#roy: wondering how he can get off this podcast | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ichorai · 1 year ago

Text

hell, yeah ; roman roy ; part four (m).

pairing ; roman roy x f!reader

synopsis ; pain was an old friend for the both of you.

words ; 18.0k

themes ; fluff, angst, drama, slowburn, smut, childhood friends to lovers

warnings / includes ; depictions of mental and physical abuse, mentions of death, unprotected penetrative sex, a lot of sexual/suicidal jokes and general foul language, tons of business talk, talks of nazis/fascism/conservatism, really morally grey shit, roman’s implied demisexuality, kendall & reader's popsicle war, mencken himself is a warning

series masterlist. main masterlist.

A conservative political fundraiser weekend was the last place on earth you wanted to be, but hell—Logan wanted you there, so who were you to say no to the boss? Besides, hubs like this were always good to sniff out who would be the most dangerous people on the red spectrum.

The hall was decked out in lavish decorations—chandeliers and golden ornaments and marble statues every which way you looked. It was full to the brim with mingling politicians of all kinds: the kinds being old white men, or…

Hm. Seemed like it was practically all old white men other than a handful of women wandering around. White women, of course.

You and Shiv locked eyes for a moment. Though the two of you shared many common political interests, at least much more than the rest of the family, you often found yourself on the opposite ends of agreement. But today, in a sea of men with confederate flags for dicks, the two of you found solace in one another.

“You can smell the panic,” she told you. “Berlin Bunker vibes.”

“They’re scrambling,” you replied. “Nobody was expecting this. Maybe they should’ve.”

Beside you, Roman cuffed your shoulder. “Ooh—the libtard and the soc-commie. How does it feel to be spelunking in the elephant’s asshole?”

“Calling me a communist isn’t the insult you think it is,” you told Roman, rolling your eyes.

“Mmh. I’m sure they would’ve loved you in the 1930s.”

Shiv crossed her arms. “We’re just corporate observers.”

“The weekend isn’t over yet—we’ll get our white cis-male stank all over you,” Roman commented snidely.

It was then that Greg came up to the group, expression muddled with confusion. “Hey, guys, some guy with an undercut just called me a ‘soy boy’. What, uhm, I don’t really know what that means? What is this, actually? Like what’s everyone here for?”

“It’s just a nice political conference of like-minded donors and intellectuals,” Roman told his cousin.

“I wouldn’t call them intellectuals, exactly,” you said with a frown. You were pretty sure half of these men owned podcasts talking about how toxic masculinity is fake, and the other half were so old they didn’t know how to turn the brightness up on their own phone.

“We’re picking the next president,” Tom piped up, which made Shiv arch a brow.

“That’s not… that’s not really how it works.”

Roman shrugged. “No, sure, but… it kinda is.”

“Is that—is that constitutional?” Greg queried, looking around worriedly, suddenly wondering if he was participating in yet another illegal activity.

“Welcome to the one percent, Greg,” you told him with a sigh. “Where you don’t have to worry about the constitution anymore.”

Roman pinched your cheek. “Awh, look at you, embracing the right-wing traditions! I love that for you.”

Wrinkling your nose, you swatted his hand away. “Six months till election day and still no candidate. Surprised everyone hasn’t unanimously agreed on putting the vice prez up on a pedestal.”

“Steady old plow horse, huh?” Roman said, directing his gaze to the old vice president, Dave Boyer. “He licks his lips too much. Like a—like a cartoon bear when there’s a picnic hamper nearby.”

You laughed at that, and Roman shot you a grin.

“I’m going to go take a tour. Check out the fresh meat,” he told you, and you nodded.

“I’ll be near the entrance if you need me.”

With that, he set off to mingle, hands shoved into his pockets to stop him from his habitual itching and scratching.

“Who are you thinking?” Shiv leaned forward to ask.

“Boyer. Seems the most obvious, easiest choice,” you replied, meeting her scrutinizing stare.

“Are you saying that because he is the easiest choice, or because he’d be the easiest to win against?” she asked with a sharp smile.

There was a momentary pause. “Why, who do you think they should put up?”

“I say we go blue.”

Your mouth fell open as you struggled to find the words to respond with. “Shiv, that just—that’d never work.”

“Why not?”

“You realize ATN is fucking—it’s fueled by everything right-wing! For us to suddenly bat for dems would bring nothing but angry conservatives and we’d lose a fuck-ton of shareholder money.” You shook your head. “Look, Shiv, I don’t like them as much as you do. But forcing your dad to swing blue is just a terrible idea.”

Her features hardened. “The least we could do is try. Right?”

Before you could respond, Roman came hurrying back, phone clutched tightly in his hand. He shoved the screen up against his sister’s face. “Did you know about this, you withholding bitch?”

“Uh, what?”

“You know Glyn, the, uh, the Brexit pervert?” Roman said, gesturing to the tall British chap with a large nose. “Yeah, he just sent this to me—apparently our mother is marrying Peter Munion.”

Both you and Shiv doubled with surprise. “What?” she asked. “Who’s Peter Onion?”

“I don’t fucking know. I wonder if that first-born fucker knew,” Roman said.

“I mean, if you guys didn’t know, I’m sure Connor wouldn’t have known, either,” you ventured, glancing over at the eldest sibling chattering to two other politicians about abolishing taxes.

Snorting, Roman replied, “No, the other first-born fucker. Kenny Dick.”

“Ah. Right.”

“Call him.” Shiv nudged her brother.

With a hum, Rome whipped his phone out and called his brother, putting it on speaker phone for the two of you to hear.

“Yeah, what?” Kendall’s voice came through on the second ring.

“Hey. Just wanted you to know that new dad just dropped.”

There was a brief crackle of silence. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Mummy’s getting married, you dingus.”

“Did you know?” Shiv leaned forward to query.

Roman snickered. “Of course he didn’t know, Ken bores the shit out of mom.”

You remembered one Christmas when you were children, the family was exchanging gifts—Kendall had set down a little red box in front of Caroline so she could open it. Something hand-made? You’d always wondered. The wrapping was shoddy. It was forgotten and pushed off to the side in favor of prettier, more expensive-looking presents. You were pretty sure Caroline hadn’t even seen the gift. Or maybe she did. Maybe she just didn’t care to open it. Nonetheless, Kendall, thirteen years of age, didn’t try to give it to her again. That night, when the servants were tossing away all the stray wrappings and ribbons, you caught sight of the crumpled red box chucked into a black garbage bag. You didn’t dwell on it, because Roman had heckled you away soon after to ‘watch’ Shiv play with her new dollhouse.

“What are you even talking about?” Kendall asked. He sounded angry. “You mean, she’s marrying Rory?”

“Uh, no. She took the view ‘Fuck Rory’,” Shiv said, glib.

Sneering, Kendall abruptly changed the subject. “Hey, Shiv, is it true you’re at the hate-fest? Burning books and measuring skulls down in Virginia?”

“Yeah,” Shiv deadpanned. “What are you doing with your weekend? Planning to send us all to jail? Your favorite past-time?”

Before it could escalate into a full-on argument, Roman pulled the phone close to him and said, “Alright, just wanted to let you know that Mummy still doesn’t love you. Bye, Ken!”

With that, he hung up.

“Do you think your mom is going to invite me to her wedding?” you asked, wrinkling your nose at the prospect of going all the way across the ocean when you had so much work piled up. “And would she be offended if I didn’t come?”

“Oh, she’s definitely inviting you. You know how she is. Needs everyone who knows of her existence to see how rich and pompous she is. She’d have a grudge against you if you didn’t come,” Roman told you.

You frowned, and Roman laughed.

“We can be each other’s date. It’ll be fun. Don’t worry about it.” He rubbed your shoulder, and began leading you off to the bar to get some drinks.

“Your mother would love that. Us, being each other’s dates? She’d gloat in our faces that she’s known all along,” you mused with a grin, before leaning against the counter and asking the bartender for your preferred drink.

“Or she’d be too self-absorbed to notice. And it’s okay for her to be that way because it’s her own wedding.” Pulling a sour face, Roman shook his head. “Blegh. I can’t believe she’s actually marrying someone named Bunion.”

You laughed softly. “Munion.”

“Whatever.”

Before either of you could say anything else, a figure approached the bar, standing just beside Roman.

“Hey guys,” said Mencken. “What’s up?”

Both you and Roman turned your heads to him. He shot you a glance, noting the unimpressed raised eyebrow.

“Oh, okay. Yeah, it’s the—it’s the ghost pepper. The spicy new flavor, Mencken.” Rome gave the taller man a onceover, drawing a long sip from his glass.

Mencken’s keen eyes darted from Rome to you, and back to Roman, scrutinizing. Burning. You couldn’t quite gauge what he was thinking, but knowing all the hot bullshit he liked to spew on the internet, you were sure it’d be nothing good.

Him as president? That’d be like putting a mask on Hitler and crowning him King of the nation.

“So what’s your deal? Most people here want to fuck me or kill me.” Mencken asked, leaning against the bar. “I’m hoping it’s the former.”

You weren’t quite sure if that was directed to you or Roman, but you were disgusted, either way.

Roman clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth. “Ooh, wow. I always found it hard to care about politics, so… I trust in Y/N to have enough opinions for the both of us.”

He gave you a fond pat on the shoulder and you spared your friend a stiff smile.

“Right, Y/N. It’s nice to meet you,” Mencken said, sticking his hand out.

Staring down at his extended palm, you took a second to consider flat out ignoring him. But, not wanting to cause a scene, you shook it firmly, nodding curtly. “Likewise,” you lied.

When you pulled away, you made the conscious choice to discreetly wipe your palm onto your pants.

“I’ve heard a lot about you. The both of you, actually.”

“Oh, really?” you deadpanned, straightfaced.

“Tabloids never shut up.”

“They hardly ever do.”

Mencken crossed his arms. “To be honest, I always thought you two were just a PR stunt. You know the vibes… look away from all the sexual harassment, because the prince and princess of Waystar are being all snuggly at a charity event! But now that I’m looking at you in person…”

His words struck a nerve within you. A muscle in your jaw twitched.

Roman laughed, nervous. “We aren’t—we aren’t, like, a thing. I mean we—we kind of are, but we’re also not really—”

The older man whistled sharply, lifting a hand to stop him, as if he were a dog. “No need to explain to me. I’ve been down that road many, many times.”

“Roman and I are close,” you told him, voice steely. “The details are none of your, or the public’s concern.”

The way Mencken smiled was wolfish. Greedy, almost.

“Alright, here’s my party trick,” he said to the two of you. “Tell me who your enemy is, and I’ll tell you who you are.”

A part of you wanted to laugh. Where did he get that from, an alpha male, raw meat-eating youtuber’s podcast?

Roman sucked in a breath, amused. “Oh-kay. Let’s put a pin in that one.” He took another sip. “I’ve seen your poll numbers. You’re dark-horsin’ shit. Are people buying your whole… thing?”

Facism. That’s what Roman was alluding to. This man was a fucking fascist. The two of you were entertaining a fascist! You couldn’t believe what you’ve come to.

Mencken chuckled. “They better buy it. Or I’ll send them to the Gulag.”

“Jesus Christ,” you hissed, wrinkling your nose.

“No, no, no. Not work camps. Just—summer camps. It’ll be like summer camps,” Mencken said.

“Summer camps but with beatings, right?” Roman asked, unsure if the man beside him was joking or not.

“No, no. Shh—no beatings.”

Mencken winked. He fucking winked! To your surprise, Roman laughed, genuine and chesty.

“Wow. Tough crowd, huh?” Mencken said, meeting your unamused eyes. “You always struck me as the quiet little country mouse. No wonder you’re sticking to the big-gun citymen.”

“Well, I’m sorry if I don’t find labor camps all that funny,” you remarked, drumming your fingers along the countertop.

“I’m just kidding. We’re joking around.” He elbowed Roman’s arm. “Is she always this uptight?”

You had to admit that it stung just a bit when Roman tipped his head back and laughed. “It’s what I like most about her. Ain’t that right, schnookums?”

You sniffed in disdain, shrugging off his hand when he placed it on your shoulder. You weren’t a huge fan of how… warm Roman was to him. It felt vile, and it felt wrong.

Tilting his head, Mencken smacked his lips together and started up, “So, uh… do you guys know yet? Who takes over?”

Roman stopped sipping his drink and set it down. “What’s that?”

“When they send the old battletoad off to the hoosegow.” His eyes glinted. “Your dad, Logan. Admiral Grope Boat.”

“Yeah, no, he’s not… that’s actually not happening,” said Roman. He scratched at the back of his head.

Mencken cackled at that. “Hah, yeah, that’s right. Stick to the line. That’s good.”

The two of them smiled at each other.

A sudden pit of nausea started curling within your stomach.

Boyer and Salgado approached the bar, striking up a conversation with Mencken, effectively roping his attention away from the two of you. You downed your drink and leaned against Roman with a mild hum.

“I really thought this event would be more interesting,” you admitted.

Shoulders shaking with his chuckling, Roman asked you, “What, did you think there’d be a gun-slinging showdown? Old western-style?”

“Well, yeah. What else do conservatives do?”

The two of you snickered under your breath.

It was then that Shiv came to stand by you, ordering a drink for herself. “Hey. What’ve you guys sniffed out?”

You offered her half a shrug, glancing over at Mencken. With a lowered voice, you said, “A lot of rotten apples in the orchard.”

The siblings both hummed at that—Shiv in agreement, Roman in amusement.

“Look at us, playing nice,” you overheard Salgado tell Mencken. To your credit, they weren’t quite using their inside voices. “People might think we liked each other.”

“Hey, I’m a conservative! I like tradition,” Mencken protested. “I doff my cap to vice president Boyer’s years of loyal service.”

“Thank you. I believe you used to call me Martin Van Boring.”

Mencken grinned. “Hey, come on! No, I still call you that.”

Nodding, Boyer shifted to speak to everyone else gathered around the bar. “Listen, Mencken and I may differ in some areas, but, uh, we both agree that this is the party of the working class now.”

Shiv pulled an incredulous face, scoffing loud.

“What? You don’t agree, Shiv?” Boyer asked. “All the richest counties in America are blue. The Democrats and tech hold all the wealth.”

“Oh, yes, because everyone here is scrounging through their couches for loose change,” you snidely commented, coolly meeting Boyer’s gaze.

The old man licked at his lips, gesturing vaguely with his hands. “Come now, I’m talking about the general public. We don’t count.”

Why not?

“I just think some of us get so high off of owning the libs, we forget to talk policy,” said Salgado.

Mencken snorted. “Yeah, Rick loves to talk policy! What he does is he memorizes a National Review issue from 2012 and then recites it back to you. Cool policy, bro.”

This made Salgado frown. “Mmh, Jeryd hates to talk policy because it would mean, you know, having one.”

Roman whistled sarcastically. “Sick burn, brosef!”

“Oh, no, no. We’re kidding. We are!” Mencken insisted. He smiled at you and Roman. “We like each other. I listen to his speeches every night. Yeah. They help me drop off.”

Out of the three politicians, you had to admit that Salgado was the most appealing. Sure, he was a pushover and really only concerned about his public image rather than what he was promoting, but it was better than Mencken the fascist and Boyer the conservative lip-licker.

“Maybe it’s boring talking about populist solutions for working families,” said Salgado.

“Rick, come on! You jerked off to Reagan’s headshot for thirty years, and now you’re Tom Joad?” Mencken jeered.

Rolling her eyes, Shiv told you, “God, this shit is so fucking boring.”

Overhearing, Mencken gave the woman a onceover. “What’s that?”

“Hm?” Shiv met his gaze. “No, I’ve just—I’ve seen your thing quite a lot.”

Mencken uncrossed his arms and then crossed them again. He was frowning, brows knitting together—evidently he didn’t quite like being tested.

“And what’s that? What’s my thing?”

“Youtube provocateur bullshit,” Shiv told him with a bitter laugh. “Aristo-populism. ‘Rape is natural, it’s all red pill, baby.’ I’m just—I’m just so fucking over it.”

“Have you read Plato?” asked Mencken.

Oh, God. Was he really pulling the philosophical literature superiority card? Was he being serious?

“Yeah,” Shiv said in a mocking voice. “Remind me, what happens?”

“Oh, read Plato! Read Plato!” Mencken told her, his manner condescending.

“Don’t want to!” Shiv exclaimed. “I don’t fucking want to!”

Salgado cut in, “See, he doesn’t actually want to have a conversation. He just wants to yell loud enough to get on ATN.”

“Nah! Fuck ATN,” Mencken said. The room fell silent, and all eyes were on him. For a moment, he looked at you and Roman, the two of you watching him with muted interest. You wondered if he was seeking both of your approvals. “No, really, ATN is treated as a bulwark, but it’s dead. It’s basically a pudding cup at 5 PM in the nursing home. It’s status quo bedtime stories to maximize shareholder value.”

Though you didn’t want to agree with any of Mencken’s sentiments, you had to admit that his take on ATN was a valid one. ATN was hardly a reliable source, with its heavy right-wing influences. To you, it was merely a station to feed into the delusions of the older conservative generation. At the thought, you looked over your shoulder to Logan, seated on a table not too far from the bar. You only saw his back, but you wondered if he was listening in.

“Honestly, it doesn’t speak to me,” Mencken continued on. “Doesn’t speak to the people I talk to.”

“And who is it you talk to?” you asked, raising an eyebrow.

Mencken stared at you for a moment before answering, “People who want to see the truth. See the natural order of things.”

“Natural order. Wow,” you whispered under your breath. With that, you ordered another drink. You couldn’t listen to all this bullshit sober.

Mencken nodded. “Logan Roy was an icon. But, you know… he’s no longer relevant.”

“Do you recognize this fucker?” Roman asked, shoving the phone in Shiv’s face.

“Nope,” she said.

You peered over his shoulder to see the wedding invitation on his screen, zoomed into his mother’s fiance’s face.

“Fucking jelly-boned, low-T, pip-pip cheerio fucker,” Roman muttered as he shut the phone off and slid it back into his suit jacket’s pocket.

You pressed the button on the elevator to go up. Logan had called all of you up to the royal suite to discuss options for the next red presidential candidate—something you weren’t at all looking forward to. “He doesn’t look all that bad. Do you think your dad knows?”

The doors slid open and the three of you filed in.

Roman tilted his head. “No. But we have to stop the wedding, right?”

Both you and Shiv exchanged incredulous looks.

“Stop obsessing over Mom’s new husband,” Shiv told her brother. “Just get over it. Who cares?”

Narrowing his eyes, Roman asked, “Get over it? It just fucking happened. My mother’s marrying some dickhead, crooked-toothed turnip man.”

“His teeth looked quite nice in the picture, actually—” you began, before falling silent at Roman’s loud groan.

“What’s wrong is how little you care about it, you frozen bitch,” Roman commented off-handedly, making Shiv roll her eyes.

“Oh, poor Rome! His dreams of porking Mom are slipping through his little lubed-up fingers!” she leered, snickering a little.

A frown crossed your features. “It’s okay to care about it, Shiv. I mean… it’s your mom.”

“Something she often forgets,” she murmured, and that marked the end of the conversation.

The elevator rolled to a halt, the doors opening once more to a grand hall. The door to the suite was all the way down, and the three of you made your way there in contemplative silence. Logan was inside to greet you, along with Tom, Hugo, Connor, and Greg (who was awkwardly lingering by the curtained windows).

“There’s a lot of chat flying around. A lot of flapping,” your godfather said once everyone had settled in. “We need one voice on this, or we could fall apart and hand it to the fuck-fuck donkey gang.”

Donkey gang, obviously meaning the democrats. You spared Shiv a look—she was seated away from her husband, frowning down at her hands.

“So… who do we like?” Logan asked.

Shiv cleared her throat and said, “Shouldn’t we kick it around for a bit? Feels like it’s poised, so if you and Petkus come together, and the other donors follow, it just—”

“Exactly,” Logan deadpanned. “We’re picking. We haven’t got all night.”

Occupying one of the long sofas all on his own, Connor put forth, “I like Connor Roy.”

The room lapsed into silence for a few seconds. Roman smiled, amused.

Calling back to the short conversation you had with Shiv earlier, she said, “Honestly, Dad, I think you go Dems.”

Immediately, the two brothers in the room reacted with incredulity.

“Wow,” Connor scoffed.

“Jesus Christ! What, are we all going to hold hands and sing kumbaya next?” Roman exclaimed. Then, he sat up straighter. “Uhm, I… I kinda like Mencken? But—I know he’s kind of shitty, so if it’s now, I guess I’d say Boyer. But can I also just say that I don’t like Boyer?”

Though you were not at all happy that Roman was leaning for Mencken, you had to agree that Boyer was a safe choice. You crossed your arms. “Hard pass to Mencken. I say we go Boyer. Vice is nice, no?”

Shiv sighed loudly.

“What? What’s with the fucking attitude?” Roman asked.

The redhead held her hands out. “Okay, look, no disrespect, but Boyer was yesterday’s papers. The Dems will run on change and blow him away.”

“Ooh, Mrs. Politics,” crooned Roman. “How many big races did you win as a consultant? Four? Three? Did you win two? One?” He held up his middle finger.

She scowled. “Roman, Boyer is not a winner, and we know that.”

“Okay, then, should we talk to Mencken?” he asked. “See if we can deal?”

Vehement, Shiv said, “Uh, can I just say something? Mmh, no. Mencken is an integralist, nativist fuckhead. He’s toxic! He’s fucking—he’s ‘medicare for all, abortions for none.’ And his idea of diplomacy is shooting roe deer with Viktor Orban and then starting the trade war with China! Look, I know that there’s the carnival bark, and there’s the fucking show, but he’s outside the American political tradition. I think we have a responsibility as Waystar—”

She was cut off when Roman began humming the national anthem.

“Fuck you, Roman!” she spat out.

You put a hand on his arm, and he stopped humming. “I know my opinion here means little to nothing, but… I don’t like Mencken. He’s radical, and he’s dangerous. I’m not saying we swing blue, either. I’m saying we stay safe with Boyer. Our position right now is… precarious. It’s the best option we have.”

Logan studied you, and nodded twice. He was never one for safe options, though. You knew that full and well.

Both Roman and Shiv burst into an argument then, lobbing insults back and forth at each other. Tom stared blankly at the ground, looking even more exhausted than he usually did.

“Stop being a dirty little pixie whispering swastikas into Dad’s ear!” Shiv ground out.

“Boom! There you go again! So fucking route one!” Roman exclaimed.

The scowl on her face deepened. “I’m not saying it’s going to be the full Third Reich, but I am genuinely concerned that we could slide into a fucking Russian Berlusconied Brazilian fuckpile!”

Raising his brows, Roman shot back, “You have a trophy husband and several fur coats. I think you’re gonna be fine.”

“Tom,” Logan said, seemingly unaffected by the harsh bickering. “Who do you like?”

“Me? I, uh… I think Shiv talks a lot of sense. I also jibe with Salgado.”

Blowing out a breath, Roman said, “You jibe with him? Pretty sure that’s racist, Tom.”

“Salgado is another safe alternative,” you said. “Just not… not Mencken.”

This made Roman nudge his elbow into you. “I thought you were all about giving people chances! Mencken, he’s… you and him have a lot of beliefs in common, actually!”

“Oh? And what’s that?”

“You’re, uh, both against free-market capitalism! That counts for something, right? Why don’t you just give him a chance?”

You pinched the space between your brows. “Rome—”

Before you had a chance to finish, Roman was addressing Logan. “Dad, I know you came to the market to get a nice milk cow, but we found ourselves a fucking T-rex, okay? He’s box-office. The guy is fucking diesel. I mean, he’s good on camera. He’s fun! He’ll fight. Viewers will eat out of his hand. No downside.”

“Uh, right, no downside. Let’s just invade Poland, Dad!” Shiv scoffed. “His chief of staff broke a kid’s jaw at a rally!”

“If we don’t come to an accommodation, we get outflanked and we lose the ATN dollar machine when we need cash to fight Tech. Right? Shiv wants her way, I want my way, Connor wants his way, so that’s even.”

Vehemently, Shiv protested, “It’s not fucking even! My opinion counts for more!”

Everyone looked to her, miffed. She sounded more like a child than anything.

“No, it does! It just fucking does! I know this! People hate Mencken. They fucking hate that guy!” Shiv lowered her voice, as if just realizing that she was yelling a notch too loud. “You have to look at the climate.”

From the windows, Greg raised a hand. “Do I—do I get a vote?”

“Oh, sure, buddy. You get to vote at the election with all the other folks,” Roman told his cousin, humorously.

“Yeah, well, I just thought I’d get a… bigger vote in here?”

Ignoring him, Hugo said, “Boyer is likely to be flexible over the DOJ.”

“Not if he doesn’t win,” Shiv said. “Which… he won’t.”

“Isn’t that what you want?” you sighed. “You’re blue, Shiv.”

“My personal politics and the company’s values are on opposite ends of the spectrum,” she clarified. “I have to put the company before myself.”

“Okay, we’re hearing rumors that the case is weakening,” Hugo said. “No one big is likely to do jail time. With the notable exception of Tom, of course. Sorry, Tom.”

Visibly, Tom’s shoulders seemed to stiffen, but he nodded nonetheless. “No, please, Hugo… understood.”

Shiv turned to address her father again. “If you don’t go blue, Dad, then at least we have to be backing Salgado.”

This made Connor audibly groan. “Ugh. Señor Dickless. Captain of the Tampa Bay Cuckaneers.”

“Look, I don’t like him. He’s a neocon pretending to be a paleocon, but he at least talks base!” Shiv said.

Roman clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “Wow. I think you’re so brave for picking the brown man. I think that we should get you a medal! A special medal for white women who like brown men.”

“Wow, okay. You’re just being racist! You’re being racist now!” Shiv said, swinging her incredulous gaze from you to her father.

In a mocking tone, Roman said, “Oh, yeah, I’m a good girl! I pretend to care about people because nobody ever cares about me!”

“Hm. Roman, do you have anything you wanna tell Dad? A message from Mom, maybe?”

He recoiled, frowning. “Uh, yeah, wow. Fuck you! Thanks, I do.” Roman looked to his dad, and he could feel the familiar fear creeping up and seizing his ribcage. It helped that you’d shifted your hand to lay over his, but only barely. “Mom’s getting remarried.”

Logan nodded, contemplative. “Hm. To Bertie Woofter?”

“Ooh, no. To Peter. Peter, uh, Peter Munson.”

“Munion,” you whispered.

“Peter Munion,” Roman corrected.

Anger clouded over Logan’s eyes. “You’re fucking kidding. The seat sniffer? Christ. He’s been hanging around for forty-some years!”

“Yeah, and, well, she’d love it if you came to their big Tuscan wedding.”

“Ooh, La-di-da,” Logan said, sucking in a deep breath. “And they sent you as their messenger boy?”

He laughed and laughed. Roman shrugged.

“Okay,” the old man finally said. “Back to it, then. Who are we picking?”

“I guess there are other names,” Hugo offered. Connor coughed pointedly into his fist, but nobody paid him any mind.

Firm, Logan said, “We have to be united on this. It’s a disaster if we splinter.”

“Salgado has great narrative,” Shiv said.

Scowling, Roman spat out, “Quit butt-huffing Salgado! We all supported your little DC lemonade stand, but this is the real fucking world. This actually matters.”

Lip curled, Shiv replied, voice dripping with venom, “Roman, you just love the boot because you like to be kicked by it.”

Clearly hurt, Roman sucked in a deep breath and picked a piece of lint off his pants.

Connor coughed again, and Logan finally asked him what was on his mind.

“Nothing,” the eldest son said. “No, it’s nothing.”

As if to entertain a ludicrous notion, Logan smiled. “What about Connor?”

“I do believe that idea has good promise,” Connor exclaimed. “I do!”

“I could see it,” Logan said. It was strange seeing him smile in such a way. You couldn’t quite decipher its genuinity. “Kids?”

With a slight snicker, Roman raised his brows. “Uhm… sure, I don’t know.” After a pause, he straightened and asked in a more serious tone, “Wait, but, like—really?”

“It feels very…” You winced, sending Connor an apologetic look. “Very nepo baby? Very rigged.”

Roman shrugged. “They’re all fucking weirdos, anyway. Why not?”

“I mean, he’s a good-looking kid,” Logan said. “He’s smart… in his own way. Fucking Joe Kennedy did it for his boys, no? So let’s get him in there with a smile and a shoeshine and get Ron and everyone behind him.”

No way the matter was settled. Shiv crossed her arms, eyes darting every which way in an incredulous manner.

“I would fight so fuckin’ hard for this family, Pop,” Connor told his dad, warmth spilling over his features.

Logan casted his gaze over to his daughter. “Siobhan. As a political consultant… what do you think?”

“Well, no huge name ID, but the family name will be a factor and… uh, he’s got no track record.”

“Nothing to beat me with,” Connor emphasized with a charming grin. “I’m a clean skin!”

They yammered on some more, and Roman rubbed his knuckles along his hairline, seeming stressed. He pulled out his phone and shot out a few texts really quickly, thumbs flying across the keyboard.

Finally, once he put the device away, Roman shook his head. “Okay, but, are we being serious about this? We’re talking about trying to make Connor president?”

All the warmth drained from Connor’s face, replaced by a marring frown. “It’s a big tent, Roman. Why don’t you just come in?”

“Sure. Right. I might just call the guy who waxes my balls, he would be a great president, don’t you think?” Roman retorted.

Shiv interjected once more. “If we’re talking about this seriously, I really think we need to take a look at Salgado. Can I bring him up here without being fucking shot?”

Connor rolled his eyes and Roman groaned.

Finally, Logan’s eyes landed on you.

“You’re for Boyer, Y/N?”

You sat up straighter. “I think he’s safe. Most conservatives like safe. Or, at least, the illusion of safety. Boyer can give them that.”

There was a second of a pause, before Logan nodded. “Hugo. Call Boyer.”

“Well, if Shiv gets to bring up soggy Salgado then I wanna see if we can tame Mencken, okay?” Roman asked just as Hugo handed Logan the phone. In a quieter voice, Roman leaned forward to whisper to just you, “I arranged a meeting with him tonight. Come with?”

You reared back, eyes narrowing. “What? No, Roman.”

“Please? Just… you don’t even have to say anything. Just hear him out. What if he’s not all that bad?”

You blew out a steely breath. Meeting with a fascist was certainly not something you ever thought you’d agree to do.

Begrudging, you muttered, “Fine. But please, Roman, don’t be serious about him. I’m begging you.”

Roman gave you a half-shrug, which didn’t quell any worries you had one bit. “We’ll just see how the dice rolls.”

When Boyer finally picked up the phone, the two of you lapsed into silence, listening in on the conversation. His voice was groggy, as if he’d just been woken up. He didn’t sound too happy at Logan’s request to come to the room.

“Oh… and my fridge is empty, Dave. I don’t suppose you could bring me a Coke?” Logan said. You raised a brow in surprise whilst Roman smiled down at his lap. It was a power play—a reminder to Boyer that he ate out of Logan’s palms.

“Did you mean to call room service?” the vice’s voice crackled through.

“If you don’t have a Coke, is there something else? Could you, perhaps, fire the deputy attorney general?”

“Fire the deputy attorney general?” Boyer parroted, twinged with disbelief.

Logan smiled, laughing. “I’m kidding. Come on over. Have a chat. If it’s convenient, of course.”

Five minutes later, Boyer was at the suite’s door. You had no time to listen to his talk with Logan, because Roman was already up and pulling you out the door. He spared no explanation to Shiv, who watched the two of you leave with suspicious eyes.

You took the elevator a floor down, where Mencken’s room was.

Roman was the one that knocked, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet anxiously.

“Come in!” you faintly heard Mencken’s voice say. Both you and Roman exchanged looks, yours warning and his pleading, in a sense.

He wanted so badly for your approval.

The two of you stepped in, met with an empty hotel room. It took you another moment to realize that the bathroom door was ajar, Mencken standing in front of the mirror with just a towel hanging over his hips, shaving foam shadowing over his chin and jaw. He was dragging a razor through the white foam, a smile to his lips upon seeing the both of you.

“Hey, guys. Glad to see you again.”

Roman smiled back, leaning against the bathroom’s door frame while you lingered behind him.

“So… I—we just wanted to chit-chat a little bit. That was funny earlier, by the way. You tripping the light fantastic on Grandpappy’s nutsack.”

Mencken hummed. “When I called your dad bullshit? Did that bump?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve never seen that before. That was fucking hardcore,” Roman commented. “Y/N isn’t a fan of ATN either, as it turns out.”

For a moment, you sent Roman a half-hearted glare. He’d said that you wouldn’t have to say anything.

“Ooh. Waystar’s princess, not liking Waystar? How meaty.” Mencken tilted his head back to shave the nooks and crannies that were harder to maneuver around. “Good for you, though. The thing is… this monkey don’t dance.”

Roman laughed, pointing at him. “This monkey right here? The monkey shaving in a hotel bathroom?”

“That’s right.” Finally, Mencken rinsed off the last bits of foam from his face, wiping off the excess dampness with a towel. There wasn’t a single nick on his face—you thought of the many times you’ve watched Roman shaved, when he always somehow managed to garner a dozen or so tiny cuts along his jaw. Mencken turned to face the two of you.

“Listen, I did want to talk to you about something. Fuck it, I’ll just come right out and say it.” Roman eased into the bathroom, leaning against the wall opposite Mencken, tugging you in as well. It was a strange feeling—you’d never had a meeting in a bathroom before. Wrinkling his nose, Roman said, “Fascists are kind of cool… but not really. So, is that, like, gonna be a problem? Will it be a thing?”

It unnerved you when Mencken sighed, stepping closer to the both of you. So close, in fact, that you could smell the shaving cream he’d used. Your brows furrowed in distaste and fixed your stare on the tile down below your feet.

“Seriously? Me? I just… I don’t have a lot of boundaries.”

Evidently, you wanted to snap. But you kept quiet.

“St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Schumacher. I’ll borrow from anyone. To restrict me to that label is just… it’s not right, is it? You know, if Franco or H or Travis Bickle had a good pitch, fuck it!”

This made you tear your gaze away from the ground, meeting Mencken’s stare head-on. He was much closer that you realized, and that made you all the more uncomfortable.

“H?” you finally croaked. “As in—?”

He spared you a wolfish smile. “I’m a fully-fledged, small-dicked Democrat.”

“I don’t think you are,” you challenged.

This made him tilt his head and bark out a laugh. “Which one? Small-dicked or a Democrat? Because I can tell you now that neither of those are true, sweetheart.” Your unamused countenance seemed to only fuel him further. “A well-regulated election is a transmission frequency for God’s grace, really.”

“Holy shit,” Roman whistled. “You really are a Christian, aren’t you?”

“Well, no, no, my only thing is like—who’s the stakeholder, right? I’ve been tending my little garden for a hundred years, and then forty new guys show up in the back of a truck, playing their boombox. When it’s put to a vote, they decide to, uh, give my farm to themselves. I mean, it’s ridiculous, right? Maybe we should be putting in before we get to take out.”

There was so much to pick apart with his ideology. So many flaws, so many weak-links. But you didn’t say anything.

Instead, Roman asked, “Okay, well, who gets to join?”

“People trust people who look like them. That’s just a scientific fact. They will give more tax dollars to help them,” Mencken said. “And I know you look nothing like me, ma’am, so I’ll just say it plain and clear. I don’t trust you, and you don’t trust me. But that’s just part of the thrill, no?”

You recoiled back into Roman. “What the fuck are you talking about? What thrill? Can you just—back up a bit? You’re all up in my fucking personal space.”

Your scowl loosened just a tad when Mencken raised his hands and took a step back. He snorted. “Sorry. Don’t cancel me. Or do. I don’t think it matters much, right?”

He was right, but you didn’t say it.

“I like this country,” Mencken admitted. “I do. I like the people in it.”

“Not all the people, though, right?” you carefully asked.

“Of course, not. And don’t get all high and mighty on me. You can’t say you like all the people in it, now can you?” You opened your mouth to say something, but he cut you off. “We aren’t too different, you and I. Roman… I see why he’s taken a liking to you. You have some sense about you.”

You gave Roman a questioning glance, wondering what on earth he’d said to Mencken through text.

You clenched your jaw. “I’m not here for you,” you finally breathed out. “You can’t sway me, Mencken.”

“Oh, we’ll see about that, sweetheart.”

Clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth, Roman finally intervened before you could get too heated, “In terms of, you know, this thing we have… there’s a thing here, right?”

“Mhm.”

“I get it. You’re fucking 6G and we’re Betamax, but you need us, I think. Our news, our viewers, those fucking almost-deads. That’s a big slice of pie,” Roman explained.

“Well, if I’m the nominee… are any of them really going to vote against me?” he asked.

Half a shrug lifting one of his shoulders, Rome said, “No, but… it’s going to be a fucking shitshow going into the convention. I think you could really use our push.”

You weren’t happy about any of this. But Logan had already called Boyer. The deal was done, right? You’d walk back up to the suite, and the next red-wing electee would be picked. This was all… for nothing.

Right?

Mencken nodded. “And I think you could use my push.”

“Maybe,” Roman admitted.

“Where are you in all this?” Mencken asked Roman, curiously. “What’s the little forgotten Prince doing?”

Roman made a nervous, whooshing sound. “I’m, uh, you know. I’m creeping on the come-up.”

“Oh, yeah?” Mencken glanced at you, as if to decipher whether or not he was telling the truth. You betrayed nothing, looking back down at the tiles.

“I’ve got some ideas for ATN. Sluice out the fucking porridge and add some sriracha. Poach some of those TikTok psychos, you know? E-girls with fucking guns and Juul pods. Give me some straight-shot blacks and latinos. That’ll get a few generations turning heads. No more of this fucking… pillows and bedpans. We’re strictly bone broth and dick pills. Deep state conspiracy hour but with, like, a fucking wink, you know? It’ll be funny.” Roman clapped his hands together. “The whole show is kinda set up for the star. President Jeryd Mencken.”

Your face soured.

“I like that,” Mencken said, stroking his freshly-shaved jaw. “I like that a lot.”

“Well, I don’t. Good fucking luck, Roman.” With that, you straightened your shoulders and marched out of the bathroom, needing to get away from the two of them. You needed air. More importantly, you needed to get up to the suite and ask if they’d settled for Boyer.

The two men stood in the bathroom, silent for a few moments.

“I think she likes me.” Mencken smirked.

Roman scratched at the back of his head. He was really hoping you’d see the better side of Mencken, like he did. He just hoped that you weren’t too angry with him. You hardly ever got mad, but when you did, it always felt like the end of the world to him.

“Right… can you, uh… come up and say hello or something to him? My dad?” Roman glanced at the door. “Oh, and bring a can of Coke with you.”

Logan chose Mencken.

That night, you crawled into the cold hotel bed and cried. You felt so… so trapped in a life that you didn’t want to live. You briefly wondered what would happen to you if you quit your job entirely, but you pushed the thought away almost as quickly as it came. It wasn’t something you liked to entertain.

Half an hour later, you could hear your door opening.

Right. You’d forgotten that Roman had asked for another set of the key card to your room. You quietly wiped your tears away, grateful that it was too dark for him to see.

He slipped in behind you, sliding his arms over your waist and pressing his nose into the back of your neck.

“Are you mad at me?” he asked.

You chose not to reply, pretending to be asleep.

“It’ll be good,” he said, eventually. “He’ll be good. I promise. His dick is big enough for the both of us.”

You shifted your foot just a bit, but that was enough for Roman to know that you were awake.

“Stop ignoring me.”

“I don’t want you here,” you murmured.

There was a shuffle behind you. Roman cleared his throat. It was so unbearably tense.

“If it’s Mencken you’re worried about—”

“I don’t want you here,” you repeated, a warbling edge to your voice. “I love you, Roman. Please leave.”

He went stiff. One second, then two, then three.

“I love you, too,” he finally said. It was said with no joking tone, no playful quips, no inappropriate remarks. It wasn’t often that Roman told you that he loved you, at least compared to the number of times you’d say it to him. Maybe it was because he never knew if you meant I love you, or I’m in love with you.

And with that, he slowly slipped his hands off of you, and got back onto his feet. He made a show of leaving the key card on the nightstand, before making his way out of your hotel room.

He shut the door behind him, standing in front for a minute. A part of him wanted you to open up and beg him to come back. An even more delusional part of him expected you to do so.

Instead, Roman could hear your muffled sobs ricochet from behind the door. Something within him seized up. He turned on his heel and left.

Kendall had invited you to his birthday party, to your surprise. After all that transpired between the two of you, you hardly expected to be wanted at his party. Though, from what you heard, it was hardly a personal affair.

It didn’t seem like your kind of event, honestly, and you hardly had a reason to go. You loved Kendall, but you could tell him that any other day of the year, when he wasn’t surrounded by fucking vagina-entrances, childhood treehouse replicas, and miniature Wu-Tang dancers. Though, Kendall told you to keep that last bit on the down low. The dancers were meant to be a surprise.

But you weren’t at all planning on going.

That was, until Logan decided otherwise for you.

There was a problem with GoJo, and Logan was pissed that Matsson hadn’t shown up. Something about blatant disrespect, he’d said.

“He’s going to this fucking party, isn’t he?” Logan had barked. “Huh? Where is he? Getting his nails done? Asshole whitened?”

Roman squinted at his dad. “I think we just have to court him a little, is the thing—”

“Bah. No. It’s bad fucking juju to start like this,” Logan snippily said.

You quirked a brow, knowing Logan was never one to be superstitious.

Shiv and Roman both tried to broach more options, but Logan shut them all down. “The deal makes sense. It’s a great deal. But he won’t make the deal because he’s being an arrogant prick.”

“Fine. Yeah, sure, Matsson’s an asshole. But should we really burn our only parachute because of that?” Shiv stressed.

Logan leaned back in his seat, regarding his daughter. “It’s just smart business, Shiv. I don’t want to pay over the odds. And eventually, the market will make him make the deal.”

You shook your head. “The market has plenty of better hands to deal him.”

“Someone can make a better offer, and we’d be screwed,” Roman agreed.

“Dad, we have a scale issue. Our streaming platform is for shit, and we have nothing that looks like growth,” Shiv added on. “This gets us consequently into streaming, into sports betting—social media! We have a little window. Miss this, and we end up being pilot fish nibbling leftovers from Bezos’ fucking teeth. Dad, please. If you don’t want to talk to Matsson, fine. But let me.”

“Let us,” Roman interjected. “We can all do it. He’s gonna be at the party, right? We’ll go.”

“You’re going?” Logan asked, raising an eyebrow at Shiv.

Her eyes darted from her father to her brother. “Mhm.”

Heaving out a breath, Logan nodded. “Y/N, you go with them. Don’t go in too strong. This is a black box, and I don’t want to overpay.”

You wondered if Logan wanted you there to help broker the deal, or if he wanted you there to make sure Roman and Shiv didn’t start clawing at each other’s throats.

Shiv nodded, muttering something under her breath, and darted out of Logan’s office to make some preparations. That just left you and Roman standing in front of Logan. The air between the two of you was still tense since the whole Mencken debacle.

You were about to step out as well, before Logan said, “Since you two are going, might as well give him this in person.”

He slid over an envelope. The three of you, along with Gerri, had discussed its contents: an offer for Kendall to cash out of the company for good. Roman glanced at you, and you used your head to gesture for him to take it.

“You think he’ll like it?” Roman asked his dad, who offered him half a smile and a shrug.

When he turned to look at you, the glass door was ajar and the spot where you were standing a moment ago was vacant.

Roman’s palms were sweaty. This was about the fifth time he’d wiped them down the front of his suit’s pants, hoping they’d just air out on their own by the time he got to your door.

They didn’t, but Roman found himself shrugging it off. You’d seen much worse than sweaty palms when it came to him.

It was an hour before the party was supposed to start—more so if he wanted to be fashionably late, didn’t want to seem too desperate—and he rang the bell.

It’d only been a few days since the two of you properly spoke, but Roman missed you. He found his nights staring at your number, thumb hovering over the call button. He’d sent about a dozen texts since then, but none of them were replied to. Sure, the two of you had gotten into fights every now and then but they never lasted long.

And Roman was determined to get you to stop ignoring him.

When the door swung open, you peeked through, not at all ready yet for the party. Roman snickered upon seeing your eyeshadow only done on one eye, curlers in your hair.

“Looking hot, fuck-face,” he whistled. To his relief, your features softened, and you stepped to the side to let him amble in. Even in your current disheveled state, you knew he was telling the truth.

In truth, you’d missed him more than you could ever admit. It took a great deal of self-restraint not to reply to his strings of texts, especially once you were given time to cool off after what had transpired in the hotel bathroom. He was your Achilles’ heel, in a way.

“What do you want?” you asked, not even bothering to face him as you shut the door and made your way further into your home, standing in front of your mirror vanity to resume doing your makeup.

Roman watched your reflection in a near somber manner. “Well, I was just thinking, since we’re going to Kendall’s little birthday bash, we could go togeth—”

“No,” you found yourself saying without a second thought. “I can go myself.”

With a sigh, Roman stepped forward, leaning against your vanity so he could look at you instead of your reflection. “I just want to talk. This—whatever’s going on between us—it fucking sucks. I miss you.”

For a second, you let your eyes meet his. You didn’t say anything, simply carrying on with drawing your eyeliner.

“You’re not gonna say you miss me, too?”

“Of course I missed you, Rome.” There was a sort of bitterness to your words. “That doesn’t make me any less mad at you.”

“Look, I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry I went down the Mencken road. I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you. But, cross my heart and hope to die, I genuinely believe he can help us. And, like, what’s the worst he can do? Just because he becomes president doesn’t mean he can do fuck all. I’m just with him because we’d all benefit from him helping out the company.” He scratched the back of his head whilst giving you, as he would so eloquently put it, fucky eyes.

There was a long stretch of pregnant silence. You’d finally put down the eyeliner, shifting to stand directly in front of him, your chest brushing against his.

“What can I do?” he whispered. He couldn’t help it—his eyes were fixed on your lips, parted and glossed. “What can I do to make it up to you?”

You smelled so damn good too—Roman felt like he was going delirious. He chalked it up to not being around you for a long while. That was probably why. His hands reached out to rest over your hips.

“Not much you can do now. What’s done is done. Your dad settled on Mencken—there’s no changing his mind.” You tilted your head, so close now that your nose was brushing against his. He briefly wondered if you could feel the way his heart was slamming imprints against his ribs.

You were just a hair’s breadth away from kissing him. You were so fucking close—

Until you pulled away with a smug little grin, far enough so that his hands fell away from you, going right back to fixing up your makeup. “I can look past Mencken for now. Mostly because I can’t see someone like him actually winning the election. But I’m absolutely not saying that I’m with you on this. I’m just saying we can put aside our… differences. If he just so happens to win, I’m counting on you to have your hand up his ass, and my hand would be up yours. So we’re good, for now.”

“You fucking tease,” he grumbled, chuckling slightly. “What was that about your hand up my ass?”

“Awh,” you said in a mocking tone, one of your feet kicking up to knock against his shin. “Did you manage to get a hard on without me even touching you?”

Roman rolled his eyes. “Fuck off. And no.”

He was lying. He definitely had an erection, and the both of you knew it.

“Did you want me to kiss you?” you asked abruptly, starting to pull out the curlers in your hair.

His mouth went slack. His mind was moving too fast for him to formulate any coherent sentences. Instead, he laughed a bit, before it tapered away awkwardly.

“Yeah?” he finally replied, more of a question than anything.

“You don’t sound sure.”

“I’m sure,” he haughtily replied.

“Okay,” you said, though you didn’t look convinced. Another roller came out.

“Don’t believe me?” Roman placed his hands over your hips once more, and yanked you close. “I’ll kiss you right here, right now.”

A brilliant smile danced across your features. “That a promise, Romey?”

With that, Roman leaned forward and slotted his lips over yours. It was tentative and soft and—surprisingly sticky. Your lip gloss, he registered a second later, tasted like strawberries and honey. A content hum slipped from you and you wrapped your arms around his neck, kissing him back with just as much vigor. Your nose slanted against his, foreheads knocking together.

You were the one to pull away first, laughing lightly at his hooded eyes and the way he chased after your lips. A second bout of laughter overtook you when you saw the glossy, tinted smudges across his mouth.

Shoulders still shaking, you pulled out a makeup wipe and handed it over to him, silently gesturing to his lips.

“The color doesn’t suit you,” you rasped, though you kissed his cheek to leave a faint mark there, as well. “That’s a first for us, you know?”

“What?”

“Kissing.”

Roman looked at you strangely as he wiped away the remnants of your gloss. “We’ve kissed millions of times. Mostly you, because you’re obsessed with me.”

“Yeah, but… not like that. Mouth to mouth. It was always a line I didn’t wanna cross, you know?”

He toyed with a brush laying on your vanity. “Why not?” he asked, his voice sounding a bit more unsure. “You afraid I’m gonna give you cooties?”

“Well, because we’re…” You paused, gesturing between the two of you. “We’re friends. With occasional benefits, I guess. I didn’t know if you were okay with it.”

Lifting a shoulder, Roman offered you a smile. Friends didn’t sit quite right with him. Not anymore, at least. “Well now you know. You can kiss me all you want.”

You huffed in amusement, before pulling out the rest of the rollers in your hair. All you had left to do was put on your outfit, and you were good to go. You wondered if Kendall would be happy seeing his siblings at his party, when you knew for a fact that he hadn’t invited them.

“I’m gonna go change. You want me to help you out with that?” You looked down at his tented pants with a raised brow. “No blow jobs, though. Don’t wanna ruin my makeup.”

This time, Roman was the one that laughed, loud and chesty. He sucked on his teeth, as if debating his options.

“How much time do we have?” he asked.

You glanced over at a small clock hanging on the opposite side of the room. “We’ve got forty-five minutes, maybe? If we wanna get there before Matsson gets bored and leaves.”

Roman clapped his hands together. “Great! More than enough time.”

The two of you ended up fooling around for a bit longer than you’d anticipated—he’d humped your ass with you bent over your couch, then finished by jacking off onto your back. You were grateful that you hadn’t yet changed into your outfit for the party, having stayed in a comfortable white shirt that you shucked off and threw into the laundry bin.

To your surprise, he seemed earnest enough to want to try fingering you, and you shyly told him to go for it if he wanted. A permanent flush fixed over your cheeks as you gently guided him to do what felt best. His thumb over your clit, his fingers sheathed deep in your cunt. He was good at it, mostly because he was clinging onto your every plea like it was gospel. You came with a drawn-out moan and your teeth sinking into his shoulder.

You managed to squeeze in just one more handjob for him since he somehow got hard again while fingering you, whispering filthy nothings into his ear as he whined, eyes rolled into the back of his head. To your curious delight, you’d found that Roman really liked being called a good boy.

Only after all that did you manage to change into a semi-formal dress, touching up on your makeup since a lot of your lipstick had smudged onto Roman. In turn, Roman headed to the bathroom to wash up a bit, comb back his hair, some strands had come loose during your little excursions, and straightened out his suit.

“You ready?” you asked, peeking into the bathroom. The two of you were a bit later than you would’ve liked. “I want to make a stop at the corner store before the party.”

“What for?” he asked, curious.

“Last minute birthday gift,” you replied, hopping slightly as you strapped on your shoes. “Let’s go, Rome. You look hot, I promise.”

He smiled at your reflection, and took your outstretched hand.

Upon arriving at the large venue, the woman in front asked to take everybody’s coats and phones. To which, Roman told her, “Yeah, fuck off, I’m not doing that,” and walked right past her.

You gave her an apologetic smile, shedding your coat and handed it to her. “Sorry, I can’t hand you my phone. Company policy.”

With that, you jogged to catch up to Roman, chatting with Connor, who had also chosen to cling on tightly to his coat. Beneath it, you saw that one of his arms was in a sling.

“Oh, Con, what happened?” you asked, waving hello to Willa.

“Nothing, nothing. Just ranch stuff,” the older man replied, nonchalant.

Roman snorted. “What, a horse didn’t want you to fuck it?”

“He had a fall,” Willa said, and Connor immediately protested.

“You make it sound like I’m ninety years old. No, Maxim and I just got some polling results. We shared a Cognac, and then I slipped doing a little Irish jig.”

“Oh, okay. Ranch stuff. Got it,” quipped Roman.

You stopped in front of a tunnel-like entrance, the walls lined with soft pink.

“This feels disgustingly Kendall,” Shiv said, and the two of you laughed as you strolled in. “So… where’s Tabs, Rome? She busy?”

Arching a brow, you looked to Roman. You knew that his relationship with her had fizzled out, especially after the… corpse sex debacle.

“Yup,” Roman said, clearly not comfortable discussing it with her.

She grinned, snickering. “Again? Did you kill her?”

“We’re actually—we’re not really seeing each other anymore. She was just a bit boring. That’s all I’m saying,” Roman said. His eyes darted to you, and you offered him half a smile.

“Mmh, yeah. Because you find sexual intimacy boring, don’t you?” Shiv pressed, which made both you and Roman frown.

“As if you’re the catch,” Roman snapped back. “You’re more fucked up than me, you know! Seems like Y/N and I are nicer to each other than you are to your own husband.”

Shiv looked between the two of you, expression immediately souring. “You’re so fucking annoying,” she muttered, before turning to mutter something to Tom.

By the end of the pink tunnel, a woman dressed in a cartoonish nurse uniform greeted the group. “You’ve just been born into the world of Kendall Roy!” she announced.

“Oh, Jesus,” Shiv huffed.

Roman turned back to look at the pink tunnel. “Oh. So if we’ve just been born, then that must be mom’s…?” He shifted his weight back and forth by the exit. “You’re telling me I’m repeatedly entering my mom’s vagina right now?”

You snorted in amusement, nudging Shiv. “These your mom jokes just keep getting better.”

She hummed. “Cold and inhospitable. It seems to check out.”

“This is my mom’s cooch, just so you know,” Roman told the nurse. “And you’re implying that it’s massive, so, uh, might wanna get Kendall to see if you can tighten my mother’s vagina.”

The group shuffled off, leaving the poor nurse to gather her wits and greet the next few guests approaching.

“Where’s Matsson, you think?” Shiv asked.

“Probably standing in a corner somewhere, monitoring his biometrics from his watch,” Roman scoffed.

“Don’t you think we should find Kendall before trying to find Matsson?” you queried, looking around the crowded room in hopes of finding Kendall somewhere amidst the dancing throng. “I mean… it is his birthday party, after all.”

Nodding, Roman said, “Yeah, good thinking. Let’s just get it out of the way.”

Shiv managed to track down one of Kendall’s assistants, asking her where he’d be. She pointed up the stairs, where the VIP section was. Thanking her, the three of you made your way up the stairs whilst the rest of the group stayed down to mingle.

The second floor was a bit less packed, but there were still dozens upon dozens of famous figures mingling about. It wasn’t hard to find Kendall amongst them, sticking out like a sore thumb with a birthday crown perched on his head, laughing with his girlfriend, Naomi Pierce, by his side.

His eyes met his siblings’, and he scrambled to take the crown off, dropping it onto the nearest waiter’s tray.

“Woah, woah, woah. Wait a second. Who let you guys in? This is friends only!” he exclaimed.

Shiv made a pitying noise. “Awh. Shouldn’t it be empty, then?”

Roman cackled. “She beat me by one second.”

“Happy birthday, old man,” Shiv said, giving her older brother a sharp smile.

“Just to say, I’m only here because I heard there was going to be a five-dimensional catastrophe, and I want to watch you crash and burn,” Roman told him.

Features mellowing, Kendall stepped forward and spread his arms out wide to give Roman a hug, which he reciprocated with no complaint.

However, he did have to squeeze in, “Man, it even feels like you’re old. You sure you’re only forty? You look like shit.”

Despite his harsh words, Kendall pulled away with a genuine smile. He was happy that his siblings were here, even if he hadn’t invited them.

He hugged you next, and you reached up to kiss his cheek with a smile. “Hey, Kenny D. Happy birthday—I brought you a little present.” You reached into the cheap plastic bag from the corner store, brandishing a strawberry popsicle, still in its wrapper. “It’s probably a bit melted but if you popped it into the freezer for ten minutes or so, it should be good as new. Sorry it’s not much.”

Kendall’s expression seemed to soften, recalling how the two of you would always argue over the last remaining strawberry popsicle during the summers you were still little children. When you would grab it from the freezer before he could, he’d tug on your pigtails and call you mean as you denied ever taking them, and you’d hide the wrappers in Rome’s room so he’d never know it was you. But he could always tell from the sticky red on the corners of your mouth and your sugar-highs that seemed to last for a little too long.

“No, this is…” He took the popsicle from you, staring down at the wrapper. “This is perfect. Thank you. I really appreciate it, I do.”

You nodded, pointedly watching as he pocketed the popsicle. “No problem. I promise not to take this one from you.”

Kendall laughed, then looked to his brother and sister. “Really? No card? I’m disappointed.”

“Sorry, I couldn’t find one that said both ‘happy birthday’ and ‘get well soon’,” Shiv crooned. The smile on Kendall’s face faltered.

“Well, I’m glad you guys came. It says a lot,” he finally said.

“It was a ten minute drive,” Shiv deadpanned.

A part of you wondered why Shiv was being particularly brutal today, especially on Kendall’s birthday. Nonetheless, the two of them awkwardly hugged, Shiv patting her brother’s back a few times.

Connor and Willa ascended the stairs a few seconds later, waving hello. They greeted the birthday boy with hugs, and the smile returned back to Kendall’s face, though it wasn’t quite the same as before.

“So, what do you guys think? Sick party, right?” Kendall asked, arms spread.

Squinting, Roman glanced back downstairs. “It’s cool, but, uh, did you ask for Mummy’s permission to use her, uh… squatch?”

Kendall shook his head a bit, seeming puzzled. “What, from, like, a copyright perspective?”

“Well, it’s just, you know—call me old-fashioned, but I think you should ask before constructing a giant replica of someone’s vagina,” Roman off-handedly said.

“I’d definitely want to be informed before someone decides to make an artistic rendition of my privates,” you chimed in agreement.

“Duly noted,” Roman said in a faux British accent, and the two of you giggled under your breath like schoolgirls.

Kendall, miffed, nodded a few times. “Yeah, okay. Yeah. I can—I can send mom an email. But, relax, will you? Yes, Roman, you can take it home with you.”

Roman pumped a fist into the air at that, and you both burst into another round of giddy laughter.

Rolling her eyes, Shiv said, “Okay, so, tell us. Who else is here?”

Kendall made a show of looking around at the dozens of famous celebrities loitering around the VIP section. “Who isn’t?”

“Your dad,” Roman said.

“Your mom,” Shiv told him.

“Your wife,” Connor added.

“Your kids?” you put forth, more as a question than anything.

“Any real friends,” Roman chimed again.

With a smile, Shiv said, “I mean, business folks, sure. Stewy? Honestly, we could do with building some bridges. So, uh, Lawrence Yee? He here? Lukas Matsson?”

There it was. She name-dropped the golden goose.

“Yeah, yeah. They’re all here, somewhere,” Kendall assured, gesturing around vaguely. “I have something to show you guys, actually. Come on.”

The siblings and you followed him down a winding hallway, which gave way to black-out curtains, and past that, it seemed to be an art gallery of sorts.

“Hey, Dad wanted me to give this to you,” Roman said, handing Kendall the envelope. You eyed it warily, wondering how Kendall would react to the offer.

“What is it?” the older brother queried, shaking it lightly, as if expecting something inside to rattle.

A dismissive sort of smile fell over Roman’s face. “It’s, uh, an iTunes gift card and a couple of your baby teeth. It’s nice. We hope you like it.”

Kendall looked at you, silently asking for confirmation. You nodded, hesitant, but that seemed to satisfy him enough—he pocketed the envelope to open up for later.

“Okay, guys, let me show you some shit. C’mon.” He beckoned everyone into the art gallery, before spewing into a long tangent about all the people he had to collaborate with in order for things to work out.

Instead of paintings and sculptures, which you’d typically see hung up in galleries, there were newspaper articles and headlines plastered over the walls.

The Cincinnati Standard: Waystar Chairman, Kendall Roy Elected President of World Federation!

Boston Daily Express: Wife of Tom Wambsgans Arrested In Sweep of City Street-Walkers!

The Correspondent: Connor Roy Elected President [of shitting his bag]!

The NY Globe: Failed Youngest Roy Sibling Dies in Tragic Jerk-Off Accident!

Both you and Roman stopped to stand in front of his article. You shot him an amused glance. “Who were you jerking off to, do you think?”

“Don’t worry, fuck-face, there’s a lot of Roman to go around,” he said, leaning closer to read the smaller text.

Your grin grew wider, gesturing to the paper. “Not for long, according to this.”

“It’s not a bad way to go.” Roman bumped his shoulder into yours. “Yours is going to happen any day now, I can just feel it.”

Your brows raised, and you turned around, surprised to see your own article plastered large and tall right beside Connor’s.

New York Journalist: Disgraced CEO’s Goddaughter Kicked Out of Company—Adopted Into Communist Parties!

“Wow,” you breathed out. It wasn’t all that bad, really.

“You like it?” Kendall asked the two of you.

“You’ve got people in here picturing me jerking off, so who’s the real winner?” Roman sneered.

Shaking your head, you told Kendall, “I can’t even imagine why you’d have an entire room dedicated to this at your birthday party.”

“It’s—it’s unique. An extrapolation into the near future,” he said. “People dig it.”

“You keep telling yourself that,” Roman replied, clapping his shoulder, before wandering off to read the other articles.

Connor threw a large fit about his article, unhappy with the way he was being portrayed as an unserious candidate.

“You did actually shit your bag, though,” Roman said. Kendall guffawed and the two brothers began laughing together, at Connor’s expense.

His scowl deepened. “Yeah, you know why? Because I took you two fucking assholes on a camping trip because Dad couldn’t be bothered! That’s why! I ate some bad fucking fish! This is bullshit, Kendall!” He yelled that last sentence, to which Kendall quickly reassured him that he’d have it taken down.

You remembered Roman telling you about the camping trip, the both of you only barely teenagers. It was harder then, being friends with them—boys were particularly mean at that age.

You remembered asking if you could come along. Kendall told you that it was a boys trip. Only boys were allowed, and you most certainly weren’t a boy.

You remembered Roman asking if you could somehow fit into the cooler so he could sneak you on the trip. Even now, you weren't quite sure if he was just joking or if he was being serious. Nonetheless, you pushed him away and told him to have fun sleeping on rocks and eating stale jerky that tasted like dirt. When you sniffled, Connor put a hand on your shoulder and told you that there’d be many more camping trips in the future. To your knowledge, they never went again.

“Alright, guys, I gotta circulate. Lots of people to talk to. We can check in later, yeah?” Kendall rubbed his hands together. You briefly realized that this was the first time you’d seen him genuinely happy in a long time.

“Yeah, yeah, you go on ahead,” Shiv said, urging him on.

“It’s a great night. I’m happy you guys are here. Fucking… best birthday ever.”

With that, Kendall hurried off. You and Roman exchanged glances, mirrors of pity and guilt.

Half an hour of asking around later, Shiv managed to snag down Matsson’s location in this never-ending venue of birthday bash.

“Don’t fuck this,” Shiv warned Roman, to which he rolled his eyes and gestured for her to lead the way.

The three of you traversed up a couple more flights of winding staircases, turning left into a massive hall, where a giant replica of a treehouse was erected, leading into what looked like another secret passageway. You narrowed your eyes, seeming to recognize the little carvings on the wood by the base of the tree. Younger Kendall often went into the yard whenever he was angry, whittling away his frustrations onto the bark. You and Roman used to play pretend that they were ancient runes when he wasn’t around to hear you.

“I think a forty year old man who rebuilt his childhood treehouse should immediately go on the sex offender registry,” Roman snidely commented, eyeing the massive structure.

Two burly guards blocked the entry way.

“We’re with Kendall,” you said as you tried to sidestep them, but one thrust his arm out in front of you.

“Do you have a rainbow band?” he gruffed.

Roman guffawed. “Yes. I’m a walking fucking rainbow band.”

It was then that Kendall’s head emerged from behind the guards, eyebrows raised.

“Hey, guys. You done downstairs?”

“Mhm. These guys aren’t letting us in. Ain’t that crazy?” Roman asked pointedly. “Do you mind if we took a gander around your mental disorder?”

Kendall laughed, though it sounded forced. “Hah. Yeah, good one. That’s funny, Rome.”

“So are you gonna let us in, or what?” Shiv butted in, clearly impatient.

“That’s, uh…” Kendall smiled, almost apologetic, almost triumphant. “That’s not possible.”

You tilted your head, wondering if Kendall somehow found out that the three of you were after Matsson. “Not possible? Why’s that?”

“You hiding something from us in there, Ken?” Roman jeered. “Nude selfies you don’t feel comfortable with showing? The angsty romantic poetry you wrote when you were seventeen?”

A frown flickered across his face. “Well, okay, the thing is—the treehouse is for cool people, and you guys… you guys aren’t cool. Sorry, Y/N. You know, I would’ve given you a band if they weren’t here with you.”

“I’m flattered,” you said in a flat tone.

“Wow. The coolest grown man’s treehouse I’ve seen in quite a while,” Shiv snippily retorted, which made Roman snicker.

Holding his hands out in a placating manner, Kendall told the three of you, “Okay, no, seriously guys. Sorry, but, like… all jokes aside, there’s actually a real issue here, and I need to be discreet, because there’s a lot of celebrities around, and if you guys were in the treehouse, it would be kinda—kinda wouldn’t feel like the treehouse, y’know?”

Shiv scoffed.

“You’re a nazi lover,” Kendall deadpanned, pointing at his sister. He jutted his finger to Roman, then you. “And you’re a nazi lover. And you’re heavily affiliated with them. Me, on the other hand, I’m a defender of liberal democracy.”

“Lovely. You afraid of getting canceled on Twitter, Kendall?” you asked, crossing your arms. You let the words spew out without really thinking over them. “Or are you scared to show all your ad-sponsored, money-grubbing buddies up there who kicked you to the ground and spat on your corpse? It’s not a good look, is it?”

Appearing crestfallen for a moment, Kendall shook his head. “You’re being—stop. I didn’t expect you to stoop down to their level, Y/N.”

“Jesus, are you going to let us in or not?” Roman huffed.

“What, to see Matsson?” Kendall finally asked.

There it was. He knew.

“That’s why you’re here. You’re trying to push a deal,” he muttered.

“Who fucking gives a shit?” Roman asked. “What’s the difference to you? I just want to talk to him.”

Shiv nodded. “You know what’ll happen if we do talk to him? Either we strike out with nothing, or we succeed, Waystar benefits, and your net worth goes up by several hundred million dollars.”

“You’re welcome,” retorted Roman.

“Okay, yeah, but I have to weigh that against the consideration that no losers allowed,” Kendall said, shrugging.

“God, you’re such a fucking child.” You rolled your eyes, the two other siblings following suit.

Trying to step up again, Roman said, “I’m going in. This is fucking stupid.”

Kendall grabbed at his brother’s shoulder, pulling him back, and turning him around to face away from the treehouse.

“Oh, my God. Did you see that? I just got moved.”

Roman tried again, and the two got into a catty, near indiscernible argument. Kendall pushed, and Roman stepped back, before leaning in again.

“You really gonna get so worked up over a treehouse?” Kendall hissed. “That’s fucking lame, man.”

Finally, Roman stepped away, his shoulder bumping into yours. “Fuck. Wow.”

“Don’t let these guys in. This is my treehouse, and they shouldn’t be here,” Kendall warned the guards, before slipping between them, making his way back into his treehouse. “Oh, and, thanks for the offer, guys. Great headfuck from Dad. Really fucking cool of you.”

You thought the buyout would be good for him. A naive part of you had even thought that he’d simply accept it with no complaint. Lord knew it was more than enough money to sustain him several lifetimes.

“Unbelievable. Un-fucking-believable,” Roman groaned. “Now what?”

Curious, Shiv looked over at the two of you. “What was Ken talking about? What offer?”

You and Roman exchanged looks. “That was nothing,” Roman dismissively replied, shrugging. “It was just a little move to ease him out of the holding company.”

“What? And—you two didn’t think to tell me?” she just about snarled, brows drawing together.

“It’s just an offer, Shiv. You would’ve found out eventually,” you sighed, rubbing the spot between your brows, the beginnings of a headache starting to fight through.

“Whose name was on the paper?” she asked, head tilted.

“Mine,” Roman sighed. “It’s just a name, though. It’s nothing.”

“Okay, so why wasn’t I the name if it was fucking nothing?” she demanded. “Historically, who owns the fucking company has been of some interest. It’s not nothing.”

Tired of the conversation, Roman told her, “We handled it. You wanna figure out the financing, or something? It’s all there.”

A muscle in her jaw twitched. “Yeah, that’s fucking great. You guys are so adorable. Fuck you. Fuck this.”

She stormed off, heels clanging loudly against the staircases’ steps.

A few seconds of silence lapsed by before you reached out to take Roman’s arm. “You ready to go steal some rainbow bands?”

He used his free hand to cup your face and tug you closer, landing a loud, obnoxious kiss onto your cheek.

“I fucking love us,” he hummed.

The two of you began to walk around, eyeing all the guests who happened to have bracelets on.

“I do, too, Rome. I do, too.”

Eventually, the two of you managed to snag down a handsy couple who looked much too busy sucking off each others’ faces to care about their stupid rainbow bands. They handed it to you two with no question and you thanked them with a smile whilst Roman snidely told them to use protection. He was one to talk, really.

The guards also gave the two of you a lot of trouble, but after a bit of charm from your end and a bit of light threatening from Roman’s end, the two of you were finally in the damned treehouse.

“I’m scared we’re going to see detailed exhibits of Kendall’s sex life up there,” you uneasily said.

“Nah, I think I just saw Anne Hathaway passing by. No way Kendall would embarrass himself like that around this crowd,” Roman snorted. After a second, he tacked on, “But I wouldn’t put it past him.”

Almost at once, your eyes landed on Matsson, huddled up in a dingy corner and playing a shoddy tapping game on his phone. He looked next to miserable, utterly bored out of his mind.

“Bingo,” you whispered, nudging Roman with a grin.

Once the two of you approached him, his eyes didn’t even bother lifting from his screen. But his brows raised in acknowledgement upon hearing Roman’s voice.

“There you are, fucking hiding from us. You little sneak, you. Like a human VPN.” Roman took the seat adjacent to him, and you sat across from the two. “How you doing?”

A disgruntled noise fell from Matsson’s lips. “Eh. I’m alright. I’m just, uh… you know. You fill in the blanks.”

Your lips downturned slightly. You hadn’t spoken to Matsson personally before, but the two of you had gone to the same conferences before in the past—you were never overly fond of his character. Lazy, erratic, a pure dick-jerker. But you knew he was integral to hold up the company, so you swallowed any and all complaints you had about him.

“I hear you. Yeah. Fucking life, right?” Roman drawled in response, attempting and failing to mimic Matsson’s nonchalance.

“I just wanna find a good pussy and get out, you know?” Lukas muttered. For a brief moment, he looked away from his phone, to you. “You down?” he asked.

Rearing back in surprise, you briefly wondered if he was high on something. He probably was.

A nervous laugh slipped out of you, and you gave Roman a wide side-glare. “I’m not here to get laid.”

“Hm. Pity.” There was lust in his gaze, and you felt a wave of nausea roll over you.

To diffuse the tension, Roman quipped in a high voice, “Yeah, well—pussy’s great. Mhm. You see my mom’s at the front, there?”

Matsson snickered lowly. “Yeah. You seen my mom’s? It’s not… it’s not great.”

Roman laughed, and you begrudgingly cracked a smile at that, too.

“Wow. Yeah, sure, I’m not gonna delve too deep into that one.” Roman leaned forward. “Question—my old man got a little bit grumpy this morning, but you weren’t trying to humiliate him, right? I mean, fucking everyone says we’re the last big legacy content library, and you’re the last fucking super app streaming platform. We fit, obviously. Right?”

Finally, Matsson put his phone down to regard the two of you. He pulled a contemplative frown.

“People say we fit, yeah.”

You eyed Matsson warily, partially worried that he’d get bored of the two of you and go back to his phone. “You help prop us up, and we’ll turn GoJo into a gold mine. A tooth for a tooth.”

With guarded interest, Matsson sat up just a bit straighter. Instead of replying to you, he faced Roman and said, “She’s a bit… how do you get anything done with her around?”

An embarrassed, frustrated sort of flush heated your skin. It was beyond demeaning that he spoke to Roman as if you couldn’t hear everything he was saying. Was it because you were a woman? Because Matsson so clearly saw you as a piece of ass and nothing more?

Though Roman sent you an apologetic, slightly confused glance, he said, “Well, I don’t, really. But, uh, what are you thinking?”

Half of a shrug. “I mean, that’s great and everything, but I do have one small concern.”

“Yeah? And what’s that?” Roman asked.

“When will your father die?”

Roman’s brows flew up in shock. “When will… when will my father die?” he parroted, blinking himself out of his stupor. “Uh…”

The blonde man gestured vaguely towards him. “Like, I don’t wanna be rude, but—what kind of shape is he in? Are we talking less than a year or is it more like five years? ‘Cause if it’s five, that’s… that’s a long time. It would be better sooner, wouldn’t it?”

Roman broke out into a fit of laughter. A nervous habit, you knew.

“No, yeah, I’m laughing here, but, like—that is my dad, so, you know. Go easy there, tiger.”

Though you were well aware that Matsson clearly had a hard time speaking to you without getting a raging boner, you felt it important to voice, “Is Logan’s position on top a problem for you? For this deal?”

The corner of his lips twitched up when he spared you a look. “No, it’s just that I don’t like the idea of a man hanging over me. It’s not my world, media. Not my thing. But Logan’s death, it would… it would clear space.”

Clear space. How airily he threw about the term. A quick peek at Roman told you that he was just as uncomfortable as you were. He scratched the back of his head rather aggressively.

“Uh, I mean, we’re all obviously… hugely looking forward to my father dying,” Roman started, tapering off into a hum of forced laughter. “But, hear me out, there’d be another shape to this. How about you never ever have to speak to him? You could work out of Austin, Geneva, London, Stockholm, wherever. Totally separate corporate identities. And StarGo, we burn, obviously.”

This seemed to please Matsson immensely. It was no secret how shitty Waystar’s streaming platform was.

“Yes, yes. Please. Burn the codes and fucking acid bath those servers.”

Roman cracked a smile. “We can do that. We could do that together. I mean, GoJo, full bore. Our library, our firepower, our relationships for content. And, like, good shit. Not, like, gay moms and wheelchair kids liberal crap. Actual, popular, shit.”

A frown crossed your expression briefly. You never liked it when Roman got political. Nonetheless, you could see now that Lukas was listening intently to what the two of you had to offer.

“You won’t have to communicate with Logan whatsoever. None of your decisions would be intercepted by him—it’d be filtered through Roman, if need be. And, you know, if it’s beneficial for you, it’d be beneficial for us,” you told him firmly whilst maintaining eye contact. You wanted him to know that you were more than capable of holding your own.

It didn’t last long, however, because Matsson rolled his head back and blew out a sigh. “I hope you know that StarGo truly is a piece of shit.”

“It’s a huge piece of shit, yeah,” Roman agreed.

“I like to open it just to see how long it takes for the landing page to load,” Lukas said, lazily smiling. A quick glance in your direction, and he slapped at his knees. “Hey, Roman, you wanna go and take a piss on the app?”

A second’s pause. “What, like, literally?”

“Yeah.” Lukas got up to his feet.

Roman hastily stood as well, sending you an apprehensive look. “Yeah, okay, uh—” before he could finish, Matsson was already striding away.

God. You already couldn’t stand that man.

“Go,” you told Roman. “He thinks I’m distracting. I know. I’ll be around. You just go land a meeting with him, okay? Keep him interested.”

“Okay. Yeah. Are you—? Yeah, okay. You’re great, y’know? So fucking great.” Roman squeezed your shoulder once, before he shoved his hands into his pockets and jogged after Matsson, who was already halfway to the men’s bathroom.

A heavy pit sank to the bottom of your stomach. Everybody was dancing around you, the music pounding so loudly you could feel the base vibrating the ground. There was a distinct sting to the very top of your nose—a telltale sign that you were upset, even though you were doing your very best to push it down. It was times like these you hated being a woman working in an industry made for and surrounded by men.

With pursed lips, you got up to leave the treehouse, feeling incredibly out of place in there.

And so you wove through the crowds, until you saw Kendall walking down a hall with Naomi, his shoulders tensed.

“Hey, Kendall?” you called out, quickening your pace to catch up with him.

“What do you want?” he asked, bitter. “You wanna ask for a condom so you can go fuck Matsson in my treehouse? Sorry, I don’t have one.”

He did—he always kept one in his wallet, but you didn’t need to know that.

“Yeah, no, Roman’s doing that already.” You fiddled with your hands and his eyes softened just a tad, drawing his own conclusions that you didn’t care to spell out. “Hey, uh, sorry, this is a really douche-y thing of me to ask, but… could I have the strawberry popsicle back?”

Dumbfounded, Kendall fixed you with an incredulous stare. “What?”

You cleared your throat nervously, feeling your nose begin to sting more. You weren’t quite sure if those were tears pricking your eyes, or if you were just tired. “I’ll get you another one, I promise.”

The wrapper was still sticking out of his pocket. Melted, you knew for a fact, but you didn’t care. You wanted it, and you wanted it now.

“What? But this—this is my gift. You said you wouldn’t take this one.”

You were being an asshole. You knew it, and he knew it. “Kendall, just—just fucking give it over. It’s a popsicle! I can get you a million others after this.”

Then, you tried to reach for it, but Kendall sidestepped away from you, bumping into Naomi.

“Yeah, but this one’s mine. You gave it to me. What is with you?”

Your lip warbled as you inhaled sharply. “Please? I just—I really need it right now.”

There was a momentary pause as Kendall looked down at the wrapper sticking out of his pocket. In all honesty, he’d forgotten it was even there until you brought it up.

“No,” he finally said. “There’s refreshments and desserts all over this fucking place. You don’t need it.”

You bit down on the inside of your cheek. “Fuck you,” you eventually mustered, tears welling up over your waterline.

A large part of Kendall felt guilty, but he consciously took a step back away from you. “I have to go. My kids gave me a present. Rabbit wrapping. I gotta find it.”

“Eat a dick, Kendall.”

With that, he left.

You harshly wiped away any lingering dampness that spilled over your cheeks and hurried away. As you rushed to get to the bar, you caught sight of Shiv wildly dancing in the middle of the crowd, feet bare and hair tousled.

It wasn’t long before Tom came to join you, seemingly in a glum mood himself. He was saying something about Greg and his new fixation on Kendall’s assistant, but you weren’t quite listening, merely nodding along at regular intervals.

About half an hour later, Roman finally appeared, grinning so wide it was a wonder his face didn’t split in two. By then, Shiv had joined you and Tom by the bar, breathless and cherry-cheeked.

“You okay?” Roman preened. “Onlookers reported you having some sort of breakdown. People were anxious that you might have swallowed your tongue.”

A frown crossed her lips. “I was dancing.”

“Hm. I heard it looked like a cry for help. That right, Y/N?” Roman casted a look in your direction, noting your glum atmosphere. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

Before you could reply, Shiv shook her head. “Fuck you. Did you speak to Matsson?”

“I’m trying to console my friend here, Siobhan—”

“Did you speak to him?” she gritted out again, completely disregarding his initial rebuttal.

Rolling his eyes, Roman leaned against the bar, his arm brushing yours. “Yup. I spoke to him.”

“And?”

“Don’t worry about it, Shivvy. I’ll handle it,” he snidely remarked. His arm pressed firmer up against yours. In a lowered voice, he asked, “You sure you’re good? You look all—mopey dopey over here.”

You didn’t quite know how to explain to him that you and Kendall had gotten into a tiff over a stupid popsicle, and you were sick of being reduced to the pretty woman men couldn’t take seriously. Even if you had vocalized all that, a large part of you doubted that Roman would understand any of it. He’d look at you all guilty and puppy-eyed, one of the few ways he tried to convey sympathy, and you’d kiss his cheek and tell him it was fine. That was usually how things went between the two of you, anyway.

“No, seriously, Roman,” Shiv just about growled.

“I’m being serious,” he shot back, clearly growing agitated that Shiv just wouldn’t buzz off. And also because you weren’t talking to him, and the two of you knew well how terribly he coped with that. “I’ll talk to Dad and see if he wants to loop you in, okay?”

The aggravation written plainly over her features seemed to deepen. “Just fucking tell me! This is important, and I might need to finesse.”

“Oh, you need to finesse? That’s so kind of you to offer! But, uh, how would you finesse something that’s already done, exactly? By ruining it?” Roman jeered, crossing his arms. “Yeah, y’know what, I handled Matsson. I understand him. I’m not sure you do.”

You simply watched Shiv’s face cave in with unbridled frustration. In a way, you understood exactly how she was feeling. Though, you supposed you were more folded in than she was, given Roman’s trust in you.

“You know what, if you wanna show off to somebody, maybe show off to someone who gives a shit. Look—even Y/N doesn’t wanna hear about it!”

The two siblings looked at you, and you lifted a shoulder in a shrug.

“If you landed it, that’s all I care to know,” you gently told Roman.

A nod, and a hum. “It’s all good. Matsson peed on my phone, but we got it. And listen, Shiv, you’re having a very bad day, I know that. What with hearing that you have to continue sharing an apartment with the old meat wardrobe, but, you know—try to keep your wig on.”

There was a certain fire to Shiv’s eyes, darting between the two of you angrily. “I’m the one in a functioning relationship. You guys are fucked up emotionally and using each other as crutches to feel better about yourselves.”

Now that… that struck a nerve. She was right, you knew it, but you never liked facing your and Roman’s codependency head-on. It was an uncomfortable truth that the two of you were quite comfortable not dwelling on.

“Oh, really?” Roman retorted. “I thought you were thinking about all the dick you were gonna ride while he was behind bars? Hm?”

“Oh, my fucking God,” Shiv hissed in incredulous disbelief. “You know what? Nobody likes talking about me fucking guys as much as you do. Why is that? Is that because you’re the COO who can’t fuck?”

This seemed to stun Roman into silence. His eyes flickered over to your silent form, staring down at your half-empty drink. Shiv caught the way he looked over at you, a cruel scoff hitching in her throat.

“Huh. Can’t even get it up for Y/N?”

A deep breath in, and Roman was quick to push the argument back onto Shiv. “Did you think Tom was going to go to jail?”

“No. I’m happy he’s not going.”

“Oh, I’m sure you are! You look really happy. Fucking rainbows and sunshine plastered all over you. Did you think he was, though? Just a smidge? Maybe Dad would go to jail, too? Oh, and maybe I’d go, too! And because Kendall’s all fucked up in the head, you’d… oh, you’d be able to sit on your little throne. It’d be all about you. You thought it was ladies’ night and they were playing your song, but guess what? You were wrong! All the men got together in the man club and we decided, sweetheart, everything’s fine, so just—”

A cord within you snapped.

“Roman,” you sternly barked out. “Shut the fuck up. We get it.”

“Don’t talk for me,” Shiv haughtily told you, before fixing her brother with a fiery glare. “He’s just using you as a messenger boy, but as usual, you’re too fucking dumb to see it.”

“Right. Mhm. It’s difficult for you, I know. It’s hard to have to do the dance for Dad because you just suck at dancing,” Roman sneered.

“You’re a piece of shit,” said Shiv.

Clearly on a roll, Roman just kept talking: “It turns out he loves it when I do the Daddy dance, but I guess that’s because he loves me.” He was feeding himself lies. Logan didn’t even have to do it anymore—Roman was desperate enough to believe it. “He loves fucking me, and he just doesn’t want to fuck you anymore.”

“What are you even talking about? You’re so fucking gross!” Shiv just about yelled.

The two fell into more bickering, but it faltered away when Kendall showed up out of nowhere. You glanced at his pocket—the popsicle wrapper was gone.

“Oh, shit. Look who it is! It’s birthday boy!” Roman greeted in a condescending manner.

Kendall looked upset—far more upset than when you’d confronted him about the popsicle.

“Neither of you should be here,” Kendall gruffly said. “You shouldn’t be at my fucking party.”

“Oh, God, you’re right. Someone call the cops. Intruders have breached the masturbatorium!” Laughing, Roman took your drink and finished what was left of it. You stared down at the empty glass with pursed lips.

Finally, you looked up at Kendall. “You find the rabbit wrapping?” you quietly asked him.

He didn’t answer your question. Instead, he stared at you for a moment before slowly saying, “I threw away the popsicle. Melted.”

That hurt a lot more than you would admit it did. “Oh,” was all you said.

Roman looked back and forth between the two of you, wondering what on earth he’d missed while he was up watching Matsson piss on his phone.

“You guys are full of shit,” Kendall said. “You came here to fuck me behind my back. You’re ghouls, and you’re disgusting.”

“Sorry. Whoops,” Roman replied, though he didn’t sound sorry at all.

Then, Kendall turned to call a few security guards lining the walls. “Can we get them out?”

“It’s a little late for that, buddy. I already spoke to Matsson. He hates you, by the way—laughs at you constantly,” Roman harshly quipped.

Shiv shook her head. “Just stop, Roman.”

“What? Go easy on the birthday boy?”

Stone-faced, Kendall stepped closer to his siblings. “Did you come here to see me at all? You didn’t, did you?”

Shiv spared him a sharp, unapologetic smile. “Well, we haven’t been getting along that great recently, so what do you think? You surprised?”

A mutter and a shake of his head. “GoJo was my idea,” Kendall said. “You stole my idea.”

Raising his brows, Roman jeered, “What are you, fucking six? Dude, you lost. No big deal, no need to cry about it.”

“None of it would matter if you bought out, Kendall,” you said, only barely loud enough for him to hear. “You don’t have to keep biting the hand that’s feeding you. The cage is open.”

A crackling silence. Kendall looked pained, for a second.

“You’re just a stuck-up cunt that can’t bear to see me win,” Roman said, deciding he wanted to have the final blow.

Kendall sized up to him, getting up close to his face. “You’re not a real person,” he said. “You know that? You’re not fucking real.”

Unflinching, Roman stared up at his brother. “Come on. Why don’t you hit me, maybe?”

“Rome—” you began, but he made a protesting noise.

“Come on, shitty Jesus! You know you want to. Just fucking hit me. Do it!”

Kendall watched his brother, eyes empty. Or full of despair. It was the same either way. With that, he stepped away and began to walk off.

“Ugh, look, I’m sorry, okay? Happy birthday—” Roman strode up to him and placed a hand on his back.

Accident or not, Roman pushed, and Kendall fell. He laughed, then apologized, then laughed again. Connor was there, all of a sudden, telling them to lay off each other.

All this time, you hadn’t moved a muscle. Maybe you were still mad about the popsicle. Maybe it was Matsson. Maybe it was the dysfunctional fucking family you were stuck in between.

Kendall forcefully yelled at Connor to take his coat off, and stormed off. Shiv left a few minutes later, mumbling out how much of an asshole they all were.

“I want to leave, Roman,” you told him, and his giggling subsided, finally.

“Oh, yeah—fuck, yeah. We did what we came here for. Let’s go.”

Down the stairs, out the vagina (or was it in?), and back into the real world. Roman was saying something, but your ears were buzzing with the aftershocks of the loud music.

You hadn’t even registered Roman telling the driver to fuck off, that he wanted to walk you home. Chivalry wasn’t dead, after all.

Once inside your house, you tugged your shoes off with a sigh and shed your clothes as soon as you stepped into your room. You just wanted to go to sleep.

Roman peeled off his suit jacket, before sitting down at the edge of your bed. “Hey, I have a proposition for you.”

At first, you genuinely believed that whatever he wanted to say was business-related. But upon looking at him, his dilated pupils, his mussed hair, his spread legs—his proposition was very obviously far from professional intent.

It was a distraction. A good one, one that you were more than willing to take. You clambered onto the bed, straddled his thighs and leaned over him, your nose brushing his.

“Yeah, Romeo?”

“Let’s have sex. Like, actual peen in vageen type of situation.”

You weren’t drunk, but you were tired, and yet you found yourself nodding with hooded eyes.

“You sure?” you whispered, low and raspy, as if you’d swallowed a handful of gravel.

High-pitched, he affirmed with, “Uh-huh.”

You brushed your lips over his, only barely there. Roman jerked forward to kiss you properly, but you leaned back. “Say it, Roman.”

He swallowed, throat bobbing. “I’m sure.”

With the green light, the two of you began to peel away the few remaining articles of clothing you had on, your mouths slanted hotly against one another as you ground over his growing erection. It wasn’t exactly a kiss—more like the two of you were just breathing each other in, sighs and pants and whimpers all.

His hands seemed unsure what to do. Clenching at the bedsheets, grazing over your side, groping at your bare breasts, pressed up against him. His mouth fell away from yours with a particularly loud whine, sinking lower to dig his teeth into your shoulder. You smelled like honey, but you didn’t taste like it. Saltier, more human. A breathless curse fell from his lips, muffled into your skin.

“Inside,” he pleaded. “Fuck, I need—please turn around—can I?”

It was hard to think straight when you could feel his dick twitching, the tip continuously brushing against your clit, sending electrifying jolts throughout your whole body. You hummed, rolling your hips over his one last time, before crawling off his lap towards the center of the bed, your back facing him. A part of you wondered if there was a reason why Roman wanted to fuck you in a less intimate position for your first time together. The other, more lust-addled part of you couldn’t bring yourself to care.

Roman’s hands slipped over your waist, and he sank his throbbing cock into your slickened cunt with a pitching groan, tapering off into a whine.

“So fucking good, Rome,” you cried out once he began unevenly thrusting, pawing at your hips as he grew more desperate—close to his release even though he’d barely even begun.

The sex itself was—it was quick, to say the least. It was clumsy, as well—but he managed to reach over and rub tight circles over your clit, which elicited a choked cry from you. At one point, you swore you felt his lips on your back, but you couldn’t be certain.

When he came, fucking spurts of hot spend into you, you shuddered violently as your orgasm crashed not two seconds later, gasping into your sheets. He thrusted into you a few more times—he liked the overstimulation, your rumbling moans, the way his cum began to trickle down your thigh.

And, finally, he eased himself out, wincing as he sank into the spot beside you.

He panicked, just a little bit, when you pulled yourself away, getting onto your feet.

Noticing his jerky demeanor, you offered him a soft expression. “Bathroom,” you said as a form of explanation.

That made Roman relax a bit.

When you returned, you’d pulled on a comfortable white shirt, before slipping beneath the covers. The two of you laid together, staring at the ceiling, staring at each other, staring at your hands—intertwining together on top of the blanket.

“I’m sorry,” he croaked out, after ages of silence.

Your eyes darted up to meet his, molten brown downcast with shame.

“For what?”

A click of his tongue, a roll of his eyes. “For—for the shitty fucking sex.”

You barked out a laugh, and Roman appeared mildly offended.

“It was great, Ro. I actually came, which is more than what I can say for most people I’ve been with. Kudos to you,” you said, grinning cheekily.

“Really? It wasn’t too—was I—?”

“Roman. It was good,” you reassured, shifting closer so that you could press your nose to his cheek. “What do you want me to say? That I saw stars? My throat hurts from how much I screamed your name?”

This seemed to crack Roman’s insecure exterior, and he guffawed lightly. “You bitch. Fuck you.”

“Fuck you, too.” Another moment of silence. You let go of his hand, watching him carefully. “Roman?”

“Mmh?”

“Did you fuck me to prove a point? Because of what… what Shiv said?”

The air crackled with uncertainty. Roman squinted at nothing in particular.

Eventually, Roman crooned, “You know I’ve been wanting to stick my dick in you ever since we hit our first fucking round of puberty. You know that, right? That means we were little baby teenagers and I was fucking—fantasizing about dicking you down when I should’ve been doing my homework.”

It felt like a weight lifted off your chest—a weight you hadn’t even known was there. “Ew, Roman. You’re gross.”

He groaned loudly, dramatically tossing an arm up to cover his eyes. “Don’t say that. I’ll get hard again.”

#roman roy x reader #roman roy fanfiction #roman roy smut #roman roy fluff #roman roy series #roman roy ff #roman roy angst #roman roy x you #roman roy fanfic #succession roman #succession roman x reader #roman roy #succession fanfiction #succession x reader #roman roy imagine

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ericdeggans · 2 years ago

Photo

The fun and fear of guest hosting All Things Considered

As a longtime NPR nerd, I have often listened to the smooth, smart anchors leading broadcasts of our newsmagazines and wondered: Could I do that?

Last Saturday and Sunday, I found out, when I got the chance to fill in for Michel Martin as guest anchor on Weekend All Things Considered.

I knew from a stint guest hosting CNN’s late, lamented media analysis show Reliable Sources years ago, that even a temporary host can have lots of influence over a show. The key is to assemble a lineup of interviews and stories which are informative and newsy, but also show off the host’s strengths by speaking to their expertise, enthusiasms and abilities.

For me, it was also an opportunity to pull together some dreamed-about interviews, backed by the appeal to the subject of appearing on a newsmagazine which reaches millions of listeners over a weekend. My biggest fear: breaking news which would require lots of live anchoring; fortunately, the news gods smiled down and people seemed to chill out for the holiday weekend.

Here's links to some of the stories we offered over those two days. Their quality is a real testament to the staff at Weekend All Things Considered, who were supportive, understanding of a newbie’s nerves and so good at their jobs, it made speaking to an audience of millions exhilarating and fun – and only a little bit scary.

This is one of my favorite interviews: blerding out on comic book lore with Ryan Coogler, director of Wakanda Forever, which stands at the top of the box office. We talk about the death of Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, making longtime antihero Namor a Mayan (and those ankle wings!) and how two guys wrote a female centered, big budget Marvel movie. Click here to listen.

I’m a late-night TV nerd. So it was beyond fulfilling to get two of the smartest comics in late night to spend a little time talking about the future of late night TV and whether it makes sense to call out comics out for monologues which seem, for some, to encourage and/or minimize antisemitism or prejudice. The Daily Show’s Roy Wood Jr. and The Amber Ruffin Show’s Jenny Hagel were super smart, super funny and super thoughtful in this discussion, which you can hear by clicking here. Another version can be found in our podcast Consider This.

Flying to Washington DC on Thanksgiving night, I was astonished to see tech journalist Kara Swisher taking apart Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk in a series of tweets where she called him her biggest disappointment in 25 years as a tech reporter. During a staff a meeting the next day, I asked the team: Do you think we could get Swisher to talk with us about what happened? Turns out, they could, and we talked about Elon, whether we’re seeing the twilight of the tech bro and the future of Black Twitter. Listen here.

youtube

One thing NPR does well is spotlight up and coming artists before they become household names. So I was proud and honored to feature a revealing interview with Elegance Bratton, director/writer of the new film The Inspection, a movie based on his own life about a Black, gay homeless man -- rejected by his homophobic mother – who seeks refuge in the Marines. After the interview was done, Elegance told us he had dreamed of being interview by NPR about one of his films for years. We were happy to make that one come true – click here to listen.

A talk with Stephen Fowler of Georgia Public Radio on the start of voting in the state’ contentious Senate runoff election between Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker.

A conversation with expert Manuel Zamarripa on how to process the trauma from media coverage of mass shootings.

Discussion of the podcast White Hats, which dissects the complex and often bloody history of a group typically lionized in film and TV shows: The Texas Rangers.

Words with Senator Amy Klobuchar on her plans to convene a hearing on Ticketmaster’s dominance of the concert ticketing industry after their massive failure to sell tickets to Taylor Swift’s new concert tour.

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kudosmyhero · 1 year ago

Text

Daredevil (vol. 1) #97: He Who Saves

Read Date: February 20, 2023 Cover Date: March 1973 ● Writer: Gerry Conway ◦ Steve Gerber ● Penciler: Gene Colan ● Inker: Ernie Chua ● Colorist: {uncredited} ● Letterer: John Costanza ● Editor: Roy Thomas ●

**HERE BE SPOILERS: Skip ahead to the fan art/podcast to avoid spoilers

Reactions As I Read: ● I am so ready for Matt to move back to NYC. I wonder how much longer he'll be in the Bay Area. and what was the point out there? ● anyway. this isn't my first time reading the Dark Messiah. I don't remember him being a young blond guy doing acrobatics, though… ● a dog attacks him, he falls and hits his head, and his acrobatics career has just ended ● nice shot of DD getting into action

● I was just about to say something about DD moving a trauma victim, but the paramedic beat me to it ● …..except that they say it's for "union rules" and that they can make an exception for Daredevil? okaaaay ● Jones gets taken off in a boo-boo bus, and cops tell DD about some gunmen at a university laboratory ● (uh, yes, there can be long waits in emergency rooms, but my guess is they would triage him and he'd be moved up the priority list being an unconscious head-wound victim…) ● DD finishes fighting the 4 gunmen and se--well, doesn't see--but realizes they're quite young. cop tells him they've been having trouble with kid gangs lately ● in the hospital, someone wheels away Jones ● ah, the "someone" is some kind of mad scientist. I'll bet there's gonna be some body-swapping happening! ● DD goes home, still wondering about the acrobat ● they still haven't quite shown Matt's eyes in any of the 96 1/2 issues of volume 1 I've read so far

● ugh, another poor emotional damsel needing to be held by a big strong man 🙄 ● Matt looks very different in profile this issue. new artist? (too lazy to look at this exact moment) (later: nope, still Gene Colan) ● Matt and Tasha should take their conversation elsewhere so Ivan can sleep ● oh, so I guess Ivan's been out for 2 days. never mind. ● …Matt is wearing clear-lensed glasses…. ● Dark Messiah uses purple lasers from his eyes to free his disciples (the kid gangs) from the local lock-up ● …

● the glowy eyes knocks DD out for half an hour. when he comes to, his cop buddy Carson helps him to his cruiser where he introduces his partner, McHenry ● Mordecai and about 200 followers are at Golden Gate Park, and they've set up a barrier so that the cops can't get in ● DD tries to get through the force field but is zapped out of the air ● Ha! Dark Messiah calls DD out on being dressed "in the garb of Satan" ● his three "Disciples of Doom" step forward: Josiah the Deceiver, MacAbee the Tall, and Uriah the Faithful ●👏👏👏

Synopsis: When street performer Mordacai Jones is seriously injured when he is attacked by a dog during one his street performances, he is rushed to the hospital by Daredevil, however instead of getting medical treatment, his unconscious body is captured by a mysterious figure who changes him into the Dark Messiah.

With Black Widow still recovering from injuries sustained in her battle against the Man-Bull, Daredevil has to combat the Dark Messiah alone, after the Messiah has used his powers to free "disciples" from prison. During his battle against the Dark Messiah, Daredevil is struck down and is soon shocked to find that the prisoners that the Messiah had freed were given powers as well and joined his Disciples of Doom.

(https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Daredevil_Vol_1_97)

Fan Art: Daredevil by retkit

Accompanying Podcast: ● Josh and Jamie Do Daredevil - episode 14

#marvel #marvel comics #my marvel read #podcast recommendation #joshua and jamie do daredevil #josie's bar podcast #comics #comic books #daredevil #matt murdock #fan art #fanart #dark messiah #mordecai jones

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lantur · 4 years ago

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12 (post delicate), 18, 34, 35!!!!!!

Thank you for the ask, my excellent neighbor in royai hell!!

12. Tell us about a WIP you’re excited about.

I’m in the early thinking/planning stages of this one, and I’m not sure how long it’s going to be. It’s based on a story I heard on my true crime podcast, and more broadly, on the epidemic of sexual assault and sexual harassment in the US military. I know that Riza is a fictional character, but writing about her life as a woman in the military over the course of “delicate” made me listen to that story about sexual assault of women soldiers in the US military on my true crime podcast with a new level of empathy.

18. Wildest fic you’ve ever written?

Probably “our days and nights are perfumed by obsession” which started out as an excuse to write Roy, Riza, and car sex, and ended up as 15k of a Roy character study that, thank god, culminated in car sex. ;)

34. Copy and paste an excerpt you’re particularly fond of.

“Will you tell me what he’s like?” Lan Fan asks.

The question jolts Riza out of her reverie. “Who?”

“Your Young Lord.” Lan Fan sounds drowsy. Her eyelids are starting to droop again. “Your Colonel.”

“Well…” Riza pauses, searching for the right words. She has known her Colonel for fourteen years. She knew him when he was a twenty-three year-old Lieutenant Colonel fresh off the front lines, a Major on the front lines of Ishval, an eighteen-year-old heading off to enlist at the State Military Academy, a sixteen-year-old alchemy apprentice. It hits her with a jolt, for the first time, that she has known Roy longer than she has known anyone else in her life. Roy has been a part of her life for longer than Mother had been.

“He’s very much like your Young Lord, I think,” Riza tells Lan Fan. She closes her eyes for an instant, and the Roy she’s known for so long appears in her mind’s eye, in all of his iterations. The apprentice, the young soldier and Lieutenant Colonel, the maturing Colonel. “He takes his responsibilities to his friends and subordinates seriously, and he would do anything to protect them. He has great ambitions, but his motivations are pure, and that is why I follow him.”

“I feel the same way.” Lan Fan’s voice is barely audible now. Riza checks her pulse with a finger to her wrist, and is relieved to find that her pulse rate hasn’t dropped.

“He’s extremely intelligent - although he doesn’t always act like it.” Riza smiles slightly. “He’s an excellent fighter, too. He can be quite fearsome when he wants to be.” (Involuntarily, she hears the snap of Roy’s fingers, sees the explosions in Ishval; sees Lust, screaming, howling, disintegrating under the force of his attacks.) “He’s calculating and strategic most of the time, but he can also be quite bold and reckless.”

“He sounds very talented.” Lan Fan opens her eyes, with effort. “If both of you were in Xing, someone of his talents would be a General, not a Colonel. And you would be a Major, at least.”

“We did actually travel to Xing, once. To the city of Suzhao. We loved our time in your country.” The memory is a fond one, and Riza holds on to it for a moment, treasuring it for the solace it brings her. “That isn’t the whole story about the Colonel, though. He’s pretty young to hold this high of a rank in Amestris. He just turned thirty. He can be mischievous and frankly, ridiculous, sometimes. He likes doing impersonations of people who are more important than he is. He loves going out to eat and drink with his friends, and getting into stupid competitions with them.”

“He really does sound like the Young Lord,” Lan Fan comments wistfully. It sounds like she’s on the verge of drifting off to sleep again. “It is an honor for us to serve and protect such good men, isn’t it?”

The words fill her with a bittersweet sensation. Riza wonders if Ling Yao will grow to have the same hard edges, the same spells of coldness and darkness, and the same ruthlessness that Roy does. For Lan Fan’s sake, she hopes not. But she has come to suspect that the development of such traits is inevitable in powerful, ambitious men.

From chapter ten of delicate. :)

35. Ramble about any fic-related thing you want!

I badly want to read a) more Ling Yao/Lan Fan content, and b) more content set in Ishval. :)

I love, love, love during-reconstruction and post-reconstruction Ishval as a setting. I love Xing as a setting too. Amestris as a setting, both in the context of rural places like Resembool, and other areas like Fort Briggs, Central, and East City, doesn’t call to me at all. I don’t know why I feel so ambivalent-leaning-negative about it, but I don’t have the desire to develop locations within Amestris in the same way as I developed locations within Xing in li jie and locations in Ishval (the city of Ras Al-Ayn) in delicate.

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lanaisnotwool · 4 years ago

Video

youtube

416 Achieving impossible goals - Interview with Rod Khleif

http://moneyripples.com/2020/08/18/416-achieving-impossible-goals-interview-with-rod-khleif/

Have you ever noticed a big opportunity before anyone else… and just felt like the slowpokes who miss this are absolutely insane?

Well, that’s Rod Khleif when it comes to multi-family real estate.

His love affair started in 1977 when he was just 17. Mom bought a neighbor’s property that grew in value $20,000 in just three years.

He was blown away that she’d made $20k in her sleep and was sold on the power of real estate. That ROI meant a fortune to a poor immigrant family like ours who could only afford to shop at Goodwill.

2,000 properties later … He's gained a wealth of lessons, strategies, heartbreaks, and little known secrets to help you build endless wealth and cash flow through real estate.

In particular, that multi-family investment IS your safest, most reliable, and most recession-proof ticket to leaving the rat race and retiring rich, passionate and fulfilled.

Listen to our Podcast here:

https://www.blogtalkradio.com/moneyripples/2020/07/10/416--achieving-impossible-goals-interview-with-rod-khleif

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

Chris Miles (00:00): Hello, my fellow Ripplers! This is Chris Miles. Your Cash Flow Expert and Anti-Financial Advisor. Welcome you out for a wonderful show. A show that’s for you and about you. Those of you that work so hard for your money, but you’re ready for your money to start working harder for you. Now! You want that freedom. That cash flow. That prosperity. Today! Not 30 or 40 years from now, if you’re lucky and the market smiles on you, right? But today, so you have that life of freedom being with those you love doing what you love whenever the heck you feel like it. But guys, it’s so much more than just your own prosperity and financial abundance, right? It’s about becoming a Rippler. By creating a ripple effect in the lives of others. Because as you are blessed, you can turn around and bless the lives of those around you. Now only in your family and generations beyond you, but even across the community and the people that surround you and you come in contact with.

Chris Miles (00:52): And guys, I appreciate you allowing me to create that ripple effect through you because without you guys, that would not be possible. Again, thank you so much for tuning in. For bingeing. For sharing with others. This has been fantastic. Thank you so much! Quick reminder. Check out our website, MoneyRipples.com There’s some great blogs on there, as well as the free ebook, Beyond Rice & Beans, Seven Secrets to Free Up Cash Today. That you can find now. So check it out.

Chris Miles (01:16): Alright, guys! So today I’ve got a special guest. I’ve got Rod Khleif here where I’ve known through reputation for quite some time. Both in the investor space, but also the business owner space as well. So definitely man of no small reputation. In fact, I guarantee that several of you have even heard him before, whether you’ve heard him speak or know of his, the different deals he’s done or whatever it might be.

Chris Miles (01:36): But a little about Rod, he is a multiple business owner and philanthropist who is passionate about entrepreneurship and giving back. So he’s got his own ripple effect. He’s creating himself. As one of the country’s top business, real estate and peak performance luminaries. Rod has owned over 2000 homes and apartment buildings and has built over 22 businesses in his 40 year business career. Several of which have been worth tens of millions of dollars. He started from humble beginnings and we’ll have talking to him about that, but now he’s big on the psychology of success and mindset and whether it’s in business or investing or whatever, it might be. Huge guy, but also a great heart does a lot with benefits and charities and the likes. So rod, welcome to our show!

Rod Khleif (02:16): Thanks, Chris! Let’s have some fun today. I appreciate you having me on brother.

Chris Miles (02:19): You bet! So I definitely want to save some of your story for these listeners. So those that have never been interest in you before, tell us more about you and what led you down this path.

Rod Khleif (02:27): Sure! Sure! Sure! So I’ll go back all the way. I immigrated this country when I was six years old from Holland. I was born in the Netherlands and with my brother Albert in my mother’s mansion. And we ended up in Denver, Colorado, where I lived for 30 years. And I’ll tell you, we didn’t have much growing up. In fact, well, you know, my mom bought expired food cause it was half price and she gave us powdered milk because she thought milk was healthy. And you know, and I grew up wearing clothes from the Goodwill and the salvation army all the way through junior high school till I lied about my age and got a job at Burger King and was able to buy my own clothes. But you know, and I’m sure you’ve got listeners that had it harder than we did, or maybe have been hard now with all this COVID nonsense. But thing is I knew I wanted more. And luckily my mom had an incredible work ethic. And so she bought the house across the street from us when I was 14 for about $30,000. Now, when I was 17, she told me it had gone up $20,000 in her sleep. And I’m like, what? You made 20 grand? You didn’t do anything? And so as a screw college, I’m getting into real estate. So I got into real estate when I turned 18, I got my real estate broker’s license and I was going to be rich selling other people houses. Well, my first year in real estate, I made about eight grand. My second year, maybe 10 grand.

Rod Khleif (03:41): But my third year I made well over a hundred thousand dollars. Which back in 1981 for 21 year old was some decent change. And so what happened between year two and year three, that caused me to 10X my income. Well, what happened was I met a guy that taught me about mindset. Taught me about psychology. How really 80% to 90% of your success in anything is your mindset in your psychology only 10% to 20% is the skill set. The knowledge. You know, if it was just the knowledge, there’d be a bunch of wealthy librarians and college professors out there. It’s the do. It’s the taking action. It’s to getting back up when you get your nose bloody. And so, you know, again, fast forward to today, I’ve owned over 2000 houses that I rented longterm, multiple apartment complexes. That bio you read from is actually dated.

Rod Khleif (04:24): I built 24 businesses. And yes, several have been worth tens of millions of dollars, but all the rest were, I call them, I don’t call them failures. I call them seminars. All the rest were spectacular flaming seminars. And because it’s only a failure, if you don’t get back up, you know, or you don’t get the lesson. But in 2006, my net worth went up $17 million while I slept. Okay. And you know, when that happens, people could tend to get a big head. Well, I got a big head. I thought I was a real estate God. And when that happens, sometimes God or the universe, whatever you believe will give you a nice little SmackDown. Well, that was 2008 for me. I lost that 50 million and a whole lot more. And I’m in the 17 million a whole lot more. I lost $50 million.

Rod Khleif (05:08): And one thing I like to talk about Chris, if we have time, is the mindset it took first of all, to have 50 million to lose in the first place, but then to recover from that and to the success that I’m blessed to enjoy today. So if you’d like, I’m happy to drill down on that a little bit, you know, or we can go talk about the mechanics and multifamily. Whatever you want to go. But I think…

Chris Miles (05:29): Let’s go that direction. Yeah, because I know they’ve heard my story about my comeback after 2008 and everything, but I know they’d love to hear yours and see similarities.

Rod Khleif (05:37): Alright. Well, I hope you didn’t lose 50 million brother. That’s all…

Chris Miles (05:40): Not even close. No.

Rod Khleif (05:41): Alright! Well, so how did I recover? Well, how I recovered was knowing exactly what I wanted and knowing why I wanted it. Now, I used to do sold out live events when there were live events. My last one was supposed to be in Orlando with 700 or 800 people. And of course we know what happened. So I’ve turned them in. They become livestream events now, and I had 900 people in my last one. One of the first things we do is what I’m going to share with you at a high level very quickly, is a goal setting workshop on steroids. Now, if you want to see me guide you through this, I did this on my Rod Khleif official page on January 1st. And I guide you through it with music and I give you a guide you can download and everything. So feel free to do that, but I’m going to give you the highlights right now. So what you’ve got to do is get real clear. So pick an hour when you have a lot of energy and don’t do it right after a meal, make sure you’re well-hydrated and sit down and write down everything you could ever possibly want in life.

Rod Khleif (06:37): All the stuff. The houses, the cars, the boats, the jetskis, the planes, everything. Take the lid off your brain. Imagine if you write it down, you’re going to get it, which is not outside the realm of reality because you know, I’m sure if you’re listening to Chris, that you already do your goals, but this is, this process is going to be deeper. So trust me on this. It’s not just the stuff, but write down all this stuff. Cause we want stuff. We all want it. The, you know, all that stuff and there’s nothing wrong with stuff, but we’re going to go deeper. So, but when you write your goal down, what it does is it trigger something in your brain called your reticular activating system, which is that filter that subconsciously you don’t even know it’s happening. Filters out. It directs you to what your brain thinks you’re interested in. You want to focus on.

Rod Khleif (07:22): And the greatest example is when you first buy a car. You never really noticed them before and you buy one and they’re everywhere. Were they there before? Of course they were. But that’s your reticular activating system. And that’s the power of reassociating with your goals as often as possible. So sit down, write down everything you could possibly want. Big things, little things, how much cash you want in the bank say in three years, how much cash you want 10 years also write down how much income you want from your investments. Say in three years, and in 10 years. Then write down what you want to do in your lifetime. Maybe you want to, you know, climb all the mountains over 14,000 feet in the world. I’ve got a friend doing that. Maybe you want to, you know, write a book. Maybe you want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.

Rod Khleif (08:04): I did that about eight months ago. I’ll never freak and do it again, but it’s off the list. I got it done. So write down everything you want to do, but also write down everything you want to learn this lifetime. Maybe you want to learn a foreign language. You want to learn a skill. If you want to learn multifamily, come see me. I’m at my next bootcamp in July, but whatever it is, write down everything you want to learn. Then lastly, write down who you want to help. Maybe you, you know, family. I bought my parents a house on a canal in Florida, took them, you know, when they were alive and come on cruises, bought them a car. Who do you want to do something for? Write that down. And then, and if you’re analytical, please don’t stop and analyze it. Just keep writing until you can’t think of another thing.

Rod Khleif (08:49): You can always scratch it out later. Once you can’t think of another thing, then it’s not real. What you’ve written down is not real until it’s measurable. So write down how long it’s going to take you to achieve it. How many years? Put a one, a three, a five, even a 10 or a 20. Recognizing that as human beings, we will overestimate what we can do in a year and massively underestimate what we can do in 5, 10, 20 years. You know, I’ll give you an example of this. When I was 18, I always knew I wanted to live on the beach. You know, and there’s no beach in Denver. And so I, you know, I would visualize the Palm trees and the surf and the sand. And of course the bikinis. I’m a guy. And what’s crazy is 20 years later, I built this magnificent mansion on the beach, 8,000 square feet, you know, I’m sorry, 10,000 square feet, $8 million property just magnificent home, which was unthinkable when I was 18. So the point is take the lid off your brain. And just, if you write it down, you’re going to get it. That’s how you want to play this. Then once you’ve got a time limit on each goals, a couple more steps. I want you to pick your number one goal. That goal, when you get like, Oh my God! This is amazing! That goal. Put that on another piece of paper. Then pick your top three, one year goals, put those on a separate sheet of paper and leave some room in between them.

Rod Khleif (10:06): Now the goals are important. You need them. But what we’re going to do next is even more important. You need to write down why those goals are an absolute freaking must to achieve. So you want, and you want to use emotionally charged words in what you want to use emotion to drive this. Words like amazing, incredible, wonderful, beautiful. Use emotionally charged words so that, you know, maybe it’s. So you’re going to put so we can have freedom. My family can have freedom. We can go do whatever we want. Whenever we want, bring whoever we want, you know, whatever it is. Maybe you put so I can show my kids what success looks like, or I can show my spouse what success looks like, you know, and you know, whatever it is for you write it down. Then once you can’t, you know. You’re going to write the positive reasons why it’s an absolute must to achieve the goal.

Rod Khleif (10:52): But I also want you to put some negative reasons or negative things down. If you don’t achieve the goal. And here’s why. As human beings, we will do more to avoid pain and gain pleasure. She want to use this because this is the fuel to get your butt, to stay up late, to get up early, to, you know, to push this side hustle. Like most of us doing this as a side hustle, when we start, you know, to grind now and play later. We’ll live a few years, like most people won’t. So we can live the rest of our lives. Like most people can’t. And so put some pain in there! If you don’t achieve the goal. So I don’t feel like a failure. So I don’t live a life of regret. So I don’t fail my kids. So I don’t fail my life for my husband. Make it freaking painful!

Rod Khleif (11:31): You know, there was a nurse in Australia, Chris, a hospice nurse, her name was Bronnie Ware. And she asked people that were dying a question. And she wrote a book about it. But the question was, do you have any regrets? And the books called the five regrets of dying. You wonder what? The number one regret was. It was not living the life I could have lived. Living someone else’s life, not living up to my own expectations for what I was capable of. Guys, screw that! As well. I got to tell you, and that’s why we’re doing this goal setting workshop. So you’ve written the positive reasons. Why negative reasons, why it’s an absolute must. Last thing is you got to get pictures of your goals because you manifest this stuff in your life. I’ll give you some public examples of it. Jim Carrey. When he was flat broke, if you Google Jim Carrey check, you’ll see this wrote himself a check for 10 million bucks.

Rod Khleif (12:21): And he used to go by the Hollywood sign. He’d sit at it. He put in the little remittance. Those of you that are millennial, a check is something used to write to pay for things, right? But he’d look at it. And that’s how much money he made for Dumb and Dumber. One of his first movies. I’ll give you a more recent example. Demi Lovato. When she was an unknown. I don’t know, it was American idol or how she got known, but 10 years ago said she was going to sing in the super bowl. She sang in this last Superbowl, I’ll give you some personal examples of mine. You know, when I got my real estate broker’s license, I was going to get rich selling people houses. So I got a four door car, cause I got to show people houses, right? So I got this Ford four door, Granada. Bone ugly bench seat in the front ugliest freaking piece of crap you’ve ever saw in your life.

Rod Khleif (13:06): But I worked with a guy that had a Corvette. And he let me drive it. And I’m like, Oh my God! This is incredible! So I, this was before you could spell internet that hadn’t been thought of yet. And so I got a picture out of a magazine of a Corvette put on the visor of my Granada. Every time I sat in the car was right there in front of my face, within a year or two, I had a Corvette. I’ll give you some more examples, but please know this is not me bragging, none of this because this stuff doesn’t even interest me anymore. But I’m hoping to inspire you guys. So this is back when the TV show Magnum PI was around and it was a detective story. Actor’s name was Tom Selleck and he drove this awesome Ferrari 308. And I saw that.

Rod Khleif (13:43): I’m like, Oh my God, that thing’s amazing. So I got a picture of that actual car put on the visor of my Corvette. Then a year or two, I got a Maserati looked just like it. Last example, car example. I’m the guy that always wanted a Lamborghini. I had posters in my bedroom of the Lamborghinis and the bikini’s in the soap and the whole thing. Yeah. All through high school. What’s funny is my son collected models of exotic cars. And he had a model of the exact same color and style Lamborghini that I ended up getting. Like, let me show you something. I don’t know. Do you put this on YouTube as well? Okay. Hang on one sec. I’ve got my planner here. This is my planner. Okay. In the back, Yeah. I’m a dinosaur. I use a paper planner. I also use outlook though, but I’m not completely, you know, Neanderthal, but in the back of this thing are pictures that have been in here for 20 years.

Rod Khleif (14:31): Okay. 20 years they’re in plastic. And first pictures of my gratitude pictures. They’re pictures of my kids when they were very young. Okay guys, because everything starts from a place of gratitude. That’s the foundational emotion. That’s the most important emotion there is. So pictures of my kids. Then I’ve got pictures of the houses that I wanted. This top picture is just like that house on the beach. Look, the travertine floors, the 10 foot high glass, just like that. This bottom picture. It looks just like the compound I live in. Now. I live in a compound at six buildings. I lost the house in all the craziness, but I’ve got six buildings, giant, main house, a beautiful guest house on the water. I’ve got an exercise facility, a media center with a theater room and a video studio. And it’s just magnificent because God’s got a sense of humor.

Rod Khleif (15:14): I can see my old house across the Bay. Every time I go in my backyard, it’s right there. But this is what it looks like. There’s a wall like that behind me. It usually, I’m in an asset right now. 403 unit asset we have in Louisiana. So I’m here. So I don’t have my backdrop, which is my backyard. And that wall, these walls is what I have behind me. It’s just crazy! From 20 years ago. And then I’ve got, you know, stupid shit like watches. I’ve got a few hundred thousand dollars of the watches. Again, Lamborghini before I ever got it. You know, the Rolls-Royce, the Bentley, all this stuff that I got because I had pictures. So, you know, I know I lost some of you analytical ones, but I’m here to tell you a big mistake because this freaking works! Okay. So get pictures, put them around you. Put them on your screensaver, put them on the wall. And at some point you’re going to have this stuff gets into your subconscious. Anyway, I’m off my soul box. Chris, thank you for letting me rant.

Chris Miles (16:04): Hey, no, that’s cool! And even if they’re analytical, man, this is actually the meat and potatoes right here.

Rod Khleif (16:09): This is it! If you want it. I mean, this is how I recovered from losing 50 million bucks. Some people don’t recover from that. I mean, you know, it was refocusing on what I wanted. It was reassociating with what I wanted. You know, so easy to focus on the pain and the hurt. People connect through pain. They don’t connect through positivity. They connect through pain. How you doing? Oh, my back’s killing me! Oh! Come here brother. But if you go, how you doing? Fantastic, man! Life is great! There’ll be like, take 10 steps back that guy’s crazy. Some people connect through pain and, but what you focus on gets bigger, you know? And a great example of this is Mother Teresa. They asked her if she was anti-war. She said, no, I’m pro peace.

Chris Miles (16:46): That’s right. That’s right. No, it’s fascinating you’re bringing this up because just last night, my wife and I were talking about some different cases of people that they’ve been doing personal development for decades, some even decades. Right? Doing it forever. But the crazy thing is that the biggest block they have is they have no clue what they want. And it’s like that Mark Twain quote, right? It’s like, I can get people whatever they want. I just can’t find anybody who knows what that is. And most people know what other people want.

Rod Khleif (17:18): How are you going to ever get it?

Chris Miles (17:19): Yeah.

Rod Khleif (17:21): Before I met my wife, I literally wrote a four page full typed up of high level of detail, exactly what I was looking for in this human being. And the minute I met her, I knew it was her. And the minute I met her, because I had clearly defined what it was. That’s the only way you’re going to get it guys with clarity. Clarity is power. Okay. Do you want as much detail as possible? And these things that you want, you want to go experience them? One of my bucket list items now is to get a yacht, either to rent one or to own one and go around the, we went to the Amalfi coast spectacular! And that the yachts there. And I want to take the, take a yacht around the boot of Italy and go to Croatia, Greece and Spain and everything else. So I went to the Miami boat show back in February when there was no Corona virus. And I BS my way onto these super yachts and sat in the captain’s chair and visualized it because it freaking works. Guys. I visualize myself owning this thing, laid on the bed, walked around. Like I own the place because I know it works. It gets your brain going and honed in. So…

Chris Miles (18:24): That’s a key point. You know, like if you’re trying to figure out a way to image it, cause for me, if it’s imaged in my mind, it will happen. Right? Like if they can go from the page to my brain and I can see myself there and one of the best ways is trying to experience it. So like, I remember a guy said, Hey, his goal was to buy a Mercedes McLaren. He’s like, I want a McLaren. I’m like, well, great. You don’t have to buy it today. Like go rent it for a week. There’s exotic cars that are for rent. Like go rent it. You know, if after a week you’re bored of it and then great. At least you don’t have to buy that thing. You know, at least to say, Hey, for a week, I enjoy this. It was awesome. You know, and I think that’s the right way to do it.

Rod Khleif (18:58): Sure. No, you, you need to experience it. And like I said, I drove that Corvette and that was it. I knew, I knew I had to have it once you experienced something. There’s no going back. Let me say one other thing about goals. So this is really important cause I know we’re low on time. I remember I talked about that house on the beach. You know, I built this house. It was magnificent. Okay. I mean three stories of giant waterfall out of the second floor balcony into the pool. Elevator wine cellar. I mean to give you an idea of the house and this a giant spiral staircase that went up through the middle and on the second floor, there was an aquarium that I had custom built that curved around the staircase that cost me almost 200 grand. So that gives you an idea of the house. So two months after I moved in, and I worked for this thing for 20 years, I just want to mention this because it ties into goals. I worked for this thing for 20 years. Two months after I moved in, I’m floating in the pool at night.

Rod Khleif (19:44): My family is inside asleep and the pool is changing colors. It’s got fiber optic lighting and I got depressed. I don’t mean I just got a little bummed. I mean, I got really bummed. And I’m like, what the hell! I had just achieved success like times a thousand and I’m bummed. And so I went and bought some books and one of them was Tony Robbins book. He’s got several, it was online. It was a Unleash The Power Within. It was the book, the particular book. But, so I went and saw him live and I found out that he fed families for the holidays. I’m like, wow, what a concept? Do something for someone else. Cause I had been totally focused on me. Okay. And you know, I built this house. This Testament to my ego is what I call it because it was just proved to the world that I was good enough.

Rod Khleif (20:22): That’s the truth of it. It’s embarrassing to admit that, but that’s the truth. And it was just to prove myself. And so I’ve been, it was all Rod, Rod, Rod, me, me, me focus on Rod and I. And so I came back from that event and decided to feed five families for the holidays. It was Thanksgiving back then. Now we do it for Christmas, but that gave my life fulfillment. You know, there’s a big difference between achievement and fulfillment. In fact, Tony calls it, the science of achievement versus the art of fulfillment. So there’s one thing to be successful, but it’s much more important to be fulfilled. And so now i fed 75,000 children for the holidays over the last 20 years, we’ve done tens of thousands of backpacks, full of school supplies for local kids. We’ve done tens of thousands of Teddy bears to give to police departments for their officers to keep in cars when they encounter a child.

Rod Khleif (21:08): And again, I’m not trying to brag or tell you, you have to do anything this grandiose, but I know if you’re listening to Chris, you want success. And you may be thinking when I’m successful, I’ll give back. Big mistake! Give now! Because your success is going to come faster and you’ll be happier and more fulfilled on the path. You know, my podcast just hit 8 million downloads and I’ve interviewed huge people in the space, but I can at millionaires billionaires. And I can tell when someone’s like I was back then totally focused on themselves. And I feel sorry for them because I recognize that it was me. And so guys, if you’re listening and you’re thinking, you know, you want to achieve to be happy. I’m going to tell you to give back in some fashion. It doesn’t have to be huge. Just pick a, pick a cause children, the elderly, pets, the environment, whatever it is. And give back now, because if you’re going to get there much faster, if you’re happily achieving versus achieving to be happy.

Chris Miles (22:04): Amen to that! That’s exactly the point I would make too, it’s all about what you can create. You know, we’re only here for so long in this planet, what kind of legacy we’re going to leave behind and that’s gotta be greater fulfillment of our lives.

Rod Khleif (22:16): Anything in this universe that does not contribute. Believe it or not is actually eliminated. Contribution’s a basic human need. We have to contribute in some fashion and we are not whole, if we don’t. So it’s very, very important that we do.

Chris Miles (22:30): I love it! So Rod, if all of our people here, our listeners want to follow you, like, and learn anything from you. How would they do that?

Rod Khleif (22:37): I’m having a two day virtual bootcamp, July 25th and 26th. I’m not selling anything. It’s 16 hours of, if you’re interested in multifamily real estate, it’s kind of a dud it’s $97. Just come. Just trust me. You’ll be glad you did. It’s a no brainer. And it’s me teaching multifamily real estate, you know, and mindset as well. But it’s drinking through a fire hose. I will tell you that if you’re not interested in multifamily, you just, you want the boost. The motivational boost, my podcast, I do a clip every week called Own Your Power. It’s five minutes and it’ll juice you. Okay? I play music and it’s motivational. It’s powerful stuff. I’m really proud of those. I’ve done hundreds of them. And so, you know, just even if you’re not interested in multifamily, come see me there. But the bootcamp is if you text Rod Live to 41411, it will get you the website. The website’s, MultifamilyVirtualBootCamp.com I have a lot of fun with it. Again, I had to shift, I had to pivot. I mean, we’re innovating right now. We’re in COVID. So we had to change things and you know, the website, you’ll see me in the backyard, filming the video about why it’s important to come spend two days with me. Cause we pivoted like in three days I got that website up. But we got rave reviews. We had 900 people in the last one and we never dropped below about 720 people watching the entire two days. So…

Chris Miles (23:54): That’s excellent!

New Speaker (23:55): And then my website as well, my podcast, by the way, if you put Real Estate in your iPhone, I usually come up number one or two with Bigger Pockets, but it’s Lifetime CashFlow, that’s the name of the podcast. Lifetime Cashflow through real estate investing. And then my website, I’ve got tons of free materials, books and articles and videos, just hundreds. And it’s RodKhleif.com My last name. My full name, Rod Khleif. And my last name is spelled K H L E I F. So…

Chris Miles (24:21): Awesome! Well that’s, should definitely put that in the show notes so everybody can tune in whichever resonates with you, whichever you say, Hey, this is where I need to be right now. And we’ll make sure we get that there. So everybody, if you’re listening to this, Hey, the next event’s 25th and 26th. So make sure you’re there. That’s not far from there. So…

Rod Khleif (24:38): No, no, no. You’ll be glad you came. I promise! Promise you. We had hundreds of raving testimonials after this last one. So we have a lot of fun. We have a lot of fun with it. Life’s about having fun, right?

Chris Miles (24:49): Absolutely. That’s it. It’s all about that quality man. All right, well, appreciate your time, Rod. It’s so much great value in such a power pack short amount of time. I appreciate it so much!

Rod Khleif (24:59): Thank you brother!

Chris Miles (25:00): And the rest of you guys. Hey, it’s one thing to be a hearer of the word. It’s another to be a doer of the word. I challenge you to be a doer to actually go and take this and apply it. That’s the difference between successful and those that aren’t. Is those that actually go and do what we talk about here. So guys, I hope you make it a wonderful and prosperous week. And we’ll see you later!

#Anti-financial Advisor #Cash flow #Cash flow Expert #Debts #Entrepreneur #Financial Freedom #Money Ripples

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theonyxpath · 6 years ago

Link

Well, in a manner of speaking, Luke. This week wraps up our Lunars Kickstarter for a deluxe edition of this Exalted 3rd Edition sourcebook. The 72 hour warning just went out today, and we’re already seeing a dramatic upswing in pledges!

Look below in the Kickstarter section of The Blurbs! for more info and links!

Looking forward to see how it wraps up, and thrilled so far with how it has been going. Next up, we’ll be taking a couple/few weeks off and then starting the Contagion Chronicle Kickstarter for our Chronicles of Darkness “crossover” chronicle book.

More news on that as we get closer to the start, but if you want to get started with early Contagion Chronicle info, go ahead and check out the link to Matthew’s character creation session in the Onyx Path Media section of The Blurbs!, below.

Wraith20 Book of Oblivion art by Ken Meyer, Jr

Meanwhile, last week I placed Print On Demand proof orders for five different projects, and I expect to put out a couple more in this coming week. They’ll come my way whenever the PoD printers get them done and out, but it is still really great to know so many of our projects are nearing the finish line.

(PoD Proofs are the books printed out just like they will be for any of you who order them from DriveThruRPG, just early so that I can look through them and make sure there aren’t any printing errors.)

In the Monday Meeting this week, we reviewed our thoughts about next year’s brochure and found them good. Thanks to all of you who sent me your thoughts, either in the comments or directly!

We’ll be setting up a separate meeting group to handle what we’ll actually be putting into the brochure, it’s size, how many we’ll print, all that stuff, now that the strategy has been set in the larger Monday Meeting.

Signs of Sorcery art by Alex Shiekman

Having just had a full schedule review meeting last week, this week’s reports on the projects were done in record time. We had a few discussions on switching a few of our developers around; mostly because of some of their life issues.

This is really an important part of what we have been trying to do for years at Onyx Path, and which has been working out very well with our in-house dev crew being able to pitch in and resolve issues this last year, in particular. If a creator needs to ease back, or even drop out for a while, we want to work with them to make the transition something that is actually a good thing, or at least minimally disruptive, as they tackle the challenges of their “real” lives.

If you listened to last Friday’s Onyx Pathcast where our crew interviewed Rich Dansky, you’ll hear him mention how the chance to develop Wraith20 had him dancing with joy. But, you’ll also hear him talk about the real-world losses that occurred while Wr20 was being worked on: he lost three cats, both his parents, and went through a divorce.

Through all that personal upheaval, we were prepared to reconfigure the development of the project in whatever way Rich needed, and ultimately Matthew was able to help Rich finalize the project by providing both creative and process support.

EX3 The Realm art by Gong Studios

It might have been easier to just drop Rich when the rest of his life, day-job included, started to slow down progress on the project, but I am very glad that Onyx Path is able to maneuver to support creators like Rich through their tough times.

It’s not easy and does not come without cost. I know we have lost fans who wanted/needed their KS’d books earlier, and while most of our backers understood the reasons, some didn’t. Nor are we always perfect in how we work things out.

But we’re trying, Ringo. We’re trying real hard….

Changeling20 Players Guide art by Ken Meyer, Jr

It’s what we do so we can take all of you to the many amazing game lines, the…

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

With our Kickstarter for the Deluxe version of EX3‘s Lunars heading into the last three days, we are well over 400% funded and have over 2175 backers! Multiple Stretch Goals have already been achieved, and we’ve just gotten started. So c’mon and get your beast-form on and join the fun!

The Story Told Podcast has a wonderful interview about Lunars: Fangs at the Gate: https://thestorytold.libsyn.com/bonus-episode-5-exalted-lunar-ks-interview-with-eric-minton

ONYX PATH MEDIA

Illustration by Michael Gaydos

This Friday’s Onyx Pathcast is a Sell Me On episode where our titanic Trio take the suggestions they received from our listeners on Twitter, and give five minute spiels on the wonders of ten Onyx Path game lines. If you ever wanted to know why one of these lines is cool – this is the episode for you!https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

And Here’s More Media About Our Worlds:

If YOU have a podcast, YouTube or Twitch channel, or talk about games on a blog or other website, and want to perform actual plays or make reviews of our games, please reach out to the Gentleman Gamer on the Onyx Path forum. From there we’ll share emails and get you started, so when you do start producing content we’ll be able to promote it on our blog and YouTube channel!

In case you missed it last week, we hosted an Exalted character creation session for Lunars: Fangs at the Gate. Here’s the link to the video Neall Raemonn Price, Dixie Cochran, and Matthew Dawkins put together: https://youtu.be/cRr9WZHa2PA

Matthew’s also been busy running They Came from Beneath the Sea! for the folks at Red Moon Roleplaying! Here’s the latest episode in that series: https://youtu.be/QM2f6njFwng

And to show Matthew clearly has too much time on his hands, here’s a link to a character creation session for the upcoming Contagion Chronicle! More sessions will follow: https://youtu.be/STOec6if8NE

We have a new game to show you this week, with Occultists Anonymous – an actual play of Mage: The Awakening 2E – having put a first session up on YouTube. Check it out, as the viewer numbers are shooting up already: https://youtu.be/r6NroG9vRe4

Devil’s Luck Gaming continue with their excellent costumed Scarred Lands actual play: https://www.twitch.tv/DEVILSLUCKGAMING

Red Moon Roleplaying also uploaded their finale to the Changeling: The Lost 2E chronicle they’ve been running: https://youtu.be/cjRkH8HHJ5I

And last but not least, one we might have missed from a few weeks ago: Garblag Games has several episodes of their Scion series up on YouTube and we seriously think it’s worth checking out: https://youtu.be/yXz0Quc_Ln0

Please check any of these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games!

ELECTRONIC GAMING:

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!

Here’s an update from the App devs:

Onyx Dice! We’ve recently released the Changeling: The Lost, Trinity Continuum: Aeon dice, and now the Geist dice. Next up on our radar is: Demon: The Fallen, Mummy: The Resurrection, Kindred of the East, Vampire Dark Ages, and Mummy: The Curse.

We have a serious issue on the Pixel and Motorola phones that prevent the user from using the app correctly. A fix is coming shortly. A temporary workaround is to minimize the app without shutting it down, and then restore it.

ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can now order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

And available this week! Deluxe Changeling: The Dreaming and Deluxe Beckett’s Jyhad Diary! The additional books we have after the Kickstarter ship-outs are done are now at IPR!

DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday, we’re thrilled to offer the second Exalted 3rd Edition novel: False Images by Aaron Rosenberg and Lauren Roy! PDF, physical book PoD, and ePub versions will all be available on DTRPG, and in the Kindle and Nook stores!

CONVENTIONS

UK Games Expo: May 31st – June 2nd Gen Con: August 1st – August 4th Save Against Fear: Oct 12-14 GameHoleCon: October 31st – November 3rd We’ll also be back at PAX Unplugged later this year.

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

Geist2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

TC: Aeon Ready Made Characters (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum Core)

TC: Aeon Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Heroic Land Dwellers (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Wraith20 Fiction Anthology (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

Redlines

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Creatures of the World Bestiary (Scion 2nd Edition)

Chicago Folio/Dossier (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Let The Streets Run Red (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #1 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Distant Worlds (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Second Draft

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Scion Ready Made Characters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Development

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Memento Mori: the GtSE 2e Companion (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Pirates of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Manuscript Approval:

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

Editing:

V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)

V5 Chicago By Night Screen (Vampire: The Masquerade)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

Scion Jumpstart (Scion 2nd Edition)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Witch-Queen of the Shadowed Citadel (Cavaliers of Mars)

Post-Editing Development:

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon (Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition)

Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

Wr20 Book of Oblivion (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

C20 Novel: Cup of Dreams (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Aeon Aexpansion (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Indexing:

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Chicago By Night

Aeon Aexpansion

They Came From Beneath the Sea!

EX3 Lunars

Hunter: The Vigil 2

Shunned By the Moon – Sketches and finals coming in.

Contagion Chronicle – AD’d for KS.

Scion Jumpstart

VtR Spilled Blood – Going over notes.

Marketing Stuff

In Layout

Dystopia Rising: Evolution

Book of Oblivion

Signs of Sorcery

Proofing

M20: Gods and Monsters – PoD proof ordered.

Pugmire Roll of Good Dogs and Cats – PoD proof ordered.

Adventures for Curious Cats – Waiting on art fixes.

Trinity Core – Putting inMind Meld changes.

Trinity Aeon – Putting in Mind Meld changes.

Ex3 Dragon Blooded – PoD proofs ordered.

Geist 2e – 2nd Proof.

C20 Player’s Guide – Waiting on fixed piece of art to do 2nd Proof

In Media Res – Inputting proof corrections.

The Realm – Art is arting, book is proofing.

At Press

Scion Hero – Printing. PoD proof getting worked on.

Scion Origin – Printing. PoD proof ordered.

Scion Dice – At Studio2.

Scion Screen – At Studio2.

Fetch Quest – At Studio2 prepping for shipping.

False Images – EX3 novel – On sale at DTRPG.com this week in PDF/PoD/eBook versions.

TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE:

Our friends at The Bodhanna Group have published their first book! Wizards, Warriors and Wellness: The Therapeutic Application of Role Playing Games is a short booklet that gives a basic overview of the benefits that can be gained through intentional use of Tabletop Role Playing Games. It introduces readers to the therapeutic value of RPG and how this can be focused for treating various mental health disorders and behavioral challenges. One warning: although this should be enjoyable and informative for gamers of all sorts, the therapeutic strategies inside are for trained professionals. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/268200/Wizards-Warriors-and-Wellness–The-Therapeutic-Application-of-Role-Playing-Games Congrats to all the team at TBG!

#Onyx Path Publishing

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artificialqueens · 7 years ago

Text

The Parent Trap (Biadore) [Chapter 7] - Henny

A/N: Oh my god. I’M SO SORRY FOR THE LONG HIATUS. I HAD THE WORST CASE OF WRITER’S BLOCK :< BUT! The Parent Trap was recently added to my country’s netflix. AND I AM SO INSPIRED TO WRITE AGAIN.

I think this is the most awaited chapter or part of the whole story because this is the turning point of everything. I hope y’all enjoy! And, if any of you are wondering… I’m a girl (she/her) I love how all of you are very respectful with pronouns and it really warms my heart to know that I’m part of a loving community <3.

Also, I know Bianca rarely, or not at all, calls Ru, ‘Mama’. But, I love the idea of the winners (and none-alike) do.

All the love, Hennies.

Henny

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Roy stretches across the table, a pencil in his hand to fix a small detail on his design. When he was satisfied with the change, he slides his pencil behind his ear and continues to cut a piece of fabric with exact precision; perfected through years of dedication to his work. The phone rings; the chime travels through the long halls.

“Bitch, answer the damn phone; I’m not paying you to slack off!” Roy shouts, voice echoing across the whole apartment. Shane pops out of the kitchen, a sandwich in his mouth and a flute of champagne in his hand.

“You don’t pay me at all!”, came Shane’s reply, but he simply walks over to Roy’s desk to answer the phone.

Roy shakes his head, “Well, thank God! Glad to know I’m not wasting my money on poor work performance.” He retorts, a fond smile on his face, nonetheless. “Keep it professional, bitch.” He adds quickly after. Roy continues his work but listens to Shane’s conversation with the caller.

“Good afternoon, this is Shane Jenek, Roy Haylock’s assistant, how may I help you? Oh! Hi, Mama Ru!” Shane’s voice was filled with glee.

That got Roy’s attention. He hasn’t heard anything from Rupaul himself in over a decade, and not because Ru had stopped caring, but rather he had respected Roy’s decision to quit drag which he had brought up after recording for “What’s the Tee.”

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

“That was such a great podcast, Bianca. I’m so happy that you’ve managed to find time for me.” RuPaul, in full drag, says, a hint of playfulness in her voice; her face filled with a look that shows nothing but a mother’s love.

“Well, I needed the money– the cash prize after tax doesn’t really quite pay the bills!” Bianca cackles, earning laughter from both Michelle and Ru.

“Oh, by the way, I’m so sorry to hear about you and Ad–” Ru was about to say before Bianca cuts her off, not really wanting to hear the end of that sentence, especially not from Ru.

“Well– things happen. But, we actually settled the whole thing quickly, the settlements, the money, and all that.” Bianca laughs nervously, her hand running up and down her other arm.

“Oh! Um– how about your–” Ru casts a confused look to Michelle before continuing, “Michelle mentioned your newly born twins. Who gets the custody?”

“One each. I’m getting Nerissa, and Danny gets Portia.”

“Which one is my goddaughter again?” Michelle pipes in. Bianca thinks for a while; Danny took care of those things.

“Um… Portia is yours, I think.” Bianca answers, uncertain.

“Well, Nerissa is my goddaughter, so Portia IS yours, Michelle. You really need to–” Ru answers. Roy notices that Ru was not entirely happy with the news of his separation with Danny. His voice was, well, as neutral as it gets. It’s the same voice he uses during All-Stars to show that he’s not quite pleased with the decision, but has to accept the decision– because he respects it. Roy just hopes he respects this one…

“I’m quitting drag.” Roy blurts out.

“WHAT?!”

“Excuse me?”

Roy sighs, “I’m glad and– so thankful for the opportunity, and I couldn’t be what I am now because of you. But, my situation with Ado– Danny. It’s too painful. I can’t be Bianca Del Rio without remembering him– I can’t be in drag and not be involved with him, and I can’t ask him to stop being Adore. He is Adore.”

“Bianca, baby… You’re a season winner. What you’re asking from me: is to take you away from my Hall of Fame– my legacy. And, it breaks my heart because you’ve worked so hard for it.” Ru’s voice was now laced with pure sadness, and a bit edged with desperation and disappointment.

“I’m not asking you take me away from that list, I’m not erasing my herstory as Bianca Del Rio in Drag Race– That would be a stupid ass move. I’m just erasing myself from the drag scene from now on– as harsh as this sound, I just don’t want to involve myself in this lifestyle anymore.”

Ru and Michelle share a look, a sad one before Ru takes a deep breath. He moves closer to Roy and grasps his hands. A comforting smile on her face.

“Bian– Roy,” Ru corrects, “I respect your decision, and I wish you all the best. I just want you to know that I’m here for you, Michelle is here for you, the WHOLE drag community is here for you. And, like a loving family, we will support you all the way. AND, if you do decide to come back, well, we’ll welcome you with open arms, my Queen.”

Ru wraps both arms around Roy Haylock– no longer and will never be Bianca Del Rio.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

“Oh, yes, he’s here!” Shane replies on the phone before skipping to beside Roy to hand him the phone. He presses his hand on the transmitter and whispers, “It’s RuPaul!”

Roy makes a face that says ‘Duh’ before snarking, “Yeah bitch, I know… I heard you the first time.” He takes a deep breath before putting the phone up to his ear.

“Hello?” Ru’s voice sounded so familiar, it almost made Roy tear up with nostalgia.

“Hi, Mama,” Roy answers, ignoring the bright eyes of Shane lighting up (along with Shane’s hope to have Bianca Del Rio back in his life.)

“Hi, baby… I need a favor.”

“If it involves me getting in a dress and high heels, then I’m afraid–”

“I would never ask you to do something you’re not comfortable with– well, All-Stars: Battle of the Winners is currently in the works, and since no one is representing season six, I was hoping you can create a gown for me— to commemorate Bianca Del Rio.”

To say that Roy was taken aback would be an understatement. He was rendered speechless that all he could manage to bring out was,

“Yes, yes, of course. No problem– Alright, email me when I can fly over there for measurements. — Okay, goodbye!”

He places the phone on the table, before resting his weight on the table. Shane smiles at him.

“Soooo…. What did he want?”

“A gown.” Roy answers nonchalantly, ignoring the bitter sadness that’s eating him up inside.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Nerissa’s morning was pretty rough. After a restless night (due to arguing with Portia to keep the lights off) and spending all of her activities, having to compete with Portia, she was exhausted. They managed to keep their fights to a minimum, and only between themselves, not to mention– less harmful. She collapses on her own bed in the isolation cabin, their activities for the day were canceled due to the heavy rain and strong winds that the weather forecast had announced.

“I’m gonna take a nap, don’t try anything funny.” She announces before grabbing the blanket over her body.

Portia watches as Nerissa settles down for a nap before deciding to spend her time spicing up this sad excuse for a cabin. She opens her bag to retrieve her pictures, not having the chance to fix her stuff the night before. She sets the images down on the cabinet just below the window, before getting her clothes to place them inside the drawers.

As expected, the winds had started to howl just as soon as the sun began to set; the rain pelting against the windows which began to move along with speed of the winds, banging against the window pane.

“Ughhh, can you please close that window? I’m trying to sleep here…” Nerissa grumbled, clearly tired. She removes the part of the blanket that’s covering her face to look at Portia who was kneeling on the floor, fixing her stuff inside the bottom drawer.

Portia was gonna reply with a sarcastic remark before deciding against it, because ‘hey the girl said please!’. She stands up from where she was kneeling to do what the other girl just asked. After she manages to close the window, silence dawned once more in the room.

But, Nerissa still can’t sleep. She huffs and groans in annoyance, bringing her hand up to massage her temples. Her heart jumps as she hears the window slam open once more, bringing in the strong winds inside the cabin. She hears a crash, the sound of glass shattering on the floor. Worried, she casts a glance to where the sound came from, and she sees Portia struggling to keep the windows closed. She rushes on over to help. “We need something to keep it together!” Portia shouts, voice drowned out by the roar of the wind. Nerissa thinks for a moment and tries to look for anything that can serve as a lock. Her eyes land on a hair tie on the vanity table.

“Perfect.” She says smugly before rushing over to retrieve the black band.

“Um, here… Try this…” Nerissa hands over the hair tie to Portia who accepts it gratefully.

“Good idea.” Portia praises as she ties a loop around one handle of the window and hooks it on the other handle. The hair tie didn’t completely stop the windows from making noise, but it did lessen the chance of the windows flying away with the wind.

Portia lets out a massive sigh of relief, and her eyes landed on Nerissa, who for the first time smiled genuinely at her.

“Thanks…” She whispers, returning the smile.

“No problem— Oh, um— your pictures. I think—“ Nerissa points out on the floor. Portia follows to where she’s pointing and almost lets out a sob when she sees her favorite photo of the ABC of Drag ruined, wet, laying the floor. Bianca and Courtney’s face were no longer recognizable, destroyed by the damp ink leaking over their figures. At least, Adore’s face was still okay.

“I’m sorry…” Nerissa whispers as she helps Portia to clean up the shattered glass.

“Nah, it’s not your fault. It’s the stupid rain’s fault.” Portia mumbles as she picks the other photos and tries to look for more damages. She hears Nerissa laughs, which she has never heard before, unless used in an evil manner.

“No, I mean, not just about your pictures. But, for everything— I acted like an idiot. I should’ve known better.” Nerissa says, guilty. Portia piles up the frames and places them tentatively on the cabinet before looking back at the other girl.

“Hey, you and me, both. I’m sorry too… It’s just that— I get really competitive because of— I sorta need validation. And, you’re so talented— and I just… got jealous. I’m sorry.” Portia stammers.

“We can put all of this behind us anyway.“ Nerissa says, a hand extended towards Portia, a sign of peace and forgiveness. "Friends?"

"Friends.” Portia confirms, grasping the other girl’s hand.

“Are any more of your pictures ruined?” Nerissa asks, looking around for more things to clean up.

“No, thankfully… But, I still ruined my favorite photo of the ABC of Drag.”

“… the what?” Nerissa asks, eyebrows knitted together.

“You don’t know what Drag Race is?” Portia asks with shocked eyes.

“Well, I know what Drag is, essentially. My dad doesn’t like me watching it. But, I know some. I mean, there’s Uncle Shane! We watched his show when we went to Australia.” Nerissa explains.

“What’s his name again?” Portia asks, a name catching her attention.

“Umm Shane Jenek? You’ll probably know him more as Cou–”

“COURTNEY ACT!” Portia squeals. She approaches Nerissa and grabs the girl by her shoulders.

“Why didn’t you tell me you knew her? Much less related to her?” She asks.

“We’re not really related. She’s just really close to our family, that’s all.” Nerissa shrugs.

“Okay. I’ve made up my mind we’re watching Drag Race.” Portia says with finality.

“How?”

Portia didn’t answer the question. She pulls her bag from under the bed and rummages through it before she pulls out her laptop. Portia stands up then plops on the bed, hand patting the space beside her to invite the other girl.

“I’m pretty sure we’re not allowed to have that…” Nerissa says skeptically but still sits beside Portia on the bed.

Portia blinks, “And, I’m pretty sure that Aunt Raven should have won Season 2, but here we are! Now,” She opens her laptop, looks for the ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 6’ file that she watches religiously. “Get ready to have your mind blown…”

“RuPaul’s Drag Race…” The familiar chime brings that familiar buzz of excitement in Portia’s tummy.

“So, who’s your favorite drag queen?” Nerissa asks, eyes glued to the screen as the prizes were announced.

“UMMMM… WAIT… DON’T PRESSURE ME.” Portia groans, mildly panicked. She hears Nerissa, who murmurs a “take your time” before breaking out into fits of giggles. As if on cue, Portia hears the only voice that sounds like home.

“I’m homeeee… Fuck yeah, I’m the first one!”

“Her.” Portia smiles, and they both watch as Adore Delano enters the work room.

“My name is Adore Delano, I’m twenty-three years old… “ The Adore on the screen says in her famous drawl.

“And, I’m fucking libra…” Portia says along with her Dad on screen.

“Damn, you really like Adore don’t you?”

“I adore her.” Portia smiles cheekily, but Nerissa, unamused hits Portia’s thigh.

“Gosh, okay… I really do, how can I not? Adore– Real name: Danny Noriega is my dad.” Portia beams with pride.

“OH, THAT’S SO COOL!” Nerissa exclaims, she feels herself grow more excited as she watches the other drag queens enter. Her jaw drops when sees a very familiar face.

“BENDELACREME!” She squeals. Portia looks at her weirdly.

Portia looks at Nerissa, eyes narrowed. “You sure you don’t know drag race?” She points out, but Nerissa only answers with a "Nope.”

As the episode progressed, Portia kept a watchful eye out for Nerissa’s reaction. If Nerissa hated drag race or if she were a homophobe, Portia would literally lose her mind. Because no doppelgänger of hers could be both! But, she was pleased to see that Nerissa was enjoying it, and might even end up loving it.

As they watch Kelly Mantle sashay-away, Nerissa sighs a breath of relief.

“Oh thank God, I’m rooting for Vivacious.”

“Oh, but keep in mind that more queens are coming, so don’t root for anyone yet… So… did you like it?” Portia asks teasingly, head tilted.

“UM OBVIOUSLY. DO YOU HAVE THE SECOND EPISODE?” Nerissa asks, sounding like a child in a candy store.

“That’s my girl…” Portia smiles fondly, “OH FUCK. This is where you’ll meet my favorite drag queen.”

“I thought Adore was your favorite.” Nerissa pipes up, confused as she watches Portia hover the cursor to click ‘Next.’

“Well, she’s my favorite because she’s my dad– It’s a primary given. But, Bianca Del Rio,” Portia sighs lovingly before continuing, “She won my heart with her dimple. She’s the real deal, and I’m not gonna spoil anything– but you’re gonna love her.” Portia actually shakes in excitement.

“RuPaul’s drag raceee…” She sings, and Nerissa can’t believe that someone can be that into Drag Race, but she just shakes her head fondly and keep her eyes on the screen. As the camera pans into the werk room, Portia grabs Nerissa and shakes her, excited.

“Well… well… well… I hope you bitches are ready… “ Nerissa smiles, excited to meet Portia’s favorite.

But when the screen shows her a face that is all too familiar and a voice that hits a little too close to home,

“My name is Bianca Del Rio, I’m thirty-seven years old…”

She pales.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

PREVIOUS CHAPTERS:

#biadore #bianca del rio #adore delano #parent trap au #henny #family #tw cursing #rpdr fanfiction #the parent trap #canon compliant

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theliterateape · 3 years ago

Text

Masterpieces in Sand

by Don Hall

Roy looked down from the cliffs at the man drawing in the sand. The picture that started to emerge startled him. It was an extraordinary face, not realistically rendered, but seemingly viewed from many angles at once. In fact, it looked much like a Picasso.

As soon as the thought entered his mind, his heart stopped. He lifted his binoculars to his eyes, which he then felt compelled to rub. The man on the beach was Picasso.

Roy's pulse raced. He walked this route every day, and he knew that very soon the tide would sweep in and wash away a genuine Picasso original. Somehow, he had to try and save it. But how?

Trying to hold back the sea was futile. Nor was there any way to take a cast of the sand, even if he had had the time he was actually so short of. Perhaps he could run back home for his camera. But that would at best preserve a record of the work, not the picture itself. And if he did try this, by the time he got back, the image would probably have been erased by the ocean. Perhaps then he should simply enjoy this private view as long as it lasted. As he stood watching, he didn't know whether to smile or cry.

Source: "In a Season of Calm Weather" by Ray Bradbury

I've spent the past year working from home in the second year of a pandemic. I'm certainly not complaining—this reality has been far better in a host of ways from working the swing shift in an Off-Strip casino during a pandemic—and I consider myself incredibly lucky to have had this year in semi-isolation while still earning the bread necessary to pay my rent.

One of the concomitant results of this day-to-day connection to humanity through mostly digital means is that I often have time to drop down rabbit holes of nostalgia and wonder, finding points in my (almost) 56 years which I regret (blessedly few) and of which I still stand in awe.

So many of the things I've been a part of in my life can be described as in the same universe as the Picasso on the beach. So much of the theater I was a part of creating in Chicago fits. Metaluna and the Amazing Science of the Mind Revue both in 1996 at The Annoyance Theater on Clark across the street from the Metro and in 2012 at A Red Orchid Theatre just a walk from Second City. Let There Be Light! in New York City reviewed well enough to be featured on the NYT Arts section cover. The cast of Postmortem recreating the life of a person listed in the Chicago Tribune obituary column.

If I look for them, there are photos of moments from these shows, reviews clipped and saved, but the events themselves, hundreds of performances over years of making theater, are all washed away in the tides of time. They remain as memories and, at least in my case, those memories are mostly good.

Less washed away are the stories I'ver recorded, the podcasts I've produced and uploaded. Although they are still just etched in digital sand, they are easier to revisit and laugh about.

When I was nine years old, my Grandpa Jay bought me a tape recorder. For those of a certain age, we remember these boxy devices. Mine came with a crummy little microphone that plugged into the front. I loved it. I recorded all sorts of nonsense. The primary focus for the gadget, however, became man-on-the-street interviews with Grandpa Jay as he'd get a little liquored up and go into character: Jay Bowen, the Smartest Man in the World, the Poorest Man in the World, the Best Looking Man in the World, the Strongest, etc.

We recorded these bizarre, hysterical interviews all summer.

A few years later, Grandpa Jay died of multiple heart attacks at the age of fifty-eight. A year later, the tapes with those interviews, masterpieces in their own right, were destroyed by a Stretch Armstrong toy popping an armpit and oozing resin all over the tapes. At the time, I recall, it didn't have much affect on my selfish, stupid fourteen year old brain but later, I realized what had been lost. It is one of the few regrets I have today that I don't have those recordings anymore.

As soon as I started recording and editing podcasts (beginning with the stalled but still listenable Peculiar Journeys) I decided I needed to get both my mom and dad telling stories. I bought my pops a microphone and he recorded a couple of stories but stopped because without an audience, he felt goofy telling stories to a computer. So, whenever I go home to Kansas, I try to find a way to cage them in and get some stories.

Two of my favorites were for the Literate ApeCast. Ordinarily David Himmel and I host but once in a while I ask Dana to do something fun on her own for the podcast. Last June, she interviewed my mom; this Christmas she interviewed my dad. These are, in my mind, masterpieces but etched in something not quite sand and not quite concrete.

I believe that the true meaning of living is to create. To paint, perform, write, tell stories, make furniture—create. So much of our creations are washed away into the sea of time or stuffed into a giant room full of other discarded creation but the effect of creation on the soul is immeasurable.

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seanpatricklittlewriter · 3 years ago

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The Movie Post

Greetings and salutations, true believers. I haven’t posted anything in a while other than shameless book promotion stuff for #FourthAndWrong, and for that I apologize. I always say I’d let you know if anything good happened immediately, but nothing good has happened. The new book is out. A few people who have read it told me they liked it. It’s not selling well. Lack of sales means a lack of reviews, which only helps it not sell faster. It’s all a vicious cycle. At a certain point, you have to remember that you’re only writing books because some tiny voice in your head won’t let you stop, and you just throw your hands up and let everything else fall as it may. For the first time, I’ve actually bothered to try real advertising. I’m giving advertising on the Kindle lock screens a go. I’ll let you know if actually works.

In the meantime, I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts while puttering around the house, going for walks, and ignoring the gym. (I gotta stop ignoring the gym…) If you haven’t watched “Ted Lasso” on AppleTV yet, I HIGHLY recommend it. It’s one of the best shows I’ve watched in a long time. Great writing. Great characters. Great story. Very uplifting and wonderful. One of the show’s writers, creators, and stars, the wonderful Brett Goldstein (who plays the gruff Roy Kent on the show), has a podcast called “Films to Buried With.”

I started listening to his podcast because I enjoy him on the show so much, and I’ve found out that I enjoy his podcast as much as the show. He’s a genuinely sweet man, and he gets comedian and actor friends to guest on his podcast. The show’s conceit is that Brett invites guests on, tells them they have died, and then gets them to relive their life through the films that meant something to them. It’s a fun little chat show, and a solid way to waste an hour while you’re getting through doing the dishes or mowing the lawn.

It’s precisely the sort of podcast I would love to be on. I’ve always said you can judge your level of success by what people invite you to do. I always said I’d know if I “made it” if I could ever get invited to be on one of the podcasts I enjoy, rather than trying to wrangle my way into someone else’s podcast or blog. So far— this has not happened. That should tell you what level of success I’m stuck at. I don’t get invited to the movies by my imaginary friends. But Brett encourages people to share their ideas and opinions on social media, anyhow. It’s a fun way to play along at home, tell other people about the podcast, and start conversations around your favorite movies. Stories bind us together. They give us common ground and build bridges toward strengthening relationships. If you meet someone new, you can tell if you’ll get along with them by what films they enjoy. So in that spirit, I’d like to answer the questions Brett asks his guests by discussing a few of my favorite films. If you’d like to play along in the comments, please do. I always love reading about what other people think about movies, books, or music. I won’t bother going through the death/afterlife conceit he uses, but I recommend listening to a few of his podcasts if you enjoy this sort of thing. It’s a fun little premise he uses to generate the episodes.

--What’s the first film you remember seeing?

I remember bits and pieces of several films from my childhood. I remember the Muppet Movie in the theater. I remember seeing The Black Hole. I remember a lot of little chunks of a lot of Disney animated films. But the movie that sticks out in my head is “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” It was 1981. I was six. I remember going to see it on a Sunday matinee with my family. I remember it was packed. People were literally sitting on the floor in the aisles. We got three seats someplace, but I remember my dad having to sit in the row in front of us. I don’t remember a ton about the movie the first time I saw it other than being scared of the pit of snakes and the melting Nazi faces. However, I remember the iconic moment when Harrison Ford pulled the gun on the swordsman and shot him. I remember the audience reaction and thinking, “That’s a hero.” I’ve long been a Harrison Ford fan. Between Han Solo and Indiana Jones, he played two of the most iconic heroes of my childhood. When I wrote the TeslaCon novels, I made no secret that my protagonist, Nicodemus Clarke, was just a shallow rip-off of Indiana Jones. It’s funny, but to this day, in my head, if you ask me what a hero looks like, it’s always going to be Harrison Ford.

--What’s the scariest film you’ve ever seen?

The scariest film I’ve ever seen is Kevin Smith’s “Red State.” It’s a movie about a religious cult that’s very reminiscent of the Westboro Baptist Church, David Koresh/Waco compound, or any of the other extremely far-right Christian separatist movements. It’s scary because there are many, many of these gun-hoarding compounds, and the movie, while extreme, is not too far off from possibility. Michael Parks plays the leader of the family at the heart of the film, and his performance was award worthy. He was truly terrifying. As an aside, prior to Red State, I always told people the movie that scared me the most was the original “The Amityville Horror.” Basically, I saw the scene where the poltergeist made the drop-sash window fall on the kid’s fingers and nearly sever them, and that was it. I had the same drop-sash windows in my bedroom, and I was scared of them from then on. I’d like to say that I outgrew my fear of drop-sash windows, but I’m 46 and they still skeeze me out when I see them. A movie I saw 40 years ago warped me forever.

--What’s the movie that made you cry the most?

I used to not be someone who cried at movies. However, years of thyroid issues and depression have messed with my response to emotional moments, so I do get teary nowadays at movies. Emotionally speaking, it’s not sad movies that get to me. It’s movies where someone overcomes something difficult. Especially sports movies. The ones that get me the most teary-eyed now are movies like the first “Rocky,” “Hoosiers,” “Miracle,” and “Rudy.” I also get teary-eyed at points of bravery to the point of stupidity. The best example of that is the climax and denouement of “How to Train Your Dragon.” Strangely enough, when a movie does something that is supposed to be a tear-jerker moment to the point that it panders to the audience, I don’t cry— I actually get angry. Anything Nicolas Sparks has ever had his name attached to, for instance. It’s maudlin, and it doesn’t deserve our respect.

--What the film that made you laugh the most?

This is not going to be a popular answer. If I was a little more erudite, I’d say something like “Airplane” or “Blazing Saddles” or “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” However, I didn’t see any of those in the theater originally. I was home, watching them on video. While they were funny and some of my favorite movies, I did not really do a ton of laughing while I saw them. I went to see “BASEketball” with my sister, and the theater was packed. Something about seeing a movie in a crowded theater heightens the emotional impact of jokes, and for whatever reason, that movie put me on the floor a couple of times. It’s a silly movie full of cheap laughs, but I remember hurting as I was leaving the theater. My sides and cheeks were sore. Second on that list was the movie “Bridesmaids.” I don’t think I’ve laughed harder at any movie than the scene where they all get diarrhea in the bridal shop. Especially Melissa McCarthy: “LOOK AWAY!”

--What is the sexist film you’ve seen?

For me, I will never forget seeing “Bachelor Party” on HBO at a friend’s house. Monique Gabrielle’s scene is probably the first time I saw full-frontal female nudity in a film. It burned itself into my brain. I probably have a thing for redheads to this day because of that scene. The rest of the movie is very wild and funny. It was one of the launching blocks for Tom Hanks’s ridiculously amazing career. But that one moment stands out as one of the sexiest things I’ve ever seen.

--What film did you used to love, but now it’s not that great?

Pretty much anything with “Rocky” in the title and a number following it. I still enjoy them, but Rocky III and IV, especially— not that good. I used to love them. I used to watch them whenever they hit TV, but now I only need to watch the first “Rocky,” and maybe the final fight in “Rocky II.” Anything else, I can leave out. They just feel a little overclocked at this point in my life.

--What’s a film that people and critics panned, but you enjoyed?

“Goon.” It’s a hockey film written by Jay Baruchel and starring Seann William Scott. It didn’t get wide release—almost straight-to-video. It didn’t get great reviews. I think Metacritic has it around 60%. But something about that movie hit me, and I love it. I suggest it to people all the time. It’s got great performances. It’s a solid flick. It’s not going to overwhelm you. It’s now one of my comfort films. When I’m bored and need something on in the background, I will often choose “Goon” or its sequel, “Goon: Last of the Enforcers.” The sequel was not as good as the original, but it’s still worth a watch. Kurt Russell’s son Wyatt is the villain in the sequel. He’s extremely good.

--What’s a film that people love, but you hate?

Hands down: “Avatar” or “Titanic.” Something about a lot of James Cameron films just don’t work with me. I think it’s because they’re too grandiose. They try too hard. Also, the scripts are just there to get him to the big, visual set-pieces. They’re thin on both character and plot. I can’t stand either of them.

--What’s a film that means a lot to you, but it’s not because of the quality of the movie (i.e. you saw it with someone and it’s special, or it has importance to people around you, etc…)?

Easily, “The Man From Snowy River.” This is a family favorite. I grew up watching this flick, and I made my daughter watch it when she was younger. I will never get tired of it. I probably watch it maybe three or four times a year. There’s just something about the cinematography of the climax when Jim goes down the mountainside on Denny’s back. It’s always breath-taking. Also, if you watch “The Man From Snowy River,” you see what my dad always wanted his life to be. Most boys’ fathers want their sons to be doctor or lawyers. My dad wanted me to be a cowboy.

--What film do you relate to the most?

“Clerks.” I saw “Clerks” when I was a senior in high school. Rented it from a local video store. I saw two dudes who were outliers in their social group working crappy jobs and dealing with the mundane nothingness of life. It hit me right in the gut. I resolved to do something better than that. So far, I’ve failed to do so, but I keep trying.

--Empirically speaking, what is the best film? (Not necessarily favorite film— but what film do you think is the best film ever made?)

I have to say it was “Lawrence of Arabia.” The casting was amazing. The cinematography was incredible, unrivaled, really. The story was excellent. And the ordeal of the entire filming process was without peer. What they went through to make that movie, hands down, makes it the best film ever made. The scope of the film alone is mind-boggling. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is a close second, but that’s technically three films, so I went with Lawrence of Arabia.

--What film have you seen the most?

I have watched “The Muppet Movie” a ton. I still love the movie “Roxanne.” I have also seen “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and “The Quiet Man” more than any single person probably should. If I had to think about it and pick one film I’ve seen more than other…it’s probably “Meatballs.” Growing up, my sister and I watched that flick a thousand times. I can probably recite it from memory. It’s also one of the films that cemented an undying loyalty to Bill Murray.

--And finally: You die and go to heaven. And in heaven, they ask you to pick one film that summarizes your life, one film that makes people understand you, or a film you want people to watch to help them know you better. What is that film?

Nothing has had more influence on my life than the movie “Ghostbusters.” It defined me in several ways: my love for comedy, my love for the paranormal, and my love for snark and snappy comebacks. I loved Ghostbusters so much that I watched it on a weekly basis. I ran the audio cables from our VCR to a tape deck and recorded an audio copy of the film to play on my Walkman while I road the bus to school every day. I still have the film memorized word-for-word. I will often let my eyes go a little weird and turn to my daughter and say, “Then, during the Third Reconciliation of the Last of the Meketrex Supplicants, they chose a new form for him, that of a giant Sloar! Many Shubs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of a Sloar that day, I can tell you!” To know me is to understand Ghostbusters on a molecular level. I owe that movie a lot.

Anyhow, this was a fun way to waste my night. I encourage you to play along. Answer some or all of the questions Brett asks his guests. I highly recommend listening to a few episodes of “Films to Be Buried With” on your favorite podcatcher app. And if anyone out there knows Brett Goldstein, please let him know I’m available to guest on his podcast. Until next time—Thanks for reading.

--Sean

#FourthAndWrong #filmstobeburiedwith #brett goldstein #movies #films

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thecostumeplot · 4 years ago

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Episode 16: The Fall with Kelly Cercone

Please consult these Instagram slideshows for accompanying images: The Fall Part 1 The Fall Part 2

Sarah Timm & Jojo Siu Welcome to the costume plot.

Jojo Siu I'm Jojo Siu

Sarah Timm and I'm Sarah Timm. We're professional designers with a passion for costume design and the performing arts. Our podcast does contain spoilers. Accompanying slideshows for each movie are linked in the episode description.

Jojo Siu We hope you'll join us every other week as we delve into the wonderful world of costume design in The Costume Plot. [music]

Jojo Siu Hello, and welcome to the Costume Plot again.

Sarah Timm Welcome back. What an exciting episode. Let's dive right in. We have a very exciting guest with us today. She's a friend of mine from FIDM but you may know her from "Avengers Endgame", ever heard of it? Thor Ragnarok. American Horror Story. These are just some of her credits. She's a brilliant costume maker and many other things. You may know her from her Instagram "Anachronism in Action:, or as the winner of the "Her Universe fashion show". It's Kelly Cercone!

Jojo Siu Welcome, Kelly.

Kelly Cercone Happy to be here.

Sarah Timm Thank you so much for joining us. We are stoked to talk to you. What movie have you brought us and our listeners today?

Kelly Cercone I am super excited to be talking about "the Fall", which is probably my favorite movie of all time. And when you guys mentioned it during the "Mirror, Mirror" episode I was...I just got really excited and I messaged you pretty much a day later.

Sarah Timm And I was really excited because you are...I just want to say you're a great get for a podcast guest about a podcast about costuming because

Jojo Siu Absolutely!

Sarah Timm You're legit and amazing. But also I was saying this you off mic but everything that I know about the fall for the most part I know because of Kelly's posts and her cosplay of it. And I've just been an admirer of the costumes from afar, so I'm excited to deep dive into them today.

Jojo Siu Absolutely. I'm so glad we're covering this in a different way. Even if we don't cover another episode normally.

Kelly Cercone This movie has so many costumes in it. It would...it....There's a lot of ground to cover.

Jojo Siu Absolutely. Perfect for one episode.

Sarah Timm Totally. Yeah, we can really take our time. This is exciting.

Jojo Siu All right. So I already gave you power to share. So whenever you are ready, Kelly.

Kelly Cercone All right. Okay, so...should I...I'll just start by talking about the movie. A little bit?

Sarah Timm Yeah, tell us whatever you feel like we need to know before we get into the clothes.

Kelly Cercone "The Fall: was directed by Tarsem Singh and costume designed by Eiko Ishioka, which...this was the second movie that they collaborated on. The first being "The Cell" and then "The Fall", "The Immortals" and last "Mirror, Mirror" for which Eiko won her Oscar. The movie was loosely based off of a 1981 film called "Yo, Ho, Ho" which was a Bulgarian language film. It was released in 2006 at the Toronto Film Festival and theatrically released in 2008. And it had pretty mixed reviews when it came out. I guess a lot of people went to go watch it thinking it would be like a comedy and then were very surprised when it was not.

Sarah Timm Was it marketed more as a comedy? Because sometimes that's all in the marketing, you know?

Kelly Cercone I mean, I think people just thought it was gonna be like, oh, a fantasy adventure, you know, they weren't expecting it to be as sad as it is. The movie was largely funded by Tarsem himself. Because a lot of people were very confused when he tried to explain that he wanted to make a movie that was partially written by a four-year-old. And one of the things that he wanted to do, because he did "The Cell" because there was so much CGI in it, he really wanted to try and do the opposite of that. So all of the locations in the film, they're actually on location. And they filmed in 20 different countries over the course of four years. And he said of working with Eiko, "we heard Eiko was really difficult to get, but we fell down on our knees. It turned out to not be so hard. She worked on every one of my films." Oh, and "I had enough of that in my first film. As much as I enjoyed it. I decided in this one, the art direction was going to be in the landscape and in the costume design and nothing else." And I feel like you really see that in "The Cell" because it really is the setting...the places that he found. And then the costumes. There's not a lot of other bells and whistles until it comes to the storytelling. And this movie really is a love letter to storytelling. Because it wasn't very popular when it came out. It was very hard to research. I couldn't actually find any quotes from Eiko herself about the movie, which was really disappointing.

Sarah Timm We've had a few of those sometimes there's just no information to be had, you know?

Kelly Cercone Yeah.

Jojo Siu I actually feel like I kind of had that with "Mirror, mirror" too. She just...there's not a lot she says about her work, because I think she sort of lets it speak for itself.

Kelly Cercone Yeah. Oh, I did find one quote. This was right before she did "Mirror, mirror". She talked about how she wanted to try doing something computer generated, like "Toy Story", but in real life.

Sarah Timm Whoa!

Jojo Siu That would have been so cool.

Kelly Cercone Yeah. And she she said that she was actually disappointed that she got so famous for doing costume design, because she...I mean, she was a production designer and she had a really long award winning career as a graphic and advertising artists. So when she got really famous for costumes, that's the only thing people wanted to hire her for.

Sarah Timm Wow, I didn't know that.

Jojo Siu It makes a lot of sense. Like where that artistic vision comes from. Because of the graphic design background. Yeah, I can see a lot of that translation. That's so cool, though.

Kelly Cercone Because this movie is kind of hard to explain. I'm just going to read a plot synopsis. Because I feel like if we go costume to costume,

Sarah Timm It's gonna be bonkers.

Kelly Cercone You'll miss a lot because a lot about this movie is...it's like playing with archetypes, like storytelling archetypes. So a lot of the characters are those archetypes but they're also...it's kind of like the Wizard of Oz where it's double cast. So you'll see the real life person, that character in the story that's being told, shows up as. So, in 1915 Los Angeles, heartbroken stunt man Roy Walker is hospitalized and possibly paralyzed after taking a jump in his first film. He meets Alexandria, a young Romanian born patient in the hospital, who is recovering from a broken arm and begins to tell her a story about her namesake, Alexander the Great. Alexandria is told she has to leave, but Roy promises to tell her an epic tale if she returns the next day. The next morning, as Roy spins his tale of fantasy, Alexandria's imagine brings his characters to life. Roy's tale is about five heroes, a silent Indian warrior, and ex-slave, an Italian explosive expert, Charles Darwin, a pet monkey named Wallace and a massive swashbuckling bandit. An evil ruler named Governor Odious has committed an offense against each of the five who will seek revenge. The heroes are later joined by a sixth hero--a mystic. It quickly becomes apparent however, Roy has an ulterior motive for telling the story. He wants to gain Alexandria's trust, so hecan get her to steal medicine for him that he can use to commit suicide. I feel like this entire movie needs to have a trigger warning for suicide.

Sarah Timm Yes.

Jojo Siu Absolutely

Kelly Cercone It is riddled throughout the movie, from Roy's depression and suicide ideation, when he actually attempts to commit suicide. And some of the other characters also commit sort of suicide in different scenarios later on towards the end. And there's also child abuse, child manipulation and child death. There are parts of this movie that are really intense and they kind of sneak up on you. So for anyone who wants to skip the, the more emotional part of it, I would stop at the one hour and two minute mark or when Roy asks Alexandria if she likes chocolate.

Jojo Siu It's a good marker.

Sarah Timm Yeah

Kelly Cercone Yeah. Well, I looked it up because I...the movie. It's so pretty and fun. And then it just takes a hard turn, and if you're not expecting it, it can be a lot. Okay, so getting to the actual costumes now.

Sarah Timm Whoo.

Kelly Cercone This is Alexandria. And she spends the whole movie in this cast, which is really cute because she's always walking around carrying this box that has all of her special things in it. And a lot of the items in it show up in different ways throughout the movie. I know you guys like a good sweater. And she has a really cute sweater.

Sarah Timm We do!

Jojo Siu She knows

Kelly Cercone like it has this nice little detailing down the side and it's so cute. And I think it's supposed to be winter in Los Angeles, like they're definitely in LA, but I think it's supposed to be winter because otherwise, you would be way too warm to wear a sweater.

Sarah Timm Like a breezy 65. You know?

Kelly Cercone Yeah, exactly. And she spends most of the movie in various sort of dressing gowns, and they usually have a little bit of lace around the collar and sometimes some pin tucking. And they're just...they're super cute.

Sarah Timm She's adorable.

Kelly Cercone She IS adorable.

Jojo Siu I love how she's wearing this sweater around her cast.

Kelly Cercone Well, it wouldn't fit! It wouldn't fit otherwise.

Sarah Timm Right.

Jojo Siu Right. So cute.

Kelly Cercone And here's Roy. And you pretty much only see him in this shirt. And then later on another sweater. He basically in the real world, he wears the same outfit the whole time. And you never see him from the waist down, which I think was to sort of help sell that he was paralyzed. And I guess when they were filming, they didn't tell her that he could walk. She actually thought that he was paralyzed.

Sarah Timm Oh my gosh.

Kelly Cercone They they went really above and beyond to try and get a very authentic response from her. I guess, even though she didn't necessarily have lines, Lee Pace, who plays Roy, would say his dialogue and then she would respond...like improv respond. And then he would play along with her. So a lot of the dialogue in the movie she made up on the spot. And she didn't speak English. So a lot of her...you're actually watching her learn and speak English over the course of the film.

Sarah Timm Wow, that's amazing!

Jojo Siu I had heard that.

Kelly Cercone Yeah. And you can I mean, you can tell to like cuz you can, when she's speaking, you can kind of see that she's trying to figure out how to phrase a question.

Sarah Timm Mm hmm.

Kelly Cercone Um, but yeah, his shirt...I did notice, compared to some of the other characters that you see later on, that are wearing more modern shirts. He's actually wearing a slightly, what feels to me like a sort of Pioneer-y shirt. And I wondered if that was a nod to the fact that he's a stuntman and westerns. And maybe this is more what he's comfortable wearing. Because he's usually wearing something like this in a film.

Sarah Timm Interesting.

Kelly Cercone And all of the textiles in the hospital are very worn in, you know. They've probably been washed a million times, it looks very soft. And here is the two of them in bed. As they they spend pretty much the whole time storytelling in various snuggly positions, talking back and forth to each other.

Sarah Timm I did notice when I was watching it last night, I was like, wow, her. She's such a good actress. And you know, like children are not always really good actors. So I was definitely impressed by her. And it makes sense why it feels so natural is because it was it was because right being really natural. That's so

Kelly Cercone yeah. And the curtain that was around his bed, I guess sometimes they would cut holes in the curtain and film through the hole. So that it was just like sort of the two of them interacting. One thing that's worth noting, when you're watching the story unfold in this movie, Roy is the narrator. Like you're always hearing him speaking but what you're actually seeing is from Alexandria, his imagination. So there ends up being some kind of like funny visual dialogue jokes, because they're clearly thinking of different things.

Jojo Siu That's okay. So that was really fun part of the movie that I remember, I think they did that really well.

Kelly Cercone Oh, this is maybe more for later, but because stunt men are really important in this film. I wanted to show you guys this photo of the stunt men.

Sarah Timm Yes!

Kelly Cercone ...who played all of the main characters.

Sarah Timm Shout out, stuntmen.

Jojo Siu That's so great. That's awesome.

Kelly Cercone All right. First up is the bandit. Now this...three different characters wear this costume over the course of the film. The first person we see wearing it is Alexandria's father, and this is when Roy has decided to make him this character in her story. And he starts talking about him being one of the two brothers that bandit brothers. Later, Roy takes over that role when it becomes clear that Alexandria either doesn't understand what he's trying to do or doesn't want her father in the story. So Roy takes on the role of the bandit. And then finally towards the end of the movie, Alexandria inserts herself into the narrative and she becomes the bandits' daughter. She literally shows up and it's like "It's me! Your long lost daughter!"

Kelly Cercone And that's the two of them here.

Sarah Timm Oh my gosh.

Jojo Siu It's so cute.

Kelly Cercone It's...It's so cute.

Jojo Siu I very distinctly remember when I watched this movie, when she comes out with her little red mask, I was just like, "Yay!"

Sarah Timm Everything is cuter when you make it small.

Kelly Cercone And she's so cute. Like, I think she does.. she tips her little mask up, like "See! See!" This costume...First they start off by saying that he's Spanish, and later the bandit is switched to being French. So there's some sort of mishmashing of elements happening in his costume. But notable is the overly wide suede chaps. And I think that's kind of a nod to him, you know, as the bandit is riding a horse and stealing stuff. But they're very over the top.

Sarah Timm Right.

Kelly Cercone There's a lot of very subtle texture in his robe. It's a silk habotai. And the mask that they all wear is like a raw silk. And his belt has a lot of tooling on it. And the braid is also...I mean it has a very decorative pattern when you zoom in on it. And for how decorative his costume is...I mean, it's silk...you don't think of a bandit wearing a silk outfit riding a horse, but it's still very functional. You see him fighting and swashbuckling in this costume throughout the whole movie and it moves really beautifully.

Sarah Timm Yeah. Silk can really be...I think people associate silk with being really fragile and it's you know,

Kelly Cercone It's super strong!

Sarah Timm ....People associate charmeuse and chiffon and floaty and light, but it is really strong. It can be a real workhorse fabric.

Jojo Siu Definitely.

Kelly Cercone Next up is the slave Otta Benga. And the name that they gave him, I feel is a very intentional choice. This is something that Roy probably would have been aware of and why he chose this name because he's based off...er not based off of, but Otta Benga is the real last name of a real life enslaved man who was put on display in the Bronx Zoo in 1906. So Roy probably would have heard about this in the news and maybe that's why he chose the name. I also feel that he was an intentional choice because the real life Otta Benga died by suicide. So I think the director, you know, wanted to pay homage to him and also just thought that it tied in with the themes of the movie. Otta Benga, he broke out of his chains when Governor Odious killed his brother. So his headdress: I actually found some photos from the craftsperson who made the headdress, Adam Howarth, and he said that the beaded headdress was made from iron, iron pyrite or fool's gold. And the horns are resin. I tried to see if they were from any specific animal. And the closest I could find was a Scimitar Oryx.

Sarah Timm Mm.

Jojo Siu Mmm! It's a beautiful shape. And pattern.

Kelly Cercone The beading is also on the belts of his costume, along with some fur and some more suede. This is his real life counterpart. He is an ice delivery man to the hospital. And he teases Alexandria, because she comes and tries to eat some of the ice. And I noticed that he's wearing a hat. His hat is gray in both worlds. And he's wearing a little shawl here, which sort of comes back later. So I'm just pointing it out. But I like that they have these shots of him with a cart in both versions of the story.

Sarah Timm Right.

Jojo Siu Mmhmm. A lot of parallels.

Sarah Timm I had a whole watching that last night with the ice delivery. I had a whole like mental journey. I went on thinking about ice deliveries and how it used to be something that was like part of people's everyday lives and how wild that is.

Kelly Cercone Yeah.

Jojo Siu That and milk delivery.

Kelly Cercone Yeah!

Sarah Timm There is a man who came and brought you the ice.

Sarah Timm Anyway. Blew my mind a little bit.

Kelly Cercone Next up is Luigi. And he is very stylish and tailored compared to everyone else. He has this long mustard cloak with little red lining that's visible periodically. And the back of the coat has this really beautiful raised embroidery applique and I love the neckline and the collar and the cuffs of his coat. It's these like circular pieces that have a lot of movement, like when he's, you know, pointing his gun or running around.

Sarah Timm I've never seen that sort of cuff before and it looks so cool.

Kelly Cercone Yeah, I, I was trying to like find if there was any historical reference for it. And the closest I could come up to is in the 17th century, like sometimes you saw those kind of overlay circular shapes on shoe pieces.

Jojo Siu Mmm, mmhmm. Yeah.

Kelly Cercone I mean, it could not be that and....

Sarah Timm Right. The closest.

Kelly Cercone Spoilers, but in his death scene, he opens up his coat, and it has pockets!

Sarah Timm All the pockets!

Kelly Cercone Pockets full of dynamite. And I also don't...he has, what you think is a shirt is actually an asymmetrical vest that's open on one side?

Sarah Timm Look at that.

Kelly Cercone That's his shoulder and it goes down to his stomach.

Jojo Siu I was just thinking that. It's almost like a halter top.

Kelly Cercone It's just really unexpected. It's like the most...the most buttoned up covered character, when he's like, "Surprise!"

Jojo Siu Yeah.

Sarah Timm Secretly sexy inside.

Kelly Cercone And this is his real life counterpart, which is a friend of Roy's on a fellow stunt man, who has a prosthetic leg that shows up in various symbolic forms throughout the movie. Oh, yeah, I also like this one, because it shows that his real life counterpart is also more tailored than some of the other characters we see.

Jojo Siu Yeah.

Kelly Cercone He's also wearing a nice suit and nice shoes.

Sarah Timm Tied together like the fantasy and real world versions.

Jojo Siu Yeah.

Kelly Cercone Next we have the Indian. And he's a really good example of how Roy and Alexandria are interpreting the story differently, because it's clear from the phrasing that Roy uses that he's referring to a Native American. But Alexandria is picturing her friend from the orange groves, who is an Indian immigrant from India. So it becomes a bit of a joke.

Sarah Timm Right.

Kelly Cercone And his costume is beautiful. The outer shell is an emerald green organza that there's a lot of pleating in the skirt, and in the stylized turban, and it's worn over an underlayer that's sort of a rust, maybe cotton or linen. And at one point he rips...he pulls out a piece or rips off a piece to make into a blindfold, because after the death of his squaw, he made a vow never to look upon another woman. And the reason that his wife died was because of Governor Odious, which is why he wants to kill her.

Sarah Timm Right.

Kelly Cercone It's actually really really sad. He...Governor Odious...furthering the theme of suicide throughout the movie, Governor Odious kidnapped his wife. And when she wouldn't, I guess, love him, he put her in a maze that has no escape, except to jump off of a tower and kill yourself.

Sarah Timm Ugh. That's so dark.

Kelly Cercone Yeah.

Jojo Siu Trigger warning number like 20 at this point.

Kelly Cercone Yeah, basically.

Sarah Timm I love that sheer green over the rust. That's...gorge.

Jojo Siu Yeah

Kelly Cercone Yeah.

Jojo Siu That's one of my favorite color greens too. That emerald color. Ugh, It's so gorgeous.

Sarah Timm Love.

Kelly Cercone Yeah. And I mean, I have to think it was intentional, but his beard. I love his beard. It always looks sort of styled. They got it to go in the different directions. And when he takes off his turban later in the movie, he has this gorgeous long hair that you're just not really expecting to have been tucked up in there.

Sarah Timm I love that.

Kelly Cercone And next we have the naturalist, Charles Darwin.

Sarah Timm This coat.

Kelly Cercone Yeah. Again, Adam Howard was one of the craftspeople who worked on it and he said that the coat...the reference for the coat was a highly magnified photo of a butterfly's wing, and that the shape was made with foam. And that the fur was hand colored.

Jojo Siu Oh my gosh!

Sarah Timm Wait, so underneath there is foam. Oh, that's amazing.

Kelly Cercone Yeah, to get it to have that structure and shape and to hold away from his body.

Jojo Siu Mm hmm.

Sarah Timm Wow.

Jojo Siu Even the arms.

Sarah Timm Yeah are the sleeves foam too?

Kelly Cercone Maybe I it didn't specify.

Jojo Siu There might be some in there.

Sarah Timm Yeah, it looks like it.

Jojo Siu Just the way it's kind of holding up.

Sarah Timm Yeah. That's so cool.

Jojo Siu Mmhmm.

Kelly Cercone And here's Wallace who spends most of the film being carried around in a little bag. Under the coat. He is wearing a white shirt and pants, which his real life counterpart is a hospital orderly, and he's pretty much wearing the same outfit. Like this is what Alexandria sees him wearing on a daily basis. And to remind the audience that he's British, I guess they put him in a bowler hat and jacket. Which makes...it makes a very nice look with the the coat. I'm not mocking it. It's just funny.

Jojo Siu Yeah.

Sarah Timm It looks a little bit clockwork orange-y too.

Kelly Cercone I was thinking that, but I don't think that was what they wanted. Because Darwin is so not edgy.

Sarah Timm Yeah.

Jojo Siu Definitely not.

Sarah Timm I guess it's just the white outfit with the black bowler.

Kelly Cercone Yeah, yeah.

Sarah Timm That automatically calls it to mind, you know?

Kelly Cercone Yeah, no, the second he takes the coat off. You're like, Huh.

Jojo Siu Throwback.

Sarah Timm I've never seen Clockwork Orange by the way. I don't think I need to.

Jojo Siu It was a pretty disturbing movie. I watched it once. And I was like, mmmm...I don't need to see that again.

Kelly Cercone Yeah, it is. I mean, it is really pretty. The production design on that movie is so good.

Sarah Timm Yeah.

Jojo Siu Mm hmm. Yeah. Beautifully done, but hard to watch.

Kelly Cercone Yeah, for sure. Um, so next is the mystic. And he's sort of a combination of two characters. The other orange faker that Alexandria is a friend with and then Otto, who is an old man who is in the hospital. And he sort of...he comforts her at various points in the movie when she's afraid. And he makes jokes about having magic teeth and how to make monsters go away by saying oogly googly. So she sort of combines these two characters into, you know, a magic man who can kind of do a little bit of everything. And they meet him when he literally comes out of a tree. I forget if it's hit by lightning, or just spontaneously bursts into flame. But he crawls out of it and his hair are part of the tree and sort of scrambles out like roots. And he's slowly become sort of more human looking throughout the movie. Since they're all trying to find Governor Odious. He...I mean, he eats Darwin's map, which is poisonous. So then he goes to his friends and they do a ritual to make the directions to Governor Odious show up on his skin. So his skin becomes the map.

Sarah Timm Cool.

Kelly Cercone And the ritual that they do is based off of a real life chant called the Kecak. And it's a Balinese Hindu dance that is part of Ramayana and is traditionally performed in temples. The checkered robes that they're wearing is actually part of the rituals. So I like that they included that in the movie, even though they're using this ritual in a very non-traditional way.

Sarah Timm That's nice, like a little...

Jojo Siu That's so fascinating.

Sarah Timm Yeah, like a little nod to the real life thing. That's cool.

Jojo Siu I'm trying to remember now, because my family went and saw an original Balinese temple dance, but I assume it was not the same thing because they weren't wearing exactly this, but a lot of the movements now are making me try and remember if they did anything similar when I watched it, but it's so fascinating, though.

Kelly Cercone Yeah. Well, I mean, from what I read, it's part of a specific story, that it's part of telling the story. So I mean, maybe they don't perform it outside of telling that story.

Jojo Siu Right, right.

Kelly Cercone So Governor Odious' soldiers are based off of....At one point in the movie Alexandria sees a man doing x-rays, and it really, really scares her so the soldiers become the nightmare version of the 1920s X-ray outfit, which is a leather apron with a metal breastplate and helmet. And they take that and they sort of...really dehumanize it by blacking out the face and the eyes. And they take away their hands, they take away features that make them recognizable as humans.

Sarah Timm Right.

Kelly Cercone And they sort of move in a pack in the movie. Like they have very stylish movements and all of the noises they make are hyenas.

Sarah Timm *gasp.

Kelly Cercone So they're like, cackling.

Jojo Siu So creepy.

Sarah Timm Wow. That's...that's extremely creepy. I feel like I should explain to the listeners that I tapped out at the 40 minute mark of this movie, but I definitely intend to go back. I've had a long week. And I was like, I can't pay attention this tonight. It deserves my attention.

Jojo Siu Save it for another day.

Sarah Timm So some of these are a surprise to me and some are not.

Jojo Siu Yeah, I can only imagine as a four-year-old.

Kelly Cercone They're...I mean, they're definitely...they're not in a ton of scenes. But they're...I mean, they're just so beautiful. In a creepy way.

Sarah Timm Oh, yeah.

Jojo Siu Creepy to a four year old, but really beautiful for us.

Sarah Timm The helmet almost...it looks almost like, I don't know, a kitchen appliance or something. But like a very evil one.

Jojo Siu And almost like it's formed to the head

Kelly Cercone Like a coffee grinder or a pepper grinder. Or a blender.

Jojo Siu Like a deformed one, that's gotten kind of crushed in.

Sarah Timm I just went to IKEA today. Maybe I just have home furnishings on my brain. The gloves are very creepy.

Jojo Siu Yeah, it's like they have spoons for hands.

Sarah Timm That's how I draw my hands because I can't draw. So I just draw like a little diamond.

Jojo Siu A little spoon or spade.

Sarah Timm It's just kind of like this.

Jojo Siu Very creepy.

Kelly Cercone So next up is Governor Odious. So part of what is feeding into Roy's depression is...the movie that he was in, he was dating the lead actress in the film. And she breaks up with him and starts dating the lead actor in the film, who is Sinclair. So Sinclair takes on the role of Governor Odious in the story, because Roy really hates him and Alexandria picks up on that. So in real life, he's wearing a striped suit jacket, which is very warm and kind of soft looking. and stylish white pants, and then the story counterpart of him. He's wearing also a stripe coat, but it's very shiny and slick and colorful. And it's just a little over the top. And I don't know if they...he ends up dying in a pool. And I don't know if that was meant to be a "Great Gatsby" reference or not. But it is the 19-...he's very 1920s.

Sarah Timm I feel like 1920s man dying in a pool is...you can't help but think of "Great Gatsby".

Kelly Cercone Yeah.

Jojo Siu Very true.

Sarah Timm I like that fabric.

Sarah Timm Smart fabric.

Kelly Cercone Yeah. And his vest...

Jojo Siu It's a really nice color.

Kelly Cercone I don't know, it's very hard to see but it does....this vest also has stripes.

Kelly Cercone Hmm. Love it.

Jojo Siu Beautiful. It's got a nice play of textures.

Kelly Cercone So after they have the map, they...they're trying to find Governor Odious. And they come upon this big wagon and they think he's inside, but they open it up and surprise. It's actually Evelyn. And Evelyn is a very complicated character, because she embodies a lot of the heartbreak and mixed feelings that Roy is having about his girlfriend and she's played by nurse Evelyn or sister Evelyn, who is a nun who works in the hospital. So she has...you first see her in her cute little nun outfit, nurse outfit, which is very starched and clean. And you only see Roy's ex-girlfriend for a second and she's wearing a very simple linen sort of driving suit. When I think of pictures of Edwardian ladies wearing driving suits with the big hats, but she has hair that is a little more 1930s.

Kelly Cercone Mmhmm

Jojo Siu Mmhmm.

Kelly Cercone When she appears in the story as Princess Evelyn, she's wearing this...

Jojo Siu Ugh. My favorite.

Kelly Cercone Beautiful gown.

Sarah Timm There it is.

Jojo Siu So beautiful.

Kelly Cercone This costume is very Chinese inspired, from the reference pictures that I looked up. I am going to guess that it was inspired by the Ming Dynasty specifically. And then it has very stylized Lotus embroidery down the front and these bands that...they're sort of... when you look closely, they're not completely attached. They're kind of floating on the surface of this sleeve to make this...just her sleeves very structured and a focal point. And she has this very elaborate hat with a veil of fans that then open.

Sarah Timm Oh, that's so cool.

Kelly Cercone And surprise! She has pants underneath, I think.

Sarah Timm Beautiful and functional.

Kelly Cercone Oh no wait that's just her sleeves. I'm wrong. Oh well this...this scene is funny, because I...Oh wait, you didn't get that far!

Sarah Timm I'm sorry.

Kelly Cercone She's like....Roy's telling this story, right? And he can tell that Alexandria has to go pee. But Evelyn is acting out that she has to go to the bathroom as she's talking to him. And it's so funny.

Sarah Timm Okay, yeah. That's hilarious.

Jojo Siu You must watch the second half of this movie soon Sarah.

Sarah Timm At 11 when I was turning it off. I was like 'Kelly's gonna beat me up'.

Kelly Cercone Well, now you'll just have a greater appreciation when you watch it.

Jojo Siu It's true.

Sarah Timm Exactly. Yes.

Jojo Siu You'll catch all the little trips.

Kelly Cercone So next, Alexandria has decided that she wants romance in the movie, or in the stories, so she sort of pushes Roy to make this a romantic love interest. And we see Evelyn in this very, very over the top sort of fairy princess. And there's a corseted bodice, so I'm like, maybe it's a little bodice ripper, although she's probably way too young to know what that is. I mean, this just screams romantic heroine. And she has a line about how feeling like, "I was like a bird in a cage". And then there's music playing and Alexandria is singing her lines. And then she literally has birds. So the story is like...because you find out she was betrothed to Governor Odious. And she's like, "Oh, I've been rescued now by this bandit, and he loves me!" So, you know, this is their great moment here.

Sarah Timm Classic romance novel sort of story.

Kelly Cercone And her locket that she's wearing is the same locket that Roy gave his girlfriend in real life. So a lot of his...he's having a lot of feels in this scene. And he's taking them out on her, even though, I mean, it's really his feelings about his ex-girlfriend.

Sarah Timm Right.

Kelly Cercone I tracked down the patternmaker--the woman who originally made this costume--her name is Jane Law, and she has some pictures on her website and surprise! The costume apparently originally had sleeves.

Sarah Timm I was gonna say...

Jojo Siu Yeah.

Sarah Timm What're those?

Kelly Cercone They're never in the movie. So I think they must have just decided they didn't want to use them for whatever reason. And I found another picture of the same costume in a museum. And there, it only had one sleeve.

Jojo Siu Only one sleeve. Interesting.

Sarah Timm That's odd.

Jojo Siu It's like seeing all the different options of what you could and couldn't do with this.

Kelly Cercone But I mean, I love this costume. It's my favorite costume. And I mean, I just love like when you zoom in on the bodice, there's all of this texture from this lace that was clearly hand-painted and just very lovingly applied everywhere.

Sarah Timm This is the one you've made.

Kelly Cercone Yeah. Or the one I cosplayed. I didn't make this one. But I made a cosplay of it. Yeah, 'cause...right.

Sarah Timm Right, right, right, right. Yes.

Kelly Cercone Yeah. I pretty much watched this movie and then instantly lost my mind.

Jojo Siu It makes sense.

Sarah Timm We all have those moments.

Jojo Siu Especially with how beautiful these costumes are.

Kelly Cercone Oh, I forgot to show you earlier. But when...on the anniversary of Eiko's birthday, the year after she passed away. Google did a Google Doodle of her and the costumes they did were from "The Fall". So these were the three little Google doodles that they did, so it's Evelyn's Lotus dress, Luigis coat, and then, her wedding dress, which I will show you in a minute.

Sarah Timm That's so cool.

Jojo Siu So exciting!

Sarah Timm What a nice little tribute.

Jojo Siu Yeah.

Kelly Cercone So yeah, after...

Sarah Timm Somebody at Google has taste.

Kelly Cercone After their little love fest, they decide to get married. And I love that each of the characters...they get slightly more dressed up. So Otta Benga puts on a orange, iridescent orange robe. The Indian puts on a little jewel brooch on his turban and The Mystic puts on gold face paint.

Sarah Timm Just a little gussied up.

Kelly Cercone It's very simple, but they really made an effort for their friend and this scene is very surreal because at this point, Roy has taken what he thinks is a whole bottle of morphine. So he's kind of tripping out and is spinning, and then they're surrounded by Sufi's...like Sufi dancers who are doing a meditative dance, and it's very surreal and beautiful.

Sarah Timm I love the big skirts.

Jojo Siu And can you just explain to us what the Sufi dancers are for our audience members who do not know what that is

Sarah Timm I don't know what that is. I was nodding my head like I knew, but I don't.

Jojo Siu Sorry to put you on the spot, 'cause I realized I was like "oh I don't think I know what that is."

Kelly Cercone I knew I wouldn't remember everything, so I tried to take notes.

Jojo Siu Totally fine.

Kelly Cercone It is a meditative practice for a certain branch of Islam. So that, I guess it's a ritual.

Jojo Siu Very cool. Thank you, I'm sure we would have one person out there asking that.

Kelly Cercone In this movie, it's probably very stylized and not how it is in real life. I would assume...

Jojo Siu Right

Kelly Cercone ...because I feel like I have seen videos of Sufi dancers before and it does not look like this, and one thought that I had about the colors of their outfits, which I will come back to, after we talk about her wedding dress, but I think that this color choice of the white over the blue was intentional. So, This is Evelyn's wedding dress. And as you can see, it is just...

Sarah Timm That's so beautiful,

Kelly Cercone It has sleeves similar to her Lotus dress but they're much more structured, they're almost padded, or I think they are padded or quilted with rolls. The fabric is a very 3-D jacquard, and maybe even trapunto like here on the sleeves, you can see there are these raised portions. And it has sleeves like her Lotus dress but it's much more fitted and even has like a bustle in the back. These pleats fan out over something, doing support here and I see maybe an outline of a hoop. And yeah and I mean her headdress is just amazing...

Jojo Siu Just phenomenal.

Kelly Cercone This film has a lot of use of veils and masks, as I'm sure you've seen, which I can only assume is symbolic of hiding one's true feelings and emotions and motivations, and so there's a lot of duplicitousness in this movie.

Sarah Timm Yeah, the padded rolls remind me sort of, of kimonos. We had to make one for M. Butterfly that you would have to you know, like roll a whole thing of batting, you know, every hem is like this padded rolls.

Kelly Cercone I mean, you can kind of see, it does look like it is also padded at the hem. You can see kind of a little tulle down there.

Sarah Timm Yep, It's a cool effect.

Jojo Siu I think a lot of the kimonos have that layered sleeve look too, so it's kind of...it's very reminiscent of that.

Kelly Cercone I'm sure, I mean, I'm sure even if she wasn't thinking of that, it was in her design aesthetic, obviously.

Jojo Siu Yeah.

Kelly Cercone So, going back to the Sufi's for a second. When I was also looking through her scenes, it kind of made me think of like a bed comforter, which then led me down this thought train of like, "Oh well, maybe the white over the blue is supposed to be symbolic of the weight of his relationship, and heartbreak is smothering him, like a too-big blanket. It might be a stretch, but I was like, "hmmm, it's just late night" .

Jojo Siu While you're in bed. It makes sense. I can see that connection there.

Sarah Timm Even if it's not something that was intended by the filmmakers, it's fun to sort of find those little, maybe symbolic things that you can read into as a viewer,

Kelly Cercone Yeah, I mean, this movie has so many things in it that you can take symbolism from and I'm sure there's even more, 'cause I'm watching this as a Western person, and the director is Indian, and I'm sure there's a lot of cultural references in here, that I'm not picking up on.

Jojo Siu Right.

Kelly Cercone And a lot of people that actually pointed that out is that there's so much interplay of different points of view, like from Roy and Alexandria and then....When you're talking about this movie being about a love letter of storytelling, it's sort of also the collaborative process of storytelling because the story changes so much throughout the course of the movie based off of the different points of view.

Jojo Siu I think that's a very non-western trope as well, of storytelling because we talk about passing stories down through generations. And I think that also carries through this movie, very very well, not just from his perspective but also from Eiko's perspective too, I think, 'cause having all those different layers, there's so much symbolism and kind of religious mysticism, that's a very big part of Eastern culture and Eastern sensibilities that I think definitely shows up. So I think that's a great point. So beautiful.

Kelly Cercone I mean, this is kind ofthe last big costume. There are a few minor things after this but, I mean really after this, it's kind of like a cartoon where a lot of the characters stay in the same costume the whole time.

Sarah Timm I like it.

Jojo Siu I think this touches on so much of what's in there though. This gives us a really good smattering of all the characters and how we see each of them in the real life, and also the fantasy element in that parallel is really fun. And what a great challenge for a costume designer to be able to kind of come up with two very distinct, but "they need to tie together" looks.

Sarah Timm Yeah.

Kelly Cercone And I guess...oh yeah! I just thought of this right now: she's wearing a very structured white hat, and when she's a nun, she's also wearing a very structured white hat. There's just so many parallels. I love it.

Jojo Siu Yeah, Eiko really thinks of everything, like in all of her movies, that's all I've ever seen.

Kelly Cercone I mean this movie... this movie had a $30 million budget! That's nothing...like it's insane that they made this movie was so little money. I know $30 million sounds like a lot and it's not for a giant movie.

Sarah Timm Not for a movie with this...

Jojo Siu Especially with all those locations too! It's insane.

Sarah Timm Well, it's like we were talking about earlier the triangle of cheap, fast and good. They picked cheap and good, and it took them four years.

Kelly Cercone Yeah.

Jojo Siu Yep. It took them a very long time, but it was worth it.

Sarah Timm The correct decision.

Jojo Siu Yeah. Very, very true. Well thank you so much, Kelly this was so much fun. It was nice to kind of revisit the costumes, especially since I hadn't seen it in so long and I was like, "oh yeah that's what happens in this movie!" But yes, it was fun to see all of them again, and all the characters again and kind of be reminded of what happened.

Kelly Cercone I was so happy to have a chance to really dig in and research this movie because I learned even more about it and it just made me love it more, so to hear about all of the behind-the-scenes work that went into it, like what I actually managed to find, made me just love it even more.

Sarah Timm Right.

Jojo Siu Yeah.

Sarah Timm That's half the fun of making this podcast is the research part. I know that I have had such a good time, especially if it's one of my favorite movies, you know, finding out all these tidbits that I didn't know before, and it just deepens your appreciation for it and especially not even just as a film but it makes you appreciate the craftspeople who put their work into it and made it what it is.

Jojo Siu For sure.

Kelly Cercone Because they shot in so many different countries, they hired...a lot of times, it was a local crew, so when I was looking at the costume crew, it would be like "Seamstress: India, Seamstress, Italy". It's really...they pulled from a huge talent pool to make it happen.

Jojo Siu That's awesome. Yeah, that's great. I feel like that adds so much more of that authenticity to the process to knowing that you're not just getting one team working on everything and not saying that they can't make it beautiful, but you're getting a little bit from every country, and seeing some of that sense based on that seamstress or that team or whatever is going to whoever is going to be around.

Kelly Cercone One of the themes of the movie is collaboration and different points of view. You're actually getting input from all of these different people from all these different countries.

Sarah Timm Yes.

Jojo Siu Yeah.

Sarah Timm Yes, completely.Well, great job.

Jojo Siu I know. Yay for all the prepwork!

Sarah Timm Expertly done.

Kelly Cercone Thank you.

Jojo Siu It was.

Sarah Timm So do you want to tell our listeners a little bit about...maybewhat you do in, you know the entertainment industry? What do you do?

Kelly Cercone Yeah so, I am a member of the Motion Picture Costumers, local 705, and I am a table person, which is really the equivalent of a firsthand for people who are in theater and know what that means. But on a daily basis, I will assist the cutter/fitter or pattern maker with easily whatever they need help with, whether that'sfinishing patterns or cutting out fabric, stitching, sort of like organizing prioritizing projects, I mean, I'm essentially an assistant to the cutter/fitter.

Sarah Timm Right.

Jojo Siu Very cool.

Sarah Timm That's kind of what I do in theater, so it's funny that we sort of are parallel, but in different industries. So what have been some of your favorite projects? You could say some of your favorite films you've worked on or even favorite pieces that you're really proud of having a hand in.

Kelly Cercone There's so many. I mean I was like, over the moon when I got to work on the Mandalorian, because I'm a huge Star Wars fan, and

Sarah Timm Yeah!

Kelly Cercone I was...when I found out that they were me filming it in Los Angeles, I was snooping hardcore to try and get any information, so that I could get on that show and then I was working on Avatar, and we were walking around the studio and I looked over and I saw a poster with Boba Fett's face on it and it was like, "They're filming it here?" Literally it was two stages over.

Sarah Timm Oh my god, "I'm just gonna walk in and pretend like I already worked there."

Jojo Siu Just show up and sit down and start working.

Sarah Timm I've been here the whole time I'm sewing this thing, what are you talking about?

Jojo Siu What do you mean you don't know who I am?

Sarah Timm That's rad.

Kelly Cercone Yeah,

Jojo Siu That is pretty awesome.

Kelly Cercone That was very...

Jojo Siu Very cool.

Kelly Cercone All the Marvel films I've worked on have been really great. Yeah, and there was one pilot that I worked on that we got to make so many amazing costumes and the pilot never came out. I just get sad every time I think about it, but I mean that just happens

Sarah Timm It does.

Jojo Siu Yeah.

Kelly Cercone I don't even know what the ratio is, of pilots that get canned versus into shows, but I mean it happens.

Sarah Timm What was it called?

Kelly Cercone It's called "Hieroglyph", and it was gonna be the Egyptian version of Game of Thrones.

Jojo Siu Fascinating!

Sarah Timm I would watch that.

Jojo Siu That makes me sad that it never went anywhere!

Kelly Cercone The trailer used to be up on Hulu. I don't know if it still is, but it was for a while, which surprises me. Why would you put up the trailer, if you're never going to make the show? But, okay. I mean I'm still happy to see it

Sarah Timm True. Those are for advertising things.

Jojo Siu It's true. So sad.

Sarah Timm I assume that the costumes you made for them are hopefully...hopefully they'll be used for something else lovely right.

Kelly Cercone Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I don't know where they ended up. They could be in a rental house somewhere.

Sarah Timm Yeah.

Kelly Cercone They don't tell me these things.

Jojo Siu They just disappear. You never see them again.

Sarah Timm So what brought you to costuming? Do you have a specific experience in your life? Or did you always know that it was something you wanted to do?

Kelly Cercone I always knew that it was something I wanted to do, or I knew I wanted to do something, sewing related. I remember my mom telling me when I was like six or seven.We were in the car going somewhere and she turns to me and she's like...or...I turned to her and apparently I claimed that I was going to become of corset maker one day, and she was like, "okay, honey, that's...that's great".

Sarah Timm That's hilarious.

Kelly Cercone I mean I did! I become a corset maker! But yeah, I mean I think...it didn't really...it stupidly didn't really occur to me until I was in high school and saw the Lord of the Rings movies, I was like, "Oh right! This is like a JOB, job." And then I was like, "I'm gonna do that". I had a brief stint in high school, where I was like, "Oh!" or...No, I would say in junior high, where I was like "Oh! Maybe I'll become a marine biologist" and then it was like, "No I want to make costumes".

Sarah Timm I feel like...

Jojo Siu I think I had that in ninth grade too, like, "I'm gonna be a doctor".

Sarah Timm I know a lot of people who are like, "Oh yeah, I had a marine biologist phase". Everybody has a phase like that when they remember they're like "The ocean is rad. I'm gonna be a marine biologist".

Kelly Cercone Well, I mean it's like...I grew up watching National Geographic. Glorious.

Jojo Siu So fascinating. The ocean IS fascinating. There's so much in there.It's magical.

Kelly Cercone I actually met a marine biologist, and she's like, "I had literally the opposite experience. I was in school and I thought I was gonna become a fashion designer and then I became a marine biologist.

Sarah Timm Oh my god.

Jojo Siu How funny. When do you ever hear that?

Sarah Timm Did you have a Freaky Friday at some point?

Jojo Siu And just never switch back.

Sarah Timm Wow.

Jojo Siu That's so funny. So how, if you don't mind me asking, how did you kind of first get into, you know, costuming for movies? I know you said you went to FIDM with Sarah, but what was your kind of first transition between?

Kelly Cercone While I was still in school, I interned for a local stylist Mildred of Mother of London, and a lot of...she had a clothing line, but she would also do custom pieces for a lot of musicians, and then that sort of rolled into making costumes for small independent movies. And once I graduated, I mean not immediately, but...'cause you have to get 30 days to join the union, and it took me a while to get 30 days. But I was working at an all local costume house, off and on, and kind of just...I think my first...actually "hieroglyph" was the first big pilot that I worked on. And it was through people that I had met at FIDM through Paul, our teacher, and he put me in touch with Christie, who is the costume designer on "heiroglyph".

Sarah Timm It really is all about who you know.

Jojo Siu Yeah.

Sarah Timm All of my jobs pretty much have stemmed from my first internship that I took after college, you know it's because I met that person through that, and I met them through that and it's, you know, people I've met, just through one single job.

Jojo Siu It's true. Very, very true. Very cool. Well thank you so much for telling us all about that Kelly, it's been really fascinating to hear about all the perspectives of how people get into our industry. Because I think that's also, like...We are hitting people that are obviously in our industry, but we're also hitting a lot of people who totally have no idea what we do so it's cool to be able to hear both perspectives.

Kelly Cercone Yeah, and it's very opaque from the outside. I get a lot of people messaging me asking for advice and, you know I explain it as best I can but it's really not a clear process, or even just to explain to people. They're like, "do I need a master's degree?" and I'm like, "No, you just need to be able to do the job."

Sarah Timm Yeah.

Jojo Siu Right.

Kelly Cercone And that's the opposite that most industries, you know, tell students.

Sarah Timm Right.

Jojo Siu Yeah.

Sarah Timm Right.

Kelly Cercone I mean, not that education is bad, I think education is amazing but it can feel very backwards sometimes.

Jojo Siu Yeah, very true.

Sarah Timm I feel left out a lot as a costume as a theater costume designer specifically that I don't have a master's, because so many working costume designers do, and I'm always just like, I have the same skill set, you know, it's just an extra thing that I didn't do. So it's interesting, what industries that matters, and then what industries it doesn't.

Jojo Siu Well, and...to be honest, where you're working Sarah, I don't really think it does matter that much. If someone DOES have an MFA, there's sometimes where I'm just kind of...I don't...It was like an extra thing. It's certainly not something that's getting me more work.

Sarah Timm Right.

Jojo Siu I mean, I shouldn't say that it's gotten me some, but it hasn't gotten me all of my jobs.

Kelly Cercone Yeah.

Jojo Siu For sure.

Kelly Cercone It's probably more...I mean, more networking.

Jojo Siu Yeah, absolutely.

Kelly Cercone Showing people that you can work hard and, you know...do the work.

Jojo Siu Yeah, totally. I think it also is about how well you work with other people right. We keep talking about collaboration and that's such a huge part of our industry too. It's not just about getting the job done. It's also about getting along with the people you're working with. so that they'll want to hire you. No one wants to work with someone who's horrible to work with, regardless of how good your skill is. Unless you know...unless you're really that far above and beyond. But most of the time., if you have a reputation for being that horrible on every job, you kind of start, you start filtering out a little bit.

Sarah Timm Yeah I think if you're established you can be a jerk to people and still get jobs, but if you're not yet, then you're not gonna get hired back.

Kelly Cercone If you've won an oscar, you can be a jerk.

Sarah Timm I should tell that to some of the jerks that I've worked with. Be like, "Excuse me, you didn't win an Oscar? Then you don't need to yell at me. Thanks so much.

Jojo Siu Yeah, totally agree. Well, thank you so much, Kelly. I hope you had fun.

Sarah Timm Yay!

Kelly Cercone I'm was just like, oh god I love this movie so much. I was like, I hope I'm not giving way too much information, and that this makes sense. Because there's so much in this movie to love.

Sarah Timm It's very dense.

Jojo Siu Yes.

Kelly Cercone But worth really diving into the nitty gritty of. I think.

Jojo Siu That's the fun of these podcasts too though. It's where you really do get to kind of dive in deep and take the time to talk about it. I feel like when we have an hour to talk about two movies, it always feels really rushed, but it's nice to be able to take our time through one and really go in.

Kelly Cercone I'm really are impressed with how much ground you guys manage to cover in one episode with two things. I'm always like, "How are they being so succinct, and descriptive?"

Jojo Siu Thank you for saying that because we certainly don't feel that.

Kelly Cercone No it was great. It's great.

Sarah Timm That's the best feedback we've ever gotten. I'm so thrilled to hear that. I'm leaving this in the episode.

Jojo Siu Especially when half the time we're like "Sarah I feel like I've talked too much. Did I cover everything? I don't feel like anybody knows what we're talking about."

Sarah Timm It's funny because a lot of the times, we'll alternate. The one episode JoJo will talk for 40 minutes and I'll talk for 20, and then we'll switch the next episode. So it's like...we kind of just fill in the spaces as needed.

Jojo Siu Very true.

Sarah Timm But yeah. Thank you for joining us to nerd out about costumes, It's the best.

Kelly Cercone Thank you for having me.

Sarah Timm You're so welcome. Can you tell our listeners where to find you on the internet, if they feel inclined? They're probably...I think, based on discussions there's only one place, but tell them where that is.

Kelly Cercone Yeah, I am sort of taking a break from social media. So really the only thing I have right now is Instagram, which I periodically update. But a lot of my prior work and tutorials and whatnot are still on there for people to look at and I respond to questions, almost all the time, as long as they're not creepy.

Sarah Timm We'll link you in the episode description, so that people can go right to you in the profile.

Jojo Siu Yeah.

Sarah Timm Awesome.

Jojo Siu Cool. Well thanks again, this was really successful. Great job Kelly!

Kelly Cercone Thank you

Sarah Timm All right, so that's it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. We hope you enjoyed it.

Jojo Siu Yeah, and join us next time.

Sarah Timm Yeah we have some good movies coming up.

Jojo Siu Yeah.

Sarah Timm I'm excited about it!

Jojo Siu I'm excited!

Sarah Timm Alright, that's it.

Jojo Siu Thanks everyone. We'll catch you on the next one. Bye!

Sarah Timm Bye!

Jojo Siu Thank you for listening to the Costume plot. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram @thecostumeplot. If you have a question, comment or movie suggestion, you can email us at [email protected].

Sarah Timm Our theme music is by Jesse Timm, and our artwork is by Jojo Siu. Please rate and review us wherever you listen to your podcasts.

#anachronisminaction #thefall #thecostumeplot #costumepodcast #jojosiucostumes #breathecue #moviecostumes

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md-admissions · 7 years ago

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2017 in Review

By tradition, it’s time for my annual review!

1 - What did you do in 2017 that you’d never done before?

Interviewed and got into fellowship, finally became 100% happy with being single, wrote a research manuscript from start to finish, burned out, recovered from the burn out, went to a protest, called a senator, called a rep, did a moonlighting gig, yelled at a patient, attended the funeral of someone near my age, baked bread, played D&D 2 - Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Last year’s resolutions were: Make my health a priority (ehhhh), get into the top ID fellowship of my choice (yes!), and increase my romantic confidence (yes!).

This coming year, I resolve to find an exercise or daily activity I like that I can commit to at least on a weekly basis!

3 - Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yeah!

4 - Did anyone close to you die?

Yeah, my cousin.

5 - What countries did you visit?

Went out of the country for my cousin’s funeral

6 - What would you like to have in 2018 that you lacked in 2017?

More “life skills” like doing my own taxes, hosting dinner parties, an exercise routine or just a way to move around and stay fit on a frequent basis, more art and reading for leisure 7 - What date from 2017 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

6/12/17, the day my cousin passed away and 12/6/17, the day I matched into fellowship. I’m only realizing now as I type this the pattern in the numbers.

8 - What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Getting into the fellowship of my choice!!!

9 - What was your biggest failure?

Due to my laziness, several bouts of illness, family tragedy, and multiple call months, I haven’t been able to stick with dancing. I hope I can change that next year! 10 - Did you suffer illness or injury?

Little things, like the flu but otherwise I was okay! 11 - What was the best thing you bought?

Probably the iPhone charging cable that now lives in my car. The number of times that this has saved my dying phone and my resident career is already too many. 12 - Whose behavior merited celebration?

Ladies of color. You are all the MVPs. Thank you to the black women who kept Roy Moore from winning the race in Alabama. Thank you for being the ones on social media and in real life teaching, educating, and supporting our communities through these fraught political times. Thank you for being the leaders when others remain silent. 13 - Whose behavior made you appalled or depressed?

*stares at the US Republicans who voted for the tax reform, Ajit Pai, those who agreed with the immigration ban, climate change deniers, anti-vaxxers*

Oh was that list too short?

14 - Where did most of your money go?

FELLOWSHIP STUFF. Application fees, airplane tickets, train tickets, dry cleaning for my suit. Then food. So much food.

15 - What did you get really, really, really excited about?

D&D (I know, how have I not played before?), Movies: Star Wars, Thor: Ragnarok, Wonder Woman, Dunkirk, GotG2, Logan, John Wick 2, TV shows: The Defenders, The Punisher, The Unit, GoT, American Gods, Insecure 16 - What song(s) will always remind you of 2017?

DNA-BTS 17 - Compared to this time last year, are you: I. Happier or sadder?

I’m going to say the same as last year. Sadder. I’ve been really fortunate this year, but I think it’s been a tough year. II. Thinner or fatter?

Same.

III. Richer or poorer?

Richer by a tiny bit.

18 - What do you wish you’d done more of?

More self care. It was hard to discern sometimes from self indulgence with family tragedy and work exhaustion 19 - What do you wish you’d done less of?

using food to cope with stress 20 - How will you be spending/spent christmas?

Star Wars with the family, and we hung out together <3

21 - Did you fall in love in 2017?

A bit more with myself, for the first time ever. 22 - How many one-night stands?

Zero. 23 - What was your favorite tv program?

GoT probably

24 - Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

But of course 25 - What was the best book you read?

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu 26 - What was your greatest musical discovery?

BTS. I said KPop in 2015 but this year I actually listened through most of their music and I really enjoyed BTS in particular 27 - What did you want and get?

My fellowship pick, the opportunity to teach and demonstrate my sincerity to my profession 28 - What was your favorite film of this year?

Thor: Ragnarok

29 - What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Turned 29, but I didn’t feel like celebrating and actually didn’t say anything. So two of my prior interns actually surprised me with a birthday party!! It was one of the sweetest things anyone has ever done for me. 30 - What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

If the tax reform had not been passed, I would be less fearful going into 2018.

31 - How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2017?

Sports-wear type scrubs for work. Tailored black and navy pieces with a professional/sporty vibe. 32 - What kept you sane?

family, friends, medblrs. Podcasts like Sawbones and Friends at the Table. Grassroots political action. The Great British Bake Off. 33 - Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Jason Momoa. I didn’t watch Justice League but he is a beautiful human being.

34 - What political/social issue stirred you the most?

Healthcare equality, DACA/immigration issues, net neutrality 35 - Who did you miss?

My maternal grandparents. My cousin who passed away. @descantforhope because she’s the best and I love her and her kids 36 - Who was the best new person you met?

My work bestie! We sit and commiserate about medical education, stationary, and sci fi.

37 - Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2017:

We cannot silence ourselves when right and wrong are at stake.

#a year in review #a year in review 2017 #medicine #tw: death

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kudosmyhero · 1 year ago

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Batman (vol. 1) #465: Debut

Read Date: February 19, 2023 Cover Date: July 1991 ● Writer: Alan Grant ● Penciler: Norm Breyfogle ● Inker: Steve Mitchell ● Colorist: Adrienne Roy ● Letterer: Todd Klein ● Editor: Dennis O'Neil ◦ Kelley Puckett ●

**HERE BE SPOILERS: Skip ahead to the fan art/podcast to avoid spoilers

Reactions As I Read: ● oo, this cover is definitely eye-catching! ● Batman keeping close watch on Robin as they go over rooftops. I wonder if he usually does that with his Robins, or if he is being extra vigilant because Tim is such a new Robin. My guess is the latter. ● Batman lets Robin call the shots. Getting a feel for how he does in the field. ● Since the potential burglars are young and scared, Robin opts to just put a scare into them.

● Robin notices an odd expression on Batman’s face and asks him if he’d done something wrong. ● Batman says, “No—you were fine. You showed good judgment. But I know those boys. Bruce Wayne sponsors their schooling under the IHAD Program.” ● oooooh, Tim really sticks his foot in his mouth by saying that an extra half hour on his own won’t kill him. As Batman leaves, he reminds Tim of the rules: no risks. ● Robin stops a drunk from hitting on a woman. The woman thanks him by complaining about men, slapping Robin, and getting into a cab. Tim takes it well, though, reflecting that Batman didn’t cover that in his training. ● Back at Wayne Manor, Alfred and… Harold? whozzat? Are watching a soap opera on the Batcomputer. Alfred pretends not to be invested, but he totally is! (this all makes me so happy)

● Doggo! What’s doggo’s name… isn’t it “Ace” or somesuch? ● Batman smiles when Ace greets him. It always feels odd to see Batman smiling. ● back in the field, Robin stops a pair of thugs from mugging a Marine ● Gordon and Sarah… can’t remember her last name. He’s talking about feeling better and taking care of himself. Apparently he’s had some sort of health issue in previous issues ● Robin’s voice comes over the squad radio to pick up the two muggers and an ambulance for the victim ● Gordon addresses Robin, obviously thinking he’s the Jason Todd Robin. Tim says that he’s… been away. ● Sarah tries to get a statement from Robin, but he vanishes. Gordon tells her, “You’ll get used to it.” ^_^ ● Back to the two kids who initially were going to break into a place before Robin and Batman scared them off. We’re in their apartment and they hear a knock at the door. To Chico’s surprise, it’s Bruce Wayne. ● Chico accuses Bruce of slumming it, says he doesn’t know why Wayne is paying for their college, but to leave him out of it. He goes to his room and slams the door. Bruce asks the other, Larry, what Chico’s problem is. Larry tells Bruce that Chico’s dad was out of jail all of two days before he took the family’s welfare money for the month and left. Chico’s mom is in the hospital and there are two younger sisters as well. ● Bruce goes into Chico’s room to talk to him. ● pg 12-13 is a beautiful spread of Robin swinging over the city. There are panels of him visiting his father in the hospital, and after he leaves, we see his father regain consciousness. ● omg Bruce Wayne is drinking a cola… ● anyway, he offers Chico and Larry a job of doing market research on weekends. They accept. (yay! they seem really sweet) ● ugh, Vicki Vale. (sorry. she annoyed me in Batman ‘89.) ● the flowers Bruce gave Vicki were pink. …now they’re yellow? ● Robin comes across the woman who slapped him earlier ● ah, so Harold created some sort of device that Robin can use to create a link between a payphone and the Batcomputer. He looks up Ginny Gray, who has a police record ● back at the charity event, Bruce Wayne is Bruce Wayning ● Ginny uses a gun to get past the doorman to crash the charity event ● Bruce is in the middle of donating a check when his watch flashes, alerting him that Robin’s signaling something wrong. He feigns dizziness and excuses himself. ● that’s when Ginny fires a shot into the ceiling ● ohhhhh, poor Ginny is delusional. She has the actor Bob Dane mixed up with “Duval Pesney,” a character he plays in the soap opera ● Ginny fires a shot and misses his head by millimeters ● Bruce Wayne seems to declare his love for Duval Pesney, too, as a distraction? Ah, nope. He’s playing into Ginny’s delusion, shouting for Duval Pesney to keep away from his wife. (The poor actor, Bob Dane, is so confused) Bruce punches the actor, which causes Ginny to run to him in concern. ● This gives the cops time to come arrest Ginny; Bruce tells them to be gentle with her. ● Vicki Vale runs off to the office with the headline “Bruce Wayne Socks Bob Dane” ● later, Batman and Robin answer the Batsignal. Both Gordon and Sarah are on the roof. Batman tells Gordon that he’s supposed to be taking it easy, and if everything is okay. ● Gordon tells Batman that he wanted Batman to be the first to know that he and Sarah are going to be married. (so goddamned cute.)

● then we cut to Wayne Manor. Alfred answers the phone and takes a message that Tim’s father is awake and asking for him. (Alfred’s happy smile on the next page made my eyes misty, dammit!) ● any comic that gets tears out of me gets and automatic 5-clap review! ● 👏👏👏👏👏

Synopsis: Tim Drake returns to Gotham City and joins Batman on his first patrol as Robin. They come across two kids from the educational program Bruce sponsors trying to rob a store, and when Batman asks Robin his opinion, he says they should scare them off this path rather than turn them into the police. Batman is impressed by his judgment.

Bruce Wayne visits the two teenagers and offers them jobs at Wayne Enterprises. After that, Bruce goes to a charity bash where the cast of a popular soap opera called "Calistoga" helps raise half a million dollars.

Robin patrols the streets on his own. He helps a woman named Ginny Gray, who is distraught over her boyfriend's engagement to another woman, not knowing that her "boyfriend" Duval Pesney is really a fictional character in "Calistoga."

Ginny breaks into charity bash and holds the actor Bob Dane at gunpoint, but thanks to Bruce Wayne's quick thinking, she is stopped and arrested.

James Gordon and Sarah Essen summon the Dynamic Duo to tell them they are engaged, and Alfred receives a phone call saying Jack Drake has woken up.

(https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Batman_Vol_1_465)

Fan Art: Ace The BatHound (#10) by BoomLabStudio

Accompanying Podcast: ● Robin: Everyone Loves the Drake - episode 15

#dc #dc comics #my dc read #podcast recommendation #comics #comic books #batman #fan art #fanart #podcast - overlooked dark knight #robin (tim drake)#robin

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localwebmgmt · 4 years ago

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Weekly SEO Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 329

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 329 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://semanticmastery.com/humpday.

Announcement

if you understand what I’m saying, Give me a one. You can give me a tool, or you can give me another kind of one. Now, when I’m, at least I’m not. I’ll admit it. I’m the worst marketer in the world. I know how to rank shit. But I suck at marketing. At any rate, welcome to Wednesday’s Hump Day Hangouts. Your reason to like Wednesdays, that’s why you’re here. Let me just go from left to right, as I see you, and introduce my partners, and see what they have to say her name. What’s up?

What’s up, dude, so I’m good. I’m excited to be here. You know, it’s always good. It’s always good to be on Hump Day Hangout, it’s always good to hang out with you guys. And to, you know, give back a little bit to the community that gives us so much so really excited to be here.

Cool, Chris, what’s up, man? Good here.

Doing something really exciting at the moment building my own ghetto gym. because well, Corona is like all the restrictions, everything is still shut down. And like, I don’t know, like currently, it’s like the fifth of April or something like that, then I bet it’s gonna be till May or something like that. So I’m not waiting any longer. So like, I’m looking forward to squatting again, proper bench press, and stuff. So super excited. Cool. Bradley. What’s up, man? What’s up, man? Busy as all hell. But it’s, um, it’s exciting. Got a lot of things cooking. So glad to be here. It’s good to be busy. And as you can see, guys, it’s Groundhog Day in Costa Rica. For over a year I’ve been showing away.

I don’t want I won’t give you too much light. Because I don’t want you to think that Mark was heading off into the light. But you guys can see it. It’s beautiful. It’s sunny. What can I say? It’s the price I paid for the life I live. Guys, it takes work to do this shit.

Is that easy, and it’s not free. But once you get the process in place, then the process takes care of everything. So you can step away and enjoy some of this. You go off to the beach, you go off to the mountains, you go and explore the jungles and the volcanoes and everything that this beautiful country has to offer. And anyway, if you want to know more about how it is that we do the do, then head on over to MGYB.co. That’s our store that I’ve done for you store. I just literally got done ordering link building package from MGYB about an hour ago. So it’s exactly what we use. It’s in the process is everything that we give you. And we give it to you for free. We tell you what the process is. We’re not going to show you how. But we tell you why. It’s not that it’s something nobody else will do. Nobody will tell you why we tell you why. We’re directly affecting the algorithms in a positive manner rather than in a negative manner. That’s what we’re doing, how we do it. It’s MGYB to but if you want the secret sauce, we’re not going to give you that how to cope with it. No, we’ll put it together for you. If you want the training then you have to come to semantic mastery comm our mastermind or you join the heavy hitter club or you join us if you’re not joined, but order our done for you services. And please if you’re listening to this, it’s like Caroline said we want to give back to the community. The whole purpose for this from day one was to give back to the SEO community that has given us so much. And so that this is it. So head on over to YouTube, help us grow, and help us stay free. Click that like button hit on that bell so you get a reminder whenever we’re coming on. Please do that. Help us out? Right. We help you so please help us and without further ado, let’s Oh wait, wait, wait a minute. I got a teaser. I got a teaser. And the end of the month. end of the month. Betty we just talked about it yesterday. You want to steal the thunder.

end of the month. And oh because of oh I’m sorry. I was thinking you were the end of February that just occurred. I didn’t realize you were talking about the end of March. So yeah, we’re uh there’s Adam. He’s coming now. He must get his hamsters running fast enough on the net. Don’t let it man just keep him waiting. Yeah, I’m sorry. I understand what you’re saying now. So yeah, the end of this month Syndication Academy relaunch or, I mean, let’s just lay it out there is it they completely 100% updated for 2021 and with a unique kind of presentation twist that we haven’t done in the past and should be good. I’m really looking forward to it is a kind of a new way for us to present training material and I hope it will be received well we’ll find out but um, it’s going to be awesome because we’ve we put a lot of additional methods and techniques and such into Syndication Academy this time. So we presented her already, right in Hump Day Hangouts. We just want people to know it’s launching we’re actually going to do it will first be done internally before goes public take advantage of the internal launch because that’s always a better price point that it will be when it goes public. The person doing the training she was brought in, because she was an outsider, because we wanted someone who had never seen the training, didn’t know what Semantic Mastery What didn’t know what SEO was, we wanted her and we wanted her going through the training, and updating, updating the training while she was going through it. Why? Because we want her available on Facebook, and she is going to be available in the group. So that when people come up with problems, she will know in detail how to deal with the problem. And she will be there to help people get through the problems. We have over 300 websites, I believe, I believe it is as webinar updates guys, we have over 300 websites that she will be going into and showing them how they can manipulate it, how can they how they can be manipulated and added to your internet profile to broaden the entity. And that’s what this is all about. The name of the game now is who has the best entity in the web. That’s the name of the game. The person who builds the strongest, most powerful entity rounded out in the way that Google expects is the one who wins. And one of the foundational principles of our method is Syndication Academy. It’s a must, it’s me, that’s why we put it into the SEO shield, you have to have it, you have to present a proper entity to Google that can be trusted, and that can become authoritative over time. That’s what this is all about. Don’t expect to rank for gold.

Or DUI, DUI attorney Toronto, three posts and one syndication network Not gonna happen. Don’t expect to rank, like plumber in dc, dc plumber. That took a lot of work. It was it’s what we call now the SEO power shield, and then embed runs precedences if you remember Rob was doing presently, like daily. Yeah, hammering it with link building. But it became the entity for the keyword DC plumber, the keyword and DC plumber, the company is inextricable right now. Right, the relationship that was created is so great. So this is one of the things that you can do with Syndication Academy is build that entity. It’s coming. Se is wonderful. She’s great at communicating. It’s just different. And we hope that people can really benefit from having her available like every day. She’ll be in there and she can spend an hour in there or however long it takes to answer questions then there will be monthly or I don’t know how often. It’ll be up. It’ll be updated. We will figure it out guys, but it’s coming. I’m really excited about this. Get on the Syndication Academy train.

Adam, anything you’d like to add to now? I couldn’t help myself. That’s it, man. Yeah, I’ve been having some weird internet issues are doing construction around our place. And just like three minutes before, posted a video on Facebook inviting people to come into Hump Day Hangouts and then tried to do anything else is dead. So happy to be here. I think you guys covered it. I’m pumped about Syndication Academy. There’s a lot, a lot of good stuff in there that people are gonna want to go over, and then with the continuous updates, it’s just gonna be badass. So that’s all I got for today.

Cool, but without further ado, and nobody else has objections. Let’s move on to the questions. All right, let me grab a screen. Oops, wrong button.

You guys are seeing it now. Correct. Looks good.

I don’t know why it stopped with your damn. I don’t know which ones are which anymore.

Can You Offset Average Reviews And Get Into The 3-Pack By Targeting Optimized Listings With Press Release, Backlinks, Drive Stacks From MGYB?

I think it’s a setting but let me take a look because I had to go in and you can do something but Oh, so it was you that changed some shit around. I didn’t do shit. No, Gordon. Gordon is is the last one. The last one. Hey, guys, I need your help with two podcasts. Yeah. All right. So hey, guys, I need your help with two quick questions. Number one, I’m presuming that having lots of four and five-star reviews still has a significant effect on getting a GMB listing into the three-pack. But if the business has just average quantity and quality reviews compared to their competitors, can you offset that deficiency and still get a new three-pack by targeting the optimized listing with press releases backlinks ROI is Google Drive stack, etc from MGYB. Yeah, I mean, I think reviews are a small part of ranking in the three-pack.

But I don’t know how. Like how much of a part of it is I don’t think it’s a huge part of it might Marko might have more insight on that than I do. Where I find reviews mostly beneficial, is not necessary. I mean, it’s great for social proof. There’s no question right? It helps to improve the click-through rate if they got good. A good number of reviews and obviously a high rating in those reviews. It helps to entice the click right it helps to cause visiter a Google user to want to click through to that, which is a great SEO signal in itself, right? That engagement signal, but as far as the reviews themselves having an effect on the SEO, it’s I don’t know how much of an effect the reviews actually have on the GMB. But where I find the most benefit is by going in and replying to those reviews and working keywords in and location names into the review. reply, if that makes sense. Because it’s a way to inject additional relevancy, either geographic or topical relevancy into the reviews themselves that typically, if you know, if you read a lot of reviews, a lot of times the keywords aren’t mentioned or the locations aren’t mentioned. And so you can work those in it’s just another opportunity to squeeze keywords and location terms into the GMB. So that’s how I find it. But I don’t know about how much maybe Marco Can you answer? Do you have any idea how much reviews affect GMB ranking?

Not rankings, but they do become link building targets? Right? Yeah.

And, and so that’s a great place to start, that’s a great way to use them is as link building target. That’s how I use them. They’re great for press release targets also for press releases, which is also link building.

And so you can think of them that way. Now, the quality of the reviews only matters, like when you’re seeing a lot of forum five stars when people are looking. I talked about this the other day I believe in in a webinar, you know, my daughter really pays attention to that. And she really looks at the reviews when she’s trying to buy something like an Amazon. Like how many good reviews does it have? How many bad reviews have Why are they getting bad reviews? Or why are they getting such good reviews? Or are they just generic reviews that these people are getting?

And so that’s when it matters, and then that CTR is like it’s not a cause and effect. It could be correlational. In other words, if you have a lot of quality reviews, then as you said people are likely to click on it. But as far as ranking, like, I’ve seen people with no reviews rank over people with 300 something reviews. Yeah, no problem.

Yeah, yeah, I see that too. And that’s why I mentioned I don’t know how much the reviews. Now, again, by being able to use those reviews as an opportunity for link building. I didn’t mention that. But yeah, that’s true. And that’s a lot of times, by the way, like Press Advantage will write press releases and actually quote, a review that they pulled from the GMB anyways for that company. So that’s a great opportunity to link to the share URL for that review. But also, as I said, there’s work you know, replying in replying to reviews gives you that opportunity to add additional keywords and location, relevancy. So I think that that helps as well. That’s a habit that we do for my clients.

Does Daily Posting In GMB Help In Ranking The Listing Higher?

So the second question was, I’m presuming that daily GMB posts are allowed. Yes, and I recently read that posting daily on GMB will significantly help the listing to rank higher and that optimizing the posts for your targeted search terms will also significantly help with ranking or either or both of these those true and if so, how much of an impact will either have. Gordon, I would suggest that you take low to join the Local GMB Pro course that we put out because it’s all specifically about GMB and how to get I mean, just absolutely crush a GMB location.

You know, doing nothing but the stuff inside of GMB. I mean, as you can forget about even if it has a self-hosted website and everything but what I’m saying is local GMB Pro is all about how to optimize and get results from the GMB and the assets that Google provides as part of the Google My Business profile. So I would encourage you to check that out if because it sounds like you’ve got some GMB work on your hands. So, Marco, what do you want to say about the post?

I’m like, Can I say outside of local GMB Pro people have paid really good money for that course. Right? And how much are we willing to give away for free?

Yeah, I mean, you have to look at what your competitors are doing to see what it is that you have to do to compete in the space.

Check to see if that like what frequency of posting you should have. There’s so much information that you can gather from a GMB and from insights. It’s ridiculous.

Yeah, I mean, I can’t really say much more with it without just giving away too much. How we do the post not it’s not just a matter of posting but how we post how each one is done, how we approach the entity. The press releases everything. Everything goes hand in hand.

Yeah.

Should You Create A GMB For A Business Aiming To Get Monthly Membership Signups Even If It’s Not A Local Service Type?

Okay, well, thank you for that. Dan says, Hey gents, so I bought an SEO shield for a business that is looking to generate monthly membership signups. It isn’t a local business. Really, though. I am wondering if I should order a postcard and set up a GMB even though it really isn’t a local service type of business, my SEO shield is already in a queue without an address or phone number. Any advice is appreciated. Um, I mean, there’s a lot of benefits to having a GMB associated with a brand period. Even if it’s not a typical local business, I’m gonna pass this one over to Marco because he, he, he uses GM B’s for, you know, even national or global type projects. So market What do you say? What can you suggest to him? But it’s the entity right looks good. I’m sorry, Dan. We recently did charity webinars I suggest that you go and make a donation, send an email to the email that’s provided up I’ll write it later.

And really focus on what it is that we’re talking about because I talked about how to use a GMB a little bit. Not only to solidify the entity but in the entire process and why you should do this and why even if you don’t have a local company, you should have a GMB why you should have a listing why it’s important for Google to have a list and why is it important in your schema for your organization when you’re presenting everything to Google and why you’d be out doing everybody else?

There we go. And that’s so just to clarify Dan if you what I would suggest if you plan on getting a GMB is to contact MGYB support and find out you know how far they’ve gone with your order. Because if it hasn’t been really started yet or anything, I got an again, just a suggestion depending on where they are with the progress of your stack your drive stack, you may be able to ask them to pause it and wait until you get the GMB that way. It’s worked into the GMB. Now, if it’s already been started or completed or whatever, then that may, you know, unfortunately, that it may be too late. But it would be worth at least a support request to find out if it’s possible if you know where it is in it, you know and how far along it is. And if it can be paused until you get to GMB. If that’s what you plan on doing that would be a suggestion.

I would tell him Yes. I mean, we would totally pause it, we would give them 30 days actually, right 30 days to submit the information. If you haven’t submitted it in 30 days, then then you will get refunded. And you have to start again. But just so you know we can hold it. It’s not as if that no, we can’t just write to resale just right to resist. He’s fantastic. And support man. Yeah, supported MGYB.co.

Should You Buy An MGYB Link Package To Hit The RYS Stack After Purchasing A Depth Keyword Research?

Okay, next would be I also purchased in-depth keyword research, and I’m assuming that the next thing to buy would be a link package to hit dry stack with any suggestions on what else I could be doing. Fortunately, I have a monthly budget to spend on MGYB Yeah, that’s great, Dan. And that’s what we’ve, I can’t tell you how many times when we talk about, you know, the SEO shield, the power shield, you know, and everything that we talked about entity based SEO that you should have a budget from your client’s retainer every single month that’s dedicated towards link building and embeds and that kind of stuff, press releases, whatever. So it’s good that you have that because, you know, that’s, that’s the way to get results is to use that. So you just work that right into your proposal. Initially, whenever you’re signing a client, which it sounds like you did, so that’s great.

You know, I would go through either the SEOshield.com if you haven’t already gone through that, it’s free, it’s like a four-day training, Rob put that together, that will tell you like the best practices and how to get the most use out of it. And that kind of stuff. The other one would be semanticmastery.com/process which’s behind an opt-in now.

So you still have to exchange your email for it. But I did a training on that specifically, again, it’s high level, but I specifically talk about how to, you know how I cycle through link building and embeds and things like that and, you know, choose different target URLs different us, you know, groups of URLs to hit at different times and that kind of stuff. And I talked about that and kind of a high level through the process training, the entity based SEO process training, which again, you can find that at semantic mastery.com slash process. I believe that redirects to an opt-in page now but you can get access to it just by opting in. And I would recommend you go through that because it’ll give you some kind of link building schedule, like link building and embed, like off-page SEO schedule. It’s and it’s just a mock schedule, you can modify it to you know, your specific needs or to the project’s needs, but it’ll just give you some ideas on how to cycle through and constantly be planning applying pressure to your entity assets. And that’s the way that we suggest doing it any any comments guys. Yeah, I suggest go to the seoshield.com, I posted it on the page, it tells you why we’re not going to tell you how. But it tells you why.

And everything that you build off-page away from your money site becomes like a target for your link building. And for your press releases or for everything you do so that it powers up into your money site. So it’s just a fantastic way. But don’t just take that one link building run, it depends on the competition, it depends on the keyword that you’re doing. It depends on the niche, it may take a steady diet of this every month until you’re getting the results that you want. And then you want to let the natural traffic and the natural link building take over. If anything starts to slip, you just start over again. With more press releases more link building more embed runs, and more link building. I mean, it’s exactly the way that we do it.

Yeah.

What Software Can You Recommend To Automate LinkedIn Lead Generation?

Next question. This is a question for me for sure. So he says, Hey, guys, wondering if you know of any good LinkedIn automation lead generation software systems to help get more clients for agencies and clients? That’s a great question. In fact, I have just started, I just signed up last week and am in the process of working on, you know, developing my own LinkedIn strategy. Because I just launched my new agency less than three weeks ago. And I’m going to attempt to give a real attempt this time on LinkedIn, two to four prospecting.

Over the years, I’ve not done a whole lot of LinkedIn stuff. Number one, I just never had a desire to do it. It’s just like Facebook, I’m not a big fan.

But in the past, I’ve made some half-assed attempts to do prospecting on LinkedIn, and I never stuck with it long enough to get any results to fine-tune my pitch my messaging, you know, all that kind of stuff. So this time, I’m going to, I’m going to give it a full-hearted effort and stick with it long enough to try to get some results or prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it just isn’t going to work in the industry that I’m in, which is tree care contractors, although I just from some very, very basic stuff that I’ve done over the past week. I’ve seen some promise already. So I’m going to stick with it. That said, I would suggest a couple of things, I came across a really, really, really good resource. It’s called the LinkedIn Bible.

Ba mF CEO, I think is the name of the Yeah, right there. Ba mF CEO. And it’s called the LinkedIn Bible. There’s a collection of five books, but he’s got a, you know, free plus shipping funnel, essentially, I’m sure you’re aware of that.

There’s anyways, just go check it out. It’s called the LinkedIn Bible, it’s a series of books that you can get, I think the first one for free, but then you got to pay for the others. It’s, it’s really good. There’s a shit ton of information in there about how to optimize your profile.

How to start growing your network for your specific industry, you know, chosen industry or how to do that for clients, that kind of stuff. So there’s just a lot of real I mean, guys, it’s massive. The book itself is, I don’t know, 400 pages or something. It’s ridiculous. There’s I mean, but a lot of that screenshots and things like that anyway, it’s really good. I just started going through that just a few days ago, or, yeah, it was over the weekend, I think that I started, it’s all a blur. I’m working 14 hours a day right now, but it’s really good. As far as that, you know, that’s just going to give you some strategies. Now he recommends some tools and stuff in there, the tool that I decided to go with is called octopus crm.io. That’s this one. And I want with this one, just because it’s got all the features that I need, I’m using high level is my agency, marketing automation platform. And so you know, I didn’t really need like another full-on CRM and everything else. But octopus CRM actually has a set of one of the better monthly pricing options. A lot of the other ones are 100 bucks a month, this one’s $49 a month. And just a quick tip, if you sign up for the free trial, you will get an email and then a couple of days with a 5% off coupon that’s 5% off the monthly. So if you go with the monthly at 4999. And you get that 5% off coupon, it’s I mean, it’s only a couple bucks off, but just letting you know where you can go annual one, it’s like 25 bucks per month, but you have to pay for the whole year. So anyway, I would try that. There are a few other ones out there too, that I’ve looked at. But this is the one that I decided to go with. I haven’t really started any serious prospecting on LinkedIn yet because I’m still kind of in the learning the platform phase as long as well as optimizing, optimizing my profile, and developing my messaging sequence which I’m already testing that using email and SMS and cold voice drops through high levels. So once I have that kind of down in a bit of that message, I’m going to apply that to LinkedIn.

I obviously might have to tweak it a bit for the LinkedIn platform. But I think that’s what I’m going to be doing. So I will have more information as far as experience with LinkedIn and this CRM and or automation app in particular, but it’s going to be a few weeks. This is not you know, this, LinkedIn is another prospecting Avenue. For me, it’s not my primary source, if that makes sense. So anyway, anybody else has any suggestions for that? They give you a free pro trial, every once in a while. Yeah. And it worked out really well for me. So well, in fact, that I did pay a couple of extra months.

I mean, what I wanted to see is how good it was for prospecting, right. And I did it in the Virginia area got a bunch of people from Virginia, DC.

So I’d be there’s just a lot of SEO leads and related, like marketing, there’s a lot of things in marketing that you can do. And then like, I don’t know how much to give away, I’ll give it away, what I’ll do is I’ll just change the city that I’m in, I’ll change the phone number because then that’s the leads that you’ll get leads from there. So if you’d like if you’re around New York, and you can meet with people or Chicago, LA, whatever, I mean, it’s just a really good venue to get in front of people, you will have to like outbid others, I never send in.

I don’t want to get too technical. I never said send in the bids. I say to people, let’s get on a call. Let’s talk and they will see what it is that you want that you need. Because I can’t tell you exactly. I can’t charge you like $15,000 and not know what it is that you need. And so you get them on the phone. And they get to know you they get to know who you are they’ve already done their research on what it is that you do. And the closing rate is phenomenal. When you get in front of these people. You were talking about LinkedIn Pro Finder, though, right? Yes, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I actually bought a course from

Josh Harris about that called LinkedIn Pro Finder profits over a year ago now. But the niches in there, I mean, unless you’re just looking like, you know, as an SEO agency, or excuse me, a marketing agency, you can get, you know, you can go you can find people that have submitted proposal requests for SEO or marketing services. Specifically, I’m in you know, looking for trees, tree contractor clients, and there are no Pro Finderoptions for that. So, so I never ended up doing anything with it. But it looks like you could get quite a, you know, there’s not a whole lot of people competing on this, at least there wasn’t a year ago when I joined that program. It didn’t really fit my model. So I really never did anything with it. But you ought to check into that. As far as just doing flat-out outreach. And I think I said when I was talking about this earlier, $49 a month, it’s only $39 a month, which is and that’s on the monthly. That’s why part of the reason I joined this one, as opposed to some of the other ones was that it was so much less expensive. And with the unlimited account, it gives you Zapier, you know, connect, it will allow you to connect to Zapier, which will push the data from this app to a high level, which is really where I want it because the high level is what I’m using for my CRM and pipeline and all that kind of stuff. So that’s specifically why I went with the unlimited was so that I could connect it to a high level via Zapier. But yeah, pro finder, as far as I know, there’s from what I hear there was quite a bit of work that can be had from LinkedIn, like to get clients from and you can even sell if you get good on with LinkedIn pro finder, you can actually provide that as a service for, you know, businesses that provide that are looking for people that are asking for looking for clients, essentially, you can manage pro finder stuff for clients is what I’m saying. And that’s kind of pro finder profits course was from Josh Harris was all about, you know, doing that managing that for others. Again, it just didn’t fit any of my chosen industries. So I didn’t do it. But you might want to look into that as well. How it works is you get a notification anytime that there’s a lead available in your area. And you just go in and you write an email to that person, get that person to contact you be really good at getting in front of people and having them you know, get them on that on that phone. And then if you get on the phone, you can close them. Yeah. Yeah.

So yeah, it’s a great question. By the way, I’m just like I said, just starting to get into LinkedIn now.

I think it’s promising. So I’m gonna give it a real effort. I’ll share what I know when I know.

Any Advice On How To Optimize An Online Vehicle Dealership Web Platform In Facebook Marketplace & Other Sites?

Okay, so this was a question posted by Marco but it was from another group or something from Nicole Campbell and Facebook. I’m creating a web platform that will allow dealers to sell their vehicles online. However, regarding the marketing, I would like for their cars to be marketed through the Facebook marketplace and a ton of other platforms. I’m not sure how to go about doing this. Do I automate my platform or do I automate each featured vehicle that is uploaded on the platform, automate each vehicle that has a multi-tier syndication or a single-tier?

Yeah, that’s kind of a tough question, because I’m not sure I fully understand what she’s asking to do. Marco, do you want to take this one? Since you were aware of it? Well, first, you need a website.

And it’s not a cheap website that Nicole is needing, because this website is going to need to do a few things, for example, the vehicles that she’s that she wants to sell. Let me go back and look at this question again because that’s what it is so so she wants to show the vehicles online, but she also wants them in the Facebook marketplace. So you want to wait to automate going into the Facebook marketplace. I don’t know if there’s any way outside of the Facebook API to go into the Facebook marketplace. I don’t even don’t think that IFTTT, Zapier, but you’d have to look. So here’s the thing, though. And this is why I got into this. Our support both MGYB and Semantic Mastery are not there to give you SEO advice, which this or marketing for that matter or anything having to do with how to build your website and how to hook all this up. What they’re they’re there to do is to create a done-for-you syndication network. But it can’t be customized in this way. We have a set number of profiles that we do this with the Facebook marketplace is not one of them. So you’re talking about something that’s outside of what we do outside the specs or the spectrum of what it is that we do. So she wants to know, do I automate your platform? Yeah, you would automate your website to hook into the Facebook marketplace. If that’s even possible. Again, API, there has to be some kind of way that you can hook into the marketplace so that you can display your vehicles into the marketplace and then also syndicate out into your syndication network.

All right. Now, is this a multi-tier syndication? No, it’s a single tier, because we’re still talking about building the entity and pushing whatever it is that you’re doing your product service, or whatever it is, out into your entity, you’re not even at the multi-tier syndication level. At that point, it might require a multi-tier syndication network, depending on the automobiles are they use? Are they new? What kind of are wheels? Is it local? Is it global? What are you doing? And I can tell you that if you don’t already have the website, and you’re gonna you’re looking to develop, it’s not done on pennies. This is an expensive website that you’re talking about is one type of thing. I mean, you can look to adjust the template to do what you need it to do. I wanted to answer this For this reason, because there’s no way that our support can be expected to give you an answer for any of these questions. Since they simply don’t know, I don’t even know I’m just giving you what I would look to do with it, I would create my own custom theme, my own custom template, my own structure like we did with MGYB. To do the things that I wanted to do hiring a developer to do that is going to cost you if you’ve already done it. Now your job is to go and look to see how you can hook into the Facebook marketplace. Because it’s not one of the places that we go into. Yeah. And then from there, once you get once you have your SEO shield in place, look and how to incorporate whatever it is that you’re doing into that. That would be my answer for her.

Yeah, I mean, you could always go to something like Upwork and look for, you know, Facebook developers, for example, or Facebook app developers, like I don’t know, I don’t do shit on Facebook. So it’s, but I’m sure you can find somebody on Upwork that to let you know whether that’s even possible, you could probably even do some research on your own and figure out, I don’t know, I sell real estate that I flip, you know, land vacant land on Facebook marketplace, but we post those manually. We don’t do a lot of you know, a shit ton of volume. So there’s really no reason for us to automate that. But I don’t know, I don’t think I’ve seen in any of our automation apps, the ability to automate a Facebook marketplace post to profiles and post to groups and that kind of pages. Yes, but I’ve never I don’t think I’ve ever seen that option anywhere. And all the automation apps that I’ve used, not saying it can’t be done. It may be possible. I just never seen that. So I don’t think it’s common. So again, I would recommend that you just do some research first to see if you can automate Facebook posts, Facebook marketplace posts, excuse me. First and if you can’t determine whether that’s possible or not, then you know, again, go to like Upwork or something and post a job describing what it is you’re trying to accomplish? And you’ll start getting some replies back from people that, you know, depending on how you post your job and Facebook up work, excuse me, I usually do by invitation only. So I literally go look for people that say something in their profile that would, you know, lead me to believe that they’re able to help. And then I send them the invitation to review my job, the job posting, specifically, and that way I don’t get like 8000 replies that I have to sift and sort through, I’m only getting replies from people that I have selected. But that might be a good opportunity for you to find out. Just have some conversations with some people that understand Facebook development stuff, and they’d be able to steer you in the right direction. And then you might even find somebody to be able to develop what you need, right there on the upward platform. Any comments?

Can You Use The SEO Power Shield To A Website That Already Had A Google Drive & IFTTT Setup By Another Vendor?

No, that’s perfect. Okay. driven to rank. Alright, he says, I just purchased the power shield. Can I use it on a website that already had a Google Drive and IFTTT set up from another vendor? Or should I use it only on a site that doesn’t have those things set up? No, you know, you can use it for the same site.

It’s probably done a hell of a lot better too.

Since we did it not probably I’m sure it is. But um, yeah, no, as far as I’ll let Marco take this one. But yeah, you can apply it to the same site. What do you say, Marco?

Yeah.

Does that it?

I mean, they ask these questions, and you can never be really sure, right. Yeah, that’s true. It’s, uh,

I’m not sure what it is that we’re doing. Or can I use it on the website that already had a Google jet? Yes. Because we will use that Google Drive and we will get the IFTTT login. So what you’re missing is the G site. And if I’m reading this correctly, the ad ID but don’t use it on anything else. Unless I miss reading this.

While he’s saying that he had a website that already had a drive stack that was built by some other vendor as well as an IFTTT setup. Yeah, so he wants to apply the new SEO power shield that he bought from us and all of its components to the same website. And I’ve done that in the past guys, not I haven’t bought from other vendors. Because Because I’ve been building them myself or trained a team out of building them since 2011. So I’ve never bought a syndication network or a drive stack from another vendor. That said, I have had some, you know, networks that were older that weren’t set up correctly, or, you know, things have changed or whatever. And so, and for example, I’ve got a Tree Service.

One of my Tree Service locations that I built this drive stack for way back in probably 2015. When I learned how to do that, from Marco, before we had even launched our ys Academy. And I had built one in fact, it was the training that I did, I remember specifically it was for called pepper Tree Service. And it was because I had built that for the training that I did for ArcGIS Academy, because Gary, Dr. Gary did the training originally, but then people said they wanted me to do the training. So I went in and built a drive stack for call pepper Tree Service. And long story short, that was never that was built to those standards at that time. Well, things have changed a lot. You know, as far as like, how we build them. Now the way they look, the interlinking has gotten a lot better, everything else. And so about a year ago, I had, I had MGYB build another drive stack specifically for that brand that that that particular brand got brought in underneath another brand. But I had a new drive stack built for that I didn’t get rid of the old drive stack, it’s still out there, it’s still in fact, for you know, certain keyword searches, you can still see on page one some of those files and folders and such. But I just had a new one built to kind of replace that one but I just didn’t deindex the other one or set it to private or anything because there was really no perhaps except for the name being changed because I brought that other underneath another brand, the all the other NAEP data was the exact same and call pepper Tree Service is actually also a keyword instead of just a brand right that makes sense. So really didn’t am disambiguate or ambiguity ate my brand when I changed the brand name because all the other NAP data stayed the same. So my answer is I would just go ahead and apply the power shield to the project even if you had the other stuff. You can decide whether or not the other stuff was toxic and you want to eliminate it or set it to nonpublic or whatever. That’s up to you. You know we can’t tell you that without looking at anyways but I can tell you if it was built by somebody else you probably wouldn’t do right.

So yeah, we hit was responsible for what somebody else did. My main concern starting here would be, dude, don’t create ambiguity. If you create ambiguity, it’s going to kill whatever it is that you’re doing. And it’s really hard to disambiguate. Once you’ve done so.

Have You Tried Using 301 Redirect A Domain With Single Backlink From Authoritative Site To A Money Site?

So BB’s up with a list of questions, many of which are hypothetical as always, No, I’m kidding. BB, what’s up? He says, Hey, guys, have you ever tried a 301? redirect a domain with a single backlink from an authoritative site to the money site? What were the results? If not, then what should be there? Well, yes, I’ve done that. In fact, I found a really good it was domain that had was expired domain, but it had one backlink from Wikipedia. That was it. It was one backlink. But it was from Wikipedia, as a real backlink from Wikipedia. And it happened. It happened to be for a landmark or something, some historical landmark that had a website at one time, but apparently, they let the domain expire. And it was in a particular it was in the Charlottesville, Virginia area. And I had a limo service company at the time, that was a client of mine, that was a limo service in Charlottesville. And so I found that expired domain with the one backlink that was on a page for a historical landmark in the city of Charlottesville. And so it was it just seemed like a great backlink. So I did what I purchased. But if I remember, I can’t remember if I just did a 301 redirect, or if I set up I think I set up an HTML page with the Wayback informing the original page content from the Wayback Machine archive.org. Right. And I think I set that up on an HTML, Amazon s3 hosted, you know, bucket hosted HTML page with so a recreation of what the Wayback Machine archive.org had as the content on there. But I stripped all the links out and everything else to where the only error was one backlink from that HTML page to my money site. And I saw like a seven-position jump in a matter of a week, which was really crazy. It was one keyword that I was targeting, in particular with that test. And I saw a significant jump.

So as far as I don’t know if I’ve done any just 301 redirects, but it will pass the PageRank, you know, through the redirect to your destination, if it is, you know, a little bit as lost through a 301 redirect, but not much. So yes, it will pass. You want to comment on that one, Marco. Yeah, watching Be careful, like how long the domain has been expired? And how much has been spammed? Because it could be that that that da will disappear real quick. Yeah. And not only that, the PageRank. So it depends on how much you’re going to spend on that domain, what you’re using it for. But if it has those really good link metrics, then yes, I wrote, I built one up to like 70 domain authority once. And then once I got that far, Google for some reason came in and just smack the shit out of me. And it got D indexed. Well, of course, it was just total spam, because domain authority is a third-party metric. And like the only thing that you should be caring about, like, is it relevant to whatever it is that you’re doing? And does it have good links, so that those links are relevant to whatever it is that you’re doing? So if you can find a website that’s actually relevant, and the links are relevant to whatever you’re doing, it doesn’t have to have direct relevance. But some relevance according to whatever it is that Google considers relevant. Not Moz. Not majestic. Not a truss, nothing but Google. And then yes, yes, it will have fantastic results, Wikipedia, any Wikipedia links that are especially related, will have fantastic results, that 301 will have an effect. And then what you can do is boost that expired domain, because it’s 301. So you’re actually adding a layer of protection. Be careful, though, because a penalty can pass through that 301 to wherever it’s directed. So never directed to your money site. Of course. That’s why I mentioned the HTML page on an s3 bucket. Yep. Yeah. And that was, that was my preferred method. I don’t like to 301 I like to create those buffer pages. And there’s like, in my opinion, there’s no better place to do it than an S3 HTML page. So that’s, that’s I did a lot of that where I would buy expired domains and readjust build a single HTML page with the content that you can scrape directly from archive.org. And it’s just one page. It’s just the root domain, whatever was on the root domain, you can recreate that and then strip out any navigation menu links and everything else to where there’s one backlink on that page pointed when it can be an anchor text link, or however, you know, you have to determine how you want to handle that. But that one link now, especially if it’s anchor text, and it’s embedded within content that adds relevancy. It can be incredibly powerful and in that HTML page becomes another target that you can just hammer with additional backlinks as well for, you know, to power that up even further. So there’s a good question.

Why Does Google Rank A Site With Higher Quality Backlinks Than A Long Form Content?

The next one is why? And this question, I’ve read it like six times now trying to decipher it. So not 100% Sure, I can fully understand the question, but I’m going to attempt it. I think what he’s asking is why will Google rank content that has maybe less content, but higher quality, higher quality backlinks than long-form content? That might be considered like, you know, you know, a really in-depth article about this topic, but fewer backlinks, why will Google out? And he says, isn’t Google’s purpose to give the best results? Yes, and no. I mean, yes, Google intends to give the best results. But one of the algorithms also determines through backlinks, backlinks, a big still a huge part of the algorithm on how things are, end up the ranking, right, and how they perform in search, I should say, backlinks are still a huge part of that this is definitely a good question for Marco. But you know, just having, you know, just having good content, or even the best content about a particular topic does not mean that you’re going to rank for it. Because if you don’t, again, if you don’t know how to structure the content properly, if you don’t know how to do internal linking properly, if you don’t do any external stuff, except for Jeffrey Smith, who is incredible at Jeff’s building PageRank through internal link structure and how he stacks content, properly through semantic, you know, through what he knows through how good he is, Jeffrey Smith, SEO boot camps, the only one that I’ve ever seen, that can outrank you know, sites with very little to no external backlinks at all because of how he structures and he builds all his PageRank through internal linking. So again, if you know how to do all that shit, then having really good quality content, you can rank well for it, but just having the best content on a particular subject or topic. If you don’t know, like, if none of the other metrics are there signals are there, then it’s not you know, chances are, it’ll never get found. So I don’t know, Marco, how do you want to expand on that?

You mentioned the metric word PageRank, which is the doorway into what Google is building, which is a ranking score. This is a good way to understand that no matter how much content you write if you don’t build back backlinks, you’re fucked until Google figures out what it is that you’re trying to do.

Perfect example, because you can write a whole bunch of content that nobody sees is what I tell people like they want a million-dollar website that nobody is ever going to see. So there’d be a whole bunch of money. Nobody sees the website, and you have some garbage from 2000. Right, that type of website that, you know, it’s crazy, but it’s converting, like nuts. And you wonder, Well, why? Why? Because all you’re concentrating on is a pretty website that nobody will see, instead of focusing on converting the people that are coming to the website, activity, relevance, trust, and authority, which builds PageRank. It builds ranking short, he’s hitting it with backlinks which create more PageRank more ranking scores. That’s what we focus on the entity, the activity relevance, trust, and authority building PageRank building ranking score.

How Come Google Ranks Pages With Blocked To Membership Content?

Sweet, thank you. How come Google ranks pages with blocked membership content? Um, I don’t know. I don’t know. I mean, if it’s you know, if it’s a particular word, like a brand name, or you know, a training course name or something like that, and there’s not a lot of competition for it, then it can rank even if it’s a block membership page unless it’s set to no index. And I’ve even seen Google ignore that no index directive before. So I don’t know, I can’t answer that. Can you Marco, you’re not gonna have it? What do you mean by block to membership? That doesn’t mean that Google can’t crawl the page and can’t index the page and can’t rank it as long as the content is relevant. Or if you built a whole bunch of length we just talked about it backlinks to it. Then it has activity relevance, trust, and authority because people are coming to the website.

I think something like this right.

So like a blank membership registration page or something, you know what I mean? I think that’s what he’s asking about but he’s getting activity. Yeah.

Okay, so Joey says Where do I sign up for Syndication Academy jelly well syndication.academy just go to syndication dot Academy that will take you to the sales page if you want to join prior to the relaunch but if you just want to wait till the relaunch it looks like Adam already got you.

Looks like we already have an early access landing page. Look at that. I hadn’t thought of everything yet. No, I did in the background during Hump Day Hangouts. Ah, the truth comes out.

I thought you were you had some foresight. I mean, yeah, that’s what I meant to say I had a couple of things there. Awesome. Well, look at that. See asking you shall receive. There you go. Muscle slug. Nice. Not sure what a muscle slug is, but

How To Properly Set The CloudFare Settings To Point To the Website?

okay, I recently purchased the video mail prospecting system that Bradley had done, which is awesome, by the way. Yeah, wait. Soon, soon, I’m going to be adding an additional module to that guy. And then we’ll probably relaunch it. And not, you know, we don’t do big launches anyways. But we’ll probably reintroduce it to you guys, our audience again, once I do, because I’ve got I’m doing I just launched a new agency less than three weeks ago, and I’m doing serious prospecting. More so than I’ve ever done, like industrial strength. That’s awesome. And it’s working well. And I’ve got a really nice little system that’s working well for starting a conversation, using video emails and all kinds of anyways, I’ll cover that I’m going to do an update to that training. And then we’re going to go into reintroducing it to you guys when it’s ready. So anyway, if you’ve already got it, you’ll get the update when it when I add it. Okay.

Back to the question. I have a technical question. In reference to this. Bradley had mentioned during your training to set up a website for the personalized name domain to help with email delivery. Yes, for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to set the Cloudflare settings up to point to the website to work right. Normally, you set the name servers on the domain, to point to the hosting to work. I hope this makes sense on what I’m asking any suggestions on this? It’s probably a simple thing that I’m messing with that with this. Thanks, James. Yeah, James, it’s really simple. So you have if you are if you’re buying a domain, and you’re going to build a website, you’re and you’re going through Cloudflare, you just need to figure out what the IP addresses for your server, your host, right, and then you set the record in Cloudflare. So you set an A record, put the @ sign in CloudFlare as you know, subdomain or whatever, that just means it’s going to read it, it’s the root essentially. And then you put the IP address of your web server in you know, value field, and you hit it, you know, you add, you add that record, then you can also add a C name record for www dot and then put the same value your domain name in the value field, that’s a C name record. And that will so that the website will resolve on both the root domain and the www version of it. If that makes sense. Cloudflare has helped files for that if, if those are confusing, you can always go to YouTube, and say how to set up a domain on Cloudflare. And, you know, I’m sure there’s a shit ton of YouTube videos out there that will show you how to do that. It’s very simple. Once you learn how to do it, it’s super, super simple. And I use Cloudflare for just about everything. The only thing here’s something else. And I mentioned this, and I’ll give this away because I thought it was brilliant. I took a great email prospecting course from this is called cold email mastery. And it’s on gumroad.com. I don’t even know the trait, the guy’s name, who did the training, it was fabulous, really, really good. cold email prospecting course, I just took it like two weeks ago, maybe three weeks ago. So 125 bucks. It’s worth it, guys. But he showed me in that training, how to go buy the domain through Google domains through a G Suite account or Google workspace account. And then if you buy that domain, like that, you’re going to be cold email prospecting with buying the domain through Google workspaces. And through Google domains logged into a Google account. And guess you don’t have to be logged into a Google workspace account. You could probably do it from your primary Google account if it’s just a regular Google account. But go to Google domains is when I’m saying purchase the domain that you’re going to be using for cold email. If you’ve already done it, don’t worry about it. It’s not a big deal. I’m just saying going forward or get another extension of.org or.co extension that you can redirect to your money site. And again, I’ll cover some of this in the updating training for vpls or the video Legion system. But if you buy the domain through Google domains, it’s like three bucks more than it is at name cheap. But it will automatically set up your you there’s a checkbox during the checkout process for purchasing a domain through Google domains that will allow that will automatically set Google workspaces up for that domain and it will set up the SPF records the DK i M Records and all these things that you need to ensure the highest deliverability for your emails. So it’s great it was a great little hack for me it was worth 125 bucks alone for the cost of that course was just to learn that because it sets everything up and it’s it’s right out of the gate. It’s an initial validation signal to Google that you know you’re a valid business and not just a spammer. One other thing that I want to cover just very briefly and again this is because I’m doing so much of this stuff right now guys, but there’s this great service and I’ll cover this in the update when I do that for the video lead gen system. Lem list calm. This is a cold emailing platform. I’m not using it for that I’m using it for one Barrett because I’m using high level for my prospecting platform. And I’m using high level it’s fabulous Semantic Mastery comm slash high level, you can get a 14-day free trial. That is my it’s great. I’m using that for my automation platform and all the stuff that I’m doing. But why I brought up Lem list was because if you want to build a domain reputation of a new domain for cold emailing, they have this service in here. And if you go to their blog, they’ve got a great article about it. In fact, I’m just going to pull up the article because that would be better.

Warm up, email, and I’m going to put them list.com get right there how to warm up your email account. And that’s on blog dot Lem list calm so just go to Lem go to Google and search for warm-up email endless calm and it’s the very first organic listing right there, boom, read this article. It’s fabulous. When I came across this I was like, Man, that’s uh, it’s brilliant. They have this. And you can join Lem list for I think it’s 30 bucks a month, just to use the lead warm feature. And that’s what I do. So once I have, you know, my domain, set up all the records in place and everything, then I add that Google workspace account, to Lem list through the to the LEM warm feature. And what it does is it starts to send and receive and reply to emails from that brand new domain email address to other Lem Lem list users and it’s all done. It’s all automated it gets it’s done in the background. But what it does is it starts to build the domain reputation so that when you are ready to start cold, like I would give it 30 days, at the very minimum at least 21 days for the LEM warm system to warm the email up and build a domain reputation before you start cold prospecting emailing with it. But I want to tell you like I said, I just set this up for the domain that I just started prospecting with about three weeks ago, two and a half weeks ago really. And I only let that it run on that for two weeks. And I just tested I did a MX tools, you know, email reputation tests you for where you can send an email in and it will analyze the email and tell you what like the spam score is. And I got a 9.4 out of 10 yesterday when I literally just tested it yesterday because about once a week I like to go in and check to see if my domain reputation is dropping and I got a 9.4 out of 10. And I’m sending cold emails with a video email, just like I talked about a video lead gen system I’m using send spark.com or send spark whatever it’s an app Sumo deal that creates the video, email gifts, and all that. And that’s what I’m using and I inject put that right into Gmail, send that out for cold emailing and I’m still getting a 9.4 out of a 10 you know, domain reputation score. So I would highly recommend that you check out Lem lists for their lead warm feature. And then also check out, you know, purchasing domains through Google domains that you��re going to be doing for and set Google workspace upon it is what I’m saying. So hopefully that makes sense. As far as CloudFlare go back and just go to YouTube. Cloudflare has got help files but you can also go to YouTube and search and I’m sure you’ll find a tutorial on how to do what you need to do.

Do Different Stacks Interlink When Mirroring The Site Into The Drive Stack?

Looks like Jason, Jason Oh my god. Game says hello there when mirroring so we’re almost out of time guys. three more minutes. Hello there. When mirroring the site into the drive stack do the different stacks interlink. So for example, do dogs from the widgets folder point to the green widgets folder docs?

As far as I know, well, no, no, I and Marco would be better to answer this one. But if you’re siloing, your drive stack using the ArcGIS expansions. Like we teach the No.

And again, I don’t build them anymore. So I’m not sure if they I don’t think they interlink because the silos inside the drive stack or the internal links are the links from the files within the drive stack within the silo in the drive stack should be only pointing to the target URLs on your money site. Right? The same silos?

Not interlinking between them, if that makes sense.

Yeah, and I can’t mark it would be better to answer that one. I’m sorry. I just can’t give you a proper answer on that one. Because I’d have to go in and actually analyze one of my drive stacks. I haven’t built one of those in so many years. To be honest with you, I’m not sure how, through the expansion service, how they interlink those, I think they interlink all the files and folders within the same silo. They interlink those two to each other, right, that makes sense, but no cross linking to other silos. And I’d have to confess I’d have to go look at it to confirm it, or Marco could confirm it, but he’s not here. So.

All right, one more Jason says

Just kidding I’m really here for this week’s SEO with BB also just getting these talking about BB too many questions BB just giving you a little crap and seeing if you can crack Bradley up. Yeah thanks, Jason

all right last one well this is good cold email mastery There you go, we need to get an affiliate link for that for real because I keep touting how good that course is. It really is a good course.

Does All Of The MGYB Services Work For Non-English Sites?

Last question, guys Conrad says Hey guys, are some or all of the MGYB services for non-English sites as well what would be different or good to take into account when ordering the project and other languages it’s non-English you can’t we don’t we only provide our done for you services in English.

Hernan, if you’re still available, maybe you can, I don’t do anything outside of the US. But from what I understand you can apply the SEO shield that built-in English and still apply it to a non-English target. And it will still benefit it. But I don’t do that. So I don’t know if Hernan still with us or not? Apparently not. From what again, from what I understand it doesn’t you can have all English stuff on the SEO shield pointing to a non-English site and still benefit from it. But I can’t really answer that because I’ve never done anything outside SEO wise outside of the US. Post this question in the Facebook group and I’m sure that Rob or Marco could jump in and give you the correct answer.

Okay.

All right. Well, thanks, guys. Thanks, Adam. For hanging out, guys.

Source: Semantic Mastery Weekly SEO Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 329 published first on your-t1-blog-url

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daynamartinez22 · 4 years ago

Text

Weekly SEO Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 329

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 329 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://semanticmastery.com/humpday.

Announcement

Cool, Chris, what’s up, man? Good here.

Cool, but without further ado, and nobody else has objections. Let’s move on to the questions. All right, let me grab a screen. Oops, wrong button.

You guys are seeing it now. Correct. Looks good.

I don’t know why it stopped with your damn. I don’t know which ones are which anymore.

Can You Offset Average Reviews And Get Into The 3-Pack By Targeting Optimized Listings With Press Release, Backlinks, Drive Stacks From MGYB?

Not rankings, but they do become link building targets? Right? Yeah.

Does Daily Posting In GMB Help In Ranking The Listing Higher?

I’m like, Can I say outside of local GMB Pro people have paid really good money for that course. Right? And how much are we willing to give away for free?

Yeah, I mean, you have to look at what your competitors are doing to see what it is that you have to do to compete in the space.

Check to see if that like what frequency of posting you should have. There’s so much information that you can gather from a GMB and from insights. It’s ridiculous.

Yeah.

Should You Create A GMB For A Business Aiming To Get Monthly Membership Signups Even If It’s Not A Local Service Type?

Should You Buy An MGYB Link Package To Hit The RYS Stack After Purchasing A Depth Keyword Research?

Yeah.

What Software Can You Recommend To Automate LinkedIn Lead Generation?

Over the years, I’ve not done a whole lot of LinkedIn stuff. Number one, I just never had a desire to do it. It’s just like Facebook, I’m not a big fan.

I mean, what I wanted to see is how good it was for prospecting, right. And I did it in the Virginia area got a bunch of people from Virginia, DC.

So yeah, it’s a great question. By the way, I’m just like I said, just starting to get into LinkedIn now.

I think it’s promising. So I’m gonna give it a real effort. I’ll share what I know when I know.

Any Advice On How To Optimize An Online Vehicle Dealership Web Platform In Facebook Marketplace & Other Sites?

Can You Use The SEO Power Shield To A Website That Already Had A Google Drive & IFTTT Setup By Another Vendor?

It’s probably done a hell of a lot better too.

Since we did it not probably I’m sure it is. But um, yeah, no, as far as I’ll let Marco take this one. But yeah, you can apply it to the same site. What do you say, Marco?

Yeah.

Does that it?

I mean, they ask these questions, and you can never be really sure, right. Yeah, that’s true. It’s, uh,

Have You Tried Using 301 Redirect A Domain With Single Backlink From Authoritative Site To A Money Site?

Why Does Google Rank A Site With Higher Quality Backlinks Than A Long Form Content?

How Come Google Ranks Pages With Blocked To Membership Content?

I think something like this right.

So like a blank membership registration page or something, you know what I mean? I think that’s what he’s asking about but he’s getting activity. Yeah.

Looks like we already have an early access landing page. Look at that. I hadn’t thought of everything yet. No, I did in the background during Hump Day Hangouts. Ah, the truth comes out.

How To Properly Set The CloudFare Settings To Point To the Website?

Warm up, email, and I’m going to put them list.com get right there how to warm up your email account. And that’s on blog dot Lem list calm so just go to Lem go to Google and search for warm-up email endless calm and it’s the very first organic listing right there, boom, read this article. It’s fabulous. When I came across this I was like, Man, that’s uh, it’s brilliant. They have this. And you can join Lem list for I think it’s 30 bucks a month, just to use the lead warm feature. And that’s what I do. So once I have, you know, my domain, set up all the records in place and everything, then I add that Google workspace account, to Lem list through the to the LEM warm feature. And what it does is it starts to send and receive and reply to emails from that brand new domain email address to other Lem Lem list users and it’s all done. It’s all automated it gets it’s done in the background. But what it does is it starts to build the domain reputation so that when you are ready to start cold, like I would give it 30 days, at the very minimum at least 21 days for the LEM warm system to warm the email up and build a domain reputation before you start cold prospecting emailing with it. But I want to tell you like I said, I just set this up for the domain that I just started prospecting with about three weeks ago, two and a half weeks ago really. And I only let that it run on that for two weeks. And I just tested I did a MX tools, you know, email reputation tests you for where you can send an email in and it will analyze the email and tell you what like the spam score is. And I got a 9.4 out of 10 yesterday when I literally just tested it yesterday because about once a week I like to go in and check to see if my domain reputation is dropping and I got a 9.4 out of 10. And I’m sending cold emails with a video email, just like I talked about a video lead gen system I’m using send spark.com or send spark whatever it’s an app Sumo deal that creates the video, email gifts, and all that. And that’s what I’m using and I inject put that right into Gmail, send that out for cold emailing and I’m still getting a 9.4 out of a 10 you know, domain reputation score. So I would highly recommend that you check out Lem lists for their lead warm feature. And then also check out, you know, purchasing domains through Google domains that you’re going to be doing for and set Google workspace upon it is what I’m saying. So hopefully that makes sense. As far as CloudFlare go back and just go to YouTube. Cloudflare has got help files but you can also go to YouTube and search and I’m sure you’ll find a tutorial on how to do what you need to do.

Do Different Stacks Interlink When Mirroring The Site Into The Drive Stack?

As far as I know, well, no, no, I and Marco would be better to answer this one. But if you’re siloing, your drive stack using the ArcGIS expansions. Like we teach the No.

Not interlinking between them, if that makes sense.

All right, one more Jason says

all right last one well this is good cold email mastery There you go, we need to get an affiliate link for that for real because I keep touting how good that course is. It really is a good course.

Does All Of The MGYB Services Work For Non-English Sites?

Okay.

All right. Well, thanks, guys. Thanks, Adam. For hanging out, guys.

Source: Semantic Mastery Weekly SEO Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 329 published first on your-t1-blog-url

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