#is it socially acceptable to start sharing hoard content?

[fyeaheddiemunson]

[yourwitchmama]

Tarot Card Meanings: The Pentacles Suit

Ace of Pentacles

Upright: Financial new beginning, new financial opportunities, new job, new business, money, investments, savings, prosperity, security, stability, abundance, manifestation    Reversed: Lack of money, poor financial control, lack of opportunities or lost opportunities, financial delays, excessive spending, scarcity, deficiency, instability, insecurity, lack of planning, greed, stinginess, penny pinching

Two of Pentacles

Upright: Balance, trying to find balance, resourcefulness, ups and downs, adaptability, flexibility, juggling life, juggling money, balancing books, transferring money, profit and loss, income and outgoings, financial decisions, financial stress, partnerships Reversed: Lacking balance, lack of organization, poor financial decisions, overwhelmed, overextending yourself, biting off more than you can chew, too many balls in the air, financial losses, no contingency plan, financial mess

Three of Pentacles

Upright: Apprenticeship, learning, studying, growing, hard work, commitment, building on success, collaboration, teamwork, determination, goals, dedication, quality, attention to detail, tradesperson, achievements, recognition, reward, hard work paying off, effort, motivation​  Reversed: Not learning from mistakes, unwillingness to learn, lack of growth, poor work ethic, lack of commitment, mistakes, lack of effort, lack of teamwork, apathy, no determination, no goals, no dedication, no motivation, poor quality work

Four of Pentacles

Upright: Holding on to people/possessions/ issues, deep seated/past issues, hoarding, stinginess, control, possessiveness, financial stability, financial security, saving for big purchases or retirement, greed, materialism, wealth, penny-pinching, isolation, boundaries, keeping to yourself, lack of openness Reversed: Shedding the old, letting go of people, possessions or issues, generosity, sharing, giving to others, making large purchases, openness, generous to a fault, financial insecurity/ instability, financial loss, losing something valuable, reckless behavior, lack of control, gambling, theft

Five of Pentacles

Upright: Temporary financial hardship, negative change in circumstances, feeling left out in the cold, financial loss, recession, feeling the world is against you, adversity, struggle, hardship, bad luck, homelessness, poverty, unemployment, financial ruin, bankruptcy, outcast, alienation, illness, divorce, breakups, scandal, disgrace Reversed: Improvement in finances/luck, end of hardship, positive change, becoming financially secure, recovery from losses, making progress, overcoming adversity, paying off debts, forgiveness, health improvement/ treatment, being welcomed/accepted, becoming employed, improving/letting go of relationships

Six of Pentacles

Upright: Gifts, generosity, charity, donations, money, community, assistance, support, employment, sharing, kindness, wealth, prosperity, power, authority, control, investors, giving/receiving, gratitude, being valued, being well paid, rewards for hard work, fairness, equality Reversed: Lack/abuse of generosity, abuse of power or position, gifts with strings attached, subservience, inequality, lack of charity, scams, fake charity, extortion, unemployment, lack of investment, underpaid, undervalued, bad debts, poor financial decisions, greed, meanness, gullibility, kiss-ass 

Seven of Pentacles

Upright: Things coming to fruition, hard work paying off, harvest, rewards, profits, results, pay-outs, manifestation of ideas or goals, inheritance, cultivation, growing, gestation, nurturing, perseverance, patience, planning, reviewing, taking stock, questioning, crossroads, approaching retirement, finishing what you started Reversed: Bad business/financial management, not finishing what you started, laziness, aimlessness, procrastination, not putting effort in, cash flow problems, waste, lack of growth, setbacks, delay, impatience, frustration, postponed retirement, lack of reward, workaholic, not taking stock, lack of reflection, change of plans

Eight of Pentacles

Upright: New job, self-employment, building business, trade, reputation, craftsmanship, quality, master, expertise, hard work, commitment, dedication, concentration, success, accomplishment, ambition, confidence, financial security, results, rewards, achieving goals, attention to detail, productivity, scholarship, qualifications Reversed: Repetitive or boring job, failure, lack of effort/confidence/commitment/ambition/focus, shoddy workmanship, poor quality, rush job, bad reputation, carelessness, poor concentration/productivity, mediocrity, financial insecurity, scams, overspending, debt, laziness, under-qualified, workaholic, materialistic, mean, dead-end career, biting off more than you can chew 

Nine of Pentacles

Upright: Independence, success, financial stability/security, profit, prosperity, wealth, property, abundance,  rewards through hard work, collecting on investments, thriving business, status, freedom, wisdom, maturity, indulgence, contentment, self-discipline/ control/ reliance, sophistication, elegance, grace, beauty, pregnancy, birth, menopause, mature or independent woman, retirement, taking it easy Reversed: Lack of independence/stability/security, reckless spending, shady investments, working too hard, not earning your wealth, gold-digger, marrying for money/ status, sex trafficking/exploitation/work, dishonesty, deceit, theft, property damage, con artist, scams, cheap, superficial, no style, failure, lack of self-discipline, lack of sophistication/elegance, over-indulgence, miscarriage, termination, reproductive issues.

Ten of Pentacles

Upright: Unexpected financial windfall, lump sum, will, deeds, trust funds, inheritance, solid foundations, privilege, inherited issues, ancestry, family home/ business/ responsibilities/ values/ support/ issues/ riches, old money, affluence, business empire, domestic bliss, contracts, pensions, long term financial security/ stability, being conventional/traditional, settling down, prenuptials, marriage, marrying into money, Reversed: Disputed inheritance/ being excluded from/not leaving a will, unexpected changes, financial disaster, bankruptcy, huge losses/debts, collapse of an empire, illegal activity, money laundering, rocky foundations, losing everything, family feuds/ burdens/ neglect, domestic disputes, fighting over money, divorce, “new money”, faking wealth/affluence, instability, breaking traditions, unconventional, marrying for money, cold-heartedness

Page of Pentacles

Upright: Good news in earthly matters, solid beginnings, setting goals, developing a plan, laying the foundations, taking advantage of opportunities, jumping in, consistency, excellent prospects, excelling in or seeking education/ training, ambitions, decide what you want and go for it, grounded young person, loyal, faithful, dependable, healthy lifestyle, Tarot/ divination, earth magic, nature  Reversed: Bad news in earthly matters, lack of goals, lacking common sense, irresponsible, lazy, foolish, immature, sullen, rebellious, no groundwork, no follow through, unworkable plan, underachiever, procrastination, not taking advantage of opportunities, poor prospects, failing/dropping out, learning difficulties, frustration, disloyalty, unfaithfulness, unhealthy lifestyle, obsession with Tarot/ divination, dark magic

Knight of Pentacles

Upright: Patient, practical, loyal, responsible, persistence, protective, defensive, conservative, stubborn, ambitious, hard worker, profit, finishing what you start, working with nature working for what you want, making your dreams/wishes come true through persistence, environmentally conscious, getting back to nature Reversed: Impatient, lazy, apathy, lack of common sense, unstable, unskilled, unreliable, disloyal, irresponsible, weak, gambler, loser, unconscientious, deadbeat, broken promises, not finishing what you start, boring, obstinate, ultra-conservative, pessimistic, obsessed with money/materialism/looks, workaholic, animal abuse

Queen of Pentacles

Upright: Mature grounded female, businesswoman, high social status/social butterfly, generous, loyal, prosperity, success, financially independent, wealth, luxury, homemaker, the finer things in life, down to earth, organized, sensible, practical, no-nonsense, kind, welcoming, nurturing, witch, healer, wonderful mother Reversed: Ungrounded, overly ambitious, social climber, mean spirited, shallow, sociopath, jealous, possessive, wicked, out of control, under/overweight/ unhealthy, disloyal, cheater, sex trafficking/exploitation/work, disorganized, impractical, chaos, poverty, pretentious, boring, neglect, manipulation, dark magic, bad mother, dangerous, stuck in a rut

King of Pentacles

Upright: Mature grounded male, successful, wealthy businessman, bettering yourself, not a risk-taker, empire, thriving, high status, stability, security, enterprising, provider, cautious, careful, loyal, faithful, dependable, supporting, encouraging, conservative, principled, reaching goals, hard work will pay off, seeing things through to the end Reversed: Ungrounded male, unsuccessful businessman, corruption, extortion, instability, poor judgement, gambler, collapse of an empire, bankruptcy, under qualified, broke, slob, materialistic, greedy, hasty decisions, disloyal, unfaithful,  unsupportive, discouraging, obstinate, cold, uncaring, ruthless, losing your grip on things 

[strawberry-cow-snuggles]

Suffering as Students

Category: Headcanon

Characters: Demon Bros, Royals, and Purgatory Hall

Themes: Studying, Grades, Light Teasing, Tutoring, Typical School Stuff, Professors, Chaos

Description: What would the boys be like as students? We know who our troublemakers are and who likely gets good grades, but the game itself doesn't focus too much on their academic lives. Here are some headcanons on what I think they'd be like!

Lucifer

"Mr. Perfect"

Has to have the best grade in the class no matter what

Routinely struggles with Satan for the top spot in their shared classes

If anyone gets a higher score than he does on a test he's drinking demonus alone in his room and contemplating life

His projects are always immaculate, like to the point where it's disgustingly obvious he's sucking up to the professor and their biases

Oh, the prof likes horses?? And they need to do a diorama of the Royal Castle??? Lucifer is suddenly dedicating more time to detailing the royal stables rather than the castle itself.

Mammon

Procrastinates every single assignment until the last minute

Some of his work is... 😬🤚 buddy did you even read the rubric

Never prepared for a test and usually bombs the pop quizzes

Whenever he does apply himself, he actually does pretty decently, but most of the time he's more concerned with having fun than with studying

During exam season he starts sucking up to Satan more and acting like they're best friends; often brings him kitty stationery and notebooks while begging for help with homework

Leviathan

The shy type that rarely speaks up, only doing so if something related to a hyper fixation comes up

Spends most of the class doodling anime characters in his notebook and honestly, they're impressive af sometimes. The dude needs to be put in an art class asap bc he'll rock that course without a problem

Overall pretty average when it comes to assignments. He studies occasionally, but his lack of attention to detail is what tanks his grade the most

He's the casual kind of learner where he'll put a lecture on in the background while he plays video games. Sometimes the knowledge sticks and sometimes it doesn't ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Either way, it's still enough to keep him out of trouble with Lucifer, so he has no intention of changing any of his routines

Satan

Aggressively the class know-it-all

Raises his hand with way too much enthusiasm, nearly throws himself out of his seat, and begs to be called on if Lucifer is in the class too just so he can upstage him

At the beginning of each semester, all the profs sigh in combined relief if he's in their class but go home and cry if Lucifer's there too

Spends time after class helping out the librarians and is on a first-name basis with some of them

Occasionally swipes the professor's spellbooks from their curses class just to see if he can find anything useful to the Anti-Lucifer League

Will tutor other students from time to time but only if he owes them a favor. Will always accept Mammon's bribes

Asmodeus

Asmo's notes are cute af with little flowers and heart doodles all around the pages

His everything is covered in stickers and smells faintly of whatever cologne/perfume he chose to wear that day

Will routinely give all his homework a spritz before handing them in, sometimes leaves a kiss mark in faint pink lipstick at the top of his page if he thinks the prof is cute

Asmo will rewrite an entire essay if he doesn't think it looks pretty. Profs are appreciative of the aesthetic value of his papers, but often wish he focused more on their content

Every essay is riddled with modern social media slang. His boomer profs are very confused and shamefully approach him regularly asking what "tea" and "deets" are. Please help them

Beelzebub

Typical jock student-athlete

Ends up drowning in assignments when the peak of the season hits

Has hoards of demons lusting after him but he's too dedicated to his team and his classes to notice their efforts

Manages to balance his academic, social, and athletic affairs pretty well most of the time

A bit frazzled during finals because he missed a lot of class and the foundation for a lot of material during the beginning of the year to go to games but his grade always gets saved after a good study session with Belphie

Belphegor

Falls asleep in class without fail every time but still manages to get good grades every single time

Professors and other students hate him because he puts absolutely no effort into learning but he's still in the top 25% of the class

Absolutely refuses to tutor anyone but Beel because it's too tiring

Could easily take the top spot if he cared. He tries to care, but it's just so exhausting

His essays always end up sounding sarcastic and rude, even if he doesn't mean for them to. That's just his writing style. It's easy for him to make enemies of professors

Doesn't go to any events at all unless they're mandated by the class. Even then he usually does his own thing instead of participating in it

Diavolo

The one student every professor fears having in their class

Derails the lessons every single time with off-topic questions. Given that he's the Demon Prince, what can his professors do? Say no? Prince boy gets what he wants every time without fail. Few days go exactly as planned thanks to him

The only demons capable of keeping him in check are Lucifer and Barbatos. For the most part, they can keep him from being too unintentionally disruptive, but sometimes they indulge the young prince

One time a professor found out that had Diavolo and Solomon in their class without Lucifer or Barbatos and they ended up resigning on the spot

He gets stellar grades thanks to his pedigree training and royal tutor sessions with the most knowledgeable of demons, but his childishness sometimes gets in the way and causes him to skip over certain important pieces in his work, leaving him to be around a B+ average student. Barbatos always scolds him after he underperforms.

Barbatos

The tiger-mom type friend and the most perfect student

Spends a lot of his time keeping Diavolo in check but still manages to get perfect grades no matter how much he works. Buddy how the hell???

Routinely scolds Diavolo and sometimes the seven brothers if they don't do well in their studies

He's extremely strict when it comes to tutoring. If Lucifer is feeling particularly sadistic after his brothers fail a test, he'll threaten to send them to tutoring sessions with Barbatos. They're so intense that they often haunt Diavolo's nightmares

Barbatos is only light on Luke. He teaches Luke like one would teach an elementary schooler. He rewards him with baking time and cute puppy stickers after each test. Sometimes Solomon feigns jealousy, but Simeon is grateful for the motherly kindness Barbatos treats Luke with

Simeon

Simeon is every professor's dream student

He helps keep most of the chaos caused by the seven brothers and Diavolo to a minimum when he can, he always offers to help pass out papers and help grade homework when such activities are allowed. It's not that he's a teacher's pet or searching for extra credit per se, but rather that he just genuinely enjoys being helpful. However, if extra credit is offered, he'll definitely accept it. He likes having that extra cushion to fall back on if he doesn't do super well on a test

He gets relatively good grades, but they're not picture perfect like Satan, Barbatos, and Lucifer. He's more lenient with his studies in this sense as he acknowledges the importance of having fun as well as staying afloat academically

He guides other students if they're having trouble and is the complete opposite of Barbatos when it comes to tutoring. Whereas Barbatos is a military instructor, Simeon is a kindergarten teacher. He praises every effort someone makes to better themselves, no matter how minor, and practically holds everyone's hands as they walk through a new problem on their math homework.

Luke

Luke is the student professors sometimes feel bad for

He often struggles with the more demonic subjects such as seductive speechcraft and hexes and curses. Whether professors consciously intend to or not, they're always a bit more lenient when grading his work.

At the beginning of his first year, he was teased pretty heavily. About a month or two it all seemed to stop though. Maybe it has something to do with the absolutely terrifying time demon that treats him like his son???

He always has to sit in the front row of every class because he's not tall enough to see over the demons in front of him. It's rather cute to see how his legs dangle from the large chairs. He really does look like an out-of-place little kid.

Loves studying with his parents Simeon and Barbatos, his whole binder and all of his folders are full of the cute puppy stickers from Barbatos's tutoring sessions

Solomon

why

Solomon is the ultimate NIGHTMARE student

He's the ultimate chaos inducer and serves as a catalyst for tomfoolery

This boy is smart and mischievous and he takes advantage of every opportunity he gets to entertain himself some more

Being alive as long as he has been, he's pretty much already mastered most of the planned magical curriculum, so he just does his own thing and experiments with whatever he can get away with during lessons; grades be damned.

As a result of his lust for discovery, there are at least three to four classroom explosions from him every semester. The potions director is on the verge of quitting and moving to the countryside far far away from him

[phairfantooooom]

Angsty Headcanons That Nobody Asked For

In which you fail. And you die to Belphie. Permanently.

Mammon

He was in denial and refused to believe what his heart was telling him

He was the first to discover you, he is the fastest of the brothers after all

He had raced up the stairs and didn’t even notice Belphie was even there when he barged into the room

When he saw your crumbled body laying on the floor in the attic something in him snapped.

He didn’t even realize he was crying as he clutched you to him. Quietly muttering to himself he begged, he pleaded, for you to wake up. You could yell and scream and insult him for ever agreeing to let you go do this alone but just please wake up.

“You weren’t suppose’d to leave me! You promised…. please…. please just open your eyes…”

When Mammon sees Belphie finally, he connects the dots quickly, as he remembered how Belphie felt toward humans.

“You. You did this didn’t you? You killed them.”

Anger and rage would fill him. And he would welcome it, he’d rather see red than see you not breathing

It’s only when Lucifer comes and stops him that the blinding anger begins to fade. And he hates it.

Mammon would refuse to accept your death and would try to figure out a way to get you back. It’s only when Lucifer sits him down much later on and has a serious talk with him that he finally gives up. It’s not a pretty scene. Lucifer’s heart breaks a bit when he sees just how much Mammon is suffering because of this.

It takes several sessions of talking before Mammon begins to even vaguely resemble his former self

He hoards the stuff from your room and keeps a picture of you in his wallet so that he can at least have a part of you with him always.

In the end he doesn’t truly recover from your death but will pretend he is okay to keep his brothers from worrying

Leviathan 

Was eerily quiet when he saw you laying all too still on the floor

A part of him had clung to the small hope that you could be saved if he got to you fast enough

Memories of all the times he saw you smile and enjoy spending time with him flooded his head and his chest shuddered as a silent wave of despair flooded him

He’d never get to play or spend time with you anymore. He’d never get to watch those romance animes with you. He’d… he’d never…he’d never get to confess

“.....Dammit…. Dammit…”

When he learns that Belphie killed you his feelings toward him become icy.

“You… you killed the human… I hate you. I. Hate. You. You took away the bright stars in my dark night sky. You killed the person I loved!”

He would mourn alone for the most part. Anything you ever gave him will become a treasure that nobody, not even his brothers, would be allowed to touch

Becomes even more of a recluse and eventually stops having pets as they only remind him of when you and him raised one of the fish in his aquarium.

He struggles to get excited about things he would normally enjoy. Ruri-Chan has started to collect dust. His Mononoke Land account hasn’t been touched in months. He no longer goes out for idol concerts.

Time feels so slow and yet so fast. Days turn into weeks and weeks into months. Everyone else begins to recover and he just can’t. He can’t let go of you. You who showed him that little things in life can make him happy, and gave him confidence to pursue coding.

You left a hole in his heart that can’t be filled. 

He doesn’t play games alot anymore, but has instead spent his time slowly starting to build an AI via his knowledge of coding. Anyone who sees it knows it’s supposed to be you, but nobody is brave enough to call him out on it.

Will sometimes cry himself to sleep while clinging onto your old uniforms and clothes, wishing desperately that you would come back to his side. To wake him up from this horrible nightmare.

Beel

Guilt.

So much guilt.

When he finds out what happened he actually struggled to get mad at Lucifer for containing Belphie. 

After seeing you pale and lifeless, it was the first time he had ever felt his hunger vanish. In a way it was worse, as what replaced the hungry was a heart wrenching feeling like no other. He had no injuries but yet it felt as if someone had shoved a hot poker into his heart.

When Belphie gives him the whole “All Humans suck speech” and tries to laugh it off, Beel loses it.

“She wasn’t like them!”

Even as you grew cold in his arms he had gently stroked the top of your head and whispered a sorrow filled farwell into your ear.

Over the course of the coming weeks he would move into your room. Partially because he wanted to be closer to you and partially because he couldn’t stand to be near Belphie.

He does his best to keep your room clean and tidy, while not moving your things out of place. It looks as if you had never left, almost to the point that sometimes he can easily imagine you opening the door and resuming your life here in the Devildom.

His appetite never truly came back, his love of food diminishing as he would remember all the times you and him would cook together. Or when you would treat each other to Hell’s Kitchen.

He visits where you were buried once every two weeks, so he can replace the Lilys he leaves on your grave

Satan

Ahhh. 

Very angry. And gets extremely close to killing Belphie. It’s only through Lucifer’s and Beel’s joined effort that they are able to calm him down to a civil level.

“You bastard of a brother! What the hell have you done?!”

His temper flares constantly at the very mention of Belphie.

He researches night and day to find a way to get you back. No matter the cost, no matter what he needed to do. 

It’s only when Lucifer quietly asks him “Do you really think the human would want you to sacrifice everything just to bring them back?” that his resolve begins to crack.

Of course he knew you wouldn’t want to see him like this. But you had no idea how much it hurt to not have you there.

Every moment you're not there by his side is another moment he has failed you.

Eventually he breaks down due to fatigue and he just cries. He’s frustrated because nothing was working. He’s frustrated that everything is a dead end. He is frustrated that you aren’t by his side.

He just…. he wants to see your smile. He wants to see that soft look you get when you hold kittens. He wants to be able to hold you again….

Eventually He gets a small therapy kitten and he names it after you when he notices that it shares the same color of your eyes.

He vents out his pain in writing, and he writes in as much detail as he can of what he remembers of all the times he spent with you

He wants to make sure, above all else, that your memory thrives even if you aren’t by his side

Asmodus 

Gets very pissy with Belphie

Reasonably so

Doesn’t realize what he is feeling is heartbreak, as he has never lost someone like this before

He misses you dearly, and oftentimes will use perfumes or cologne that reminds him of you

Unintentionally finds himself often reminiscing about you for weeks

One day he sees someone that vaguely looks like you and his heart nearly leaps out of his chest.

Immediately starts putting the moves on them but quickly realizes the differences between you and them.

The difference in pitch in their voice, the way they walk, the way that their eyes are a different color, the way they laugh. The more he observes the more he asks himself why he ever thought it was you.

He finds himself distraught. This had never happened before when any of his partners left him…. Something had to be done about this.

Attempts to banish you from his mind and goes clubbing.

His plan fails miserably.

Under the dim lights and thudding of the music he almost feels haunted by you, it was almost too easy for him to imagine you sitting and waving at him from the bar with that soft smile on your face.

He gets drunk. Veryyyyy drunk.

When he gets home he ends up just going to Belphie and venting his frustrations.

“This is your fault! Do you have ANY idea how much your actions have hurt ME?!”

Before things could escalate, Lucifer comes and defuses it

After this Amso doesn’t go out socializing anymore. He feels awful everytime he does since you're not with him. And he swears that sometimes he sees you out under the glimmering lights and it reminds him of what he has lost.

He hoards all of the pictures of you he has, and when he has a bad day he goes through them one at a time. 

“Even if you are no longer by my side, I will treasure you always.”

Belphie

Mr. Killer himself.

Could not give less than two shits about who you were and what you hoped to achieve

He would have kicked your corpse an extra time if he had known that you’d made Beel care about you.

When the brothers found him he had at least thought Beel, HIS TWIN, would side with him. But nooooo. Because of your meddling you had made him seem like a monster.

“Stupid human, you had no right to stick your nose where it didn’t belong.”

Didn’t understand why the other brothers held you in such high regard, and didn’t care to learn why

Until one day when he was in the House of Lamentation by himself

Everyone had been invited to a Gala at the Castle. Each of the brothers had been personally invited by Diavolo. Save for him, who was under house arrest for his actions.

Boredom struck and he found himself wandering around the house looking for something to do when he strolled past your room.

When the brothers were home they never allowed him to go in. They feared that he would destroy your belongings, and they would lose the last remaining things that were proof of your existence here in the Devildom.

Smirking to himself he made his way inside without a care in the world. Sure the other brothers may have cared for you, but he sure as hell didn’t.

He snooped around your room for a bit before sitting down at your desk.

“How boring…. don’t you have any secrets in here…?”

As if granting his wish he saw a leather bound notebook sitting behind a bunch of Devildom Law textbooks.

Quickly reading through the contents of the smaller book he realized that it was a Journal.

Completely filled with your private thoughts.

Believing he had struck gold he took the Journal back with him to his room and lazily sprawled out on his bed. All he had to do was just dig up whatever disgusting trash you were hiding and then he would be once more in everyone’s good graces. After all it’s not as if some stupid humans privacy matters to him.

And so he read.

And read.

And read.

He firmly believed that you had to have been hiding something, some dreadful secret. But the more he read, the more he began to have this strange feeling in his gut.

Your entries were normal, er well normal of a student going to a school full of demons, and occasionally you had placed photographs of some of the events you talked about.

One of them was a TSL competition with Levi. Another was a selfie of you and Beel at Hell’s Kitchen. There was a keychain stuck between two pages from a trip with Mammon, Satan, and Lucifer to London. There was even a candid shot of a pillow fight with Diavolo and Asmo.

Forgetting that this was your life written in ink, he read more and more about the lives his brothers had led in his absence.

It wasn’t until he laughed at something you wrote that he realized how comfortable he had gotten with the idea of you.

He nearly trashed the Journal after he realized that.

But…. something stopped him.

A while later he’d resume reading. Curious about your adventures… and…

He wanted to know what you thought about him.

Before long he found the entry where you had written about him and he felt his breath hitch.

Why did your opinion of him matter so much?

His fingers touched the inked lines and his jaw clenched as he read the last entry.

You had trusted him.

You who had held no prejudice against demons had trusted him wholeheartedly.

And what had he done?

He had killed you, without a second thought.

He had even enjoyed it.

The dam he didn’t know he had been hiding behind broke, and all the regret he had been burying since he had started reading your Journal had suddenly rushed to the surface.

He hadn’t noticed he had been crying until he saw the wet blots hit the paper and smudge your words.

“I…. what have I done…. I’m so sorry….”

Lucifer

The calmest of the brothers

Outwardly, at least

Internally he wanted to rip out Belphies throat because how dare he

Doesn’t express how much it hurts to have lost you, he needs to be strong. Both for himself and for his brothers.

The tragedy of being the eldest is that he was the role model. His actions would reflect on himself and his brothers. So his reactions are more forced rather than natural.

Diavolo often tries to coax Lucifer into opening up about it but fails everytime. 

“If you really cared, you would bring her back, Lord Diavolo.”

Tension between Diavolo and Lucifer gets… bad. The anger and growing resentment toward the heir of the throne only got worse with time, and eventually Lucifer stepped down from his position with Satan taking his place.

He often goes to your old room and locks himself inside, thinking to himself. The brothers are actually a bit nervous every time this happens because they expect that this time Lucifer will finally snap and they will have to deal with an enraged Avatar of Pride. But it never does so it relieves them and makes them stressed at the same time.

But eventually...

It happens

Diavolo comes by to collect the remains of your belongings, with the intent of sending them back to the human world, to your family and friends

Lucifer sees him collecting your stuff and he fucking snaps

“If you value your life you will cease this at once.”

Before Diavolo can summon Barbatos to his side, Lucifer had managed to grab the prince by the throat. His form had changed to that of his demon self, and his eyes were mad from grief and anger.

There is a brief moment of struggle on Diavolo’s behalf followed by Lucifer leaning uncomfortably close with an aura of unbridled fury.

“You will bring her back, I know you are able to. And you will. Why? Because if you don’t I will rampage through this kingdom of yours until there is nothing but ashes left in my wake.”

[nobetterthansheshouldbe]

7 great ways to support your friends and neighbours through covid-19 financial crisis. (without referring them to foodbanks)

Tried and tested great ways to support your friends through covid-19 related financial difficulties that they will really appreciate.

We all know someone who financially struggling at the moment. Even if you’re not aware, chances are you do, and that they’re too embarrassed to say. I have spent the majority of my adult life working, making a good life, providing for my family and their future. For me and so many others so many this is in jeopardy. 

There have been over 3 million claims for Universal credit since lockdown. Thousands of small business owners, freelancers, newly self employed, limited company directors and contractors have been left out of government support schemes and their incomes have gone down to £409.89 a month. 

These are people who’ve worked hard in their careers, they’ve got mortgages and car payments and families depending on them. You know them, they live on your street, your kids play together, you’ve been enjoying Friday night zoom quizzes together. They’re me.

Its hard to know how to help without risking damage to an already crippled ego.   Its actually much harder to accept charity than to give it. UK mental health charity SANE has reported a 200% increase in calls to its helpline since lockdown. Its put many of us into a state of limbo, we can’t get a job in a supermarket, they’re all full, and the UK’s fruit farms have been inundated with applications from Brits (I’ve checked) and of course theres the childcare, with no school, who looks after the kids?

So… if you’re doing OK, and you're still got your job,  here are are ways you can support your friends and neighbours. 

COMMUNICATE:  It sounds obvious but a face to face conversation is a good start. Questions like “How are you?” And “How can I help” will make a world of difference. Mostly people don’t feel comfortable sharing their worries with those closest to them, especially if they’re cooped up in a house together, so bending the ear off a friend can be a huge release. It helps you to determine an appropriate way to help. Don’t just talk about finances though, your beard growing skills deserve a conversation too. 

MONEY: yeh sure money would make a difference but you can’t just post wads of cash through your friends letterbox, that would be weird. Besides, who has money to spare when the world faces the worst recession since the great depression? There are other ways to be supportive, but if you think you might be able to help financially then ask if they would accept it. A good friend of mine knew that my fridge freezer broke last month, and they asked if they could give me some money towards a new one. They didn’t make it weird or go on about how they were doing a good deed, they just gave me and envelope, I thanked them and nothing more was said. 

SUPPORTING THEIR IDEAS: It is highly likely that your friend has had many sleepless nights trying to think of ways to make ends meet. Ideas are born and they can see a glimmer of a silver lining to a very dark cloud. Please support them! Maybe its a total career change like writing online content (ahem..). They could be mowing lawns or renting out a spare room, maybe they’re making the ugliest jewellery you’ve ever seen. Buy it! Hire them! Share their social media page! 

BE MINDFUL OF PERSONAL STRUGGLES: This one really applies to everyone regardless of their financial situation. Adults and children with special needs and mental health issues have had little respite. Again its a difficult subject, as talking about our mental health is as taboo as talking about our finances, but I guarantee that there is someone close to you silently struggling with their mental health.  Take your neighbours kids out for ice cream, ask the single man next door if he would be interested in taking your dog for a walk around the block, play socially distanced frisbee. Make each other laugh.

FEED THEM: Food, it’s a tricky one. Nobody wants to admit they can’t feed their family, but its a harsh reality for many. New figures show that last month demand for food banks was greater than ever – an 89 per cent rise for The Trussell Trust, the UK’s biggest food bank network, while the Independent Food Aid Network, which has around 350 food banks, saw a 175 per cent increase in requests for emergency parcels. Believe me when I say that if someone is struggling to feed their family, then they know all about the local food bank, and that if they haven’t used it already, its up to them to decide when they’re ready to do so. What you can do is take them a good old fashioned lasagne, a shepherds pie, share a socially distanced BBQ once a week. Ask them to sample your bread making attempts or the courgettes you’ve grown in the garden or make room in your freezer by giving them 3 pints of milk you’ve been hoarding in there since March. 

BRIGHTEN THEIR DAY: Treats are great, they’re a bit naughty and self indulgent and they make us happy. Every now and then my neighbour leaves a bottle of beer on my doorstep, its a luxury I can’t afford and today an anonymous giant bar of dairy milk arrived in the post much to my children's (any my) delight. Its the little things that we used to take for granted that are missed the most. They don’t cost much but if your friend is cutting costs then treats are the first things to go. 

DO SOME RESEARCH: Charities that have emergency relief funds but their resources are running low, so they’re a great place to donate to. A lot of local charities aren’t brilliant at online marketing so they take a bit of searching for. Ask at your local council and citizens advice or tourist information, its easier to ask for someone else than it is for yourself. However, and I say this from experience, don’t give them your friends name, its not your place, just gather the information and then hand it over. Also, and I can’t believe this needs to be said but, don’t talk about it in front of their children. “Mummy are we poor?” is a heartbreaking thing to hear.

Writing this has made be realise how lucky I am to have such a great community of friends. I feel supported and valued and best of all I know we can get through this together. Listen to your friends, find out what you can do to support them and do it discretely. They’re your friend, and thats why you’re trying to help. It makes you a good friend too.

[actualbird]

nobody asked but i think hanso, brynn, and xandra from neopets’ comic “the faeries’ ruin” are queer | a 1.8k presentation i am presenting to my friends at an online party on the 19th, but you guys get early access because for some godforsaken reason, you like this content from me

Good evening class.

Last last time I attacked your dashboards with a long post, I discussed Neopets that would benefit from therapy. I’m sticking with my Neopets shtick but in a funkier Pride flavor. In this post, I will be discussing why the three main characters of Neopets’ “The Faeries Ruin” are queer. 

So what is “The Faeries Ruin?”

“The Faeries Ruin” was a Neopets plot that ran through January of 2011. Plots can affect the website's appearance, services, and gameplay, and this plot was most notable because it turned all the Faeries of Neopia to stone. 

Quick crash course on Neopets lore, for those of you who don’t know anything about it: Neopets are the main population of the planet of Neopia, but they share the world with other creatures as well. One of these creatures are Faeries, magical beings who can be benevolent or malevolent. Majority of them are good, and can be visited to receive gifts, abilities, new appearances, better stats, etc. Faeries are the most powerful creatures on Neopia. With the Faeries of Neopia turned to stone, all Faerie run services, from games to shops, were suspended because. Well. It’s hard to run a business when you’re stone. 

“The Faeries Ruin” had an accompanying quest to play through, items to collect, puzzles to solve, and most important to our discussion, is the accompanying comic to read.

“The Faeries Ruin” comic is 17 chapters plus an epilogue. You can read the synopsis on the slide, and the story follows Hanso, a thief, Brynn, a guard, and Xandra, a scholar, who are all investigating the curse put on the Faeries.

A lot happens in the comic. Really, a LOT, so I don’t have time to summarize it for you. If you’re curious, you can read the plot here, and I’ll explain plot stuff as it becomes relevant to our discussion, but what’s really important are the characters. 

These three in particular, Hanso, Brynn, and Xandra, are who I will be focusing on from the queer perspective.

But because I aim to be inclusive, before we dive into calling Neopets characters queer, we need a quick crash course in ‘queer’ definitions. 

This is just so that we’re all on the same page. (Also so that I can use the readings I got from the queer theory class I was in last semester.)

Alex Pilcher in the Introduction of “A Queer Little History of Art” gives the word “queer” three definitions. First is the simplest, the word “queer” can act as an umbrella term for anybody who is not straight or cisgendered. The second definition is “queer” as an identity in itself. Instead or in addition to using sexuality or gender labels, one can opt to identify as queer and that does away with any hierarchies or too small definitions that may bother other people. I, for example, am bisexual, asexual, and nonbinary. However, that’s kind of a mouthful, and sometimes I don’t want to explain every facet of my identity. So sometimes I just tell people I’m queer, and fuck them if that’s confusing, it feels good for me. The third definition of “queer” is what I will be referring to quite a lot of times in this discussion, “queer” as a deviation from the norm. This is a callback to the word’s more archaic use, meaning odd or strange. What is “queer” then is what goes beyond or resists against society’s expectations.

Queer Theory is a huuuuuuuge academic genre, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. But we’re on a schedule here, so let’s queer some goddamn Neopets.

First, we have Hanso. 

His Neopets species is an Ixi and he is a young rogue/thief. He knows Brynn because he’s a very shitty thief and he constantly gets captured by her. His personality is self centered and egocentric, but deep down, he has a heart of gold, even if his morals are a little skewed. 

Also I think he’s bisexual. Why? 

As a rogue/thief, he is outcasted by society, a type of queering from the norm. He is only accepted by those like him, which symbolically is parallel to how queer people often find other queer people to be with. Aside from Brynn, nobody trusts him. They think him to be a liar and a cheat, and this, I think, is parallel to the unsavory trope of the “untrustworthy bisexual.” Much the same way bisexuals are often told to “pick a side”, Hanso has both a desire for good and a desire for mischief, a duality that confuses other Neopets, and makes them wary of him.   

Hanso is bisexual. And he isn’t sorry about it.

Next up we have one of my early childhood crushes. Brynn.

Brynn is a Kougra, a feline like Neopets species. She is a guard/soldier from the land of Brightvale. She knows Hanso because she keeps catching him, he’s a terrible thief. Her personality is one dominated by courage and a duty to Neopia’s safety.

And I think she’s also bisexual, but more interesting to me her queer expression of masculinity.

Jack Halberstam, a transgender man, wrote a book called “Female Masculinities” prior to his transition (I mention this because I know a lot of you may be wondering why a man gets any say about women’s issues, but I think this is a special case and that his views are still valid.) Halberstam, in his book, posits the concept of masculinity divorced from maleness. What this means, in simplest terms, is that masculinity is not something inherently male, just predominantly male. A female masculinity is thus outside of the norm, and a unique and queer expression of gender.

Concepts related to masculinity are things like power and rebellion. Strength, force, will, that kind of stuff. When we remove these things from maleness and allow femaleness to have these concepts, one of the results is tomboyism. The phenomenon of tomboyism is when a girl, usually young, exhibits masculine qualities. The thing about tomboyism is that it is reluctantly permitted during childhood but less expected as one grows older, the assumption being that a woman will submit to the societal expectations of what a woman is “supposed to be.”

I cannot find any canon sources to say that sexism is a huge problem in Neopia, but gender roles are still present. While we don’t see Brynn’s childhood in “The Faeries Ruin”, it doesn’t take much to imagine that her peers would be surprised with her choice to join the Brightvale Guard, a traditionally male pursuit. And yet she does it. She works hard and becomes such a good soldier that she aids King Altador himself during the story, that King Altador trusts and respects her opinions. Brynn rebels against society’s standards and asserts her own power.

Her personality exudes masculinity as well. Throughout “The Faeries Ruin” she is often dominant over the course of investigation, taking initiative, sometimes omitting truths for the greater good, and generally holding her judgement in high regard. 

Her choices, especially in regards to her relationship with Hanso, is also something of note. Brynn is the one doing the catching and Hanso is the one being caught, an interesting subversion of expected gender roles. I will admit now that I have been withholding some information. Hanso, later in the plot of “The Faeries Ruin”, admits that he wanted to get caught by her as often as possible so that he would have an excuse to see her. Brynn did not know this, but I see it as a Hanso recognizing Brynn’s power and masculinity. I see it as a very romantic submission of Hanso to Brynn. 

So Brynn is bi, because I say so. And she expresses masculinity in a unique, queer, and female way.

Now, before we move onto the last character, Xandra, I need to talk to you guys about Brynn and Hanso’s relationship. I think it is very good, it was one of my first OTPs, and here’s three reasons why it’s a good ship.

Reason 1: They’re both queer, so like, it’s better than the usual M/F couple. Bi people have more genders they’re attracted to, so the person they do end up choosing had to be better than literally everybody else. We can rest assured both of them are good eggs that are compatible with each other.

Reason 2: Their relationship over the course of “The Faeries Ruin” is that of the “enemies to friends to lovers” trope. Which, HELLO? GOOD SHIT? SIGN ME THE FUCK UP? THE HOSTILITY SLOWLY GIVING WAY TO RESPECT? THE RESPECT TURNING INTO ADMIRATION? Your honor, it’s delicious.

Reason 3: This reason is an NSFW concept, so if you don’t wanna see that, just Ctrl+F to the phrase “This brings us to our last character, Xandra” to skip it. We good? Everybody continuing to read wants to see this? Okay.

BRYNN TOTALLY PEGS HANSO. Like, I don’t have any sources, but by this point in the presentation, I hope I’ve established myself as an expert authority, and I hope you just believe me. She has the sword, in this relationship. Both literally and metaphorically. She pegs him and her strap is huge.

This brings us to our last character, Xandra.

Xandra is a Xweetok and also a magic scholar. She studied under Fyora, the Faerie Queen, and helps Hanso and Brynn with their investigation of the faeries’ petrification. She’s a lesbian because I say so, but uhhhhhh…

She’s also evil. Towards the end of “The Faeries’ Ruin” it was revealed that Xandra was the one who petrified the faeries all along. So yeah, she’s evil, buuuuuuut she’s super queer about it. How? Well, the answer lies in her motives.

The reason why she petrified the faeries was because she wanted to start a new Neopia without them. She believed that the faeries were hoarding power instead of using it to truly help Neopians. She actively wanted to destroy not just the faeries, but a symbol of power and control that arguably rules the world she lives in. She criticizes against that which controls the social expectations, and this criticism and questioning benefits the marginalized, the queered from the norm. Her intention was to create a kind of utopia free from a governing body that holds all the power. That’s pretty damn queer.

Honestly, I’m a little pissed she was branded as evil for this, but it was revealed that when the faeries were petrified, their good magic was gone and left Neopia vulnerable to evil magic shadows and Xandra didn’t really care. So uh, she had good and radical queer motives, but she went a little bonkers with power. I still love her though. 

So, Xandra is pretty awesome, I hope she gets therapy then attends a Pride protest. She would totally be there reminding everybody that Pride started with riots. Also she loves women.

Thank you all.

(Read my other off the shits analysis essays at actualbird.tumblr.com/tagged/nobody-asked-but! If you have a request or suggestion for an off the shits analysis essay I can write, send me an ask!)

[wainwrightjakobshammerlock]

finally. i decided to do this. anyways hello there, i am jake and today i want to talk about something; you see, if you are in the tf2 fandom, you probably know about heavymedic. Wherther you are a hardcore gamer who resents f2p’s or a person that never played the game but has trillions of notes on their art- you know heavymedic exists and most of all you probably ship it.

And I find that weird. In the few fandoms in my life I have been in I had never seen a single ship be so widely if not shipped, then accepted. Sure, maybe everyone in the GF fandom knows what Billdip is - for better or for worse. Sure, maybe the HS fandom is 70% shipping.

But I have never ever seen such a phenomenon in a prominent multiplayer game fandom. A fandom, sadly, oftentimes filled with toxicity. Overwatch is very similar here - yet ships are either a hot topic of discussion or straight up ignored. But TF2? In here for whatever reason we ship these two mercenaries. And in this essay I will try and find a reason or two why is that.

Apologies for any mistakes or incoherency. English is not my first language, I need to ramble, and my vocabulary is all over the place.

Content warning: mentions of homophobia, blood, death, mentions of WLW fetishization, nsfw mention. Also MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR THE TF2 COMICS.

Part 1: Canonical Evidence and Interactions

Let’s be honest: I could ramble about this one for days on end. But I’ll try and keep it short.

First and foremost we have the official videos. And of course the first thing that comes to mind is Meet the Medic.

At the very start of the part where Medic himself appears, we see him telling a joke about a particularly gruesome situation to Heavy.

He laughs along with him, visibly enjoying his company. He even smiles as he waits for another joke. Heavy only shows genuine fear a lot later.

And of course this damn scene always cracks me up. Medic slightly pinches Heavy’s cheek and strokes his lip gently (the other part is almost not noticeable unless you play the video at slow speed).

Of course we all know about the Hand Hold that happens somewhere halfway in the vid. I don’t think I have to explain the gayness in that. The fact their hands stay interlocked even after Medic helps Heavy up. The deep breath Medic takes because even he cannot handle the emotions. That few seconds is unresolved sexual tension manifest.

Overall the short shows a strong feeling of trust between these two. Medic confides in Heavy and reverse. Yeah he puts a baboon heart into his friend’s chest cavity but the fact (as proven at the end of the video) that Heavy was the first one to have an Ubercharge implanted into him shows that Medic at the very least considers him a lab rat.

I treat End of the Line as non-canonical, as do many others, and as such won’t discuss it here. But it will forever crack me up that Valve endorsed such levels of homoerotic subtext.

These two have some short moments in other videos, like for example in Invasion Heavy helps Medic up (CINEMATIC PARALLELS) but it’s nothing major so I guess I’ll skip forward.

Second is their interactions ingame. You might call me a weirdo for trying to find stuff in there but holy shit I have things to say and I’m going to say them.

You thought I was going to fanboy over the “i love this doktor” voiceline huh? Well not really. I wish these two had unique lines if they assist one another.

Heavy is literally listed on the official wiki as the “ideal medic buddy” and multiple pages on that exact wiki say some pretty interesting things.

I have to say something about the Gentleman’s Ushanka and/or Pocket Medic. They are both community cosmetics - but the fact they both got accepted by Valve says a lot. Above is text snipped from the actual wiki.

Last but not least: The Comics. Darned comics. The pair of mercenaries has basically no interaction - unless you count issue 6.

Heavy getting absolutely PISSED when Medic is killed by Ch*avy. Their reunion. Medic referring to Heavy by “my friend” in a totally straight way. Kind of sad Valve wasted an opportunity for them to hug. Maybe they knew their comic artist ships them and wanted to avoid having to answer the Question™.

Part 2: Dynamics

This part’s a bit trickier, mostly due to the reason that I’m new to this whole dynamic analysis thing. Yeah I’m good at spotting canonical evidence but very specific shipping dynamics often escape my gaze.

The most obvious one is Big Guy, Little Guy. Quoting the TVTROPES page:

[…] This trope describes a pair of guys who always fight together, are best friends forever, and quite often have a very obvious hierarchy: The little guy is often in charge […] The little guy is usually listed first, since he’s the leader, and they are always listed together, as if they are one entity. In fact, some episodes may center on the fact that they can’t live without each other. […] If this is a case of Brains and Brawn, the Big Guy is usually the Brawn, and the Little Guy the Brains. It’s almost never the other way around, but in some cases the Big Guy can be rather smart too. […]

A sub-type of this, a common favorite here on Tumblr is known as “small chaotic big calm” and hoo boy if that isn’t these two. I don’t really have much to say here - again I am not an expert.

Part 3: Fandom Impact

So you don’t think Red Oktoberfest (as Heavymedic is sometimes called) is super popular on anywhere else than Tumblr? Wrong.

It’s hard to find TF2 fics on Archive of Our Own not tagged with Heavy/Medic. Of course most of them only contain hints to their relationship but go in the main tf2 tag and I can guarantee you, you’ll gonna see “implied heavy/medic” all the time.

But these two go further than AO3 or Tumblr or Instagram or whatever. They are recognized even within the wider circle of the fanbase. Take this SFM, for example. (I am using the Saxxy Awards version of Secret Lives here mostly due to the fact that the Heavymedic moment is much gayer. In the normal version, the dialogue isn’t changed, but they simply hold hands.)

But it gets deeper. (WARNING: THE GAY MOMENT IN THIS ONE IS NSFW. NOT EXPLICITLY SO BUT JUST A HEADS UP TUMBLR PLEASE DO NOT FLAG ME)

And the best part? The comments are extremely positive. You’d expect hoards upon hoards of homophobes screeching but no, the comments are supportive. Even on places such as Reddit or Youtube, comments like “yeah they’re gay and in love” do not get downvoted/disliked to hell; in fact the opposite.

Part 4: Canon Status

Let’s be real. Most ships are shipped because people want to explore the dynamics in fanfic, fanart or something else. But Heavymedic is shipped because… well, I have no idea.

Actually, I kind of do - but only theories. You see, while the canonical evidence is here, the creators have never said anything about them. No confirmation, no disproval, no hinting, nothing.

But the ship is so prominent! There has to be something causing this!- you say. And to that I present you 2 theories on why Heavy/Medic is so popular.

Theory number 1 states that we simply all choose to interpret their interactions as homoerotic. And this is very easy to disprove - there’s simply no way we just collectively agreed on these matters out of nothing. There has to be something bigger.

And theory 2 states that, well, our interpretation is the desired interpretation. But this is even more ridiculous than theory 1 for a number of reasons. If they are in fact gay, why hasn’t Valve made them canon yet?

A Theoretical Scenario

I am going to ramble big time on this one, so buckle up lads. I’ll discuss a theoretical scenario in which, well, if that was not obvious, Valve confirms Heavymedic as canon. Maybe then we will see why they will probably never do so.

TF2 is considered by typical capital G, alt-right Gamers as a “non-political” game. This means no women (in the game itself, at least, and if even, sexy women only), no queer folk and no minorities (for some reason they accept Demoman but throw a fit if someone draws any other merc as not being pearl white). Team Fortress 2 was around before Gamergate and other things like Gamers Rise Up. It’s a classic and Valve is regarded as the good guy to Epic Game’s bad guy. If Valve did anything to confirm doubts, wherther it be clearing up popular fanon or confirming ships, these people would throw hands. (Although they seemed to ignore when one of the writers confirmed Miss Pauling is a lesbian. Huh.) Even those that don’t play TF2 would come to the aid of their bros.

Let me illustrate with two very similar examples. In both cases these confirmations were the first made by the company as a whole, both are fairly recent and both confirm a character as gay.

First we have the confirmation of Tracer from Overwatch as a lesbian. It was done in one of OVW’s comics. Tracer is the FACE of Overwatch as a whole and while most of the fanbase accepted it (thankfully the Gamers are reluctant to infest ow), some people threw what I can only describe as a hissy fit. At least her girlfriend’s a background character.

Second is Neeko from League of Legends. Unlike Tracer she was added a while before it was confirmed she was gay. LOL is much more toxic and filled with Gamers than OW and holy shit people smeared LOL so much.

Of course these are not accurate to Heavy/Medic. In both of the cases I listed it was girls being wlw and we all know how much cisgender heterosexual gamers LOVE yuri porn. Apparently only girls can be gay because they can jack off to it - if it’s two guys then it’s disgusting. Nevertheless I think these are good approximations - in every case the company gets “shat on” on social media and other sites. With the community that Valve has, I think even if they wanted them to be gay, they would never ever confirm it.

Conclusion

I’m sorry for that ending. I had to theorize a bit. Regardless I’d love if you shared this on other sites, reblogged or whatever - I wasted at least 1 and a half hours of my life on it. Feel free to cite this as a source if someone asks you why you ship the big heavy weapons expert and the feral battle medic.

[pcygoldenchild]

Behind the Lens

📷summary: A crush on a boy who you only get to really admire behind a screen. His cute and funny vlogs letting you see more of him than what you do at work. He calls himself a vlogger. You’d call him captivating.

📷genre: fluff//vlogger!byun//alternate reality//

You arrive to work on time like you always did. The quiet café just coming to life when you arrive. It’s still very early in the morning. The sky a mosaic of orange and dark clouds. The air a little thick and the streets still wet from the rain. You liked being up this early. You weren’t a morning person, but being up to watch the rest of the world slowly come to speed was therapeutic. You opened the café every other day. It was something you personally requested and your coworker thought you were insane but willingly gave you some of her mornings.

It was something about the smell of the first batch of coffee or the way the fresh pastries brightened up the shelves. It was quiet and all put together before the morning rush. The place neatly cleaned and chairs pushed in properly before the fault of human error. The warm light and fall weather making the dark wood floor reflect an amber shade throughout the place. It was calming.

But as usual time moves fast when you want nothing but more time. Your coworker coming in an hour later just before the hoard of business men and women come to get their daily dose of caffeine. Another worker coming in and making it feel like an actual business. The routine orders of 5 coffees to the new intern who is always fumbling with the crumpled piece of paper he scribbled the office orders on. The egg and sausage sandwich to the old gentlemen who sits by the window and reads the paper until half past 12, when he leaves to do whatever the world takes him. The stranglers who show up late to class because an iced americano is way more important than an 8am lecture about cell division. It was a routine but it was your routine. The faces you’d see all the time a warm welcome and maybe a friendly story of how their day went after you saw them last.

All that was just usual to you. An opening to your morning in the slow city and fast paced lives of those who inhabit it.

Around your lunch break is when your day gets to be something you never have a set routine for. Sure, you’d eat lunch and read your book or scroll mindlessly on your phone for too long. But there was always the chance that something could happen but you never know when. The chance that the cute barista would say more than a few words in the break room. Or maybe you’d say something to him that consisted more than a ‘busy day right?’

He worked the same hours you did, closing on days you opened. He started the same time you did too as the new recruits for the location. But working together for 5 months didn’t mean you’d know anything about him. He was quiet and to his work. But he wasn’t rude or snobby. He was just to himself. You understood his mannerisms being an introvert yourself. The friendly smiles and quick laughs if you’d bump into each other behind the busy counter. You knew his name. Byun Baekhyun. He told you it with a bright smile your first day as an attempt to make friends. But that was really the only time he’s said anything to anyone.

But you knew more to him. You knew what he was like outside of work. The funny boy who did any and everything he wanted. He was boisterous and creative. A real character to love with his smiles and jokes. He was the same shy boy but when he was out of work it was different. Just him and his camera.

He was a vlogger with his own youtube channel. You found it randomly when watching one of your friends makeup videos. A video about ‘working out/diet/hello’ was a suggestion. You wouldn’t have watched it if his face wasn’t in the thumbnail. It was a shock to you. Unbeknownst, you watched him be himself with the comfort of talking to a camera. His personality showing with every head tilt or silly dance. His channel was pretty popular. 200,000 subscribers with you included.

You watched all his videos. It was routine for you to come home and see the notification on your laptop of a new video from him every week. The short vlogs filled with him and his adventures. One of him working out which you couldn’t help but watch multiple times because it was just that cute. Another one of him hanging with his friends out in the city at a small restaurant where his laughs and silly faces made you smile unintentionally. Or the one where he went to his parents house and played with his adorable corgi. It was a goldmine of content and still so him. So calm and therapeutic to watch and enjoy.

It was time for your lunch break. You looked around but didn’t see Baekhyun so you figured he was already in the break room like he always was before you. You wanted to say something today. You did your hair all nice in the chance that you’d say something that would make him do more than a 2 second shy glance your way.

You walked into the break room and saw him sitting at the table. His laptop in front of him as he focused on whatever he was doing. You went to the fridge and grabbed two yogurts and granola. It’s a routine too to bring him something to eat since he never really does eat on breaks if you wouldn’t remind him to. He’d be too focused on his laptop from beginning to end. But even then a simple thank you and you’re welcome was all you two would exchange. The simple appreciation present in how he’d smile everytime.

You sat down across from him sitting the yougurt and granola down in the center of the table. His eyes peeking up at you from behind the screen.

“Hey.” you said short and simple taking the yogurt and avoiding the eye contact you two were too shy to share.

“Hi.” he said back looking over his laptop to see his yogurt, granola and spoon waiting for him. He pushed the laptop to the side a bit to grab your offering and whispered a ‘thank you’. The comfort of sitting and eating with each other was strange given you two were almost considered strangers.

“So what do you do on that?” you said suddenly nodding to his laptop. But you knew exactly what he would spend his entire break and anytime after that on.

“I edit videos.” he said after a while of looking between the laptop and his yogurt. His response short but laced with a bit of uncertainty. You never told him you knew he had a channel or that you watched.

“What kind of videos?” you ask. The frail attempt to start a conversation for the first time in 5 months. Frail since you knew so much about him already but not from him in person, rather from behind a lens.

“Youtube videos.” he responded. His eyes traveling everywhere but only on you for a second before venturing somewhere else. You wanted to just accept this as an attempt. It seemed painful to him. It was painful to you. This was socially not something you did. You didn’t do anything socially to be honest.

“Cool.” you said back. You continued eating your yogurt and so did he. The scraping of the plastic spoons against the small bowls and the crunch of the granola being the only tangible thing in the room. After a while you wanted to just disappear. It was awkward and you didn’t want that. You felt like you were holding your breath staring directly into your bowl and never leaving there. The creamy concoction looking less appealing as you continued to eat.

“Ever heard of it?” Baekhyun says. You thought for a second he was on the phone or something. But when you peeked up at him he was staring directly at you.

“Heard of what?” you say slowly. You didn’t know why saying that was so hard. It was a simple and reasonable reponse. But you weren’t sure what was happening.

“My channel.” he said with a small smile that appeared and disappeared. You swallowed the yogurt and granola you didn’t finish chewing at the question. Yea you’ve heard of it. You watched it everyday; watching videos over again because the need to watch something was addictive.

“No.” you lie. You say it short and with a small shake of your head before staring at your ugly yougurt. Only now it’s ugly from the lie you have tainted it with.

“Oh.” he said. His reply hurt your heart a bit. It was so short and sounded like a kid who just didn’t get the toy they wanted.

“Well, I probably would. But I don’t watch much youtube. I mostly read and draw.” you say in an effort to keep the conversation going but moreso to let him know that you’re interested. The sentences were fast and you sat up a bit straighter. A sign you were lying about something but he didn’t know your mannerisms.

“That’s cool. It’s not for everyone.” he said smiling and shrugging.

‘No, Baekhyun but it’s for me’

“Well I’d like to check it out if it’s not too awkward.” you say looking at his bowl. His fingers wrapped around the plastic lightly tapping.

“Why would it be awkward?” he asked.

‘I don’t know. Maybe because I’ve seen all your videos already a million times and can’t help but smile.’

“I don’t know. Maybe showing me your youtube channel would make me see you differently.” you say but it was somewhat not what you meant. Of course you’d see him differently. But it sounded negative. Almost like you’d see him as someone he’s not.

“Well you might but I don’t think you’d hate me or anything. It’s just me outside of work.” he said shrugging and pushing his bowl aside. He grabbed his laptop and tapped some keys fast. The next minute he’s turning the laptop to face you and the home page of his channel greets you. The ever so familiar maroon layout with his adorable picture as his icon. The list of videos you’ve all seen with a video that’s privated. A new video must be ready. You involuntarily smile.

“What?” he asks rather incredulously. Your smile falls instantly as you look at his unsure gaze go from the screen to your face. Unsure of what to do, you just shake your head a little.

“Nothing. It’s just cute.” you say and instantly regret it. The smile that falls on his face at your comment makes him sit up straight and jerk his head to the side.

“Cute.” he says. Your face is as hot as the pastries in the oven. You didn’t mean to say it was cute but there was no other word to say. Familiar. Nothing new. Those would work if you told the truth.

“Yea...I’ll check it out when I get home.” you say getting up from the table grabbing both of your bowls. He nods in affirmation with his lips set in straight line to hide his boyish grin. His boyish grin at you.

“I recommend the vlog where I visit my family and my dog. Everyone thinks it’s the ‘cutest’.” he says turning his laptop back around.

‘It is the cutest.’

“Will do.” you say walking away to trash your bowls and rush back to work 20 minutes before your break is over.

“Text me what you think, yea?” he called to you. You looked back at him staring at you with a small smile and raised eyebrows. This was as much as you’d gotten with him. More than 5 months worth of working with him. And now he wanted talk to you more.

“Yea, definitely.” you smile back.

[space-caramella]

So besides Isa who else do you play as again in other campaigns?

I am so glad you asked~ So besides Isa Perkins, I've also gotten around to playing Shanti Yamul in @selemina‘s First Casters campaign. We’ve already gone over her so I won’t ramble about her much (unless of course you have questions). I’m just glad to be playing her again, since she was the first D&D character I've ever made and played as~ Next, there’s Meadow. Another fave of mine~ She’s my character for @girugin‘s Endless Winter campaign, and so far she has just been a real joy to play. She’s a foul-mouthed, troublemaker goblin rogue, who’s mostly good at stealing and stabbing, but who also cares deeply about people that she gets to know.. even if her gremlin energy tells you otherwise. She can get emotional and difficult at times, but she can also be surprisingly intelligent, with a harsh, gloomy, and realistic outlook on life. She herself doesn’t think that this winter will end... but there’s another part of her that really hopes it will, someday. For now though, she’s content with just joining the party in the hunt for supplies and allies, and making sure the small community she now calls home keeps running. Next up is Lidewei Malvolia, my character for girugin’s evil campaign: Dragon Mafia. As you might’ve guessed.. she’s not really a good person. She’s a cunning, manipulative cult leader, and the very definition of the word ‘dragon lady’. Working for her lord Duvud, she mostly tricks and convinces people to join her in supporting her lord’s uprising, while also working together with the rest of the party (aka, lord Duvud’s ‘hoard’) to bring him back into a position of power. As a cleric, she mostly serves as the party’s healer, and hopes to solve any issues with as little violence as possible.. but that doesn’t mean she won’t easily kill someone when necessary. Even though she’s blind, which helps in making her look defenseless and an easy prey for many, she is still a force to be reckoned with, and I would advice you to not get on her bad side. There’s also Joe Mcgrady, an NPC for Dragon Mafia who stays by Lidewei’s side and often functions as ‘her eyes’. He originally came from a farm, but left that place to follow and protect the pretty elven woman.. he’s simple-minded, but at least he thinks he’s doing the right thing. Since he’s not a PC I won’t go into much detail, but he’s still my character, so please tell me if you’re interested in learning more~! Sadly I can’t say that I'm a PC in @techpirate1‘s Fallout campaign... but I do play an NPC that shows up every so often! That would be Annie Brown, the small, adorable girlfriend of girugin’s Deathclaw PC, Achii. She started of as a bit of a self-insert for rp’s, but soon turned into a canon oc for Achii and the others to play off of. Annie herself doesn’t do much except stay safe in his house and offer moral support, but she still brings this lively, positive energy whenever she does go somewhere with the gang. She herself is fine staying out of fights and danger.. but she still tends to worry about her boyfriend, no matter how big, tough, and handsome he is. I’ve started to recently play a ranger called Trace in a one-shot my friend @hands-of-fate-ocs made, which might get a continuation soon so I can play Trace more~! They’re, well, a very quiet, very awkward half-elf, having spent most days on their own, and away from civilization. Though they sometimes visit towns, or their mom, to stock up on needed supplies, they’re the happiest when just exploring wild, abandoned areas and looking for anything mythical: especially something regarding fey. Basically, anything that piques their interest is something they’ll devote their sweet time to. But still, after a long while, loneliness did get to them.. which was exactly when they got asked to join a PSI squad. Imagine that! Wanting to overcome their social issues and do something else for a change, they accepted, and are now currently on a mission with their team. They still don’t really seek out companionship and are happy just keeping to themselves, but there’s already a few others in their team that they find.. interesting, at least. Maybe they’ll finally make some friends~ There’s a few more characters that I've mostly just played in one-shots, but are still very loved and are counted as official characters to bring back. Like Fien Intema, my dutch triton bard and local handywoman. She’s confident, flirty, and a bit rough around the edges, but has a good heart. She’ll absolutely speak her mind when bullshit is happening, and might cause trouble here and there, but she’s also careful and kind to others when she needs to be, wanting to avoid conflict rather than start it. Another beloved character of mine is Edgar Mcgrady, whom I played in a one-shot a long while ago, and definitely want to play again in a full campaign. Like Fien, he’s a bard. (I just like to play bards, okay..!) But unlike her, he’s just kind of this charming, simple country bumpkin that escaped from his family’s farm, and is now happily exploring any town or city he can reach. He likes to play his banjo for himself and others, and enjoys getting a drink in a pub or inn. He also likes to her himself as friendly and honest, but there’s a few things he would still like to keep a secret too.. There’s currently a few more characters in the making, and there’s others I have that I haven’t even played, but I think this is all when it comes to campaigns I've played / are playing now. Again, thanks for being interested! I’m glad I can share all this stuff with others now too! <3 Also, y’all please follow my wonderful D&D friends I mentioned here! Along with @ember-menia, @quynh-tessance, @entransta, and @ask-manda-of-the-6

[melissalfinch]

Catching Pokemon Vs. Catching Covid-19

Applying lessons from the Pokémon franchise to the Coronavirus pandemic

Now that we finally have something we’ve always complained about being short on, which is time, some of us are conflicted about just what to do with it all. We’re growing bored of binge-watching, online-tutorials, the same routes we take to walk to the markets, and holding our phone during Facetime, and feeling discouraged each morning we check our unemployment benefit for it to still say zero after applying about 3 weeks ago. So here’s a simple and effective solution for you to abide the time with, feel productive, happy and even a little philosophical if you achieve a certain attitude. It’s time to play Pokémon Go.

Let’s talk about the simple and relatively obvious five benefits of playing Pokémon Go. First off, it gets you outside for some Vitamin D. Second, it raises your heart rate and improves circulation from the steps you take. Next, some of us might enjoy some window shopping without feeling pressured to go inside the shops because there’s no salesperson judging you from behind the counter. Fourth, you acquire unique, stylish and sanitized remote friends by catching Pokemon and connecting with other players around the world, with the exception of the Pokemon named Koffing of course. You might just want to walk the other direction if you see him on the map. It’s okay. That kind of discrimination is found acceptable these days. I’m sure he gets that all the time. And fifth, you get to concentrate on a fantastic animated screen in the game as a distraction from confusing news reports that probably sent our zombie-like fingers scrolling down like a bored classical music conductor this morning. It’s a good mental break that your mind requires for strength, similar to the benefits of meditation.

When the game was first launched it became another form of social distancing. People were just looking down at their phones, out in the streets wandering quietly, not making eye contact, feeling anxious about running out of balls, often loitering outside of businesses that were designated Poke stops, not spending any money. You get the idea. It’s not too different from the attitudes the majority of society have been infected with today. So does playing Pokemon Go in the streets/sidewalks break the social distancing orders? No and here’s why. Playing the game doesn’t actually require you to go very far and sometimes to go outside at all. Of course you should wear a mask if you feel inclined to take a walk, but you can also drive to the stops to collect goodies. No, you don’t have to play while you’re driving. Pull over, stop the car and open up the game. You thought you had me, didn’t you? The creators of the game, Niantic has actually made the game compatible with traveling less and playing more remotely by giving out more virtual gifts to attract Pokémon to you in the comfort of your own bed. In an effort to look good with the Coronavirus pandemic they have also cancelled many of their in person events and made them remote as well.

If I still haven’t sold you on playing Pokémon Go, don’t worry. There are a lot more in the Pokémon franchise you can occupy your time with. For instance, come up with a catchy villain motto like the one by Team Rocket to repeat when faced with the enemy or simply to abide by the 20 second timed hand-washing ritual, like the one recommended by PoGo Joel recommends in his YouTube video.  https://youtu.be/SADIK0zxfig  As a healthcare professional

Catching Pokemon Vs. Catching Covid-19

and Pokémon master, his girlfriend has become accustomed to his love for Jessie’s and James’ creed while he washes his hands. And let’s face it, the Team Rocket motto which is kind of lengthy, starts out with a good message.

Jessie: “To protect the world from devastation.” James:“To unite all people within our nation...” They go on to say some other crooked content like “To denounce the evils of truth and

love,” but like most villains in cartoons, they provide comic relief and sometimes viewers will actually feel sorry for them when their emotional baggage comes tumbling out. Or you could always exercise your rap skills by rapping 32 names of Pokémon which is done at the end of every episode in the premiere series. It’s easier to remember their names instead of trying to remember the names of the members of the Trump administration who Mr. President has fired in the last few months for challenging him. When battling Pokemon, it’s important not to be a sore loser. I bet Krabby would be the first Pokemon Trump would fire. As Pokémon villain Meowth advises “Don’t want the bad guys slipping in.”

Believe it or not there are some valuable lessons to be learned from Pikachu and his posse. For instance, here’s a great lesson about not hoarding: In the game Pokemon Go if you have duplicates of characters you’ve caught, you send them to the professor to get candy to help one of your other Pokémons evolve. Lesson here: Grow, evolve, share the toilet paper you hoarded last month. It’s okay. We all get impulsive. You thought it was a good idea at the time. Now you can make up for it by sharing. According to YouTube vlogger TrueGreen7, there’s even more profound wisdom to be gathered from the games, films, and cartoons series we can apply to this crisis. https://youtu.be/PE8NKsIEZa8  Such as realizing that good things come in small packages.What seems to be weak at first can grow strong with patience and TLC, just like raising the Pokémon Magikarp. He seems like a pathetic joke when first caught but you can eventually evolve him to the powerful Gyarados. Here are a few other bits of wisdom to chew on: Preserve games. Don’t use rare coins, and save your money. If you don’t know something, look it up. Pokémon design always has a purpose. Ignorance leads to hate. Playing games your own way is the most enjoyable. Don’t impose the way you play a game onto others. It’s just a game. Become familiar with etymology, the study of the origins of names. Learn about other countries’ cultures and language for a better understanding of worldwide concepts. Understand the importance of balance and danger of extremes. Don’t sacrifice ideals and ignore truths. In addition, it’s not always black and white. There are never only two sides to an argument. You can always compromise. Look at things from a different perspective. One Pokémon character by the name of Clay says “There’s always room for folks to grow and change, ain’t there?” Another character named Elesa remarks “It’s important to keep trying, to learn about the differences between yourself and others, to learn that being different is ok.” Then there’s Drayden who says that it’s ok to listen to the opinions of others and where they’re coming from, but once you stop listening to others and decide that your opinion is right, you cannot be forgiven.

Amusing yourself with light-hearted, charming entertainment such as the world of Pokémon and other uplifting fandoms in a time like this is certainly a positive use of your time. It’s good to escape for a little bit and turn off the news for a while. Try to take a few steps away and get a change of scenery even if it is a virtual one. Innocent and wondrous entertainment

Catching Pokemon Vs. Catching Covid-19

gives some of us endorphins and a good serotonin boost.This is just another way to get through it that helps me, gives me something to connect to with other people like my Pokémon Master friend up in Canada, who’s been playing for years. It’s a reason to get out of the confines of my studio apartment and it gets me to stop zoning out while eavesdropping on neighborhood chatter easily heard sometimes even when my windows are closed. So before you start walking to the market when you go outside, don’t be so afraid and hostile to others about catching Covid-19, think that you’re out to catch Pokémon instead. Because what you have hidden in your balls just might be the creature that’s going to combat this thing.

[purplesurveys]

630

SEVEN DEADLY SINS

Sin 1: Lust 1. Who was the last person you checked out? Did they check you out too? Surprise surprise, it’s my girlfriend. Yeah she did - I think I’d start worrying if she didn’t, lmao.

2. Who was the last person you desired, but they didn’t feel the same? Gab, at one point. Other than her, I haven’t desired anybody else; but I was on the ‘didn’t feel the same’ side at least once, back when Mike used to like me.

3. Ever cheated on a significant other? If so, have you learned from it? No, I’ve never cheated.

4. Do you watch porn? Yes. I’d have phases where I’d view it 2-3 times a week, then I’d completely stop for months – kinda like how everyone plays The Sims lol. I don’t know why it works like that for me.

5. Do you masturbate? Sometimes.

6. Best physical features on your preferred sex? I don’t have a preferred sex, and my favored features differ per person.

7. Who are some celebrities that you think are totally hot? Kristen Stewart, if you don’t me already haha. Also Eugene Lee Yang from the Try Guys, Beyoncé, and Jennifer Aniston.

8. Did you ever lust after a best friend’s significant other? How did it turn out? Mmm nope, I never found myself attracted to Hans in any way. The fact that he has always been associated with Angela ever since high school also helps.

9. When was the last time you had sex? Like a week before Christmas, I think.

10. Ever pursued someone, even though they were taken? No, that’s a little awful.

Sin 2: Gluttony 1. When did you last eat at a restaurant? What restaurant was it? Last Monday – Gab and I went to Yabu to catch dinner. We had been entertaining my mom’s guests and their kid all day and thought we couldn’t leave the house cos it’s a bit impolite, but I had such a craving that I ended up asking permission if we can go to Yabu by 8:30 even though the mall closed by 9 lol. I realize I talk about Yabu an awful lot on here so for those who wanna know, it’s this local Japanese place that serves theeeee best katsu.

2. When did you last have fast food? Where did you get it? I don’t actually remember. If I’m not wrong, it was around two or three weeks ago, and we had KFC delivered to our house because we were too lazy to cook or go out. I had the Zinger Steak, which I hope they never phase out because it’s insanely good.

3. What was the biggest meal you had all day? I haven’t eaten yet, and it’s only 10:51 AM. 

4. Do you have too many clothes? How often do you go shopping? I wouldn’t say it’s overwhelmingly many, but I definitely own more clothes than the pieces I’d usually wear, and that’s because I don’t like throwing old stuff out just in case I’d need them in the future (definitely got my great-grandma’s hoarding tendencies). I go shopping once in a few months, which in itself is pretty seldom, but that’s because when I go shopping I usually already buy a shit-ton of new clothes, enough for me to be able to mix and match to come up with new outfits for the next few weeks.

5. What’s something you have a LOT of? Black clothing. I’ve made an effort to get more colored tops, but the blacks still overpower.

6. Do you eat a lot? I’m very takaw-tingin, which is a Filipino term used when you get a crapload of food either because you’re hungry or because you’re confident you can finish it – or both – then you never do. Takaw means greedy or glutton, tingin roughly means sight, so it literally means that you just kinda want to get everything because it looks like a lot. So to answer the question, I always feel like I can eat a lot, but at the end of the day I just end up with stomachaches and I never learn.

7. What was the last thing you splurged (spent a lot of money) on? If a bunch of stuff counts, then I splurged on Christmas presents for various people that I all bought in one go – I got massage oils, a garlic press, a frisbee, Marikina sandals, lipstick, and Instax film. If you’re talking about a single thing that I had to drop a ton of money on, it was for my dog’s blood test and some arthritis meds that the vet recommended.

8. What do you spend most of your money on (besides bills and anything necessary like that)? I only ever spend on necessities like gas, clothes, and food, honestly. Other than that... I spend on (and this is very seldom) whatever hobby I’m into at the moment. At one point I spent on slime because I got interested in them, and before that – and y’all know about this – I spent my Christmas savings on adult coloring books and pencils.

9. Last time you ate candy? What was it? A week or two ago; I had a Crunch bar.

10. Last thing you ate too much of? Eggs, I think. My mom makes it for breakfast so I have it almost every day.

Sin 3: Greed 1. Do you share things? How often? Yeah I can be pretty generous with my stuff. I know I’d appreciate it when other people lend me their belongings, so I try to do the same. I once lent my phone to Rita for over an hour just because she wanted to play Mario Kart, and I also lent a book that’s really important to me to an online friend I barely knew; it was with him for like two years, lol.

2. Someone asks you for a piece of your cookie. You break it in half, but the pieces aren’t equal. Who gets the bigger piece? Usually it would be me; but if the person who asked for it was Gab, or if that particular person likes the cookie I have, then they get the bigger piece.

3. When you see change on the ground, do you pick it up? Only if it’s a 10-peso coin, because I’m greedily picky like that lmao. Other people might need a peso or a 5-peso coin more, so I leave it be.

4. How often do you lend money to people? I don’t, and that’s one thing I wouldn’t tend to lend. My parents just give me allowance and it’s usually enough for necessities and for treating myself once or twice a week, so I wouldn’t be able to have some left for others. Besides, that’s my parents’ money and it would be pretty fuckin’ unfair to them if I just give it away to others lmao.

5. Do you loooove money? I hate what it’s done to society, how it’s divided the rich and the poor, and how the people with the most money also tend to be the most selfish coughcoughBILLIONAIREScoughcough. But I love spending for my own, hah.

6. If someone offers to pay for you, do you decline or readily accept? Oh no no no. Decline all the way. If they keep insisting then I’ll probably give in because it’s the polite thing to do, but if I can, I’ll keep declining.

7. Which of your friends is the wealthiest? Rita. Her grandpa is a former senator and she lives in literally the swankiest neighborhood in Metro Manila; I was a bit intimidated when she invited us to her place for the first time lol. She’s the simplest person I know, too; and that’s my favorite kind of rich.

8. Would you take a high-paying job that you didn’t really like just for the money and benefits? That’s definitely what I plan to do, lmao. At least this is how I know myself now: I have enough money to buy whatever I want, and I’m a happy camper. That may change in a few months or within the next year and I may eventually wanna search for a passion – but for now, it’s the mindset I’m going with when I go job-hunting soon. If I survived four years of college with a very burnt-out, emptied passion for journalism that I thought I had, I could probs do the same in the workplace.

9. Ever stole from anyone? What about stole from a store? What happened? I unknowingly stole a box of crayons from a store back when security equipment wasn’t that rigid yet lmao. I realized I ‘stole’ it because I had it in my hands and not in a paper bag when I walked out, so I immediately went back to pay for it. I’ve never stolen anything from anyone.

10. Do you ever have enough money? I don’t think anyone ever feels this way. Ever heard of billionaires?

Sin 4: Sloth 1. Last thing you procrastinated on? Washing the dishes last night.

2. When you’re at a strip mall and the next store you want to go to is at the other side, do you drive over there instead of take a short walk? It depends how far “the other side” is. <-- Yep pretty much. If it’s literally on the other side of a street, then obviously I’d go walk. But in places like my school which is super big and where ‘other side’ could mean 2 km away, a drive would be more convenient.

3. What’s a typical day off of school and/or work like for you? I’d normally spend the day lazing around on the couch with my dog beside me and lurking around social media.

4. What’s one talent you have that you don’t really work on, even though you have the ability to be good at it? Public speaking, or debating.

5. How many hours of television do you watch a day? I keep Friends as a background noise on Netflix nearly all day because I hate when it gets too quiet around me. As for watching on an actual television, I haven’t used one in years.

6. What about the amount of time you spend on the internet a day? The internet takes up my entire day it’s crazy lol. I kinda need it for everything now.

7. How many hours of sleep do you get a day? Do you sleep in late? It’s always different. I can go anywhere between 3 and 10 hours of sleep. I don’t sleep in often, though.

8. Do you drive to places that are less than three blocks away? I don’t know how big blocks are supposed to be since we don’t use that system here. But yes, I usually drive even though Point A to Point B is very much walkable hahaha. My friends make fun of me a lot for it but I don’t care, at least I don’t get to my destination all sweaty and smelling like the sun.

9. When was the last time you exercised? November, on my last PE class.

10. Ever copied and pasted your homework from a website on the internet? I never did this. My schools always emphasized the consequences of plagiarism so as someone who always stuck by the rules, I always made sure I at least paraphrased the content I see on the internet.

Sin 5: Wrath 1. If you could kill one person and get away with it, would you do it? I know it’s pretty dark to come from such a place, but I’ve always thought death is an easy way out for people who’ve done awful things. I could answer this question with a name of a corrupt politician, rapists, or animal abusers, but tbh they don’t deserve the sweet escape of death, even if it were from murder.

2. Is there anyone you honestly and truly can say that you hate? Anybody who has hurt cats and dogs.

3. Is there anyone you want revenge on, whether you want to get them back big-time or just play a little prank on them for hurting your feelings? Like I said, I’d daydream about getting revenge just to satiate my desire for it, but I think it’s pretty childish and downright cartoonish to actually go through with it. I’ve only ever seen people getting petty revenge in movies, but it seems a bit stupid in real life.

4. Are you fighting with any friends right now? Why? No. The most that’s happened was me kinda scolding Andrew for not letting me know beforehand that he submitted our thesis proposal to our prof through VIBER, which is incredibly unprofessional and I definitely let him know what I thought about it. I didn’t fight with him though.

5. Last time you were really angry? What happened? The aforementioned thesis prof letting me know we’re missing a part of our thesis on the last day for profs to submit their grades. That meant that however early we submitted a revision, she wouldn’t have been able to give it a mark anyway. That definitely pissed me off, especially considering that she was silent for two weeks and didn’t give back any comments which made us think we were good to go.

6. When you’re angry, what do you do to calm yourself down? I watch Friends or any one of my favorite YouTubers so I can have some relief. Other times, I’d force myself to sleep.

7. “Hate is just the fear of loving someone.” true or false? No. That makes no sense to me.

8. What’s the best revenge you ever got on someone? Never done this before.

9. Was there any hard feelings after your last break-up? On whose end was it on? There were definitely hard feelings in the beginning because she executed the breakup so poorly and I thought I didn’t deserve any of the treatment I was getting, and I was also mad that I wasted my time for that long only for her to break up with me in the end.

10. Ever been cheated on? How did that make you feel? No.

Sin 6: Envy 1. Is there anyone you’re jealous of? Name a person and tell us why. Envious is the better word, and I feel this way towards anybody who live with both parents. My dad’s worked overseas all my life, and as grateful as I am for his sacrifices, having a dad at home is more foreign sensation to me than the idea of having a dad who’s gone for 4-6 months a year.

2. List three physical features some other people have that you’re envious of (no need to get specific and name people; you can just say something like “brown eyes” or “having perfect eyebrows”). Straight teeth, fixed eyebrows, legs that don’t need much shaving.

3. List three personality features that other people have that you’re envious of. Confidence, independence... is privilege a personality trait lol?

4. Are you a jealous significant other? I can be. I don’t make a big deal about being jealous as much as I did two or three years ago anymore though.

5. Could you date someone who was really jealous? Gab can be a little jealous but for the most part it’s endearing because it’s never turned into abuse.

6. What celebrity’s looks do you envy the most? Audrey Hepburn.

7. Do you think anyone is envious of you? In your opinion, what characteristics (physical and mental) do you possess that you think someone might be envious of? Being in a long-term relationship, definitely. A lot of people my age want significant others so bad, and I know this because a good chunk of them post the same wish over and over on social media lol.

8. What are a few things you wish you were good at? Drawing, playing an instrument, dancing ballet, changing a car tire, COOKING.

9. Did you ever date someone, break up, and then see them dating someone very attractive a few days later? Were you jealous of that person? This has never happened to me.

10. When looking at a love interest’s exes, do you often find yourself jealous of their good-looking exes? I haven’t had to do this, because I was Gab’s first. I wouldn’t want to fixate on exes if I were in a different situation, though.

Sin 7: Pride 1. What’s something you brag about a lot (be honest–we all brag sometimes)? My school is easy bragging rights. Everybody wants to be in UP.

2. What physical features do you take the most pride in? My body figure in general. Also my fingers, legs, and jawline.

3. Are you satisfied with what you have? Yeah but as the above questions have made it clear, I can always use more money lol.

4. Be honest… when someone is telling you something, do you often change the subject so it’s about you and your accomplishments instead? NEVER. That’s one of the worst things anyone can do. I feel like I used to do this when I was younger, then it just hit me one day about how tasteless it can be so ever since then I’ve let other people hype themselves up and be excited about accomplishments or new things in their life as much as they want with me, as long as they aren’t being so conceited.

5. Do you like talking about your achievements? If I’m in a group and we started sharing our achievements then yeah I’d join in. But I wouldn’t bring it up if it wasn’t already being brought up. It’s better to let the accomplishments speak for themselves.

6. Do your parents tend to brag about how well you came out? My mom is definitely more ~braggier than my dad, but she’s never come off as an asshole about it. If she was, I’d pull her aside.

7. Do you strive to be better than others? Do you think competing with others is healthy? I keep a mindset of competing with others, but I keep it internal.

8. What do you do better than most people? See the little details. I’m always surprised at how most of the people I work with just look at the big picture – like how they don’t pay attention to the red squiggle under misspelled words on a group paper (or if they do see it, they don’t do anything about it), or how they don’t seem to care about proper spacing on a Powerpoint and proceed to just dump a bunch of text on one slide. Now this is something I can brag about too, cos a lot of people are just so not detail-oriented lol.

9. Do you believe in taking pride in things you can’t control (ex. being proud of your heritage, being proud of your skin color, being proud of your natural artistic ability)? I don’t see why that’s an issue.

10. Who are you competing with right now (it could be anything–classmates for a grade, co-workers for a position, other girl for a guy, etc.)? There’s no particular person, but like I said, I’m always in this perpetual mindset of wanting to compete with others just so I’m more motivated to perform well and get things done.

[lookthroughyourlashes]

DO THE READING #3

FEATURED TEXTS: “The Far North Experience” by Rebecca Solnit, “On Reckoning with a Mother’s Relentless Need to Save Everything” by Donna Masini, and “A Burning is Not A Letting Go” by Suzanne Levine and Kristin Prevallet

There is a direct link between excessive accumulation and the human desire to identify with those closest to them. each article named above clearly outlines specific emotional impulses: the desire to accumulate possessions, the desire to dispose of/alter accumulated possessions, and the drive to empathetically connect with absent loved ones.

until the 20th century, most humans were plagued by scarcity. Everything from food to clothing to household goods were difficult to create, and relatively expensive to obtain. But the industrial revolution dramatically increased the average americans’ access to (and appetite for) cheap goods, crowding homes and creating a problem that would have been foreign to our ancestors: hoarding. Donna masini’s article paints a vivid picture of collection of outdated clothing, unused office supplies, and endless household gadgets that confronted her and her father after her mother’s death. Charged with the daunting task of de-cluttering her parents home, she was forced to grapple with her own emotional attachments to the objects that her mother had saved. Masini found that she was reluctant to dispose of things because they seemed to be the safeguards of her memories (she relates them to Tupperware), capable of holding onto the happy moments and keeping them safe. But as she sifted through her parents’ home, she came to the realization that no stockpile of keepsakes had the power to preserve memories. The past, she explains, only exists within her for as long as she is alive to remember it. The objects made her feel as though her loved ones were with her, but her memories were not tethered to them. Without which, they became “just junk (masini, 8).”

She closes the article with the realization that everything that she was holding onto could outlive her only if she wrote it down. Writing allowed donna masini to free herself from the anxiety of impending loss while curating and organizing the past. artist Suzanne Levine found that her own written records, meticulously preserved and archived, were the source of her “dread”. Like masini, Levine explains that memories “are not contained in anything (Levine, 2)”, rather they survive as fragments in the mind, occasionally re-connected by some external inspiration. the urge to hold onto keepsakes is driven by people who mistake documents and artifacts from the past for the past itself. Unlike more tangible aritfacts, levine’s decades-worth of diaries were different, because their words were capable of reviving memories that were better forgotten. The power that donna masini found so invigorating sparked anxiety for Levine. she was torn between a desire to preserve the diaries for posterity, and the conflicting notion that nobody else would care about the trials of her teenage years, and that they were not worth preserving.

Levine chose to confront the opposing urges by taking a radical artistic action. she chose to burn the diaries, taking photographs of the paper as it curls in and eventually fades into ash. the words that survived the flames became erasure poems, fragmented and fragile just like her memories of the years that they chronicled. The transformation freed her from the painful years of her childhood, allowing her to become the sole keeper of her memories.

Both of the above essays speak to the ways that we grapple with the objects that remain from our pasts, and the memories that are associated with them. rebecca solnit’s eloquent definition of empathy speaks to both artists’ need to dispose of the physical remnants. She relates the pursuit of empathetic interaction as navigating a labyrinth in the dark. lacking the ability to see, one must proceed into the unknown darkness with their hands outstretched, using their sense of touch to search for the way forward. This mindset is ripe for creativity because it forces one to act without planning ahead or fully comprehending their actions. Here, ideas can emerge unencumbered by the harshness or rationality. This “slow journey into the unknown and the unknowable (solnit, 4)” forces to embrace an all-encompassing state of confusion. This allows the wanderer to truly hear what surrounds them, to immerse themselves in it. This is the approach neccessary to learn empathy, because to empathize is to identify with a person by imagining their reality as if it were one’s own, by immersing oneself in it.

simply immersing, and hearing is insufficient. “To hear,” solnit explains “is to let the sound wander all the way through the labyrinth go your ear; to listen is to travel the other way to meet it (solnit, 5).” One must actively. engage with the information, reaching out for it, translating it into one’s own inner language so as to truly understand the others the way they understand themselves: through their senses. if we accept solnit’s definition of empathy, this active emotional connection and curiosity, then I wonder how it would feel to search through that metaphorical labyrinth only to find oneself alone. When we personify our heirlooms and keepsakes, we are acting out of desperation to achieve a sense of empathetic intimacy with an absent person. by picking up the things that they interacted with everyday, one can envelop themselves in the ruins left by their absent loved-one. they can smell the soap as they wash the kitchen sink, can wrap themselves in their coats, and go for walks on the same sidewalks. after all of that is gone, they are left to scour the snapshots and the outdated documents for any traces of that unknowable life.

EMPATHY CAN STILL BE FOUND FOR THOSE WHO ARE ABSENT IF ONE DIRECTS THOSE SAME EFFORTS TOWARDS ARTWORKS, LITERATURE, AND FILM. ALL SPEAK TO THE MINUTIAE OF DAILY LIFE, TO THOSE ASPECTS OF INDIVIDUAL EXISTENCE THAT WOULD OTHERWISE BE LOST.

CITATION:

Solnit, Rebecca. “The Far North Experience: In Praise of Darkness (and Light).” Guernica Magazine, June 17, 2013. https://www.guernicamag.com/rebecca-solnit-the-far-north-of-experience.

Masini, Donna. “On Reckoning with a Mother's Relentless Need to Save Everything.” Literary Hub, September 4, 2019. https://lithub.com/on-reckoning-with-a-mothers-relentless-need-to-save-everything/.

Levine, Suzanne, and Kristin Prevallet. “A Burning Is Not Letting Go.” Guernica Magazine, May 9, 2017. https://www.guernicamag.com/kristin-prevallet-a-burning-is-not-a-letting-go/.

MANY THANKS to Literary Hub and Guernica Magazine, for not hiding your deep wells of collective artistic effort behind paywalls.

FEATURED RESOURCE: SPOTIFY

NO REALLY, THIS IS AN ART RESOURCE:

As a painter, my hands and my eyes are constantly occupied while in my studio. This means that I have less time to catch up on media that I would normally read. In the studio, I use Spotify not just to listen to music, but to stay up to date on the news, to learn about intriguing makers and thinkers in the art world, and to become a a more culturally literate human being. I cite this as an art resource specifically because it features a number of really stellar art podcasts that not only inspire me in the studio, but that introduce important ideas that can advance one’s work in significant ways: many introduce listeners to up an coming artists that they might not otherwise have heard of, others give established artists air time to share useful technical knowledge, still more keep listeners up to date on the complex machinations of the art world, allowing listeners to maintain their awareness of our shared professional community.

DON’T BELIEVE ME?

Bad at Sports: Presents more than 700 interviews with the most influential artists, art historians, curators, critics, and teachers. The episodes are often more than an hour long, and are full of smart ideas that can come in handy when writing an artist statement or advancing a studio practice. They are based in Chicago, which means that they spend a lot of time on local happenings.

Check out episode 360 (where the crew interviews the radiant Lucy Lippard).

Savvy Painter Podcast with Antrese Wood: Host Antrese Wood interviews expert painters about every facet of their studio practices. Episodes are released every other Thursday, and explore a range of subjects such as trends in art sales, the future of painting in the digital age, and parenting as an artist. Other artists focus more on the evolving content of their work, or the technical advances in their studios. In addition, listeners can suggest artists, attend workshops, and learn more about painters who rarely catch the attention of larger publications.

My favorite episode: The love of literature & telling stories through art with Susan Lichtman

The Lonely Palette: Tamar Avishai spends each episode with a specific influential artwork. She starts by interviewing museum-visitors as they stand in front of the piece, exposing listeners to fresh ways of understanding their old favorites. Often, she speaks to people with no artistic background. Then, dives into the more academic portion of the show, breaking down the historical, social, and conceptual contexts that make each piece important. This podcast is useful for those artists who wish they had more time to settle down with a thick book, and want to keep their art history muscles flexed.

Start with episode 0: Art! What is it good for?

SOME OTHER ART PODCASTS WORTH EXPLORING:

I Like Your Work

Eyesore

Art Movements (by Hyperallergic)

Deep Color

WORKS IN PROGRESS:

[ramweb-blog1]

How I earn more than 1000$ through affiliate marketing After complete a Digital marketing course in Patiala?

Hello, I am Manpreet I just complete a Digital marketing course in Patiala. Today, I will share with you the way to earn more than 1000$ through affiliate marketing after complete of My digital marketing course in Patiala. But first, try to understand what affiliate marketing is why would any company give us money? See I have my own nutrition brand Today I am able to tell you about how I earn 1000$ per day With affiliate now, in order to sell the product, I will spend my money on marketing like Google ads, social media or traditional Digital marketing like hoardings, etc.

Now, let's suppose, I sell my product at 500 which includes 100 rupees for all the marketing cost So why don't give that 100 rupees to an affiliate partner Now, I don't have to work on marketing and all because the affiliate partner will do all the things. I can even give him 80 rupees instead of 100 So this is affiliate business So in affiliate programmer companies don't spend on marketing and that's why they give money to the affiliate partners because they do the marketing part on behalf of them Now try to understand how companies calculate commission part Now, let's suppose I will have to spend 100 rs on marketing to sell the product but an affiliate partner sold that product So ideally we should give 100 rupees to him But sometimes we become greedy after doing the overall calculations so we try to cut down his commission So now I gave him 50 rupees. Usually, we get lower than the marketing budget I am only giving an example of 50-100 rupees but normally you will get paid a good amount of money

Now let's talk about Amazon or Flipkart because it also runs their affiliate programmer If you search on Google for "Amazon or Flipkart affiliate partner" so you will get the link to join their affiliate program Now you can promote their products through your blogs or social media pages Now if Amazon is receiving a 5% as a commission on the sale of a product so he will give you some share of that commission Flipkart and other E-commerce also works in the same way But how we will make a big amount of money by working in this way Most of the people will Share you to join Amazon or Flipkart affiliate program But I will Share you a big thing I was Sharing those people who are writing on "lets blogging" to write on a particular niche or category then I will Share you about the way to earn Now what's the way to earn money Let's supposed you have published some blogs and now you have gained some subscriber base. Approx 600-700 people read your blog whenever you publish a new blog

Now you need to check from where this traffic is coming. Let's suppose you are getting traffic from the USA The content that we are publishing is attracting more visitors from the USA Now there's a website which is called "CLICK BANK" According to me, this is the best website for Affiliate marketing Now you go that website and you check out some products according to your niche and category and you got to now that you will get 20-50$ for each sale Let's say you teach meditation so will get 30-50$ for each sale or each conversion Amazon will give you 1% or hardly 2% because they have also some expenses which they need to cover Click bank decide itself what amount they will give Suppose, I want to register my nutrition brand with click bank I will say our marketing cost is 100 rupees so I am ready to pay you 60 rupees Now they will answer, that other companies are giving us 80 or 90 so we can't accept your product In order to register me with them, I have to pay them a competitive price Because of this reason on this site, you will always get a competitive pricing So from now onwards you need to decide on which niche you will write blogs or you can also write blogs related to some specific areas For example, I write blogs for the Indian market so our audience is Indians. So I will sell products or affiliate products only for the indian or in patiala audience to increase the conversion rate So now I will start series from the next week which will include 3-4 blogs on blogging part It will include everything like how to decide niche and topics for blogging, how to get traffic, how to viral our blog How to identify what our competitors are publishing and how can we overtake them. It will include If any of you want to join our nutrition brand affiliate programmer so you can send us the email We are also thinking of charge a nominal price so that only genuine people will apply for this. Fees will be around 50-100 rupees only Whenever someone will use your coupon to buy our product so you will get a commission Along with this, we will also include a few more things Let's say I am giving 20% commission so whenever someone will buy through your coupon so you will get 20% of the sale amount Next coupon will be like you will get a 20% discount. If your friends or family member wants to use it so they will get a 20% a discount We didn't decide the percentage yet. Once we receive emails then we will think about it In the last option, you will get 10% and the buyer will also, get 10% Basically, we want the buyer to fill the coupon If the buyer doesn't use that coupon so you won't be able to track his transaction the first the option is you can keep the entire 20% to yourself I will recommend you to divide For example, you said to a person that if you buy something from this the website then you will get a 10% off discount So 10% will go to a buyer and rest of the 10%, you can keep with yourself. Doing things in this way will increase the rate of conversion But it's all up to you how you want to do things. I am also, Request to join digital marketing Company in Patiala from Tejiinfotech

[miltonvb61-blog]

Can You Really Find web hosting company in Delhi (on the Web)?

you'd need an online host. selecting on the most effective internet hosting company isn't as well really hard. A Webhosting company in Delhi performs the vital part in allocating Place on a particular area in the server To place absent the website and assure it truly is accessible Anytime requested. The social networking web pages could possibly be utilized for promotion. For transfers with the airport, take a look at the location from the airport you might be arriving at, as you'll commonly discover community general public transportation is quite a bit much less expensive. Otherwise no person can be able to discover our Site! look here When you begin trying to find a web hosting business enterprise in Delhi, you might observe there's ideally an excessive amount of cpanel World-wide-web hosting companies. the online-internet hosting business may perhaps give you with a domain title.

Being A Star In Your Industry Is A Matter Of Delhi web hosting

under you are going to discover a radical information to choosing the best Canadian Website hosting for your personal enterprise. There are only a few ways to pay out when hosting your website. to obtain the most effective website hosting Canada reviews might be thoroughly pivotal. you might start off looking into a very free Website hosting company, but Unquestionably totally free products and services frequently cause pop-ups or adverts on your web site. when you have created your free of charge flavor, the following thing to try and do would be to market it to stimulate people today to register on your listing. There are some fairly handy instruments I will add more about all over the web site To help you in acquiring a Idea of what is available To help you be successful Or possibly you are attempting to promote good dwelling organization but are not accomplishing along with you hoped. For anyone who is only starting off on line together with your pretty very first Internet site, you've got really a Understanding curve dealing with you. any individual trying to begin an internet company must have a lot of methods before It really is feasible to construct and endorse a successful site. If you want to to have the total Net server to your website, then you need to go along with dedicated web hosting. you will find absolutely free Internet hosting however , you would require a simple to keep in mind area title which totally free hosts frequently don't offer and you need FTP uploading of the data files which could be tricky to come across without charge. choosing on a host isn't a simple career. The best Internet hosts give you quite a few distinctive applications that may help you superior your web site. Business Web-site web hosting often incorporates a greater price based on the sizing and sort of the website. Every single web hosting company will present a selected amount of bandwidth. Some World wide web hosts give you limitless email account development (which is very good for future expansion), while some source a finite amount. You will be asked for to up grade your hosting alternative in the function your website exceeds their usage guidelines. Shared internet hosting is greatly Accepted that doesn't require Substantially complex being familiar with. see how very simple it really is to obtain on the net. on the web will Allow you to publish several essential notices.

How To Teach web hosting company in Delhi Like A Pro

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How To Quit web hosting company in Delhi In 5 Days

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from time to time it happens your internet site results in being down. You are able to commence dealing with your site immediately and possess a web site Prepared just in time for your website launching. A web site ought to be object-oriented and consumer-friendly. Holding an eco-welcoming site along with a non-eco-welcoming Web site certainly has numerous big difference. Some affordable hosting providers have negative customer treatment and fail to react to consumer requests well timed. Some Website hosts will ask for their shoppers to subscribe for an especially lengthy interval in exchange in the really very low rate tags. You furthermore may want internet hosting providers that include Fantastic purchaser providers. great reseller internet hosting companies is going to be the ones in which the offers are made and the prices quoted will also be fairly honest.

[ascendantgb]

Choice of growth of tools is the real preparation behind CEO branding

The market has only one marketing strategy that works 24x 7 and it is called CEO branding. It is highly essential to step on this professional journey with the professional hands of PR firms. For them, your business website is your public face so every day your public face meets a new glory by way of new blog or article or description upload. Here, experienced IT engineers solve any technical glitch immediately so your popularity sticks to top position for a long period.

Variation in content on all online channels is obligatory

You can turn your eyes from the speedy new turns of the digital shape market where presenting your glorified image has become important on all online channels. Just uploading one same content on all channels would not bring any allure to your personal growth. The event managers of renowned PR firms enjoy the support of experienced writers; surveyors and analysts so each task gets completed to market-friendliness.

Don’t skip this urgent task making your popularity in the market

You must accept the fact that the power of social media is much more than sending messages and maintaining business relations. You can change marketing tools frequently and cover the loss in the very next week. Many skip this urgent task on the base of extra expenses in company budget. We want to inform you that this style of personal marketing is far cheaper than the traditional style of TV advertisements and putting hoardings in public places.

Your responsibilities as a corporate leaders demand perfectness at every step of taking actions. So, be ready to retain your glorified picture on social media accounts, presence in press conferences, becoming a guest in national sports events or a contributor in erasing any social cause that is eating humanity of our societies.

Here, event managers cover each corner of the market that can bring more successful name to you like finding out information about coming sports and social events. They suggest that participation here guarantees favour of billions of eyes in few minutes and amazing popularity with a small speech in the event.

No one is worried about your success. You are responsible to make it for you and your organization. Share your business motives with the masses through media interviews and participation on national sight channels. Your expressions and words take you long in the path of success.

Now these PR firms have started taking services from image gurus so their client can come in perfect picture for the market scene. Your dress sense is the fascination tool to bring youth under your impressions. A big follow ship online ensure big customer ship both on offline and online sales.

You have to carve a place in the heart of common men

Human beings are too emotional than other species of the world so holding position in the hearts of common masses is far more important than your position in the corporate world. Everything is transparent in digital market so never be aggressive with your peer. Anyone can make video of it and it will spoil your image on all channels. You have to sustain your humbleness despite diversities near to you. The professionals working for CEO Branding educate their clients about this result worthy art.

[danieledorazi]

Branding - Theory vs Reality

I often come across book, articles, posts, whatever promising the recipe for success, when it comes to branding, marketing, and whatnot.

Recently, I found this: “10 Branding Elements and What They Mean”

I thought - wow, this is good in terms of theory, but - alas - completely useless today, as fashion (among other businesses) became something unpredictable, random and nonsensical.

The article goes:

1. Brand identity

‘The brand of course is an easily recognizable name that immediately tells people about a certain organization that manufactures certain products or renders certain services.

Brand identity is the way people recognize the brand. It may be through the logo or other associated visuals.2 The Swoosh logo of Nike is very simple, but is immediately recognizable worldwide along with its punchline, “Just Do It”.’

FALSE.

The brand’s name is, nowadays, completely irrelevant. Even pointless. One of the coolest fashion brands in the world is called Acne Studios. Acne. ACNE. A C N E.

What about the logo? Gosha Rubchinskiy’s logo was a hijacking of another, iconic logo. Fiorucci had something like 73 different logos. Today, lots of brands have suspiciously similar logos. 

2. Brand image

‘Brand image is the idea of the brand that people develop in their minds. It also dictates what they expect from the brand. For instance, Rolls Royce has the image of a luxury car maker. So, it cannot be making a budget car even if there is a market. Its existing premium customers won’t take it kindly as it dilutes the said image.

It’s hard and sometimes impossible to change brand image, so it’s best to know what you’re aiming at, before you invest hard earned dollars.’

FALSE.

Balenciaga had the image of a luxury fashion brand. Then it became one of the weirdest expensive brands in the fashion game. And now they produce budget clothes which sell for top dollars. The Triple S shoe is ugly, and made in China. And cost a grand.

“It’s hard and sometimes impossible to change brand image”? Not really, it just takes a new creative director, a few famous influencers and a week of Instagram posting to change it.

3. Brand positioning

‘Positioning is the way a product is placed in the market. It basically defines what segments of the market it is targeting. For instance Virginia Slims is a cigarette targeted at women. Basic ingredients in all cigarettes are same but this one has been positioned to attract women by making it slimmer in size and making the packaging sleeker.’

FALSE.

Supreme was a skateboarding company. Supreme is now a fashion brand. Did they position themselves as such? Nope, the consumers did.

4. Brand personality

‘Brand personality is just like the personality of human beings. It is certain emotional or personal qualities that we associate with a particular brand. For example we can associate youthfulness with Pepsi or ruggedness with Wrangler. Every element of the brand identity including the colour of the logo and the typography on the brand name adds to the personality.’

FALSE.

Polo Ralph Lauren was supposed to be the personification of the American dream, the brand for the Ivy League WASP-rich-blue-eyed-cool-handsome kid with the splendid hair. It’s now collaborating with Palace, finally coming out of the closet as a hip hop brand. Epic.

5. Brand equity

‘Brand equity is the value of a brand. It may include tangible financial value such as market share and revenue as well as intangible aspects such as strategic benefits of the brand. For example Apple is a major technology brand and people perceive it is a premium, cutting edge manufacturer of quality products. So, it is not only the sales but the sheer image that takes the equity to a different level altogether.’

FALSE.

From Wikipedia: ‘Brand equity is the positive effect of the brand on the difference between the prices that the consumer accepts to pay when the brand is known compared to the value of the benefit received.’

Anti Social Social Club offers bad products with basics graphics for serious money. They had no history whatsoever. They sold a gazillion tees and hoodies. Their product is so basic that the fake ones are exactly the same, you can’t tell the original from the fake. What value, then? Ah.

Again, according to Wikipedia, a brand can experience “negative brand equity”, ‘due to catastrophic events to the brand, such as a wide product recall or continued negative press attention.’ Dolce & Gabbana upset the gay community, refuse to embrace sustainability, offend millions of Instagram users, shame countless people for their body shape, claim that sexual harassment is “not violence”,  come up with sexist ads, and, guess what? NOBODY CARES, and the brand sells like hell. Weird, right?

6. Brand experience

‘Brand experience is a combination of everything that a customer goes through while purchasing and using that brand. For example how does one feel while ordering food and eating at KFC? How does the staff behave and how fast do they deliver and of course how did the food taste? Also, since it has many outlets all over the world, all of them are expected to maintain uniform standards of experience.’

FALSE.

Check this out - “Alleged Balenciaga Store Racism Angers Chinese Consumers”

7. Brand Differentiation

‘Differentiation, as the word suggests is how a brand stands out in the crowd. For instance Dell Computers lets people choose their components and assemble their own system, thus making it different from others who just sell readymade machines at the shop with no scope for customization.’

FALSE.

Differentiation, you say? Lol.

8. Brand communication

‘Brand communication is the message it delivers through various sources like adverts, brochures, punchlines and hoardings. If the brand has to grow, it must be able to clearly communicate its core benefits to the customers.’

FALSE.

Balenciaga - again - doesn’t really care when it comes to ‘clearly communicate its core benefits to the customers’, by looking at their Instagram account.

9. Brand gap

‘Brand gap is the difference between what a brand promises to deliver in its communications and what it actually does. For its own sake, the gap should not be very high. A successful brand must be able to deliver what it promises. No amount of advertising or content marketing efforts can save a bad product.’

FALSE.

“In a large part streetwear is seen as cheap. What my goal has been is to add an intellectual layer to it and make it credible,” says Virgil Abloh. So, where is the intellectual layer the brand promises? Oh yes, they put the Mona Lisa on a sweater... wow.

10. Brand extension

‘Brand extension is basically the idea of going beyond ones origins and exploring newer fields. For example Google started as a search engine. But now it provides many other services including emails and mobile operating systems. This is how it has extended the brand but it must be done in a manner so that the existing operations complement the newer initiatives.’

FALSE.

Does the collaboration between Gucci and the NY Yankees make sense, when it comes to newer initiatives complementing existing operations? In other words - what would Guccio Gucci say?