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rotzaprachim · 4 years ago

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be gentle with the people who were not made from The Fall

- Gen, Declan Lynch & Mór Ó Corra

2k ao3 here

She passed Declan a blank manilla envelope. He ran his fingers gingerly over the edges, life having long ago built up a healthy suspicion of anything from the channels of the Fairy Market. He couldn’t feel anything, but he’d also never had the touch for it. At some point he’d always ended up having to hold his breath and jump in in order to get the rough work done.

He slit it open with the knife in his pocket.

There were answers he’d had before he even knew what the questions were. Firstborn, Niall told Declan. My All-American son, Niall told Declan. When you were born the rivers dried up and all the cows in Rockingham County cried blood, Niall told Ronan. When you were born, I wasn’t here, Niall told Declan.

The silence swallowed his voice for a long time.

“Ó Corra?”

She gave him a look that said, you can’t pronounce your own name. Finally she said, “You have my name. It’s what they did when the father couldn’t be found.”

He studied the certificate in the small crescents of yellow light that bounced in through the tinted windows of her sports car from the streetlight outside. The Births and Deaths Registation (Northern Ireland) Order 1976, Article 34. Registered in the District of Belfast. 24 July 1997. Declan James Ó Corra.

There was a box that asked for Name and Surname and Dwelling Place of Father (6). It was blank. There was another box that asked for Rank or Profession of Father. On that one, someone had gona back with a red pen at some later point, scrawled angrily, messily, bleeding jaggedly out from the neat black boxes, GONE.

It made sense, in a strange sort of way that Declan’s brain dimly seemed to recognise in the same way that the drowning man thinks the sun streaming through the surface looks quite nice even when he’s being pulled under. Niall Lynch’s sons. The dreamer son of a dream and the dream of the dreamer the son of a dream. And here now was the odd one out, the liar the son of a lie.

“I was two years younger than you.” The woman finally said. He couldn’t think of her as anything other than the vague idea digging at the back of his eye turned hard, angry secret when he started to shift through his father’s boxes of crap after death. He’d left a fuckton of a lot of loose threads, although Declan hadn’t thought he’d be one of them. Letters and phone bills from a far-away woman, even a photo or two, all the vitriol and anger he’d carried around bubbling up again acridly through a mirror. Collected in an old file box next to IOU’s and pay me bastard or i’ll fuck you ups in seven different languages, three of which Niall didn’t know how to read. Collected, and never returned. Even some photos of him as a kiddo in a tiny knit sweater.

“No explanations.” Declan finally said. His voice sounded like when he’d had the lights punched out of him by one of the goons his dad owed rubles, or rupees, or riyals, in the parking lot of a Fairy Market. It could have been all three. “You don’t have to give me one.” I don’t know if I want one, he didn’t say.

“I’m a very dangerous woman to find, Declan. You wouldn’t have found me if you hadn’t been looking.”

He didn’t know what he wanted. He wanted safety, although he’d ruled out that as a possibility years ago. He wanted the ones the world had left him to care for to be safe, and he’d jeapordised all that on a wild goose chase to find the woman in one of his father’s fucking dream objects on a hunch of a hunch. He’d done exactly what he’d warned Ronan not to do, relied on himself to be smarter, sharper, more careful. All attributes hard won on his own, like learning from imitation from a mirror. You see what this who looks like you does? Now do the opposite.

He sighed. The air bristled, and he realised he sounded a lot like Mór Ó Corra.

“Maybe I-”

Maybe he hadn’t been angry, almost, to find out. Maybe he’d almost been relieved. A voice to his darkest thoughts saying, you did not dream this up. The part of himself that’d been forced through seven years of Catholic school and then forced himself through a few months of therapy where he couldn’t tell the therapist about any of the things that had most profoundly fucked him up said a good man should have loved any child, regardless. He was about fifteen years past thinking Niall to be a good man.

“Maybe I spent so many years dealing with all the fucking dreaming, the dreamers and the dreams and every fucking thing that’s come to kill us because Dad couldn’t fix any of his own shit and the fact that none, none of it was ever part of me that I thought I wanted some kind of fucking explanation for it all. I wanted some- some explanation for it all. Why I was different. WHy dad- … WHy dad. I wanted some part of a past that was mine.” Selfish, maybe. Learned. If you spent a lifetime you were different from other people, eventually you came to a wanting a reason for them to be different from you.

“And you think I’m going to be the dear old Mam who darns your socks and calls to remind you to bring a good girl home to the family?”

“No. I didn’t ask for that. You know what I asked for.”

The second Manilla envelope she gave him was far thicker. This time, he could feel the slightest trace of- something. Not a buzzing, not a mist, a- something. He slid it into his briefcase. No expectations. Nothing more. A deal that was a deal, only a birth certificate instead of a handshake.

“I was two years younger than you. Sometimes life doesn’t hand you many choices. I’d say you didn’t understand, and you don’t, but I’ll also say you’ve been a hell of a lot more of a father than Niall ever was. All the more so since the world’s made you be one.”

Niall was drunk off some kind of spiked slivovitz when he’d come round to it the first time. Retrospectively, he was probably scared shitless, and rightly so. “Anything happens,” he’d slurred into the hotel couch. “You’re the man of the house. Take ‘em to church. Make ‘em proper. Make ‘em fear God. There’s money in the bank, anything happens.” And Declan had almost said, you know it’s my number Matthew’s school’s had down on the books for a year now? You know the priest there already thinks we’re orphans?

“You’ve got a number and an adress. You’re a smart boy. You know if you use it my women’ll kill you just as likely as the dreamkillers.”

“Everything has a price. At least you’re up front on it.”

“I’m not a good woman, Declan. Don’t make your father’s mistake. Don’t dream me into being one.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

---

He didn’t open the package until he’d driven two hours, switched lisence plates and then cars, moved a state line, and walked two miles out to a sublet Jordan knew from a friend of a friend of an enemy in the art underground, where two dreams were now. It came with two dozen forged Miró’s in the living room, all done with a variety of blue paint with a distinctly incriminating synthetic binding agent manufactured solely post 1986, and even in the palest strands of morning light it made the living room into a riot of psychedelic stick-figure Catalan sunshine. He opened the door carefully, walked gingerly past the still-sleeping Matthew, TV still flickering from where he’d probably been watching it far later than Declan would have let him. Flicked the kitchen light on and made himself a cup of instant coffee, and more than anything else resisted the urge to upstairs and collapse next to Jordan in the bed that was for the moment theirs and sleep till noon. But if there was a lesson he’d learned by know it was that he couldn’t do any of the things he wanted to in life. So he downed the shitty instant coffee and he opened Mór Ó Corra’s folder and he got to work. You do what you gotta do for your family, Niall had told him. A deal had gone south and they’d made it out with their lives and stacks of money shoved in their pockets. One day you’ll have yourself a wife and some kids and then you’ll know. And he’d swallowed what he now knew was his rage.

“Ready to make a deal with the devil?” The voice on the other end of the number had said when he’d dialed it, and he said, only the devil can help me now, and he’d been right. No one with their head above the water could know the things he wanted to know about the Moderators. I have two dreamers and two dreams to keep out of the reach of a shadowy intergovernmental agency who’s whole M.O is about killing every dreamer they can find to stop the end of the world. Only a shadow knows its kind. And for her part, Mór Ó Corra had been thorough. He didn’t trust her. He didn’t trust her and he didn’t even know if he trusted the birth certificate. When you were the lying son of a lie, another one would be more natural than anything. He wouldn’t act on any of her information until he could put some feelers out, a few red herrings, get ahold of some of Nialls’ other bullshit to run cross checks. It was a start. At some he’d always ended up having to hold his breath and jump in in order to get the rough work done. At some point, he’d always just been shoved in.

He didnt’ realise he’d fallen asleep until he was woken up. By Matthew, prodding his neck with the tines of a fork.

“You said to wake you up if you slept past noon.” Jordan set down a massive plate of something exactly an inch from his eardrum with a loud clatter.

“It’s 12:02,” Matthew added generously.

He looked down. He hadn’t gotten through the pile. There was still more-

Jordan’s eyes flicked notably towards the floor tiles. Declan followed them. In his early morning haze he’d somehow missed a second, smaller envelope within the envelope. He slipped it into his jacket before Matthew could see. He slid all of the papers back into the envelope before Matthew could see more.

“Two whole extra minutes? Well, that’s where’s where the rest of my day went.”

“You looked like you needed it. Like, you definitely looked like you needed it.” She handed him the day’s second mug of instant coffee and it hit him again that he loved her a not, which would have felt all new and electric even in circumstances that were not the current ones and when and if this was all over with hopefully no more deaths she deserved a really really nice vacation to somewhere sunny. Which he would not promise until he knew he could actually pull it off, because Declan Lynch was a liar but he was not a man who broke promises.

He didn’t open up the other envelope until he was in the bathroom with the door firmly locked. Magical all female mafias ran on the power of the sticky stuff at the top of a Manilla envelope, apparently. Only a few sheets inside. A surprisingly blurry print-out map with a building circled, a clipping from the Belfast Telegraph about the NHS’s most recent warnings on the loneliness epidemic among young adults and seniors, and new local projects for seniors to form new connections through knitting circles, classes in French and Irish, and mentorship opportunities with Sixth-Form students. “Former school teacher Anne Ó Corra recounts feelings of isolation after the untimely death of her only daughter in 1999. She says that mentorship opportunities with Saint Mary’s Compre-” Declan scanned the article. On the back the same hand that had scrawled, GONE, wrote, THink the old bat’d be happy to see you.

#my writings #call down the hawk #declan lynch #Mór Ó Corra #the dreamer trilogy #the raven cycle #the raven cycle fic #i don't remember a lot of hte details of TRC so if there's issues- please let me know! with canon or whatnot #also some of these details are based on a real birth certificate i found to copy the details off from belfast but it was from the 70's

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theladyofdeath · 5 years ago

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The First of Many {Nessian}

Fluff, because Mother’s Day was yesterday. Written alongside the beautiful and talented love of my life, @throne-of-ashes-and-beauty :) From the 2nd gen modern au world of our “The Arrival” short series. enjoy x

It was just after five in the morning when Cassian’s phone began to vibrate under his pillow. He quickly grabbed for it, silencing it and fighting the urge to groan as he rolled face down on his pillow. He debated on taking an extra five minutes to sleep, but knew if he did, he wouldn’t have time to make it to the other room. So even though it went against every fiber of his being, he threw back the covers and rolled out of bed.

He pulled on the sweat pants he’d discarded at the end of the bed the night before and rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes as he yawned. Rounding the bed, Cassian picked up the baby monitor and flicked the switch to mute it. He could see their son sleeping through the screen and smiled. He glanced down at Nesta, still peacefully sleeping in their bed. He wanted to brush her hair off her forehead so he could see her beautiful face, but didn’t want to wake her. He looked back to the screen and saw tiny, squirming arms and swore, carefully setting the monitor down and jogging across the hall.

He stepped in the room and closed the door with a soft click. His seven-month-old son was babbling to himself in the crib, but Cassian knew that was short lived. He crept to the rocking chair in the corner and sat, closing his eyes until he was needed.

He woke up with a start when a piercing cry shook the room.

He jumped to his feet and picked up his young son, cooing down at him and gently bouncing him. “No, buddy, please. It’s mama’s first Mother’s Day and she’s very, very tired.”

Thorn’s cries died down, although he was still fussing as Cassian carried him from the room and down the stairs. The further away from the master bedroom he got to get this kid through his morning routine, the better chance Nesta had to sleep in.

And that was the plan.

So Cassian and Thorn entered the kitchen to warm up a bottle, and while it was heating, Cassian changed his diaper, although Thorn hardly stayed still as he did so. By the time Cassian got the diaper strapped on him, he didn’t even care about attempting to get his pajamas back on.

At least by that point, the bottle was warm, and Cassian plopped down on the couch with his baby boy and fed him the bottle as he said, “So, it’s Mother’s Day today. This time last year you were in mama’s belly. That means that we have to make today extra special.”

Thorn looked up at Cassian with big hazel eyes and long, dark lashes as he drank.

“Exactly,” Cassian went on. “I got her flowers on my way home last night, and I said they’re from you, but I’m not going to ask you to sign the card...you know, because you can’t. However, I got this little handprint thing, right? Which means daddy’s going to stick your hand in ink, press it against a sheet of paper, then frame it...and we have to do that before mommy wakes up. You up for that?”

Thorn gurgled, forcing milk to drip down his lip and onto his belly.

“Awesome,” Cassian said, wiping it off with a burp cloth. “I’m going to take that as a yes, and I’m also going to ask that you don’t do that on the gift. Alright?”

Thorn spat the nipple out of his mouth and giggled, reaching up for Cassian. With a soft, fond gaze in his hazel eyes, Cassian set the bottle on a coaster and held Thorn up against his chest, patting his back as he stood and carried Thorn into the kitchen.

They were the first out of their little group of friends and family to get pregnant, and Cassian had been the first to admit that he knew nothing about babies. He’d been an only child and had a shitty home life growing up, which meant that when Nesta had told him that they were going to have a baby, that he was going to be a father, he had freaked the fuck out.

He laughed thinking back on it. Now, he felt like he filled the daddy role fairly well. The best he could, anyway. He may not do everything by the book, but he was doing the best he could, and he really loved his boy.

And Nesta was a kickass mom.

Which was why her first Mother’s Day had to be perfect. It was the start of many Mother’s Days, the foundation of them all, the one that would forever set the bar for the future.

He’d spent weeks trying to decide what he should do for Nesta today, everything from a day at the spa (too expensive) to the new purse he’d seen her eyeing when they’d been walking back from Thorn’s six month check up last month (also too expensive), and he’d even asked his brothers. Neither of them had been helpful and he imagined Feyre and Elain were going to be spending their first Mother’s Days disappointed if their suggestions of a candle and “a nice book” held true.

Things had been rough since Nesta had Thorn the fall before. They’d discussed it during her entire pregnancy, and Nesta decided to quit her job as a travel agent and be a stay at home mom. It was everything Nesta had always dreamed of, but going from two salaries to one had made things a bit more tight around the Nazari house. It also didn’t help that Thorn had to have the special kind of formula, otherwise there weren’t enough diapers in the world to keep him changed and happy.

Cass pulled the Bumbo seat from the kitchen table where Nesta had been feeding him the night before and set it on the counter. He set Thorn in it and buckled him up, chuckling as his son immediately began to smack his little feet against the surface. He babbled and Cassian couldn’t help but grin as he reached for his own foot, the thick padding of the seat keeping him from grabbing it.

“Not quite, bud,” Cassian said, smiling, as he crossed the small kitchen and opened the pantry. He reached into the very back, behind the two year old boxes of jell-o and the stash of Ramen noodles he kept hidden away and got the stamping kit he’d ordered the week before.

“Alright, now this stuff is messy,” he said, reading the directions on the back of the box to his son, even though he had no idea what he was talking about. He set down the box and leaned down on his elbows in front of Thorn. “So we’re going to lay down some towels so mama doesn’t cut daddy’s favorite body part off for staining her counters. Cause we want to give you a brother or a sister one day, yes, we do.”

Thorn began blowing bubbles and he grabbed for Cassian’s hair.

With a chuckle, Cassian opened the junk drawer and took out a hair tie to bundle up his shoulder-length hair before they continued. He had learned fairly quickly that Thorn, although little, had a hell of a grip. Nesta wouldn’t let him cut his hair, though.

She loved it long.

She liked to grab onto it, too, from time to time.

After finding a towel and setting it down, he opened the contents of the box. There wasn’t much in it, just an ink pad, a piece of cardstock, and a little picture frame to put it in when it was all finished.

“Alright,” Cassian breathed, opening the inkpad and setting it down. He had hardly reached for the cardstock when Thorn picked up the inkpad and was bringing it to his little mouth. With a violent curse that probably shouldn’t be muttered in front of a seven-month-old, Cassian took the inkpad back, set it a solid distance away, and wiped Thorn’s hand off with the towel.

Hopefully Nesta didn’t love that towel, because it was going to be a mess, Cassian was certain, by the time they were done.

“We gotta hurry,” Cassian said, taking Thorn’s little hand into his and pressing it into the ink. Thorn looked completely confused. “Mama will be awake soon.”

Thorn, little fingers wiggling, pressed his hand against the cardstock. It looked like a giant blob. Cassian frowned. That wasn’t exactly what he was expecting.

“Yeah, we’re gonna try that again on the back,” Cassian muttered, setting it aside as he picked up the inkpad and pressed Thorn’s little hand into it, once again. “This time, spread out your fingers, kid.”

Thorn babbled something angrily at his daddy.

Cassian assumed it resembled something close to “fuck you”.

He blew out a quick breath and said, “Alright, Nazari, you do this all the time. Just like taking fingerprints.”

Thorn was staring up at the ceiling and pointing with his clean hand, so Cassian took advantage of the distraction and Cassian rolled his hand, from heel to fingertip, across the cardstock, and let out a sigh of relief when he was left holding a perfect print of a chubby, little hand.

Cassian unwrapped the picture frame, throwing the plastic away and carefully lined the print up in the frame. He set it upright and looked at it, with a satisfied grin.

The frame read “Best mommy, hands down”, and Cass was about to pat himself on the back for figuring out a way to slip a pun into Nesta’s Mother’s Day present when he remembered Thorn’s hand was still covered in ink.

And now, so was his entire little, chubby body.

“Ah, fuck,” Cassian sighed, setting the frame down before unbuckling Thorn from the Bumbo seat and carrying him up the stairs, quietly, and into the bathroom across the hall from the nursery. He shut the door with a soft click before turning on the water, tossing Thorn’s diaper in the garbage under the sink, and setting him inside. “We have to stay quiet,” Cassian whispered, turning off the water, running a soapy washcloth over Thorn’s legs. “Mama’s still sleeping.”

At the mention of mama, Thorn was giggling and clapping his hands.

“I know, we love mama, don’t we?” Cassian chuckled, washing off all the tiny, little inked handprints that had covered Thorn’s soft, tanned skin. Once the baby was clean, Cassian wrapped him in a towel and looked in the mirror. Cassian grinned at the reflection of him and his mini-me as the tub drained, and it was then that Cassian realized he had a series of tiny handprints across his own chest.

He turned, reaching for where he’d laid the washcloth over the edge of the sink, and-.

The door opened and a sleepy Nesta shuffled forward a step, before jumping back, a hand to her chest. “Oh, my god, Cassian, you scared the-.” She took in the image before her. “Your- Is he- What is happening?”

Cassian tried to play it cool, but at the sight of Nesta, Thorn began to babble excitedly and was wiggling in Cassian’s arms. “Good morning, beautiful, what are you doing up?”

Nesta looked at him through tired, narrow eyes. “I had to pee. What’s going on?”

“Just some father son bonding time,” Cassian lied, coolly. “We’ll just head downstairs so you can do what you need to do and-.”

He’d been trying to slip past her, but a hand was planted firmly on his chest before he could make it out of the bathroom. “What did you do to my baby? What is all over your chest?” She tried to fight off the yawn that made her pause, but she couldn’t. “And what time is it?”

“Go back to bed,” he whispered, and planted a kiss on her forehead before carrying Thorn back down the stairs, ignoring a confused, protesting Nesta.

He grabbed a diaper from the changing basket in the living room, strapped it on his infant, and walked back into the kitchen. Thorn continued to babble as Cassian threw the garbage away, opened the pantry and pulled a bouquet of flowers and a card out, which he’d hid there after he returned from work last night. After collecting the picture frame in his hand, too, he carried them all back up the stairs. Nesta was still in the bathroom, although the sink was running.

Thorn was picking flower petals off of one of the roses as they entered the master bedroom. Cassian was at the point that he didn’t give a damn.

He set down the picture frame, the card, the flowers, and himself on the bed. After falling back against the pillows, he laid Thorn on his chest and let out a long, slow breath.

Thorn was instantly alert, pulling himself up on his hands to look at Cassian.

“Mission accomplished, bud. Good job,” he said, rubbing soothing circles on his back.

He babbled incoherently again and Cassian chuckled, laying back and closing his eyes. He could feel Thorn’s little heart beat against his skin and he sighed, loving this moment.

It took no time at all for Thorn to fall back asleep and Cassian to do the same.

He only awoke five minutes later because he heard constant sniffling from beside him.

Cassian's eyes shot open, although careful not to wake Thorn as he looked at the other side of the bed where Nesta sat, the card open on her lap, staring at the little framed handprint in her hands.

“Fuck,” Cassian yawned. “I missed your reaction? Damn it.”

A laugh bubbled out of Nesta as she looked up from the handprint to her husband. “It’s pretty much what you’re seeing right now. I guess the war paint makes sense now,” she said, glancing down at the ink still covering his chest.

“You should have seen your son before I gave him a bath. Face, hair, belly, legs.” Cassian chuckled and absent mindedly resumed his circles on Thorn’s back.

Nesta lovingly set the frame on her nightstand, right next to the baby monitor. She looked at the flowers, the card, the frame and her eyes welled up with tears. “Thank you. This is- It’s perfect. I love you so much.”

Cassian lifted his arm, allowing his wife to scoot closer and lay her head in the crook of his shoulder. She brushed Thorn’s soft hair from his face and whispered, “Has he eaten?”

“Had a full bottle,” Cassian said, nestling back into the pillows.

She turned her head slightly, so she could see his face. “He’s been changed?”

He cracked an eye and he was doing his best to hide that sheepish grin she loved so much. “Technically, we’re on diaper number three of the day.”

Nesta sat up slightly and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “And he’s been burped?’

Cassian laughed, “Contrary to what our family believes, I actually can take care of our kid.”

Nesta snorted. “I never said you couldn’t, but usually I’m the one up doing it all because you’re usually at work.”

She leaned up to kiss his cheek, but Cassian turned his face and caught her lips.

“I couldn’t miss your first Mother’s Day,” he muttered against her mouth.

She snuggled up next to him, gently running a finger over Thorn’s soft cheek. “He’s the greatest gift I’ve ever gotten,” she mused, lost in the way his little fist was wrapped tight in the blanket Cassian had covered them with.

“He’s the greatest gift you’ve ever given me,” Cassian said, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she said, curling up against him, carefully laying her hand on Thorn’s back.

He held her as close to him as he could. “What else do you want to do for your first Mother’s Day?”

“It’s six-fifteen on a Sunday morning, my sexy ass husband has taken care of our baby, and I don’t have to get out of bed all day,” she mumbled, face pressed into his skin. “I want to sleep.”

“Sleep or sleep? Because Thorn is out….I can easily carry him into the nursery and lay him down…” Cassian muttered.

Nesta rolled her eyes as she yawned. “Sleep.”

“Fine,” Cassian sighed, closing his eyes.

A moment passed, the three of them snuggled close in the silence.

“Although,” Nesta said, looking up at Cassian, “if you want to lay him down first-.“

Cassian was already sitting up, Thorn asleep against his chest with his little mouth hanging open. Nesta laughed as he quickly, but carefully, hurried across the hall and was back in a flash. Rather than go around to his side of the bed, he jumped onto the mattress and tackled Nesta into the pillows.

“Cassian!” She cried, laughing. His face was pressed in her face and he looked up, grinning.

“Nesta!” He said, doing a spot on impression of her scolding voice. He rolled off of her and wrapped her up in her arms, softly kissing her. He ran a hand down her body and Nesta kissed him back, her sleep quickly forgotten.

Cassian pulled away and said, “Shit…”

Nesta asked, concern in her voice, “What is it?” She looked toward the open doorway, half expecting to find their infant son standing there.

He reached across the bed and flicked the switch on the baby monitor. The sounds of their son’s room filtered through the speaker.

They both waited a moment, in silent tension, waiting to see if his silence remained. When it did, Cassian let out a loose breath and laughed, quietly.

His hands snuck up beneath her shirt, his shirt that she’d slept in.

“Happy Mother’s Day,” he whispered.

“Thanks,” she smiled, running her fingers through his hair.

“Time to make you a mommy all over again,” he muttered, mischief dancing in those hazel eyes as he pressed his mouth to hers.

Nesta laughed against his lips as she let him do just that.

#nessian #nesta #cassian #fanfic #fanfiction #oneshot #collab #TOAAB #shara tag #cassian x nesta #acotar #acomaf #acowar #acofas #modern au #gen 2 #the arrival

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jawritter · 5 years ago

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Daddy’s Little Girl...

Request: Hey you! Can I request a Jensen x Reader fic where they just had a kid. But for some reason only Jensen is able to calm the kid down. And the reader feels like she’s failing as a mother and as Jensen’s partner and feels left out. With lots of angst and fluff too, please? Thank you so much!

Warnings: None really, angst, emotional reader, some fluff. I think that’s about it..

Pairing: Jensen Ackles x Reader

Word Count: 2009

A/N: Okay guys disclaimer here.. This is a work of fiction, and I mean no harm to the Ackles family at all. Also I know this is a pic of Dean and a baby, and not Jensen, but I didn’t feel comfortable using a pic of Jensen’s actual children over a work of fanfiction. Guess I’m just funny that way. Sue me.. Feedback is golden! Please do not copy my work! All mistakes are mine!! I wanted to have this one ready in time for mother’s day...Oooppsss.... LOL. Enjoy lovelies!!

Want more? Check out my Masterlist!!

****MASTERLIST****

Emotions... So Many emotions...

Being a new mother was hard, and by no means did you expect it to be easy. Still nothing could have prepared you for the rollercoaster of emotions that seemed to be crashing into you with every other hour that clicked by on the clock.

At first it was joy, and happiness that you had even felt before. The excitement of bringing a new life into the world with the love of your life, then it was the happiness of bringing that new life home for the first time.

All that work you had put into setting up a nursery, organizing and planning, it had all gone down the drain pretty quickly.

You discovered that there was no 'game plan' in taking care of a newborn, and you had to adjust pretty quickly to rolling with the punches.

Joy turned to exhaustion, with long nights of staying up with a colicy newborn baby, and long days alone nursing while Jensen was working long hours filming. No other adult interaction, and no help. Just you and your baby...

Exhaustion turned into frustration, which only…. No that's not right...

Exhaustion turned into relief, which later turned into flustation...

You daughter had been crying for three hours straight. Nothing you did seemed to satisfy her. Nursing didn't work. You tired things like gripe water, and other colic relief methods that you googled online. You tried rocking her down for a nap, walking and bouncing across the floor. Singing. Nothing seemed to be doing the trick, and your daughter just kept crying...

Then Jensen walked in, coming through the door, and taking your daughter from your tired arms, and started rocking her and singing to her...

Just like that the crying stopped, and relief flooded you...

Even though Jensen had worked an almost 14 hour shift, he told you to go and take a nice long bath, and if he needed you he'd call for you. To 'take a minute for some me time'. Which you gladly did...

One week….

That's how long it took the frustration to set in...

It seemed like Jensen just had the magic touch. There was no other way to put it.

Whether it was late at night, or whether it was mid day. She could be screaming to the top of her extremely healthy little lungs, everything you tried to do failed at your feet, but as soon as she was in his arms, she stopped...

They always talked about this 'maternal instinct' that would kick in, and about the bonding of a mom and her newborn in the first few weeks of life, how magical it was...

You got to experience none of that, maybe you were born with a maternal switch missing, maybe there was something wrong with you.

Are you not a good mother?

Were you not doing it right?

What was the deal?

Why did Jensen seem better at parenting than you?

As the weeks drug on to months, the only thing changed was that the preference of your daughter was absolutely her daddy, and not you..

He got the first smile….

He got the first laugh…..

He got the first word!! Dada! She still had yet to say mom, or mama….

Everyone assured you that it was just early, and that you were doing everything right. Dada was just easy to say, and that she didn't even really know what she was saying, just mimicking sounds..

Gen swore it was his voice that she found so soothing, and you could understand that, because you found it soothing to when nothing else was, but you still felt left out.

Like he had some bond with your child that should have been yours...

What made it all even worse was the fact that you were having a hard time keeping up with everything in the house.

Laundry was piling up, the kitchen was never clean enough, dinner was hitting the table later and later..

You forgot to pick up the one thing that Jensen asked you to pick up for him from the grocery store today, because as soon as you got there your daughter had the biggest blow out diaper of her life, and you had to change it.

You had forgotten to pack enough diapers because you didn't think you were going to be there that long, and now she only had the one you changed her into, so you felt like you had to rush.. In case it happened again…

Totally forgetting what Jensen needed you to pick up...

Then there was the fact that the two of you were having sex less and less. You were just so tired by the time you went to bed at night, that you just weren't in the mood. It wasn't that you loved him any less, because he was your everything, but you just were physically exhausted, and you felt overwhelmed. Like everything was piling up and it was just.... Too much...

Tonight was the biggest fight you had ever had as a couple...

When dinner was finally served... an hour late... and he'd bathed your little girl for you so that you could get caught up on folding some clothes, he'd come into the bedroom and suggested that maybe he should hire a housekeeper to help you keep up with the house...

That stung… Even though it shouldn’t have….

Did he think you were failing now as a wife... as a partner....

In your offense you had jumped down his throat..

Your words ring in your ears. Stinging at you the way that they had at him...

"Why? Why do you think you need to hire a maid Jensen... What, is the dinner not out fast enough for you? Is the house not clean enough for your liking? I don't need some stranger coming in, and helping me run my house Jensen. Our life is in the public eye enough.."

"Sweetheart... You're exhausted, overwhelmed, let me hire someone to help you. It's not about clean enough, or dinner it's..."

"THAT'S BULLSHIT JAY, THAT'S TOTALLY WHAT IT'S ABOUT!!! YOU THINK I CAN'T KEEP UP WITH EVERYTHING. THAT I'M NOT GOOD ENOUGH!! WELL LET'S SEE YOU DO IT ALL!!! LET'S SEE YOU MAKE THE GROCERIES, LET'S SEE YOU COOK DINNER WITH A BABY ON YOUR HIP SCREAMING, LET'S SEE YOU KEEP THE HOUSE SPOTLESS!!!"

"Y/n please your overreacting.."

"I'M OVERREACTING? FUCK YOU JENSEN! I'M SORRY I DON'T HAVE THE MAGIC TOUCH THE WAY YOU DO, OR OUR DAUGHTER PREFERS YOU OVER ME! I'M SORRY I'M NOT GOOD ENOUGH! GO AHEAD!! HIRE YOUR FUCKING MAID!!!" Throwing the clothes you were folding in his face you pushed past him towards the door, nearly knocking him down as he tried to reach for you..

"WHILE YOUR AT IT WHY DON'T YOU MAKE A POST ON YOUR INSTAGRAM ABOUT HOW SHITTY OF A MOTHER I AM SO YOUR FANS CAN SEE JUST HOW SHITTY OF A WIFE I AM TOO!!!"

Before he could respond you slammed the door in his face, but you didn't miss the hurt look as the door slammed...

Hours later your daughter was in bed, and you sat alone in your room crying, unable to face him. You felt like a failure, you overreacted and blew up in his face,because you thought that he thought you weren't good enough, you were confused, probably more than a little hormonal, and a whole lot hurt about a whole lot of things…

Right now though, it was the crushing guilt and regret you felt for blowing up at him…. When you knew he was just trying to help you...

A soft knock at the door made you nearly jump out of your skin, and you hurried to wipe your face when you saw Jensen standing cautiously in the doorway...

"Hey." He said softly, but not daring to come into the bedroom, probably fearful of another blow up from you...

"Hey." You said, your voice deep and thick from crying... Looked back down at your hands, too ashamed to look at him standing there in the doorway like he was afraid of you...

"Can I come in?" He asked, and you just nodded. Picking at a loose thread on your comforter.. You felt the bed dip under Jensen's wait as he sat down next to you...

"Sweetheart I'm sorry, I shouldn't have suggested a maid. I wasn't thinking, and I didn't mean to hurt you. I'm sorry that I made you feel like you weren't doing a good job because you are....I could just see how tired you are, and thought that I was helping..."

Reaching over he wiped away the tears that were now falling down your face, when you looked up at him he reached his arms around you, pulling you into his hold. Kissing the top of your forehead lightly..

"You're doing a great job baby, our little girl loves you so much, I love you, I can't imagine doing this without you, I don't know how you keep all of this going, I'd already have pulled my hair out. I'm sorry I made you feel bad baby, please forgive me, I hate when you're mad at me. I don't hate the fact that I'm the reason you're crying right now. I’m not her favorite baby, she loves you too, so much.."

His voice was strained, and it made you lift your head off his shoulder to look up at him for the first time, really look at him..

There were deep circles around his eyes with bags to match, long nights filming, and long nights here taking their toll. His hair was a mess from constantly running his hand through it. The lines around his eyes showed more tonight, and his brow was creased from worrying. There were a few grey hairs speckled in his beard, and there was a spit up stain on his sleeve.

It hit you then....

He'd been in the trenches right there with you, not working against you because you're a bad mom, but doing everything that he could to try and ease the load just a little.

He hadn't made that suggestion tonight because you were a failure he did it because he loved you..

Wrapping your arms around his neck you buried your face in his neck...

"I'm sorry Jensen. I overreacted. I'm not crying because of you. It's just hormones, and exhaustion.."

Jensen lifted your lips to his, brushing his lips over yours..

"I have another suggestion, but I don't want you to get mad at me, this was actually something I was thinking about before the baby.."

You sat up a little in his arms, and looked into his tired green eyes. The ones that you fell so hard for so long ago...

"Okay, I promise I won't yell at you no matter what you say." You told him, making him chuckle a little.

"Let's move to Dallas, closer to my parents, that way we can have a baby sitter we trust, and when you need a some extra hands, or when just want to have a date night that we haven't had in forever my mom and dad can help, or even my siblings, it won't be strangers, and it gives all of us a chance to be around family. Plus my mom would be over the moon."

You smile at him a little, and the relief on his face was evident when you did. The thought of Donna spoiling another granddaughter was fun to think about...

Poor baby would be so overdressed, and over bowed that it made you giggle a little.

"Actually Jay, I like that Idea a lot, let's go home."

Jensen brushed his lips lightly over yours again...

"I love you Mama."

"I love you to Daddy.."

Just as you were about to kiss him again a cry sounded from the nursery that sounded a whole hell of a lot like Dadda, and you couldn’t help but giggle..

“Okay, well I’ll admit that she’s definitely a daddy’s girl.” Jensen said, pecking you on the lips before getting up to go get her..

“You better still be awake when I get back, I’m not done making this up to you.” Jensen said with a wink that insinuated everything dirty you could possibly think of, making you fall over laughing on the bed. God you loved that man..

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tag List:

@deanwanddamons @imabitch4jensen @rvgrsbrns @bi-danvers0 @onethirstyunicorn @i-love-superhero @akshi8278 @alanegaming @magssteenkamp @lemondropirwin @squirrelnotsam @hobby27 @spnbaby-67 @mrsjenniferwinchester @defenderrosetyler @screechingartisancashbailiff @thecreatiivecorner @aflamboyanceofgays

#jensen ackles #jensen ackles fanfiction #jensen ackles fanfic #jensen ackles x you #jensen ackles x reader #jensen x you #jensen x reader #daddy!jensen #spn #fanfiction #x reader #x reader inserts #jawritter

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helly-watermelonsmellinfellon · 4 years ago

Text

So it’s still letting me play DbD even though the thing ran out on the 8th. I don’t know why but I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth. I don’t have to spend money that I don’t have.

It’s a Hag. I’m Feng Min. We’re both short af and at this really high loop where I could only see her red stain to gauge how to act. And I slam the pallet on her and run around the corner of the loop, hoping she’ll stay to break it so while she’s momentarily distracted, I can Urban Evade away. She does! I do! It works like a charm! I’m like 10 feet away behind a tree now, watching her circle the same loop over and over trying to find me! It’s great!

IstG, every fucking person I’ve played with, who plays as Felix, ends up being the biggest fucking coward and IDK why!

So I’m doing the Unbreakable, Flip Flop, Boil Over, and Sprint Burst build. I get the Autohaven map with the small building on the one side that’s got 2 doors and like a million windows. And it’s a Trapper who apparently wants a Basement Game. And the Basement is in that building that has all these windows and doors to trap up. Fun! Well, any sane person knows that if you get Chased by the killer, don’t go near the Basement because it’s harder for everyone if you get put down there. So I lead him away. He gets me downed on the other side of the map, pauses to hit someone, breaks the pallet they threw down, damages their Gen, and then picks me up. He has Iron Grasp, Agitation, and Mad Grit. Boil Over is the direct foil to Iron Grasp so this is useful for me. Also, I was Recovered on the ground, thanks to Unbreakable, about 95%, so Flip Flop set my wiggle bar at around 45% already. I managed to wiggle off before we even got to the trapped building, and then Sprint Burst back to the other side of the map. This exact same scene repeated 3 more times before the last time I actually managed to Unbreakable off the ground and Sprint Burst away because he got distracted by the other 3 dudes. It was a long ass game but we all Escaped. I didn’t do that build for the rest of the day because all that wiggle hurt my hand.

Got a Ghost Face with an Ebony Mori. I pohotobomb his first Mori and then run. He Hits me but I stun him and he loses me in Chase. He downs and Hooks the other 3 no problem. So I ended up photobombing his 3rd Mori and then just standing there because I’m not putting in that much effort for the Hatch when I’m already Injured. We crouch and have a stare off. Then he PMs me with a screenie of me photobombing him! He downs me, lets me wiggle off when we can’t find Hatch, so I point to a Hook and let him Hook me. He photobombs my death! I sent him the screenshot! He was funny.

So many Trappers today wtf?

Got a Leatherface who DCs because everyone else was running him around and whenever he’d down me, I’d go to the same corner of the map. My build was all about wiggling out as fast as possible. Boil Over concealed the location of the nearest Hooks to him so he didn’t know where to go the first time and dropped me before I could wiggle off so he could go check. I Recovered to 99% and Meg gets me up and I flee while she runs him. I Heal up the other Meg who then Heals me. I go back to that corner since my gen wasn’t done. Repeat but wiggle off this time. Go back to that far corner. He abandons me to Chase someone else and while I’m almost done with my Gen, he rage-quits.

Ran a Rank 1 Hillbilly for fucking ever. Wasted every pallet on the map in the process but the last 4 Gens got done in that time so that’s okay I guess. He curved me real good at the end though so I sent him a GG even though i died. And dude was telling his chat that his curving isn’t good! Liek fuck man, you got me at an impossibel angle.

Got a Clown using all Clown Perks and Sloppy Butcher. And I was wondering why Healing was taking so fucking long cuz I didn’t know what Coulrophobia did! And even with that BS, I still managed to Escape at the end because he left me dying on the ground in front of a 3/4 open door. So while he went to Hook the last dude, I got myself up and opened the Gate and gtfo!

So I forgot that I was Readied Up because I had an emergency involving the time of the month. I rush to the bathroom and take care of business, realize what I did, and rush back. I’ve gotten into a match and have 3 crows. Pyramid Head just found me. Somehow we got that match to last 20 minutes, and I still managed to Escape despite being Hooked first and being downed in the doorway. Dude was camping one Gen super hard because two distracted him there. I did the last on the other side of the map.

Got a lot of fucking Swamps today(Monday). Sick of them and spawning in the same fucking place each time. The felled tress are pissing me off since the one side of the one map is just loaded with them.

Played some great matches with Twitch streamers today(and I followed them).

Got 4 matches in a row where I used the same fucking Key in each one. When there’s a streamer in the lobby, I check if they’re streaming and listen in to their side of events. Helps me perform much better so that they don’t have make weird gestures that I won’t understand.

I once got a chick was giggling at me teabagging her in greeting and she told her chat she wished Claudette would get in her face and have a stare down so she can screenshot how weird it looks. So I got off the Gen and did so. “Wait, can she hear me?” I nodded very slowly. “Claudeet, turn clockwise and then teabag once.” I did so. “OMG! Are you watching the stream while we play?” I nodded again. “Awesome!” I just took orders from her for the whole round and we both managed to Escape. No one else did but does that matter?

Dude #3 was streaming with his 2 friends, and dude #1 was like, ‘saw the Hatch by the one door’. And I run over there and teabag over it with my Key. ‘Holy shit she’s got a key! Get over here! Claudette, Heal me!’ So I did. Dude #2 got downed. ‘Let’s go save him.’ So we did. We each took Hits do he couldn’t get Hooked and then lead all the way back to the Hatch and got the 4-man Escape.

So I fucked with a Huntress super hard! She went to Hook Bill, and I was following with Breakout. I box her in against the left side of the Hook just cuz I wanted to see if it would work. It did! She wasn’t far enough away to get the prompt so she just turned side to side madly while he wiggled. He got free and I’m crouched in the grass so she didn’t even notice me as she goes to Chase him again. He gets downed and brought back to the same Hook and I morph out of the grass to box her in again! He wiggles out. I was going to do it the third time but she went to a new Hook and I wanted to see if I can trick her into thinking this one Hook is glitched or some shit. So I save him with Borrowed Time and she immediately comes back to tunnel him. He runs her for a Gen and gets downed by that first Hook. Again. I appear like a phantom of the bog and box her in for a third time! In the middle of her mad spinning, the game ends. She rage-quit! I should feel bad but I don’t. It was funny. Also, tunneling Bill the whole fucking match is just shitty. Like, she hard ignored people whose asses he practically groped in passing while in Chase.

I load in to a lobby with a swf group. 2 of them send me party invites so I take the plunge. My mic on my headphones wasn’t working and I had enough time to tell them that before the game started. I had no time to switch headphones. We did good. One was like, ‘we send them a friend request, they’re good. Rank 4 means they play a lot’. So they each send me a request and I accept. I swap headphones and we can finally talk. And no one was threatened by the fact that I’m a girl who is ranked higher than them! ^-^

Dude jinxed us my saying ‘what if it’s a Spirit on The Game?’ and that’s what happened!

My first match with them.

^I just wanted to see if Sprint Burst out the top window could get me onto this thing and it worked!

#stuff #dbd #dead by daylight

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winryofresembool · 5 years ago

Text

Fic: A Birthday to Remember

A/N: Happiest of birthdays to @mcgonnagle!! :3 ♥ When I started writing this fic, I was not imagining it to become 3k+ words, but somehow that just happened :’D But I still hope you are going to enjoy it! I sure enjoy myself some parental Edwin and I hope you do too :D

Summary: Edwin daughter Emma’s 10th birthday (sorry, I have no idea how to summarize this mess otherwise :*D)

words: 3400+ (woops)

genre: floof, I guess some hurt/comfort

warnings: Ed’s language

...

”Emma?”

”Yeah, dad?” the eldest daughter of the Rockbell-Elric family lifted her gaze from her book. Her father, Edward, was standing next to her, staring at her with a weird expression.

“Is there something you’d like for a birthday gift, Bean?” he asked.

“Sure. That the twins would go away and I could hear my thoughts so I can read.” She gave her dad a pointed look. She had made it clear many times the twins annoyed her, and Ed sighed.

“Listen, Emma. We know that the constant crying is getting into your nerves. Heck, it’s getting into all our nerves. But they are just babies, Truth knows you were just as loud when you were of their age.”

“You’re not helping, dad.” Emma rolled her eyes but decided to change the topic. Slowly, she said: “If you really want to know what I want though, it’s someone to play with. Alan… is always tinkering something in the workshop when he’s home, and Elena likes playing with her pretty dolls. I want to go out and explore and there’s no one I can do that with.”

“You’re not having friends at school?” Ed asked worriedly. He could still remember what it felt like when he only had Al to rely on.

With brutal honestly Emma answered: “They’re all stupid, they don’t understand when I rant about my favorite books and they call me know-it-all behind my back just because I know the answers to teachers’ questions better than they do. So no, I don’t want to be their friend.”

“I’m… I’m sorry,” Ed grunted, not sure what else to say. He wished he had Winry to help him with this talk. “You know… sometimes we misinterpret things a lot. And we judge other people too fast. Do you know how I got to know the Emperor of Xing? He was in Amestris illegally, without anything to eat or drink, so he bought some with my money when we had just met. A shitty thing to do, right? But I learned to know him better and found out he was actually very serious about his country, and he seemed less bratty after that. Not to mention, he and Greed actually turned out to be pretty valuable on the Promised Day. But my point is, sometimes we find friends in very unexpected situations if we just keep eyes open. I’m sure you will too.”

“Uh, thanks dad. I hope you’re right,” Emma said awkwardly, focusing her eyes on her book.

“I know I am. And Emma,” Ed added after a brief silence.

“Yeah?”

“Your old man may be an annoying guy a lot of the time…And I know the twins have taken a lot of our time lately… But whenever you need to talk, know that I am always here. And I do want to know how you’re doing. And so do your mum and your siblings.”

“Oh… Yeah, I’ll try to remember that.” Emma nodded. She wouldn’t admit it, but she had needed to hear that.

“Good,” Ed said and turned to leave.

“Dad?” Emma said hesitantly when Ed was almost out of the room.

“Mmmh?”

“Can I… get a hug?”

Ed was caught a bit off guard, but he was happy about Emma’s question nevertheless. “Sure thing, Bean,” he said and returned back to her.

“Don’t call me that,” Emma mumbled against his shirt, but was still happy to wrap her arms around him.

“You’ll always be my Bean.”

“Ugh, why do you have to ruin the moment like that?” Emma growled, although not very seriously.

“Because that’s my job, right? To annoy my kids. Anyway, I should probably get going because I just got an idea,” Ed said mysteriously.

“Oh?”

“You’ll see eventually!” He shouted from the door and left a very confused Emma behind.

…

“Winry, did you say you had seen Major Hawkeye recently?” Ed asked his wife only a few minutes after his talk with his eldest daughter.

“Yeah, Riza and I had a cup of coffee together when I was in Central to meet up with a client last week,” Winry admitted.

“Right. Did she mention anything about the puppies? I heard from the Gen… I mean Mustang that some of them have already been claimed…”

“Why do you ask?” Winry asked with surprise. “I thought you were against taking one when we visited them the last time.”

“Yeah but… sometimes opinions change.”

“They don’t usually change when it comes to you,” Winry eyed her husband suspiciously. “What caused this?”

“Well… It’s Emma. Remember how much she loved that black puppy? She… she just told me she wanted someone to play with, but she doesn’t like her classmates. And I can’t just magically change people’s attitudes, so… what’s a more loyal friend than a dog? And we haven’t had one since Den… Maybe it would be about time…”

“I guess we could consider that,” Winry agreed. “But she has to take the main responsibility herself because you know we don’t have a lot of extra time in our hands.”

“True. But if given the chance, I think she’d be more than happy to accept that challenge.” Ed grinned at his wife.

…

“Hello Edward, what brings you here?”

True to his old habit, Ed hadn’t called Riza Hawkeye, now ranked a Major, before arriving to her doorstop. Riza didn’t seem too perplexed by this fact though; she brushed it off and instead wanted to know what the reason for his sudden arrival.

“It’s my daughter. She wants… well, I was thinking that this might be the right moment for a new dog, after all. Despite what I may have said during our last visit.” Ed shrugged.

“Oh! Well, you were in a luck because one of the people who had planned to adopt one of our puppies just canceled the other day. Apparently their kid has allergies. So, we do have one left!”

“Which one is it?” Ed asked, hoping it would be the one that Emma had bonded with earlier.

“Come see yourself,” Riza invited Ed inside.

“General Ba… Mustang, why are you here?”

Ed found his ex-superior in Riza’s living room watching the puppies intently, a mildly amused expression on his face.

“I just had to drop some work things to the Major…” Roy answered casually while leaning against the puppy fence.

“I almost believe you,” Ed rolled his eyes and stepped closer to look at the puppies. “One would think you have gotten soft and want to get a puppy of your own.”

“Tell me, Fullmetal, how many puppies do you have at home, though? I have lost my count,” Roy claimed.

“They are human children, Mustang, and there are 6 of them, have been almost a year now.” Ed glared at him.

“Don’t mind him, Ed, he’s just… doing what he usually does,” Riza said, a tiny, mischievous smile on her face. “The other day he asked me weirdly specific questions about them, so he does actually remember their names and even birthdays.”

Ed wanted to throw Roy another snarky comment, but when he saw that the older man was looking at him with a serious expression now, he decided to change the topic. “The thing is… Emma really needs some company. Winry and I… can’t really offer her what she needs, even though we are trying our best, and her siblings, besides Alan of course, are still too young to understand her mindset. I know a pet can’t talk to her back, but it can at least give her some distraction and company when she feels the family isn’t enough.”

“That does sound like a good idea,” Riza nodded. “Hayate and the ones after him have been a very big help to me as well.”

“If I remember correctly, the one Emma seemed to bond with the most was the black one with a tiny white dot in his neck. Is he free still?” Ed asked, trying to spot that one among the puppies.

“I’m afraid he has been claimed…” Riza said apologetically. But then a smile spread on her face. “But I remember that the person who claimed him seemed to like another one too and he was debating between them for a long while… I could pull a couple of strings and see what I can do!”

…

15 minutes later, Riza had managed to call the person who wanted the dog Emma had fallen in love with. At first, he was reluctant to switch it to another puppy, but when he heard it was for a 10-year-old girl, he eventually softened and gave in. Ed promised to compensate for it somehow, even saying that he’d fix roofs or anything if needed but the man laughed it off and said that the husband of Winry Rockbell didn’t owe him anything. It turned out Winry had helped the man’s wife with her prosthetic limb a few years prior and they both were still very thankful for her help. Ed thanked his wife in his mind and sighed of relief when the phone call ended.

“Emma will be so happy!”

“I’m sure she will. I wish I could be there to see her face,” Riza said.

“Oh but you can,” Ed told her enthusiastically. “After all this trouble, the least I can do for you is to invite you to her party. I’m sure she’d be happy to see you too” Then he casted a dark look at Roy. “I suppose you can come too. If you really insist.”

“You know I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Roy smiled smugly.

“Right,” Ed snorted. “Anyway, remember, no one is allowed to know about this! I want it to be a surprise.”

“Don’t worry, Fullmetal, the secret will go to the grave with us.” Roy said wryly and got another poisonous glare from Ed.

…

Emma wasn’t in her best mood when she woke up in her birthday morning. The twins, who slept in the room right below hers, had been screaming a lot the previous night (she had heard her dad suspecting they were ill, but Emma was positive they had done it just to ruin her night), which naturally meant also Emma had slept badly. She had tried to read for a moment but her flashlight had run out of batteries and she didn’t have candles in her room either, afraid of turning on the big light because her parents may notice and ask her why she was awake at that hour. So, it was no wonder that when she marched into the kitchen for breakfast, she was far from the “sunshine” as her dad described her when he greeted her.

“Happy birthday to my sunshine! Big 10 today, huh? How does that feel?”

“Would feel better if I wasn’t tired as hell,” she gave her dad a pointed look, letting him know nonverbally that she had been awake because of the twins.

“I’ll let that language slip this one time because it’s your birthday. But don’t let me hear that again,” Ed warned, cocking his eyebrow.

“Whatever,” Emma snorted, knowing full well Ed had probably been worse than her with his language when he had been 10. She buttered a bread and then started looking around, asking: “Why isn’t there a cake on the table? I thought it’s a tradition…”

“Bean, we’ll get it later this afternoon, we’ve been so b…”

“Busy, yeah, I know,” Emma said, disappointment clear from his voice. “I feel like that’s what you always say these days when you need some excuse…”

Ed glanced at his other kids who gave each other vary looks and decided this was not the place for this discussion. She told Emma to follow him into the living room, and she did, arms folded over her chest.

“Listen, Emma. I can understand why you are bummed, but the twins simply need more attention right now because they can’t help themselves, unlike you do. I’m pretty sure they’ve been crying a lot is because they have an ear infection or something like that bothering them. And your mum didn’t want to take that new patient, but she had to, because her pride wouldn’t let her say no. She wanted to keep this as a surprise, but she already told me that once she was done with the automail and got the payment for it, she’d take you to Central for a trip. So please, don’t imply that we don’t care because we do. I hope that today we can show how much.”

“Are you… saying… that you have actually planned something for me?” Emma wasn’t sure how to react, but her face reflected both genuine surprise and relief.

“Of course we have! Why would you even think otherwise? Have we ever forgotten your birthday?” Ed asked.

“No… of course you haven’t…” Emma said regretfully. “Sorry. I guess… I just wasn’t expecting anything because you have had your hands full…”

“Well, I promise that something you’ll like will happen today but I can’t say anything else because it would ruin the surprise.”

“Okay. Then you don’t have to. But where’s mum?” Emma realized suddenly. “She’s always the first one at the breakfast table.”

“She… Uh… I think she may have run out of some automail parts and went to buy them,” Ed lied quickly, but from his face it became quite obvious it wasn’t true. In reality, she had gone to buy some necessities for the dog.

“Dad, you are a bad liar. But don’t worry, you don’t have to tell me.”

Ed swiped his forehead in relief. “Good, because I’m pretty sure your mum would have killed me if I had slipped something…”

Emma seemed already happier when she said: “It’s rare to see you so mysterious, dad, I really can’t help but wonder what you’re hiding! But guess I’ll see soon enough, right?”

Ed ruffled his daughter’s hair a bit. “Of course you will, Bean. Now, let’s go back to the others, your porridge is getting cold.”

“Daaad, do I have to eat porridge on my birthday?”

“Of course you do! Otherwise you won’t grow big and strong like me!”

Emma couldn’t help but snort at his dad’s silliness, but she elbowed him on his side softly, letting him know they were good now.

…

In the afternoon Ed and Winry kept staring from the window nervously. Riza was supposed to bring the dog any moment now, but the problem was keeping Emma out of the way so they could bring him in without her noticing. Thankfully Alan knew about his parents’ plot, so he took Emma out for ice cream before his dad started showing signs of exploding from keeping the secret.

Finally Riza brought the puppy and she, Ed and Winry took him in the livingroom where Emma’s gift pile (including a lot of dog necessities) was waiting. Ed had built the puppy a wooden box with cushions inside to make it comfortable, and that’s where he was planning to put him when Emma got home.

Soon Winry had finished decorating the cake Al and Mei had brought for them, the younger kids were hanging out quietly upstairs, even the twins sleeping, and Alan and Emma would probably be arriving soon. Riza, Roy (who had not wanted to miss a chance to tease Ed for being a doting father), Al, Mei and their kids were already waiting for the birthday girl, and the rest of the guests would visit later that evening.

While they were waiting, the puppy was acting a bit restlessly, as if it was sensing something interesting was going on. Riza tried her best to keep it occupied by clinging her keys. It seemed to have developed a weird interest on them; when Emma had first met the puppies, she had showed this same puppy her keys to her diary and the puppy had kept following her since then.

Finally, Ed saw some movement on their yard and told Riza to set the dog to the spot he had planned for him. For a moment that plan seemed to work. The puppy sniffed his surroundings and tried to mouth the pillow in the box a bit before laying on it. But when he heard the door going, he didn’t want to stay in the box anymore. Unfortunately, Ed had underestimated the puppy’s jumping skills and when he turned away for a moment, he was already out, running mindlessly towards the hall. On his way there, he managed to push a broom Ed had left leaning against the dining table, hitting the juice jug on it, which fell over and spilled the contents on the tablecloth, floor and Ed’s clothes. Emma and Alan could hear their dad’s cursing from the livingroom before their attention moved to the black little storm approaching them.

“What… is this?” Emma asked with wide eyes when the puppy stopped right in front of her, jumping against her legs excitedly. She stared at it for a moment, her eyes suddenly flashing with recognition. Then she took out the door keys she had had in her pocket and made a ‘clink’ sound with them. The dog immediately reacted.

“Oh my… Truth! It’s him!” She exclaimed and crouched down to pet him. Finally, she turned her head to address her parents: “Mum? Dad? What does this mean? Is he… Is he…” Her voice was starting to break.

“He’s all yours, sweetie!” Winry said softly.

Emma was silent for a moment. She looked between the dog that was now licking her hand, and her parents, and suddenly she jumped up and squealed louder than Ed and Winry had probably ever heard. Then she almost tackled her parents as she pulled them into a hug and shed a few tears against Ed’s shirt.

“I wished… I wished… but I never thought you actually would…”

“For you we’d go through the portal of Truth again, Bean,” Ed was the first to speak.

“Emma, sweetie,” Winry added. “I wish you had told us earlier how you felt. I’m so sorry for not seeing it until your dad told me about your discussion. If you want to, we can try to switch schools after the summer break so you can meet new kids. And we are going to do our best to give you the attention you need. But for now, will you take care of this puppy? I have a feeling he likes you already.”

“Of course I will,” she mumbled emotionally, wiping the corners of her eyes quickly.

“Remember, he’s a lot of responsibility,” Winry said as she was stroking her daughter’s hair. “We are expecting you to help with the feeding, training and walking because we can’t do it alone. You can do that, right?”

“Of course, mum!” Emma said without even thinking about it.

“So,” Riza stepped in, “How are you going to name this boy?”

Emma looked at the puppy for a moment, and without hesitation she noted: “Key!”

…

A couple of weeks later, Emma took Key to a local park. They had been doing surprisingly well considering the puppy had only recently been separated from his family: Key already seemed to enjoy sleeping in Emma’s bed, did pretty well with the potty training and even knew how to sit already. That’s why they were allowed to go out on their own without the watching eyes of Emma’s parents. The two of them were simply enjoying their time together, Key sniffing everything he found from the ground and Emma being happy when someone stopped to compliment the puppy.

Just when they were about to leave, Emma noticed a little girl by the road staring at them. She was probably a little younger than her, her curly hair kept under a big sun hat, but even that couldn’t quite hide the fact that she had a lot of freckles on her face. She stopped there only for a moment, giving them a tiny wave when she saw Emma noticing. However, that moment ended fast when the girl’s mother came out of the shop she was standing in front of, and urged the girl to continue walking in what seemed a pretty cold fashion to Emma. The two girls continued to their own ways, but little did they know that one day the fate would reunite them and create the most beautiful form of bonds between them. Meanwhile, Emma just scratched behind Key’s ears and smiled at him, her face expressing that she had just met a friend.

#edwin #edxwin #i mean this is not a shippy fic but #edward elric #winry rockbell #fullmetal alchemist #my fics #edwin babies

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langdvnshepherd · 6 years ago

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Headcanons: Being pregnant with Duncan Shepherd’s baby (Duncan Shepherd x fem!reader)

Word count: 3.4k (let’s just say I got a lil carried away)

Warnings: fem!reader, pregnancy, morning sickness, mentions of smut, breeding/pregnancy kink, childbirth, lil bit of angst, tons of fluff

A/N: Hello everyone this is the first thing I have ever written, like ever. I am a hoe for domesticity, so this was obviously my first choice. If you have a second, please let me know what you think! I’ve only recently made a blog after months of stalking the tags on my main blog, so I’d love it if you guys can give me any feedback on whether or not this is any good lol. Also, not that anyone would...but if you guys ever want me to write anything I will GLADLY do so I am at home bored most of the time so.......let a hoe kno!

Let’s be honest, the baby is NOT planned in any way, shape, or form

Never in Duncan’s life did he see himself having kids

He always saw himself as the type of guy that would work at his family’s company and sleep around with hot girls until he died

Until he met you

You worked for a media company in D.C. that sent you to an event for The Shepherd Foundation very much against your will

He saw you sitting at the bar keeping to yourself and thought you were the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen

He made it his goal to see that you went home with him at the end of the night

But you weren’t giving into his flirting as easily as he’d hoped

That boy tried literally everything in the book to turn you to putty in his hands, but you weren’t buying any of it

You played along with his unapologetic attempts to woo you, letting him think it was working

(It lowkey was definitely working, but you knew better than to get involved with Duncan Shepherd of all people)

You curved his ass right as he leaned in to kiss you

Turning your head away from his that was slowly moving in on yours to whisper in his ear

“It’s late, I should probably get going. See you around?” with the biggest shit-eating grin you could muster

Duncan’s face was immediately bright red

He had never been so turned on in his life at a woman playing him the way you did

He sought you out at every event he goes to after that

You’d give him a flirty wave or raise of your glass to him from across the room the next few times you saw him, always meeting up eventually to taunt each other again and again

After a torturous game of cat-and-mouse you finally went home with him one night and had the hottest sex of your entire life

He wrecked your shit

We’re talking zipper on the back of your dress is destroyed, bruises on your hips, hickeys on your boobs, you had a slight limp for a day or two

Duncan teased you as you hopped out of his bed and winced as your legs made their way across his room to grab your clothes

Since your dress was basically in two pieces after Duncan ripped it off of your body the night before, he insisted that you go home in one of his t-shirts and a pair of his sweatpants

“Gives me an excuse to see you again when you return them, right?”

You only intended it to be a one-off thing, but you found yourself thinking about him often

What it would be like to wake up next to him every day

What it would feel like to have his arm around you in public

If you two ever had kids, what would they look like?

Duncan also quickly realized that he liked you more than just for sex, which scared him

As we have discussed, the boy is only known for a quick fuck and not an actual relationship

After a handful of bootycalls, you agreed to start seeing each other more frequently

Definitely still for sex, but occasionally just for dinner or to watch a movie at each other’s place

It took months of casual sleepovers and you each having your own drawer at each other’s apartment to come to the agreement that you were officially dating

Before you knew it, you’d been together for 5 years and couldn’t picture your lives without each other

The day you both find out you’re pregnant, he finds you in your bedroom pacing up and down the floor

Immediately knows something is wrong but you won’t give in and tell him what’s up

You finally responded to his pleading by gesturing to the bathroom with a tilt of your head – too afraid to say the words out loud just yet

Poor buddy probably had to sit down when he sees the test sitting on the counter

“What are we gonna do?”

“I have no fucking clue.” your voice barely above a whisper

You two were practically married at this point after being together for so long

Neither of you could see yourselves with anyone else

But you still had goals, both in life and in your careers

Sure, babies were bound to come

They just weren’t something either of you would have even considered for at least a few more years

Is still extremely supportive and lets you know he wants whatever you want

In all honesty, you couldn’t really think of a valid reason to not keep the baby

You still had some things you wanted to get done before settling down and having kids, but you loved Duncan and knew that he was it for you

You’d always assumed you’d have kids eventually, so having them early was just a small hiccup

But on the other hand, you two hadn’t talked about having kids apart from passing comments when you gushed over a cute baby that passed by on the street

You weren’t sure if Duncan was ready, but you knew that you could be if you had to be

Swallows hard when you tell him you want to keep it, not because he doesn’t want the baby, but because he knows his life is about to go through some big changes

Holds you close and kisses the top of your head

“I love you, okay? Whatever happens, we’re gonna be okay.”

He didn’t really know if it would be, but he loves you too much to have to think about you worrying

Looking back, that little moment in your shared bathroom was one that you both would never forget

He’s very hesitant at first but quickly warms up to the idea of having a baby with you

In th beginning, he’d grow kinda distant

He wouldn’t know how to act around you now knowing that you’re pregnant

It wouldn’t be anything too dramatic, just a few awkward silences here and there when he isn’t sure what to say or do

You two usually have a glass of wine at dinner and as he’s offering it to you he pauses in his tracks and is just like “…..Oh, right. I forgot. Never mind.” giving you a small, playful smile, but it reeked of sarcasm and somewhat of disdain

He probably makes excuses to not have sex because he doesn’t want to think about there being a baby inside of you while he’s pounding you into the mattress

He’d think you wouldn’t notice his reluctance but you would

It bothers you

Makes you second guess your decision

You were deadset at this point on keeping the baby, so maybe being with Duncan wasn’t going to work out

You bite your tongue though

You trusted that Duncan would come to you if he was ever doubting staying with you through the pregnancy

But those dark thoughts haunted you in the quiet of the night

Avoids touching your stomach for a while

Snuggling your front into his chest instead of spooning so he doesn’t have to hold your belly

The reality is still foreign and unfamiliar to him and he really just doesn’t know what the fuck to do about it

He hates that he acts this way, but he couldn’t avoid his lurking feelings

Probs doesn’t sleep well for a while

Let’s be honest he’s scared out of his goddamn mind and doesn’t think he could possibly ever be a good father but he loves you so much that he’s praying to god the idea of having a kid will get easier

Holds your hair when you’re getting your shit wrecked by morning sickness

No amount of vomit chunks could make you unattractive to him

Figures the best thing he can do in the situation is just to be there for you

He helps you into the shower to rinse off and crawls back into bed with you after

Sometimes he calls out of work when you’re feeling extra shitty just so he can be there for you

Let me drill this into your mind that this boy is s c a r e d

I’d think Duncan switches into protective dad mode when something drastic happens like you start spotting or bleeding really badly and think you’re having a miscarriage and have to go to the hospital

That’s when reality actually hits him and he’s like there’s a baby in there that’s alive and I helped create them and after that he starts to be more comfortable with you being pregnant

Thankfully everything is good and the baby is perfect

When you come home from the hospital late that night and get into bed, he lets out a huge sigh into your hair and reaches his hands under your shirt to finally wraps his arms around your belly

Once again, he probably didn’t think you’d notice

But you definitely did

He had never really fully embraced the idea of you being pregnant, but the thought of potentially losing the baby was enough for him to get his shit together

Even though you’d barely be showing, he rubs his thumb along your stomach comfortingly until you both fall asleep

For once, he slept peacefully that night knowing that both of his babies were alive and well

From then on, he becomes a lot more loving and caring towards you and the baby

And also gets so fucking excited thinking about a mini-you or mini-him running around the house?? Sign him UP!

Keeps the ultrasound sonograms in his wallet/frames them and peaks at them while he’s working

Is probably more in tune with your pregnancy than you are

“Did you know that the baby is the size of a grapefruit now? Next week it’ll be the size of a rutabaga.”

“No, Dunc, I didn’t know that. That’s nice. Can we please go to sleep now? I’m tired.”

He used to greet you when he came home from work with a kiss on your lips

Now it’s one kiss on your lips, another on your belly

Duncan 100% talks to your stomach and no one can convince me otherwise

Especially after he feels the baby kick for the first time

You’ll both be on the couch watching some dumb re-run of a show you’ve both seen a million times and he’d lay his head down in your lap and talk to the baby while gently rubbing your belly with his hands trying to get them to start kicking

“Hi buddy! It’s your dad. Hope you’re having fun in there. I can’t wait to meet you. You get in the way of me and your mom having sex sometimes but that’s okay. I still love you so much.”

Earns a swift smack in the chest for that

You have to tell him to shut up sometimes because the baby goes nuts when he starts talking and it makes you feel like you’re gonna be sick

It’s still one of your favorite things tho let’s not play around

Most of the time, you just let him go on and on to your belly while you rub your fingers through his hair

Will literally do anything for you even if you don’t ask because not only does he love spoiling you but wants to make sure he’s doing whatever he can to help out with the baby while you’re pregnant

Wake up at 3am with a craving? He’s got his keys in his hand before you can even tell him what you want

Make a passing comment about noticing a few stretch marks? He comes home with 7 different lotions and insists on being the one to rub you down with each of them

That turns sexual but that’s an entirely different discussion for later

He hears you huffing in the bathtub about how you can’t reach your legs to shave? You bet your ass he hops in and helps you

Tries to say you don’t have to shave your legs for him and that he could care less

“Yeah, no shit. I’m not shaving my legs for you. I’m just tired of feeling my scratchy leg hair while I’m trying to sleep with no pants on.”

“…Okay….fair enough.”

Regardless of the gender, you both agree to have a neutral-themed nursey

Not only goes with Duncan’s rich-bitch aesthetic, but super girly and boyish things just don’t float your boat

You go with light shades of beige and grey

Same goes with baby clothes

Lil grey singlets with stripes and tiny little beanies and matching socks

Basically I am a hoe for minimalist, gender-neutral baby items so I am projecting that onto these hc’s

I also like to think that pillow talk becomes essential during your pregnancy

It’s the only guaranteed time you two have every day to catch up with each other, and you always talk about the baby

You talk baby names for at least 20 minutes a night until you guys finally decide on one

“What about Pearl?”

“Duncan, I am NOT naming our kid Pearl.”

He comes up with the worst names and you always give him shit for it until finally he throws out one that sticks

Is literally so proud the night he finally came up with a name that you both could agree on

You talk about the things you still need to do before the baby comes like building the dresser or picking out bedding for the crib

You always end up falling asleep mid-conversation nestled into each other with each of your hands intertwined and laying against your belly

The man’s nesting gets out of control and we all know it

Duncan comes home with a new stuffed animal every time he goes to the store

You send him to Target for toilet paper and peanut butter?

He comes back with one of every kind of those Wubbanub things he could find in the baby section

“It was just so cute I couldn’t not get it? It’s like a pacifier AND a stuffed animal? They get to have both at the same!time!”

Buying shit so often he probably gets two of the same thing without realizing

“They’re just gonna puke or shit all over it anyway? Probably better to have a backup if you ask me.”

You probably find him just sitting in the nursery sometimes, usually in the middle of the night

He’s either admiring his handiwork because he put together the changing station without looking at the directions

Or once again, trying to sooth his worries about becoming a dad

His baby is going to be home with him soon, and this will be the room where they sleep

He is a big nervous boi about it

Pregnancy sex

Duncan becomes obsessed with how big your boobs and belly get

The breeding kink,,, jumps out

He’s ridiculously hard at the idea that he’s the reason your stomach and tits are swollen

That his baby is growing inside of you

Absolutely loses it when you wear his shirts around the house

You always wore them anyway, but the fact that they used to come to your thighs and are now snug at your hips makes him wanna,,,nut

He loves grabbing your boobs even when you’re not being intimate

If you’re laying in bed watching a movie, he’s got his arms snaked around you with one resting on your belly and the other draped around your chest to grab a handful of boob

Forgets that they’re always sore and gets yelled at more than a few times for being too rough with them

At first, sex is normal and occasionally rough like it always has been

Eventually becomes extremely sensual and about being as close to each other as you can

He takes notes at how sensitive you are and ensures that you’re left a whimpering, screaming mess by the time you cum

Is over the moon that you are just as horny during your pregnancy as he is

While he gets excited about having a baby, his anxiety kicks in again as you reach the finish line of your pregnancy

It finally hits him again that oh shit….this is a real, breathing baby about to come into the world that he is responsible for

You start becoming more agitated, swollen, uncomfortable, crying all of the time

You lash out at him sometimes

He knows you don’t mean it, but it still gets to him

Has him questioning himself more and more

What if he couldn’t do it?

Starts reading a shit ton of baby books and begging you to go to classes with him

Despite his efforts, there’s really nothing he can do to make himself feel any better

He confesses one night in bed that he’s scared shitless he won’t be a good dad

Probably starts crying a little bit

You turn to face him and hold his hands close to your chest

“Listen, Donut. If you love this baby even half as much as I know you love me, I am positive that they will be more than okay. I’ll be right here with you to figure it all out. No one is good at it at first. It takes a lot of getting used to. Plus, they always say the worrying goes away the second you actually hold the baby in your arms.”

A few weeks after that, your water breaks in the middle of the night

Duncan immediately jumps out of bed to grab your hospital bag and help you put on your clothes

Holds your hand the whole ride there

Brushes your knuckles across his lips to try to calm the both of you

In a few hours, both of your lives will be different forever

Do I need to say it again?

Boy is about to shit his pants he is so scared

His heart hurts every time you cry from the pain of contractions because there’s nothing he can do

He is basically useless at this point, which he hates

All he has to offer is his hand for you to squeeze so hard it feels like the bones in his fingers might snap

When you feel like giving up, it’s finally his turn to give the pep talk

He tries his best and it comes out shaky, but he means it

“You’ve got this. You’re the strongest person I know. Remember what you said? It all goes away when you finally get to hold them. Let’s meet our baby, yeah?”

After a particularly excruciating push, your grunting is replaced by shrill little cries

Both yours and Duncan’s eyes go wide and your breath hitches in the back of your throat

The past 9 months have led up to this moment and you’re finally meeting your sweet baby for the first time

Duncan’s shaking like a leaf when he cuts the umbilical cord, unable to take his eyes off of the baby

You’re just as shaky when the nurse places the baby against your chest

Immediately you’re crying your eyes out

“Look at them, Duncan. They’re so beautiful. We did it.”

Duncan probably can’t form words right now

Probably just mumbling “Oh my god. Oh my god.” over and over

He just smiles and nods, trying to hold back tears while leaning over the hospital bed and stroking the baby’s cheek with the back of his hand

After the baby’s crying dies down, you shift over to the side of the bed

You make Duncan take the spot next to you so he can finally hold the baby

He’s hesitant

He doesn’t want to fuck up or hurt them but wants more than anything to finally meet his baby

Still kinda in disbelief that the woman who refused to go on a date with him for months turned into the love of his life had loved him enough to be currently sitting beside him in a hospital bed after having pushed a 7-pound baby that has half of his DNA out of her vagina

As soon as he takes the baby in his arms he’s overwhelmed with love and relief that his baby is here and alive and crying and kicking and he actually created a whole ass human

“Hi, love. It’s nice of you to finally show up. We’ve been waiting a long time to finally meet you.”

Doesn’t even notice, but the tears are f l o w i n g

Back then, he wasn’t sure he believed you when you said that his worries would leave him when he finally held his baby, but now he knows exactly what you meant

He’d do anything for the small bundle in his arms, and the woman lying beside him

Sorry if this is trash y’all I just wanted to give writing a shot!!! Once again pls lmk if it’s good in any capacity I would greatly appreciate it!

I guess I’ll tag some of my favorite writers? Lmao y’all I literally don’t know what the fuck I’m doing someone be my friend and teach me

@ritualmichael @langdonsoceaneyes @wroteclassicaly @thedeviltohisangel @ccodyfern @icylangdon

#Cody Fern #Duncan Shepherd #Michael Langdon #Jim Mason #AHS #HOC #Duncan Shepherd x Reader #Michael Langdon x Reader #Jim Mason x Reader #my writing #mine

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daddopenguin · 5 years ago

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#Thankyougamefreak

Here's my take on what I've learned and yeah I'll probably sound like a kiss ass to some of you but here is my thoughts.

I grew up with Gen 4 Pokemon starting it's reign, it's the first time I've seen it as a little child and eventually I saw the older stuff and I love it to this day. Now I do understand yes Gamefreak has the price of 60 dollars on their games so yeah they do have resources but remember their projects happen like a year or two after the latest one which yeah is mainly on not the staff but higher ups decision however they are people who have yet to figure out how to put in their amazing old content in with well what feels like a short amount of time.

They spend months literal months having to program from what I've seen over 900 Pokemon now, you really think they can fit everything with their time limit? Now you could ask reasonably "Shouldn't they delay it like Animal Crossing did for a better experience?" Well yeah but who knows if their staff made those recommendations or not and were ignored or shot down.

But like this shouldn't lead to actual DEATH THREATS over a game with magical, god like, alien like, and man made pets that you feed and battle with, trade or literally any mechanic they offer. I'd like to think the Let's Go games were like experiments to see if the game is ready for the next big console and you know what those graphics didn't really lie neither did the size of the game. It can run on Switch, hell they're probably still trying to figure out how the hell will they fit IDK like a Russian region in, Russia is fucking big. Sure BoTW is massive but it took lots of time and Game Freak staff doesn't really get that privilege and they're really used to their old work thinking "It won't be too much" then well they have a lot!

An RNG (Random number generator) with literal random chances on nature and stats and encounter chances along with IDK did I mention about 900 Pokemon existing now! It's a lot to program and design my dudes, don't act entitled I have seen the god damn Nintendo Treehouse live chat long enough to know you're either a scumbag who decides to start sending mother fucking death threats to tired ass people who have worked for so long day and night for a motherfucking pet video game it is Japan my dude they will work til they die it has happened in companies in Japan and the bootlickers who think it's flawless like I get it but it has it flaws OK gen 7 teased Pokemon following you but they never let it really happen.

Game Freak yes makes mistakes that cut your favorite stuff or they try to keep it in but they have to cut it to meet deadlines, DEADLINES EXIST!! Don't act like you've never done a god damn essay that feels really long and takes really long or get this in the art community deadlines are something that are feared because you don't want to rush your project but you like kind of have no choice but to rush it a bit and you feel moody because you feel like it could've been done better at your own pace. Idk what goes on in everyone's lives but it is common with students, movie makers, and IDK game creators, especially game creators that have worked over 20 years now trying to adjust to making something entirely new with different resources.

"But Daddopenguin!!" I hear most of you yelling, "How come your post about this controversy is looking like you bootlicking Gamefreak?!" Great question, I'll answer with this:

I'm not bootlicking I'm stating obvious things that even an old blind man can see but people with vision cannot somehow see it

Listen you can be critical of the game but let people who go to it because of fond memories or just straight up enjoy it, they also see the flaws and point those out but it doesn't mean they can't enjoy it. It seems so popular to shit on games and sending death threats to people who aren't even in control of the situation it's just normalized but so shitty. Yeah bootlickers are annoying and would threaten to kill you if you don't like the franchise and worship it like it's god when it's not that, it's a game nothing more nothing less.

I thank Gamefreak for making this franchise cause it has been there for me and many others to use as a coping mechanism and just to have fun, cute, cool and great times also music is still great to this day. Sure the game is same old same old, and grinding can be boring and tiring, but it's also something for fans new and old to enjoy whether it's for the story or just gameplay in general. Sure there are times where I rage quit the game because a certain Pokemon line has a stupid bullshit rare catch rate but it doesn't mean I'd send death threats over that, it's how it was programmed and yeah challenges are nice to have.

Yeah I don't like that National Dex got cut but I'm not super dissapointed, it wasn't in the first Generation 7 games I'm not sure on the sequels I haven't looked in on that I'll admit. But is this worth making people you don't know hurt and ashamed over things they've been told to do and hell maybe some of the higher ups can't really prevent shit from being cut because of GAME SIZE and COMPATIBILITY with the Switch. Sadly same stuff with the 3ds but a system can only handle so much data being put into it and we'll most of the people at GameFreak have been there for years and still have yet to find out how to properly program a whole lot of new stuff while trying to keep the old stuff in the time limit they are giving. Redesigns can cause reprogramming and changes of RNG data that can only be fixed or changed in the amount of time given before the short deadlines GameFreak decides to give it's own company, why do you think the Sonic movie was delayed, new design causes the animations and lip syncing to be redone and it takes TIME.

I also saw complaints about VA not being in Pokemon games yet and let me say this just as I said with Sonic movie, lip syncing takes time and GameFreak is sadly scarce on it plus it's like what's the point in complaining? If it gets voice acting it gets voice acting, if it doesn't it doesn't, I get it Zelda has been around just as long if not longer than Pokemon and did the voice acting after 20plus years but come on its not gonna completely define a game like Pokemon or not it'll lead to voice work than just dialogue noises like any RPG except the latest Fire Emblem games IS makes longer and bigger games than Pokemon same with Zelda so it's just like I said it either happens or not.

I think I dragged on long enough I had lot to get off my chest about this but this felt like something that needed to be said. I'm not praising corporate bullshit nor am I willing to shit on a game series I grew up with because a few things they thought they couldn't afford to put in got cut I guess if anyone responds a certain way to this they just do and it's either just death threat bullshit or an alright understanding person. I'll take my leave now.

#pokemon gen 8 #thankyougamefreak

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contrariancy · 6 years ago

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liner notes for ‘reach’.

So, uh. When I write, whatever I write, I always keep a separate “notes” file with things like general plot points, timelines, stuff I’m debating putting in, cut things, and deleted/rewritten bits. And needless to say, the notes for reach got a little, well, long.

Some of the cut stuff I’m actually repurposing for an upcoming series (tentatively titled ‘iƒ’, based on branching points in ‘reach’), but even when I remove that, it’s a lot. So I figured I’d just dump them here and hopefully someone will find them interesting or what have you.

➤ this fic was how I coped with chapter 295; chapter 1 was written almost in its entirety before 296 came out. I acted cool on tumblr and twitter, but I was absolutely sweating bullets and fully prepared to write bizarre fix-it fic because I wanted it. After 296, I lost some steam, but I had a couple friends tell me they really liked the first chapter and thought it was a good concept. I’ve done enough "lost scene" fics that I wanted to try a new challenge and see if I could create an engaging AU fanfic.

Here is exactly what spawned this:

➤ there were a few rules I created for myself before I got started. The first one was that I couldn’t post anything until the fic was mostly done and once I started posting, that was a commitment to finish it. The second was minimal to no OCs — I had to bend this later with Bathin, but I compromised by making his power fear-based and having him take other forms.

The third rule was that any character introduced had to have some sort of role to play; they couldn’t be there just to "be there" and exist to boost up other characters. Zeal was the only character in it out of necessity, as Guila would have been written entirely differently if she didn’t have her brother with her. Even then, I tried to give him something that wasn’t "[X] in distress." I think the character that came closest to being that was Hendrickson, honestly.

➤ originally, Hendrickson was going to have a phone that he talked to and would have run into Dreyfus while exploring the city. I opted against this because I didn’t want to write any OCs in this and a phone counts. Also, it would be ten times more interesting to have him bounce off of Dreyfus instead of some phone that the reader does not care about. It was also important to me that Dreyfus get introduced as soon as possible, especially in a fic like this where the reader is being asked to accept something different from the top.

➤ Jericho and Howzer were not in the initial draft notes. Then I came up with the pair concept early on (after realizing there was a pattern with Guila-Zeal and Hendrickson-Dreyfus and I could play with that for the eventual Merlin reveal). Fraudrin was an actual character briefly before I decided that Fraudrin as a villain was kind of a tired thing; if I was going to write for him at this point, I would want to explore more of the shades of gray with his character, and this fic would not give me the time or leeway for that. So Howzer became Gil’s paired partner instead, also because I just wanted to write Howzer. Jericho offered the most opportunity for writing things, and I wanted to play her off of Hendrickson and Dreyfus.

➤ Merlin was always going to be the deus ex machina. Merlin was always a factor and always the only Sin I was going to put in. The only thing that changed is she went from sweeping in and completely taking out Bathin and Fixing Everything Ever to coming in for the assist at the end with her OP skills.

➤ Helbram is only in it because he was the first dead character I thought of as a potential partner for Zaratras. I wrote the first half of interlude 1 before anything else and I loved the odd couple pairing, so he stayed and became kind of essential. He’s also very fun to write for and I thought he would be an interesting contrast to the others.

➤ Bathin was going to originally be a straight up Fraudrin clone and just the entity Bathin using Fraudrin’s guise as a persona or whatever. Again, I decided Fraudrin as a villain was a tired thing at this point and having the villain just be Fraudrin again was a bit of a cop out, even if I really didn’t want to write any type of OC. Bathin is like Envy from Fullmetal Alchemist, later complete with Velvet Crowe from Berseria’s arm (which is. also Meliodas and Derieri and I went "oops oh well"). I liked the mental image of Margaret beating everyone up too, so that’s why that happened. It’s also because they’re the two figures in Hendrickson’s life that get possessed and Bathin poses as both of them.

Bathin was meant to be cruel but fun, like an animal that plays with its food. His downfall is his hubris! He thinks he’s on top — and it’s his world, why wouldn’t he think that? — so he doesn’t see anyone as a real threat. The unknown terrifies him though, and that’s why he was tearing his hair out over the 'interloper.'

➤ ftr, Bathin is one of the many demons referenced in the Lesser Key of Solomon. I’d originally considered something else and even looked into a lot of Arthurian lore, but since Nakaba mines those for canon and I didn’t want to risk any overlap, I swerved in a different direction all together.

➤ epilogue 1.0 is hot garbage, I started writing this before 296 came out and it was built on assumptions that thankfully turned out not to be true. I trashed it quickly and I like 2.0 much, much better. It’s embarrassingly bad though and this is why you edit, okay. Also, it focused solely on Hendrickson and Dreyfus when the fic did become an ensemble piece and therefore, the other characters deserved to get closure. Some of the sentence structure and imagery got cannibalized for the very last part of the new epilogue, though.

➤ most of the chapter titles stayed the same from the beginning; only chapter 5’s changed. It was originally "in which a good boy questions a demon’s fashion choices" which was a reference to Howzer switching sides and Bathin-as-Fraudrin stuff. Bathin shifted to chapter 6 entirely though, so it became less relevant. The placeholder title was 'in which lightning strikes twice’’ which is a reference to Gilthunder and Zaratras, but since Zaratras doesn’t actually fight in that one, it didn’t make sense.

Everything from here on is from my notes in my project file; the only things I’ve done are rearranged the order for clarity and expanded on shorthand, though there are a couple of italicized notes in parenthesis that I added in later. Some of it is pretty disjointed tbqh! I have a bad habit of not writing in order.

Like I said before, I do a notes file for pretty much anything I write, as it’s where I dump ideas so I don’t forget or move cut text to in case I decide I like the older version better later on (it’s happened). This one just got ridiculously large, so hopefully someone besides me gets a kick out of it.

General notes

Hendrickson wakes up in an apartment, everything is taken care of, wtf

maybe Zaratras has been there for a bit and they're like ARE WE DEAD?? and he's just all HA HA you better not be.

Zaratras is the guy who has just been there!! Forever!! He runs a bar.

Gil is from just before the Kingdom Infiltration arc, so he is just sad and tired all the time.

Howzer is from early and a good boy but also devoted to Dreyfraudrin so it’s like. ??? When he sees those two. He will bond with Hendrickson and this time it will be Hendy’s turn to be like hey. Come. It’s fine.

The ultimate goal with Gil and Howzer is basically attempting to make people whisper "who hurt you."

Merlin shows up in the end like hmm you were all pulled into a pocket dimension but don’t worry, you should be expelled right back into the timeline where you left. No big deal. Bye.

Helbram and Hendrickson kind of. They’re not OKAY but they realize they are both shitty people who were in an impossible situation. Helbram is the petty type, so he’s not really going to forgive him, but Hendrickson doesn’t need his forgiveness either. The two of them work together though because it’s the only way out

Helbram just dunks on Hendrickson constantly because of course he does

Guila is from the same period as Hendrickson and Dreyfus, but she has been there for months by the time they arrive. Zeal is there too because otherwise she’d destroy everyone and everything.

They come in pairs, from similar points in time?

Guila and Zeal are just before the holy war, around chapter 252. Team smartass gen z

Hendrickson and Dreyfus are post 266 / 285 or whatever. Team old man

Zaratras and Helbram are team post death. Team DEAD

Gil and super early bro Howzer who work for Dreyfraudrin. Team dumb boys

Jericho and Merlin. Merlin just lurks for ages, there should be hints about her from chapter 2 on then she’s like lol hi. Post 197 for Jericho, Merlin plays coy because who cares. After 197, Merlin senses Bathin and is like gimme. Team Jericho Broke Nothing

Bathin notes

It’s powered by a crystal that preys on their fears?? Hence Dreyfraudrin existing. Zaratras kind of knows what’s up because he can sense it, since the energy sort of started when he got there, the dude gained a form when Gil showed up, then power when Guila arrived and later Jericho, and now Hendy and Dreyfus sort of complete the collection. It’s their fears all manifested. Merlin has no impact on it though and actually weakened it because ha ha ha you think she has fears, that’s cute. (this shifted to Bathin’s true form being a crystal — I was trying to stick to my "no OC" rule.)

Beleth or Bathin, a fragment of the sangréal? <— too complicated, stick with Ars Goetia lore interpreted for nnt-land. (I think my plan here was some ancient artifact?? Like the sacred treasures. It got really complicated really fast which is no good.) Belialuin Bathinal

Bathin is a demon, its true form is the crystal, it feeds on fears and created the pocket dimension to try and regain a more viable physical form, the weakened state is why its legions are so weak.

But also Bathin feeds on fears and craves Hendrickson and the others’ fears of Fraudrin and everything, and when Bathin finally gets Hendy and is like aren’t you afraid?? He’s just. Yes. I am absolutely terrified. But because Dreyfus took the time to punch him in the heart repeatedly he’s not going to roll over, he has to keep going. Helbram also yells at him like HOW DARE YOU. YOU CAN’T. (This shifted to Jericho in chapter 5 so it could become a more solid arc in the end with the confrontation in 6. Helbram got his moment with Hendrickson and Guila instead and, later, his goodbye.)

Bathin appears like Dreyfraudrin and Margaret, so when they strike Fraudrin down and are like ok?? We good?? Margaret turns and cuts them?? You have until chapter 6 to decide. (it’s pretty obvious what I decided.)

Outline

Hendrickson is the perspective character. Only the interlude, which is Dreyfus-centric, isn’t. (The other two interludes were added as I was writing later on.)

Chapter 1: Hendrickson and Dreyfus and general scene setting. Chapter 2: They actually go around town, Guila and Jericho are super introduced, we get glimpses of Gil and Howzer and they kind of talk to the latter. Kind of. Chapter 3: They get to the bar where there’s a bartender that dresses like a mysterious knight, spooky scary etc etc. It’s Zaratras. Helbram is there, too. More on Gil, Howzer should be questioning. Hendrickson leaves Dreyfus at the bar, runs into Howzer on the way out. Interlude 1: Dreyfus figures out Hendrickson’s plan re: Ludociel. Interlude 2: Jericho and Guila on Helbram. Interlude 3: Howzer and Gilthunder. Chapter 4: The confrontation between Dreyfus and Hendrickson. Howzer crashes their place because of course he does. Chapter 5: The Dreyfraudrin chapter. Vs Gilthunder. Zeal will guide them; alluded to in chapter 3. Chapter 6: The source, Bathin, is revealed, Merlin shows herself. Epilogue: The end. "I’m going to make you see how wrong you are." —> this promise HAS to be fulfilled.

TIMELINE:

Five+ months — Zaratras and Helbram

Five months — Gilthunder and Howzer

Three months — Guila and Zeal

A week — Jericho and Merlin

~Days — Hendrickson and Dreyfus

Setting

Eighteenth Plaza — Bathin is the 18th Goetia. Based on Shibuya 109 on the outside.

Pub’s name — Wandering Knight, Silver Helm

Possible Combos - Shot Purge (Guila-Hendrickson) —> Holy Shot?

Flats are like a venus fly trap, lulling them into a false sense of security and complacency so Bathin can keep feeding off their fear?? Maybe it was and then Merlin showed up like lol hi. (I dumped this because it overcomplicated things a lot; it just became very subtly and only partially implied in chapter 5 but ultimately not very important.)

Cut lines

Chapter Two: What the four of them manage to put together quickly — really, Guila and Hendrickson exchanging theories and ideas while Jericho and Dreyfus watch from across the booth in silent wonder, occasionally exchanging glances as if to say what is wrong with these two — is this: (I wish I could have kept the Jericho and Dreyfus bit, but it didn’t work. This was when they were in the booth, exchanging information.)

“Now hold on a minute, Gilthunder!” Dreyfus turns back to face him, squaring his shoulders. “This— this isn’t what you think! If it’s about M—”

It’s Hendrickson’s turn to yank Dreyfus back, hissing in his ear. “Don’t.” (I didn’t want to complicate it with Margaret. This was before I’d decided to have Bathin use Margaret as a guise as well, but I’d still cut it even if I knew.)

Chapter Five: “You should be.” Hendrickson counters, resting his hands on the back of the couch, leaning forward to look down at Helbram. “Because he brought you and Zaratras here before anyone else. It’s likely that he preys on the souls of the dead.” He pauses at that, glancing over at Guila who nods in agreement, before shifting his attention back to the fairy. “Even if we ‘get out,’ you can’t just live here. Bathin will continue to eat away at your very spirit.” (there are several logical flaws in this that got cleaned up in the final version, which reads very similarly.)

“That should be plenty of time.” Guila pats at Zeal’s shoulder lightly. “Some of us won’t even need that much time, certainly.” (The scene was dragging on for too long and this was ultimately unnecessary. I tend to be really wordy and not know when to stop a scene, so I cut a lot for the sake of flow later on or rework things.)

“Especially since this isn’t Dreyfus’s field of expertise.” (This was cut from the conversation Hendrickson had with Zaratras -- about strategy -- because frankly, it isn’t true and even if it was, Hendrickson wouldn’t say something like that. I cut a lot of stuff like this where it works for the plot but doesn’t track with the character. editing good!!)

The screech of tires can be heard in the distance.

“Ah, I believe they’ve managed to find a vehicle!” (god I really wanted to put Zaratras commenting on grand theft auto in this, even if it made no narrative sense.)

Chapter Six: “Huh?” Jericho gives her a confused look before looking back over her shoulder, where Bathin and Gilthunder were battling it out hand-to-sword. “Yeah, I just— this place is starting to fall apart.”

“Yes, it is, which is why we need to be careful. If you could provide a distraction—”

“Oh!” She snaps her fingers in response. “Yeah, okay, I can do that!” (Jericho was a bit too passive here and it was difficult to transition to the next beat. I reworked it in the final version.)

“Be careful. He’s using his weight as a weapon.” (This was somewhere in phase two of the Bathin fight. I was trying to set the character apart from other demons that they’ve fought, but this was too expository. Hopefully, the sentiment got across in description and whatnot and if not, uh. Oops.)

As he pulls away, flying off towards solid ground, the ice begins to audibly crack. Hendrickson stares up at it, almost resigned in a way. “So this is it,” he murmurs to himself, watching the cracks spider-web their way along the platform (I removed this and tweaked the final paragraph because it didn’t quite line up with Hendrickson’s character in this, especially given the turning point that comes only a paragraph or two later. That one line doesn’t line up with the rest of his arc in the entire fic; I was trying to make it obvious that the ice was cracking and wasn’t going to hold, but uh. This was not the way to do it.)

As an amicable silence falls between them — a far cry from the silence that lingered the last time he took this elevator up — (The transition in the elevator was hard.)

Gilthunder clenches a fist. “That’s exactly why I can’t forget. If I—” He swallows hard. (A lot of stuff gets cut because I start typing and can’t figure out where to go with it. It just didn’t work in the sequence and was too emotional for Gilthunder’s canon point.)

“By the way, have you seen Helbram?” (Zaratras was going to ask about Helbram as well, but that would have dragged the pacing down. Besides, I’d like to think that after their time together, Zaratras ‘gets’ Helbram on some level and knows he’d want to head out on his own terms.)

The orange hue fades into the black of the night, growing brighter and brighter with every passing moment, much like the world around them. And then, it reaches a point where it becomes blindingly bright, like a warmth washing over all of them at once. And then—

And then— (Did you know that this was basically the same format I used to end the pentultimate section of another fic because I sure didn’t until I just so happened to reread it before posting this one. god. damnit.)

Epilogue:

“I’m getting better, right?”

Jericho looks over her shoulder at Hendrickson, then gestures at a small patch of ice in front of her. The druid glances between her and the patch, looking mildly uncertain. “It’s progress,” he admits after a moment.

“You should have seen it the other day, though!” She stomps her foot. “Sir Dreyfus told me I had a lot of potential. (This was originally how Jericho’s epilogue was going to start. It didn’t seem right for her though, especially given the ‘reset’ tone, so I cut it and started from scratch. This would potentially work if it was Dreyfus, but not Hendrickson.)

Detailed chapter breakdowns

Chapter 3: Helbram is disguised, Zaratras is in his armor, it’s a pub and they’re INCOGNITO ok. Helbram spills a drink on Hendrickson like an asshole before the reveal. They figure out that the bartender and server aren’t on the same “script” as the NPCs.

CHAPTER 4 ends with them meeting up with Guila and Jericho, Guila is like this is Bathin, the Eighteenth Duke of the Demon Realm.

CHAPTER 5 is the big planning chapter + infiltrating and fighting Gilthunder. At the end, Bathin’s legions converge on Eighteenth Plaza and Dreyfus stays behind to stop them. Zaratras helps, brothers!! They can have a sad scene with Hendy.

CHAPTER 6 will have a big fight scene in it, this needs to be carefully blocked and mapped out. (narrator voice: it was not carefully blocked and mapped out.)

THE PLAYERS

Bathin — via Dreyfraudrin and Margaret. A lot of darkness, demon powers, fear manipulation. Teleportation? Dreyfraudrin has strength, Margaret has Velvet Crowe-esque hand bs? Dark tendrils, like a cat’s tail.

Hendrickson — Purge, Acid. Purge can weaken Bathin’s power. Dreyfus — Break, Full Size. Full Size might be too much for the building. Dreyfus and Zaratras could hold off Bathin’s legions? Guila — Explosion. Combo with Hendrickson at one point. Jericho — Ice Fang. Someone can get thrown out the elevator at some point and Jericho uses ice to extend a platform and keep them from falling. Eventually uses ice to root Bathin in place so she can PUNCH HIM IN THE FACE!!! Howzer — Tempest. Gilthunder — Thunderbolt. Short circuits the electronics? Helbram — plays his part disguised as Gil to get everyone in, fucks off partway through. Returns to yell at idiots. (This plan was too complicated; what I settled on works better character-wise and narratively speaking.) Zaratras — Great Thunder. Works with Dreyfus to hold off Bathin’s THIRTY DEMON LEGIONS so the others can take him.

Merlin — Infinity. She needs Bathin to be weakened and have his guard down to strike, which is why she slinks in the background and waits. Probably steps in after they’ve done that but Bathin is like YOU FOOLS!! Etc etc. Uses infinity to keep the Holy Shot effect goin’ (see above notes about Merlin)

THE SETTING

Top floor of Eighteenth Plaza. There’s the massive office, the long hallway, and the elevator. This is the main area for Bathin.

In the lobby, Zaratras and Dreyfus will take on Bathin’s legions of demons after freeing Gilthunder from his influence.

Guila and Hendrickson get thrown out the glass elevator window, Jericho creates an ice shelf that they cling to, Howzer and Gil work on keeping Bathin busy while Helbram flies out and grabs Guila at Hendrickson’s urging. Hendrickson falls.

Small brief flashback to super young Hendy and Jenna? A call back to being shown how wrong he is. Jenna’s just like LOOK YOU’LL BE FINE, YOU NEVER LIKED IT HERE ANYWAY!! Gosh you’re such a dour kid sometimes, geez, but don’t worry, someone’ll show you how wrong you are someday.

Full Size Dreyfus catches him because gratuitous yes.

Bathin is unfair but so is Merlin.

. . . and that’s it! Hopefully that was interesting to someone and if not, uh. I’m very sorry. Thank you for reading! 🙏

#nnt #fic #liner notes

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anundyingfidelity · 7 months ago

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I'M A RUIN — Soldier Boy/Ben (Part VI)

Series summary: After the events of the Seven Tower, you present Grace Mallory a new secret project you're working on already to develop a cure to Compound V. The only problem? You need Soldier Boy for that.

Pairing: Soldier Boy/Ben x female reader.

Word count: 2.5k.

Warnings for series: set after S3 (spoilers), some OOC!Ben, some depressed!Ben, angst, hurt/comfort, eventual smut, slow-burn, language, PTSD, reader has Compound V (she's no Vought supe tho), Soldier Boy being an usual asshole, reader is a fucking liar.

Warnings on this chapter: some suicide thoughts, very suggestive stuff, nudity, sexual tension barely starting, misogyny coming from you know who lol.

Notes: i was eager to drop this so here it is. hope i can make justice to the slow burn/slow sexual tension. aaaa as always thanks for reading!! ily all!

this fic tags: @k-slla @syrma-sensei @mostlymarvelgirl @cheynovak @drasticemotions @soldirboy @deans-spinster-witch

☕ if you like my writing, support me with a ko-fi !

get yourself in the taglist!

GEN MASTERLIST! — SERIES MASTERLIST!

Part VI: Don't Lay Your Red Hand On Me

“Where the fuck are we going?” Ben asked, checking the picture outside the windshield.

The sun was already setting down, and there have been hours since you started driving. At least he had been able to see the damn sunset again after being caged for so long.

Despite his questioning look and not trusting you completely, both made it to your car in the middle of the mess of blood and headless corpses around the building, with him naked under the effects of your invisibility powers. Somehow, you still managed to reassure Soldier Boy it was to protect him. In fact, as you guided both out of the place, you were scared of your abilities not working properly to have him covered. The last thing you wanted was the cameras to have a look at him, escaping with your help.

Now, with Soldier Boy dressed in his clothes and you still wiping some of the dry blood from your skin, you drove without a destiny in mind. Just somewhere you could take him far away from Homelander and Vought. He was, in fact, your top priority and needed to be protected, even if you knew you were nothing compared to his strength and abilities, you still had the urgency of him trusting you, to feel like you really cared. And you did care, but for the wrong reasons and those, he didn’t have to know.

“Far away,” you responded, picking up your phone with one hand as you drove through the highway.

“That doesn’t tell me anything,” he insisted, looking at you switching your attention between the device in your hands and the road.

You dialed Grace, ignoring his voice. She didn’t answer immediately. You cursed under your breath and dialed again. No answer anew, just the ring and the automatic voicemail message. Well, fuck. You had to play with what you had.

“Hey, it’s me,” you began the message. “Please call me when you can, I have to inform you of something. It’s urgent, please call me back.”

Ben rolled his eyes, annoyed as fuck for your silence towards his demands. “You’re gonna tell me now what the fuck is going on? You’re a fucking supe and everyone is dead back there! And not ‘cause of me.”

“First, nothing to fear from me. Okay? You’re the one who’d kill me in a blink. Second, I don’t know!” you yelled as a response, clearly irritated. “I don’t know shit! I know we need to run and that’s all. So just shut up and let me drive.”

“Christ on a cross, you women are fucking irritating,” Ben fumed. He saw a cheap motel by the road and he would’ve guessed you were going there because you slowed down and pulled up in the parking lot. He sighed. “Home, shitty home.”

“Got any ideas? Because I’m all ears,” you stopped the engine and got down the car, taking the sports bag with you. The supe rolled his eyes and before he went out, you came right to his half open door. “Stay here, I'll check in.”

Ben shut his eyes, watching you closing the car door with a loud thud, and you left to get a room. He felt the need to storm behind and shout out what he really thought of your stupid ass bossing him around. If it wasn’t because he wasn’t really half the way out of the fucking car, he should have been arguing and insisting for some real answers. But for some reason he stayed back. When you came back after a short time he followed you to a double bed room you’d be using just for the night.

Once you entered, you decided a shower was first thing on the list, and then you had to communicate with Grace as soon as fucking possible. Checking around, you were thankful to find a couple of towels in the bathroom, while Ben settled on his own space, lying down on one of the beds.

He observed you thoroughly as you studied yourself in the dirty mirror hanging on the wall. The disgusting grimace you made told him you were looking for more blood to wipe off. And before he could speak again you turned to see him.

“I'm gonna take a shower,” you announced.

He raised a brow. “Mind some company, sweetheart?”

You rolled your eyes as you started to unbutton your blouse, his eyes checking shamelessly the little exposed skin didn’t go unnoticed by you. “Don't even think about it.”

And with that, you just disappeared inside the bathroom. The noise of water running compensated both of you for the silence. He turned on the cheap TV to have some noise for himself too, deciding he’d go for a shower after you. Probably if he was in a different mood would have just tried to get in your pants. Ben was getting so damn stressed out. First you took out his weed, then you announced he would have medication for his fucking stress disorder or some shit, and later, agents and employees of the facility just started to die violently without reason. He thought if any of you would be next while you walked him out.

It was too much to handle right now. He needed something to take it all out. Something, anything, somebody. Just to release it the only way he knew: with sexual pleasure. He didn't understand yet what the fuck was happening. Did you really care about him? You could just have left him there to handle everything by himself and run away. Yet, you took him out of the facility and he, once again, had a glimpse of your courage. Maybe a little. And he started to like that. Suddenly, he heard the shower being turned off and minutes later you came out of the bathroom sooner than he expected, dressed in the same clothing, drying the droplets on your face and wet hair.

“I’m gonna get some dinner, stay here” you announced, taking your phone and the room and car keys. “The door will be locked, don’t do anything stupid.”

Ben scoffed, standing up before making his way to take a shower himself. He faced you directly, just a couple of inches separating both of you. Your gaze challenged him to step closer. “I’m not a fucking animal.”

You hummed, without looking away from his eyes. “Sometimes I doubt you.”

“Locking the fucking door won’t do shit, why you keep doing this?” Ben asked, visible confusion on his features. He really looked tired as hell. Tired of your bullshit.

“It’s not because of you. I perfectly understand that, just wait for me here.”

With that, you turned on your heels and left the room. From the other side, you locked the door. Ben let out a deep breath. He knew it was easy to tear it apart, and again, run after you to have damn answers for once. But instead, he decided to calm himself a little and get rid of his clothes. Inside the shower, he let the warm water take care of the burdens he was carrying, without knowing, on his back. He wondered if he’d been better dead by now, if sleeping in a chamber was a greater choice than this, just running along with you, a woman, who just seemed to fuck him up even more instead of playing real like you had promised. If he knew how to kill himself, probably would’ve done it already. He was getting sick of hiding, of being a fucking experiment, to be under someone’s else’s orders… The worst part of it all is that he never had the right to choose on his own faith. Not even his own death.

Out of the room, you were a few feet away from the door you left behind when your phone started to ring softly. An unknown number appeared on the screen and cautiously you answered, making your way to the car, getting inside on the co-pilot seat.

“Hello?” a voice you knew too well started to speak after some seconds of silence.

“Grace?”

The woman on the other line breathed out. “Yeah, it’s me. Uhm, couldn’t attend earlier, sorry…”

“It’s okay,” you shook your head, as if she could see you face to face. “We’ve been compromised. My lab assistants, the nurses, scientists, guards… Everyone is dead.”

“Fuck,” Grace hissed. She sounded exhausted. “Where is Soldier Boy?”

“I took him out, checked us in at a motel. Can’t go back to my old place. Not yet.”

“You have the copies of the project, right?”

For a moment you felt she was doubting you, but you answered anyway, surprised she would even ask that. “I do.”

There was a little silence coming from her. You continued. “I don’t think I told you yet, but… Fuck, I received a visit from Homelander a couple of days ago. He crashed into my apartment… He knows.”

Grace cursed under her breath. “Y/N, we’re playing with fire here.”

You swallowed thickly, feeling your heartbeat raising. “What’s going on with you? Something happened back there?”

“Victoria Neuman came, saying she wanted to talk to me. She kinda threatened my life, and I’m on the run… Now I can make the puzzle.”

“You think they might be working together?”

“Probably. Senator Bishop was found dead, and guess who is running now with Robert Singer for vice president.”

You chuckled. The whole situation was so ironically clear. “Victoria, that stupid, smart bitch.”

“I’m gonna get some information on her, I know some people who’d know more than I do. I’ll call once I find something.”

“Okay, I’ll wait for that. Do you need me to do anything?”

“Just keep Soldier Boy busy. Work on that injection as soon as you can,” she ordered.

You nodded to yourself, taking a look around the empty lot. “Yes, ma’am.”

After a somewhat long time, Ben saw you entering the room and locking the door. You left a paper bag and water on the nightstand by his bed, where he laid down like he was having a nice day on the beach with only a towel around his hips. He noticed you looked down at him a little longer than usual, but he wasn’t going to let that slip. A sleazy smirk formed on his lips.

“My eyes are up here, sugar.”

You turned away your gaze for a moment before looking back up at him again, confident this time as you locked up your eyes with his half-lidded ones.

“Stop the pet names, Soldier Boy.”

Ben stood up on his feet slowly under your eyes following his moves. His muscular frame towering over your figure as the towel fell to the floor, revealing his bare figure to you. He was growing fond of the way you didn’t step back, ever, from him.

“Well, you never complained back there. Speaking of,” he took the bottle of water between his hands and took a sip from it before his green orbs focused on you anew. “I think you owe me an explanation.”

“I already told you. I don’t know shit.”

“Fucking lies,” the supe hissed. “Tell me now.”

You shrugged and crossed your arms on your chest, tired of him. “I have nothing.”

“Sweetheart, you never shut your piehole during our sessions. Don’t back up now,” he dared, stepping closer to you, eyelids narrowing.

Neither Ben or you dared to look away. You had to act like it, for your good. What if Soldier Boy found out that probably Homelander was behind all of it? It was going to be the end of him, his son; the fucking abusive experiment would be gone with a blast. But Vought was still around. It wasn’t just about Homelander or personal payback. It was more than that.

Homelander was barely the tip of the iceberg. And you were afraid Ben would never understand the mission. Would he say yes to use his blood to create even more experiments after all he went through, even if you explained everything? You knew his answer. The next step was getting it from him and it was going to be the hardest thing ever. But you could think of that later. There was nothing that a small cut accident couldn’t do.

“I’m not talking because I have nothing to tell you, Ben,” you lied, looking at him with your brows knitting together. “I wish I knew, but I’m just as scared as you might be.”

“I’m not scared,” he replied a little too fast. “I want to know why you took me out.”

“Why not?” you insisted. “You deserve another chance.”

And I need you alive to find a cure to this curse.

Ben scrutinized your face. This time, he couldn’t read through you. What did he know though, was that he was tired. A burning ache was forming inside him once again and he needed to release it. He was used to sensing your heartbeats, the blood running on your veins, and still now there was no glimpse of you reacting to his teasing. Any other woman would have thrown herself at him, he was used to it. Now, there wasn’t anyone. Just you, paying no attention to his perfectly sculpted body and his cock between his legs. It had to be the fact that you were a supe. Not as powerful, but still. A clear advantage in the cursed world you all lived in. He took in your body, thinking into luring you to give in and imagining how it would be to have you crying under him, moaning his name exactly like numerous women have. Just for the night.

“Don’t think about it, Soldier Boy,” you voiced out, like if you read his nasty mind. “I’m not gonna do that.”

His eyes went back to your face. “Y’know, I used to have lines of women like you during my days. Countless lines of rich whores, waiting to have a good fuck with me. Pretty ladies whose husbands would leave unattended, cute little secretaries, bombshell Hollywood actresses… All of them, just wet holes ready for me. I’d take them all.”

You chuckled at his pathetic little speech. If that was his way of getting you to bed, it wasn’t working. Not now, not never.

“I’m not just any rich whore, Ben. I don’t want to fuck you, you can use the bathroom to take care of your little problem down there.”

You saw how his jaw clenched as he held his eyes with yours.

He smirked. “Maybe not today, pretty thing. But you’ll see.”

“Be my guest.”

Ben turned around, giving you a clear view of his ass as he locked himself inside the bathroom. The sound of the shower running was not enough to cover his moans and grunts as he jerked himself off. You just decided to sleep. There was a long drive waiting for you in the morning.

#soldier boy x reader #soldier boy x you #soldier boy x female reader #soldier boy imagines #soldier boy x y/n #soldier boy fanfiction #the boys amazon prime #the boys series #the boys tv #jensen ackles fanfiction #soldier boy/ben

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stillwinterair · 6 years ago

Note

tell us about desmond!

Des is the ONLY protagonist in a last-gen Bethesda game that I haven’t overhauled, reset, or replaced, which is a damn shock; my original characters in Fallout 3, Oblivion, and Skyrim all went through at least one complete revitalization, where I scrapped them entirely and replaced them with a different character, my Lone Wanderer perhaps being the most dramatic of the bunch with probably 3-4 playthroughs with huge changes each time before landing on the character that I now consider to be the “canon” version

I’ve played through New Vegas as Desmond four times now and am in the middle of a fifth and haven’t changed anything major, he’s only really gotten deeper (not in the edgy way but like the more complex and better-thought-out kinda way) as time has gone on. A lot of that’s due to my second playthrough of the game, which I played between the releases of Dead Money and Honest Hearts, because… that was a longer release window than I’d been anticipating. I started Dead Money the day it came out but was really frustrated the whole time and ended up quitting at the very end because I couldn’t figure out how to not lock myself in the fucking vault at the end. I rage quit, then came back a couple months later to start over. At first just the DLC, but then I figured, why not the whole game? I could prepare for Honest Hearts that way because lmfao little did I know it was gonna be a five month window between DLCs

Now here it’s worth noting: I am more depressed than I have literally ever been, my first year with this game. Early spring of 2011 is when I was originally supposed to be graduating high school. But over the winter, I had pneumonia AND the flu, back to back, while dealing with my parents’ divorce and a whole slew of other mental health issues, after transferring schools literally JUST for my last year because I was already depressed for a whole bunch of other reasons and felt like I needed a change of scenery. I was a mess, and by this point I was realizing that I’d already missed too much school to graduate as I’d planned, so I wouldn’t be able to come back until the fall and would be graduating a year late.

(Honestly this was also probably why I couldn’t figure out how to get out of the Sierra Madre vault, I didn’t have the patience for it, so there I was standing at the end of my high school career and Dead Money and unable to finish either)

So it’s mid to late winter, maybe early spring, and I start New Vegas over. And this character is damn near a blank slate. I recognize that I liked most, if not all of the choices I made in my first playthrough, but I don’t really have anything to ground me in them. So I step outside of Doc Mitchell’s house, run through the tutorial, yadda yadda yadda, the normal new game stuff. I’m listening to Radio New Vegas the whole time, listening to the news, trying to immerse myself in the character and the experience.

But then night’s falling, and I do something I almost never did in my first playthrough: I switch the radio over to Mojave Music. And Tony Marcus’s “Lone Star” starts to play. And everything falls into place.

I decide Des is from Texas. He’s from a little ranch town, but they’ve been running dry in recent years, so they sent Des out to raise caps in the wasteland and come back some day with enough to revitalize the town. He’s meant to be their savior, and he’s got a host of people back home waiting on him, hoping to see him on the horizon, some sunny day soon. It’s a lofty goal for a little town, but they have love and hope and optimism in spades, and not much else.

Cheesy, but that’s the kind of thing I needed at the time.

But then, I realize: Part of the reason this character worked so well for me the first time was because he was a blank slate. He didn’t know shit about the politics of New Vegas, nor how the world worked, nor where to go or what to do, and neither did I. So I decided: Benny’s bullet wiped his memory. He remembers bits and pieces, but for the most part he has amnesia. He has hyper-specific memories of random, unimportant instances of his past life, up to and including the vividly traumatic memory of Benny’s attempt on his life, but for the most part, who he was before is gone. That way, a few of the off-handed in-game comments you can make about, say, visiting New Reno and such can make sense.

So just like it did me, that song stirs something in Desmond: The hint of a hint of a memory, sitting just beyond his reach, that he won’t ever find again. He’ll wander the wastes until the end of his days, no clue that he’s got folks back home waiting for him to come home and save him. And one by one they’ll all give up and move on, until only his parents are left, alone and dying on a dead stretch of land.

But regardless, that turn of fate was better than the alternative. Because Des had, before his run in with Benny, taken a turn for the worse. It didn’t take long after leaving the homestead for him to turn to unsavory work, because that tended to be all that was available, especially when on the fringes of Legion territory. Mercenary work, theft, and assassination became the norm for him, and after a while he basked in it, because he was damn good at it. His natural charm and quick hand made him especially adept at armed robbery, and as he hopped from crew to crew and town to town, he saw the benefits to the criminal life. Instead of taking his winnings back home, he considered cashing out and investing in something that’d make him rich, or happy, or maybe both. He became a shitty, awful person with selfish goals.

The Platinum Chip job was to be one of his last, but fate intervened. He lost the memories of who he was, but it all left a mark on his soul. He feels the things he’s done, even if he can’t remember them. He’s stolen from good people, killed innocents, ripped folk off and was generally an arrogant, snide jackass. The only people he got along with were fellow criminals, and even them, he’d leave when it was convenient or killed when they disagreed. And something deep inside him still knows all that, and is desperate to make up for it.

So Des is generous, and he’s kind, and he’s caring, but in a distant way. He works through crippling guilt he doesn’t understand, spills his own blood and sweat to set things right, but the moment a task is done he leaves and tries not to return. He worries his presence is going to ruin things, so he makes sure he’s only involved long enough to fix a problem. Then he keeps people at arm’s length.

Which is hard. He’s a social person, and he’s good at falling in with people. He’s just also innately good at leaving them. He’s selfless and he’s depressed and the combination makes him feel selfish. So he’s afraid of commitment, but is even more afraid of leaving a task half-finished, a problem half-fixed.

He talks his way out of things as much as he can. He’s not big on sneaking around, and he’s most fond of pistols and rifles. He sees the NCR as the best outcome for New Vegas–by no means perfect, but better than a power vacuum or a dictator. He cares deeply for people, is highly empathic, and is a natural problem solver. He’s talkative, but pretends not to be; he’s a natural leader, but tries not to be. He hates choosing people’s fates, but he’ll do it if no one else will. And he hates killing, but damn if it doesn’t come easy. He acts like he prefers solitude, but is most at home when surrounded by close friends. And nowhere feels more at home than the Lucky 38.

And yet, true to his nature, he leaves again not long after the events of New Vegas wrap up, not because he wants to, but because he feels like he should; because the city and its people and the lands around it will be better off without him. But he’ll never forget the lessons the Mojave taught him.

#oc: desmond

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talk-shit-get-fit · 7 years ago

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Year In Review

My top 10 posts- For any that are curious or missed it

Changed gym

Around the summer there was a bit of a shitty situation with one member that led me to leaving my old gym.

Sometimes go back for classes or convenience but sadly cannot comfortably lift there anymore.

I still love the staff and all for providing a nice welcoming environment for me to start regularly exercising and eventually lifting.

Glad I moved though, new gym has familiar faces and much more space and equipment. Also means I can take public transport/bike more often.

My Lifting

Ultimate goal is to be able to squat, bench press, deadlift my own bodyweight. Although I still have a ways to go I’ve definitely gotten closer than where I was at start of year.

Need to be better at asking for a spotter so I push myself more. Luckily, new gym has a bunch of people I knew that are members or work there.

Brightside, I can with relative ease lift and carry my miss. Which had me blushing a bunch.

My Yoga

Ultimate goal is better balance and flexibility in general.

Can’t manage splits but Crow pose is easier now and have held Scorpion and handstand briefly. So progress.

Holidays have screwed with scheduled classes and I like practicing with a group more than by myself, so my Yoga has been off for a bit. Hopefully it goes back to normal soon

I enjoy the meditation I get from the motions and breathing. As well as the feeling as an entire class moves in unison.

My Running

Ultimate Goal is running 744.7 miles/1198.5 kilometers, for reasons (kiss to my miss).

Started the year being a bit frustrated at Nike+ app for crashing in the middle of a run.

In the end, switched to Zombies Run. It took me longer than I planned for reasons but glad I made it through the first season. Sam Yao is precious and the story pairs nicely with my music/podcasts as I run. On lighter days I turn off chases but when I have them on I surprise myself with how fast I can get as I evade zombies.

I was able to tally up all my recorded runs from Nike+ and ZR, not the most accurate but close as I can get.

Total distance: 148.53miles/239km

596.17 miles/ 959.44 km to go

Going to try and do more community running events to help reach my goal and also get out of my comfort zone.

Currently taking a break from ZR to try to get back to Pokémon Go since gen 3 came out and that was the last game I played through.

My food

Started year trying to be vegan before 6 after hearing about it and reading.

Not going to lie, got a little stressful worrying whether something was in line with it. It is certainly possible and I’ll definitely come back to it.

Considering I once ate a burger and fries every other day, making meat and cheese less of a thing in my diet is still progress.

For now, getting better at not skipping breakfast and cooking at home, with some meal prep.

My Tumblr

800+ wonderful followers(and pornbots, sigh)

Lovely mutuals that help inspire me, even if we don’t talk. Hope I occasionally return the favor.

Met my little sister from another mother real life kamala khan @whattheflippingkarahi, and the fantastic @morethanjustanumber who helped me though some LDR feels/worries.

Sidenote, we finally met up after a long time apart and discovered some poetry I apparently inspired(has me smiling randomly). I love and am proud of her. So much.

As well as so many wonderful fitblrs that draw inspiration from nerdy things like I do. From real life Avatar Korras(@do-it-for-cosplay @joel-ellie), heroes and villains in training (@m0tiv8me @batman-villain-in-training @fitlikelink), to geeks from around the globe(@fit-physicist @shapeyoursmile @evolutionofacosfitter). There are plenty I missed but you are all amazing.

Going to be changing blog name to something slightly more personal, not much will change. Going to try to tag posts better.

Again Thank you so much to my mutuals, followers, those I follow, and fitblrs in general for helping to show fitness is mental as much as it is physical.

#v has come to #year in review #2017 #sorry if tags were inappropriate #but y'all are great #zombies run #yoga #goals #fitblr

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ilvatu · 4 years ago

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Pokemon, What is Cheating? (Hacked vs. Cloned)

Been playing quite a bit of Pokemon Sword/Shield lately and they have just released the first content pack the Isle of Armour. It’s more of the same if you liked the core game, and adds not a huge amount of additional game, but a new “Wild Area” to explore, as well as a huge number of (new/old/additional) Pokemon to the game. I’ve enjoyed it, but I could see how some people could be disappointed with the additional content.

ANYWAY, playing the games long enough to do more than simply beat them means you have higher goals in mind. Catch ‘em all? Sure, gotta complete that Pokedex. But also? Get a good team, or an ideal team. Which on some level or another will require you to breed for stats/abilities, feed them bottle caps, mints, and perfect IVs and EVs. Not to mention shiny Pokemon, which are just extremely rare Pokemon with an alternative color palate.

Naturally it would be easier to trade for some of these mons than acquire them yourself. How can you be sure the Pokemon you receive is legitimate? What is legitimate?

Hacking mons into your game is a thing. Hilarious even, when you consider twitch.tv/oakslab is a thing. Oakslab will generate any mon you want and trade it to you, for free. So, this is clearly cheating. I don’t have a problem with it, if people want to use it. I have. Hold it against me if you want. It is what it is.

The problem is when people who want to play the game “”legitimately”” want to acquire Pokemon from other people in a trade. The lengths they will go through to ensure the Pokemon is legit, and how other questionable methods are somehow ok is where I’m stumped. Because fabricating a mon into the game is wrong, but having someone clone one that they found legitimately and then give you the clone is morally superior to hacking.

I’m going to take a step back for a minute and walk through the exposure I had to this issue. I’ll try to say what I know about the websites, streams, and/or communities involved.

So, my goal was to have a perfect team. There may be no such thing, but I had a list of mons that I wanted and I wanted to see how good I could get it. I had the mons I wanted, but their stats and abilities were not ideal. There are two ways to get a Pokemon's stats perfect. You can improve an existing Pokemon or you can breed a better one. You can use a bottle cap on an existing Pokemon in order to “hyper train” that stat to be perfect. You can also use items like mints to get their nature adjusted. But the ability the Pokemon has is stuck. You need to have the ability you want as there is no way to change it.

The other way, through, breeding can be more time consuming but over the long term can result in consistently amazing Pokemon. In order to fix this issue on my own I would need to repeatedly breed Pokemon together in order to get the result I need. I wanted to choose this path, mostly because I felt the long-term benefit would result in an easier or faster way to get new mons the way I wanted faster.

Enter Ditto. The Pokemon that can breed with everything. Every Pokemon can breed with a Ditto, even Pokemon that can’t typically breed with each other, or gender-less Pokemon. I did have a Ditto, but its stats suffered from the same issue my other mons did. They were trash. Also, Ditto cannot breed with other Dittos. Apparently this would result in a gravy train so rich that even the developers thought it shouldn’t be possible. Also, if you breed a Pokemon that has been hyper trained, it’s hyper trained stats do not transfer. It will pass on its original shitty stats. The only way to get a perfect Ditto is to catch one or trade for one. Each Pokemon has six stats with 31 possibilities. Finding a Ditto in the wild with perfect stats would be (1/31)^6 or 1 in 887,503,681. Terrible fucking odds.

Subnote: you can find Dittos with good stats yourself via max raid battles, but manipulating the spawns for them seems just as cheaty as any of the methods I am about to go over, but would likely result in still costing a greater amount of time.

So at this point I was like “fuck it.” I’m going to try to find someone on the internet to trade me one. Just get one good Ditto from an outside source and then I can breed to my heart’s content. To Google. I found two sources of Pokemon at this point, which I will go over in turn. The first was a Subreddit which boiled down to “we’ll give you a Ditto of your choice, once every 48 hours.” I had to install Pokemon Home on my phone and Switch, but I did receive three perfect Dittos this way. I also learned about natures, which is why I got three Dittos. Op success.

I also discovered Oak’s lab, which I went over in some detail before. But through Oakslab I had my first exposure to Pokemon Showdown and the community there. Specifically the “Wifi” community, which is going to consist of the real meat of this post. In order to request a Pokemon from the Oakslab stream, you have to first export one you made using Showdown’s Teambuilder. I did this, got my mon, sweet. Also Showdown’s Teambuilder is a fun tool that lets me screw around with stats and stuff. Very useful as a tool for theory crafting.

My other thought is that I could just be lazy. Get a Pokemon via Oakslab, breed it with a Ditto, and take the resulting Pokemon which would have all of my trainer info on it. Would that Pokemon be legal? Hell no, but there’s no way to prove otherwise, right? Oh how wrong I am. I have done this method of breeding what I want a few times. I don’t care, and nobody I ever play with will likely ever notice. But holy fuck is this community insane about what is and is not cheating.

So the MOTD of the Wifi chat room for Pokemon Showdown is what sparked me to write this. Not just the dichotomy of writing in bold letters about how hacked Pokemon are the devil, while at the same time having an approved list of “cloners,” but for having one of the most through and detailed proof requirements that I have seen of any game. Even Goldeneye “Elite” mods like Goose don’t have proof requirements this detailed. And that dude is really fucking into busting the balls of proof requirements on a number of games, not just Goldeneye.

The proof requirements are insane, but they essentially want you to create a video that shows you catching the Pokemon, and then going and viewing its stats and other info. They also want you to use an out-of-game tool to publish your seed and time of day and stuff. Like, in order to prove that your Pokemon isn’t hacked you have to prove that you have the ability to hack Pokemon.

BUT, clones are OK and christian. Here are a list of people who can do it for you.

Of course, any issue found with a mon you have here results in a ban. They have no other method of control and couldn’t possibly understand why people wouldn’t keep a cache videos of every mon they’ve ever caught ever.

Its more of a whitelist thing, I’d guess. Like, your mon might not be illegal, but if you don’t have direct evidence of it’s legality then you can’t trade it.

I suppose if you want to keep your game completely legitimate that is the same as me choosing to use hacked Pokemon. It wouldn’t be right for me to claim that I have a real one and then give them my genned Oakslab stuff. But at the same time having someone clone a shiny mon from someone else so you can both have one is ok. Everyone should be allowed to play the game how they see fit, I just think that it’s insanity that they think that this sort of proof is sufficient and yet easy for laypeople to compile.

This all flies in the face of the existence of Oakslab, which churns out hacked Pokemon as fast as it can, and it has almost a thousand people waiting in line to get theirs during peak times for EU.

It also flies in the face of Showdown in general. A website where you can just use a tool to make any team you want and battle with it in a simulator with other people as much as you want. A battle simulator for a game they have no affiliation with.

Lastly, it flies in the face of the base game. There is specifically a rule in Wifi that says that if you received a Pokemon through GTS (Pokemon Home strangers donating mons to you) or if you received one through a “Surprise Trade” or through the game trading system, that they are likely hacked and prohibited from trade. In other words, they acknowledge that people in-game are handing out hacked mons willy-nilly and that if you participate in these systems you are likely acquiring hacked Pokemon.

I did receive a shiny Magikarp in surprise trade recently which I suspect is legitimate. I will be using it as if it were. It has me thinking though, that it might be hacked. It doesn’t bother me so much, but I know that I could not trade this on their website because I cannot prove its legitimacy.

I am trying to withhold judgement as much as I can here. My issue isn’t really with the people who want hacked Pokemon, or the people who want to only acquire legitimate mons. My real gripe is with the people who run Showdown seem to be determining morality for people. They are dominating the grey area between copying Pokemon games, and what is morally allowed to be traded. Why is a cloned Pokemon ok but a hacked one not? What difference is it if you used in-game mechanics to achieve the same result?

As long as people are straight forward about how they acquired whatever they trade I wouldn’t have an issue with it. The Pokemon giveaways subreddit doesn’t have an issue with how you acquired it as long as you disclose it. They have tags for legit, cloned, and hacked. It should be up to the user to determine what is acceptable to them.

I will end by saying that doing cheats or immoral things like duping Pokemon has been possible since Gen 1 Red/Blue days.Pulling the link cable before the trade was done, or abusing missingno for unlimited master balls or other items. I don’t really see this as any better than cloning or Oakslab. Back then we didn’t even have gamefaqs, or if we did we weren’t old enough to ask our parents to dial in to AOL. It was this underground thing. A friend of a friend showed you how to do it, and then you could show your friends. It was all fun and games until someone’s save got corrupted.

Final thought is that it bothers me that people who operate a website that exists in a legal grey area are very quick to pass judgement on the way other people want to play their game. Maybe it makes the most sense, but maybe don’t throw stones in glass houses is all I’m saying.

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lawrenceseitz22 · 8 years ago

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Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 115

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 115 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://ift.tt/1NZu6N2.

Announcement

Bradley: There’s a weird delay between when it says we’re starting and when it actually goes green. Hey, everybody. This is Bradley Benner with Semantic Mastery. This is Hump Day Hangouts for January 18, 2017. It’s 4 p.m., Eastern. We only have a couple on with me today. I’ve got Chris and Marco. Hey, Chris. How are you?

Chris: Doing good. Glad to be here.

Bradley: We got Marco. How are you doing, buddy?

Marco: Hey, man. What’s happening?

Bradley: Guys, you know after last week we did the format with … Trying to use the WebinarJam comments and that didn’t work out very well so we switched back. We’re using the new WebinarJam sessions like Overlay. We’re not using Hangouts for the actual video. That’s why the interface or, excuse me … the video that you’re watching now looks a little bit different with the layout, but for all intents and purposes on your end as a viewer, as an attendee, nothing will be different. We’re going to continue using the Google-Plus pages like we have been. We’re going to use that as the Event Page as the place to post your questions. You can access that event page through the notification emails that get sent out once you’ve signed up and registered for the Hump Day Hangout Series. If you have not registered for the Hump Day Hangout Series, please do so.

http://ift.tt/1NZu6N2 and once you register it redirects you to a thank you page. There’s a video with me explaining that if you click on a link above, that you can subscribe to be notified to the entire series for an entire year. You can unsubscribe at any time, but I recommend that you do so, that way notifications get sent out as well as the link to the event page every single week will be sent out in that notification emails so you can post your questions early. We just got to train you guys to get in on the new system with us. I think it’s going to make it beneficial for everybody in the long run, and hopefully you guys will agree. That said, I think the only announcement that I know of because Adam’s having difficulties attending today, is we’ve got a citation service up now, guys. Actually, I haven’t even got a chance to click through and look at it yet but yeah, we’ve got a citation service now available for people that want to purchase citations.

There are high-end citations. They’re not the cheap, shitty ones so I recommend is if you’re doing lead-gen properties or things like that, you can go with the cheaper services if you feel like it, but if you want the Cadillac of citations, we have that available now. That’s http://ift.tt/2iVLhIT. Hernan or … Hernan. Marco or somebody can post that on the event page for you guys. Check it out. If you’re doing any sort of client work and that kind of stuff, these are the same citations that I use in my business. The same citation service for all of my clients. Very, very, very high-quality citations. You can’t get any better than what we have available so check that out. Do we have anything else we need to announce before getting into questions? Guys, do you know?

Marco: Yeah. I’d like to add that Video Power House is almost ready to go, man. I thought we’re hard at work. The sites are being built. We have the categories. We actually have someone that checks the videos to make sure that they go into the correct category. We’re going to keep the theme. Keep them powered up and I’m adding some extra sauce into the mix some [inaudible 00:03:19] and some other stuff that I know will power up the network, give it authority, give it relevancy, give it trust and so I think it’s totally going to rock and at the same time what we’re going to do is we’re going to limit the number.

Sorry, but it has to be done, and we have to let people go. We’re going to limit at first, the number of people that we let in just to make sure that we can serve that amount of people, that the system can handle. As we go, we will open again, for more people. Hopefully, I don’t know. We’ll see how it works. We’ll see how it all works out, but I just want people. I’m really excited about this because we’ve been working really hard to make this happen. We’re right there. We’re right there, man. I’m really excited about that.

Bradley: Hey, look. We had the late comers. The fashionably late members.

Adam: Hey, guys. I just woke up.

Hernan: Hey, everyone. What’s up?

Adam: I haven’t had consider restart but I know Marco was talking about Video Power House, which is awesome. I’m getting super pumped about that.

Bradley: Yeah, and it’s …

Hernan: Hi, what’s up?

Bradley: Well, and Hernan. Yeah, what’s up man?

Hernan: Hey.

Adam: Hey, Hernan. FYI, I’m not sure if it’s WebinarJam, but your mic sounds really high. You might want to adjust the levels.

Hernan: I don’t know why. I’ll try to figure that out.

Bradley: You got to take the microphone out of your mouth.

Hernan: Oh, okay. That makes sense.

Bradley: Yeah, Video Power House is going to be crazy and we got people staff in place that are monitoring the submissions and making sure they go to the right categories. Like Marco said, it’s crazy. We’re going to have the support team behind it and all that. Guys, it’s taken us … Shit, I think we announced it originally, over a year ago, didn’t we? … Video Power House, or close to a year ago? It’s been a long time, I know that. We’ve been working on it forever but it’s getting guys, and it’s going to be incredibly powerful so check that out. That said, Adam, since you are usually the one that gives announcements, we mentioned citations and Video Power House. Is there anything else needs to be mentioned?

Adam: I think that’s it. If you’re in the IFTTT/SEO Academy, you’re going to be getting an email with a webinar just for you so by all means, come check it out. That’s going to be tomorrow. Then our, what? Our Local Kingpin people have got a cool webinar going on tonight. I think you’re going to be talking about a case study, right? … for the people who …

Bradley: Yeah.

Adam: … are in the Local Kingpin?

Bradley: Yeah, I forgot to mention that. The Local Kingpin Update Webinar Number-2 is immediately following Hump Day Hangouts today. It’s going to be mainly member Q&A other than a new case study announcement where Hernan and I are tag teaming a new case study in a different industry. A local case study, and we’re going to be basically adding all that training to the Local Kingpin training site. Once that’s done, once the second case study has been added, which will be in a couple months. It will be complete in a couple months, the price is definitely going up on that because it’s a really, really good course. There’s a ton of information in there, and this second case study, we’re going to take a brand new business from the ground-up and build it, like for real … using Adwords … Adwords for video, remarketing, Bing advertising and Facebook ads for local. We’re going to do that together and get this business off the ground.

It’s for a local gym and that’s going to be awesome because we’re going to literally take a guy’s business that’s just got started and get him profitable and get leads coming in the door. That’s going to be added to the training and that’s again, we’re going to announce that Local Kingpin Update Webinar-2 … the details of that. Then we’re going to add the training to the membership site and then we’ll do the results at the end of 60 days, roughly and the Update Webinar Number-3. Definitely check that out, guys. Also, we cover a lot of that kind of stuff inside the MasterClass on a bi-weekly basis. That’s the ongoing case study group so if you guys are interested in getting that kind of detail like case studies where we go through step-by-step on how things are done and show results basically, in real-time, the Master Class is where you want to be for that.

Hernan: Yep. Can you guys hear me better now?

Bradley: Yeah.

Hernan: It’s better? I just wanted to add to what Bradley was saying about putting a completely-from-scratch case study, a success story completely from scratch. One of the challenges is to do it with a slow budget as possible. That was one of the conditions from the client. It’s going to be a ton of fun because that way we can be working with that and progressing that, and investing the profits back into the campaign so that we can get a really good case study for you guys, so stay tuned. I think that’s going to segue into whatever we are doing with Facebook, in terms of training in 2017, which is also going to be really, really good.

Bradley: I’m pretty excited about it because this is going to be really cool to take somebody’s brand new business and help them to grow and get profitable quickly. That’s awesome so I’m really looking forward to this, as well. This will be the first time Hernan and I have worked together on a project this closely in quite a while. We used to back in the day, couple years ago. We used to work on various projects a lot closer, more often but now we don’t do it nearly as much so this will be kind of fun to get a chance to work with him, as well.

Hernan: Yep.

Bradley: All right, guys. I’m going to take the screen and we’re going to get into questions. We’re pretty much done on announcements. Correct?

Adam: I think so.

Bradley: All right, let me close out of all these various windows that I have opened that you guys don’t need to see. Really, shut all the porn down. No, I’m kidding.

Adam: Bradley, can you or maybe you went over this before I got here, but did you go over how this works now, with the new setup for people? How they’re supposed to post questions and all that?

Bradley: Yep. Basically, guys, just for one more time to re-cap, if you’re not signed up for the Hump Day Hangout Series, which is now done through http://ift.tt/1NZu6N2. It will take you to a registration page. Go register then on the thank you page that it redirects you to after registration, there’s a video. I explain what to do, but there’s a button, a link above the video that says, “You can subscribe or register for the entire series.” All you got to do is click that one time and then go confirm your subscription. Then you’ll get notifications for the next 52 weeks. Again, if at any time you don’t want to be notified of the upcoming Hump Day Hangout, that’s fine. You can unsubscribe at any time but in those notification emails will be the link every week to the event page so that you can post your questions early. Again, register, subscribe to the series. It’s a two-step process. There’s a video that explains how to do it. Then you will be notified every week of the upcoming webinar with the link to the event page for you to post your questions, okay?

Google AMP & Ranking

All right. That’s said, let’s do it. Lee’s up first. He says, “Is Google Amp increase rank. Do you suggest Google Amp?” I’m going to hand that one to Marco.

Marco: Does it increase rank? It targets a different section of the algorithm. It’s just totally geared towards that type of page. Really, what it works more on is something that’s news-worthy, news-related, and things like that. We have a plug-in that does Amp, that does Amp Pages, and it does posts as Amp Pages. We’re going to make it available. We have to make just a couple of tweaks to it. We had it ready, but then we discovered that there was a little bug in it that we needed to fix. We have it ready. The thing that I would tell you is test. It’s what we always say. Take it. Use it. Use it the way it’s supposed to. Go and look at the documentation. Google tells you everything about Amp and how to use it, what it’s for. Lee, that’s what I would say. Just go and look at the documentation and see what Google wants you to do with it. I mean, there are times where you do need to follow what Google says, and this is one of those instances.

Hernan: I just wanted to add real quick that the other day I was browsing on the mobile, on the phone, and I started noticing on the search engine result’s pages on the search within Google. Yeah, within Google on the mobile phone, some of them will start showing little icon that’s showing accelerated mobile pages. You know what I mean? It will start showing those results with a little icon to the left of it on the listing that says, “AMP,” or Accelerated Mobile Pages. I think it’s a little lightening or something like that. That gives you the idea that Google is actually starting to index these pages and is starting to give them priority on mobile results. This is super important because most of your clients will be on mobile anyways, and you want your mobile versions to load as fast as possible. You know what I mean? That’s why we are doing the AMP, the AMP thing. I started noticing that and I wanted to tell you guys to be aware of that.

Indexing Citations

Bradley: Very cool. Mark Kong was up next. He says, “Hey, guys. Hope you are all starting the year with a bang. I’m excited about this year and believe I will be able to finally join the Masterminds so looking forward to that.” I believe you will finally be able to join as well, Mark. That’s all it takes, guys … is the belief that you can do it and you can make it happen. We look forward to having you, Mark. My question is, how are you indexing your citations? I still have quite a few not indexed and they were built a while ago, now. If I just copy and paste the URL of the citation page into Google and it doesn’t show, does it mean that it’s not indexed or may my link still be indexed? Cheers.

A couple things, Mark. Yeah, there’s a lot of citations that are slow to index, or they don’t index, or you won’t see them in the backlink analysis tool such as Majestic, and Ahrefs and things like that. A lot of the times you won’t see them. It’s similarly to web to dot o links. It’s very similar to that, in that a lot of the times, you will not see those backlinks in link analysis tools. A better way to find citations, to see if citations are recognized or indexed, as you call it because they don’t have to be in Google’s index for Google to know that they’re there, just so you understand that … but a better way to determine whether your citations are being counted or found is to use a tool such as BrightLocal. That’s the one that I use. I know there’s another one that other people often use called, “Whitespark.ca,” I believe it is. I’ve been using BrightLocal for about six years. Well, at least five years. I don’t plan on changing because I’m really familiar with BrightLocal. It’s a great, great service. BrightLocal will show you. You know what it will do? Basically, a count of all of your citations that it can find on the web. It’s not 100% accurate, either but it’s a lot more accurate than link analysis tools are for finding citations.

The other thing is and remember, we talked about this many, many times because people always ask a similar questions when it comes to web two dot o links from the IFTTT network’s not showing, but if you go into search console and you take a look. I don’t remember which. It’s one of the drop downs in the left-hand side bar, but if you look at “Links to Site.” Links to your site or something like that. You click on that and Google will show you what it’s recognizing now. Within the last few months, and Terry Kyle did a blog post about this, but within the last few months Google has started to show less and less links than it used to. That doesn’t mean that they’re not still seeing them, though because my guess is a lot of those, you will still see in the search console area, but again just to double check to see if your citations are being counted, I would recommend using a citation service or, excuse me … a local marketing service such as BrightLocal or Whitespark, okay?

The other thing you can do, what I always do whenever I get citations from one of the services I would use, I would always just take the spreadsheet, copy all the profile URLs or the citations page URLs, whatever, and then put them into indexing services. I used multiple indexing services. However, during our mastermind webinar last week with our awesome link building manager, [Dadya 00:16:25], he expressed that Express Indexer, Express.indexer, I think it is or something like that. Let me see if I can find the link. I don’t have an affiliate link for it, but it doesn’t matter because these guys … I was using this … Hold on a minute. I can’t talk and type at the same time, guys so excuse me. Expressindexer.solutions. Expressindexer.solutions.

He says that they are by far, the best indexing service that he’s ever used and they recently, within about the last two months or so, they redid how their whole entire system and how they index links. He’s getting an 80% indexing rate from Spam Links. We’re talking GSA Links. GSA Spam Links, he’s getting 80% indexing rate, which is phenomenal. I mean, that’s unheard of. That’s using this service, right here. I’m going to be using it. We already have a subscription to this. We have because we used to use this for ATM or Mass Page Generator sites, that type of stuff for indexing those sites, but I stopped using it because we haven’t been building many of those sites recently, but apparently now, this is the best service available so I’m going to be using this a lot more. Check it out. All right?

Thoughts On Serplify

Next. Phoenix Car Accident Chiropractor. That’s a mouth full. Have you guys seen the new Serpify by Mo Miah et al? It’s a Serp Shaker-type software. There’s a YouTube video. Yeah, I’ve heard about it. We’ve had a bunch of people already message us asking us what we think. I don’t have an opinion on it. I probably won’t ever have an opinion on it because I’m not going to test it only because if I’m going to be building mass page generator sites, I’m going to be using the ATM … Lead Gadgets and the ATM just because I have a history with those guys and that software, and I know it well. I don’t need another one. Personally, I’ve had some bad experience with some other software in the past. I don’t know. I can’t speak about this one in particular. Serpify, I have no idea but there’s a bunch of different types of mass page generators out there now. As far as I know from the ones that I have tested, there’s no competition. The ATM is by far the best. It is rather expensive, though. It’s more for agency-level people. You got to take that into consideration, as well.

You guys want to comment on this, at all? Has anybody looked at this?

Marco: No, I don’t have time. I have too much stuff going on, man. I wish I had some time to check it out and be able to tell people, “Yes,” or “No.” Sorry, if anyone has tried it though and they have an opinion, you’re welcome …

Bradley: Post it.

Marco: … to let us know.

Adam: Yeah, we’d be happy Definitely, we could have somebody on and if you’ve got some experience, we’ll talk to you ahead of time but yeah, sure. For me, I’d just look. I’d be like, “Well, I don’t know if it’s going to be better, but if you’re not looking for something automated like the ATM,” which I would say, “Maybe you should be.” How about, I don’t know? I’d like to see the differences from that and maybe Serp Shaker because I’m sure this is a plug-in, probably.

Bradley: I’m not sure how it works but like I said, I’m just not. If I’m going to do mass page generator, like mass page sites I’m going to use ATM because I’m comfortable with it and I’ve been using it for, shit … over two years, now. That’s what I’m going to stick with. I’m not really going to test one of the new tools just because there’s a learning curve involved and I just don’t need another one. You know what I mean? That’s like Keyword Tools. I probably have, no shit … at least a dozen Keyword Tools. I don’t know why I have so many of them because I only ever use Google Trends, Power Suggest Pro, and the Keyword Planner anyways. I don’t know why I have so many damn keyword tools, but every time one comes out, they make a million promises and I always pick it up because I want to check it out. There you go. Money wasted … Now, they collect digital dust.

Marco: Nothing. Just to get in there about that keyword research. Nothing beats, as far as I’m concerned, Power Suggest Pro.

Bradley: I totally agree.

Adam: I was going to say, Bradley, you put that link for your training stuff you did. I think that’s still a good one. I’ve sent people there before.

Bradley: Yeah, it’s dated now. Just go to Keywordsuggest.io, Keywordsuggest.io. You can opt in. It’s free, guys and then I’d good to go through keyword research training and exactly how I use the tools that are freely available. I do talk about obviously, Power Suggest Pro because it’s super, super awesome. It’s cheap and inexpensive with a one-time cost. You’d be stupid not to pick it up. If you ever need keywords, Power Suggest Pro is awesome, but Keywordsuggest.co, you can opt in and then it will redirect you to the training site where you can go through the keyword research training that I did. It’s a bit dated but the principles are still the same, guys. They’re tried and true timeless principles, so to speak. All right?

Any Issues With Burner App On Phone

Katie’s up next. “Hi, guys. Couple quick things. First, I’m testing out Mega-Ray. Was impressed. I put in a ticked and they called me on the phone.” That’s fantastic. I know Jude and the developers. They have quite a support team behind them. That’s another reason why we promoted that product because I know how much development and support is behind that product guys. We’ll report back after some tests. I’ll be glad to hear it, anxious to hear what your results are.

Next, “Anyone have issues with the Burner App on phone sometimes not working with Google. Coming back and saying that number’s not valid?” Yes, that is a known problem or issue. That is a problem. In fact, we have even started having issues with our VA’s in the Philippines using SIM cards for phone verifying brand-new accounts. What’s interesting is if you have a Google account that you need to add a recovery phone number to. You’ve already got the Google account. Let’s say you already have a Google account, and you need to add a recovery phone number to it, or you want to enable YouTube Livestream, live streaming from YouTube like YouTube Live events. You need to enable that, or become YouTube Partner Verified. Whatever. You can use a Burner App for any of those instances, a Burner App phone number for any of those instances and it will work fine. It just won’t work on registering the Gmail address for the first time, when you’re creating the Gmail account. It doesn’t work there, but if you can get it created and then add your own phone number for recovery options or enabling live streaming, that sort of thing, those numbers will still work fine.

What’s the solution? What we’ve been doing is I’ve been going through. My bookmarks are still screwed up. Let me see if I can find it real quick. Here we go. This should be it here. Son-of-a-bitch, my bookmarks are all screwed up. MetroBiz, Kendrick Nair posted it the last time. Let me see if I can find it real quick. If I can’t, I’ll try to post it on later. There it is, Bulkpva.com and I know I’ve got it bookmarked. I just got to put it in the right place. This guy right here, this is the guy that I buy all of our Gmail accounts from now, guys … Phone verified Gmail accounts. It’s from this one, Bulkpva.com. I’ve sent this dude a lot of business because we buy a ton of them for our network builders, for the IFTTT Done For You, IFTTT networks and stuff like that as well as any time I need him for my own projects, now. I just buy them from him. He sends you a spreadsheet with the phone verified accounts with the recovery options and all that kind of stuff.

The trick is once you get them back, you need to log in and bind them to your IP or to your Proxies, if you’re using Proxies like for example, if you’re using BrowSEO. As soon as you get those back, within 72 hours, you want to try to log into every one of those accounts that you get, but that’s all we do now is purchase the accounts. It’s too much. It takes too much time and effort to try to phone verify your own accounts now, guys. It’s so much cheaper to have somebody else just do it for you. Buy 25 or 50 at a time, try to long into them all, but so what. For how cheap they are, and the amount of headache and time it will save you to have some available for whenever you need them, it’s totally worth it. Spend a few bucks. Pick them up. That guy’s a good guy. He’ll replace them if they’re not working once, right after he delivers them. After a few days he won’t replace them, but he’s just a good dude and again, I don’t mind sending him business. He’ll take care of you.

Setting Up Silo Structure For Local Cities In YouTube

Finally, “Just watched the YouTube SEO Course. Great stuff. How would you recommend YouTube structure for local cities? Do you agree with others that say, “Channel name equals keyword plus USA, then playlist equals keyword plus State, and then video title equals keyword plus counties, and in description to put in the cities?” If not, what channel or silo structure do you recommend? Finally, how many silos per site? Thanks. Happy New Year.” All right, that’s a long question. There’s a few things in there. First of all, I wouldn’t create a playlist on a State-level and then do video titles via county-level because typically, that’s not. First of all, a State playlist could be a rather large playlist, and other than having just the State in common with all the videos in that playlist, there could be a lot of difference like topical differences, niche differences, industry difference. Because of that, the only common denominator or theme among all of those in a playlist would be the State, which I think it too broad.

Now, typically what I will do, and I don’t usually do this with YouTube Channels but basically, when I’m siloing out a website for a contractor that covers a large service area or something like that, is I will create the silos based on counties. The playlist would be a county-based playlist. Then the video titles would be the keyword plus city. The reason I say that is because most people don’t search for service plus county. Most people when they search Google, they search service plus city, or keyword plus city. With local intent, most of the time it’s going to be a city-based search, not a county-based search. Because of that, you should be targeting the city name and the video title, which is the SEO title. That’s because that’s the most important place for the keyword. If you want to rank for a city, typically you’re going to want to target the city in the title.

I would generally do playlist in one of two ways. I would either create a playlist based on a specific city, or a country if I’m going to be covering multiple locations within the county. For example: Fairfax County, Virginia it has I believe, 23 cities within that county. I might have a playlist for Fairfax County, Virginia. Then I would have individual videos in there, but Fairfax, Virginia, which is Fairfax is also a city in Fairfax County. It’s the City of Fairfax. That might have 50 different businesses in it, so why not have a City of Fairfax playlist. Does that make sense? It’s just about containers, building containers. All a playlist is, is a container. You got to think about whatever you put in that container, it should be relevant to the other items in that container. The hierarchy in how you build that is really going to depend on the specific project.

I can’t tell you specifically without knowing more details about what you’re trying to do, but you got to think about it logically. Again, I would do a playlist based upon a city and have multiple videos in that because I’m targeting different niches in that city. Again, the common denominator being the city, or I’ll target by county if it’s for the same business or the same industry. I’ll targe by county, the playlist by county. I’ll build a playlist or the silo as a county-based silo. Then all the individual videos will be keyword plus city name within that county and/or I will build a playlist based around a niche, an industry. Then place various videos in that niche-based or industry-based playlist, which is just another silo. By the way, you can add the same video in more than one playlist.

If it makes sense for example, let’s say that you’ve got 15 plumbing clients across the State of Virginia. You also have various clients in all different industries, as well. You could have in Fairfax, Virginia you could have a Fairfax playlist that you have all the various businesses that you service or that you serve in Fairfax, in that playlist, but then you could also have a plumbing playlist, a playlist for plumbers, plumbing services, whatever. In that one, you also have the Fairfax plumber as well as plumbers from all over the State of Virginia. You would end up having that Plumber from Fairfax video on two different playlists. The Fairfax playlist, as well as the Plumber Playlist because it makes sense to do so.

Just remember that. I can’t give you the exact structure without knowing more details. I can tell you typically, a playlist on a State-level is going to be a bit too broad unless you’re narrowing in on one specific industry and that’s all the videos in your entire channel are going to be about that one industry, in which case then you might want to do playlist by state because you probably have less overall videos in each playlist. I don’t know if that makes sense, but hopefully I explained that in a way that you all could understand.

Anybody want to comment on that at all? That was a bit complicated.

Marco: I would just add that if she does proper SEO, she’s going to geolocate her video anyway. She’s going to add that so all of the other things that you could add to it would just be Google is going to know what the geolocation of the video anyway, if you’re doing your proper SEO with the video.

Bradley: Just remember that guys. The easiest way to think about a silo is it’s just nothing other than a container. Everything that you put in that container should be similarly themed. They should be relevant to the other items within that container in some way, shape or form. It’s up to you to decide as to what the relevancy is and how to create those containers, and what to place in those containers.

Using A Buffer Site Before Using Crowdsearch.Me For A Google Partner Site Like Diigo

Greg’s up next. “When using Crowd Search Me for wanting traffic,” we’re having issues with them right now, just so you know. “When using Crowd Search Me for wanting traffic to come into our site from Google partner like Diigo, do we need to start at a buffer site to start with the search and bring the traffic into the Google partner then to our site? Use Tumblr to go to Diigo and enter the website, or can we start with Diigo directly? Thanks.”

You can do both, Greg. Honestly, you’d be better off to set up both so that you have some variety or diversity in the traffic. Remember I call this, “CT Spam,” Click-Through Spam. That’s what it is. We’re spamming the click-through rate. There’s nothing wrong with that. Technically, it’s probably against the Terms of Service but, whatever. What do you call that, Marco? An unapologetic spammer. He’s an unapologetic spammer.

Marco: You got that right.

Bradley: That’s what we do. As far as that, Greg, I would do both.

Marco: Unapologetic and unrepentant.

Bradley: Unrepentant. You can do both, Greg. Most of the time for speed’s sake, I’ve set them up. Just go direct from a social site to wherever I want to send ultimately, the traffic end up for social referral traffic, it usually goes to a money site. Well, same thing for YouTube videos, as well. It’s up to you, Greg. It really doesn’t matter. You can do both and in fact, again I recommend that you do both so that you can add some diversity to your traffic streams.

Alexa To Ramp Up Voice Search Results

Bryan’s up. “Have you any suggestions how to use Alexa to ramp up voice search results?” There has to be a way to speak to Alexa. Is that the Amazon thing? What is Alexa? Let’s see. I’m thinking of … what is “ramp up voice search results”? I’m not sure I understand what he’s trying to manipulate here? “Ask questions. I would think that people also ask her something. Big, underlying voice search?” I’m not sure what the question is, Bryan. I’m not 100%. Anybody else go in and try to interpret this for me?

Hernan: No. Yeah, I don’t understand it either. Bryan, if you could reframe it or re-ask it? The only Alexa I know is the directory where you can get how many …

Bradley: I don’t know if that has anything to do with voice search. That’s this. I was thinking. What’s that stupid thing? Amazon Echo. Is that what it is? The thing people buy and they sit and they talk, and they say, “Amazon, buy whatever,” or what the hell is it called? I don’t know. I don’t have it so that’s what I thought he was talking about. Yeah, I’m not sure what you’re saying, Bryan. To be honest, I don’t know what you’re as far as “ramp up voice search results”. “There’s something big underlying voice search, If you can tell it what questions you want to be found on, I think it can be huge. Care to comment or suggest.” Again, I’m not sure, Bryan. As far as trying to get ranked for questions, that is the Hummingbird Algorithm, the Hummingbird Layer to the algorithm. It was added, damn … it’s been three years, now. Hasn’t it? It’s been three years since Hummingbird was introduced, which is crazy. That’s specifically what that was for was more complex search queries mainly driven because of voice search, because of mobile devices.

That’s really what the birth of Hummingbird was for, was because of people asking or speaking their search queries in and that they’re naturally more complex because they’re speaking instead of typing, and because of that, the Hummingbird Algorithm was added or the layer was added to the algorithm to try to help understand those more complex queries and match them with the content that would best solve that user’s search. Again, if you want to try to target that specifically, voice search, I don’t know how that works in the background, but when you talk your voice search in, all it does is transcribe it to text anyways, and then it searches that text. You can manipulate the questions, basically the Hummingbird Algorithm. You can manipulate that by posting questions in your content and then answering those questions. That, you can see over and over and over again through Knowledge Graph answers.

When you guys ask a question into Google, whether via by voice search or by typing it in. Usually, when you start to type a question in, what do you do? You see Google suggest auto complete, and you end up selecting one of the questions anyways. You click on that, most of the time you’re going to see a Knowledge Graph answer or an answer in Knowledge Graph on the top of the search results, which is just coming from one of the pages listed on page one. It’s because somebody wrote the question out in the content and then answered the question. Knowledge Graph I believe, at least it used to be, you didn’t even really have to have the structured data in place for that to be pulled in, although now, you probably have to have it marked up. Marco, you’re testing a lot of shit with that right now. Do you have any comments on that.

Marco: Yeah. I’m planning on making the Knowledge Graph by bit.

Bradley: Well, there you go Bryan. The Knowledge Graph is going to be Marco’s bitch. I hope that answered your question.

Hernan: This reminds me. Sorry Bradly, but if you guys, I don’t know if you guys have ever watched “If Google Was a Guy” series. I don’t know if you ever watched those video, Bradley. “If Google was a Guy”, just search for it on YouTube. It’s on YouTube. It’s super fun and it’s a parody of what would happen if Google was a guy behind a desk answering questions. It’s a lot of fun. At some point, it gets super weird with the voice search. It’s a lot of fun so if you guys want to go ahead and after the webinar, go ahead and check it out. “If Google was a Guy”. There’s five or six episodes, something like that. It’s super fun.

Bradley: Bryan, sorry. I’m not sure where the Alexa thing came into all that, but if you can clarify. I’m kind of curious now.

Public Library in Diigo

Jordan’s up next. He says, “Yo. Can anyone remind me how to make Diigo Library public facing? Is that possible?”

Marco: Jordan, before you answer, I’d like to give a Jordan a shout out because he’s so active in our IFTTT Academy, the 2.0 Facebook Group, just answering questions, sharing so Jordan, thank you for everything you do, man. Just keep it up. Just keep ranking and taking over niches.

Bradley: I’m not sure, Jordan why you’re having any issues with that because when you set up the Applet. Let’s go to Applets real quick, and we set up new applet. Say if this. We’ll just use a feed. New feed item. We’re just going to walk through this real quick guys. Give me a second. http://ift.tt/2kjHS2z. We’ll just go with the default feed for now. Create trigger. Then we’re going to select “Diigo” here. Now, right here … Add a Public Bookmark. When you set up the account, the applet if you add a public bookmark, it should be default because of what you select here, add it to your public bookmark library. I’m not sure what you mean by that, Jordan. If you were using the recipes or the “Applets” as they’re called now, which I know you’ve got plenty of experience. This is really just for everybody else’s benefit. If you select the Add a Public Bookmark, it should automatically be public. I’m not sure what the problem is unless something has changed recently that I’m unaware of, if you can clarify that.

How To Run IFTTT 2-Tier Network Properties In Serp Space?

Will’s up. “Hi, Bradley. Two newbie questions about IFTTT. I just purchased my full two-tiered network from Serp Space Marketplace. The first posts from my site has been syndicated and the management dash, I see that over half the properties are showing Not Yet Checked. What do I need to do to get them up and running?” What does that mean, Adam … in Serp Space?

Adam: Sorry. One more time. I’m dealing with support tickets about some stuff.

Bradley: He says, “I purchased my first full two-tier network from Serp Space. The first two posts from my site has been syndicated. In the management dashboard, I see that over half the properties are showing as Not Yet Checked. What do I need to get them up and running?”

Adam: I’m guessing then that he’s using IFTTT Network Management in which case, if you just got that then it may not have literally checked them yet. It takes time. They don’t immediately check all properties right away. That way we don’t have issues. I would give it 24 hours if you still have that. Put a ticket in at support or email [email protected].

Bradley: Yeah, the other thing is try posting another post to your blog and let it syndicate because again, just similar to when you first setup an IFTTT Network, sometimes the first post or even two or three of the first posts don’t end up syndicating to all the networks properly. It’s called, “Priming the Network.” Priming the pump, basically. It’s something that just happens. I’m not sure why, but sometimes you have to post two or three posts before all of the triggers fire correctly anyways. It may be something to do with that, Will. Just go ahead and post another post if you can and check it then. If for whatever reason you’re not seeing reporting like it’s supposed to be, just contact support@serpspace. I don’t have my hands in that project very much. Adam’s been managing that with our partners in that business quite a bit. I really don’t have a lot of answers for that. Sorry, but support will take care of you. We’ve got a lot of support staff there now.

How To Make Use Of 3 Persona Rings In IFTTT?

Next one. “I recently heard you on a webinar saying not to syndicate posts from the money site beyond the first tier branded ring because of footprint issues.” That is correct. “I immediately went and disconnected the three persona rings. Please, could you advise what I should be doing with them now, and how can they be put to good use?” Well, this has been covered so many damn times, I’m not picking on you. I’m just saying this has been covered so many times on Hump Day Hangouts, it’s absolutely one of the most frequently asked questions we get. That said, if you go to Support.semanticmastery.com, Support.semanticmastery.com that’s where our Knowledge Graph base is. There’s an IFTTT SEO Academy section. In there are a bunch of frequently asked questions. I know this question’s got to be in there at least two or three different times where I’ve answered it two or three different ways because this is a question that has been coming up for two years over, and over, and over again.

Very, very quickly I can say that the reason why we hadn’t been recommending two-tier networks was because there are footprint issues on the persona-based networks the second tier networks if you don’t have related content from other sources being published on a regular basis to the second-tier networks, which is why if you have a two-tier network you should be injecting for a blog syndication I mean, a two-tier network for blog syndication, you should be adding additional content or additional related content RSS feeds to the tier 2 triggers. You log into the IFTTT account on tier 2 so that there’d be tier 2A, tier 2B, tier 2C. There would be three IFTTT accounts that you would log into and setup another set of recipes for each related content source so that you’re publishing additional content to tier 2 from other sources, related content.

Topically relevant content, but that’s a nightmare. It’s a pain in the ass. It’s hard to maintain. It’s hard to manage so I’ve been recommending against that forever until RSS Masher came out, which is Daemon Nelson’s product that’s awesome. It’s one of the only things that I’ve seen that can simply that process and make it a viable option to be posting blog syndication on your two-tier networks. Again, I don’t know if that offer’s still open, but I know we had a sweet deal from Daemon that people from our list could continue to purchase. I don’t know if we have that link, but if you want to drop it will …

Adam: Yeah. It’s up. It looks like it is. I’ll put it in.

Bradley: That’s awesome. That’s the only thing I have. Until RSS Masher, I’d been recommending against it. Now, if you’re using RSS Masher, I see it as giving us the ability to simplify blog syndication on tier 2 networks to where it’s more manageable. It’s still more work, there’s no doubt. There’s still more work to do that, but it will minimize your footprint. It will simplify that process and make it more manageable. Easier to maintain. As far as that, if you don’t have that and you don’t plan on using that, you can still use those three persona rings. Again, you just got to add additional content sources in as tier 2 triggers or just use them for video syndication or something like that. If you don’t want to tie them back to your blog at all, which is fine, you could use them for video syndication or you could use them for any other projects that you got coming up.

Jame’s up. “Hi, guys. It’s been a little while since I have submitted a question, but been on the sideline absorbing your greatness.” I will plus-one that. “I see Marco is still looking tanned, cute and bear-like.”

Marco: I will plus-one that.

Thoughts On Bing Having More B2B Conversion But Lesser Traffic Than Google

Bradley: That’s awesome. “Anyway, here’s my question. Question 1: I noticed through testing that Bing seems to be more lucrative for acquiring b2b projects, as it appears that most corporates tend to be stocked up with the pre-loaded Internet Explorer and Bing as the default search engine. Do you think that the future for a more sizeable project will not be coming from Google but from Bing, as it has a higher conversion rate with less traffic but higher quality? Should we therefor, not be looking at targeting our efforts to Google for b2c, for Business 2 Consumer, and Bing, for b2b?

Question 2: Is there a way to address [Amp 00:45:16] Pages production? Is there a technique for pushing them to Google News? Keep up the great work. Jane.” Okay, Jane, I’ll let Marco answer the second questions but for the first question, I’m not sure what you’re asking for about with that specifically other than should we be focusing somewhat on Bing? My answer to that is absolutely, yes. I only know that because I just recently for the case study, it’s an affiliate project, that I’m doing for the Master Class. For Master Class, we have a live case study going on right now. It’s an affiliate project and I’m just crushing it. I’m doing really, really well with generating traffic right now. I’m doing all paid traffic. Nothing organic, at least at the moment. It’s just strictly paid traffic, and I’ve been Google AdWords. A few weeks ago I decided to start playing around in Bing Ads and I’m getting really good results from Bing Ads … like really good results.

My cost per conversion is lower than my Google cost per conversions. It’s working really, really well. I know Bing is absolutely something that should be added. It shouldn’t be overlooked. All too often, we overlook Bing and Bing and Yahoo together now, make up for it’s about a-third of the search traffic. That’s a significant amount of traffic. I know Hernan said that it’s like a different demographic often, and it sounds like Jane, you’re kind of confirming that, that it may be the older demographic, 45-plus crowd that is heavy on the Bing Network, but it also could be a lot more corporate stuff, as well. That makes sense to me because you’re right. A lot of the computers and network services and stuff like that are all Microsoft-based, so that very well could be true and I had never even thought about that.

I know to ignore Bing is really stupid, in my opinion. Now, for SEO it’s been difficult because if you’re optimizing for Google, that usually didn’t translate well into Bing. Bing, you could get away with a hell of a lot more for on-page stuff, you could keyword stuff a lot more, your keyword density could be a lot higher. You could for back links, for off-page stuff you could do a hell of a lot more exact match anchors and that would rank. Using Exact Match Domain in Bing will help you to rank in Bing really easily. There’s a lot of things that you could get away with in Bing that you can’t in Google.

Typically, if we optimize for Google, you end up not optimized very well for Bing because you’re not over-optimized like Bing likes, I guess. Strictly from a paid standpoint, a paid traffic standpoint, it’s absolutely silly to ignore Bing in my opinion because it’s basically a close of the Adwords dashboard, if not a little bit funkier. It’s no doubt the Bing dashboard is a little bit funkier than Adwords, but it’s damn near identical. If you know how to run PPC Campaigns in Adwords, you can do it in Bing and you’ll probably get results similar to what I’m seeing, which is going to be really good traffic and a good amount of leads. Lower cost per conversion, that sort of thing.

Marco, do you want to take Question 2?

Marco: Yeah. Question 2 is simple because what our plug-in does is it turns the page into Amp automatically. It delivers the page as an Amp page. There’s no page production. All you have to do is upload the page into the website if you’re doing whatever it is that you’re doing. Our plug-in will turn it into an AMP page. What we’re doing also, and I have to make that available, is that if you’re posting it will make a post into an AMP page. That takes care of any production. Is there a technique for pushing them to Google News? Unless you have a recognized news site, it’s really difficult to get into Google News. I don’t see a way of tricking. I haven’t looked into it.

I haven’t looked into the algorithm and how to trick Google into accepting just any website into Google News, but it might be something worth looking into. If you haven’t joined the AMP creators mastermind on Facebook, I suggest that you do so because I will make that plug-in available shortly. We have two versions. I’m going to make at least one of them available in the next few days. I hope that answers the question. I would agree with her on the first part. Just absolutely that Bing has less traffic, but it’s a higher conversion rate. The client is usually worth more because of the demographic, so yes to that question, also.

Bradley: Awesome. Thank you. We only got about three minutes left because we’ve got to get ready for the local Kingpin Update Webinar but we’re going to try to run through a couple more very, very quickly.

Would It Cause Some YouTube Account Issues If There Are Activities From 2 Sources?

Robert says, “Bradley, if I have,” and Happy New Year to you, as well … “a YouTube account that’s built with BrowSEO that are set up on different IPs and a good standing in age with supporting two-tier accounts, etc I intend to continue using these accounts within BrowSEO. If I think put them in the Mega-Ray, same YouTube accounts, wouldn’t that create a problem for my accounts?” Robert, I assume it would but I don’t know for sure. What I would suggest is don’t test it with one of your aged accounts that you’ve been building a digital footprint with inside of BrowSEO. I would not do that.

Guys, a digital footprint is a good thing, now. It really is as long as you’re not spamming. That’s what BrowSEO allows us to do is build digital footprints for our personas, which is incredibly powerful. That said, Robert, what I would do is take a new channel and try it in both. What I’m saying is put it in BrowSEO, assign it to a proxy, and IP, whatever. Log in, do a little bit of activity, watch a couple of videos, like a couple videos, that kind of stuff and then add it to Mega-Ray, and then start trying to post on it and see if it causes a problem. If it locks the account, ask for reverification then you know it’s a problem, but it’s a new account then and you’re not losing an aged account.

I would test that. I can’t give you an answer because I don’t know. I assume it would cause a problem, yes. Like you said, you answered your own question. My assumption is that is a correct guess or a correct assumption but I don’t know without testing so I would suggest you test that with a new account so that if you lost it, it’s not a big deal. “If that is the case, the problem from two sources then my best option if I decide to use Mega-Ray is to populate it with all the YouTube accounts, tiers, etc.” Yes, and that’s what I would do, Robert because I would be using those accounts more for spam purposes then I would be for aged accounts like I would be building in BrowSEO anyways so because of that, I would basically buy a whole bunch of YouTube accounts from MetroBiz, the one I just showed earlier on this webinar. For real, I’d buy them all from him and then I would go and I would add all those accounts into Mega-Ray.

“Also, what is your real take on Mega-Ray?” It’s awesome. I’ve mentioned this before. We did a promotion for Video Marketing Blitz, which is Abs’ product. Ab is a great developer. I’ve been buying his products literally, for five or six years now, no kidding. Abs’ got great products, except Video Marketing Blitz is complex because there’s a ton of tools and so there’s a learning curve. Very, very powerful no doubt, but there’s a learning curve. Mega-Ray is incredibly simple. Very, very powerful. Think of it this way. It’s like Syndwire on steroids. It really is. It’s like an enterprise-level Syndwire. It also except that as far as the posting goes, posting within Mega-Ray is a lot easier than it is within Syndwire. Syndwire, there’s a lot of manual work. That’s kind of the reason why I just stopped using it. Mega-Ray is a lot more automated. It’s a great product. There’s no doubt or we wouldn’t have promoted it. I know there’s a lot of development behind them and a good support staff.

We got to go, guys. I do want to just very, very quickly cover Darrel’s question about SocioLinks. That’s Abs’ product. We were just talking about Video Marketing Blitz. Abs’ product, the new one is out. It’s called, “SocioLinks.” I’m really surprised he didn’t reach out to us and ask us to be a JV or an affiliate for him because we usually do well promoting his products because we all believe in his products and think that he’s got good products. For whatever reason, we’re not an affiliate for it. I haven’t tested it. I can tell you though, pretty much everything that he puts out is good product. I don’t say that about a lot of developers. If Abs put it out, my guess says it’s probably a really good product, Darrel. I don’t have an opinion on it because I didn’t get a chance to test it, and I’m mad at Abs for that, but that’s it.

All right? We got to wrap it up guys.

Hernan: Bye, everyone. Thank you.

Adam: Have a good one.

Bradley: Yeah, thanks everybody for being here. We’ll see you all … Just a few minutes.

Marco: Bye, everyone.

Bradley: Bye.

Adam: Bye.

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anchorsawaytat1 · 8 years ago

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Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 115

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Click on the video above to watch Episode 115 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://ift.tt/1NZu6N2.

Announcement

Chris: Doing good. Glad to be here.

Bradley: We got Marco. How are you doing, buddy?

Marco: Hey, man. What’s happening?

Bradley: Hey, look. We had the late comers. The fashionably late members.

Adam: Hey, guys. I just woke up.

Hernan: Hey, everyone. What’s up?

Adam: I haven’t had consider restart but I know Marco was talking about Video Power House, which is awesome. I’m getting super pumped about that.

Bradley: Yeah, and it’s …

Hernan: Hi, what’s up?

Bradley: Well, and Hernan. Yeah, what’s up man?

Hernan: Hey.

Adam: Hey, Hernan. FYI, I’m not sure if it’s WebinarJam, but your mic sounds really high. You might want to adjust the levels.

Hernan: I don’t know why. I’ll try to figure that out.

Bradley: You got to take the microphone out of your mouth.

Hernan: Oh, okay. That makes sense.

Bradley: Yeah.

Adam: … are in the Local Kingpin?

Hernan: Yep. Can you guys hear me better now?

Bradley: Yeah.

Hernan: Yep.

Bradley: All right, guys. I’m going to take the screen and we’re going to get into questions. We’re pretty much done on announcements. Correct?

Adam: I think so.

Bradley: All right, let me close out of all these various windows that I have opened that you guys don’t need to see. Really, shut all the porn down. No, I’m kidding.

Adam: Bradley, can you or maybe you went over this before I got here, but did you go over how this works now, with the new setup for people? How they’re supposed to post questions and all that?

Google AMP & Ranking

All right. That’s said, let’s do it. Lee’s up first. He says, “Is Google Amp increase rank. Do you suggest Google Amp?” I’m going to hand that one to Marco.

Indexing Citations

Thoughts On Serplify

You guys want to comment on this, at all? Has anybody looked at this?

Bradley: Post it.

Marco: … to let us know.

Marco: Nothing. Just to get in there about that keyword research. Nothing beats, as far as I’m concerned, Power Suggest Pro.

Bradley: I totally agree.

Adam: I was going to say, Bradley, you put that link for your training stuff you did. I think that’s still a good one. I’ve sent people there before.

Any Issues With Burner App On Phone

Setting Up Silo Structure For Local Cities In YouTube

Anybody want to comment on that at all? That was a bit complicated.

Using A Buffer Site Before Using Crowdsearch.Me For A Google Partner Site Like Diigo

Marco: You got that right.

Bradley: That’s what we do. As far as that, Greg, I would do both.

Marco: Unapologetic and unrepentant.

Alexa To Ramp Up Voice Search Results

Hernan: No. Yeah, I don’t understand it either. Bryan, if you could reframe it or re-ask it? The only Alexa I know is the directory where you can get how many …

Marco: Yeah. I’m planning on making the Knowledge Graph by bit.

Bradley: Well, there you go Bryan. The Knowledge Graph is going to be Marco’s bitch. I hope that answered your question.

Bradley: Bryan, sorry. I’m not sure where the Alexa thing came into all that, but if you can clarify. I’m kind of curious now.

Public Library in Diigo

Jordan’s up next. He says, “Yo. Can anyone remind me how to make Diigo Library public facing? Is that possible?”

How To Run IFTTT 2-Tier Network Properties In Serp Space?

Adam: Sorry. One more time. I’m dealing with support tickets about some stuff.

How To Make Use Of 3 Persona Rings In IFTTT?

Adam: Yeah. It’s up. It looks like it is. I’ll put it in.

Marco: I will plus-one that.

Thoughts On Bing Having More B2B Conversion But Lesser Traffic Than Google

Marco, do you want to take Question 2?

Would It Cause Some YouTube Account Issues If There Are Activities From 2 Sources?

All right? We got to wrap it up guys.

Hernan: Bye, everyone. Thank you.

Adam: Have a good one.

Bradley: Yeah, thanks everybody for being here. We’ll see you all … Just a few minutes.

Marco: Bye, everyone.

Bradley: Bye.

Adam: Bye.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 115 published first on your-t1-blog-url

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