#something about stanford's disregard for it

[abirthdayclown]

My partner's dad is a twin and they told me that when he was a boy his family couldn't afford two pairs of glasses so they bought them for one twin but not the other. That is Stan and Ford to me.

[mydemonsdrivealimo]

also on the note of things that make jensen upset can we talk ab how the entire oph group went to ivy leauges

[yugiamaneisdead]

Quick post debunking those half-baked opinions I'm seeing on tiktok and Twitter using just Journal 3:

1. "Mabel was selfish/mean/ungrateful/ an awful person etc" let alone the fact she's a 13 yr old girl and also regularly risked her life for him... The point is that they grew and learned. They made mistakes and apologized for it, and they forgave. They moved on. (Something Stan and Ford could never do -- a contrast)

2. "Stanford just used Fiddleford and was the sole reason for the falling out" Ford obviously cared a lot about Fiddleford, but the fact was that they didn't trust each other as much as they should've, and Ford was being manipulated 24/7 (add on sleep deprivation, mind manipulation, etc.) That's the point of the "TRUST NO ONE" message being debunked - there are things you can't do on your own, and you need someone you trust to fall back on. But they didn't have that. (Second pic is of Fiddleford talking to young Blind Ivan, and it's implied this is where he got the memory gun idea, due to his traumatic experience striking a cord in Fiddleford.)

3. "Ford is a bad person, used Stan, etc, all that shit." Ford fucked up. Literally everyone knows that. But after seeing who Stan was, who he really was, Ford was forced to confront the fact that his image of his brother was warped from years and years of being on his own, running for his life, living in constant paranoia, being manipulated into trusting no one but a dream demon, and yes, his ego. He admits it himself. And Stan isn't a perfect person, but the image (in the beginning) of him is inaccurate in the Journal, because it's written from Ford's pov. He hasn't had to look from someone else's POV in years, so he sees Stan's actions as selfish and unreasonable. But later on, he realizes it. He's been living like he's simply better than others due to his intelligence, criticizing everything Stan does, but in the end, he realizes he was wrong, and the brother he loved has been there the whole time, risking his life readily and daily just for a chance to protect his family, giving up everything for them. He realizes he was unjust. And it's not an excuse -- but a reason, one that shouldn't be dumbed down to "Oh he's a bad person". And he recognizes that Stanley has every right to deny his dream after Ford belittled Stan's.

He kept films of when they were kids, and stayed by Stan's side constantly while his memory was returning. Stan is important to him, he was simply in an awful situation that caused him to act awful. Stan is Ford's hero.

4. "Ford abandoned Fiddleford/Fiddleford got a bad ending". Be so fr, even disregarding the credits scene where Fiddleford is with his son, and the scene where Fiddleford says he can start forgiving instead of forgetting what Ford did and put him through, there are full pages of this guy's ramblings abt him. And he remembers such minute details about his friend, such as the rubix cube. He went out of his way to help rebuild Fiddleford's life.

Bonus number 5: "The road trip episode wasn't logical to put into the second season because they were trying to be protected from Bill. " that was explained too! Though it was only in the Journal so I get it yk? But Ford's aim was the protect the kids in case he made a mistake.

Anyways that's all for now, just a bunch of things I noticed ppl forgot or didnt know while reading Journal 3.

[preseriesdean]

happy wincest wednesday<33!! do you have a headcanon for why they haven't spoken in 2 years according to the pilot or do you accept that as a continuity error and assume they haven't spoken in 4?

happy wincest thwednesday!! 💞 i do think it’s a continuity error (isn’t there also this thing where according to john’s journal, which isn’t really canon, sam actually left for stanford at 19, not 18? let’s disregard the journal though and say sam left for stanford in ‘01) but i’m running with it.

there are so many possibilities here: of course there’s the drunk 1am phone call somewhere in the middle. but WHAT IF they actually just ran into each other by chance - at least seemingly? not in palo alto, but on a trip sam took. he’ll walk down the street, maybe even in san francisco or somewhere far away, and see the impala parked right there and he’ll go, okay, this could be anyone’s car. theirs wasn’t one of a kind. except the plates match, so it’s definitely dean’s. sam’s friends will gush over the car and sam is sort of stuck, until he sees dean round the corner with a to-go coffee cup and bags under his eyes and his hair longer than sam has ever seen it and there’s this split second of both of them just staring before dean slaps on a grin and gets all smug about some other guy making heart-eyes at the impala. and it takes sam a little while longer to get his brain back online where he recognizes dean’s tough-guy act for exactly what it is but also doesn't know what to say at all

they’d go to a bar and try to catch up but neither of them is telling the whole truth about how they’re doing and they both know they’re lying but neither is willing to call the other one out on it, because they’re not allowed to do that anymore after so long, and maybe they play some darts and try to savor that little unexpected sense of normalcy, of being brothers without this baggage looming over them, and the elephant in the room takes away all the oxygen from around them and there’s this unspeakable tension that’s somehow part anger part longing part something-else until they part ways again because dean’s case is dealt with and sam has exams soon.

and sam is left wondering if it actually was a coincidence because of course mr. dean “i thought you’d tell me to get lost or get dead” winchester wouldn’t admit to following him, right? his face was startled enough when they saw each other, but sam hasn’t seen dean in two years and he’s horrified to realize that he might be out of practice when it comes to reading his brother’s expressions, something he’d always been stellar at, so that’s also a whole issue that breaks sam’s heart a little bit. and he should feel outraged at the possibility of dean following him instead of just calling him and asking how he’s doing but he can’t quite make himself actually feel that rage because it’s dean and there’s always been this part of him that secretly liked how dean loved him in that obsessive, entitled way, because it's what he knows best and it makes him feel safe. so he accepts it.

then it’s another two years of radio silence because dean saw that sam was happy with his friends and fitting in with them, and sam assumes that dean’s still angry at him for leaving, and they’re still young and stupid and trying not to act on how obsessed they both are with each other, so they go right back to not talking. 🙂

this, i think, also works with how dean appears in the pilot and throughout the first season: cocky at first but then earnest and honest, too, communicating more clearly what it is that he wants and needs, “i can’t do this alone / i don’t want to” (only five minutes in and he’s already letting himself be vulnerable. i love him so much) because that first time two years ago didn’t work out so well, did it? so this time he tries to do it right, because the stakes are higher and because he needs sam.

(obligatory fic rec: i’ll take my chance on a beautiful stranger by fleshflutter)

[fandomlurker333]

My take: Dean has never respected Sam’s autonomy in his whole life for two reasons.

1. Because he himself has no concept of it (he’s daddy’s blunt little instrument being thrown around, or he’s Sam’s protector — bodily shield for his baby brother, or he’s his provider — working/stealing/going hungry so that Sam can eat, etc.). He has no conception of a body that belongs solely to him because he’s never been allowed it. How can you give to someone else what you’ve never been given yourself?

I 100% agree with what you’ve said here. But the thing is that Dean can observe something outside of himself and say it’s messed up, and the rules be different for him and Sam simply because his self-concept is not separate from Sam. Because he grew up so psychologically fucked by their circumstances he literally never formed an identity separate from Sam’s wellbeing. This isn’t to absolve him, I’m just pointing out facts. 🤣

These two aren’t just codependent, they’re deeply enmeshed. And Sam runs off to Stanford to get a bit of distance and try to figure out who he is without Dean, who he is when he’s his own person, and frankly never manages it. And the way his life careens off the rails and he loses touch with reality every single time Dean’s not there (beyond Stanford) narratively hints at the fact that he struggles to do this in any sustainable way. It’s why (when he’s not soulless which lol) he always attaches himself to some woman and ends up turning into whatever they need.

We see them tackle this over and over —this can’t live with him, literally cannot live without him debacle. And for all Sam talks a good game, there are many times he sinks comfortably into the habits of enmeshment and codependency with Dean with no struggle. It isn’t that he’s doing a prison sentence chained to him. He also enjoys the benefits of their dynamic until Dean takes it too far and he’s forced to try and assert a level of autonomy that, in actuality, they’ve never learned or practiced.

I agree losing Sam in Season 2 fucked Dean up irrevocably and made all this worse. I also agree that the tight arc through season 5 was about Dean letting Sam finally make his own choices (being Lucifer’s vessel, saying yes, drinking the blood, etc. basically his worse nightmare). And it was Sam’s redemption arc. This is where they were headed since Season one. And the show was scripted originally to end here, which is why from S6-S10 they just loop back on the same themes and neither character seems to grow at fucking all.

My favorite is Season 11 when the writers seemed to have Sam finally just stop struggling and accept that what he has with Dean is not healthy, and it never will be. But! He does want it. He wants him&Dean. So instead of lying to himself about it and saying he doesn’t and running himself ragged yanking at the rope he continually retightens, it feels like he kinda of sighs into this.

And says okay this is what it is. This is reality. This is water. Dean and I are fucked. But I do want this. So where are my boundaries actually within this? Is there a way we can live happily within this dysfunction? Are there things we can negotiate? What CAN we attain?

Instead of this pie in the sky fantasy that he and Dean will be normal one day when he keeps getting into that passenger seat and falling into those same patterns he says he hates so much. 🫣Sam DOES have agency. It’s agency that is violated by many and our boy struggles bad, but for better or worse, he chooses Dean. I feel like Season 11 is Sam finally admitting to himself that he does.

Now the full horror take is, of course, that Sam is tired of fighting for any autonomy in the face of it being ripped away from him at every turn. And so settling into this relationship with his controlling older brother is like giving up. But I feel like that take disregards the second reason Dean can’t recognize Sam’s autonomy which is that…

2. They are canonical soulmates. Soul. Mates. Meaning they belong to each other at soul level. That most intrinsic element of who they are — it has been mated since they came into being. (Hello, is this thing on??) They have been joined together (bonded, MATED) at the soul level for the whole time they have existed. That shit is INSANE. Like can you even conceive of it?

It’s an incredibly romantic notion but it didn’t come from me! It’s written in the text! Sam and Dean are a “special case”.

It’s been acknowledged by the angels, the demons, and God (Chuck) himself. lol them two were MADE to be together. To fight together. To fight each other. To have their love conquer the end of the world (this is the resolution point of Season 5).

Sam and Dean’s love is meant to do the impossible (allow Sam to leash a heretofore unleashable all-powerful evil — Lucifer). Such is the strength (and purity!!! And unconditionality!) of their love. It’s literally written in the text!

They are soulmates. And to me this entails every ridiculous and romantic notion we have about soulmates. Being everything to each other. No one being more important. Being willing to die for each other. Being willing to kill for each other. Losing a big part of themselves without one another. And yes, with that level of intensity and inescapable intimacy comes all the toxic parts too.

There are many times the show deals with this question too. Are they at their worst when they’re together? Do they just make each other worse? And time and again it’s shown that — at least from their perspective — they are better together. They are better hunters, better people, better members of society, really, in the sense they’re better at paying attention to others outside of their unit of Sam&Dean. They’re only whole, human (“we keep each other human”) together. Dean and Sam both turn monstrous without each other.

But the full romance take is that they actually are closest to heaven and at peak joy when they’re together. We see this allllll the way back when they first get to heaven and Dean sees SAM with those goddamn fireworks. And Sam spends what I think is years after trying to convince Dean that the angels fucked up his heaven — that heaven really isn’t heaven without Dean.

That hell is, in fact, separation (another thing the show is not subtle about. See Dean screaming Sam’s name in hell, Dean ending up in purgatory without Sam, Sam in hell without Dean, etc.) Sam is always running away from it. That feeling of inevitability, of belonging. But he knows it’s inescapable.

The full romance take is they were fated for each other. They were born this way. They could never have been any other way. And so the best they could do is learn to find balance within that intensity.

To learn how to heal from and cope with their trauma (the biggest of which always seems to be losing each other) so they can figure out how to make every moment of their lives together as close to heavenly as possible. Because that potential is always there.

what happens when you've decided i can't be trusted again? what happens when you've decided i can't be trusted again? what happens when you've decided i can't be trusted again? what happens when you've decided i can't be trusted again? what happens when you've decided i can't be trusted again? what happens when you've decided i can't be trusted again? what happens—

[writing-essence]

Fear (Part 5) -Jonathan Crane

Pairing: Jonathan Crane x (female) reader

Warnings: Language, Alcohol, mention of paranoia + insomnia

Summary: Reader sees Jonathan again for the first time since their date.

Author’s Note: HAHAH I’m here with a 5th part after a WHOLE YEAR of not updating 🥰🥰😘😘 anyway lmk if you wanna be on a tag list! -Kelsie

Word Count: 1,389

You were still a bit of a shaking mess after you left his apartment that night. That kind of fear wasn’t something you could just shake off. You fumbled with the key to your apartment before stumbling in.

“Rough night?” Chris said, watching you from the kitchen entrance, her grease stained apron still loose around her petite frame.

You ignored her as you threw your bookbag on the ground before you got to work untying your shoes.

“A professor?” She continued, “really?”

You stayed silent and clumsily kicked your shoes off.

“I didn’t know you were failing,” She joked, “Didn’t the term just start?”

“That’s not why I’m seeing him,” You finally responded, pushing past her to get into the kitchen.

“Is he actually your professor?” She asked, spinning around to face you with an amused look on her face, “He’s so young,”

You quickly grabbed a beer from the fridge before pushing past her again to get to your room.

“Come on,” She whined from the kitchen, “I wanna know all the juicy details,”

You couldn’t tell Chris what had actually happened that night. You ignored her still as you closed your bedroom door behind you before collapsing on your bed. You were exhausted.

You laid for a few moments but sleep wouldn’t take over. You compulsively kept opening your eyes everytime you got close to it. The mere thought of closing your eyes and being stuck in that darkness again kept you lying awake all that night as well as for a few nights following the first date you shared with the professor.

Before you knew it you were slumping into his Tuesday class. He sat with his head down at his desk hunched over some paperwork. Behind him, on the whiteboard, read, “Leave Stanford Prison Experiment paper on front desk”.

Shit. You totally forgot about the homework he assigned last class.

You slowly walked over to his desk where he sat working and hovered silently for a moment before he looked up at you, confused.

“I forgot to do the paper,” You mumbled, shamefully.

A deep blush set into his cheeks and he quickly looked away from your gaze.

“I take you on one date and you suddenly think you’re exempt from the homework,” He says quietly so none of the students already seated could hear.

It was your turn to blush, “That’s not it-” You started before he cut you off.

“It’s okay, I’ll give you an A,”

“I haven’t been sleeping,” You confessed, trying to explain yourself. He looked back up at you now, with a softer expression this time.

“I can’t stop thinking about the darkness,” You said quietly, pausing for a moment as a student swiftly dropped a paper off in between the two of you before heading to their seat, “I’m scared to close my eyes,”

“I shouldn’t have tested it on you,” He said softly, “I’m sorry,”

“I wanted to do it,” You said, pausing again as another student came and left, “I just didn’t want you thinking that I didn’t do the homework because you’d pass me anyway,”

He looked away from you again, avoiding your gaze once more.

“Although I don’t think I would’ve been able to do the assignment anyway,” You confessed, blushing, “I was distracted during the whole film,”

“Distracted?” He asked, looking back at you quizzically.

“By you, silly,” You mumbled, looking down.

He sat stunned for a moment, an awkward demeanor setting in.

“Class should’ve started three minutes ago,” You said quietly, “It seems like I’m being a distraction now,”

He fumbled quickly to move the papers in front of him to see the clock on his desk as you waltzed to the back of the lecture hall to your seat with a smirk on your face.

“Alright class,” He said loudly, as he stumbled to the front of the class, “Everyone quiet. I’ll be grading your papers tomorrow so you’ll have them back by Thursday,”

He quickly pulled the projector clicker from his pocket, turning it on.

“Today we’ll be talking about experiments inspired by the Stanford Prison Experiment,”

The slides shifted into their places in the projector as he clicked through them, explaining each one. Saying you were distracted was an understatement. You couldn’t focus on the slides at all, having him standing there right by the screen.

“Most of these experiments focused on fear,” He said, his hand shifting the mic on his collar as he readjusted his glasses, “As I mentioned on the first day of class..” He trailed off suddenly as he made eye contact with you from the back of class. He stood frozen in place for a moment before a student near the front spoke up.

“Fear fuels everyday life?”

His gaze was taken from you as he looked, confused, at the student who spoke.

“Um,” He paused again, trying to regain his thoughts, “Yea, yes. Fear fuels everyday life. This is, um, why a lot of experiments are done on it,”

He fumbled with the clicker in his hands for a moment, quickly turning the projector off.

“Class is dismissed early today,” He mumbled into the mic before ripping it off his collar.

“What about homework?” A student yelled across the lecture hall, causing an eruption of groans from other students.

“No homework today,” He yelled back before sitting back down at his desk.

As the rest of your class quickly flooded out of the lecture hall, you took your sweet time packing everything into your bag before going back up to his desk once the room was empty.

“What the hell was that,” You laughed, crossing your arms.

“I was distracted,” He mumbled, not taking his eyes away from the humming computer screen in front of him.

You blushed and waited for him to continue, but he didn’t. He didn’t even look at you.

“So um,” You awkwardly played with the hem of your shirt, “We did mention a second date..”

“Mhm,” He mumbled, still not looking over at you.

“Um,” You cleared your throat awkwardly, “Whenever you’re available, I probably will be too, now that I don’t have to do homework,” You joked, earning no response from him.

You stood in silence for a few moments, “Unless you don’t want to?”

He finally peeled his eyes away from his screen to look over at you, “Have you slept at all since Thursday?” He asked, disregarding the previous conversation completely.

“Not really,”

“What are you afraid of,” He asked sternly, his gaze not leaving yours.

“Um,” You looked away from him, quickly, “I don’t want to get stuck in the darkness,” You mumbled, “The emptiness,”

“You won’t,” He said, standing suddenly. You watched as he quickly started shoving all of his papers into his bag.

“Your fear is irrational,” He continued, “There’s never emptiness anywhere,”

“You seemed fascinated by it on Thursday,” You mumbled, embarrassed.

“I’m not judging you,” He said, walking around the desk to stand by you, “I’m just saying you don’t need to be scared of emptiness. I promise you’ll always have something,”

His tone was snarky and you glared up at him, “You’re making fun of me,”

“You need to sleep,” He said, ignoring your previous statement once again, “That’s your homework,”

“I can’t,” You whined, following him out of the classroom and through the hallway of the university, “You don’t understand, when I close my eyes I’m there,”

“I’ll work on a serum to help with the side effects,” He said as he led you out of the main building and outside.

“You didn’t tell me there were side effects,” You said, stopping suddenly.

He stopped a few paces in front of you.

“There weren’t any with me,” He said, turning to face you, “But it’s causing paranoia and insomnia for you,”

“How long will it take to make the serum?”

“I’ll work on it as much as I can this week,” He said, walking back towards you, “I can’t guarantee it by a certain date. But until then, please at least try to sleep,”

“Aw,” You teased, rocking in place slightly, “Are you worried about me Professor?”

A deep blush set in his cheeks and he turned and walked away quickly without saying anything.

“You can’t escape me,” You called, jogging after, “Seriously, we ride the same bus home,”

[bronan]

zoom!

send me a character and i’ll list:

favorite thing about them - I love his goblin energy like he is a wild animal prepared to go apeshit at a moment's notice and I just think that's great for the kid. He has so much to prove all the time and this huge chip on his shoulder and hates being the youngest and hates being underestimated and he's so brave, but I think his total disregard for his own well-being is very telling and like can someone help this kid

least favorite thing about them - I don't have anything I dislike about Zoom he's a great character ten outta ten

favorite line - I can't remember the actual line but I loved when he called Stanford grandpa or something like that like please Zoom you are killing him

brOTP - zoom and stanford is such a great brOTP, I just love thinking that they could have this hilarious brotherly bond and like how is stanford used to brothers acting toward each other?? of course they give each other massive amounts of shit, stanford learned from the best (although we know he gets massively dunked on by zoom on the regular) - zoom and vert is the OG brOTP they're just adorable. Vert is clearly an only child I love that zoom was like "(points) THAT ONE" it really makes vert have to step back and think about how his actions influence others and I think his relationship with zoom helped him grow a lot as a leader while also giving him someone to be a stupid idiot with from time to time. Also vert being able to be the shoulder to lean on when zoom needs it way to go vert you did it, you're awesome dude

OTP - I think zoom/sherman would be pretty cute and it's so out of left field I know I know it makes zero sense and I haven't babbled about it so I can't even properly explain my thoughts on it just trust me it's cute (source: just trust me dude)

nOTP - nOTP gonna have to be zoom/zen for me

random headcanon - I think Zoom's mind is always busy, he's experiencing a lot of the world for the first time since leaving The Order and he keeps most of his thoughts to himself. So when he's making jabs at someone, being funny, etc, it makes people think he's not thoughtful, mature, and smart, but to Zoom, actions speak way louder than words. Unfortunately, it takes him a while to get good at properly demonstrating those thoughts into actions because he's very hung up on his own low self-worth and his huge need to prove himself and protect everyone else without regard to his own well-being. I think vert's been able to have frank discussions with him but he normally keeps his more complicated thoughts and feelings to himself until they boil over and he's too frustrated/upset to hold it in anymore.

unpopular opinion - once again idk if this is an unpopular opinion or not, I suck at this part but here goes. Zoom is so much more than the "uwu baby" of the team. What I mean is, I don't think he's super innocent so much as naive to a lot of the world due to living a sheltered and strict life up until now. Zoom's complicated! He's (understandably) frustrated and restless as hell and wants to experience living and doing what he wants and fighting for a cause he chose for himself instead of being held to an impossible standard and held on some pedestal and stuck, stagnant. I know he's the youngest so it's inevitable that he'd be seen as very innocent/pure/etc (and like yeah home boy is 16) but idk I just like to see more sides of his personality explored instead of putting him in that box if that makes any sense

song i associate with them - it is now that I've realized I don't really have any songs for zoom ☹️

favorite picture of them

I had like two screencaps of Zoom saved and neither of them were it so I stole this from google. But it's a good one because I love when Zoom makes the "are you fuckin kiddin me" face. boy is DONE

[gftimelord]

*Stanford could only balk at the triangle in surprise. What was he even going on about? A show? About what? The doctors? It sounded like utter nonsense. But then again, he couldn’t completely disregard it. This was the multiverse; anything and everything could happen. An infinite number of worlds meant an infinite number of possibilities and then some.*

"... You're losing me here, Cipher, and no—I’m not aware of this 'show' you’re referencing. My sonic screwdriver works as it should. I've not a clue what you're on about."

*He made that point abundantly clear as he aimed his sonic screwdriver at a nearby tree. With a high-pitched screech, the device blasted a noticeable hole clean through the trunk through it's glowing end, and exiting on the other side. Ford had always wondered why the screwdriver had been so ineffective against anything wooden in the past, but thankfully, ever since he’d installed the infinity die as a more reliable power source and modified it for more destructive upgrades, that was no longer an issue.*

"See? And extending?? Are they compensating for something?"

hi there! i'm definitely a human and not a ................ nevermind. not human. never thinking about being human again. eugh...

anyways, hi, i'm bill. proooobably a familiar name, i know. so uh... what's your deal? ... is that a sonic screwdriver? that's cool. is it real or a replica from that one show? ... ... ... anyways, hi there!

-tt

*Ford’s eyes narrowed, and his grip tightened on the sonic screwdriver. This iteration of Bill Cipher was unlike any he’d encountered before, and yet, the demon’s mere presence had him on edge. Was he some kind of magnet for these cosmic demons? It certainly felt like it.*

"Wait—what do you mean 'real or replica'?"

*The doctor asked, his tone laced with confusion and a tinge of suspicion. The question had thrown him off. Of all the strange and multiversal encounters he’d had, no one had ever questioned the authenticity of his sonic screwdriver. It was a tool that only a select few knew about, much less possessed, and Stanford had always assumed that anyone familiar with it would immediately recognize its value and power.*

"I knew there were replicas of these floating around, but not exactly ones that you'd call fake."

*He mused, eyes flicking between the demon and the device in his hand. It was unsettling to think that something as unique as the sonic screwdriver could have counterfeit versions—especially in the hands of someone like Bill, or any of his variants. Were they just as flexible? Powerful? He had so many questions.*

[transjess]

also i think if we disregard the comics (where john drove sam away to stanford deliberately) there’s this terrible tense moment when sam says something that’s just a direct hit to john’s pride and something that john KNOWS sam is right about, something sam knows john knows he’s right about. and sam’s standing in the doorway just daring him to argue or concede but john can’t bring himself to concede and he’s still trying to manage the argument so he can keep control of the situation and make sam stay so he’s trying to swallow his anger before he replies. and sam glares at him furiously and scoffs, becuz of course john would never concede any point, and sam slams the door behind him and is gone before john’s figured out his next play

[advluv4life]

Did I go on a full-on rant about Peter Kavinsky's character plot from To All the Boys 3, because I love it so much and nobody seems to appreciate it? Yes I did.

😘

Out of context, but this is it:

It upsets me (just a little bit, I don't want to be like super hung up on it though) when people watch the movies and completely disregard Peter and his feelings.

I understand the movies are about Lara Jean and honestly I relate so much to Lara Jean, but Peter's character arc, through all the films but especially the third movie.. I related a lot more to it than Lara Jean's. I feel like when I go back and watch the other two movies; when he brings up his dad, and his family, and his friendship with Gen.. I understand why in the second movie he doesn't just abandoned Gen when she was going through the same thing he went through. Because she's his friend and he's not going to just leave his friend behind. So of course it hurts when Lara Jean decides to leave him (even if she didn't intend to break up with him, that's just what it feels like when people pick other things over him). He's been left and it hurts.

I've never been anybody's first choice either. And in Peter's case he doesn't have multiple college options, he can't afford it and he doesn't have the brains to get into top colleges like Lara Jean which is why Stanford was the plan. But of course all people see is him breaking up with her because he's 'selfish' and then he wrote a sappy love letter and got her back without even trying.

Yes, Peter had stuff he had to work through. No one in these movies is perfect. Everyone has their own shit to go through and they have to come to their own realization of how they need to grow and how to care for other people and just because he's not perfect doesn't mean he's not a good guy.

So what? He's not the male version of Lara Jean, but I don't think Lara Jean needs the male version of herself to be happy. I wish had someone who was as attentive as Peter, who picks up on little things, and tries to find a solution to problems before it become more of an issue. Someone who, even when they're heartbroken that something doesn't work out for them, is more concerned with how I'm handling it. When he asked if she was okay in NY? That got me. She said she was scared to tell him and he told her that she didn't have to be scared and the next time (with NYU) she told him. At the cafe he told her they were 'good' even when he was lost, because he didn't want to cause her trouble or pain. It was only when she tried (unintentionally) to manipulate him prom night that he put his foot down and walked away. And that's his right he is his own person he has his own feelings.

He worked through his issues with his dad and they're mending their relationship and in turn he realized how to mend his relationship with Lara Jean and that's what you do. You learn through your experiences. Everything that happens in your life is interconnected. Their relationship doesn't exist in a vacuum. Lara Jean had to grow on her own through multiple films in regards to how she viewed love and the future and Peter had to grow on his own in regards to his attachment issues. They're both their own individual people who are going to grow on their own for the next four years and they'll see where they end up, but I thought it was a very good plot and I really appreciated that Lara Jean wasn't the only character in the whole movie series that mattered.

See, I said I don't want to get hung up on it and then I went on a whole rant. Sorry, not sorry lol. It's been fun. Bye.

[gftimelord]

*Stanford could sense the unsease coming from his counterpart, he always was an easy book to read unfortunately, all the more since back then. He decided to play a different tactic instead, one that would be regretfully more familiar.*

"Oh it's no problem at all! At least when it comes to you being aware of these things. It's practically harmless! I think. Anyway—"

*The doctor spoke so casually, tossing the screwdriver between his hands like some kind of plaything. The way that it's able to simply manipulate space and time despite it's very careless handling was no short of concerning, shouldn't he be more careful?*

"About the Higgs Boson, or the 'God particle'—whatever people want to call it—was only proven to exist fairly recently where I’m from. And manipulating something that unstable? Yeah, not exactly feasible, even for someone like me. I mean, it only sticks around for a teensy fraction of a second. Trying to mess with that? Talk about a calamity waiting to happen, not to mention it's ridiculously volatile nature. But hey, props for trying!"

*Ford seemed oddly very cool about all of this, you'd be lead to wonder how often he would find himself in this kind of scenario to be so... comfortable with it. Not that it seemed dangerous, but it was unsettling how accustomed he seemed to be with being a source of unpredictability, at least to a certain extent. It made him cringe inwardly how familiar this felt, how it fit somebody else much better. Somebody he used to call a friend. He could only hope his counterpart hadn't made that catastrophic deal just yet, it wasn't something he was going to ask.*

"Alright, Einstein, I wouldn’t exactly call it common sense, but meddling with other universes or timelines like I do? Yeah, that's definitely not allowed. In fact, messing with the fabric of the universe is a big no-no for most cosmic entities. But, you know, I have a blatant disregard for their nonsense and genuinely don't care."

*The way he seemed to gesticulate instead of placing his hands behind his back was entirely different, this version of Ford didn't seem to be all that affected by his polydactyly. In fact, he even seemed to wear it like a badge. Something striking, memorable, it's like he knew he was renowned. The million dollar question being what for.*

"My sonic screwdriver does a lot of things—it's a multitool, first and foremost, something I use to do whatever I want. Whether that’s hopping between dimensions by opening rifts or just reprogramming anything with a circuit. Oh, and it can also eviscerate anyone where they stand if I feel like it. Reduced to atoms. Fun stuff."

"How fascinating, versions of me from all walks of life seem to collate on this platform. I'd argue that we've saturated this place but I think we could always do with a couple more... or would this high level of interaction be quite detrimental? Mabel was fine with her counterparts, navigating this should be a walk in the park!"

"Well, a labyrinth more like but I'll manage. I think."

- @gftimelord

Greetings! Glad to see a new version of me! Are you also studying parallel realities? At the moment I have not found a way to move (other than the portal), so I am collecting information about variations through interviews. I would be glad if you tell me a little about yourself!

[cordeliaflyte]

Would love to know your thoughts on the rutger bregman book when you finish it!!!

dearest merle! it took me months to answer this ask - something i'm ashamed of - but i finally got around to finishing the book today.

the below is a condensed version of the ten pages of notes i took while reading it, which are rather chaotic and repetitive at points - but in my defence, bregman repeated his own arguments too.

one of the main arguments that bregman makes is that "evil" or "immorality" - which we'll define as causing unnecessary harm - are rarely caused by the individual, but rather the society they live in. i agree - nothing exists in a vacuum. however, society, as a nebulous concept, isn't imposed on us by some imperceptible power - it is crafted by people. people in society have different levels of power, and the harm they can cause to others is directly proportional to said power - but be it on a micro or macro scale, our actions have an impact on others and while they are influenced by the society we live in, we must nonetheless strive to minimise the harm we cause - and few of us do.

bregman illustrates many of his arguments with heartwarming stories about people coming together in times of crisis - take, for example, natural disasters - and overcoming adversity, selflessly looking out for their neighbours. but crisis very often leads to the creation of divisions, an us vs them mentality, and a complete disregard for the safety of others. the current pandemic is a prime example - see the widening of class differences, the rise in racist hate crimes, and people refusing to take safety precautions because they are inconvenient to them.

another argument repeated quite often throughout the book is the fact that media cherry-picks the most sensationalistic and senseless acts of death and despair, because human suffering is simply more interesting that the mundane - people talking to friends, creating art, laughing and learning. again, i agree with him - many of the more tabloid-adjacent news outlets would have you believe that the everyday norm is dismembered heiresses being found on riverbeds and charming, precocious children being held for ransom in tiny basements. the news doesn't often focus on the mundane - but the mundane isn't just love and work and friendship and boredom and chores, it is also, for billions of people around the world, sexual violence, familial abuse, workplace and housing discrimination, etc. these things aren't sensationalistic either - they're frightfully common, frightfully boring, and thus, they're rarely reported on.

throughout his book, bregman mentions that when he told people what he was working on, they approached the idea that humans are good with a large dose of cynicism, simply because we are raised to believe humans are selfish (which isn't the case worldwide, not all cultures are individualistic). they pick the easier choice - accepting the image of the world and their fellow humans that they are presented with at face value. i'd argue that it is the tendency of humans to pick the easier choice, to obey, to avoid challenging their worldview that leads to - for a lack of better term - immorality (see definition in point 1).

often, when bregman presents his feel good stories about people cooperating in adversity, he also mentions troubling details that, again, show undue harm being done. one of the examples he used were six boys from tonga, aged 13 to 16, who were shipwrecked on an island, and instead of descending into a "lord of the flies" style madness, they built their small community on the basis of communication and cooperation, never resorting to violence, and acting mature beyond their years. after a year spent on the island, they were rescued - and promptly arrested, an event which was probably racially motivated. and the reason they were shipwrecked in the first place was attempting to flee their school, where, according to their reports, they were neglected.

bregman contrasted the example of the boys forming a peaceful society on a small island with the chaos that always ensues when adults in reality shows are put in similar situations. the contestants are pitted against each other by the show runners, who seek to frustrate them and make them lose control for the amusement of the audience. whenever contestants try to cooperate, form a mutually beneficial society for a short while - a radical idea - they are punished. "goodness" - i.e. harm reduction - and radical thought being punished just don't seem like particularly helpful examples for the "humans are inherently good" thesis

bregman seems to be a big fan of primitivism, constantly citing civilisation as a source of harm - a position i'm always sceptical about, because personally i love vaccines and dental care, but i know this is a knee-jerk reaction and bregman isn't plotting a return to a land without dentists. but what i do take ire at is the idea that humans are somehow "corrupt" versions of their natural selves and that our lives have grown too complicated, and only a return to "primitive" society can return us to the aforementioned natural selves.

tied to the previous point - his arguments remind me of the "noble savage"'... archetype? he seems to paint a picture of "primitive" indigenous people as role models for those "corrupted" by civilisation, who in turn must be saved by a return to their "purer" selves, instead of individuals with flaws and agency.

speaking on indigenous populations - bregman also invokes the inhabitants of the easter islands. for a long time, the world at large believed that a hundred years or so before colonization, the islanders effectively perpetrated a genocide, killing off a large proportion of their population - a claim which was later disproven. yay! humans can live in peaceful societies without committing genocide, and thus, are not inherently evil! disregarding the fact that european colonists later massacred a large part of the islands population, and sold most of the survivors into slavery?

i was very excited for one of the chapters, entitled "after auchschwitz". i was interested how bregman would reconcile his argument with the tragedies of the twentieth century - the holocaust, but also genocide, and to a lesser extent war in general.

(this chapter, i might add, was preceded by a quote by anne frank - you know the one, about the inherent goodness of people. i was hoping that bregman would comment on the fact that anne wrote the quote before she and her family were sent to a concentration camp)

so you can imagine my surprise when the chapter was not, in fact, about concentration camps or genocide. but rather about. unethical 70s sociological experiments.

no really! a chapter titled "after auchschwitz" was, in fact, primarily about the stanford prison experiment. an experiment that was, granted, inspired by concentration camps, but still. it's misleading to invoke "real", large scale violence, and focus instead on "simulated", small scale violence.

we all know that the stanford prison experiment was, as far as experiments go, rubbish to legendary degrees. it doesn't prove anything - but it does, perhaps, show that people under large psychological duress are capable of evil, even when they themselves are not "evil".

it is, i'd argue, the human tendency to obey authority and especially to conform to societies standards that poses the largest danger. disobedience is man's original virtue and whatnot.

and when he does briefly refer to concentration camps, bregman treats them like a very 1940s phenomenon, disregarding the fact that they have been around for much longer and still exist today.

in cases like that one experiment with electric shocks. you know the one. do not, perhaps, show an innate tendency to violence, but rather people succumbing to pressure. but history is full of unprovoked instances of violence, of pogroms and lynchings. there is usually an instigator, yes, but judging from reports, people in the right mindset don't need much persuading to butcher other people.

also re: electric shock experiment - those who thought they gave the assistant lethal shocks showed extreme guilt and some even cried but like... so what? what use is a conscience if it doesn't stop you from, to your knowledge, killing someone? are your feelings really more important than your actions?

he doesn't say this, but a lot of the arguments he presents do seem to boil down to "people aren't evil, they're just stupid!" which doesn't sound more encouraging, i'm afraid.

an alternative takeaway would be "people are good, unless they have power" - which isn't exactly a radical, revolutionary idea. most people have heard the maxim "power corrupts". but the thing is that almost everyone holds some amount power over others - the oppressed factory worker in a poor nation who works 12 hours a day for pittance might still execute power over his wife, who relies on him for money, and she in turn might hold power over her children, and so forth. and that power is often used to cause undue harm and exercise control.

he criticises machiavellianism, saying it doesn't reflect how society works, and one of his proofs is that his philosophies were espoused by bismarck, churchill, and stalin - hardly admirable figures in terms of (you guessed it!) causing harm. but i don't see how that discredits machiavelli? like all of the above were very succesful

and he keeps repeating the primitivism argument throughout the book which gets tiring. like i'm truly sorry you were born in the last 5% of human existence thus far when, in your opinion, humanity started going to the shits, but it's getting a bit tiring

he cites money and nations as concepts as harbingers of the current (negative) state of humanity, saying they're very recent concepts and have no basis in reality. they're artificial concepts, sure, but their effect is very much real, and while achieving a nation-less, money-less society is possible on a small scale, i think that at this point they are such large aspects of life that reigning them in seems impossible.

and invokes the noble savage again and again, showing himself in favour of tribal societies, depicting them as egalitarian - i'm sure many of them are, but many also have a strict hierarchy or like. practice fgm. once more he seems to treat tribal people as a monolith of goodness as opposed to... people.

he also cites prehistoric people, their egalitarianism and low rates of violence but. forgive me for my ignorance because i did not research this. how do people know. doesn't the definition of prehistory include a lack of records??

he also mentions that in small, tribal societies, conformism can be a good thing, as it makes people act for the communal good. this is another knee-jerk reaction of mine but i think of conformism as society's most significant vice, so this strikes very much against my beliefs

later on, he also says reproduction is another proof of humanities goodness. perhaps it's a controversial opinion, but i disagree. i find it hard to find reasons for reproduction that aren't egoistic. it's survival instinct, sure, but it's not an "inherently noble pursuit".

later yet, he brings up schools which grant large degrees of freedom to students and shows how they're good for developing their minds. this might be a me thing but i know from experience that when i'm granted freedom without structure, i do nothing - though perhaps that speaks ill of me, and not humanity.

there have, in fact, been many studies on schools like this being helpful to student development and i certainly won't argue with them - but let me nit-pick. bregman says that fewer students have adhd in these schools, as it is a condition caused by being locked inside a room all day which is not only offensive, but also just plain wrong

and also while showing how granting children freedom lets them develop (which i naturally agree with) he brings up that "dangerous playground" study. you know the one. this isn't a coherent argument, this is just my bias speaking , but as a child, i promise i had no desire to play with rusty nails in abandoned warehouses. i liked my boring playgrounds with wooden swings.

then there is a chapter on communism and how it could be a remedy to societies ailments. but bregman and i seem to operate on very different definitions of communism. he naturally starts with saying maoist china and stalinist russia and cambodia under pol pot weren't really communist which... sure, if you want to argue semantics, i'm all for it, but it's an old and essentially useless argument. if "real communism" has never been tried (as the author claims) - why?

and then we pass to perhaps the most bizarre fragment of the book. paraphrasing only slightly: "but why are we now so opposed to the word communism? when we pass each other salt at the dinner table, is that not communism? when we selflessly hold a door open for someone, is that not communism?" i.... no?? no it's not. that's not what communism is girl stop

he then also says facebook is actually communist in many ways since a lot of its value comes from photos people willingly share for free. i could not make this up if i tried.

i think that in most terms i agree with bregman on policy - direct democracy, school and prison systems, changes to the criminal justice system - and our reasoning is partially similar, but i don't think the information we both have access to proves that humans are inherently good.

and then come perhaps my least favourite arguments because i for one am a spiteful bitch but yes. it is time for christian ethics 101 and turning the other cheek.

he cites ghandi and mlk as examples of turning the other cheek working. i think ghandi went too far with his policy, what with saying "jews ought to have marched silently to their deaths or committed mass suicide to make nazis feel ashamed" and like. we do remember they killed mlk, right?

as an example of turning the other cheek, he cites humane prisons in norway, where prisoners are granted much larger freedoms than usual and are on equal footing with the guards, who aren't armed and act more as councillors. i don't really see how this is an example of turning the other cheek, though - the guards are not the victims of the inmates (it was a prison for violent offenders - many of them murderers). i agree with him that prisons, if they must exist, should treat inmates humanely and with respect, but i don't see how this relates to the turning of the cheek. statistically, many of these men probably murdered their mates in a drunken dispute, or killed their wives - and i don't think turning the other cheek would have helped their victims.

he also cites south africa in the sixties as an example of turning the other cheek, when anti-apartheid activists would meet up with pro-apartheid activists and talk - this included nelson mandela who had frequent talks with the leader of a white supremacist paramilitary organisation of afrikaners staunchly opposed to black south africans getting the vote. and it worked - the man, whose aim was starting a civil war, relented. but racism isn't a simple matter that can simply be solved by talking. and it is often a pragmatic policy which i don't disparage, but turning the other cheek and having to treat someone who refuses to acknowledge your humanity with an exorbitantly disproportionate amount of respect is inherently degrading.

skipping ahead, in the epilogue bregman lists ten rules he tries to live by, and one of them is, i shit you not, "don't punch nazis". and punching nazis doesn't stop them from being nazis, but turning the other cheek gets people killed

the rise of fascism is perhaps one the largest threats we are dealing with and fascists are not just isolated and misinformed (and in this day and age, ignorance is a choice). they are dangerous.

this is by no means an essay or an exhaustive list, just a slightly chaotic and much overdue collection of opinions which i don't know how to put under a read more. take care <3

[nostuntmanneeded]

Hi there! I'm a lurker and first time commenter. I wanted to gauge the room and see if you might agree with a kind-of tinfoil hat theory that leans in to the PR. Seb had his Stanford Zoom call the night before he posted the vid of the drumsticks w/Ale's comment and during the interview he made a comment about being kind online and feeling like he can't do anything to fix it. If it wasn't PR, why did he seem so apprehensive? Theory: he must have known a comment was coming. Thoughts?

He could’ve known a comment was coming. So far, he’s been doing the commenting on her page during promotional events and times of heightened fame, so it would make sense that she would have to comment on at least one of his posts. 

It would also make sense that he was apprehensive to say something, or seemed like he was carefully chosing his words, due to the contract (if it is a PR relationship) and the legal barriers of not being able to talk about it. 

Overall, it could’ve been a coincidence. Some fans (and bot accounts) are harsh with their comments. The younger social media users get defensive and can sometimes be really mean. They think that the celebrity is famous enough to disregard their comment, but that’s not the case. 

On top of that, Sebastian does have anxiety. He doesn’t do well in interview situations, as you can see that he gets nervous and he stutters sometimes. And especially with the backlash he’s been recieving in regards to being with Alejandra, it probably makes him more anxious to say the right things.

[locke-writes]

Bound

Title: Bound

Author: locke-writes

Summary: Soulmate AU, Arranged Marriage Trope x Tony Stark for @thranduilsperkybutt​ 11k writing challenge

Rating: T

Word Count: 6,691

AN: I had an idea and this happened. Could it have been split into chapters? Probably, but that’s too late now.

Tag List: @lotsoffandomrecs​ @lgbtonystarks​ @scarletsoldierrr​ @moonlit-imagines​

In a world where soulmates existed you felt that it was particularly cruel that arranged marriages also existed. All over the world parents bound their children into marriage contracts with the disregard of soulmates. Stories often met your ears of children running from family as they came upon their soulmate while bound by contract to marry someone else. You wondered if you would have the courage to do the same if ever you met your soulmate. You dreaded if you would ever be in the position to find out.

It was no secret to you that you would never have the chance others might have. It was no secret to you that you otherwise has more privilege than most despite this fact. Others would marry freely, living happily with soulmates, people cosmically bound to them and you knew that while sometimes there were painful moments in the lives of soulmates, being bound to one another meant having a tether when you're world was collapsing.

Your world had been collapsing from moment one as your fate had long been sealed or rather in some ways ignored from birth. Arranged marriages were seen by yourself as torturous, something used as a way of controlling what couldn't be controlled. Fate was a cruel mistress, wasn't that the saying. But fate had not meant some of the more stubborn people on Earth. Perhaps the only reason you held your particular position on the subject matter was due to your being in an arranged marriage yourself.

At age five it was decided that you would be married to Tony Stark when you both came of age. Specifically after you both turned twenty-one and at said time would begin to transition into leadership roles of your family companies. Stark Industries and your families own company would benefit from a marriage and it would be a marriage of convenience not of love. At age five you were taken to Stark Manor and sat down next to Tony while a contract was being signed,

You supposed it could have been worse. At age five you were completely unaware of the predicament you had just been placed in. Soulmarks didn't appear until a persons thirteenth birthday and at the time you had yet to understand the complete concept of soulmates only just grasping some small details of the idea that there was someone out their in the world that you would love in an instant, that you would feel you had known all your life.

Arranged marriages occurred for a number of reasons. Yours happened to occur for pure financial gain. No more competition between companies, simply a merger due to an imminent wedding. Not something you would understand for years to come but something you would come too despise.  Arranged marriages seemed to you a destruction of the complex concept of love, love in which should be an instant feeling.

At five you were more concerned with the fact that the boy next to you wasn't sharing the blocks he was playing with than anything. At five you hardly understood your reason for being in the house that you were in, you only recognized that you had never been there before and you knew from the way your parents spoke that it wasn't going to be the last time you set foot here.

At age seven you'd begun to develop a friendship with Tony. Weekends were often spent together with it being more irregular that you would be elsewhere than by his side. There was no doubt of his burgeoning genius at that time and you were not far behind. Trouble seemed to follow you both wherever you ran as if it had been glued to you. At age seven you began to understand what a soulmate was and at age seven you began to understand that you would live to never meet your own.

You couldn't grasp what it meant to lose your soulmate before you'd even met them but you knew that this was something you'd never have. Tony didn't seem to mind or at least he never showed it and in your mind that meant that he had accepted his fate. This was ultimately something that you realized you would have to accept as well. This was the life designed for you and it would be easier to live if you embraced wholeheartedly that there would be no soulmates in your life.

No seven year old should stare straight into the face of fate and reject it but you weren't staring into fate you were shoved in front of it and yanked away without warning. It was hell and yet you wouldn't understand what was being taken away from you until you were older. At the moment you'd a vague idea yet there'd be no confirmation yet, there couldn't be. After all you hadn't a soulmark yet.

At age ten you started questioning if being married to Tony was such a bad thing after all. Of course you hated the fact that he was going to be keeping you from meeting your soulmate but still, ever since the day you first met you'd become friends. It helped that your minds worked in a similar way. Oh and also you were forced to spend Sundays together as part of the marriage contract but still, after five years he was certainly a friend.

Not that you'd ever tell him that you thought marriage to him was going to be ok. After all how bad could it be being married to someone who hated the idea of arranged marriages as much, if not more, than you did. Both of you had resigned yourselves to believing that there could be no other way. And unfortunately you were correct, even if you had found your soulmates before marriage there was nothing you could do, you couldn't acknowledge such a person existed. If you met them afterwards that posed another problem entirely.

But you were being thrust headfirst into a barrel full of problems. That was life, or rather the harshness of your life alone.

For most, the day they turn thirteen is a celebration. It is the day when the soulmark appears and you can now begin the search for your soulmate. Each soulmate will have the same mark although the placement of it is random. Treated like New Years Eve, the night before a thirteenth birthday was used as an excuse to stay up all night as a soulmark would appear at the stroke of midnight. Fate may be full of tricks but it was nothing if not punctual.

On the eve of your birthday however, you were in bed. Asleep. You didn't want to face what would be on your skin until the morning and even then you dreaded it. In your life you'd seen friends with their marks completely visible on hands and around eyes, you hoped that wherever yours was that you could cover it one way or another.

Tony had already received his mark but you'd never see it. A pact had been made between the two of you that it your marks were never to be shown to one another and your families had each been informed that you were never to be asked about it. They were aware of your distaste regarding the concept of arranged marriages and understood that you felt that your life had been controlled by them. While they refused to accept any blame, you knew it was them at fault.

The next morning you stood in the mirror noticing the mark crept over your upper arm and the tip of your shoulder. You traced the pattern with your finger, the only time you would ever touch your mark in that way. It was in a position that was easily hid by shirt sleeves but you took extra precaution by taking bandage wrap to the area, covering it completely so there was truly no way for anyone to see what mark had been bestowed upon you.

While he wanted to call and ask you how you were doing Tony thought it best to keep silent. He knew how you felt about receiving your mark, it was the same as he felt. The mark that had been placed upon him was a betrayal. He'd never get the chance to be with his soulmate thus there should be no mark, no reminder that his future had been stripped away from him. If you wanted to reach out to him you would but for now he refused to reach out, it wasn't the time and it certainly wouldn't have made you feel better hearing from the person who had taken you away from your soulmate.

You never blamed him for that. You knew he had no choice in the matter, neither did you. After a time you began accepting your misfortune. Tony was the one who you would marry and that was that. Although you supposed it could have been worse, the two of you could have held one another in contempt, animosity building between you. Rather you were lucky enough that the man who was to become your husband in years to come was a friend now.

The next few years went by in a blur as both you and Tony were attending college.

At age fourteen Tony had decided to attend MIT. Always a brilliant engineer you had no doubts that he'd succeed in his higher education. You knew if you had wanted to you could have started college at the same age but you couldn't view yourself becoming a teenager, embracing the oncoming adulthood while dealing with college courses. If it was what Tony wanted then it was what he should do.

At age sixteen you began college, choosing to attend Stanford. Tony had helped you figure out which colleges you should apply to and while you had applied as well as been accepted to MIT you couldn't bring yourself to accept. You were sixteen, in five years you'd be married to Tony and if four years of freedom (or the three it became as you graduated early) was what you could provide for both yourself and him then it was all that you could bring yourself to do.

Besides, Stanford was an exceptional school and you knew that while your name more than likely was what allowed for your acceptance it didn't mean that you hadn't put in the work to be there. Not to mention you forced your parents to set up a scholarship fund in your name that would provide full ride scholarships to anyone with a STEM field as their major or declared minor. Students who declared their major after their first year were also able to apply and receive funding for the rest of their education and were able to keep the money even if later they changed their major once more.

A clause had been put into the marriage contract for when you and Tony each started college. The Sundays that you were required to spend together had been still going on for years with the added free will hangouts that came sometimes on weekdays and Saturdays. Sundays became less forced and more of something you each looked forward to but with college there was no need for you to see one another every week, it wasn't practical. The clause simply stated that these visits should be deemed null and void. Tony offered to continue with making weekly calls to you on Sundays but you told him not to bother.

Freedom. It was the last thing you could think to provide for Tony and secretly he was grateful. Marriage was coming and there hadn't been a time he remembered that he'd been able to explore who he was without that fact looming over him like the Sword of Damocles.

Ate age seventeen Tony graduated from MIT and began working in his own sector of Stark Industries. You were invited to the graduate ceremony and it felt awkward having pictures taken together that you knew one day you'd look back on. In the moment to others who had no knowledge of the arrangement simply saw Tony with his friend but you knew that to your families it looked like Tony and his future fiancé, not that a proposal would even happen or was going to be needed.

It was an arranged marriage. The proposal was the contract. No romance, just lawyers with pens to use for signing and initialing.

Nineteen was what became, in your mind, the hell year. There was only one good thing in all the gloom, your graduation.

Nineteen was filled with horrors. Nineteen was the year that Tony's parents died and it was the year that you finally understood how unfeeling your own parents were. You suddenly began to grasp in full just how much of a benefit to them this marriage was meant to be.

Tony was numb. He should have felt something, anything at all. He should have wailed, cried out in pain but nothing happened. Nothing occurred. The call had come in, his parents had been found dead, a car crash he was told. He responded calmly to the questions that were asked of him, made funeral arrangements over the phone and informed the board of Stark Industries what had occurred. He'd arranged meetings with them to go over the next steps in terms of the business and what it would mean, how it would go about in press releases although the news had already picked up on the incident.

He took care of what needed to be done and then when all was over, when all business was taken care of, he called you. For a moment he was silent and then the news was whispered, it was a dagger to your heart. Howard he had never gotten along with but Maria, she had been the person he confided in often. For Tony, his mother had been practically his only parent and the only person in his life that for the longest time he felt had understood him other than you. And for you, Maria had been the only person to sympathy for your cause. She knew you felt as though it was unjust, your eventual marriage to her son and in private she apologized to you both for not trying stop it.

Words seemed useless that day, you simply sat by Tony as he grieved and you took his hand in your own. On the day of the funeral you did the same, you stood by him when he needed it and you left him alone when asked. He delivered the eulogy and looked to you for guidance in terms of where to place his grief. All you wanted in that day was to be a friend he could count on and all you wanted was for others to understand how he felt. You should have known your parents would be the exception to the rule.

Instead of offering condolences they simply reminded Tony of the contract, telling him that while his parents may be dead it didn't void the contract. It had been and still would be considered legally binding as Tony was an adult and full capable of upholding his end of the contract. Tony only nodded while you fumed and chewed out your parents later for what they had said that day.

Nineteen turned into twenty and twenty into twenty-one. The year of the wedding.

As was to be expected it was a very publicized affair. Every night there seemed to be a new segment on you and Tony. In every newspaper and magazine there was a new article. Your life was plastered everywhere and there was no privacy to be found. The wedding itself was large, planned by people you had never met and would never meet. It had been handled entirely by your family who you supposed had been planning every single detail from the moment the contract was signed.

There were people in attendance whose names you knew but had never met. There were businessmen there only to make connections, hoping that either you or Tony would be willing to listen to a pitch. There were friends who'd you both made during your years at college, friends who in secret apologized to both of you, friends who felt apologetic for something they had no control over but still felt as though they shouldn't be in attendance.

As far as parties go, it was fine. But it wasn't a party, it was a wedding and the photos you'd have of it would forever prove that the contract was upheld.

In the weeks afterwards you and Tony moved into the house (or rather mansion) gifted by your family. There were enough rooms that you and Tony agreed to move into separate areas of the house and for the most part treat this union as simply roommates rather than a married couple living together. When family was around you'd up the facade of being a married couple but you were friends and friends you would remain. A merger was formed and Stark Industries absorbed your families company, acquiring new technology and a few new business ventures. Everything seemed to be going as smoothly as it was hoped to be by those involved in the arranged marriage.

In secret you were two friends who lived together, in public you kept up the appearances of a married couple. Time may pass but to you and Tony it never wavered the nature of your relationship. You'd heard stories of people who had been in arranged marriages coming to love one another in the romantic sense yet you had only ever loved Tony in the platonic sense and he had felt the same way.

Business thrived and so did your friendship due to the closeness the two of you were forced to uphold. Days turned into weeks and weeks to years, you began to know, to identify, to anticipate every one of Tony's quirks and predictable actions. You knew when he was hiding something (which was often that he took the last cookie without telling you it was the last or something he'd planned for your birthday). You could identify each one of his moods and you wouldn't hesitate to call him out on anything.

You were at his side when he took over from Obadiah, finally the age stipulated in the will that would allow him full control of Stark Industries.

You were at his side when he attended business meetings (although you had to be present for some of them anyway as co-CEO).

You were at his side throughout thick and thin but you knew the idea that you were at his side because you were married was a lie. You were at his side as he was at yours because you were friends and that was what friends did, they supported one another. The only people aware of the act other than you and Tony were both Happy and Pepper. If anyone else knew then they never let on.

But that was what happened when you lived with him, you were made aware of everything.

When he was taken hostage in Afghanistan you were fielding calls left and right. Obadiah was trying to keep the company afloat as were you and the only people who seemed to care in regard to your own well-being were, once again, Pepper and Happy. You were grateful for them both as they seemed to be the only people with gift of the voice of reason. Even your parents didn't seem concerned and they were still under the impression that you viewed Tony more as a husband than as a friend.

Never had you liked the idea of Stark Industries manufacturing weapons, you'd always voted for removal of that sector of the company. Your main focus was on medical improvements and research. Every time you were outvoted yet you were pleased to find Tony's change of heart on his return. You were especially pleased to find that Tony still had his heart as he spoke to you about what he'd been through.

Iron Man became another shared secret for a time until Obadiah's betrayal and Tony's press conference. From then on you supported him in whatever way he needed, often coming to his aid when it came to manufacturing new suits or putting in upgrades. At one point he offered you a suit but you refused. This was his world, he was to be the hero and you would give that to him. It might be the only true thing that was his own.

Perhaps you should have spoken earlier when the woman named Natalie Rushman became Tony's personal assistant. Providing Pepper with a higher role in the company was something you encouraged but there was also something off with her replacement. Preoccupied with what was poisoning Tony's heart put investigation on the back burner but you weren't surprised when you found out that she was Natalia Romanoff, an agent of SHIELD.

You'd heard rumors regarding the organization but never had it been confirmed until a meeting with Nick Fury and Nat, as she asked you to call her after the discovery. While you were angry at her for lying at first, you recognized that she had a job to do and was only trying to do it well. Quickly she became a friend and confidant, the one person you knew would keep any secret you told her.

The discovery of Vibranium ended the fear you felt when Tony confessed what the palladium was doing to him. Ivan Vanko's death ended the fear that something was going to harm Tony. The idea of the Avengers, as presented by Fury did not end the fear even with the insistence that Tony was not ready for such a team. Of course this would end up not being Fury's choice when the time came.

You had a hard time keeping a straight face when Tony was pulled to join the Avengers later on. While the circumstances for the request were dire it still didn't help that Fury failed Tony as a candidate and was no turning to him for help. Part of your amusement also came from Nat's heads up that it was going to occur and from Phil Coulson's enthusiasm regarding the invitation being extended to one Steve Rogers, or Captain America as most knew him. Part of you felt sorry for the man who woke up in a new century and part of you was simply excited to meet him.

Tony asked you to stay in New York while he was taken to the Helicarrier. You understood and respected his concerns. What you could offer was only research which seemed unnecessary since there was to be Bruce Banner also investigating what you learned to be called the Tesseract. You received daily updates and despite knowing what was coming you stood your ground at Stark Tower helping fight the Chitauri in whatever way that you could.

Odd didn't even begin to cover how you felt after learning about the existence of other worlds. Scared didn't even begin to cover how you felt when you watched as Tony attempted to close the wormhole over New York. While you knew that you were already doing the most to help the team in whatever way that you could it never seemed to feel like enough despite reassurances from not only Tony, Nat, and Steve but from the god of thunder himself.

The Avengers became a second family to you. They were more welcoming, more understanding than your own. This was even proven evident when your parents showed disdain for your friendship with some of the team. You questioned how they could view such a friendship as lowly only to find that the opinions were held simply based on the class status of your newfound friends. It didn't matter that they saved the world it only mattered that they weren't rich. Even Thor didn't get a pass as he was a god.

You realized then what Tony had been saying for years was true. Your parents saw you as a financial gain and not as their child. It was something you'd always seen and recognized but denied because you wanted them to be your parents, you wanted them to be your family. They should be the ones who cared about you but that hadn't cared enough to provide you with freedom and they would never prove to you that who they saw you as was not someone they could respect but they'd always see you as someone they could control.

After the Battle of New York you helped Tony deal with his anxiety and PTSD as he helped you work through the trauma of your own childhood or lack thereof. The Mandarin and Killian seemed to be minor inconveniences in the long run as it was personal growth you were working on for the both of you. You worried more for Tony in those weeks and months than you did for yourself, hoping that he would find some sense of peace in anything and as he chose to remove the arc reactor and repair his heart you knew that he was slowly changing.

He was changing and it was certainly for the better but you should have known that there was to be some hiccup on the way. There never could be peace or happiness or prosperity with you and Tony, there always had to be some sort of grievance with you on behalf of the world. This grievances name happened to be Ultron.

The concept was wonderful, it was the execution that seemed to fall short. After the incident in Sokovia when innocent lives were caught in the middle of the Avengers warfare Tony wanted to step back, he wanted to give the team a break. AI's were always finicky but it was hard to imagine that Ultron would take on a mind of his own in a way that was so far removed from his purpose. Protecting the world didn't mean ridding it of all humanity.

You wondered if, due to Ultron's own existence, you'd ever become comfortable with the fact that JARVIS suddenly became a living being. It was odd seeing the AI walk around and go by a new name. This was the AI that you had talked to on late nights when you were stress baking in the kitchen, now here he was with a cape and a new name. But you didn't care as long as he did what you knew only he could do. Tony at least had created one loyal and valuable AI.

With Ultron gone, Tony returned home to the world of peace he so desperately craved. This, as was usual for Tony, would not last long. However you would always be there with him. He was your husband but you did not feel for him in the way that you presented to the media, yet this never meant that you failed to care for him or failed to be by his side. When the Sokovia Accords were introduced you were the one Tony turned to. He wanted to sign them, he knew what had happened, the killing of innocent lives, was his fault. It weighed heavy on his conscious.

Other members of the team held reservations which both you and Tony understood but you knew that if this was what Tony wanted then it was what Tony would and should do. Being held accountable meant identifying yourself as a hero and you were saddened by the rift this statement seemed to cause. Steve had been like a brother to you and you were well aware of his friendship with Bucky but even you could not excuse what had happened in Sokovia or in the UN.

It broke your heart when Tony retold what he had seen in the footage of the day his parents died.

Or were murdered.

Murdered changed everything.

It changed the way Tony viewed Steve who knew that Bucky was responsible for what had happened to Tony all those years ago. It changed how you saw Steve knowing that he could have told you or Tony at any point in time. Secrets sometimes had their benefits but you couldn't fathom that Steve would keep one so large from the both of you. You didn't question it when Tony cut contact with the super soldier.

You did however question Tony's bringing Peter Parker to Germany although you had to admit that you had underestimated the kid after he refused to become a full fledged Avenger. That was an offer you would have assumed he's jump at. The press conference set up to announce him was instead used as a way to announce some of the new research breakthroughs for the medical branch of Stark Industries.

That conference you had hoped would enter in an age of research and technology that would assist in the evolution of not only cures and treatments but more precise and efficient surgeries. Then of course Thanos had to come and ruin all of that. Then of course Thanos had to come and the medical advances had to be pushed aside for a rush of medical equipment and mass funding for hospitals. Tony approved the expansion of the Avengers medical bay to feature treatments for civilians rather than its main focus on powered individuals.

You watched him as he disappeared into the ship. You knew that this would maybe be your last chance of seeing him. Still you couldn't bring yourself to tell him what you had uncovered in your heart. You loved him, not just as a friend. You were deeply in love with Tony Stark and you had been for years now. It seemed foolish to tell him as part of you still held hope that the two of you would one day be able to be with your soulmates. Your feelings needed to be pushed aside for Tony to ever gain happiness with the person who was his soulmate.

After the Snap as it would come to be known, you hoped that Tony was still alive.

Tony hoped that he would live to see you again if you hadn't been one of the ones affected by the Snap. He wondered if he annoyed Nebula with stories of you. He really didn't have many stories where you weren't involved at all.

His arrival back on Earth shocked you, not just because of how he looked but because he was alive and not dissipated. Per his request you took him away from the compound and took him home, to whatever home you had left at that time of course. Retreating to New York in the country for the next five years allowed for you and Tony to recover, it allowed for Tony to be at peace.

Five years you had together, five years in which you could hav told him how you felt but five years you never said a word to him about your feelings about the fact that you truly did love him not just platonically but romantically as well.

Reckless, it wasn't new for Tony. He'd always been reckless, always been the person who would put himself first, put himself before everyone. This time was no different.

Five years. It should have been enough time and somehow it wasn't. Somehow you couldn't bring yourself to say the words that would change everything with Tony Stark. There was guilt lingering inside you for what if after telling him the truth you found your own soulmate or Tony had found his. You couldn't take fate away from him whether he would have chosen to advance in finding his true soulmate or not.

You journeyed with him to Wakanda for the final battle. While they gathered the stones you had kept away from the Avengers but something told you that you needed to be there. There was no fighting, Tony simply agreed although deep in his heart he hoped you would change your mind. He had seen danger, fought danger, for years and while he knew you were going to stay behind and work as a medic for the wounded he was worried for your safety.

Only when the sky turned to ash did you know the battle was over. Only when Tony was brought it to the medics did you know what he had risked. His arm was damaged far beyond repair even for what Wakandan tech could do. You were no surgeon and while it pained you to relinquish Tony over to others you allowed for them to operate knowing that a prosthetic was something he could learn to live with.

The procedure itself took a few hours, enough time for you to be caught up on what had occurred. You mourned losses, needing to process what you had heard and what you had seen, uncovering the connection between both.

As soon as Tony was awake you were permitted to see him. Your heart ached as you saw him lying their in a hospital bed, bruised but no longer bloody. The loss of his arm didn't bother you but the look on his face that showed he blamed himself for the lost lives did. Whatever it took you would fight to remove that guilt from his mind, he saved more people than he could have ever known and more people than would ever be aware that their lives were saved by him.

He looked toward you as you walked to the chair next to his bed. Sitting you took his hand in yours and waited to see if he would speak. He didn't and you knew instinctively that he wanted a quiet moment, he wanted time to reflect. You would not deprive him of that even though you wanted desperately to use this moment as a way of telling him the truth, as a confession and a way of convincing him that he was the hero he sometimes denied himself to be.

Leaning forward a little he moved to push himself back but his back was bare before you as he had been dressed in a gown after the surgery. You had never meant to look upon it, never meant to break the pact that had been initiated long ago and still, there it was. Located directly between his shoulder blades was his soulmark. Quickly you released his hand stumbling back, nearly knocking over the chair you had been sitting in, running out of the room as Tony apologized, realizing what you must have seen.

You sped past the team in the hallways rushing past Clint who reached for your arm to stop you but you broke free of his grip, turning down a hallway and leaning against a wall to catch your breath and focus. Clint came to stand before you, asking if you were all right.

"I've been a fool. All this time I've been a fool, I could've said something, said I changed my mind. I should have sensed it, don't people sense it Clint?" You asked.

He was confused, "Sense what?"

Staring him in the eye you spoke, "Tony is my soulmate."

Like Natasha, Clint had been aware of the fact that the marriage between you and Tony had been arranged. He was also aware that you and Tony had never seen one another soulmmarks which led him to be skeptical of your statement even though the look on your face told him everything you spoke was indeed true.

"I saw it Clint. It was an accident but there it was. The same mark. All this time, after everything we've been through, after all the years I've loved him I've wasted so much time thinking that I was keeping him and myself from being happy with our soulmates when he was mine. I have to leave."

"What? No. You can't go"

"Tell Tony I'm sorry and I wish I could stay and I hope that he'll forgive me but I do Clint. I need to go, there's something I have to do"

When you landed in New York the first person you called was Pepper. If there was anyone who could help you put together what was needed it was her. Friends you contacted were readily willing to help and you texted Clint to give him the full rundown of your plan so that he could inform you of when Tony might be coming home. You knew it would be normally four to five weeks but Wakanda had medical advances that you had only dreamed of and at three weeks of recovery Tony was given the all clear to return home.

You'd made sure that Clint directed Tony to the cabin that you had chosen to live in during the five years after the Snap. Now that everything was returned to somewhat normal you knew a conversation about returning to the Compound was in your future but you were steadily preparing for one specific day. The knots coiling and uncoiling in your stomach made it seem to you as though you had made the worst decision potentially springing this on Tony although you knew if he had discovered what you had this would also be his approach.

SHIELD agents, Avengers, and other friends you had made were all invited and entrusted to keep quiet until you arrived with Tony. Having been alerted to his arrival to the house you stood on the front porch to greet him. The stare he gave you wasn't filled with joy or anger, it was indifference and you only hoped that what you were about to tell him would change everything. Clint walked up to you first and you whispered to him the location of his suit that he could change into. Tony remained standing before the steps.

"I had to Tony. In a second you might come to understand."

"You saw my mark, that's why you ran. We could have worked through that, we could have adjusted the pact or we could have found a way to make you forget it or we could have done something but you left me in Wakanda."

"Tony Stark. I've been in love with you since before Iron Man existed. I never saw anything because I thought that maybe one day there might come a time in which either you or I would meet our soulmates and my feelings were only going to keep you from moving forward with whoever that might have been. I didn't run because I saw your mark Tony. I ran because after I saw it I knew that I had to do something."

"The being in love with me part makes sense. Not that I knew just that it's the only statement that makes sense in what you just said. But if you didn't run because you saw the mark then why didn't you stay? What was so important that you had to leave?"

You laughed a bit, knowing what you were about to say was absurd and would lead to no clarification just yet, "I had to plan a wedding."

"A wedding. You left me in a hospital in Wakanda after I had an arm amputated because you had to plan a wedding."

"Yes, Tony. Although I don't know if you can call what I planned a wedding. It's more of a vow renewal. Most soulmates get the wedding they want when they meet and decide to get married. Because of arranged marriages, we never got that. We never got a real wedding or the one we might have planned."

"What do you mean we."

Rather than give Tony the full explanation you lifted your sleeve to expose the bandage covering your mark. Gripping it you began to unravel the bandage leaving the mark fully exposed for the first time since your thirteenth birthday. Tony was stunned at what was upon your skin.

"All this time Tony. All this time and it was you."

Walking slowly towards you and up the steps he never said a word only reaching out and touching the mark as he was close enough. He traced over each line knowing that it was indeed the same mark he bore.

"We really have been fools haven't we?" He questioned, causing you to look into his eyes.

"We have."

"I've loved your for as long as I can remember and all this time I could have told you that. All this time instead of feeling apologetic that you were stuck in a marriage to someone who wasn't your soulmate I was wrong. I could have been holding you and caring for you and I could have been telling you I loved you for longer than just this moment. I could have been kissing you, you could have been mine in every possible way but I never said anything."

"Neither did I Tony. Neither of us knew. We're both fools here."

He smiled as he reflected upon your words about the vow renewal, "You planned our entire wedding in a month?"

"Pepper helped and a few friends offered there businesses to take of catering and everything else."

Tony kissed you softly and then pulled away to look at you once more, "I suppose we ought to get married then. In love and as soulmates this time."

You nodded and you led him out to the dock to where the ceremony was to take place.

In your life you had been bound to Tony Stark in three ways, by marriage contract at first, by marriage itself second, and unknowingly your whole life as soulmates.

Soul to soul you were bound.

[meowmeowmessi]

I saw your tags on that post about jo and omg yes! I thought it was always kinda ~interesting~ that she had sams story just in reverse but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody talk about it (esp with them framing her as a love interest when she was SO MUCH like sam I was always like 👀)

omg I'm so glad to see I'm not the only one who saw the Sam/Jo parallels!!! The moment Dean and Sam walked in on Ellen and Jo arguing and Jo was like "I want to hunt like dad!!!" and Ellen was like "NO! Only school for you young lady!" I was like "omfg Ellen and Jo are literally just John and Sam in reverse skjskjskjskj" and then Dean actually started to interact with Jo and I realised how similar Jo and Sam are personality wise? Tbh I've always found Jo to be kind of annoying whenever she interacted with Dean (ONLY THEN. I think Sam and Jo's very little interactions were charming and those were the times I found her likable. And I love her relationship with Ellen. I love how despite her awkward as all hell kiss with Dean, at the end it was Ellen Jo shared her last moments with. I love that spn emphasized familial bond yet again and not a romantic one. And I have mad respect for the way Jo went down fighting, no matter how annoying I found her at times) but then when Dean told her about how dangerous the hunting life really is and how Jo should just listen to her mom I started to notice how much she had in common with Sam??? Both are rebellious and want to forge their own path no matter what their parental figures dictated for them, and the way Jo sneaked away to join Sam and Dean on their hunt was very much like how Sam disregarded John's wish for Sam to stay with them to go to Stanford. I really think Dean saw Jo as Sam's proxy in a way and since he couldn't keep SAM totally out of harms way (no matter how hard he tried, the poor guy), he at least wanted Jo to be safe. And my god YES I was ALSO raising my eyebrow at seeing a Sam-like figure being cast as Dean's "love interest"!!! I was genuinely thinking, "Am I looking too deep into this or is this actually hinting at something???" I'm so happy to know that someone else saw it too :'DDD

[globalnewstalks]

The Best Advice Steve Jobs Ever Gave

The valuable advice Jobs provided during his lifetime can help guide the next generation of innovators.

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Entrepreneurs everywhere in the globe admire Steve Jobs, and for a good purpose; he was a daring visionary who utterly revolutionized the tech trade. Even at present, a few years after his demise, folks nonetheless take into account Steve Jobs a task model value emulating. Fortunately, we will proceed to study from him by means of previous interviews and speeches. The precious recommendation he offered will assist information the subsequent era of innovators.

To achieve success, discover work you’re keen about

Through the D5 Convention in 2007, an audience member asked Steve Jobs what single piece of recommendation he would give entrepreneurs on constructing worthwhile firms. Jobs answered the query plainly: in order to be successful, you have to be passionate in regards to the work you’re doing.

In giving his reply, Jobs acknowledged the truth that this piece of recommendation is extensively circulated and customarily considered true. The actual perception got here when Jobs defined the rationale success relies upon loving what you do — as a result of that’s the one manner you’ll persevere.

As Jobs defined, constructing an enterprise is just not a simple activity. To achieve success, you have to work exhausting and overcome repeated challenges over an extended time period without giving up. When confronted with these ongoing challenges, most individuals will stop. However, those that love what they’re doing will persevere as a result of they’re pushed by their passion, not by external rewards.

Let your curiosity and instinct lead you

In his commencement address at Stanford University in 2005, Steve Jobs emphasized the significance of trusting your gut and following your curiosity. Jobs inspired students to pursue their interests, even when they seem impractical at the time. He believed that a lot of his success might be attributed to this philosophy.  

As an instance of this level, Jobs described what occurred after he dropped out of Reed College. Since he not needed to fear about meeting specific course requirements, Jobs was free to audit no matter class piqued his interest.

For instance, Jobs took a category on calligraphy. He discovered the category fascinating however at the time it appeared to serve no sensible goal. It was solely later, in wanting again on his life, that Jobs acknowledged the significance of that calligraphy class; it gave him an understanding of nice typography which he later utilized when designing the Macintosh laptop.

Jobs believed that curiosity and instinct are reliable guides. Even in the event you can’t see the place every choice is main, you have to have religion that your curiosity and instinct are guiding you alongside the proper path.

Ignore the expectations of others

Steve Jobs repeatedly suggested folks disregard the constraints imposed by others and create their very own lives. In a 1994 interview with The Santa Clara Valley Historical Association, Jobs mentioned the false nature of society’s boundaries and acknowledged his perception that folks ought to query these limitations. He believed that folks have the facility to changes lives — their own and people of others — if they’re prepared to problem the established order.

Steve Jobs reiterated this level in his Stanford commencement address. In it, he mentioned, “Your time is restricted, so don’t waste it living another person’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which resides with the outcomes of different folks’ thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your personal inside voice. And most essential, have the braveness to observe your coronary heart and instinct. They in some way already know what you really wish to develop into. Everything else is secondary.”

Read More:  The Five Hour Rule | How can it change your life forever? 

Overcome the fear of failure and take action

Steve Jobs mentioned failure in his 1994 interview with The Santa Clara Valley Historic Affiliation. Within the interview, Jobs describes calling Bill Hewlett, the co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, at his house in Palo Alto, California. Jobs — who was only 12 years outdated on the time — referred to as to ask if Hewlett had any spare parts he might use to construct a frequency counter. Hewlett not only gave Jobs the elements he requested, he additionally employed him to work on the meeting line constructing frequency counters the next summertime.

Jobs used this instance to show that success only comes whenever you’re prepared to take action and go after what you need. As an alternative to fearing Hewlett’s response and making excuses, Jobs took an opportunity — one which paid off. Within the interview, Jobs states, “that’s what separates the people that do things from the people that just dream about them: you’ve got to act and you’ve got to be willing to fail.”

Remember there’s a deadline

Steve Jobs knew what it was like to be continually aware of your personal mortality. He was first identified with cancer in 2003 but didn’t succumb to the illness till October of 2011. However even earlier than his analysis, Jobs understood that daily is essential as a result of our time on this planet is restricted.

Jobs relayed this valuable piece of knowledge throughout his 2005 commencement address. In it, Jobs describes how at the age of 17, he learned a quote that would supply steerage all through his life. The quote was, “If you live each day as if it was your final, someday you’ll most certainly be right.”

Jobs then illustrated how this quote helped shape his life by saying, “Since then, for the past 33 years, I’ve appeared in the mirror each morning and requested myself: ‘If today were the final day of my life, would I want to do what I’m about to do today?’ And at any time when the reply has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I do know I would like to change something.”

Jobs additional defined the importance of this observe. “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to assist me to make the large selections in life. As a result of almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things simply fall away within the face of demise, leaving solely what is really essential. Remembering that you’re going to die is the easiest way I do know to keep away from the lure of pondering you’ve gotten one thing to lose. You’re already bare. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”