#that thing I mentioned where when I’m checking my notifications it would reset back to the top when I got a new one. Still hasn’t been fixe

[the-meme-monarch]

anybody else’s dashboards Broken. it’s only showing me two posts and then Nothing Else

[sunsetika]

brainfart 1 - oisuga

oikawa meets suga after he comes home from japan. despite the uncertainty of their relationship, they could not help but fall deeper and deeper into each other.

I’m not sure if I’m ready to commit to a multi-chaptered fic just yet. The last time I wrote one was 2011 LMAO.

Hence, I’ll just type out an outline I’ve been wanting to work on for a while, now. Will I get to it? Maybe, maybe not. But dang, I want this to come to life so bad.

I kind of have the start down, but the in-betweens: not so much.

Sooooo if ya wanna see the outline, read away!

Setting: Winter 2022 (starts December), Tokyo + Miyagi

Oikawa: 28, still part of the Argentinian National Team

Sugawara: 28, teaches elementary students at a school in Sendai

[1]

Nearing Christmas, Oikawa was sent on a forced break after injuring his knee in a game. 

While his knee managed to heal, he overworked himself to the bone-his knee injury being the breaking point, Coach Blanco insisted that he needed this in order to come back a stronger player.

Oikawa decided to fly home to Japan. He decided to stay in a hotel in Tokyo for a brief period, enjoying the city’s bustling yuletide season.

One Friday night, while walking down the streets, he bumps into Sugawara. Suga mentions that he was just about to buy a drink and invites Oikawa.

They catch up, flirt, drink glasses of beer as the night draws to a close.

They touch upon Daichi getting married soon, and Iwaizumi settling down with a girlfriend, and kind of relish in heartbreak.

Suga mentions he was in Tokyo since he headed straight here as soon as he was able to leave the school, since he was incredibly stressed.

Oikawa takes Suga back to his hotel and they spend the night there (yes, they do).

Suga rises up early to head back to Sendai, since he has to grade some papers back in the school, despite it being a Saturday.

When it was sundown, Suga was surprised to see Oikawa waiting for him by the school gate. He pulls Suga and manages to drag him into Seijoh, sneaking in. Oikawa admits the small crush he had on Suga, while Suga returns the confession.

[2]

Here’s the muddy in-between lol

Suga & Oikawa meet up time to time, whether it was for a date or for a hookup. They never put a label.

Though they don’t live together, Oikawa stays at Suga’s apartment for long periods of time.

Oikawa helps coach Lil Tykes Volleyball Classroom again.

Suga receives an invitation to Daichi and Michimiya’s wedding, sending him to tears once more. Thankfully, Oikawa is there to help him through. Oikawa says ‘I love you,’ but Sugawara doesn’t say it back.

They grow more and more attached to each other, scaring Suga - he can’t go back to Argentina with Tooru (yes, first name basis now!!), and he doesn’t want to make him stay in Japan for him.

Oikawa knows this is a dead end, since he can’t make Koushi (!!!!!) stop teaching, since it’s his passion.

Long distance relationship is out of the question, since they’re not even in a relationship in the first place!!

One morning: “I want to be selfish, Tooru. I want to want you to stay.” Suga cries. “But I can’t bring myself to. Ever.”

Daichi sends the invitation to the wedding. Suga informs him to reserve a seat for 1.

Suga arrives alone at the wedding. He was happy for Daichi, but he was torn: he misses Oikawa, but is also glad that he decided not to bring him along, since bringing a plus 1 to a wedding means serious things.

To his surprise, Oikawa shows up (he contacted Daichi secretly). Suga is happy, and they dance together.

They continue to go out, being more and more attached to each other as the months pass by, but they don’t put a label on anything.

Oikawa and Suga finally tries to define “the relationship” - there is none. There doesn’t have to be any, since they know it won’t work out. Oikawa gets ready to go back to playing volleyball. They promise not to wait for each other, to move on. They’ll try to keep in touch.

The two agree to not see each other off when Oikawa leaves. They say their final goodbyes at Koushi’s doorstep.

Oikawa takes one last look before entering the departure area, hoping to find Suga, feeling a pain in his chest when he doesn’t.

Oikawa enters the departure area, just as Suga arrives outside, panting, but Oikawa was no where to be seen. He was too late.

[3]

Lots of time skips.

Suga and Oikawa try to keep in touch with their social media, but this dwindles as their schedules get busier.

Oikawa never settles down, but continues to hook up with different people. While he wasn’t trying to fill a void and simply enjoys the company, he keeps going back to Suga, wanting to see him, to feel him once again, and again, and again.

Though they don’t talk anymore, Oikawa constantly checks Suga’s Facebook, even liking some photos as he passes by them.

Suga tries to settle down. He eventually finds himself a girlfriend, whom he loves very much. They decided to marry, and they do. He looks at their wedding photo on his social media, staring long and hard at the notification: Liked By Tooru Oikawa

After three years of marriage, Suga’s wife files a divorce. Although Suga tried to fight for their marriage, his wife points out that she knows: she knows there’s someone else in his heart. She knows he’s never gotten over him. She knows. 

“And it’s okay.” She says. “I know you still love him.”

Suga’s (now ex-) wife tells him she understands admits that she still loves her best friend and wants to be with her.

His wife argues that they only married for the sake of tradition which hurts Suga, since he does still love his wife, but comes to terms with what was really missing - Oikawa. He eventually signs the papers, and divorce peacefully.

“I hope you’ll be happy someday, Koushi.” She says before bidding goodbye. “With Tooru.”

Oikawa notices the lack of updates from Suga - he probably lives a quiet life, now. Is his wife beautiful? I hope she’s kind to him. I wonder if they have kids. They’ll probably be as beautiful as Koushi.

It’s what he deserves.

[4]

Year 2037. Coach Jose Blanco passes away, and Oikawa is devastated and, for the first time in a while, unsure.Maybe he should coach. Maybe he should stop playing volleyball and live a normal life. Then, he decides that he needs another reset. Boarding the plane, he posts a photo on his social media: Going back home.

Suga's in the break room when he sees Oikawa’s post. He’s teaching high school now, and is the adviser and co-coach for the school’s volleyball club. He quickly scrambles, asking one of the teachers to substitute for him - it’s an emergency, he says. He hops onto a cab and heads to Sendai Airport, heart racing. I don’t even know what his exact arrival time is. What if it’s not in Sendai Airport? What if he comes home with a family? Would he even be glad to see me?

He gets off the cab and nervously waits on a bench across the entrance. Suga keeps checking Oikawa’s social media for updates, but there was none. Why can’t I message him?

Hours pass by and it’s already 10 in the evening when the next flock of people come out. Suga keeps his eyes peeled, and then - there he is.

Oikawa comes into the clearing, looking around. There’s no one with him, but Suga’s heart drops. He runs to Oikawa, tears threatening to spill.

“Koushi? What -”

Without shame, a crying Suga kisses Oikawa. After recovering from his shock, he returns the kiss, a sigh of relief leaving Suga’s lips.

After the kiss, they stand in each others arms, panting.

O: “What are you doing here?”  S: “Waiting for you you idiot - wait, you’re not married, are you? Oh my god, what have I done -” O: “I’m not, but you... You’re married, right?” S: [smiles and shows his bare left hand] “I’m not.”

Oikawa laughs, feeling all his emotions bubble out all at once. He spends the night at Suga’s once more, relishing in his lover’s arms, happy.

O: “I still don’t know what’ll happen from now on.” S: “We’ll make it work.” O: “I don’t know if I’m staying in Japan.” S: “We’ll make it work.” O: “Are you sure? I can’t take you away from what you love, Koushi. What if I decide to go back to Argentina -” S: “We’ll make it work.”

Suga holds Oikawa in a loving embrace, and Oikawa sighs at the warmth. Suga looks him in the eyes with reassurance and determination. “Besides...”

“It’s you, Tooru...” Suga plants a kiss on Oikawa’s forehead. “You’re the one I love.”

x

Sorry it’s so long & wordy HAHA.

Will edit this from time to time I guess??????????????? Or take this down when I decide to actually write a full fic??????????????????

[benisasoftboi]

Unorganised thoughts on Trails of Cold Steel III:

...I’m gonna need like a week to process that

I guess I know why people hate George now!

Could really use a good old reset from KeA right now

This is the best game in the Cold Steel series so far. Easily

I... there’s no way they’re all really dead, right? This series has been completely toothless about killing anyone who isn’t a villain until now, no way they’re permanently killing someone who’s been here since practically day 1, no way. Show me a body

And even then I’ll doubt it with all these revivals happening all over the place 

‘He’s HIDING’ I sob as I apply clown make-up 

Ben Diskin did not need to go so hard on the voice acting at Millium’s death he did not need to do that to me

My god when Angie drove into the graveyard and my PS4 popped up a little notification telling me it was a blocked scene, the tension in me... and I never saw that coming, I’ll have to see if it was foreshadowed at all by replaying CS1 and 2 some time

I saw Lughman being a baddie a mile away (a mysterious professor turning out to be evil in a Trails game? UNPRECEDENTED!) but he’s Alisa’s dad!?

Neat writing trick actually, since they probably knew we’d guess the former, they blindside us with the latter

I can’t express how happy it made me that the Rufus battle was Machias Jusis Elliot. My dream team!

Estelle and Joshua got mentioned so much I figured they’d make a surprise appearance at the end and save the day

:(

So. Characters:

Rean: Rean is once again moderately more interesting than he was before, but still the least interesting person in the game. I guess he’s got some guilt that’s actually justified now, that’s cool? 

I ship him with Crow, not because the pairing really appeals to me that much, but because being shipped with Crow would totally piss Rean off and I find that extremely funny

His relationship with Altina is the best relationship he’s ever had with a female character and it is 100% because she’s the only girl he’s never ship teased with

(I don’t have an issue with the concept of ship tease itself, I have an issue with Rean-ship tease because 1. I still truly do not understand why so many girls like him so much and 2. None of it will ever canonically go anywhere)

(Seriously I’m so tempted to write a breakdown of why every other guy in Erebonia is more desirable than Rean)

Juna: I like Juna. I realised early on that she and Kurt remind me of Estelle and Joshua, without being carbon copies, and that’s good. I also think her relationship with Rean was really interesting - ‘I don’t know how to feel about you because you saved my life, but it also wouldn’t have needed saving if it weren’t for your country’s actions, which you’ve played a major role in - but now I’m being forced to confront that you’re a human being too’ is a really complicated situation for her. It’s a lot more interesting than ‘I don’t like you because you accidentally got a face full of chest’, Alisa

I also really liked using her, I ended up loading her with the Platinum Pecky Medal and defensive stuff, and she was a wall, she took an S-craft from Arianrhod in her stride! My buff girl!

She should’ve just been the new protagonist ngl

Kurt: Kurt had a lot to live up to, seeing as his brother is my favourite minor character. And oh does he succeed, Kurt is my favourite of New VII, he’s a good straight man, he’s great in battle, I like his arc, I like his friendship with Juna, I like Kurt

Altina: I was not sure about Altina just... being a student now. But damn if she didn’t have the best character arc in the game. I only did her final bonding event on a whim, but it’s the best one I saw. My girl Allie deserves the damn world

I really, truly believe those three have a bond as well, they’re very well written as a group. This was a problem I had with Old VII, the fact that so many of them just... didn’t have relationships with each other. How do, say, Fie and Machias feel about each other? I have no idea. But this group has a fantastic dynamic and it makes that ending so much more effective

It’s like I praised Crossbell for, really - having a small core group is much more manageable in terms of giving them all equal screen time and getting me to care about them

Musse: Uh, kind of one-note and annoying, honestly. I don’t hate her or anything, but like... she’s either Being Mysterious or Hitting On Her Teacher (I hate it I hate it so much). It’s just hard to care about someone who’s clearly so fake, I guess? I’m definitely interested in her, but like... I don’t really like her

Ash: Poor boy. I thought Ash was such an interesting character (and man do I love having someone around who does not like Rean, and never really changes his mind about it). Ash is very well done imo

Alisa: Alisa is good when the issue is her family drama, and is so goddamn boring when it comes to Rean. Nothing new there

Elliot: I love his little ponytail I love it he’s so cute I want to hug him so bad

Laura: Winner of the ‘best new outfit’ award (was never that fond of her war outfit, but this one is perfect). Still good, but not notably so. I feel so bad for Laura, she tries so hard to matter, but she’s by far the character you’d have the easiest time lifting out of the game

And while I love Elliot... same situation really. You could go back to the start and have one character named Elliaura who likes swords and music and has two big-shot dads, and you wouldn’t lose much

Machias: Took down Rufus, yeah, destroy your best friend (boyfriend)’s evil family! Winner of the ‘worst new outfit’ award, AGAIN. Also winner of ‘dorkiest S-craft’. I did his final bonding event first, and according to Playstation trophies it’s the least popular one! Stop sleeping on my boy Machias guys, I know he was annoying in the first game but I love him :(

Gaius: Special award to Gaius for finally being interesting! Boy’s a Gralsritter now, did not see that coming!

And of course it happened off screen. Because god forbid interesting stuff happen to Gaius when we’re actually around

Oh also goddamn, that is a beautiful man

Emma: Don’t really like the new outfit. It’s kind of remarkable that she’s so important but I keep forgetting she exists. Exposition witch who sometimes just doesn’t deliver the exposition I guess

Fie: Still my fav girl. Wish there had been more focus on her feelings about her dad coming back to life. Like that she’s a bracer

Jusis: Wasn’t sure how to feel about his newly close friendship with Millium because I was concerned that I was meant to ship it (by far my least favourite thing about this franchise is that that was not an unreasonable concern, as it wouldn’t even be the most inappropriate relationship in this game alone). Very, very glad it was confirmed sibling-y (not that it’s stopped them before). He didn’t really get to do anything else, sadly, but he’s good as always

I did the Purebread contest with him, and he made bread from coffee beans Machias gave him, the Ferdibert Fire Emblem energy- 

“What are you doing underneath this scarlet Pleroma Grass?”

Milliam: :(

Sara: Doesn’t get much to do because this cast is bloated but like, I still really like her :)

Towa: Someone needs to check on Towa all her friends are dead or evil the poor poor girl (or uh. I guess Crow isn’t... hmm.)

Angie :(

My kids Tita and Agate are back and completely overshadowed by people teasing this almost 30-year old man about being in love with a 17 year old that he’s only ever claimed to see as a sister, I swear to god

The orbal gear looks so goofy lol

Stop mentioning Schera as just being ‘totally here, just off screen, ha ha’ give her a model! Have her be here!

Don’t get me wrong, I loved seeing Josette again, I just don’t get... why? Why is she here?

Tio is back! And so is Randy, as a major character! I’m very very happy, I love them both

Michael’s fine, I guess? He’s kind of bland but I guess that’s kind of the point and I like him just fine. He serves his purpose well

I’ve never really liked Claire all that much, but she’s fine in this one again I suppose. A bit disappointed by the Lechter reveals really, I had expected more, to be honest

Aurelia is a fun character and I enjoy her as the principal. Want to see her fight Cassius

Want to see Cassius 

I love my girl Annabelle, but she’s the only reason I didn’t get all the character profiles (how was I meant to know I could even go to the highway at that point hmmm Falcom!?)

They picked a good selection of returning Thors students. Even Dorothee isn’t as annoying as she used to be. Hilarious that she’s the only one who didn’t get a profile

Juna gave a great big speech about how awesome the SSS are and namedrops everyone EXCEPT WAZY! My FAVOURITE Crossbell character! So offensive!

Oh speaking of offensive I took Machias to the Mishy show and was told he and Rean did a Mishy dance but they didn’t show it, what the hell-

Playable Olivier! Olivier back story! I could write a goddamn essay on why Olivier is such a great character. Glaring at you Falcom

I miss Mueller :(

Ada Grant is wonderful and I want better things for her

Rufus is a damn great villain just because of how much sense his actions suddenly make when you know that one little detail of him not actually being Jusis’s brother

I hate Cedric but like, in a way where I’m having fun hating him. That little bitch

Literally what do you even actually want Osbourne

I still cannot stand Elise. Something I realised playing this game is that one of the things that stops the Estelle and Joshua relationship from being as weird as it could be is that they don’t look at all alike, it’s very clear they’re not related in the slightest. Elise and Rean look like they really could be siblings, and come to think, so do Lloyd and Cecile. Which is also teased, to a lesser extent. It would be so much less uncomfortable if they just swapped Elise and Alfin’s models ngl (though still not good)

inb4 the final plot twist of the whole series is that Estelle and Joshua actually were biological siblings all along

This game looks so much better than its predecessors. Having the models being a little rounder and softer looking makes it look much more like an updated version of the original style than the complete departure that was CS1 and 2. Every time there was a flashback, Rean would be like ‘back then...’ and I’d feel compelled to say out loud ‘when we were shiny, and looked bad!’

‘Evil ancient magic corrupts people into making them do bad things!’ is... honestly a bit of a cop out that I did not expect from this series 

I found Rean telling Patrick ‘leave room for Aidios when dancing with my sister’ extremely funny. Rean would totally be a Christian summer camp counsellor in the real world

I honestly would have enjoyed it a lot more if Alfin decided to cause a scandal and have her first dance with Elise, but we can’t have such luxuries I suppose

When you get that book on dystopias, very clever to put the author on the last page. Seeing the name Gideon gave me such a start

Racquel was easily my fav new location

Leeves > Trista no doubt, maybe I’m just biased because it looks a lot like the village I grew up in but it’s just such a nicer design

Also the branch campus > main campus purely for being smaller, making the filler segments between field trips more bearable 

I prefer the longer but fewer chapters set-up, I think

There’s so many sad faces in this write up :( 

Back when I played Sky SC, I said something about how one of the themes is ‘you are not defined by your trauma’. I now think it would be more accurate to say that the theme of all the games (but especially the Sky arc) is ‘don’t let your worst experiences define you’

Because there are characters who define themselves by their traumas and worst experiences - and those characters are all villains, or miserable, or both. Like, they don’t phrase it as such, but the requirement to be an Ouroboros enforcer is ‘have trauma and define yourself by it’

And both Joshua and Renne’s arcs are about learning not to do that

Equally, the idea that ‘it’s much easier to not to define yourself by your trauma when you have a good support system that wants the best for you’ is a big theme as well

I just think that’s a really interesting idea for a JRPG series to tackle, idk

I can’t believe I’m at the last game! This series has been my life for the past near-half a year, what do I do when I finish it?

...go back and play Sky FC, maybe?

[famouslastwordsinmexico]

Suggested for You

     You think to yourself, I shouldn’t have looked that up online.

     You’re now staring at a bunch of banner ads that frame your email inbox. Each one is attempting to entice you to purchase succulents from flower shops near and far, small and conglomerated. The bright, animated images boast to you about how their store’s succulents will set you on the path to self-care while reconnecting you with nature. You know these ads are suggested to you and tailored specifically for you based on your search history, but, really, you just wanted to know how to spell “succulent”.

     To be fair, you probably shouldn’t be looking up non-work related curiosities while actually at work, but it’s been a slow morning. And yet, right as you excuse yourself for the trivial indiscretion, you’re called into your manager’s office. You lock your computer and worriedly head over to where they wait for you. Upon entering the room you see that there is someone else here for this impromptu meeting. Or, rather, someone has video-called in, their face on your manager’s monitor, which has been turned to meet yours.

    “A representative from HR will be joining us remotely,” your manager informs you. They then sit on the front edge of their desk, not behind it, in a manner you suspect all managers unironically believe comes off as cool and relaxed.

    “Huh. Is something wrong?” You cautiously take your seat, looking between them and the digital HR rep.

    “Oh, no, not at all. It’s just a small request.” They fold their hands in front of them. “That presentation you’re working on for Friday; I wanted to ask if you would give it over to Robert.”

    “Robert? Why? I thought it was supposed to be my project.” You worked hard on that presentation, and even harder on that project. It was something that was going to get you noticed by the higher-ups, a first step towards bigger things.

    “It is. Or, it was. It…” They stop themselves, physically appear to reset, and adopt a concerned face. “We’re simply worried it might be putting too much stress on you.” They lean in. “How are you feeling? Is everything alright with you?”

    “Uh… I’m doing fine?” You’re progressively less certain about what’s happening.

    “You sure? You can be honest with us.” They lean back. “We’ve heard you’ve been depressed.”

    The shock of this gives you mental whiplash.

    “‘Depressed’?” you echo. “Why would you think that?”

    “Well,” they begin, affecting the concerned yet distant tone in which only senior managers are capable of speaking, “it’s come to our attention that you’ve been sharing some pretty troubling sentiments.”

    “I only really talk about work-related stuff with people, honestly.”

    “No, I’m referring to the stuff you share online.”

    Dumbfounded, you blink.

    “You see,” your manager explains, “we recently employed a service that keeps us up to date with our employees.” They seem mildly pleased with themself over their technological ability. They speak to you but look at the HR rep on screen. “Of course, it’s only because we care for the well-being of everyone here in the office. And their software told us that you’ve been feeling quite down lately. They even highlighted some examples; is it not true that you recently posted about how nothing really matters?”

    You don’t recall using those words for anything. As you confusedly shrug, they pull out their phone and hand you it, showing the post in question.

    “Wait, what?” you ask. “Those are song lyrics. To a very popular song! I shared them for a ‘Throwback Thursday’.”

    “Hmm, no,” they say, taking their phone back. “I’m still seeing a cry for help. Like, what about this one: ‘All I want is to sleep and pizza and do nothing and sleep’? That sounds pretty depressed.”

    “That was one of those online things where people let auto-complete write a post for them.”

    “Sure, then how do you explain this post, where you describe how you wish the food truck across the street would ‘run you over’ if you ‘tipped extra’ for your burrito before you got back in from lunch?”

    “That’s a really old post I made when I was at my old job. The one I left for this job! I made that joke to vent. Other people liked it.” Specifically two people: a friend, and the food truck’s company (which you presume auto-likes any mention of their brand).

    Your manager sighs as they shake their head.

    “Come on, now, you don’t have to hide. You can be honest.” They lean in again. “This is sophisticated software; it wouldn’t lie. Its algorithm combed through your life and crunched the numbers. You are depressed. And, if you’re feeling depressed, we want to make sure the company isn’t placing any undue stress on you. Wouldn’t want you turning around and saying we’re unfair, or that we torment you with public speaking, huh?” No one laughs at their non-joke. The HR rep briefly writes something on their notepad. “Right. Well, when we ask you to hand the presentation off to Robert, it’s not just because we want it to turn out well, it’s because we want you to be well, too.”

    “You’re punishing me because of memes?” you ask, unsure of how much incredulity you can show without further risking your job.

    “Oh, no, of course not,” they reply, “we would never!” At this point your manager doesn’t even try to hide that they’re assuring the HR rep more than they’re talking to you. “This company does not punish depression. In fact,” they add, turning back to you, “why don’t you take the rest of the day off? We’ll mark it down as a sick day, a day for ‘personal care’, even.” They nod to themself, satisfied. “I’ll mark it down in your time sheet right now.”

    They pull out their phone and begin typing, finished with this meeting. You want to tell them not to do that, since you only have a limited number of sick days, but feel there’d be no use arguing. You stand up, at a loss for words. As you slowly turn to leave you find the HR rep is pointing towards the printer in the room. It prints off something you deduce they sent remotely. It appears to be a pamphlet. The person in the monitor motions for you to pick it up, their face set in the textbook definition of a polite smile. The pamphlet is titled Dealing with Depression.

    Your smartwatch pings as you grab the pamphlet and the screen displays an ad for succulents. You turn the watch off.

    You don’t feel like going home right away. You instead head to a nearby cafe and order the kind of sugary latte you know isn’t worth the high price and higher calorie count, but you could use the comfort. There are no real baristas here, only machines that charge you extra to print a picture of yourself onto the latte foam. You pay the extra amount. You then sign on to the free wifi, checking off the terms and conditions you didn’t read, and take a picture of your cup to share online. Not five minutes of browsing later you get a call from your mom. You plug in your headset and answer.

    “Are you alright?” she asks.

    “Yeah, how do you mean?” You wonder why everyone’s asking you that today.

    “Because you’re not at work!” You realize now that the picture you just posted is location-tagged. “And I know what kind of drinks you like when you’re feeling sad; I’m your mother, after all.” You should’ve never accepted her friend request.

    “No, it’s not that, it’s just… I’m alright. Working from home today, but I figured I’d grab a coffee. That’s all, I promise.”

    You don’t think she believes you but her silence tells you she won’t push if you don’t want to tell her the truth. You instead get a notification on your phone that your mom has sent you a “poke”, a feature that only moms still remember exists. She breaks the silence first.

    “Well, okay then,” she offers, “if you say so. Anyways, there was something else I wanted to ask you about.” Her tone gets conspiratorial for her next question. “Are you and Jamie dating?”

    “What?!” You nearly choke on your latte. “No! Why do you think that?”

    “Your aunts told me,” she answers plainly. “And, apparently, some of their friends told them first. They’re still not used to, you know, those kinds of relationships.” As progressive as your mom can be, her age and upbringing still show from time to time.

    “I don’t even know my aunts’ friends, why would they think I’m dating Jamie?”

    “They saw your picture online.”

    You rub your eye, annoyed.

    “What picture, mom?”

    “Well,” she starts, and if phones still had cords you could imagine your mom twirling hers now, wrapping her finger as she shares the gossip, “you see, one of your aunts’ friends was online and saw you as a suggested friend.” You never understood what algorithms determined those suggestions. “She was curious, so she went in and browsed your page. There it was, a photo of the two of you, looking pretty close and cozy.”

    You check your account on your phone. There’s no way someone randomly looking you up online could’ve seen that photo. Although, how many times did the site tell you they were updating their privacy policy and you opted to skip the details of what that meant?

    “Mom, didn’t you see that picture yourself before? That was just Jamie and me playing around. You know we’re just friends.”

    “Yes, I thought it was nothing. But, those friends of your aunts talk a lot, and they do seem very convinced. I looked at the picture again and it got me thinking.” Her tone gets conspiratorial again. “Are you dating Jamie? I’d have nothing against it. Your father, though…” You block the headset mic to hide your exasperated sigh, and then interrupt before she can finish the thought.

    “We’re not close, mom, not like that. My aunts and their friends are making up stories.” You wonder how scrutinized any future pictures you post will be. Maybe you should restrict how much of your profile your mom can access. You’ll have to figure out the new privacy settings first.

    “Yes, fine, you’re right. I’m simply saying they sounded convinced, is all.” You can almost picture her busying herself with some chores at home to prove that she’s over it. And yet she adds, “I will say, though, that if you were with Jamie, I’d be very supportive. Jamie’s lovely, and would be lucky to have you.”

    You hide another exasperated sigh and change the topic. When she’s had her fill of catching up, your mom says goodbye and you hang up.

    You sit in the cafe, your mouth contorted in contemplation save for when you sip from your cup. You thought you were good at keeping your personal and online lives separate, but thanks to dubious algorithms and out-of-touch inquirers, your agency at work has been diminished and your sexuality is being questioned by people who’d be less than understanding. Even if you restrict who gets access to your information, what little slips through the cracks is still interpreted without context. Is that what the internet is now? For people to be data-mined so other people can make assumptions? Who wanted it that way?

    Your phone sets off with another notification, informing you that a local indoor plant store has followed you online. They specialize in succulents.

    You almost laugh out loud at the insanity of it. Of course; this hunt for data is mostly the hunt for ad revenue. While it’s a marvel how fervently someone on the other side of the screen wants to believe they understand you, advertisers are the ones who set the system up. And even they can’t seem to get it right!

    The fever of frustration breaks, giving way to a fever of defiance. Why leave room to be misinterpreted? You decide to live your online life unabashedly and unafraid to share all. Will someone be tracking your moves? You don’t care, but if they are you hope they can keep up.

    You grab your phone and browse with fury and determination. You share news articles and let your political leanings lay bare as you never had before. You hit “publish” on every dumb joke and inane thought you had previously hid shamefully as drafts. You post all of the pictures in your phone, and when you’re done with those you take a couple more. You follow musicians, actors, and influencers alike, so that no one would have to guess what your tastes are. You join in as many forum conversations as you can, and only stop when a person you’re arguing with, who has an anime-girl profile picture, threatens to dox you. You log off.

    When you finally get home you’re bleary eyed from unblinking browsing and shaky from the excess of caffeine. You want nothing more than to decompress. As you turn on your TV to search for something to stream and zone out to, you call out to your virtual assistant device and say, “Play something soothing.”

    Though your command was vague, as the speakers turn on they start playing exactly what you only now realize you had in mind. You love this band, even if you hadn’t thought of them in a while. Your phone goes off with a notification that this band has a concert coming up soon. As if on instinct triggered by serendipity, you click the notification to buy tickets.

    While browsing various streaming services on your TV you come across several documentaries that you’ve heard confirm a lot of opinions you’ve had on the state of things. While you’d love to be proven correct, you’re more in the mood for something light. You wonder if they have this one funny movie that’s a reboot of a movie that’s based on a book. Before you can remember the title you see it listed. You hit play.

    Ultimately, modern movie watching entails being on your phone, so you scroll through whatever new content was uploaded on your commute home. While you idly browse, you find another tailored ad, this time for a t-shirt boldly claiming that people born the same month as you are kind yet shouldn’t be messed with, each line in a different garish font.

    “Ha,” you laugh to yourself, “what a stupid ad.” Even after all the data you gave them, advertisers are no better than your manager or your aunts, thinking they know you and what’s best for you.

    Suddenly the page you’re on refreshes. What loads first is the ad, this time for a different shirt that’s admittedly more your style. The tagline reads, “Your life, your look.” Unsettled by the coincidence and feeling like you’ve found yourself in a conversation with your phone you didn’t know you were having, you try to click on a different link. More content loads just at that moment, though, shifting the layout of the page and leading you to click on the ad instead. Surprised, you fumble with your phone to close what’s popped up, but as your panicked fingers slip your phone decides you mean to go through with the order. You adjust your hold on your phone but somehow manage to set off a biometric scan that confirms the purchase.

    As if queued by your consumerist momentum, an ad interrupts the movie you’re watching (since when did this streaming service have ads?). The volume seems to increase on its own as the TV blares at you.

    “You don’t necessarily feel you age, so why look your age? Our skin cream can miraculously take 5 years off your face, letting your inner youth shine through.” The ad shows a model before and after using the cream. It makes a specific point of telling you the model’s age, which is your age.

    You search frantically for the remote to turn the volume down. No matter what angle you point the remote at it, the TV refuses to recognize your button pushing. You get up and simply turn off the TV manually. This gives your virtual assistant device space to chime in with a separate ad.

    “Tired of the long commute to your workplace? Find more free time while moving into one of the fastest growing neighbourhoods that’s perfect for you.” The voice emanating from your speakers describes listings in a building that you recognize is half a block away from your office. You run to unplug the device.

    One by one more “smart” appliances in your home, devices that you now question their need for internet connectivity, begin to play or display ads that were made to appeal to you exactly.

    “Our energy efficient windows fit your green lifestyle!” your thermostat boasts, citing a climate change article you just read.

    “Let us deliver the groceries you need for the recipes you love!” your fridge demands, listing off your actual favourite recipes.

    “Bzzt!” vibrates your electric toothbrush, calling you to look at its charger’s digital screen and see an ad for a dental clinic, featuring a close up of a mouth you’re weirdly certain is actually yours.

    As your apartment comes alive with the sounds of aggressive advertising, you’re terrified. You step out onto the balcony. You think to yourself, and only to yourself, that you need to get away.

    A delivery drone floats up from under your balcony and stops right at your eye level. It’s been outfitted with a display monitor. It plays a video.

    “Looking for a vacation?” it asks. “Why not fly out to Pasadena, California? You can visit the Cactus & Succulent Society of America’s annual show and sale!”

[mylifeasaserver]

My 4th of July Weekend: Master Post

Normally I’d have broken this up into 3 separate posts, but since anything that isn’t a meme gets about 6 notes, I’ll do what I want.

July 3

8AM - My phone rings, it’s the GM calling to ask me to come in ASAP because of callouts. It goes to voicemail because I’m not waking up - much less getting out of bed - this early for what I already know will be a shit show.

10AM - Wake up, notice a voicemail. I don’t listen to it or clear the notification.

11AM - Finish scrolling through the memes and videos my friend sent me, taking care not to clear any notifications. I know what’s up here and I’m not playing.

4PM - Show up at work right at my scheduled time and am asked why I didn’t answer my phone or call back. Well [GM] I’m not paid to be on call so I do what I want. Pretend not to have seen the notification. Get a section.

4:02PM - Somehow have 8 tables in my 5 table section because the server next to me wants cut and is refusing to take his 4 tables. Alert GM to this problem.

4:04PM - Other server is all kinds of pissed off at me, but fuck him in particular. 

5PM - Other server is cut, leaves without doing his side work, section, or rolling silverware. In fact, all of day shift leaves without doing their side work, meaning we have to stock while we work which is a shit sandwich all its own.

5:30PM - Get sat a party of 13. Get assigned a new server to take it with me. He disappears when we’re supposed to greet. Find out later he decided to hide in the bathroom.

5:45PM - Party of 13 has drinks, and the order is in. I’m asked why the other server’s section looks like shit. GM is displeased with my response of “the lazy ass didn’t bother cleaning it. Didn’t do his side work either.”

6:30PM - Kitchen finally gets the food out for the party of 13. New server actively avoids the 13 top, which is just as well since at this point I’m not splitting the tip with him.

7PM - 7 separate checks later, the 13 top is done and leaving. Reap the rewards of about $8 on their $200 bill. They thank me for the excellent service, but don’t see me mouthing “fuck you” under the mask. Immediately upon clearing the tables, get sat a 14 top.

7:05PM - New server comes looking for his share of the tip. I tell him to go away. No work = no tip. He runs to the night manager.

7:10PM - Night manager tells the new server he’s on the 14 top with me and he best actually serve them this time. He doesn’t. He’s still pissed off he didn’t get half of the $8.

8PM - 14 top is finishing eating, new server hasn’t been to the table a single time. He walks past, picks up a plate and makes it a point to tell the night manager he’s helped me.

8:15PM - 14 top is done paying, I reap the rewards of $15 on their $150 bill. Much like the last table the thank me for the excellent service but don’t see me mouthing “fuck you” under the mask. New server sees them hand me money and comes asking about his share. Gets the finger. In retrospect, probably shouldn’t have flipped him off on camera.

10:30PM - Last table finally leaves. New server tries to leave without doing his side work or section. He’s very displeased when he learns that night shift doesn’t do that and vows to only work day shift from now on. We all think that would be best.

11PM - Kitchen and dining rooms are finally clean and I make my escape. For all the bullshit I put up with I get about 8% on sales. The people coming in normally can’t afford to vacation in this tourist trap, but covid has dropped the rates enough for them to slither out from whatever hell that spawned them.

July 4

5PM - Show up to my host shift. This is a favor to the night manager, otherwise I’d never have done it. Seat a total of three tables in the next hour.

6:15PM - All hell breaks loose. We’re 40 people over capacity and telling people to wait outside after putting them on a wait. We have thirty takeouts waiting to come out, and people chewing my ass about having to wait. I tell them to social distance away from the podium unless they want removed from the wait list.

7PM - Wait list is at an hour. One woman in particular is having a hard time with it and looks in the dining room and sees a table with nobody at it, and demands to be sat there. No. Some tables are deliberately left empty due to social distancing. She demands a manager. I tell her no, I am the manager. I’m told what an incompetent moron I am, so I remove her from the wait list and tell her to eat somewhere else. She leaves, and takes her party of 7 with her. Not a tipping table anyway.

8PM - I help servers out by bussing and resetting their tables for them - whether they like it or not. Wait list is still an hour, many people choose not to wait and leave. I wouldn’t wait either. Some tables get tired of waiting for their food to come just leave. Kind of stupid since they waited an hour for a table, but that’s their business.

9PM - The server who yesterday leaves without doing side work or anything else orders me to stop seating him because he wants to leave. He’s told it has to come from a manager. Instead of getting the manager (Captain Hindsight) he chooses to leave his tables dirty so I can’t seat him.

9:10PM - I’ve cleared and reset and sat all 4 tables in his section. We’re still on a wait and until the Captain tells me to stop seating him, I’ll do what I’m supposed to because it pisses him off and that pleases me like you wouldn’t believe.

9:15PM - Captain Hindsight emerges from the office where she’s been hiding all evening to come chew on my ass. The server that wanted to leave whined that I sat him too fast, but neglected to mention about coming to the host stand to demand I stop seating him and not clearing his tables. When she tells me she should have expected me to screw it up I clocked out and left. My end time was in another 45 minutes, but I’m not paid enough for that level of bullshit. I tell the Captain I’m leaving so she can do a better job of it and walk out into the balmy air and go home.

July 5

5PM - I show up for my shift and am promptly pulled into the office with the GM and the Captain to explain why I left. I explain, and tell the GM that I’m not putting up with that shit. He knows. He also knows that I’m too lazy to make shit up and tells me to go get my section. I don’t know what - or if - anything else was discussed. 

5:10PM - Go to the host stand to find out my section and discover I have 5 tables already. Host can’t see me mouthing “fuck you” under my mask.

5:30PM - Got the 5 tables sorted, with drinks, and orders in. Kitchen is running tickets nearly an hour long. I make sure all the tables know this up front. Discover that like always, day shift didn’t bother with side work.

6:30PM - All 5 tables finally have food, one demands a discount for waiting. Since I already know there’s no tip coming, it’s denied. He was told up front that the wait could be up to an hour, chose to stay.

7:30PM - All 5 tables have paid and left. The table that I suspected would leave no tip surprises me by leaving a whole dollar behind. Assholes.

7:45PM - I have five new tables. The last one is a 5 top. One of the women at the table - clearly the leader of this little squad of shitheads - orders a water with lemon for everybody at the table and dismisses me with a wave of her hand. I stay and tell them the featured food and what food is prepared the fastest - and let them know it’s taking about an hour for food to come out. This obviously pisses her off a bit because I didn’t scurry when she wanted. I decide that she’s Sergeant Karen, and the mental image of her being a frumpy fat drill instructor pleases me.

7:55PM - I bring the waters with lemons and begin taking food orders at the 5 top. Everybody at the table orders a drink with their food. Sergeant Karen tells me that if the food isn’t ready in 30 minutes, they’re leaving. I tell her that I can’t force her order ahead of other people, and ask if she’d just like to leave now because it won’t be ready. She says no. 

8PM - Their order is in and I tell Captain Hindsight about her threat. I also tell her that she should expect to be demanded at the table.

8:05PM - Two of my five tables get their food because they ordered the things that I said cook exceptionally fast. Sergeant Karen shows me the timer on her phone already at seven minutes. I tell her that means she only has 53 minutes to go. 

8:30PM - Sergeant Karen demands a manager. She can’t see me mouthing “fuck you” under my mask. I get Captain Hindsight.

8:35PM - Sergeant Karen doesn’t make good on her threat to leave, instead ordering Captain Hindsight to give them a “substantial discount” for their inconvenience. To her credit, the Captain reminds her that I said that it was an hour wait and there would be no discount. 

8:40PM - Sergeant Karen makes a big display of packing up her stuff, but doesn’t actually go anywhere. Two more of my tables get their food, and the two that got their food earlier get their checks and pay. Sarge then demands to know how they got their food so fast and is immediately unhappy when I tell her it’s because they ordered the things that I said cook fastest.

8:55PM - The food arrives for the 5 top, brought out by my coworkers since I had other shit to do (fixing the mistakes of a newer server.) Sergeant Karen again demands a manager.

9PM - Captain Hindsight goes to the table and again a discount is demanded...but ultimately denied.

9:15PM - Sergeant Karen changes a diaper. On the table. While everybody is eating. It smells like a septic tank backed up into a nursing home. She then puts it under the table for reasons unknown.

9:30PM - I get two more tables, and two more get their checks. The kitchen is closer to caught up and it’s only taking about 30 minutes for food to come out.

9:45PM - Sarge hears me tell my new tables to expect about a 30 minute wait for food and again demands the manager. I flatly say “no.”

9:47PM - I drop the check at the table and Sarge complains one final time about how unfairly she was treated. She can’t see me mouthing “fuck you” under my mask, but the realization that I really don’t give a shit hits her and she passes the check to the poor bastard that married her. 

10PM - The restaurant closes, and Sergeant Karen leaves. Before she goes, however, she picks up the filthy folded up diaper and drops it on the host stand. Lovely.

10:30PM - The last of my tables leave, and I discover that I made over 21% on the evening - despite Sarge making sure I got no tip from her group. This would be great but with the kitchen so backlogged I still didn’t make squat. Fuck it. 

11PM - All the shit I needed to do is done. Captain Hindsight asks me what was up with that 5 top, but doesn’t see me mouthing “fuck you” at her. I just shrug my shoulders and go home.

It’s like a barely-readable story that nobody wants to scroll through. -J

[atc74]

Watching You (2)

Square(s) Filled: Sam Winchester for @spngenrebingo

Warnings: Crazy supportive big brother Dean, creepy love notes, stalker, angst, mentions of death, language. 

Summary: Y/N has a secret admirer that has been leaving her sweet notes. On top of that, she gathers her courage and asks the tall, dark, and handsome Cross Country Coach/History Teacher, Sam Winchester to dinner, thinking he could be her secret admirer. Sam isn’t the secret admirer and someone is unhappy. Will history repeat itself or can Sam keep his new girlfriend safe?

Pairing:  Coach/Teacher!Sam x Coach!Reader

Characters: Y/N Y/L/N, Sam Winchester, Michael Shurley, Dean Winchester Bobby Singer, Jody Mills, Alex Jones

Word Count: 4565

Written for:  @spngenrebingo

Beta’d by: The incomparable @amanda-teaches, thank you to the moon and back for everything! Also a huge shout out to @luci-in-trenchcoats, the Queen of AU Whodunits for her feedback. And to @alleiradayne, for her faith in me and her unwavering support.

A/N: This is the second installment to a two part story. I feel it was too long for one solid piece. I am very proud of this entire story and I hope you enjoy it! 

Looking for the next level fan experience? Check out Sam or Dean’s scent now! Buy it here from @scentsfromthebunker!

Read Watching You part one now!

Previously...

Y/N woke sluggishly. The house was still dark, save for the light above her kitchen sink. She stretched her stiff body, noticing for the first time the blanket draped neatly over her. She remembered her argument with Sam. She remembered asking him leave, telling him she didn’t know if she could trust him. She remembered crying herself to sleep on the couch. She did not remember grabbing a blanket. A blanket that she kept in the window seat of her living room, not on her couch. A chill ran through her as she grabbed her phone off the coffee table. There were three missed calls, five text messages, and a voicemail. All of them from Sam. 

Ignoring the notifications, she dialed Dean. Groggily he answered on the third ring. “‘Lo?”

“Dean, it’s Y/N. I’m sorry to wake you, I don’t even know what time it is, but can you come over? I think someone was here.”

Dean immediately sat up in his bed, now fully awake and coherent. “I’ll be there in ten minutes. Make sure your doors are bolted and put on a pot of coffee. It’s going to be okay, Y/N.” 

A knock sounded at her door eight minutes later. She peeked out from behind the curtains to see Dean’s ebony car in her drive. “Y/N? It’s Dean. It’s okay to open the door.” 

She rushed to the front door, quickly undoing the lock and throwing it open. Before Dean could even step foot inside, she launched herself into his arms, knocking him off balance. 

“Whoa, whoa, Sweetheart. I’ve got you. You’re okay,” Dean comforted her the best he could. “Wanna tell me what happened?” 

Over coffee at three in the morning, Y/N recapped the events of the night, including her conversation with Sam. “How could he keep something like that from me?”

“Hey, first things first. I need your phone so I can check the video feed from the cameras,” Dean started. “Then we can talk about Sam.” 

Y/N handed him her phone and he opened the app, checking the feed on all four cameras. “There’s nothing. You didn’t disconnect them did you?” 

“Why would I do that Dean?” she argued. 

“I’m just asking, okay. Did you have any power outages, lose your internet? Anything out of the ordinary you can think of?” Dean questioned. 

“I had to reset the router last week because it wasn’t working,” she thought back. 

“It must have lost signal with the cameras. Dammit!” Dean shouted, pacing the floor in her kitchen, stopping suddenly when he came to the back door. He grabbed a paper towel and jiggled the handle, it was loose. “When was the last time you used this door?” 

“I don’t know. Uh, a week ago maybe. Sam and I grilled last weekend,” she said. “Dean, what the hell is going on?” 

Dean pulled a weapon from the holster hidden by his flannel and handed her a business card. “Lock yourself in the bathroom. If I don’t come back in ten minutes, I want you to call this number. Tell him what happened and he’ll help.” 

“Dean, you’re scaring me.” 

“I think scared is good right now. I’ll be right back,” Dean told her. He took off for the stairs as she ran to the small powder room off the kitchen, locking the door. 

Dean checked each room of the modest house, not finding anything out of the ordinary. When he got to Y/N’s room, he noticed some of his brother’s clothes over a chair. He flipped the light on and that was when he spotted it. A plain white envelope in the middle of her pristinely made bed. He gently picked it up by the edges after photographing it with his phone. He bounded down the stairs to check the basement before he retrieved Y/N from the bathroom. Nothing else in the house was amiss. 

“Sweetheart, you can come out now,” he said softly, knocking on the door. 

“Dean, what the fuck is going on?” she demanded. 

“He left another note. It was on your bed,” Dean laid it on the counter before her. She shook her head, so Dean opened it. 

“Are you fucking kidding me? He was in my house and watching me sleep?” she bellowed. 

“I’m going to make a call,” Dean announced, leaving the room momentarily. Y/N took a bottle off the top of her fridge, adding a healthy dose to her coffee. 

“Tell me about Jessica, the fire and Michael Shurley’s involvement,” she requested when he returned. 

Dean took notice of the bottle, added a shot to his own coffee, and took a large drink. “After our parents accident, Sam wasn’t really the same. I guess neither of us was. He was only sixteen. I was twenty, in the Academy and suddenly had to parent my little brother. They left us a substantial life insurance policy and the house was paid for so we did okay. We both went to therapy and things got easier.” 

“Then, Sam went off to college. He met this girl and she was great for him, but it turned out her secret admirer wasn’t so thrilled about their budding romance. Then the house fire happened and he was never the same. He never came home for breaks, just spent all his time studying. They interviewed all of their friends and reports said Shurley was jealous of Sam’s relationship with Jess. But the police couldn’t find any evidence that he was the stalker or set the fire. The case went cold and was never solved,” Dean sighed, running a hand over his face. 

“Sam said they questioned him too, but the two of you were camping,” Y/N mentioned. 

“Yeah, we were. It was actually the anniversary of our parents’ deaths and we always went camping to get away, you know? So we were over in hill country, but got separated while hiking. I didn’t see Sam for almost six hours. I made it back to camp and he was just sitting there by the fire and he goes, ‘Nice navigation skills, jerk.’ like nothing happened. I was freaking worried sick that something had happened to my kid brother, but he was having the time of his life roasting marshmallows,” Dean exasperated. “It wasn’t until the next morning that I got the call on my radio about Jess and the fire.”

“That must have devastated him,” Y/N pondered quietly, her hands fiddling with the coffee cup. 

“It did. It took years for me to get my brother back and now this,” he groaned. “It’s this weekend, did you know that?” 

“What is?” Y/N asked, confusion filling her features. 

“The anniversary. Our parents and Jessica. The same day five years apart. It’s been ten years since her death,” Dean informed her softly. 

“No wonder he didn’t tell me. I still wish he had, but I guess I see the reasons why he didn’t. Or couldn’t,” she reasoned. 

There was a knock at her front door, making her jump from her seat. 

“It’s my buddy. It’s okay. I called him,” Dean reassured her, going to the door. He returned a moment later with an older man dressed like a trucker. “Y/N Y/L/N, this is Bobby Singer. He’s the friend who hooked us up with all the equipment.” 

“It’s good to meet ya, kid. The boys have told me a lot about you,” the old man smiled. 

“I wish I could say the same, Mr. Singer. But it seems the people I meet now are only because of this psycho,” she chuckled nervously. 

“Shit, girl. Mr. Singer was my father and an ass. Please call me Bobby. And yeah, it sucks balls, but I trust this boy with my life,” Bobby proudly turned to Dean, a hand clasped on his shoulder. “And you can, too.” 

“I know, Bobby. I feel better knowing he’s here,” she smiled at the two of them, feeling the bond between them. “But if you don’t mind me asking, why are you here?”

“Stalker situations don’t exactly take top priority with the boys in blue. No offense, Dean,” Bobby looked to the younger man. “Unless there has been actual, physical harm, they tend to look the other way. That’s where I take over. I’m the former chief of police here and now I’m my own boss.”

“So what do we do?” she asked. 

“You are calling in sick to work tomorrow, uh, today. Then you’re going to take a nap while Bobby and I make a plan,” Dean told her. 

“But,” she argued. “I can’t, Dean. We have a game tomorrow afternoon.” 

“And that is what assistant coaches are for, Sweetheart. Your life is more important than a win right now,” Dean pointed out and won. She trudged up the stairs. He heard doors open and close and the shower start. Then he turned to Bobby. 

“Did you have eyes on him all night?” Dean demanded. 

“You know I did,” Bobby grumbled. “Nothing since he got home from work. Rufus has been on him since he left the school.”

“Then what the fuck?” Dean shouted, slamming his fist down on the counter. 

“Watch your tone with me, boy!” Bobby smacked Dean upside his head. 

“Ow!” Dean rubbed the back of his head. “What about Sam?”

“Jody said he hasn’t left his house since he got back. She walked the perimeter and all she can hear is him working out. Weights, the treadmill, the heavy bag until he turned in for the night. It’s not him, Dean. That’s a good thing, boy,” Bobby confirmed. 

“Check in with Rufus, please?” Dean asked. “It’s gotta be Shurley.”

He and Bobby came up with a plan and dusted the house for prints, but didn’t find any that shouldn’t be there. All of them came back as Y/N’s, Sam’s or Dean’s. There also was nothing on the letter, prints or DNA. Dean didn’t know what else to do to help this girl that he had grown fond of since she had started dating his brother. He pulled his phone out and shot off a text. He hoped it would work. 

Y/N groaned as she rolled over to glance at her alarm clock. It was just past eight in the morning and she had gotten a few hours of sleep. The aroma of fresh coffee and bacon reached her nose as she threw back the covers. After taking care of business, she made her way to the kitchen for her fix. Dean was at the stove, but she ignored him for the coffee pot. She didn’t even notice Sam sitting at her kitchen table until she consumed the first hot sip. Her heart caught in her throat. 

“What are you doing here, Sam?” she mumbled, not sure if she was excited to see him, or if it was nerves making her heart race. 

“Uh, Dean called me. Told me what happened,” he replied, standing up and crossing the room to stand before her. “I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you. I should have said something, but I was scared. I’m so sorry, baby.”

“You can’t change the past, Sam. But I need you here with me. We need to be open and honest with each other,” she sniffled. “I’m scared.” 

Sam didn’t say anything else, just took the cup from her hands, setting it aside to wrap his arms around her until they covered her like a favorite blanket. Neither of them noticed Dean slip from the room to give them some privacy. 

Later, over breakfast, Dean and Bobby filled Y/N and Sam in on their plan to keep her safe. 

“You want me to move in with someone I’ve known for five hours? Just uproot my life like that?” Y/N questioned, snapping her fingers in front of Dean’s face. 

“It’s just for a few days, I’m sure, Y/N,” Sam attempted to reason with her. “Bobby’s place is the safest of safe houses. He and his wife, Jody, are both retired Law Enforcement. Whoever is doing this won’t be able to find you there. And, I’ll be there with you, too.” 

“Fine. I guess I don’t have much say in the matter. You two are the experts here. I’ll just go pack a bag,” Y/N stood and left the room, all eyes following her until her feet hit the stairs. 

“Are you guys sure about this?” Sam turned and looked at the only two men he trusted wholly. 

“Yes. We’re sneaking her out the back to my van. Jody’s daughter, Alex, is the same height and build and will be staying here in her place. She will receive a phone call from you, Sam, and drive to meet you somewhere. We hope the bastard follows her so we can nail him,” Bobby explained. 

The air was rent with a scream from the second floor. Sam and Dean ran for the stairs, taking them two at a time. “What is it? What happened?” 

“He was here!” she cried, pointing at another envelope on the bed. Dean lifted it off the bed carefully. He pulled the paper open with his knife to read the words aloud. 

“Get me the fuck outta here.” Her voice cracked with emotion. 

“You idjits ready?” Bobby called up the stairs as the three of them were exiting Y/N’s room, Sam holding tight to her hand. 

“Y/N, this is my step-daughter, Alex. She’s going to play you for a couple of days so we can catch this son of a bitch,” Bobby introduced them. 

“Thank you,” Y/N acknowledged her softly, turning her face into Sam’s shirt. 

“You know what to do kid,” Bobby addressed Alex. “Anything fishy and you alert me or your mama.” 

“Got it, pops,” Alex agreed. She hugged Bobby, before wishing them luck and watching them duck out the back door to his waiting van. “Now, you guys need to leave. Go home. Don’t head to our place just yet.”

“I’ve got to check in at the station, anyway,” Dean said, looking to his brother. “She’s gonna be okay, Sammy. You’re gonna be okay.” 

“Thanks, Dean. Bye, Alex. Thank you,” Sam waved as he headed out the door with his brother. They got in their respective vehicles and parted ways. 

~*~

The Singer-Mills home was not what she was expecting. It was an older two story with light blue paint and white trim. The landscaping was immaculate and cheery, flowers lining the walk. Y/N was pleasantly surprised as Bobby ushered her into the house quickly. 

“Y/N, this is my wife, Jody. She’ll show you to your room,” Bobby grumbled, heading to the kitchen for a drink. 

“Right this way, sweetie,” Jody smiled kindly. “I can only imagine what you are going through, but I want you to know you are perfectly safe here. Bobby and I are going to make sure of it, okay?” At the top of the stairs, she turned back down the hall to the last room on the left. 

The room was well kept, with a queen size bed in the middle and lacy white curtains blowing with the slight breeze. There was also a small dresser and a large closet.  

“Thank you very much, Jody. I think I’d like to lay down,” Y/N yawned, the last twelve hours having taken its toll on her. 

“That sounds like a good idea, honey. I’ll come wake you in a couple hours when lunch is ready,” Jody excused herself from the room, letting Y/N get her bearings and some rest. 

She returned to the kitchen to find her husband nursing a whiskey, just finishing a call with her daughter, who was currently posing as Y/N. Their plan was risky, but it was the best possible outcome. She stood behind him, gently rubbing his shoulders. “It’s gonna work out. We’re gonna get him this time.” 

“I sure hope you’re right, woman,” Bobby groaned. 

“I always am. That’s why you married me,” she smiled down at him, laying a sweet kiss to his bearded cheek. 

“Damn straight,” he laughed, pulling her down into his lap. 

~*~

“Baby, it’s me. Wanna wake up?” Sam nuzzled his face into Y/N’s hair as he laid in the bed behind her. 

“Time is it?” she mumbled sleepily into her pillow. 

“It’s time for lunch,” he whispered softly in her ear. 

“Good, I’m hungry,” she replied, rolling over and curling into his chest. 

“Then, let’s go get some grub,” he chuckled, the rumbling settling in his chest. 

A few minutes later, they wandered hand in hand into the kitchen. “Hmmm, it’s smells amazing in here.” 

“Thank you, dear. That’s actually dinner. We’ll be having lasagna tonight. Right now, you’ll have to settle for grilled cheese and homemade chicken noodle soup,” Jody informed them as she dished the soup into bowls at the stove. 

Bobby slid the sandwiches onto a platter, placing it in the middle of the table. “Eat up, kids.” 

“Where’s Dean?” Sam asked, grabbing them both a sandwich. 

“He called a little bit ago. Got held up at the station with some paperwork, he said,” Bobby relayed. “He should be here for dinner. You know that boy hasn’t missed a family dinner in fifteen years.”

“I don’t think Dean has ever missed a meal,” Sam agreed. 

After lunch, Y/N helped Jody clean up then Sam pulled her outside with him to sit out on the porch. It was a nice autumn afternoon, the leaves just starting to change color. 

“I could get used to this,” Sam stated. 

“What, running for my life?” Y/N asked, a bitter laugh falling from her lips. 

“No, definitely not that. This, you and me. I know we haven’t been together very long, but I see a future with you,” he professed. “I haven’t thought about that with anyone since Jessica. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth about her, about what happened to her.” 

“Sam, I talked to your brother. He told me everything. I’m sorry I got so upset. I should’ve listened more and talked less. I know it wasn’t easy for you to tell me that, and then I kinda blew up at you. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I said I couldn’t trust you. I was just scared,” Y/N apologized not only for her reaction, but for Sam’s loss. She knew that must have been hell to deal with. 

“When you love someone, it’s harder to let all the ghosts out of the closet,” Sam murmured. 

“What? Did you say you love me?” Her head shot up off his shoulder so she could look him in the eyes. 

“Yeah, I guess I did. I love you, Y/N,” Sam repeated. 

“I think I might love you, too, Sam. But can we get through this first?” she hesitated. “There are so many emotions going through me right now, I just need a clear head to sort them all out. Is that okay?”

“Yeah, it’s okay. I get it, I do. I can’t imagine being on the receiving end of what this creep is doing to you. But me, Bobby, Jody, Dean, and Alex...we’ve got you, baby,” Sam promised. 

Y/N knew she was safe here with Sam, Bobby and Jody. She knew Dean wouldn’t be far behind, but she couldn’t shake the feeling of dread that had settled deep in her bones. 

As the sun started to set and the breeze turned cooler, Sam and Y/N headed inside to help with dinner. Alex and Dean had arrived while they had been outside. 

“Pops, I’m telling you, there was no tail. I stayed at the designated point for four hours and took a different route home. I stopped for gas and wine. There was no one watching me. You’re the one that trained me. You doubting yourself, old man?” Alex filled everyone in on her afternoon as Y/N without incident. 

“I’m not doubting myself, or you, honey bun. I’m just trying to make sure Y/N stays safe. She’s in our care now and we need to be on top of our game,” Bobby reiterated, casting his eyes over everyone in the room. 

“I had some paperwork to do, but I ran through the old case files from ten years ago. I even made a follow up call to the lead detective back then, too. They’ve heard nothing new on Shurley. He doesn’t even have so much as have a jaywalking citation. On paper, the guy is a freaking angel,” Dean delivered his own news. 

“Well, then we keep on keeping on,” Jody said. “Besides, right now, it’s family dinner and chow’s on.” 

The table was filled with lasagna, salad, bread and wine. Y/N looked around the table at the smiling faces of the people whom she had grown to care about in Sam and Dean, as well as those that were her new protectors. She felt conflicted, with the emotions spinning inside her like a tornado, and instead of a family dinner, she couldn’t help but hope it wasn’t her last supper. 

“Thank you all so much for dinner and conversation, but I’m beat. I think I’m going to turn in,” Y/N announced, downing the last of her wine, yawning widely.

“I’ll come with you,” Sam said. 

They climbed the stairs side by side and readied for bed in silence. It wasn’t until they were bathed in moonlight from the gauzy curtains that Sam broke the silence.

“I know you’re scared, babe. I can feel it. It’s oozing from your pores. I’m scared, too,” Sam admitted, rolling to face Y/N. 

“Sam, I am certain that I love you, but I don’t want this to be your life. What if this never goes away?” she faltered, trying not to look him in the eye.

“We’ll figure it out together. I’m not going anywhere, Y/N. I love you,” Sam expressed. 

“I love you,” she sighed, allowing herself to let go and just be with Sam for now. They’d figure the rest out later, if they survived. 

~*~

“Sam, Y/N! You have to get up now!” Alex whisper screamed as she glided across the floor, her steps featherlight as she reached the bed. “Sam! Y/N!” 

They bolted upright, seeing Alex hovering over the bed. “He’s here, isn’t he?” 

“We’ve only caught movement on the cameras, nothing defined. But go! Now!” Alex moved toward the closet and the large bureau that sat against one wall. She pulled open the double doors and twisted the bottom left knob to reveal a hidden hatch inside the bureau. She handed them each a glowstick. “There is a door in the northwest corner with a retinal scanner. Go!” 

Sam climbed through first, landing on his feet in a darkened stairwell. He broke the glowsticks as Y/N eased her body through the opening to stand beside him. The door to the bureau closed and they were left in silence as they negotiated the narrow stairwell to the bottom. Sam turned and found the door Alex told them about. He lined up his face and the scanner passed over him. “Samuel Winchester. Access granted.” The robotic voice declared and the door popped open.

“Y/N, come on!” Sam urged her to hurry through the door just as a gunshot echoed on the floor above them. 

“That was a warning. Don’t make me shoot you, boy!” Bobby bellowed as he defended Y/N and his home. 

Sam dragged her into the room behind him and pulled the heavy steel door closed and the lock engaged with a resounding boom. He quickly assessed the room and, at a glance, it seemed to have everything they needed to hide out for at least two weeks. Sam calmed Y/N down and helped her onto the couch on one side, covering her with a blanket while he held her close. 

“He’s here, Sam. He’s coming for me,” she mumbled. 

“Hey, no one is getting in here. You’re safe here with me,” Sam cooed, trying his best to reassure her, but it was getting harder by the minute. He could only imagine what was going on upstairs. “I’m going to look around and get some water, okay?” She only nodded as he rose from the sofa. 

Steel shelving lined one wall and was stocked with bottled water and canned goods. There was a door on the other wall which Sam assumed was a bathroom, as the shelves also held toilet tissue and hygiene products. There was a full size bed in the other corner and a desk next to it. He walked over and took a seat at the desk. There was a note addressed to him. 

“Sam, this ain’t gonna be easy, but just stay here and let us deal with this sicko. We’re trained for this kinda shit, but if we need someone to outrun him, we’ll call you. Sit tight kid and hold tight to your girl. We got this.” ~Bobby.

Sam couldn’t help but chuckle at Bobby’s attempt at joking at a time like this, but that was part of his charm. He rose to grab two waters from the shelf when the lights went out, followed by a shriek from Y/N on the sofa. “Babe?” Sam called out for her. 

“Sam!” she cried out for him just as the emergency lights kicked on, bathing the room in a red glow. 

Sam rushed to her side, forgetting the waters. He needed to keep calm to keep her calm but he knew he was close to losing it, too. 

~*~

“What are you doing, boy?” Bobby called out from behind cover in his office, the red glow throwing shadows everywhere.  

“I’m tired of playing. Let’s finish this game!” the voice boomed throughout the house with thunderous rage. 

“You don’t have to do this. You can still walk away, Dean!” Jody shouted. 

“Really, Jody? Would you feel the same way if it had been Alex?” Dean mocked as he walked through the hallways of the house he practically grew up in. 

“No, you piece of shit. You would’ve been dead already!” Alex screamed as she lunged forward from the shadows pulling the trigger of the gun aimed at a man she considered her brother. The single shot hit him in the thigh. 

“You bitch!” Dean roared as he stumbled, falling to one knee. 

“I taught you more respect for women than that, boy,” Bobby chastised as he entered the hallway, seeing Dean bleeding. 

“You’re not my father,” Dean spat on Bobby’s shoes. 

“Don’t talk to my dad like that, ass hat!” Alex fumed, swiping his other leg out from under him. Dean Winchester collapsed at her feet. 

“Sam! Y/N!” Jody yelled out. “It’s Jody, I’m coming in.” A moment later the heavy door swung open, revealing Jody. Y/N rushed to her feet and embraced the woman. 

“You’re okay!” Y/N exclaimed, checking her for injuries. 

“Yeah, we’re okay. Come on. Police are on their way,” Jody dropped their shoes on the floor, then motioned for them to follow her. 

The lights had been restored, and Y/N looked at the chaos that had erupted on the first floor of Bobby and Jody’s house. There was broken glass everywhere and more than a few bullet holes in the walls. 

Sam and Y/N crossed the threshold into the kitchen when Sam grabbed her arm tightly, preventing her from going any further. She looked up to see why Sam had stopped, her eyes wide with bewilderment. 

“Dean?” Sam gasped, dropping to his knees as tears streamed down his face. “You killed Jessica? Why?” 

“Why?” he mocked. “Because! Because mom and dad were gone! We lost everything and I’d be damned if I was gonna lose you too! I wasn’t going to let some girl come between us! We need to be together, Sammy. We’re stronger together and we need each other!” 

“Well, you’re right about one thing,” Sam stood to face his brother. 

“I’m always right Sammy. I’m your big brother,” Dean cackled. 

“No, Dean. You’re just damned,” Sam said.  

Part Three

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[quicksilversquared]

Lost Heart: Chapter 24

A Christmas Battle

Magic can be a dangerous thing to play around with, particularly when that magic is tangled up in a curse. When Nathalie Sancoeur experiments with magic that she doesn’t fully understand, it sends her on a path to become Paris’ most dangerous supervillain and tips the balance between superheroes and supervillain.

But which way will the balance fall?

links in the reblog

The text came two days after Marinette and Adrien had gone shopping for a present for his father. Thankfully Marinette was free and her parents were busy with the bustling bakery downstairs, so it was no effort at all to quickly call up Adrien to make sure that he had gotten the text, too, and then transform and start racing across Paris.

Her first stop was the Grand Paris, where Emilie was waiting anxiously near her balcony door.

"I'm more nervous than I thought I would be," she admitted with a laugh as she let both superheroes in. "I just keep remembering what it felt like to transform before, and even though I know it'll be different now, I can't help but worry. And I've never seen proper combat."

"You're more for a surprise element than for fighting," Chat Noir reminded her quickly, holding out the Peacock. "It's a good thing Ma- Jade Turtle came over yesterday to reset the bond. I know he mentioned being busier than usual recently."

Ladybug nodded as Mrs. Agreste took the Miraculous, letting out a delighted gasp as Duusu popped free. Master Fu's sudden uptick in business had been concerning in terms of making sure that their plan went off smoothly, but she couldn't bring herself to be that surprised. People were taking off work now, wanting to catch their moments of relaxation while they could. Thankfully he had left his bracelet with her for just that reason- he couldn't exactly dash (or, well, his version of a dash. A speedwalk, perhaps?) out of his shop to pass it off to her when there was a client with him. He had worked all day, then gone to the hotel to meet up with Mrs. Agreste before eating a very, very late dinner.

His commitment was truly astounding.

"All right, I'll just go ahead and transform, then," Mrs. Agreste said, her eyes on Duusu as she pinned the Miraculous to the center of her shirt. "And I know to wait until I'm needed in the fight, so I'll keep out of the way. Duusu, transform me!"

With an excited squeal, Duusu dove into the brooch. Blue light lit up the room and when it cleared, Paon stood in the middle.

She cut a striking figure. Tall and slender, the base layer of Paon's blue suit clung to her just like Ladybug's. A skirt hung around her waist in blues and greens, open and shorter in the front and long in the back with a gorgeous feathered pattern half-hidden in the folds. Blue and green spiraled through her ponytail, and a sparkly blue and green mask hid the upper half of her face. Knee-high black boots and gloves stretching to her elbows broke the silhouette up.

"Okay, I feel underdressed next to you two," Ladybug admitted with a laugh. "I think my outfit might need an upgrade."

"Ooh, like what?" Chat Noir asked, interested. He glanced up and down Ladybug's suit, trying to imagine it changing. He was coming up blank. After fighting side-by-side with his partner for so long, that was just what Ladybug's outfit was.

"Like..." Ladybug thought about it, then frowned. "I don't know. I've looked like this for so long, I can't really picture it any other way."

Paon clapped her hands together. "Oh! I have some ideas that you might be interested in trying out. I can make sketches later, and you can see if you like any of them."

Ladybug beamed at her. "I would appreciate that, thank you. But for now, I think we have several more heroes to round up. You know the plan?"

"I'll keep out of sight," Paon promised. "And Jade Turtle told me how to track you guys on my fan, so I can find where the fight is. I'll be there."

With that, the superheroes headed back out. They had done a quick Miraculous swap earlier, so Chat Noir could grab Queen Bee, who would be easy enough to find in the hotel, and Dragoness, who...

Well, he had her number, at least. Both as Chat Noir and Adrien. He would be able to track down Kagami. For her part, Ladybug would go grab Alya and Nino.

It made things a hundred times easier when they ended up being together.

"I've not heard anything about an akuma yet," Alya said dubiously as she accepted her Miraculous. Nino was looking frankly startled that they were being tapped again after the fiasco at the end of the previous fight. "Are you sure there wasn't just a false alarm on Twitter or something?"

"We have an inside source," Ladybug said shortly, stepping back to her window. They didn't have any time to waste. Chat Noir had just sent her a quick notification that Queen Bee and Dragoness were ready and were on the lookout for anything strange. As soon as the akuma showed its head, they had to strike. "The Purple Lady was headed to her lair to send out an akuma. We're going to hit before she's ready."

Nino and Alya exchanged a look, then transformed and followed Ladybug out the window. She kept low to the rooftops and out of sight, checking her yo-yo for any notifications. Within a minute, one popped up.

Akuma at the Arc de Triomphe. Purple Lady spotted.

"To the Arc," Ladybug ordered, changing her direction at once. "You two will be on the akuma."

She didn't miss the 'as always' that Rena Rouge muttered, but she decided to ignore it. Now was not the time to get into another argument with them.

...but they also weren't getting their Miraculous back after this battle was over. If the superheroes were needed again for whatever reason and they needed more than just Ladybug and Chat Noir, there were three other options to go to first. Rena Rouge was turning into too much of a wild card and Carapace would always follow her lead. It stunk- after all, Nino and Alya were good friends- but Lila had their ears, it seemed, and that made them liabilities.

People taking the initiative was good, generally. But the superheroes had to act as a team, and Ladybug and Chat Noir were meant to be the undisputed leaders in these battles.

Then the Arc appeared up ahead, and there was no more time to mull over their misbehaving superheroes. Ladybug had one second, two, three to take in the scene below- the rampaging akuma that looked like a knock-off Bubbler in the street, the Purple Lady on top of the Arc, the three other members of their team coming in from the other direction-

And then Ladybug plunged into battle.

  The Purple Lady was at the top of her game. Within a couple minutes, it was obvious that Dragoness and Chat Noir would have to be the ones facing off against her, with Queen Bee back on the akuma and both her and Ladybug on standby, ready to abandon the akuma and join the other two with the Purple Lady.

He had briefed Dragoness and Queen Bee on the way over. The akuma was a secondary concern; once the Purple Lady fell, the akuma would be lost and easy to take down. If Carapace and Rena Rouge could at least keep the akuma from interfering with their fight, they would be good. Ladybug and Queen Bee would not get too tangled up in the akuma battle, so they could jump over to help Chat Noir and Dragoness. Once Paon showed up- and yes, he told them about her- then Dragoness could retreat and, once they had the situation under control, go try her hand at battling the akuma.

Chat Noir couldn't help the way his lips quirked up at the memory of when he had told Dragoness that. She had groaned loudly- one on one combat was more her thing, and sword-on-sword instead of whatever... well, whatever akuma attacks were- but agreed. After all, the others would be rejoining the akuma battle shortly enough and getting it wrapped up quickly.

Hopefully.

Fighting the Purple Lady was a whole lot of trading off, darting in at her from opposite sides to keep her guessing. Chat Noir had to keep all of his focus on her, his feet moving fast as he and Dragoness parried blow after blow. The Purple Lady was getting frustrated, it was obvious. She had tried firing off a couple spells as he and Dragoness approached that Chat Noir had just barely managed to block, and she was clearly itching to try more.

But she couldn't. Not with both of her hands and all of her brainpower occupied by her fight with Chat Noir and Dragoness.

His mom had to be moving into position now, Chat Noir knew. The news about the akuma was out now, and their dots would have stopped moving across the city on her communicator. She had to be careful not to get spotted- after all, the public still thought that the Peacock Miraculous was on Hawkmoth's side, and if the Purple Lady caught any sign of her then their element of surprise would be lost- and had to find the perfect spot to hide until she spotted her opening.

They just had to hold the fight until then.

Sword clashed against baton, then against sword. Yells from the akuma fight echoed across the square. Chat Noir let Dragoness take the lead, since he had to keep track of- well, everything.

How Ladybug did this during their other akuma battles- keeping track of everything enough to figure out how to proceed while still fighting- was beyond him. If Dragoness weren't such a strong fighter, he would have to commit all of his energy and attention to the battle and he wouldn't ever get to glance around to see what else was going on. As it was, most of his attention had to stay on the Purple Lady so that she wouldn't catch him by surprise.

Fencing bouts had never been this difficult. His breath was coming heavy, his heart racing. There was absolutely no time for reactions as he countered every strike that the Purple Lady made. He could only breathe when she switched the bulk of her attention back to Dragoness, and even then it was just a short break before he had to be fully in again so that his teammate could catch a breath of her own.

Three minutes later, his baton buzzed. Chat Noir nearly missed it- he had been about to pick up the fight from Dragoness- but when he realized what it meant, he managed a competitive smile.

Paon was in position. Another buzz- a double one- would go off when she was coming up. Down on the street, Ladybug yelled something to her teammates before swinging into her own position, enough behind the Purple Lady that she wouldn't be noticed. Her yo-yo dangled just from her fingertips, ready to strike. Chat Noir chanced a proper glance in her direction and Ladybug gave him one of her determined little nods, focused and ready to work.

That expression on her face was actually pretty adorable, especially paired with the tiger ears and whisker stripes that she had adorned at some point during the fight, but Chat Noir didn't exactly have the time to appreciate that before the Purple Lady's attention was back on him. He parried and went for a blow, forcing the Purple Lady back half a pace. She recovered quickly, going for a heavy blow in his direction that he dodged. Their weapons crossed again in a quick one-two-three-four.

Bzzz. Bzzz.

Two buzzes. Paon was moving up. Chat Noir forced himself to split his attention, waiting for exactly the right moment to move back. A flash of blue in the corner of Chat Noir's eye caught his attention and he grinned, gesturing to Dragoness to flip back and bouncing back several paces himself to get out of the Purple Lady's reach. She stepped forward, as if to follow him, when she noticed Paon, now fully on the Arc and straightened to her full, commanding height.

The Purple Lady froze, eyes wide and disbelieving. Chat Noir nodded to Ladybug, but his partner was already in motion, her yo-yo lashing out and wrapping around the Purple Lady, pinning her arms to her sides. The Purple Lady shrieked as she realized that she had been caught, thrashing to try to get free, but Paon and Chat Noir didn't give her a chance. In unison, the mother-son duo struck, knocking the Purple Lady to the ground and sending her sword clattering to the side. Without any hesitation, Chat Noir reached over and grabbed her Miraculous. The transformation released in a second, an exhausted Nooroo coming free and bowing to the pair of them before returning to his Miraculous, leaving Nathalie furiously struggling on the rooftop.

He barely recognized her. The muted warmth in her eyes was gone, replaced by an icy coldness. Or, rather, an icy fury.

"Queen Bee!" Ladybug called, her voice carrying easily above the sounds of the still-raging akuma battle. Glancing over, Chat Noir saw that Dragoness had already joined the battle on the ground. "We need your Sting!"

Queen Bee appeared in a blur of yellow, dashing towards them. She pulled out her trompo, activating it in a flash before stabbing Nathalie's side. She seized up in a heartbeat, and Ladybug took the opportunity to recall her yo-yo, drop off of the roof, and dash over to the police barricade that was starting to form around the outside of the area. She was back thirty seconds later with two pairs of handcuffs. One pair got snapped around Nathalie's wrists, and the other was hung from Ladybug's waist, ready for when Mr. Agreste appeared.

And just like that, it was over.

Chat Noir swallowed hard, the adrenaline surging through him congealing in a lump in his throat. That made it more real. His father would be going to jail tonight and likely would not be coming out for a long, long time. Even if he had gotten used to the idea- he had certainly had a decent amount of time for it to sink in, and recent days aside, his father hadn't acted very fatherly for a very, very long time- seeing his father behind bars still wasn't something he felt particularly prepared for.

He didn't know if it was really something anyone could have felt prepared for.

"I'll sit with her," Paon promised, settling next to Nathalie. "Right now, I think there's an akuma still for you guys."

Chat Noir nodded, following Ladybug down to the ground. Carapace and Rena Rouge looked frankly baffled when they appeared, glancing up to where the Purple Lady had been, but they didn't question it, particularly when Ladybug's yo-yo snagged the final akuma and sent them flying straight into a lamppost.

With its power leaching fast, the akuma wasn't hard to defeat. Ladybug cast one final Miraculous Cure, the magical ladybugs sparkling just a bit brighter than normal as they put everything back to normal.

Or maybe that was just his imagination.

"It's over," Ladybug sighed, her entire body relaxing as the last of her Cure faded away. "It's really, actually over. That's just..."

"We still have to give a police report and get the Miraculous back," Chat Noir reminded her, wrapping an arm around Ladybug's waist to keep her upright. He paused when beeping reached his ears. "...okay, how many people used their powers? Queen Bee, obviously, but...?"

"Both Carapace and I did, because all of a sudden there were only two of us fighting the akuma," Rena Rouge piped up, appearing at his side with one hand on her hip and an irritated look on her face. "Well, three at first, but Queenie didn't exactly have her head in the game."

Chat Noir picked up the irritation in Ladybug's expression and hurried to answer before she could. "That was because she had been told to keep an eye out for a signal to come help us with the Purple Lady. She was just following instructions-" he couldn't resist the small dig, he really couldn't- "and it all turned out fine in the end, didn't it? The akuma was defeated, the Purple Lady has been contained and had her Miraculous taken away, and Hawkmoth will be coming to turn himself in soon."

The speed with which Rena and Carapace's expressions changed from annoyed to startled and shocked was almost comical.

"But if you've used your powers, you'll be detransforming soon," Ladybug chimed in. "So if we could head over to that alley over there-"

Rena Rouge nodded at once, snagging Carapace's wrist and practically dragging him off in the direction that Ladybug had indicated. Chat Noir couldn't help but frown in confusion- wouldn't they want to be present when they turned the former Purple Lady over to the police?- before he realized what must be happening. Rena Rouge was Alya, who was the moderator of the Ladyblog. She had just been told that the Purple Lady and Hawkmoth were de-masked and were going to be turned into the police. Of course she wanted to be detransformed and streaming the whole thing live.

"I can stick around," Queen Bee spoke up. "I have snacks for Pollen with me, in case the Sting wears off. Or if we have to stick around after the Purple Lady and Hawkmoth get turned over to the police. And it's not as though everyone doesn't already know who I am."

Chat Noir grinned. "Good. And Dragoness?"

Dragoness popped open the hilt of her sword to check the time on her communicator. "I have the time to spare, as long as we don't end up in a super-long press conference. And since it's just the once..."

It didn't take Ladybug long to return, tucking the extra Miraculous back in her safe box on her way. It went back into her yo-yo- and the look on Dragoness' face when Ladybug tucked the large box into the small yo-yo was absolutely hilarious- and then the yo-yo clicked shut with finality.

"Time to get Nathalie down!" Ladybug called, already heading for the Arc de Triomphe. "And then Mr. Agreste is going to be here in a couple minutes. He's having his driver bring him over."

Dragoness sucked in a startled breath, and Chat Noir suddenly remembered that while Queen Bee knew everything (or near enough, at least), Dragoness hadn't been told about the identities of the supervillains. Of course it would come as a shock to her. Not as much of a shock as it had been to him when they first found everything out, of course, but still a shock.

Before Ladybug could reach up, Paon appeared at the top of the Arc with the still-frozen Nathalie in her arms. She leapt down easily, landing lightly and straightening before making a beeline for the heroes.

"I can feel her trying to twitch," Paon reported. "I wouldn't be surprised if she needs to be kept sedated until we can undo the effects of the curse on her, just so she doesn't end up injuring herself. She would try to fight too much."

Chat Noir nodded. That was a good thought. There was probably something in the grimoire that would help.

Besides, Master Fu couldn't just quit brewing potions cold turkey, surely. He would miss it too much, after spending almost all of his free time whipping up potion after potion for them.

"And I just sent a text to the police, so they won't all clear away," Ladybug added, giving her yo-yo one final tap before closing it completely for the second time. "Hopefully they'll keep two cars for us."

Chat Noir nodded. If Nathalie hadn't already figured out what had happened, she would work it out soon. And it would not be pretty.

"It looks like most of the police cars are over on that street," Dragoness said, pointing. "And some are starting to clear out. Maybe we should go over there right away, just in case they don't get the text."

Paon headed that way at once, with Chat Noir following right behind her. It took him a minute to realize that Ladybug wasn't following. When he glanced around, he saw her standing next to the Gorilla's car, exchanging a few words with Mr. Agreste before putting him in handcuffs. The two of them headed after the rest of the group, walking quickly to catch up.

Or, well, Ladybug was walking quickly. Since he was so much taller, Mr. Agreste was just able to keep up without hardly trying at all.

That was actually annoying.

"Chat Noir," one of the police officers greeted him, and Chat Noir had to pull his attention away from his father and Ladybug to focus. "Can I ask- was this the Purple Lady?"

"M. Sancoeur was the Purple Lady," Chat Noir confirmed. "She's not in her right mind at the moment- she was using the Peacock Miraculous, which had a curse on it until we recovered the Miraculous and removed the curse. The curse pretty much took away a bit of her humanity every time she transformed into Mayura."

The policeman nodded, looking a bit puzzled. "Okay, uh- we're going to need statements as soon as possible. And Hawkmoth...?"

"Was Gabriel Agreste. Several weeks ago, we confronted him and he gave in, telling us his identity and what was going on. He's been working with us ever since, giving us the Peacock Miraculous once M. Sancoeur took his and surrendering the books and scrolls that he had." Chat Noir took a step back to gesture at the rapidly-approaching Mr. Agreste and Ladybug. "Today, he warned us when Nathalie headed up so that we could strike as soon as the akuma appeared. He agreed when we first confronted him to turn himself in once everything ended."

"Cooperation always is a good thing," the police officer agreed. "That should help him, but of course it depends on the full story. Which- well, I assume that there's more?"

Chat Noir nodded. "There is. We'll come in right away after Ladybug and I recharge."

The officer nodded, opening the car door so that Paon could set Nathalie inside. "Okay. We'll take both of them in. And, uh- was the rest of your team involved in discovering their identities?"

Dragoness shook her head right away. Queen Bee was slower, and Paon looked to Chat Noir for guidance.

"Most of the rest of our team was just involved in the akuma battles," Chat Noir said immediately. "We can fill you in on the roles that everyone played at the station, and you can decide after that if anyone else should come in and testify."

"Very well."

Mr. Agreste arrived then, and a second police officer guided him to a second car. He went in without a fuss, settling in and inclining his head to the superheroes. His gaze turned to Paon, and a small, sad smile played across his lips before he nodded to her, too.

Chat Noir didn't look to see if she had returned the gesture.

It didn't take long to get the cars ready to go. Before they did, the first officer returned to Ladybug and Chat Noir.

"Thank you for your service to the city," he told them. "With Hawkmoth and the Purple Lady's reign gone, Paris can resume its normal life again, just in time for Christmas. We'll prepare a statement at once, and perhaps after your visit to the police station for statements you can join the Mayor for an announcement to Paris?"

"That sounds great," Ladybug said, speaking up from Chat Noir's side. Her hand sneaked around his waist, resting reassuringly on his opposite hip. "We can't wait to tell Paris. It has been a long time coming."

  It didn't take long to get the Dragon Miraculous back, thank Kagami, and let her go on her way. Paon kept her Miraculous- they knew where to find her, after all, and she had been a superhero all on her own before they even reached the scene- and she went back to the hotel while Ladybug and Chat Noir headed for the police station. They stopped and recharged on the way, and Marinette made sure to check that Adrien was holding up okay. Giving statements would be hard on him, after all, having to relive the discovery and learning about Mrs. Agreste's condition.

Thankfully, he was holding up all right. Having his mom recovered and previously out with them no doubt helped.

Giving statements wasn't that bad. She and Chat Noir had to give them separately, of course, so that they wouldn't influence each other's statements, but it wasn't hard to remember everything once she made sure to take her time. The police recorded everything, taking notes as well as taking video of her statement. They had a few questions to clarify certain points, then they were free to go. The police wanted Chloe and Mrs. Agreste to come in as well, along with Jade Turtle, but those could wait until after the holidays. Ladybug had to show the police the Butterfly Miraculous, too, but they didn't even try to request that she leave it with them.

And then it was time for the big announcement. They did tell the eager reporters who Hawkmoth and the Purple Lady had been- there would be no point in not saying that, because the Ladyblog already had video of Nathalie and Mr. Agreste being put in the police cars by the superheroes- and make sure that they added in the fact that Nathalie had started helping Hawkmoth all on her own but had been cursed into her current condition and that Mr. Agreste had switched sides as much as he could towards the end. No one else had willingly worked with them, including the rest of the household staff and Mr. Agreste's son. Mrs. Agreste had been cursed into a coma after using the Peacock to do good, and she had been woken up recently.

There had been a lot of questions, of course, and a lot of gasping at the reveal of who Hawkmoth had been. But eventually the reporters settled down, after being reminded by both the superheroes and the mayor that the investigation was technically still ongoing and therefore they could only say so much.

"We want to thank Paris for cooperating during akuma attacks," Ladybug finished, beaming out at the crowds. "And for being patient with us as we worked to defeat Hawkmoth and the Purple Lady and then prepare for the final confrontation. We're very, very pleased that everything got wrapped up before Christmas."

"It's our present to you," Chat Noir agreed, ducking his head in so that he could speak into her microphone as well. "We'll be going into the new year supervillain-free. Happy holidays, Paris!"

[zentherainbowunicorn]

Everlasting Party - Mystic Messenger Time Loop AU (pt 37)

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Summary: You’re caught in a time loop during the 11 days leading up to the RFA’s party unless you can do… what, exactly? 13+

After about 7 and a half hours of time spent on this one freaking chatroom, I present to you: Chapter 37! Holy lord the chatroom was endless and yet it's only around 800 words T_T It is about the longest chatroom yet, rivalling Chapter 30's chatroom. Much thanks to Masdevallia on AO3 for being a wonderful beta, and to you guys for the nice comments and tags :) I'm always so happy to see a new notification sitting in my inbox~

Itty bitty 'spoiler' for the very very beginning of Day 5 Seven's route. If you've played Jumin's route though then you're definitely fine. Anyway, enjoy!

You’re nearly startled out of your chair when your phone goes off, then almost drop the phone itself trying to see what the notification is for.

1:48am – Jaehee Kang is now online.

1:48am... God, you’ve been working on this for almost two hours already, yet it feels like you’ve barely made any progress. True, some of the underlying structures to Unknown’s encryption are the same, as you’d hoped, and you’re pretty sure you know how long the key he used to encrypt the log is. But you’re starting to run out of ideas on what to do besides just checking every possible key in a brute-force attack, and that would take far longer than just a few hours. The new computer you cobble together each new loop is powerful, but not enough to do that many calculations in so short a time period.

1:50am – 707 is now online.

Seven! Perhaps you should log in. He might have something to say about the hacker. You log in and quickly scroll up to read the past messages before joining the conversation. It looks like earlier in the night Yoosung logged in to complain about a weird alarm sound that his phone made. Hmm. You don’t recall your phone making any odd sounds. When Jaehee logged in a few minutes ago, she mentioned hearing an obnoxious alarm sound as well. Now she appears to be chastising Seven for encouraging Jumin to pursue another cat project.

 You set your phone down and turn back towards your computer, which is still running the log against a series of possible decryption keys you’d given it earlier. At this rate it’ll be days before you finish decrypting the log – time you don’t have, unless something changes. Seven did mention he’d work on decrypting it as well… but he also seems to have a lot on his plate. And anyway, it’s unlikely Seven would share the decrypted log with you. The goal now is to figure out where Unknown is on your own so you can solve some of these questions yourself. If you can figure it out before you’re reset, you’ll never have to hack into the RFA’s app to retrieve Unknown’s log again since you can just memorize the information.

You think about your conversation in the chatroom earlier and smile a little to yourself. Seven did notice something odd with the messenger, but it’s pretty clear he doesn’t suspect you at all. Most of your initial attempts at extracting the log from the messenger had ended early because Seven would realize something was wrong and block you from the app, but judging from your recent conversation he’s not even sure what information you’d retrieved when you hacked the RFA application earlier. It would be fun to see his face in person if you told him you, too, hacked into his app. He mentioned wanting to come see you at Rika’s apartment, which is a nice thought, if impossible. Having someone else in the apartment has got to be better than sitting around here on your own. And you’ve really grown to enjoy some of your conversations with the RFA’s hacker. Quirky though his sense of humour might be, he’s made you smile on days where you were questioning what exactly you were putting all this effort into learning how to code for. In fact, you’ve been smiling more as of late, even daring to make some of your own jokes in the chatrooms instead of just typing in responses you know will make the days continue. Maybe he’s rubbing off on you.

You lean your chair on its back legs and stare up at the ceiling, rocking back and forth precariously with your foot anchored to the desk. It would be nice to be able to work together with Seven on how to solve this issue with Mint Eye and Unknown, too, instead of trying to take this on by yourself. But this is just how it has to be, isn’t it? Every couple of days without fail Seven will forget your previous conversations, forget the code he taught you, forget the jokes he told you. You’ve been pushing this series of days to the limit trying to find ways to avoid having the exact same conversations with everyone day after day, but no matter how much you change your own actions you’re inevitably drawn back to the same topics, the same phone calls, the same sequence of events. It’s like an elastic; no matter how much you push and stretch at the boundaries, it always snaps back into place just as it was before.

The foot that you’d been pushing against the desk to rock your chair back and forth catches on air and you gasp as you suddenly lose your balance. You try to sit up and right the chair, but it’s too late so you thrust out a hand to break your fall instead. There’s an immense clatter and a sharp pain in your wrist as you’re deposited unceremoniously onto the floor.

Ow. Ow, ow, ow. That was really stupid. You roll off the upended chair and put a hand on the floor to push yourself up – ow! You flop back onto the floor and carefully bring your hand up to your face, the one you’d used to break your fall. It throbs a little, and when you try putting pressure on it there’s a prickling pain in your wrist. Wait. You didn’t seriously sprain your wrist, did you? You use your other hand to sit up and study the injury. It doesn’t look bad… but it definitely hurt when you tried to put your weight on it. Goddammit, this is your dominant hand, too. Can you still type with a wrist injury?

You curse your foolishness under your breath. How stupid can you be to hurt yourself at a time like this? You couldn’t have done this later, after you’d decrypted the log? Of course not, it just has to be now, when you’re on a time limit. Still grumbling under your breath, you stand and pick up your chair with your good hand, then wander into the kitchen to get some ice for your wrist. This had better not slow down your progress with decrypting Unknown’s log. You glance at the window he sometimes breaks through and frown. And it damn well had better not prevent you from escaping if Unknown drops by.

Well, whatever, you think, angrily reaching into the freezer for some ice. A few more hours and you’ll be reset anyway and won’t make this stupid mistake again. You’ll just put some ice on the damn thing for a little while and then—

...There’s no ice in the freezer.

Goddammit.

Of course there isn’t. You haven’t had a reason to make ice in Rika’s apartment this loop, so why would there be any ice here? The fridge doesn’t have an ice-maker, either, so you’re fresh out of luck.

You slam the freezer door shut again and lean against the kitchen counter, holding your injured wrist away from your body awkwardly. Would cold water suffice…? Probably not. No, that’s a stupid thought. You don’t even have ice trays to make ice with in the apartment. You suppose this means you should go to the convenience store and pick up an ice pack or something. They’re open 24/7 so it doesn’t really matter that it’s past two in the morning. Maybe they’ll have something you can wrap around your wrist to stabilize it, too.

Luckily you’d already put your shoes on beforehand, so you don’t have to worry about doing that with one hand. You consider locking your computer before you leave in case… in case what? In case Unknown comes by? Whether or not your computer is locked would be the least of your problems if that were the case. No, better to let it continue to try decrypting the log while you’re out. You’ll only be away for a few minutes. You shove your phone in your back pocket and carefully scan the hallway before leaving the apartment. Your injured wrist throbs slightly as you punch the button to summon the elevator. Honestly, it had to be today of all days that you fell off your stupid chair. If you weren’t so determined to finish decrypting the log this loop, it would almost be easier to force a reset than deal with it.

...One of these days your reliance on the resets to get you out of trouble will surely come back to bite you. If, indeed, you ever get out of this loop.

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I always love hearing what you think, so leave a comment or send me an ask! Here’s a link to the masterpost of all my Mystic Messenger fics. Thank you very much for reading! ♥

[mathiasjanke-blog]

Stop procrastinating and start making use of technology, that often is free or very low cost, to save you time and money and make your business more efficient and productive.

There are many apps and online tools designed for personal and small business use that will improve productivity through time savings, improved customer experience, better team collaboration and project communications.  Adopting these tools is something that people often procrastinate on because it seems easier in the moment to keep doing things the way you’ve always done them rather than pausing and taking the time to explore and learn a new method, app or software tool.

To get you started on your next stage of digital adoption we explain below our favourite seven digital tools that we rely on to connect with our team, customers and suppliers wherever they are and to improve processes in our business.

1. Safe Password Management

How many logins and passwords do you have?  How much time do you spend each week resetting passwords because you can’t recall them?  If you write your passwords down in a little book or a piece of paper, stop doing that now!  You are making it too easy for this vital information to be lost or stolen.

There are legal firms now offering secure storage of documents with all of your important account, insurance, passport, logons, password details, so that should something happen to you, your accounts can be accessed and all of this other “life admin” information is easy to retrieve.  But you don’t need to pay a solicitor to do this for you and these details change periodically so you have to be able to easily update them.

There are app-based tools, with heavy security encryption in them, where you can store all of these details.  Our favourite is 1Password.  When I started using 1Password on my phone and laptop (where I now have over 200 logins and other valuable records), I calculated I’m saving at least 30 minutes per week in password retrieval and resetting and my passwords are much stronger.

2. File Storage and Back-ups

We use Dropbox as our primary data storage platform and to ensure we use it efficiently we’ve implemented an organised, logical folder structure, some folders are shared with the team, some are just for the directors.  We synchronise most folders to our computers and some folders, e.g. those holding large video files, we don’t synchronise so as not to cause all that data to be downloading to every team member’s computers unnecessarily.

With all of these files in Dropbox, it’s very easy to share files with clients and saves large email attachments. Because Dropbox is on the cloud and we’re synchronising to our computers we can always access documents offline and online and negating the need for daily back-ups.

We operate separate single user accounts, typically with 1 Terabyte of data for each member of the team (costs around $120 (AUD) per annum per person) to store all of our documents and other data files.

Of course, it is advisable to separately backup very sensitive and valuable data that your business relies on and you might choose to back this up to an external hard drive that you keep with you or store away from your office in a safe location.

 3. Team Communication and Reducing Emails

Are you getting flooded with emails and is managing emails is taking up too much of your time? Are you sending emails back and forth between team members?  There is a better way to manage intra-team communications about all sorts of topics and specific projects.  We use the app Slack.

Slack acts as a messaging system and knowledge base.  We have created many “channels” in our team Slack account so we can always find prior conversations related to particular topics and projects, as opposed to trawling through emails or trying to remember if you texted someone about something.

It is our primary means of intra-team communications and allows for direct messaging, team discussions, links and attachments, notifications, all accessible on a computer as well as our phones.  Having adopted Slack we are saving hundreds of emails per week…thank goodness!

 4. Document Collaboration

In our ongoing effort to reduce emails and wasted data storage, wherever possible we use Google docs, sheets and slides for creating documents where more than one person is involved in their development and review.

We have taught many of our clients how to use Google docs and once they’ve understood how dynamic it is, allowing more than one person to be working in the document at the same time and how it reduces emails with attachments, they are a convert!

We use Google docs when working on digital marketing strategies with clients, so the client can watch the strategy development, ask questions via comments in the document, be requested to action items, all in real time.

Once again a smart folder structure, setting up folders in Google Drive, is a good approach to ensure you are using this tool well and easily able to find the document assets you have created in the past. Another great Google document tool not many people know about is Google forms.  Create a form to collect info from your customers, take orders etc in no time at all.  You’ll feel like a web developer, but it’s very easy.

5. Graphic Design for Everyone

To quickly create quality graphics and social media posts check out Canva.  This is our weapon of choice for our team to create smart images for Facebook cover images, social media posts, images for email marketing, even print jobs.

The templates provided make it very easy and the design possibilities for an amateur are endless.  You can upload your own branding including logos and your own photos, or you can use free elements and graphics available on Canva or purchase stock graphics at $1.00 each.

They also offer the Canva photo editor, which is super easy to use and great for re-sizing images.

6. Automating Tasks and Integrating Data

We reduce risk in our business by avoiding manual data entry wherever possible and by passing data automatically between applications, we are saving time as well as avoiding unnecessary human error.  Ultimately you are improving your customer experience by reducing process steps for them as well.

The tool we use to automate tasks and data entry is Zapier.  You create “zaps” between applications to automate what would otherwise be a manual process or a step for your customer to do.  A good example is when someone signs up for one of our online training programs, when they complete the online form on our website, this automatically triggers a series of registrations in Zoom, our webinar platform and they will then be registered in that system and receive confirmations as if they’d registered themselves; and secondly, it adds them and the details of the course they’ve signed up for in our customer relationship management system, Insightly. If we were to do this manually we would need one full-time admin person. Can you imagine the time and cost savings Zapier offers us?

We use Zaps in all of our projects where appropriate to reduce the effort for our customers and our staff and to reduce the risk of data entry error, allowing our team to focus on the more interesting work they do.

All businesses can find tasks to automate and a simple example combining the digital tools mentioned above that we’ve helped clients to implement is when a customer completes a Google form for an order, that order information is automatically passed via a Zap to a Google sheet for internal actioning and directly into their accounts system to generate an invoice…presto!  Half the work is done

 7. Measuring Your Marketing Success with Google Analytics

We spend a great deal of time helping businesses to improve their online presence and their marketing and most business owners are very keen to do that.  Where the majority of small businesses are missing an important opportunity is in measuring the effectiveness of their marketing and using this intelligence to improve their online presence.

Google Analytics is a must-have tool and skill set in every business today if you want to invest in your marketing.   Without it and without Google Analytics being set up properly you don’t know whether your website is performing for you and you know have the insights to know what to change in your marketing. You can learn quite quickly the basis of Google Analytics and over time build your knowledge and confidence to do more advanced reporting and analysis. Visit our Google Learning Hub or contact help@tourismtribe.com for specialised support and training in Google Analytics.

There are many more smart digital tools in the marketplace and alternatives to those discussed in this article. We’ve shared with you what we rate highly and a little about how we’re using them.  Explore what will work for you and bring great efficiency, time and cost savings to your business and let us if you would like assistance with reviewing your marketing and processes and we can develop a digital plan for your business.

Tourism Tribe is an award-winning leader in business improvements in the tourism industry with a vision to help those in tourism have a sustainable business and make a profit doing what they love, no matter where they are located. Would you like a 90-minute consult to identify digital opportunities for your business?  Contact help@tourismtribe.com or call +61 7 3103 7994.

Go to the article: Seven super digital tools to save you time and money in your business

[usefulstuffmouzon]

Annual Twitter Update

This is not quite complete; I’ll update the last item or two later.

I finally got my entire tweet catalog organized, hash tagged for topics, tweet casted events & speakers earlier this year. I also established a Fave field for what I consider good tweets and a Classic field for the great ones. Other fields include date & time (obviously), a checked/unchecked field I use for general organizational stuff, a field that starts with the text of the tweet followed by the speaker’s name if it’s not me, and a field that counts the number of characters in the tweet. This will be the first time I’ve added to the organized catalog, so I’m recording the steps so I won’t have to figure it out again next year.

Request Twitter Archive

The first step is to get my Twitter archive. In a web browser on my laptop, there’s a More button at the bottom of the left sidebar. Click that, then on the pop-up window click Settings & Privacy. On the next screen, click Your Twitter Data under Data & Permissions. Under Download your Twitter data, there’s one button for Twitter and another for Periscope. Click Twitter. It’ll ask for my password. It takes awhile to put it all together, but in the next hour or two I’ll get a notification saying it’s ready. Now, Twitter lets people download their data only once per month, so it’s important to pick the time carefully to avoid copying a bunch of new tweets into the catalog by hand.

Convert Archive

Until this year, the archive included a CSV of all tweets back to the beginning. This year, they added a bunch of new stuff, including all of the media (pics & movies) you’ve ever posted, which is nice, but they inexplicably left out the Index.html file where you could see all the tweets just as they appeared and the CSV file which you could easily open in any spreadsheet. Now, everything except the media is in JSON files, which only a tiny fraction of people know how to manipulate. It took me several days to figure out how to convert it so I can open it in Mac Numbers.

Searching for a solution, it’s obvious many other people have had the same problem, and none of the ones I found had discovered a solution that non-programmers could easily do. So I tried to find an app, or find an online converter, which you would think would be easy. But every one I tried had some sort of problem. They either said “conversion failed,” or they tried to extort me for hundreds of dollars per year to get what they said was a successfully converted file. Obviously, I’m not going to do that.

Finally, I noticed that several of the failed conversions kept saying there was a problem with the first line of the file. Fortunately, I needed to download my archive a few months ago, and was able to convert it successfully on one of the online converters. It turns out that Firefox can open Javascript files as text, so I opened both of them. Sure enough, the first line of the new file that didn’t work was “window.YTD.tweet.part0 = [ {“ while the first line of the old file that did work was just “[ {“. So I deleted the offending “window.YTD.tweet.part0 = “. And I should note that while YTD implies that it’s only Year To Date, the file actually contains all my tweets back to the beginning like it always has.

The converter I originally used, and which I was really happy with, is the very simple & totally free https://onlinecsvtools.com/convert-json-to-csv by browserling. Click Import From File on the JSON side and it’ll load the file in a few seconds (upload time depends on file size, of course). Click Use Headers in the box just below the JSON box so it’ll convert the first line to a header row. Very quickly, it converts the file and the data pops up in the SCV window. If it doesn’t pop up, there’s something wrong with the file. Click Save As… to get the file. Unfortunately, it only read a few of the columns. While they were the most important ones, there was a lot of useful stuff missing.

So I went back and looked at a conversion I’d done in early November, and it was on a site convertcsv.com. So I went back to that site to convert the data. Simply put, it was one of the most painful things I’ve ever done. Nearly all day New Years Eve was spent trying to shepherd it through. For the first several times, the browser kicked cranked on it for several minutes, then reset itself due to lack of memory. And to be fair, xfinity was incredibly slow that day, so that may have had something to do with it. I ended up doing it in Firefox, since I had a bunch of windows open in Safari and didn’t want to close them. Before running it, I restarted my Mac just to be sure it was as clean as possible. Still, it repeatedly ran low on memory, so I’d follow it in the CleanMyMac widget in the toolbar, and free up memory every time it got below 10 gigs. It was absolutely painstaking because I couldn’t do anything else other than sit there and play games on my phone and watch it out of the corner of my eye. But fiiiiiiiinally, it finished and I was able to download the converted data.

Delete Columns

When I opened the file in Numbers, I got an error message saying that Numbers only reads the first 256 columns, and there were over 500. Assuming that Twitter probably put the most important stuff near the beginning, I said OK and opened it. Turns out that was correct. In the spreadsheet structure, they put the first few of an item type near the beginning, then I’d find more buried deeper. Towards the end, data was getting really sparse so I doubt there was anything really essential in the columns that didn’t load. And I found many columns that contain stuff I know I don’t need, or that duplicated other info, such as the full URL of a link (which I kept) versus various other iterations (like the Twitter-shortened URL) of exactly the same thing.

Without getting into the rationale of why I deleted columns, here are the ones I kept: favorite_count, retweet_count, created_at, full_text, entities/urls/0/expanded_url, entities/media/0/expanded_url, people mentioned & their usernames 11 deep (I’ll probably only need the first one, if even that), and hashtags 6 deep.

Fix Date

There are several extraneous things in the date & time, so I create a new column where I’ll create a text formula to keep only what I need. Currently, the date & time look like this: Mon Jan 26 17:31:04 +0000 2009. I don’t need the day of the week or the +0000, but I do need the year with the month & date so Numbers will read it correctly. The formula is: MID(E2,5,3)&" "&MID(E2,9,2)&" "&RIGHT(E2,4)&" "&MID(E2,12,8). This converts the date & time above into: Jan 26 2009 17:31:04. I paste this into every cell of the column.

So the dates look right on the screen, but they’re still just formulas, so I create another column named date & time beside the formula column. I copy the formula column and Paste Formula Results into the date & time column, so Numbers sees it as actual dates & times, not formulas.

Change the date & time format to look like this: 2009-01-26 17:31:04, and so that it left-justifies.

Sort by date & time.

Delete the created_at column & the date working column.

Copy Orphan Tweets

I do a holiday mailing each year that contains some of my best work on Twitter for the year, so I have to harvest the archive before the year is over. This means there are always some orphan tweets that didn’t make it into the catalog already. So I find those and copy the date & time and the text of the tweet.

Delete Previous Years

I make a Filter for all dates before 1/1/19 (or whatever the current year is, then delete all rows remaining, as they are in previous years.

Total Faves & RTs & Measure Length

I added a column after the fave & RT columns totaling the two, for a sense of the impact of the tweet, in the interest of assigning fave & classic settings in the final document. I also added a length column before the text of the tweets measuring total characters.

Delete Short Tweets

I sort the Length column, and delete most of the short tweets which tend to be stuff like “Thanks!” For this year, the shortest tweet I found that was useful standing alone was 45 characters.

Delete Original Green Daily

I do a paper.li newsletter every day. When paper.li puts it out, it tweets The Original Green Daily is Out! with a link. So I sort by text, which puts them all together so I can delete all 365 of them at once. DON’T filter for that text, because while it’ll only show the 365, if you select those rows and delete, it’ll delete everything else in between, basically wiping out your database. If you do, Undo before you save!

Clean Out Long Copy Chains

The longest tweets will be those with long copy chains, where many people are in the conversation. My longest one this year was over 900 characters. So strip out all the usernames to see what’s actually being said at the end. There’s no easy way to do this; allow 20-30 minutes.

The Long Edit Slog

This is the most time-consuming part except maybe the hashtagging; allow a couple days depending on how much you’re starting with. For this year, after deleting the stuff noted above, I had about 3,300 tweets. After this edit, I have about 2,300 so this pass takes out almost a quarter of the tweets. There are four things to do in this pass: 1. edit the tweets, 2. assign them fave & classic status, 3. move the names of people I’m quoting to the @ column, and 4. tag the event I’m tweetcalting in the tweetcast column. The edit involves several things: 1. Because the tweets stand alone in the catalog, I strip out all the @usernames at the beginning that didn’t get taken out in the long copy chain cleaning above, and remove remnants of conversational text, leaving just the statement of principle. For tweetcasts, I move the speaker name to the @ column (either as @username if they’re on Twitter or #FirstLast if not) and the event to the tweetcast column. Obviously, once I have one of each, it’s easy to duplicate. Then I strip the speaker & event name out of the text. I also delete a lot of tweets in this step that don’t belong in the catalog; some because they’re banal, others because they’re conversational and no part of them can be properly understood standalone. Until this morning, I was deleting truncated retweets as well but may have found a way around that, so will leave them for the moment (see The Retweet Problem). Also, I don’t want to have to read a tweet more than once, so while I’m here, I assign fave & classic status. Faves can be assigned for a number of reasons: 1. compelling content, 2. a memorable event to me (it’s my catalog, after all), and 3. the number of times they were favorited or retweeted on Twitter. Classics are much rarer, and must be both unusually compelling in some way and also evergreen. In other words, they won’t go out of date quickly. Every classic is also a fave.

Column Gymnastics

Because this is a working file, I toss the columns around a lot, putting what I need side by side as much as possible. I also hide columns I don’t need to see for clarity.

Fave & Classic Cleanup

Assign Hashtags

Once the edits are complete, it’s time to assign hashtags. I’ve harvested 6 columns of hashtags from the Twitter  archive (/0/-/5/) but some of them were used to tag speakers who weren’t on Twitter or the names of events I tweetcasted. I delete these entries from the six columns for clarity, then move the columns just to the left of the text column.

The Retweet Problem

Retweets in the archive are truncated to 140 characters, which makes all but the shortest text-only retweets useless. I’ve been searching for days to figure out a way around this, and finally found something this morning. Apparently, something called Python can be used to access the Twitter API and get whatever info I want. I had an app called Komodo that I got for reasons I don’t recall several years ago, but apparently it can edit Python scripts, so I’ve downloaded the latest version. I’ve also just applied with Twitter as a developer, so if they approve me I’ll update this on the adventure.

Copy to Yearly Template

I have a template file which looks just like the big catalog file except it has 3 columns at the far left: faves, RTs & total. This is where I paste that date from the archive sheet, but which won’t get copied to the main sheet once I’ve set fave & classic designations. To be sure, the cells have a grey background. It’s important to get the data into the template at this point so everything is properly formatted from this point on.

[theoutdoorpursuit]

A Solution for Insufferable Millenials; Hunting

“Ugh Millennials, they’re so entitled, so wrapped up in themselves, lazy, not to mention they completely lack an attention span.” Simply put, “They’re the worst.”

Maybe there’s some truth to the above statement, or maybe it’s only normal that the older generations blame the younger generation for the world’s current problems.

A Millenial myself, at the ripe age of 26, I have to admit I do see some of the stereotypical, Millennial attributes in my co-workers, friends, acquaintances, and of course, myself.

But certainly it can’t be our fault, right? We grew up watching Disney movies that told us we could be anything we wanted. We always got a trophy… Shout out to the YMCA for never keeping score. We devoured technology like a drug when smartphones, tablets, and social media burst onto the scene, you’re welcome Mom, Dad, and Grandma for teaching you how to “Facebook.” We are but products of our environment and in this screen dependant world maybe it's time to step outside our online, comfort zones and rewire our software. Time to log off and reboot.

So what’s this out of the box approach to solve all Millenial problems, you ask? Well how about a time machine, one that involves no use of technology, but rather the world around us. I’m talking about digging far back to one of our most ancestral generations, lets talk Pleistocene era or more commonly known as Post Ice Age. That’s right, how bout a little hunting and gathering for these tablet toting, avocado toast eating, sons of baby boomers.

“Surely you can’t mean hunting”? What would the liberal media say!?! “I’m so offended! Run and hide! Play the victim card!” It’s time for a little tough love and nothing spells tough love like hunting. I can’t guarantee that hunting will save your life, but what I can guarantee is it will make you a better person and here’s why:

No Handouts In Hunting

Right off the bat, I can tell you there are no handouts in hunting. It requires tireless patience and a wealth of sweat equity before a hunt can be successful. Even if you do everything right, put in the hours scouting, researching google maps, practice every situation for an ethical shot, these are wild animals that are unpredictable. One of the many common misconceptions of non-hunters is the stereotype of Joe hunter grabbing a six pack of beer on his way to the woods, climbs up a tree and shoots a deer fifteen minutes later. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. The average success rate is somewhere along the lines of 10%, perhaps less depending on the skill of the hunter and access to decent land. And that’s doing everything right as well as getting a little bit lucky. Sports fans boast about the difficulty of baseball, if you get three hits out of ten at-bats, you’re doing well. In hunting, if you get a deer in a season, I’d argue that’s a damn good season, especially for the sorry saps like myself hunting public land. That being said, there is no score being kept. If you can’t enjoy the ups and downs of a hunt and relish in the process, you won’t make it very long. As an “entitled Millennial” I can truthfully say that hunting has been nothing short of humbling.

The Ultimate Test Of Patience

To play off the difficulty of hunting, it’s the ultimate test of patience. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve sat in the woods anticipating an animals arrival only to be left with my thoughts and the sweet sounds of nothingness. A good hunter is patient. No matter if you’re sitting in a treestand or glassing from a mountainside out West. You’re on Mother Nature’s time which is relative only to the sunrise, sunset, and weather patterns. For a generation that’s been raised in an instant gratification society, a step outside into the wilderness would quickly, pun intended, put things into perspective. Again if you can find gratification in the hunt itself, that’s the ticket. Soak in some sunlight, take a deep breath of mountain air, and most importantly, unplug and appreciate being in the present. It’s something that's lost on many into today’s culture, we all want the end result. The expensive, fleeting pleasures, however most of us don’t want to endure the time and dedication it takes to achieve such things. And for those that have achieved such riches, often tell you that they’re really not that gratifying in the end. They only leave you wanting more. As with hunting, in a successful hunt the end result is merely the conclusion, it’s the hours leading up to the shot that make the story.

Hang Up and Hang Out

Here’s the obvious. We are incredibly screen dependant. We spend the majority of our time inside, at a desk or streaming content on our devices. Now I’d be lying if I said I never checked an update or a football score in the treestand, but the best hunts come in wilderness where phone service is non-existent. A long day in the wilderness acts as a reset or reboot for the human mind. No updates, alerts, no to-dos. You’re senses are your notifications, but in a manner that isn’t tested during everyday, modern life. Your eyes are scanning endless vistas instead of a screen in front of your face. You’re listening to the soft subtle sounds of the wind through the trees, the crack of a stick that sends chills up your spine. Smelling the array of fresh, green growth that inhabit the untouched wilderness. And if you’re lucky, you’ll taste some truly organic, grass fed wild game. Ultimately, its back to the basics. It's obvious from the growing epidemic of anxiety, depression, and sedentary related disease that our bodies have not adapted to our modern world and thus a hunt in the wilderness can act not only as a time machine into the past, but perhaps a system reboot with regards to our overall health and well-being.

Mother Nature Doesn’t Care About Your Entitlement

There’s no politics in the outdoor world, perhaps in the industry, but certainly not in the wild. The landscape, weather, animals, none of them care how much money you made, whether you’re offended or feel like a victim. Out there, it’s all too real. Life eats life and its comes down to a simple yet harsh reality of survival. You could own three businesses, have thousands of instagram followers, drive a fancy car, but in the wild you’re nothing but another creature toeing the line between life and death. Tell a grizzly bear how much money you made last year and see if he cares. Food doesn’t just fall into your lap, success isn’t handed to you as a birthright, it’s go out and eat, or risk being eaten. Millenials are constantly stereotyped for their air of entitlement. Every case is different, but I know when I entered the workforce I was shocked that I had to start at the bottom. I know, I was young, dumb, and arrogant. “You mean I don’t get to call the shots? Did you hear what my GPA was? Did I show you my overpiced college degree?!” Hunting is but another reminder that no ones owes you shit and the landscape, weather, and animals couldn’t care less if you feel like a victim.

I’ve been hunting for a little over six years now and while I’m nowhere near an experienced hunter, I can say that my hunting experiences have taught me many lessons. While the world we know today is vastly different than our hunter gathering ancestors, some of life’s truest lessons are learned through the same activity. Life eats Life, yes I’m talking about the Lion King’s “circle of life” however with much more grotesque realism. Patience is a virtue. Often times in life you will fail twice as much, or more, than you succeed. Hunting is a teacher. Hunting is humbling. Hunting puts food on your plate. And whether you’d like to admit it, all little bit of hunting and some fresh air could do you good. 

Now all that being said, I must go check all my social media feeds for useless information and finish my green tea. 

Singed,

A Millenial Hunter

[pauljarrett96-blog]

Don't read this for motivation

A humbling side effect of running a company that has some public recognition of its employee culture is that I’m sought out by founders, CEOs, HR professionals, employees, students etc. to comment on the topic of “culture.”

The problem is that many people who contact me get “good culture” confused with “motivating employees.” Or worse, “squeezing more work out of the team.” The assumption is that if their company has a great culture, people will be motivated to work longer hours and be more productive.

Here’s the thing: Great culture and high work productivity are loosely related. Sorry, your foosball table will not motivate people to work 80 hour weeks. Culture has to do with engagement and environment, not motivation.

To create exceptional company culture, provide the environment and create engagement. An engaged team in the right environment works to meet their goals because they have a sense of responsibility to the team and a clear understanding of the final outcome. The Bulu Box crew knows where the company should be in one month, six months and two years from now, and they also know how their daily tasks and responsibilities lead to accomplishing that goal.

Even tasks like taking out the trash and dusting are assigned for a reason and are the responsibility of everyone. The team knows we do those things (for now) to instill the idea that nobody will do the work for us. They get it. They understand long-term where we’re going and what it takes to get us there.

The question isn’t, “How do we create a culture that motivates employees?”What people should really be asking is “How do we promote discipline within a great, fun culture?” After all, some of the most fun I’ve ever had has happened while trying to accomplish the impossible.

Sometimes work sucks

Before I proceed, let’s be clear about two things:

This is what works for my style as a leader. After all, there’s more than one way to bake a cake.

Work isn’t always awesome. In fact, it can suck sometimes and that’s okay. It’s normal.

If anyone has spent time reading about the ‘stuff’ that turns crazy dream seekers into successful entrepreneurs or listened to me, Matt Boyd & Brian Ardinger on the Inside Outside Podcast, you know that these two traits that rise above all the rest: Risk and Grit. The best entrepreneurs get that grit should contain discipline. Discipline helps you grind through the hard times to keep making progress, even when it’s hard, boring, and stressful.

Discipline is one of the most underrated and least mentioned topics when it comes to conversations about startups yet there are thousands of articles, pics and quotes on motivation. Maybe that’s because discipline is difficult where motivation is easy. Motivation is a daydream. Discipline is the day labor.

Discipline is better than motivation and here’s why: Motivation is easy to find and lose. Motivation is selfish. When you wait around to be motivated, you’re saying, “I want some external force to compel me to accomplish a task.” Then, when you keep putting it off and binge some Netflix instead, the responsibility isn’t on you. The motivation wasn’t there and that’s an acceptable excuse.

Discipline is different. Discipline gets shit done. It can be boring, it can be repetitive, but think about who that task benefits. You can close out of Reddit and Instagram and check-off task XYZ because it’s for the team. Doing those “ugh” tasks every damn day? Doing those “ugh” tasks every day only to find out the plan is changing? Accepting failure and resetting your course no matter what — that’s discipline.

Of course, that’s easier said than done. Discipline is fucking hard and easy to lose. That’s not being extreme — that’s being real. Not everyone can determine a goal, break down its steps, proceed, fail, make new steps, fail (x100), proceed, make new steps, progress, make new goals, and never stop. I’ve only met a handful of people in my lifetime that have successfully mastered this. It’s not a talent — it’s a skill. (BTW — Thanks, Coach Witulski for sending me to J. Rob Camp where I learned a lot of this at 17 years old.)

Here’s a few things that I have learned in the 5 years since founding Bulu Box that have helped me increase my discipline:

1. Ruthlessly edit

Fact: The more decisions you have to make in a day, the less effective you will be. What are you wearing today? Are you going to drink coffee this morning? What email should you get to first? Should you RSVP to that party this weekend? These are decisions we make within the first minutes of the day. If you’re running a business, you’re going to make a lot of decisions. But, the more decisions you make, the less effective you’ll be.

You need to keep your brain clear so you can reason through the big decisions without worrying about the ones that don’t matter. It’s why I love my gym (CrossFit…I know, I know). I show up and the workout is already mapped out for me — no decisions to be made. I try to make my day seem like that as much as possible. I eat the same thing every day, cycle the same predetermined outfits, and tons of other decision-saving habits. Save your brain power and decision making ability for when it matters; it will increase your willpower for better discipline. It will pay in spades for everyone around you.

2. Plan ahead

Want to get fit? Want to read more? Want to meditate? Want to start a company? Clear out your calendar and plan a recurring block of time for this task or hobby. Ruthlessly edit (#1) your calendar if you need to make space. This can even apply to relationships! I want to be a better husband, so Thursday night is “Date Night” on the calendar, repeating forever. When you become an entrepreneur, your personal and work lives merge. Take advantage of your work tools to help run your personal life. Things on the calendar get done.

3. Visualize the outcome

Start with the end. Whether it’s selling your company, losing 30 lbs, playing the piano, whatever it is, spend a considerable amount of time mentally visualizing the outcome. From there, ask yourself: Is it worth this? Will all the ruthless editing, planning, failing, etc. be worth it when you have what you want?

4. Fail, reset, fail again

Nobody wakes up and says, “I’m going to run a marathon today,” having never run before, and then runs it. There’s a long path of training, planning, pain and failure. Getting used to failure is part of discipline; you have to commit to trying again. You will fall off track. You will lose 20 lbs and gain 5 lbs back over the weekend…but will you get back on track Monday? Tuesday? Thursday? Cool! You got back on track and that’s more than what 99% of people do. And don’t forget, you’re still down 15 lbs! Good job, you!

5. Delete emotion

Focus on metrics, plans, and concrete items. What is the goal? By how much did you make or miss it? Why did you make or miss it? Great. Now, edit the plan and keep going. That’s all! You need to delete the inner voice telling you you’re tired, you deserve a break, you don’t know what you’re doing. Be kind to yourself and don’t give up. Never give up; by pushing yourself to get on track, you’re beating most humans.

Take calculated risks (and a few uncalculated). Grit through the hard times and have the discipline to reach the goals you set back when you were full of short-lived motivation. That said, my time is up and a calendar notification just popped up. So go grab another cup coffee, crank up that grind playlist, and go-ta-work for the team.

—

Paul Jarrett is the co-founder of Bulu Box, which helps customers realize their healthy living and weight loss goals and connects brands to qualified consumers through data-driven sampling and ecommerce technology. Paul is no stranger to vitamins and supplements. He used supplements to help him become a 307lb D1 starting defensive lineman in the Big 12, then lose over 100 pounds when his playing days were over. Paul has helped launch million dollar brands, and executed campaigns for Lowe’s and Nike. In 2010, Paul joined Complete Nutrition where he built the marketing and communications department and positioned Complete Nutrition for success in a saturated market. The company became one of the fastest growing startups in the country.

Paul would like to give props to Marcus Quevedo & Mariah Nimmich for help with this article.