordoro. Shoutout to /u/gdpics from Ordoro for the great customer service! Final ThoughtsWhatever your plans and budget are, know that it will take 3x as long and cost 10x as much. Figure out your costs and estimate your schedule, and then pump it up. Give yourself plenty of buffer, because you will hit unexpected costs and scheduling holdups, and if you’re not prepared, it’ll knock you flat.Have a strong list of advisors and try to get as big and diverse of a roster as you can. I cold emailed so many people I considered to be my “Dream Experts,” but I also reached out to some people who I knew excelled at the lower-level functioning stuff, too.I wrote my emails to these people like, “This is what I’m up to, and this is why I’d love to have your expertise on this.” I was honestly shocked at how many people responded to me, and I now have an incredible board of advisors I can contact about different concerns and questions: Zander Lurie (CEO of Surveymonkey), Kory Stevens (CEO of Taft /u/therealtaftclothing), Brian Magida (Performance Marketing at Warby Parker), and a ton of others. Find those people, show them that you’re serious and know what you’re talking about, and you might be surprised how many of them are willing to help you, if you’re respectful of their time.Founding a company is a mental health game, and you need to take that seriously. Even though I’m technically a co-founder with one of my best friends, he’s on the other side of the world handling logistics over there, so sometimes it can feel like I’m a solo founder. Find someone — preferably a friend who isn’t involved in your business — who is willing to be a listening ear and sympathizer for those moments when you’re overwhelmed.Finally, once you’re at an acceptable level, just launch. You could go bankrupt trying to make everything absolutely perfect. There are still some things about Looma I want to tweak and change, but really, it’s ready for the next phase, so we’re pulling the lever and we’re rolling! /r/Entrepreneur, thanks for listening, and I really hope this was interesting for you guys. Thanks for being such a great community, and please, if there’s anything in this overview that you’d like more specific info on, ask! As for Looma, we launched yesterday on Kickstarter, and we we're already 75% funded!! Go grab an earlybird discount while the stock lasts!

#/r/entrepreneur #reddit

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soundincomestrategies · 6 years ago

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September Monthly Newsletter

As Fall Nears, the Markets are a Messy Mix of Good, Bad & Ugly

In my experience, people seem to have a more serious attitude about their finances at certain times of year than others. The post-Labor Day period through Thanksgiving is when many people typically reassess their saving and investment strategies and decide whether to make changes. With that in mind, I’d like to share a few thoughts about the current state of the markets for you to think about as you review your own strategies. There’s more going on than I can cover in one newsletter, so I’ll stick to an overview of “the good, the bad and the ugly.”

The Good

As everyone knows by now, economic growth in the second quarter reportedly hit 4.1 percent—a figure that was recently upgraded to 4.2 percent.1 As everyone probably also knows, 4 percent growth was one of President Trump’s chief campaign promises, and the main goal behind his massive tax overhaul. He and other Republicans were quick to hail the second-quarter milestone as a direct result of the tax cuts (approved last December), and call the growth rate sustainable.

Meanwhile, the stock market returned to a mostly upward trend in late summer after months marked by a consistent pattern of small gains and big drops. Though the Dow Jones Industrial Average, as of this writing, still hasn’t regained its 2018 peak, it did come close in late August, while the S&P 500 actually surpassed its January high and hit a record 2,914 on August 29 before starting to level off again in the final days of the month.2

Though the market remained somewhat volatile, investors seemed to focus mainly on the 4 percent GDP figure and other hopeful economic data around jobs and consumer confidence, and the fact that interest rates remained stable. At the same time, they seemed to ignore the factors that caused all those wild emotional market swings earlier in the year. In other words, they seemed to focus on the good and ignore, at least for the time being…

The Bad

While President Trump and his administration called the second-quarter growth rate sustainable, many analysts and economists continue to maintain that the impact of the tax cuts will more likely be short lived, and that growth will shrink back closer to 2 percent—or lower—by next year. Many have doubled down on this stance based in part on early reports about what corporations have been doing so far with all their extra tax money.

A recent study by the National Employment Law Project and the Roosevelt Institute found that most corporations have used the money on stock buybacks, rather than direct investments into the company for things like technology, expansion or pay raises.3 While some experts contend buybacks are a viable strategy that can help ensure a company’s financial strength, others argue that buybacks ultimately hurt corporate America, hurt American workers, and could starve the economy of the very growth the tax cuts were intended to achieve.

Also falling into the “bad” category is the potentially troublesome relationship between President Trump’s tax plan and the federal deficit. From the start, analysts rejected President Trump’s argument that the tax cuts would “pay for themselves” and cautioned that such a drastic reduction in federal revenue would push the sky-high deficit even higher. Now, the White House has acknowledged that the deficit is growing faster than expected. In July, the Office of Management and Budget revised an earlier forecast to account for nearly $1 trillion of additional debt over the next decade.4

Complicating matters further, President Trump recently pledged up to $12 billion in federal emergency relief for farmers hurt by his trade war—which is another of the “bad” or potentially bad factors Wall Street seems to be ignoring lately. Though big investors may be taking a wait and see attitude, many real effects from the new tariffs are already being felt across the country in the form of closed plants and lost jobs. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has said President Trump’s trade actions could lead to 2.6 million American job losses in total.5

The Ugly

For years now, I’ve been cautioning that we’re living in an unprecedented age of economic uncertainty—a result of the reckless overuse of experimental artificial stimulus policies by Central Banks around the world, starting with our own Federal Reserve. One could argue the Trump administration’s massive tax overhaul is yet another experimental effort. While there’s little argument it will boost growth in the short term, there is plenty of debate about whether it will sustain that growth or, instead, cause the federal deficit to finally spiral out of control.

There is just as much debate and controversy around President Trump’s trade policies. Will they make the U.S. more globally competitive and ultimately strengthen the economy? Or will they undermine his tax cuts, cripple growth and usher in a new recession that finally forces the stock market to make fundamental sense again (as it eventually must) with a 40 to 70 percent correction?

No one has a crystal ball, of course. But when reevaluating your own portfolio this fall, make sure you’re taking all these important details about today’s market into consideration. Make sure you’re not blindly focused on “the good” (as Wall Street seems to be), to the extent that you overlook “the bad” and “the ugly!”

Lucia Mutikani, “US Second Quarter GDP Growth Raised to 4.2 Percent,” Reuters, August 29, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-gdp/u-s-second-quarter-gdp-growthrevised-up-to-4-2-percent-idUSKCN1LE1GB?il=0

macrotrends.net

Annie Lowrey, “Are Stock Buybacks Starving the Economy,” The Atlantic, August 5, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/07/are-stock-buybacks-starving-theeconomy/566387/

Jim Tankersley, “How the Trump Tax Cut is Helping Push the Federal Deficit to $1 Trillion,” The New York Times, July 25, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/25/business/trump-corporatetax-cut-deficit.html

William Mauldin, “Trump’s Trade Policies Threaten Millions of U.S. Jobs, Chamber of Commerce Says,” Wall Street Journal, May 31, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-trade-policiesthreaten-millions-of-jobs-u-s-chamber-of-commerce-says-1527792627

Disclaimer:

Sound Income Strategies, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisory firm. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor or tax professional about your specific financial situation before implementing any strategy discussed herein.

The post September Monthly Newsletter appeared first on Sound Income Strategies.

from Sound Income Strategies https://soundincomestrategies.com/newsletters/september-monthly-newsletter/

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