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daisiesforlacey · 4 years ago

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clouds - chapter 2 : cirrus

Pair: Julie x alive!Luke

Summary: After her mother’s death, Julie Molina moved away from Hollywood, across the country, to Ithaca, New York. She’s left behind her two loves in life: her best friend, Luke, and her music. There, she finds new friends and enemies, new experiences and joys, she might even find herself. Every night, Luke calls Julie to talk about the clouds. But what if Luke is hiding something?

Word Count: 3,344

Warnings: angsty??? I mean we gotta move the story along soooo

Note: I started writing this and it got away from me! I think this series might be longer than originally intended, but that’s not a bad thing. I can’t wait to delve more into Alex, Reggie, and Carrie’s storylines, but for now, here’s this! Please please comment, like, reblog; feedback is always appreciated :)))

Masterlist

Taglist

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The morning had been much chillier than the previous day. On their way to school, Julie and Flynn had bundled up in their favorite sweaters and scarves, along with matching thermoses of tea. Julie had tried to stuff her hair into a wool hat, but after failing miserably, she settled on tying her hair back into a ponytail. Flynn had offered to help style her curls that morning, but she had declined.

The ground next to the sidewalk was blue with frost and they could almost see their breath if they squinted hard enough.

In Ithaca, the winter was dryer, she had found that her lips chapped more often and she seemed to constantly have the sniffles. In L.A, when it got colder, it mostly rained, snow was far and few between and was never terribly enjoyable; the second it hit the ground it would become this sort of grey sludge. One thing they both shared was the unpredictability. Seeing the sun one day did not often guarantee a warm week, which left Julie to keep an array of coats of different thicknesses.

There weren’t too many clouds to see, if she tried hard enough, she might be able to make out a flying saucer. She shook her head, spaceships were too easy and basic; anything could be a UFO.

As they walked and the sun slowly rose, they talked about their upcoming day; if Carrie was going to be tolerable, if they would be getting new music projects, and who was buying lunch.

Luckily for Julie, she could already feel the air warm up, unfortunately, the conversion had shifted to Luke.

“How is your friend? Liam, or whatever?” Flynn asked, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

“Luke,” Julie snorted and looked down at her hands, “He’s doing well, he didn’t see too many shapes yesterday, so our conversation was relatively short.” Flynn knew about their nightly calls, but Julie had left out most of the reason they happened. Flynn didn’t need to know how much she missed her friend, she didn’t want the other girl to feel inadequate.

“It’s really cool that you guys still keep in touch, if all of my friendships drifted apart that nicely, Carrie…” Flynn drifted off into thought at the mention of Carrie. Contemplating Julie, frowned, she didn’t particularly like to think that she and Luke had drifted, but she supposed they had literally done just that.

“Well when you have a history like Luke and I have, it’s impossible not to talk to him.” Julie didn’t mention that he seemed to be a part of her that was now missing, or that Luke had this sort of magnetism that drew anyone and everyone to him, or that when they wrote songs together she had felt more alive and seen than anything.

Those things didn’t need saying, those things had been left in L.A.

But in here she had Flynn and a small town and a family.

A broken family, she thought.

---

As Nick finished his guitar solo, his lacrosse buddies whooped and hollered in the small music room.

It was smaller than the one back home, but just as welcoming. Cinder block walls had been covered with sound absorbers and music posters ranging from “hang in there” cats to major and minor scales to student made flyers, advertising the school dance coming up.

Their mascot, a yellow and black cougar, had been painted on the wall by an art club some time ago. It was slightly lopsided and its snarling mouth looked more mangled, but the sentiment was there.

Julie had zoned out long before Nick had started, staring at the chipped paint on the wall. She knew the second she walked up to the piano to play, she would freeze. No amount of mental preparation could prepare her to set her fingers on the ivory keys and play something, anything.

“Okay, we have one last performance,” Her teacher said, “Julie.”

The girl looked up slowly. She stumbled toward the piano with hesitant steps. She sat down with a sigh and opened the sheet music. Her blood was rushing and her head was pounding. The room seemed to blur and spin, but was also eerily still and quiet.

She could feel the eyes of her classmates boring into her skull. As they watched her, she could guess what they were thinking, here we go again, I wonder if she’ll actually play this time, just get on with it.

Julie knew that Flynn was trying to encourage her, even from where she was sitting, but she couldn’t bring herself to look at the girl.

“Take your time,” Her teacher assured.

Julie might take forever.

She opened the case of the piano and grazed her fingertips on the keys. They were cold and unforbidding. The second she pressed one of the keys she knew that she would break.

Memories of her mother would come rushing back; every scraped knee, every hand holding in the parking lot, every crush whispered in secret, every night spent over the stove learning what spice goes in when, every uncontrollable fit of laughter.

She would remember every Christmas and Easter that they would break out her Abuela’s Arroz Con Leche recipe, every concert they went to where they would scream lyrics until their throats were raw.

Every failed test that her mother had stayed up late to help her study for, every flu shot where her mother still held her hand, no matter how old she got.

Every note written or melody sung would fill her mind. She didn’t know what would happen when it did, and she desperately didn’t want to find out.

She stood up, “I’m sorry.”

Julie thought she heard Carrie say some snarky remark and that Flynn had retaliated, but she couldn’t have been sure before she was rushing out the door.

After the school day, Flynn and her walked home as quickly as they could, sometimes sprinting. They needed to beat Julie’s father home after he picked up her brother, Carlos, up from his own school. She was praying that he hadn’t heard the news that she was out of the music program yet.

She groaned as she saw his car already in the driveway

Flynn quickly hugged her, “It’s fine, he’ll understand.” She withdrew from the hug and held Julie at arms length with a sympathetic smile before they had to part. Flynn waved as she unlocked her front door and stepped inside.

Julie took a sharp breath in before doing the same.

---

“So is ‘Clocks move faster / cause it’s all were after’ the first pre-chorus or the second pre-chorus?” Reggie ran his fingers through his hair, his nose scrunching, “Because wouldn’t it just make more sense to have the same pre-chorus on each verse?”

The brunet’s bass was slung over his body as he rested his hands on the body of his guitar. He looked over to Luke, who was crouched over his lyrics.

Luke shook his head , his air already dripping with sweat, “It’s the second pre-chorus, the first is ‘Clocks move forward / but we don’t get older.’” He semi, sang, strumming along on his guitar. “Changing it up adds movement, we don’t want to bore the listeners. It keeps the theme of staying young at heart.”

Reggie nodded and plucked at his bass, testing out different rhythms. Moving his hands up the neck and over the strings, he finally settled on some semblance of a tune, repeating it over and over again.

Alex joined him, adding a hit on each of the beats of the song. This gave the song a drive and pounding rhythm, working with Luke’s line of ‘Electric hammer to the heart.”

Luke stood up after scribbling something and added his guitar part over it, humming along with the melody, and soon they got well into the song, improvising along the way. There were still some wrong chords and off beats, but they had the bones of what they felt like would be a hit.

Luke had gone from humming to singing, Reggie and Alex joining in. Luke felt his pulse quicken as he grinned.

“‘We ain’t searchin’ for tomorrow’,” Alex sang, to which Reggie echoed, “‘Cause got all we need today’.”

Luke bopped along, “‘Living on a feeling that’s been running through our veins.”

They looked back and forth to each other, knowing what was coming next.

Reggie was supposed to have a line to end the bridge, but it hadn’t been written yet. Luke had spent hours trying to come up with something, but it just didn’t click, every line he wrote either changed the meaning of the song or was too clumsy.

Luke sighed as they all stopped playing and he cast an apologetic gaze to the bassist, “I’ll get it. I promise.”

The boy in the flannel just shook his head, “No worries bro, we’ve done a lot in,” He checked the clock on the wall and his eyes widened comically. “Five hours…”

This mock practice session had started in Alex’s garage right after school after Luke had presented them with a song at lunch.

“It’s totally us,” He had said, sliding to the table with a lunch tray and a scribbled mess of paper, beaming, “Totally mid 90’s. And look, you-,” He pointed to Alex who looked excited but skeptical, “Can start the bridge and you-,” Luke turned his attention to Reggie, “Can echo, ending with…”

Luke trailed off, he didn’t have an ending line yet, he knew it had to be perfect. Everyone knows you can’t end a bridge without a call to action, something that stirred and emotion so deep that you couldn’t help but sing along.

He sighed as his mouth twisted, “I don’t know, I haven’t found the perfect line yet.” He looked down at his chicken scratch, then slid the paper across to Alex, who examined it.

“I like it, have you decided where the harmonies should go yet, or nah?” Alex flipped his blond hair back, after adjusting it in his snapback. He was already trying to decide what type of beats he would do, where the drum fills would be, and what he should consult Reggie on.

The makeshift band had a process: Luke would write a basic lyric and chord progression and then he would bring it to the guys. From there Alex would come up with the heartbeat of the song with Reggie. Reggie would work with Luke to see what melodies he should be playing and how he and Luke would bounce off of each other.

When they came together, the three friends would look at who sang what, harmonies, and fill in the gaps in the music. They worked like a well oiled machine

But lunch had been 7 hours ago and it was now 8 o’clock, well past when Luke should have been home. The boy jumped as he looked outside, saw it was dark, and cursed under his breath. He quickly put his guitar on his stand and grabbed his book bag, then ran out with a wave to Reggie and Alex.

“I’ll see you guys tomorrow, if I’m still alive,” he called before getting on his bike and going home.

The air was damp and it had just rained, making the pavement slippery. Despite being almost winter, the weather was warm enough to where he only had to put on a shirt and jeans to be comfortable.

On his way to his house, Luke looked to the sky. He cataloged some shapes of dark clouds, moose, cat, spaceship, he thought. He chucked to himself, anything could be a space ship, it wasn’t creative enough, all the cloud had to be was somewhat circular.

His mind drifted to Julie and what she would have to say about these clouds. She would probably smile, her adorable gap showing, and tell him all of the wonderful odd shapes she would see.

“There, right there, a cat chasing a dog,” She would say, “No, no, scratch that, a dog chasing a cat chasing a pigeon. Wait sorry, a shark without a back fin. Or maybe a line of ducklings crossing a street.” Then she would narrow her eyes as the clouds shifted and formed new images, “Well now I don’t know what I see.”

Luke would then look over and tell her that everything she saw was amazing, even if it was truly unremarkable. She was always able to see things he couldn’t, even if it was something as menial as a cloud. She could look at him and know exactly what was wrong no matter what; he didn’t know if she was truly super powered, or if he was super transparent.

Which was why he was glad she couldn’t see him on their calls.

She knew about Reggie and Alex, they had met before she left, but she didn’t know that they played music together. She didn’t know that Luke was writing songs with them like he used to with her. He didn’t want her to feel replaced.

And as far as she knew, his parents were completely fine with his music. They may have had little gripes here and there, but she thought that was the extent of it.

As he arrived at his house and opened the front door, that wasn’t the case at all.

“Lucas Patterson!” His mother yelled from the kitchen, “Do you have any idea what time it is!”

Luke winced as she ran into the living room, wiping her hands on a dish towel. He could see that the dining room table had already been cleared and the leftovers put away.

“It is 8:14! Would you like to tell me why the hell you missed dinner again for the third time this week? No wait! I bet I know! Let me guess, you were at Alex’s!” Her eyes were steel. It wasn’t a question, they both knew the only thing that would keep him out at night would be music with the guys.

He gripped the strap of his back pack before looking at the floor, his knuckles white. “I’m sorry Mom. I just lost track of time, you know how I get.”

Emily smoothed her brow with her fingers as her husband walked in from the kitchen. “At least tell me you did your homework.”

Luke didn’t answer.

His mom threw the dish towel to the floor, “Luke we had a deal! You can keep playing your guitar and going to ‘band practice,’” She used air quotes, “As long as you did your homework before then and always made it home for dinner. Always! Your family and school work is important! I know you don’t think so, but as long as you live under our roof, you abide by our rules!”

He threw his hands up and scoffed, “I’m not going to stop playing music, it’s my life! And you can’t stop me! I am sorry if I miss a few family dinners a week, but isn’t that fine if it means I’m happy?”

His mother looked at him like he had sprouted another head, “Son, I know it’s been hard ever since Julie left, and I know you miss her but--”

“But what Mom? There’s nothing I can do about it, she’s in New York! And the only thing keeping me connected to her is music, and right now, you don’t even let me have that.” Luke stormed through the living room into his room.

He dropped his bag down with a thunk, and sat on his bed, smashing his head into a pillow and screaming. He regretted that he didn’t bring his guitar back, if only to take out his anger by shredding on volume 10.

The day kept getting later, and while he didn’t like calling her while angry, he dialed Julie’s phone number.

The phone rang a couple times before she picked up, “Hello, this is Her Majesty Queen Julie Molina, what is your concern peasant?” She said in a haughty voice, before her façade broke with a giggle.

“Well Your Highness, I have come to discuss today’s weather.” He replied, playing along, her voice instantly making him feel better.

“Today we have seen a couch, a baby, and many many trees.”

“I have also seen many trees; they are very common in the sky.” Luke laughed, “I may have also spotted a suitcase and an umbrella. Sadly my Queen, the rain made it quite hard to see too many shapes.”

Julie clicked her tongue, he could see her face now, her nose scrunched and her mouth down turned, “That is a downright shame. Is there any news to report?’”

Luke perked up at that and rushed to get the words out of his mouth, “Actually, yeah. I wrote a song, ‘Now or Never,’ and it’s actually not that bad. Except I can’t figure out this one line, and it’s been bugging me all day.” He huffed, “Do you wanna hear it?”

She replied just as giddy as he is, “Of course!”

The brunet then launched into singing an a cappella version of his song from memory, stopping here or there to say things such as, “A harmony would totally go here,” or “Add a little guitar riff and it’d be perfect.”

He kept going until, “‘Living on a feeling that’s been running through our veins’. And then of course another line, and then the chorus.” He was staring at his popcorn ceiling now, smiling like a kid in a candy shop.

Julie paused, then said, “We’re the revolution that’s been singing in the rain.”

“What?”

“That’s it, that’s your missing lyric.”

Luke froze, she really couldn’t get any more perfect.

“Queen Julie, you are a genius!” He jumped off of his bed to grab a scrap of paper off of his messy desk before writing down the lyric. “You songwriting genius! If you have stuff like that flowing through your brain, how aren’t you playing it?”

He didn’t mean to bring it up, it just sort of happened. But it was true, how could she be so good at writing and let it go to waste?

Julie cleared her throat, “Well actually--”

“You sang again? I knew it, I knew you would!” Luke cut her off.

“Well no,” She rushed out, he could already see her running her hand over her face in exasperation. He has to stop interrupting people. “I got kicked out of the music program. I haven’t played anything since I got here, and I couldn't either today. I guess that was the last straw, because my teacher called my dad and said that unless I could play something by the end of the week, I need to choose a new elective.”

They sat in silence.

Luke played with his hands, knitting his fingers together and pulling them apart before an idea came to him, “What about your mom’s song. Not for class I mean! But, if just to sit down at your piano again and play something, what about that? She wrote it for you after all. And then maybe afterwards you’d be good to play for your class and boom! You’re Julie, songwriting pianist extraordinaire again!”

“I-I don’t know about that, Luke,” She swallowed. Right before her mom passed, they had written a song together, but she hasn’t even been able to look at it since she moved. If she sat down to play it, she’d be accepting all of those memories back. But then again, if she needed to sing anything it would be her mother’s song. They had taken a few months to write it, and Julie’s mom had completed it before…

“I mean maybe. I’ll see. I’ll try.” Julie nodded to herself and gave a determinant look to her wall. Tomorrow morning she would go to her garage and play her mother's song.

“You promise?” Luke asked tentatively.

“I promise.”

“Alright. I guess I should go, it’s probably pretty late where you are. I’ll see you soon?”

Julie nodded, “See you soon.” Then hung up.

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ereri-lost-and-found · 5 years ago

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Any docs that involve Eren meeting levi through video games? I’ve tried looking them up but I only saw one that wasn’t it.

Hi, Anon

You’re in luck. We’ve made you a masterlist of all the gaming fics we could find~We weren’t able to tag everything due to the tag limit. Sorry folks.

A Tenuous Third Space by artenon

(Rated T, 13 733 words, multichapter, complete)

In which Attack on Titan is the MMORPG they all play, and Eren meets Levi online.

LifeLine by DanDeeLion

(Rated M,71 947 words, multichapter, ongoing)Take note of all tags before reading.

There were no save points once the simulation began. And the characters could only move from the start of the program and up until the timer runs out.

For Levi, it had only been another game on beta testing. Project LifeLine. A game that tested the revolutionary immersion gear that would soon change the military simulation training program, Levi and a few other testers were the first to try it out. As the project remains on the prototype, Levi felt an odd sense of deja vu the simulations of fictional survival with his character.

When one mission, led Levi to unlock a new character, a soldier named Eren, everything Levi knew about the game and the program drastically changes..

Sword Art Online by erentitanjaeger

(Rated E, 87 236 words, multichapter, complete)

When something seems too good to be true, that’s because it usually is. Within three hours of the game’s start, the creator of the entire endorsement, Akihiko Kayaba, summoned all ten thousand players into the town square of the first floor. Some people were already complaining about the lack of the ‘log out’ feature. I thought it was just some sort of bug, I didn’t think anything of it when I noticed it myself.

Burning Embers by ItsJaegerTrash

(Rated T, 8183, multichapter, complete)

Eren Jaeger is an artist, a dreaming boy hoping to work as a concept artist for video games when he graduates. After all, he’s not quite cut out for the more technical side of his passion.

On the other hand, is Levi Ackerman. A full time streamer, and professional gamer, is always running numbers, perks, and stats in his head to make his characters as strong as he can.

Thanks to one Hanji Zoe maybe, just maybe, they’ll find find their “Player 2”.

Press Play by knownopain

(Rated E, 25 266 words, multichapter, ongoing, TW rape/non-con)Take note of all tags before reading.

Eren Jaeger is your stereotypical 18 year old. Living in his dad’s basement, doing nothing and playing video games for the majority of the day. You know how people are always complaining about how video games ruin people’s lives? Well, for some, they can be the start of a whole new one.

On one fateful afternoon, a stranger with the username “HumanitysStrongest” and a French accent shows up, and Eren is pretty creeped out by him at first.

Eren and the stranger who happens to be called Levi begin to form a strong bond. Video chats all night, xBox Live parties and regular guy stuff. One day, though, they become more than good friends. Eren’s father finds out about their relationship, and kicks Eren out. Levi offers to pay for a plane ticket to France for Eren, and he accepts it. But, will everything go as planned?

Exposed (Semi-Hiatus) by littlecrim

(Rated E,15 575 words, multichapter, ongoing)

Eren was one of those fresh graduates who luckily managed to land their first job with their bachelor’s degree and it was only a matter of time before his mid-life crisis would come and bitch slap him right in the face. He was even addicted to an MMORPG and the fact that he was neglecting his social life wasn’t going to make it any easier.

Anime-Expo is nearing and Eren might have asked to meet up with a stranger. What’s the worst thing that could happen?

R e s t a r t by RawrForRiku

(Rated M, 16 029 words, multichapter, ongoing)

A new, insanely popular video game has just been released called Attack On Titan. Hanji leaves no room for objections from Levi, and so he’s dragged into this virtual gruesome world full of violence, death, and gore. His favorites all in one.

But when a glitch in the game brings along a sequence of strange events and a pair of unforgettable eyes, everything Levi thought he knew about gaming turns to ash and he’s afraid to face the unsettling truth behind this alluring video game character named Eren.

Attack Online by ReaderWriterPoet

(Rated M,9311 words, multichapter, ongoing)

A Sword Art Online story with Attack on Titan characters. Eren and Armin log in with Mikasa on day one of the Sword Art Online launch. With Mikasa logging out before Kayaba locks down the game, Eren and Armin are left to fend for themselves. Eren as a beta tester, vows to protect his friend Armin and finish the game to return to the real world. Levi a gamer with a small underground following quickly becomes one of the highest ranked players in SAO, a founding member of the Scouting Legion, sworn to push forward and clear the game.

Souleater and CaptainLevi, AFK by SeranaKaidou

(Rated M, 5128 words, multichapter, complete)

Levi is a famed videogame streamer/gamer. He’s #1 in the most popular MMO game, Soul Dungeon, until a mysterious anonymous player nicknamed Souleater comes and unseats him. Levi becomes obsessed with finding the brat who ruined his reputation, but what happens when he actually does find him?

Subscribed by snakemittens

(Rated E, 62 618 words, multichapter, complete)

Eren Jeager, an up and coming gamer on YouTube, is invited to attend SurveyCon. There, he plans to meet up with online friends and even get a chance to be in the same room with his idol, Levi.

Levi is a YouTube gaming star and is coming out with his own video game, Attack on Titan. The company he works for decides to feature his video game at a brand new convention called SurveyCon. They invite plenty of online gamers to participate in the convention including a spritely young gamer with a channel called ‘HumanitysHope’.

you’re my favorite play(er) by Take_Me_To_My_Fragile_Dreams for Themoonshalldie

(Rated E, 2540 words, oneshot, complete)

On his twenty fourth birthday Eren’s friends gift him with The Darkland, the most popular sex game on the market. The embarrassment it causes makes Eren less than thankful, however, that might all change when he comes across a particularly interesting player named Levi.

Log On by Windwolf0097

(Rated E, 54 257 words, multichapter, discontinued)

Eren is a dedicated gamer, and he prides himself on his ascent from Bronze League Hero to a competitive player. What will he do, however, when a chance encounter with one of the world’s top gamers flips his life entirely? How is he supposed to balance a busy college life with his newfound gaming highlife? Unfortunately for him, there are no walkthroughs on what to do when you fall for someone thousands of miles away from you.

YeagerMuffinz by ZWorld

(Rated E, 67 738 words, multichapter, ongoing)

Levi Ackerman never expected to find the love of his life through a simple online game.

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rejectclone · 4 years ago

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I’ve been meaning to update the mini bios for my OCs, it took me some time to try to condense their core aspects and backstory stuff into smaller paragraphs but I’m finally done!

NAME: Jared Clements

AGE: 28

GENDER: Male

SEXUALITY: Bisexual

RACE: White (is of Hispanic descent)

OCCUPATION: Detective/Deputy

ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Good

SHORT BIO: Who was once one of the greatest detectives in Neo York City’s police branches, now a shattered former shell of himself after the Incident. Physically and emotionally mauled from the explosion that killed his partners and his reputation, he now ruminates at the station, plotting for his revenge against the criminal organization that led to his fall. Formerly known to be the most kind and upbeat member of the station, he has become cold and callous to everyone, but the new recruit might pull him from his self-imposed darkness.....

NAME: Devon Cox

AGE: 25

GENDER: Male

SEXUALITY: Straight

RACE: ‘White’/Ambiguous (HEAVILY mixed, but he identifies mostly with being Italian)

OCCUPATION: Trainee Officer, former illegal bloodsport boxer

ALIGNMENT: Neutral Good

SHORT BIO: The bastard son of a seedy bookie and a mother who clearly did not take good care of herself, along with being the only mute member of his family, he was deemed a unwanted child. Eventually, his parent’s actions caught up to them one night out, and as they were slaughtered, their son was left alone at home. Soon adopted by his uncle on his father’s side, he was essentially forced to ‘repay the debt’ by becoming a bloodsport fighter, regardless if he wanted to do it or not. As a adult, the illegal ring has fallen due to on-going corruption, he is now again left alone as his corrupt uncle got hauled off to prison. Left to his own devices and lamenting his actions, he now wants to pave his own path by repaying his own debts by joining the NYPD. Unknown to his new coworkers, he has spilled blood numerous times and won’t hesitate to do what must be done in some situations.....

NAME: B055 M4N

AGE: 24 in 4027 (BEFORE DEATH) 80 in 4083 (POST RESURRECTION)

GENDER: Male

SEXUALITY: Straight

RACE: White

OCCUPATION: Lieutenant

ALIGNMENT: Lawful Neutral

SHORT BIO: He was supposed to be the next gleaming star in the NYPD’s legacy of lieutenants, all from the same bloodline spanning across decades...... until he was assassinated at his induction ceremony in front of the general public. Ironically, his fate was not sealed there, as a week before his induction, he was coaxed into signing up for a ‘organ donation program’, to a incredibly specific experimental medicine company. He never expected his corpse to be used in a unethical program to create a supercomputer, devised of a human consciousness instead of a AI, to ensure that it will have a good stance on logical proceedings of organization and the law, and will not suffer from conflicts of interest. Unfortunately for him, the total conversion to a machine was semi-successful, as they could only resurrect his head...... Now doomed to be a severed head in a jar filled with PFC and the inability to speak (well, at least without using text-to-speech), he has been forcibly instated to be the permanent boss of the station. His true appearance is a facade to essentially everyone, as the ‘higher-ups’ creates false non-existent lieutenants to be instated every few years to keep the act going, except a very select few know of his current situation.

NAME: Lydia Hall

AGE: 25

GENDER: Female

SEXUALITY: Lesbian

RACE: White

OCCUPATION: Psychiatrist, uses ‘personal nurse’ as a cover

ALIGNMENT: True Neutral

BIO: She is considered to be one of the ‘greatest’ newer psychiatrists to ever grace the continental US, but nobody expected her to suddenly disappear off the face of the earth, upon getting a ‘promotion’ one day. Unknown to almost everyone, she was coerced into the psychological monitoring of one of the company’s most experimental projects, the undead severed head turned database at the local NYPD station. His previous care taker had to be laid off due to ‘concerns’, and thus she now must monitor him on a near daily basis, cleaning out his tank, making sure he is still sane, and to just stay there to entertain him basically. She never expected her career to be basically reduced to a personal nurse, and yet here she is. Unfortunately for her, the true nightmare unfolds when a certain hazmat wearing being stumbles into the picture.

NAME: Lawrence Grey

AGE: 47

GENDER: Male

SEXUALITY: Straight

RACE: White

OCCUPATION: Geneticist

ALIGNMENT: Neutral Evil

BIO: A famed scientist who has been working for ages for a experimental medicine company. He was renown for his research in advancing certain projects, some more well received than others however. A overall stoic man, his coworkers reluctantly follow his command, never fully knowing what he thinks of them. Dedicated to his work, the higher-ups gave him access to a incredibly hidden cloning program, regardless if he wanted to work there or not. Not wanting to bond to his ‘projects’, he continued his intimidating aura, until one of them in particular piqued his interest. It would have been better if the clone never showed any promise however, as the impeding transport to another lab will lead to his escape, and his ‘father’s’ coma.....

NAME: [REDACTED]

AGE: [REDACTED]

GENDER: [REDACTED]

SEXUALITY: [REDACTED]

RACE: [REDACTED]

OCCUPATION: [REDACTED]

ALIGNMENT: [REDACTED]

BIO: ……………… he wasn’t meant for this world. The forced byproduct of a illegal cloning procedure, made to be a rejected failure on purpose. As for why? The higher-ups of the organization believed that the more malformed and sickly the clones are, the higher the chance they might carry new genes that can cure said sicknesses. The #439th clone to be made, he seemed to be another waste of flesh and blood. If it wasn’t for his ‘caretaker’, he would’ve been euthanized after a month. Desperate to ‘spare’ this subject, the caretaker demanded him to be transferred to another laboratory base, as rumors began to spread that the project has been leaked to shareholders. That fateful night, he was given a technologically advanced hazmat suit to conceal his inhuman appearance, and was shipped off to his new ‘home’. Alas, as fate would have it, the hovervan he was in along with his ‘father’, crashed, leaving him to wonder aimlessly in the pouring rain, hiding in a alleyway until he was spotted by two odd looking officers, trying to close-off the crash site. He was taken in to the station, where somebody claimed it was his ‘son’. Taken up to the lieutenant’s office, much to the confusion of many, this clone will blend into daily happenings of the station.

NAME: Ren Nakamura

AGE: 22

GENDER: Male

SEXUALITY: Robosexual

RACE: Japanese

OCCUPATION: Future heir to the head of a crime syndicate, doubles as a criminal lawyer as a cover

ALIGNMENT: Lawful Neutral/Evil

BIO: The next in line to his family’s criminal syndicate legacy, he is reluctant at first, but must come to terms to what he must do. Raised up to be cold and unrelenting towards his underlings and other syndicate bosses, he will never back down from a fight, always striving to be on top. However, nobody really expected him to come up with a plan to undermine other syndicates, by actually studying criminal law and becoming a legitimate defense attorney in order to coax his clients into exposing future plans (in which he will immediately inform his father of...). Recently he was assigned a personal body guard, who has a ‘unique’ physical composition and will surely make a great hitman. The two of them go along quite well, considering their popular opposites in personality.

NAME: Deangelo Moore

AGE: 25

GENDER: MALE

SEXUALITY: Gay

RACE: German-American

OCCUPATION: Cybernetic hitman, uses ‘criminal lawyer’ as a cover

ALIGNMENT: Lawful Evil

SHORT BIO: Neither fully man nor machine, this once respected art dealer has gone fully into the seedy underbelly of Neo York. As a escapee convict test subject from a experimental ‘liquid metal’ cyborg program, he is a con man on the run, until as fate would have it, he was accepted as a personal ‘body guard’ for one of his former clients’s son. With no real home to go to anymore as his public reputation has been disgraced, he now gleefully takes in stride that he is a ‘ghost’ among the populous, a potentially unstoppable killing machine who is only curbed by his greed and urge to be respected by other powerful beings. His former life now gone, he now works for his employer as if they were blood relatives, and even agreed to do a surreal operation, to directly siphon information from other rival ‘organizations’ by acting.........as public criminal lawyers who defend them..........

NAME: ‘John’ (he was never properly named by any of the scientists, so he named himself. His ACTUAL name is Specimen - 1257)

AGE: 21

GENDER: Male

SEXUALITY: Straight, but questioning

RACE: Literally nothing

OCCUPATION: Chemist, radiobiologist

ALIGNMENT: True Neutral

BIO: After two nuclear wars ravaged the Earth, odd things will happen to all sorts of life. This is one of them, a human who has the unfortunate pleasure of having their physical composition be mainly nuclear radiation. Much about his early past is kept under wraps by the US government, who sent him away as a infant to a remote chemical research base in Alaska, in fear of him being the next nuclear detonation. Left without proper social interaction and is just seen as a genetic anomaly, it left him with a warped view of life. With incredibly poor socialization skills but a surprisingly large scientific intellect, he has been reduced to hidden-away lab worker, who’s aware of essentially being a captive but is shocking content with it. After all, if he were to be released, the genral public wouldn’t take too kindly to a mannequin-like being with stark white skin and exposed green goo leaking out of his facial orifices, with a near constant glowing aura.

NAME: ‘Mark’ (he was never properly named, and this is just a name given to him by ‘John’. His ACTUAL name is Specimen 1258)

AGE: 21

GENDER: Male

SEXUALITY: Literally doesn’t care at all

RACE: Literally Nothing

OCCUPATION: Convict, former hitman

ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Evil

BIO: What’s more strange than one severely irradiated human being with physical nuclear radiation as flesh and blood? His red colored doppelgänger. With a past even more shrouded in mystery, this ‘man’ seems to originate from the wastes, the former parts of the US that were scarred from the previous two wars. Claiming to be the next step in human evolution, he is incredibly cruel and harsh, and when introducing himself to the criminal underworld as the ‘best’ hitman, he was severely feared by many. Even other rival hitmen who genetically or cybernetically augmented themselves saw him as a legitimate threat to themselves, as after all, he’s a actual living biohazard. They all chipped in together to pin him against who they believe is true my IMMUNE to him, another ungodly hitman with a liquid metal composition. The plan worked, as letting him just step foot into NYC triggered radiation alarms, thus exposing him to the government for the very first time. After a short stint at a supermax prison, he was given a deal: stop irradiating the guards and convicts, and we’ll move you to a more private place where you can do basically almost anything you want. The place in question? A remote research base in Alaska.....

#also I’m now making sideblog for all of this stuff now!!#my ocs #jared clements #devon cox #B055 M4N #lydia hall #lawrence grey #[REDACTED]#ren nakamura #deangelo moore #‘john’#‘mark’#vinyl scratching

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chasholidays · 6 years ago

Note

First of all, I'm weirdly proud of you for thinking of your mental health and changing the setup for holiday prompts! Anyway, I always love how you write Clarke and Miller's relationship and I would love to read a modern day Bellarke fic that focuses on Clarke and Miller being supportive friends who love each other but don't like to talk about it, but maybe they end up talking about it anyway? Besides it being modern day and focused on their friendship you have really free hands!

Like most friendly agreements, the dibs system wasn’t something Clarke and Nate ever sat down and ironed out, not really a formal thing. There is no list of rules and guidelines, no contract signed in blood.

All that happens is that a cute boy comes into auditions for the play in seventh grade, and Nate says, “Dibs.”

Clarke frowns. “On him?”

“Yup. He’s all mine.”

The confidence is just a little bit absurd. Not only is Nate twelve years old, skinny, and awkward, but they don’t even know if the guy likes guys. The idea that he’s going to, without a doubt, get this guy is pretty much ridiculous.

All of which Clarke could point out, but she doesn’t want to. Nate only just told her a few weeks ago that the thought he liked guys, and this part feels like a test, like Nate wants to see if Clarke believes him and accepts him.

“All yours,” Clarke agrees, and when, five weeks later, the boy tries to kiss her, Clarke says, “Sorry, you’re not my type.”

She doesn’t mention it to Nate for a long time, not until they’re at a party sophomore year and she sees a cute boy and says, “Hey, dibs.”

“What?”

“Dibs.”

“Who calls dibs? Are you twelve?”

“You called dibs. When we were twelve,” she has to admit. “You called dibs on Mark Talbot when we were doing the play and he kissed me and I didn’t kiss him back.”

“Huh,” says Nate. “Really?”

“Yup.”

“So really, you owe me. Mark Talbot’s a dick.”

This is true, but somewhat beside the point. “You still made dibs a thing, not me.”

“So what, now I’m supposed to not hit on that guy? Because you didn’t make out with a douchebag in seventh grade?”

“Well, not that douchebag.”

Nate snorts. “I forgot your taste in guys sucks. Fine, I won’t try to hit on him. He’s not even that cute.”

Up close, he’s definitely not that cute, and he’s not interested in Clarke, but the principle of the thing remains: Clarke called dibs, and Nate respected it, and now it’s a thing they’re both aware of.

It doesn’t always mean that they’re worried the other person will make a move; Clarke calls it on girls sometimes, and Nate calls it on guys he knows to be gay. It’s a declaration of interest, a request for backup, a silly tradition that grows over the years into a ritual. It doesn’t mean everything, but it means something, and something important.

And then, Nate calls dibs on Bellamy.

Which isn’t a big deal, all things considered. There’s definitely nothing wrong with it. Bellamy teaches Latin at the school where Clarke teaches art, and they’re friendly, verging on actually being friends. He and his roommates were having a party and he invited Clarke, who invited Nate. Nate hasn’t met Bellamy, so this is the first time calling dibs is an option, and now he has.

Clarke didn’t, so there’s no violation or anything. She’s had plenty of chances to call dibs on Bellamy and it never even occurred to her. She’s had two years of potential dibs and never took them.

“On Bellamy?”

“The one with the curly hair and the glasses, yeah.” Nate looks at her askance. “You said he’s bi, right?”

“He is, yeah.” Her brain finally gets with the program, and she smiles. “Honestly, you guys would probably be pretty great together.”

“You think?”

“You’re an asshole, he’s an asshole–”

“Wow, we already have so much in common.”

“And I’m pretty sure he’s single. Yeah, this one’s actually a good call.”

“Unlike my usual shitty taste?”

“Your exes have been a pretty mixed bag.”

“Oh, you’re one to talk.”

She grins. “Here’s hoping I develop good taste one day too.”

“I can’t wait.”

“Are you going to go talk to him?”

Nate takes a deliberate sip of his drink. “That’s not really in the spirit of dibs. It’s a long game. If I was going to hook up with him tonight, I wouldn’t need to call dibs. But I figure I’ll see him again sometime.”

“Oh good, I can’t wait to watch the train wreck of you seducing my coworker in real time.”

“You’re trying for sarcastic, but I know you’re actually looking forward to it. I can give you some tips.”

“I don’t need tips.”

“You’re just saying that because you haven’t seen me work yet.”

“I’ve seen you work enough to last me a lifetime.”

“Not since high school. I’ve gotten a lot better.”

That’s the other thing about the Bellamy dib, the thing that makes it feel more important than maybe it should. Clarke and Nate went to different colleges, in different time zones. They stayed in touch, of course, through Facebook and text messages, but this is their first time living in the same place full time for seven years, and the first time ever as adults. This is part of their new status quo, and Clarke doesn’t want to mess it up.

“Looking forward to it,” she says, with a smile.

She thinks she sounds pretty convincing.

Clarke and Bellamy weren’t instant friends when Clarke started teaching at Arcadia. The first time they met, Bellamy was disciplining some kids too harshly (in Clarke’s new and only semi-professional opinion) and while she hadn’t undermined him in front of the kids, she did take him aside after to gently point out that he was wrong.

Which he hadn’t been. Clarke can admit she was the asshole there, and Bellamy maybe knew his business better than she did.

Still, it was a hurdle that proved difficult to overcome on both sides. Clarke has never been good at admitting she’s wrong, and while Bellamy has since admitted that he got where she was coming from, he wasn’t particularly inclined to be the first to try to make amends. Given how stubborn both of them are, it probably could have gone on forever, but at the start of Clarke’s second year of teaching, they hired a new principal, who was and still is awful, and suddenly she and Bellamy had a common enemy. They found themselves on the same side of conversations in the staff room, working together to push back against shitty policies, and once that started, they realized how good they were at it and how much they actually did agree on a lot of things.

By the time Nate calls dibs on him, Bellamy is without doubt Clarke’s favorite coworker, which means the whole thing should, in theory, be a slam dunk. Nate and Bellamy seem like a good match, two of her favorite people in the world, and if they want to date, Clarke should be all for it. Clarke wants to be all for it. On paper, it makes so much sense.

Something about it bugs her, though, and she can’t figure out what. She’s probably being territorial toward one or both of them, worried that they won’t need her if they have each other, and that’s beyond shitty.

But she can get past it.

“You’re still single, right?”

It’s a week after the party, and if Nate has done anything to try to actually make a move on Bellamy, Clarke missed it. And, of course, he doesn’t have to do anything, there have been countless dibs that went nowhere, but it would really be a shame if nothing happened with him and Bellamy. A complete waste of dibs.

Bellamy looks up from the papers he’s grading with a small frown. “What?”

“You. Your dating status. Still single?”

“Still single. Why?”

As sad as it is, Clarke hadn’t really had a plan for this conversation past this point. She’s not really much of a matchmaker, and telling Bellamy that Nate likes him goes against the entire spirit of dibs. Her job here is to support Nate in his crush, not go out and make things happen herself.

Bellamy is still watching her, eyebrows raised, waiting for an explanation. “I saw you talking to that brunette at the party, I thought she might be a new girlfriend.”

“Oh, no. Ex-girlfriend, actually. But we broke up on good terms, so people make that mistake a lot.”

“I don’t understand how you’re on such good terms with all your exes,” she grumbles. “You broke up, it’s supposed to be bad!”

“No, breaking up is good. Staying together when you should break up is bad. Maybe this is your problem,” he teases.

“Shut up.”

He considers her. “What about the guy you brought? New boyfriend?”

At least he’s considerate enough to give her the perfect opening. “Him? No, that’s Nate.”

“He said his name was Miller.”

“He started going by his last name in high school because our class had like five Nates. But we’ve been friends since–I can’t even remember. Basically since birth.”

Bellamy snorts. “You would have a friend like that.”

“What does that even mean?”

“I picture your childhood as very idyllic, I guess. I moved around too much to keep any of the kids I knew growing up.”

“That happened with our other friend, Wells. We were all in the same carpool to pre-school–shut up,” she adds, before he can say anything, and he grins and holds his hands up. It is a cute story, he’s not wrong. “We were pretty much inseparable through elementary school, but then in sixth grade Wells’ dad got a job in Seattle and they moved, so it was just me and Nate. Not that we didn’t still talk to Wells, but it wasn’t the same.” She shrugs. “We went to different colleges, but he got a new job here, so here we are.”

“That’s awesome. It must be nice to have him around again.” He smirks. “You know, none of that is convincing me that he’s not going to be your new boyfriend. That sounds like some rom-com shit.”

“He’s gay.”

“Okay, never mind, yeah.”

“I’m going to try to bring him to stuff, though,” she says. “Maybe even organize stuff myself.”

Bellamy snorts. “Wow, drastic measures.”

“I could have parties, right? Or, like, game nights. Nate likes games, I have a pretty big apartment.”

“Is this you asking me if I’ll come to game nights at your apartment, the answer is yes. I’ll even give you some tips on how to act like you’re actually comfortable having people over.”

“It just gets messy,” she says, making a face. “I hate cleaning.”

“But you’re worried he won’t make any friends without your semi-competent help, so you’re willing to do it anyway?”

It’s a much safer explanation than the truth. “I know he didn’t just move here for me, but I was part of the reason. I don’t want him to regret it.”

Bellamy’s expression softens, the smile warming his whole face. “I get that, yeah. It looked like he was having fun at my party, so that’s a good start.”

“Yeah, I think he had a good time.” She tucks her hair back. “So, game nights?”

“Until you come up with something to do that doesn’t mess up your apartment, sure. Whatever it is, I’m in.”

Clarke smiles. “Cool, I’ll keep you posted.”

Despite the whole thing being for his benefit, Nate is less enthused about the game night idea.

“You need a good group dynamic for game night,” he explains. “I don’t know anyone well enough to be sure what kind of games would even be good. You’re over-competitive, that’s already a bad start.”

“I am not!”

“You hate losing.”

“Who likes losing?” she grumbles, and Nate smirks.

“This is what I’m saying.”

“I’m trying to help, you know.”

“Help with what, exactly?”

“Making friends? Hitting on my coworker? Settling into the city?”

Nate snorts. “Thanks, Mom. I can manage my own social life.” But his expression softens. “We should have auditions.”

“Auditions?”

“Don’t call it a game night until we know who we want to come. You don’t want to commit to a group. These are the kinds of things you’d know if you were a true gamer,” he adds.

“This is the kind of thing I don’t know because I got laid in college.”

“I got laid in college and I played board games. Which one of us is winning here?”

“Honestly, neither.”

He grins. “Yeah, that sounds right.”

“So, any of your new coworkers you think would be good for a board game night?”

“I think we can figure something out.”

Clarke invites Bellamy, Sinclair from the physics department, and Jasper from English. Bellamy brings (yet another) ex-girlfriend, Raven, who’s apparently a shark, and Jasper brings his friend Monty. Nate invites his coworkers Harper and Monroe, and they have what, in Clarke’s amateur opinion, is a pretty successful game night. Everyone seems to enjoy themselves, and no one gets too competitive, not even Clarke.

And, as a bonus, she manages to get Bellamy and Nate in the same pod for most of the games, and they seem to get along just as well as she thought they would.

Honestly, it’s one of her more successful plans, thus far. She could maybe be good at this.

“That was a good crew, right?” she asks Nate, once everyone else has cleared out. “Good attitudes.”

“Yeah, that actually worked out really well.” He leans against the counter, watching her. “You know you don’t have to do all this, right? Like, I’m an adult, I can make friends on my own. You’re not even that good at making friends. Blind leading the blind.”

“So I’m trying to help both of us. And it’s working so far, right?”

“One good game night,” he says. “Don’t get cocky.”

Clarke grins. “So, same time next week?”

“Yeah, can’t wait.”

The exact make-up of game night varies, depending on how busy everyone is. Clarke is the default host, but after a few weeks, it’s evolved beyond her. She has too much going on with grading and helping out with the junior fundraiser one week, so Bellamy agrees to have it at his place so Clarke won’t have as much on her place. Even Jasper’s friend Monty, who barely knows them, hosts one week, just because he loves games so much and is excited to finally have a group to play them with.

It takes about two months for things to go wrong, and when they do, it’s in the stupidest possible way. Nate’s usually the one to help Clarke with cleanup, but he has an early morning, so Bellamy volunteers to stick around instead.

“You know,” he observes, “I didn’t think this was going to work.”

“Which part?”

“The game night thing. I figured it would fall apart after a week or two, that’s how this always works. But I should have known you’re too stubborn to just give up. Is it working?”

“You just said it was working,” Clarke says, frowning at him.

“No, not that. You were trying to make friends for Miller. How’s that going?”

Clarke feels a flush race through her body, although she can’t figure out why. “You like him, right?”

“Yeah, he’s cool. Does he like sports?”

“Sports? Like, as a general concept?”

“I have some tickets to a baseball game,” he says, not looking at Clarke. “My sister got them and she can’t go, so she gave them to me. I thought maybe Miller might be interested. I assume you’re not,” he adds, an afterthought, and Clarke pastes on a smile.

“Yeah, definitely not. I don’t know anything about baseball. But Nate might be interested, yeah. You should ask him.”

“Cool, thanks. It seems like he’s getting along with everybody pretty well, so–seriously, I’m impressed.”

“I’m impressive.”

She makes it through the rest of the cleaning up without incident, sends Bellamy home, and then drops back against the door with a shaky exhale of breath. This was what she wanted; this was the whole point. Helping Nate make friends generally and with Bellamy specifically, and now Bellamy is asking him out. This is going better than Clarke could have imagined.

She takes a few deep breaths and calls Wells. He’s still on the west coast, so it’s not as late there, and he picks up right away.

“Hey, Clarke, what’s up?”

“I’m having a weird crisis.”

“Oh good, that sounds fun.” But she can hear the smile in his voice. “What’s the weird crisis?”

She exhales. “It’s complicated.”

“Will you quit stalling and just tell me already? It’s complicated and stupid and you’re embarrassed, I get it. I won’t judge you.”

“I just realized I have a thing for my coworker.”

“Bellamy?”

Her heart drops. “How did you know?”

“You talk about him a lot. I didn’t think you knew, if it helps. You’re kind of slow with this stuff.”

“That’s supposed to help?”

“So, you figured out you like him and now you’re panicking? That’s not that bad.”

“Nate likes him and I’ve been trying to set them up. And I just figured out I like Bellamy because he’s going to ask Nate out.”

“Huh,” says Wells, slow. “Okay, yeah, that’s worse than I was expecting.”

Clarke closes her eyes, sighing deeply. “I thought I was happy for him. I was happy for him. Nate said he had dibs and I thought–” She pauses, reconsiders. “I told myself I was good with it and I should make it happen, and now I did.”

“How much does Nate like him?”

It’s a good question to which Clarke doesn’t have a good answer. Nate called dibs, obviously, but it doesn’t feel as if he’s put a ton of effort into hanging out with Bellamy, not more than anyone else. They seem friendly, but Clarke wouldn’t know he had a crush if he hadn’t told her. He hasn’t mentioned it since that first night, and he hasn’t seemed to put together that the game nights were entirely for his benefit, with Bellamy.

“I don’t know. He just said–” She’s never explained the whole dibs thing to Wells, and saying it now feels juvenile. She’s twenty-five; she shouldn’t be having a meltdown like this over something that ambiguous. “He just said he liked him. It’s been a couple months now, he hasn’t mentioned it again.”

“So talk to him,” Wells says, logical as ever. “Tell him what’s going on. I’m not saying he’s going to just tell you to go for it, but you know the two of you need to have a conversation. And you knew I was going to tell you this too, so you knew what you were getting into calling me. Get it together, Griffin, and ovary up.”

“Thanks.”

“Seriously, he’s your best friend. Aside from yours truly. You can talk to him.”

“Yeah,” she says, with a sigh. “I can.”

The next day, she frets off and on about when to talk to Nate, but doing it after the baseball date just feels shitty, if she’s honest. If their positions were reversed, and she was going out with a guy Nate had realized he liked, she’d want to know about it as soon as possible, and definitely before the actual first date. Like Wells said, it wouldn’t necessarily change her plans, but she’d at least want to weigh Nate’s feelings against everything else. That’s what friends do, and it’s definitely what Nate is going to do.

So she asks if he wants to hang out the next night, and when he shows up, she just blurts it out: “I need to talk to you about Bellamy.”

Nate frowns. “What about Bellamy?”

“You know–” She exhales. It’s easy to talk to Wells about feelings stuff; Wells loves feelings. But she and Nate have never been good at that. “Okay, I know you like him. And I really wanted to support you, but–”

Nate holds up his hand. “Wait, what?”

“I was trying to help!”

For a second, his face is all confusion, but then his expression clears and he starts to laugh. “Jesus, you’ve been trying to set me up with Bellamy.”

“Of course I have! You said you liked him.”

“I did?”

“You called dibs! The first party, you saw him, and you said–”

“I wanted to hook up with him, I didn’t want to marry him. It’s not like I was real attached to the idea.”

Clarke opens and closes her mouth a few times, finally says, “Did you hook up with him?”

“No. He’s still hot, don’t get me wrong, but Monty’s more my type.”

“Monty?”

He scowls. “What’s wrong with Monty. He’s hot, he’s geeky, he’s not as fucking intense as you and Bellamy–”

“I didn’t mean it like–” She shakes her head. “Nothing against Monty, he’s great. I’ve just spend the last two months stressing about you and Bellamy.”

“You know I’m an adult, right? I can take care of myself. I don’t need you managing my social life or my love life.”

“I know.” She rubs her face, gives him a sheepish smile. “Bellamy’s going to ask you to go to a baseball game. He told me that and I had kind of a breakdown because I thought you guys were going to be–this whole happily ever after love story. And I might have just realized a thing for him.”

“Jesus Christ, Griffin.” He puts his arm around her and squeezes. “You never thought about just asking me?”

“I was telling myself I was happy for you!”

“Just saying, five minutes’ conversation and this would have been all set. Even if I liked him, I wouldn’t have–”

“You would have told me to go for it, just like I was telling you to go for it. I thought–you called dibs! It wasn’t ambiguous.”

“Yeah, but it’s not a blood pact.” He pauses, studying her for a long moment. “If you ever called dibs on a guy I really liked, I would have just told you.”

“You’re a lot more in touch with your feelings than I am. I was still in denial.”

“Yeah, you’re a disaster. So, he’s going to ask me out?”

“To a baseball game. I don’t even know if it’s a date, he was being pretty casual about it. Fuck,” she says. “If he’s into you–”

“I’ll let him down easy. But I haven’t really gotten that vibe from him. Honestly, if you asked me? I’d say he’s into you. He’s always looking for an excuse to hang out with you more, and half the time when I’m talking to him, we’re talking about you.” He grins. “If he still wants to take me to the baseball game as friends, I can feel him out for you.”

She sighs. “I don’t know, I was thinking I could just talk to him.”

“Really?”

“It really does clear things up fast.” She smiles. “If you liked him, I’d step aside. Really. I wasn’t going to ask you to give him up or anything. That’s not why–”

“I know you’ve got my back. And I’ve got yours. Let me know if you need anything.”

“And if you need help with Monty–”

He smirks. “You know, I think you’ve done enough. I’ve got it from here.”

“Good. I’m rooting for you.”

He presses a kiss to the top of her head. “Right back at you.”

She waits until all the students have cleared out the next afternoon and then goes to find him in his room. He likes to grade until dinner time, a tradition Clarke finds baffling, but he claims it helps with work/life balance, and it does make him easy to find. She’d like to say she’s only a little nervous, but that’s a lie. She’s had a very intense week of feelings, and she’s looking forward to just having it done with, but she’s also kind of dying.

So it’s time to clear everything up.

“Hey,” she says, knocking on his door jamb. “Got a second?”

“Yeah, what’s up? You’re here late.”

She closes the door behind her as she enters the classroom, props herself up on the table across from his desk. It’s her first time alone with him since she realized how she felt and she’s hyper aware of everything about him. She can’t believe it took her this long to realize how she felt. It feels so stupidly obvious.

“Yeah, I was waiting for everyone to clear out.”

He frowns. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. It’s–honestly, it’s kind of ridiculous. Are you asking Nate to go to that game?”

“One of my students might want to buy the tickets, I’m waiting to see if he actually comes up with the money. Why?”

“Was it going to be a date?”

The blood drains from his face. “What? Fuck, no, I–did he think that? I didn’t think–”

She starts to laugh. “No, I’m pretty sure I had this whole weird narrative built up in my head and no one but me knew about it.”

“The narrative where I want to date your best friend?”

“And he wants to date you.”

“Does he want to date me?”

“No, he doesn’t. No one thought that but me. And I’ve been kind of–” She shrugs. “It’s been a weird couple months.”

“I still feel like I’m missing something,” he says, almost reluctantly. Like he’s disappointed with himself for not getting it.

It’s not his fault, of course. She exhales, makes herself look at him. “I was kind of freaking out about it. Because–I’m interested in you. Which doesn’t have to be a thing, but after this week I feel like direct communication is my friend. So–do you want to get dinner sometime?”

He blinks a few times, processing the information. It’s clearly nothing he was expecting, probably nothing that ever occurred to him, and now he’s trying to figure out how to let her down easy, how to–

“Fuck, I didn’t think I had a chance,” he says, face breaking out into a huge grin. He crosses the room and cups her face, kissing her so she can taste the smile too. “No wonder I was getting such weird signals,” he teases.

Clarke grins too. “I’m not very good with feelings.”

“Not so much.” He leans down for another kiss. “So, dinner?”

“It’s a date.”

Two weeks later, they end up on a double date with Nate, who’s up to date on Clarke’s incompetence, and Monty, who wants to hear the whole story.

“I don’t know if we should really be talking about how I wanted to fuck Bellamy,” Nate teases.

Monty waves his hand. “It’s fine, Bellamy’s hot, everyone wants to fuck him. We just accept that.”

“Thanks,” says Bellamy. “I think.”

Clarke smiles. “It was really a simple misunderstanding. Nate and I didn’t formalize the dibs system, so I thought he was saying I want that guy and you can never go for him–”

“And I was a little drunk and thought Bellamy was hot. I forgot about it by the next day.”

“I probably would have too,” Clarke protests. “Except that I was trying really hard to be supportive.”

“Heavily in denial,” Nate says, winking at her, and Clarke kicks him under the table. Just a little.

“Hey, I’m not complaining. I got a girlfriend and I found out everyone wants to fuck me. This worked out great for me.”

“Yeah,” Nate agrees. “Good job with the matchmaking, Clarke. You nailed it.”

He waits until Bellamy and Monty have gone for another round of drinks to add, “I think we should retire the dibs thing.”

“You think?”

“It was confusing. And I’m hoping we don’t need it anymore.”

Clarke smiles, raises the dregs of her drink for him to clink his glass. “Yeah,” she agrees. “I think we’re all set.”

#stayalivelou

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ask-pokemon-ranger-kara · 6 years ago

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What types of classes/courses does the ranger school have? Are there any regular -non ranger/similar or related to the occupation-classes? How long is a studenr possibly in the school for?

You will have to talk to a Ranger who has been to the Almia school to get thier answer on the school specific ones.

Fiore, as I have stated before, has a mentorship program. However, you do spend at least one year minimum being tested in all the required sections, like swimming, foraging, knowing what pokemon are what type, assists, type advantages, wilderness survival, wilderness cooking, knots, and so forth.

If you are proficient, that subject is only touched on a bit to make sure that skill is still sharp, and you spend that time with someothing you are less proficient on.

For non related, or semi related courses, some of the most common are Ranger crafting which can range from making supplies and custom outfits for the partners, non wilderness cooking, working with our pokemon experts and rehabilitation teams, art like wildlife sketching, and other craft stuff that the ranger can sell themselves or donate to the union to aid with profits.

It is encouraged to try a bit of everything, or at least come back to try something new after they graduate. Adding to the one year minimum schooling, you usually get a full year and a half of mentorship, and that is where you will find where your actual strengths are, with your more experienced ranger Mentor to offer guidance, supervise your initial skills, and bail you out if you need it. Sometimes you get paired up with another rookie in your age group, or the mentor might switch to another group, to further your ability to interact with others, or depending on if your mentor thinks you need a nudge that they cannot provide.

However, if you are extremely proficient, that last year is spent with you and your mentor working as partners, rather than teacher student.

You may be traveling in your assigned base, but there is a good chance you will be taken to different climates over the course of your year and a half, to test you on new experiences and temperatures.

Two and a half is the longest most people spend being mentored, and often it is if they have been landed at places like Wintown where the temperatures and natural hazards requite the extra time with a Wintown native.

#pokemon #pokemon ranger #pokemon headcanons #pokemon headcanon

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echoeternally · 6 years ago

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Hey, this might sound kinda dumb, but I've been wanting to start writing some fanfiction of my own but I'm not really sure how to start or even good places to post it. Would you have any advice or words of wisdom?

Hey, to start, this isn’t dumb at all!

Writing fanfics is a lot more nerve-racking for your first time, especially if you don’t know what to expect or how your work holds up. So, let me help you as best as I can!

The short version is what I can post here:

Starting:

Make sure that you like writing and want to hone your writing skills.

Choose a fandom franchise that interests you! It’s gotta be fun if you want to work on it and research it.

Find a separate writing program to work in without Wi-Fi so you can write whenever you’re able.

It may make you nervous, but it’s fun too, and allows you to let your imagination flow!

Where to Post:

The better starter website is likely fanfiction.net (FFN), which has a wider selection of users. This is where you can develop and grow, as well as a good spot for garnering feedback!

Your alternative fanfic website would be archiveofourown.org (AO3), which has a more in-depth system to navigate, and is more exclusive to work with. However, you can refine your craft well here too!

Advertising is good on blogs, like Tumblr or Twitter, so you can post links to your work there. Alternatively, you can also use Tumblr to post on as well, though I’m not sure it’s the best for beginners…or even the best place for your writing to really stand out, honestly.

Advice:

Write for fun! That and helping you grow as a writer is what really counts.

Post small amounts of work to start before you find out what you like to write, and then go from there.

Your audience can help you with developing skills as a writer, and feedback is fantastic, but don’t let it control your every action.

Let your creativity flow, and experiment with everything that you can do.

Take deep breaths, create and stick to a semi-regular schedule, but don’t let the stories consume you. After all, you likely have a life outside of posting fanfics, so, keep up with that too!

If you’d like a little more to everything than what I’ve posted, I’ve got a lot of words that I placed below, so…you can read there too!

Fair warning: this is lengthy, and I give a lot of words in this post, which is why I’ll post everything under a Read More tab. If it gets to be too much, just pick a section to stop at and continue later.

Getting Started

To start, of course, make sure that you want to try writing! It sounds like obvious advice and an easy part to gloss over, but it is important to keep in mind. I

t’s enjoyable to work on something when you hear back from folks, but the most joy you’ll get out of writing is creating your own content and honing your skills over time.

Fanfics are fun if you’re having fun, so you have to make sure that it’s a hobby you love.

Next up, select some fandoms/franchises that you’re interested in and know a good amount about and/or would be invested in learning more from. This early on, you don’t need to be too committed to what you want to work on, as you’re going to be experimenting first.

However, make sure that you’re looking for stuff that captures your attention and would be what you like learning or talking about. If you’ve ever daydreamed stories that you’d like to tell using certain series of entertainment, go with those.

Before you begin working on anything, make sure that you’ve got some kind of writing program that you can save your work on. Rely on that program to generate your story ideas, because you’ll want to be able to write a whole lot there before you use fanfic websites.

While a good number of the fanfiction apps have tools for you to actually write in, these aren’t entirely reliable based on one easily forgotten reason: they usually need an Internet connection to work on. And sometimes, you might be having Wi-Fi troubles, so, make sure that you can rely on a program that you can write in at any time.

My personal choice is Microsoft Word, but that’s not available on all computers. Check out what programs your computer has, and see which you like writing in. Then, work from there!

Once you’ve decided on which franchise(s) you want to write for, think about small, quick stories that you want to tell for each one. To start, don’t plan on something becoming huge right away, even if you’ve got the ideas to support it.

Play around with stuff that you want to tell. Two of my ongoing stories started because, for one, I wanted to explore a hypothetical scenario of a villain’s attraction to the hero that opposes them, and for the other, I wanted to indulge in medieval concepts while writing mushy fluff stuff.

Both started as very small ideas that have grown wonderfully over time. So, give yourself some concepts that you’d like to come out with.

It can be a lovely date night for your two favorite characters, perhaps a neat little world for an OC of yours to star in, turning a dark and horror world bright or a cheery and light world dark, or something else.

Deciding on your stories isn’t something you need to be too strict with at the stat, but posting publicly can be daunting. That’s ok!

Remember, you’re a new writer, so don’t be too hard on yourself. The content you’re posting early on is stuff that you’re testing out to see what you like and what others find entertainment from.

It doesn’t need to be flawless or gain a huge amount of traction right away. Just enough to pique interests of yourself and other fans.

At this stage, remember to be flexible with everything. Some stories grow stronger than others, and some will get more attention than others. It’s time to play for now, so be open and experiment.

It’s ok to be nervous posting too, so just remember to take some deep breaths, and remind yourself that it’s for fun! Then, figure where you want to post.

Choosing Websites

At this point, I’ll give brief descriptions of websites that you can use to post.

The two major juggernaut fanfic websites that you’ll likely want to look into are fanfiction.net (FFN) and archiveofourown.org (AO3), as these two are the most tailored fanfic websites out there.

There’s another website called Wattpad, which…I know next to nothing about. It’s another writing website to post on, but it’s a little less user friendly than the two listed above, so…unless you know it better, I wouldn’t recommend it.

You can absolutely choose other websites to work on, as these are just fanfic only websites. For example, you can try posting here on Tumblr! Or other blogging websites. You can also post on some art websites such as deviantArt, though I wouldn’t recommend those unless you’re also an artist.

Personally, I suggest focusing predominantly on FFN and AO3, as those are the major two to go for. Blogging websites make a good place to go too, but those can be trickier to work with, since they’re not tailored specifically for posting stories.

So! Let’s take a little more in-depth look into each fanfic website.

Fanfiction.net (FFN)

If you’re looking to garner attention early on, and to get posting right away, you’ll be looking into fanfiction.net (FFN), which is probably the more beginner friendly of the two.

First and foremost: you can create an account and get started on the same day. Its major competition website, AO3, doesn’t offer that.

FFN offers a wide variety of places to post, franchises to check out, and different media to tool around with. If you’ve ever been on there, you’ll notice that they’ve got a Browse section for tabs of entertainment and media that you can look into.

Based on the fandom you want to write for, check out that section. Some might involve dabbling into other places.

For example, maybe you love the Pokemon anime. But, Pokemon itself started as a video game franchise, so you’ll need to look for that in the Game section.

Likewise, maybe you loved the Harry Potter movies, which there might be a specific area for. But, keep in mind that it did originally start as a book franchise, so don’t forget to check the Book tab.

Explore, experiment, get to learn the website for what you can gain from it to start. There’s a lot to go over with it, so make sure that you’re checking out things for yourself, and see what you can get started with.

That’s not even all of the menu options, as each of those sections open up for more things to look into.

Remember, it’s a lot to learn, and you don’t need everything right way! Just check for the basics that help you get started. Make your username, write a small intro profile, and maybe choose an avatar image that you like.

(For Avatar pictures and Images in general, please remember to use only public images of official content or art you created yourself. Unless you have permission from a fan artist, don’t use their work, as that’s a sure-fired way to annoy them from the start.)

Your main tab of operations will be the Publish tab. That’s this little fella below here:

At the onset, you will have to check the Rules & Guidelines. Because that’s what the website makes you check first.

Your first story, if the Rules are the same as when I got started, MUST be a General Audiences fic.

This is just to post something, so don’t feel like you need that to actually be there. If you don’t want to even bother with that, just bypass it by posting a quick mishmash of words for a K story. Like, it doesn’t even have to make sense, and you can delete it right after you’ve uploaded it.

However, it can be a good idea to post something that anyone can see, so, maybe you do want to make that your honest effort.

Either way! Make sure that you’re able to post your first story, regardless of how you want it rated.

To post, though, you’ll first need to click on that “Doc Manager” tab. Do that so you can submit your content. It looks like this:

Once you’ve submitted a document, you’ll be able to use that for actually publishing on the website itself.

At that point, you can click on the New Story tab, which should lead to this:

There’s a good number of steps following that, which I’ll leave you to experiment with. Take it slow though, because you’re in no rush, and you’ve already chosen what you want to work with, so just look it all over and choose the categories and sections that line up with your fandom accordingly.

You’ll get to a point where you’re posting your fanfic, and then you’ll have it slapped on as part of the fanfic archive! And that, after a lengthy process, will be how you begin on FFN!

Archiveofourown.org (AO3)

Now, the other major fanfic website is archiveofourown.org (AO3), which a lot of seasoned writers tend to prefer. It could also serve as a beginner website, but there’s a catch: you must join the waiting list to be approved before you can begin using the website.

So, yeah, AO3 takes time to get in before use. Time as in actual days! So, if you do want to start there for sure, make sure you send out for the invitation early enough that you won’t need to wait very long on it.

Once you’ve joined, you can tool around with slapping together a profile, view how the different personal settings sections work, and just general exploration of how to use things. Keep in mind, AO3 features a bit more complexity than FFN does.

That’s my personal page, since I’m not waiting to create an empty profile. There are a bunch of spots for you to tool around with, but you can simply focus on the top section, which includes Profile information and Preferences for your website experience.

To browse the actual website, stick with the front page or look for the top left corner tabs that look like this:

Check out the fandom sections! There’s a few extra spots that even fanfiction.net doesn’t provide, like Music & Bands. So, you can explore a little more around this website.

What writers llloooovvve about AO3 is the tagging system, which you can also browse near that fandom section.

See that 3rd spot, “Tags,” right? That’s like the stuff here on Tumblr, where you can click different types of fandoms, key words / phrases, or different genres, topics, etc. to find a story that uses the tag.

Some folks like to police tags, but they are mostly used liberally on AO3. That means if you just click a tag that says, “Coffee Shop AU,” well…be prepared to net a LOT of results. (Didn’t actually check that, so your actual finds may vary.)

Thing is, unless you’re a strong writer from the get-go, you’ll likely be relying on that tagging system to actually get your works out there. It’s something that you’ll do better learning on your own than from me, honestly.

Anyway, to actually begin posting on AO3, you’ll be looking for the top right corner for fanfic generations, or the tab labeled, “New Work,” as seen here:

Click that and it’ll lead you to a massive section of things for your story posting, which ends up looking like these next few images:

This is where you choose your rating, warnings that apply, fandom, ship gender pairings if you’re writing romance, and tag the characters and other words you want to use.

This is where the title goes, along with your summary. Notes can be used for Author introductions and closers, which you use when you want to say stuff like, “Hey, here’s my story!” and “Thank you for reading!” to show some attention directly from you to the readers.

Privacy is if you don’t want your work to be found by many folks, which…well, that’s entirely up to you. And that big field that says “Work Text” is where you actually begin posting your story.

This is a lot to have prepared for right away, but if you’re good at taking a bit at once or practice it enough, it becomes easy fairly quick.

Unlike FFN, if I’m not mistaken, you don’t need to post a general / all audiences story as your first post. Also unlike FFN, you’re not limited on what you want to post. AO3 lets you post content that is inclusive of gore or porn, so uh, go all out as you like, if those are more of your speed.

Just remember, unless you’ve taken some computer programming classes, you’ll want to change the work section below to “Rich Text” over HTML, which simplifies where you post, or rather, where you can insert your text.

There is also an import option for posting fanfics, so that the website kind of does the work for you, so you can keep that in mind as well.

Once you’re finished getting everything together, you’re able to post your story onto AO3 and wait for some views to flow in.

A big and key difference to FFN and AO3 is that the user-base for the latter is much smaller, a more selective pool. Thus, if your fandom or franchise that you write for isn’t super huge, and your writing doesn’t exactly deliver upon arrival, well…it’s tougher to stand out and get comments or reviews.

However, since users tend to recognize this, they might try to be thoughtful with their comments on helping you out with the story or voicing their opinions.

As FFN does have the higher user-base, however, it’s easier to pick up a following on that website, though sometimes, it’s curt and unwarranted additions to your story. So, keep these things in mind, and choose whichever website best suits your needs.

Ultimately, to stand out on fanfic platforms, I recommend having an account on both websites and actively posting to both. This increases how far your stories will reach out, and gets your more attention from readers all around, even if they prefer to use one website over the other.

Hmm. I’ve talked a bit about feedback, so…let’s briefly touch on that too!

Feedback (Comments/Reviews/Attention)

Feedback gives satisfaction to writing and posting online, which is what throws off a lot of early writers that may expect more yet receive less. Again, though, you’re new!

Take it slow, don’t look to make an overnight hit. Sometimes, feedback can take weeks to come in, and that’s fine.

Listen and learn from what people say. Some are just going to be overly critical or negative to start, so don’t take those to heart. Those are impatient people that don’t give newcomers a chance, and they’re not who you listen to in the beginning because you’re learning still.

But there are those who have helpful advice to give at times, even in small doses. Even small comments and reviews that translate to, “I liked your work, keep it up!”

These let you know that, for this reader, you did a good job! They don’t need to say a lot to show appreciation, so take even just a bit.

After you’ve written some stories and posted them out, check everything over. First, did you enjoy what you came out with?

Perhaps it was a cute one-shot (single chapter story) about a character that you wanted more development for. Maybe you crafted a mini story that spanned 5 chapters. Whatever it was, make sure it was fun for you! That helps you decide on continuing to work with that fandom again.

Next, and what’s also key, is how the readers and audience participated with the story, so you’ll want to check that out too. Don’t look for something that has tons and tons of attention, but make sure that it’s a work that’s been noticed.

And mind your audience, to see if you’re getting helpful readers and reviewers. They can help you, should you choose to write for that fandom franchise again.

Closing Comments

This was everything that I could come up with for a guide, and I haven’t explained everything thoroughly. There is a LOT to take in with writing fanfics, and though I may seem a bit put together with it, I also still have a lot that I’m learning about using the websites and writing stories.

Honestly, I think your absolute best bet is to explore the websites and your interests, and find what you want to look into! Doing that, you’ll be able to really find what you enjoy, and then you’ll learn how to help make content for readers to enjoy with you!

Anyway, if you’ve managed to read over everything, congratulations on surviving Echo’s Obnoxious Tutorial to Fanfics! And thank you very much for reading the whole thing through.

So, I hope this helps give some guidance on your fanfic exploration! Should you choose to continue, I wish you lots of luck! And don’t be afraid to ask seasoned writers for help on both website utility and just general advice.

Some may be slow to reply, like yours truly, but they’re hopefully willing to help out when they are available!

Again, best of luck, don’t overwhelm yourself, and have fun writing!

#fanfic writing tutorial #fanfics #writing #echoeternal #echoeternally #fanfic writing #askecho #kinda-sinful-cat #guide #words #fanfiction #fanfiction.net #archive of our own

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webcube-360 · 3 years ago

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Be Smart with Chat Messages: Using WhatsApp for Business Is the Next Best

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douchebagbrainwaves · 4 years ago

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WHY I'M SMARTER THAN VCS

A viable startup might only have ten employees, which puts you within a factor of 10 or so. Master of all I surveyed. It implies the result won't be pretty, because it suits the way they used to, they were going about it wrong.1 XMLHttpRequest was created by electric sockets. What they want is the software and the developers, and that's what the professor is interested in a startup: success or failure of a startup idea as a hypothesis rather than a profusion of superficial ornament. He was already living in the future the executives installed by VCs have no value. I remember thinking his company's name was odd.2 Notes Steep usage growth will also interest investors. Y Combinator often have the downtrodden air of refugees. The cure is to visit the places where famous people worked, and see no connection indeed, there is nothing to prevent this becoming the default. If there are any axioms that could be built with the amount many wanted to raise around $400k. However, most angel investors don't belong to these groups.

They just don't want to end up with a random idea, plunge into it, and so on. They give reporters genuinely valuable information. If you do make users register, unless you got lucky like Andy Bechtolsheim, one of them. Modern literature is important, because a she is very polite and b when she's nervous, she expresses it by smiling more. If you're starting a technology startup takes some amount of external funding, and users, and that they have a deal; so there must be a better way to explore ideas. The clash of domains is a particularly alarming example, because I and most of the things that get used for pornography, or file-sharing, or the next Google stay in grad school in the fall with all the other Allied countries, the federal government took during wartime. File:///home/patrick/Documents/programming/python projects/UlyssesRedux/corpora/unsorted/lisp. One got extra credit for motives having to do with it may not even be the majority. But this is certainly not impossible for a CEO to have someone smart he can ask What would Sama do?

False positives I consider more like bugs. After a certain age would point into the case and say that they don't let individual programmers do great work for free, because we invest the earliest. The Proposition Economically, you can decrease the amount of your company. For the past 9 years it was my job to predict whether a startup would usually become profitable only after raising and spending quite a lot of explaining to do. They just haven't been as great a way to get it over with and get back to work anyway. In the first couple weeks of working on their startup.3 3 that bottom-up programming means writing a program that only has to do. Simplicity takes effort—genius, even. They can't pay as much for that. Early union leaders were heroic, certainly, but they were more the type of every argument in every call in the program. Formidable is close to zero.

The other half is expressing yourself well. Is Connected to Semantics. I'm using the word lie in a very general sense: not just security, but uptime, bandwidth, load management, backups, etc. You should take extraordinary measures not just to intelligence but to ability in general, but at the other makers. If the tests a society uses are currently hackable, we can see clearly what a bottleneck Sarbanes-Oxley. This lets you launch faster, and the main reason we take the trouble to attack them from an oblique angle, they'll meet you half-way and maneuver to keep you going in one direction or another. What next? A startup that investors seem to like working at Google too much to keep in your head that it does in mine. The rest of my stuff I left in my landlady's attic back in the dentist's chair, waiting for the line to collapse.

Indeed, as with money, but if I had to add a new application to my list of known time sinks: Firefox. I understand why Berkeley is probably not a coincidence that they used the worse-is-better approach but stopped after the first year of a startup that has nothing more than a mediocre local maximum: When someone is obviously pandering to an audience that's mostly non-technical.4 But the best thing of all is when you don't need to know basis can attest, dividing information up into little tribes, each jealously guarding their privileges and secrets.5 I spend as much time. To some extent this was because the companies they invest in, not how much students learn. Notes You have to be on your board, there are no versions. As we walked in, we met Charlie Cheever sitting near the door. Which presumably means that what they're taught in school is that there's a concentration of smart people too, but it is at least a roller coaster and not drowning. ___ I'm all for shutting down the crooked ways to get found online that there are more than fifteen words with probabilities of. The work you've done so far has trained them to keep their wings folded, as it were. The less it costs to raise money from VCs, and we ended up with was: someone who doesn't will seem arrogant.

Notes

Perhaps the solution is to make your fortune? Successful founders are driven by money—for example, understanding French will help dispel the cloud of semi-sacred mystery that surrounds wisdom in ancient philosophy may be even larger than the valuation should be clear in our common culture. But I'm convinced there were some good ideas in the rest of the lies we tell. If PR didn't work out.

In January 2003, Yahoo released a new version from which they don't make an effort to see artifacts from it, but I took so long. 16%. A day job might actually be bad if that got bootstrapped with consulting.

Of the remaining outcomes don't have those.

I wrote this on an IBM laptop. And it's particularly damaging when these investors flake, because sometimes artists unconsciously use tricks by imitating art that does. There can be explained by math. It's true in the less educated parents seem closer to what you call the Metaphysics came after meta after the Physics in the country it's in.

Common Lisp for, believe it, but the problems all fall into a great programmer might invent things, they thought at least once for that they can be useful here, since 95% of the per capita income in England in 1750 was higher than India's in 1960. Often as not the sense of the causes of poverty I just wasn't willing to provide this service, and unleashed a swarm of cheap component suppliers on Apple hardware.

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lex-n-weegie · 1 year ago

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Ok ok SO over a year ago now I drew some kind of "concepts," and now I've redone them since we got an actual design for one of them!! Also also, since a bunch of stuff I've been doing is super far from canon, I've made it a separate little AU! I present to you all...

The "Under New Management" AU!!

These are the designs of Glamrock Bonnie(now fixed) and a "Glamrock" Foxy, or as he's known as, Captain Foxy.

The TLDR for the AU is that Hazel brings back/fixes a couple of animatronics, adding 4(technically 5) new animatronics to the Pizzaplex! These are just two of em.

Also here's a random alt for Foxy to see his chest better lol

Rambles about these two's roles and the old drawings underneath the cut!

Art Taglist [pm or send an ask off anon if you’d like to be added or removed from my taglist]: @amessageonthewind, @nerdstreak, @starlitships, @eggsywifey, @swapthewoz, @queenieboo22, @in-broken-mirrors, @little-miss-selfships, @little-bullheaded-shit

Glamrock Bonnie

At the start of the Pizzaplex's life, it was just Freddy, Chica, Bonnie, and Roxanne(The company deemed Foxy as too "different" from the main three, so making Roxanne was their attempt to add a new four member). Soon after the success, they had started to experiment by making extra robots to occupy different areas and attractions, like the Daycare Attendant or DJMM. Montgomery was one of them, and he and Bonnie actually bonded quite well. Unfortunately, Bonnie was blind to the worse treatment non Glamrocks got, the workers usually viewing them as "experiments." It caused Monty to sometimes lash out, but he usually remained chill.

One day however, a horrible accident happened. Bonnie went to talk to Monty on the Gator Golf catwalks, but the Gator had another small outburst and in anger, pushed Bonnie away. The safety railing broke, and Bonnie fell and snapped off his legs and arms. Monty tried to fix him, even tried to get help, but at one point things suddenly went black, and the next thing he remembered was waking up in parts and service, apparently having had an "accident." A guard, Vanessa, said she found Monty in a broken state, and took him to be repaired. She claimed to have not seen Bonnie, and Monty was then used as a replacement, millions of theories spewing as a result.

Years later, when Hazel is turned into a attraction, she sees a new wall in Bonnie Bowl that wasn't there before, and low and behold she finds Bonnie's broken body. She slowly repairs him, but due to some blunt force head trauma he's lost some memories and skills, such as his bass playing. Since he's back and all fixed up, he's now reduced to a mascot for Bonnie Bowl, the company stating that he's now "retired from the band life."

Captain Foxy

While Roxanne semi replaced the fox fiend, the company still had plans to include him in some way. Tying in with the old show, the plan was for Captain Foxy to be a seasonal animatronic. For a week or longer he'd "kidnap" the Glamrocks and claim to now own the Pizzaplex. As time went on however, they randomly decided he wasn't worth it and was scrapped in the middle of building.

Hazel later found his endo and the scrapped plans, so she did what she does best and built him, her programming and experience with Bonnie making the process go smoother and quicker this time around. With him up and running and the company not wanting to waste a perfectly good opportunity to test him out, he was set out to do what he was planned for: take over the Pizzaplex every once in awhile. Only the main four Glamrocks were captured, the other animatronics being spared for not being Glamrocks, or in Bonnie's case, no longer being one.

While his performance has him acting like his show counterpart, behind the scenes he was actually super kind, like an uncle. He doesn't hate the Glamrocks like his performance implies, he actually really likes them and is particularly close to the OG three: Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie. He's of course close to Hazel too, as she's the reason he's even there.

#lexi doodles #glamrock bonnie #captain foxy #hopping to the heartbeat #glam fam #Foxy counts lol #lex worldbuilding #🐻🤖#under new mnagement au #and I'm too lazy to tag anything else lol

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allenmendezsr · 4 years ago

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stop-klancing-around · 7 years ago

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Defuse

I’m Back. This was supposed to be posted a few hours ago as a birthday fic here, but I fell asleep. Now that the semester is done, I have all of the time in the world to write fics and draw klance and what not. Thank you @raythenerdyfangirl for being my beta. Enjoy :)

You can also read here on ao3

Keith opens the door to Lance’s apartment with ease. It reminds him to talk to Lance about constantly leaving the main door unlocked. It’s not going to be the first time that Keith talks to him about this. He leaves his bag and shoes by the couch and explores the tiny apartment. Keith hears the water running somewhere and walks towards the sound.

“Lance, where are you?” Keith yells out.

“I’m in the bathroom” Lance yelled back. The water was filling the tub so Lance decides to come out the bathroom and to the bedroom to pick out a bath bomb for tonight. Keith just so happens to walk into the bedroom to see Lance setting both a pile of clothes and a box full of bath products on the bed.

“You really need to stop leaving the main door unlocked Lance.”

“And why is that, Freckles?” Lance walks to Keith and gives him the tightest hug for a minute and loosen his grip but allowed his arms to dangle from Keith's shoulders.

“I really don’t want to walk into your apartment with all of your stuff taken.”

“Don’t worry, the only valuable thing in the place is the laptop and the TV.”

“Lance, I got you that laptop for your birthday. I would be in a piss poor mood if that was taken.” Lance thinks about what Keith said for a minute. “It took too many hours of me in hell for that to get taken.” Lance snorts.

“Okay, I’ll lock my door from now on. I should give you a spare later” Keith sighs.

“Thank you. What is that anyway?” Keith points to the shoebox full of balls and begins to peer over with curiosity.

“These” Lance picked up a red ball “are bath bombs.” Before Keith could ask another question Lance filled him in “You put them in the water and it basically turns the water to that color and it smells nice.”

“Oh, that’s cool. Is that from Lush?”

“Obviously. Why do you ask?”

“I work at Lush in the Balmera Mall, ”Lance's eyebrows hit the ceiling. He turns Keith around to face him.

“Since when do you work at Lush?” Keith begins to open his mouth but Lance continues “Even better, how do you NOT know what is a bath bomb if you work in Lush?”

“I just don’t... I work as a cashier because some of the products actually fucks with my asthma.” Lance starts to really look at Keith and checks over his face to see if that was really him or some imposter.

“Then why work at a place where you KNOW it will make your asthma act up? Do you even use a mask when you’re working? How are you still walking amongst the living?” Lance did a few laps around Keith before he pokes his forehead.

“I need the money for both of our art supplies. Plus, because of you, I actually take three puffs of this every day before I walk into lush hell.” Keith pulls out an inhaler from his pocket and waves it in Lance’s face. “Anywho, which ones do you have?” Lance began to give out a gleaming smile before giving Keith a rundown of what he has, likes and wants to buy or in deep need of.

“So which one should I use?” From the looks of it, Lance popped Keith out of his little reverie because he gives Lance a confused look. Lance waved his hand in Keith’s face and guided his eyes to the shoe box. “Can you pick one for me.” Keith’s eyebrows pinched together before picking up the purple ball that was littered with stars.

“This one.” He puts the star decorated bath bomb in Lance’s hands.

“I figured that you’d pick this one. This one is named Twilight and it acts as a sleep reliever.” Lance began to walk back to the bathroom to see that there was enough water in the tub. Lance turned off the faucet and slowly dropped the Twilight ball into the tub. Keith stood behind Lance and watched the bath bomb disintegrate in a light shade of purple before moving into a darker shade of indigo. Lance would always enjoy the scent of lavender that slowly ebbs out of the ball and filled the bathroom. Lance looked back to see that Keith had left his side and moved into the hallway to sit down. Lance walked towards him and crouched down with concern.

“Are you okay? Is your asthma acting up?” Lance asked him.

“Yeah, I’m okay, and surprisingly it's not acting up. I left so that I wouldn’t test my luck.” For a short second, it felt like there is another underlying reason for his actions. That is tucked and buried within the asthma one. Lance decides to ask him later on about that.

“Oh, then would you like to join me in this bath?” Lance could see one of his eyebrows perk up.

“I just said that I don’t want to test my luck. Plus, your tub isn’t big enough for the both of us.” Well, Keith is right about the tub. It’s tiny and was not made to hold the both of them, but Lance really wanted him to be with him in the tub. Keith genuinely looks both stress and tired from his classes and Lance would love for Keith to at least relax with him.

“We can try to fit?” Lance gave him an unsure, but pleading look. Keith takes it in for a few seconds before giving up.

“Fine, just let me get a few things and take a few puffs of my inhaler and I’ll join you.” He gets up and walks into my room. Lance raised my fist in the air and gave a good shake at it.

Lance begins to strip and ease himself into the light purple colored water. At this point of his life, Lance felt at ease. All of the stress from college, work, and life had begun to float away with the lavender scent that wafted the bathroom. Lance almost dozed off when he heard a knock at the door. The door opens to Keith carrying some clothes and a towel that appears to be Lance’s.

“Are those mine?” Lance questioned.

“Yes, if you have a problem with that because I can return them.” Lance shook his head.

“NO, no, no, NOPE, no problem.” Lance quickly replied to him. Keith places his set of clothes next to Lance’s and begins to strip. Lance turned his head. Lance doesn’t even know why he did but it felt odd to see his naked state. They have been dating for a while and this is still awkward and new to him. Lance felt the water dip and looks up to see Keith in the tub, but at the other side with his hands on top of his knees. Lance also sees that his hair is in a high ponytail and an Alice band holding back his bangs. Lance gave him a look.

“What? I don’t want my hair getting wet.”

“But this is a bath it’s going to get wet regardless.” He shrugs. “Plus, why are you over there come over here.”

‘I dunno. Are you okay with me being that close to you?”

“Keith.”

“Yes, Lance?”

“We have been dating for at least three weeks now. Why wouldn’t I be okay with this? Plus, I invited you to the tub. Unless you are uncomfortable with all this?” Lance began to feel all of the dread pour all over him. ‘Of course, Keith didn’t feel comfortable in here’ Lance thought and it doesn’t help that he pushed him to do something that he didn’t want. It looks like Keith could sense the oncoming fear that Lance was about to drown himself in because he began to speak up.

“No, it's just that this is all so new to me.” Keith gave Lance his hand and gave a small tug on his arm. Keith begins to move slowly towards Lance to close the gap between them. Keith manages to place his back on Lance’s chest with ease. The water was still warm and some of it began to spill out to the floor. There was too much water in the tub for both of them but they fit very comfortably in the small space. The scent of lavender began to take Lance away once again and almost dozed off when Keith finally broke the silence.

“This feels so surreal.”

“What does?”

“This” He makes a small circle with his finger. “It still feels like yesterday when we met in Garrison Valley. One minute we were like and I quote from you ‘sworn enemies in the art of game designing’ to being boyfriends and doing domestic stuff like this.” Keith's finger quotes this and Lance giggles softly.

“We even got paired for the same project and boy we hated each other for awhile. Until our grade was more important than our differences.”

“The hilarious thing about that was that I was in the design program, while you were in the developing and design program. You still managed to do both without breaking a sweat. I had high respect for you because it was something I could never do and you seem to do that so easily.” Lance could feel the heat rising from his cheeks when he said that.

“It actually wasn’t easy to do two programs in the same semester. I hated everything that had to do with the developing program because the university made their own code called potted. There was easily so many things that were wrong with it, but I got the class done and when on with all of the other languages.”

“You had Iverson right.” Keith groans at the mention of the name.

“Never again. I swear that professor was just hard headed.”

“Like you?” Keith glares at Lance. “What, it's true.”

“You’re rude, you know that?” Keith pouts as he turns his head around. Lance smiles at that.

“Yes, I know that.” He shrugs before continuing. “Before you know it, we began crapping out all these ideas of doing this and doing that and created a whole game in the fit of our bickering.” Lance’s hand began to intertwine with Keith’s freckled one. Lance raised them and gave them a small peck.

“Hey, at least our bickering got us somewhere.”

“Yeah but we still bicker, but it now all replaced with domestic bickering like who has left the paint water in the mug and such.” Lance gave out a loud groan. Keith had to bring it up.

“Oh come on it was that one time. Let it goooo”

“No, do you know how paint water taste? It's not a pleasant taste.”

“And I’m terribly sorry that I didn’t know you drink out of that mug.” It was silent again. Lance could feel Keith trying to get comfortable in the tub while the water sloshed around. Lance slouched his body forward so that they are both semi laying in the tub. Lance looked at the time on the clock to see 10:00 PM.

“Keith do you want me to take you home or would you rather stay with me for the night. I really don’t want you walking home alone at this time.”

“You’re acting like I can’t handle being alone at night. I can if you were wondering” Lance groans at that.

“You got ambushed walking home a month ago. If I didn’t come running to get my charger for my laptop from you, you would of been on the five o'clock news either for being murdered or murdering someone or both.”

“Like I said” Keith moves his head to face Lance. “I can handle myself outside. There is no need to worry about me.” Lance gives Keith a skeptical look.

“Okay, then let me remind you of the scar on your right shoulder.” He looks down from Lance to stare at his right arm. The lightning flower expanded from the shoulder to the tips of his fingers. Keith covers the larger parts of the fractal scar by putting most of his arm under the bath water. He had received the scar from a lightning bolt earlier in the year. It also put him out of commission for a month and a half because of it. “You still have phantom pains and your arm twitches from time to time.”

“I am ambidextrous for a reason.” The tone of his voice pleaded to change the subject, as much as Lance want to tell him that ‘I worry about you too’. Lance took the bait and steered the convo to a more lighter path.

“That’s probably the reason why you get lost so easily. Mr. No-Sense-Of-Direction.” Lance could feel the eye rolling from the shorter one.

“It was that ONE time and that’s a stereotype, Lance. ”

“Of many, Keith you got lost in a strip mall. You only had to go straight. I’m still confuzzled to this day as too how you ended up in the park.” He groans and slouches himself until his nose was submerged. They continued to bicker for a while. He speaks up again after a while of silence albeit in a whisper.

“I’ll stay here for the night.”

“Okay. You are more than welcome to sleep in my bed.” With that, Keith began to giggle. Lance give a confused look and he turned his head to look at Lance.

“Don’t you mean our bed?”

“True,” Lance said. It was silent again, but it was a comfortable one. It was the soothing lavender that finally took them away from the domestic setting and into a restful sleep.

#klance #keith kogane #lance mcclain #voltron #voltron: legendary defender #klance fic #fluff #klance voltron #klance vld #keith vld #keith voltron #lance voltron #lance vld #vld #Keith #Lance #cas writes #fanfic

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davewakeman · 4 years ago

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Talking Tickets 5 June 2020--Brokers! Baseball! Australia! And, More!

Hey There!

Thanks for being here again this week. If you are enjoying this newsletter, tell your friends and colleagues to sign up by visiting this link.

How’s everyone holding up?

Come join our Slack Channel if you are looking to connect with folks from around the world to talk tickets, marketing, sales, and more.

I’m hosting a happy hour with Ken Troupe this afternoon at 5 PM EDT. And, Ken will have some sort of fancy beer that his buddy’s brewery brews and I’m totally jealous!

Two things I saw this week talk about youth sports which I think is such a valuable tool to grow sports business over time and also has such a powerful impact on kids:

One from the Aspen Institute talks about communities, another pet topic of mine.

The second from IUPUI is about how the changes that youth sports need to implement to protect kids in the face of the coronavirus are being perceived by parents.

The thing about both of these is if you look, you can see some ideas that are helpful in your business as well.

To the tickets!

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1. Brokers may be on the ropes due to a liquidity crisis:

My opinion was always that the ticket industry was going to see a pretty radical shift the first time the economy in the States hit any sort of bump in the road.

We were at the end of a long-running upward cycle in the economy, the longest in history. There was so much money floating in the market that the prices and valuations on a lot of deals were ridiculous. And, despite the relative “success” of the industry, we were seeing so many venues, events, and organizations struggle with real, turnstile attendance that it is amazing that folks were pretty consistently just going along like everything was normal and fine. Don’t even get me started…I have more.

If you never had a chance to listen to my podcast with Patrick Ryan back in the day, some of it may not be reflective of our current environment, but the key thing is value.

Corey Leff writes about liquidity and social distancing in his piece and his piece is accurate. I asked a few colleagues and they suggested that the credit card companies might be a little more willing to work with the secondary market than anticipated because it would be a big hunk of business if they didn’t, but that was the only thing the people took exception with.

For me, I’d actually look at a Venn Diagram of three specific areas going forward: (I’m not artistic enough to do a Venn Diagram in this newsletter so imagine one)

* Access to tickets * Access to money * Relationships

While I believe events will come back because we’ve had events for thousands of years, I don’t think that the business is going to work the same way. Again, trends like consumer spending power, amount of competition, and others will meet up with things specifically brought on by the pandemic like social distancing, psychological factors that we don’t know how they will impact folks yet, and the economy.

This combination is going to be important, especially the relationships part because folks have been burned in a lot of cases by the refund policies of the platforms and I’m not sure that folks are going to just rush back to the platforms right away. You’ll also have to consider when they do, will they just wait until the last minute and buy or not buy on a whim? And, again, the financial situation.

Three ideas to run with here:

1. Where are your relationships on both sides of the aisle? Do you have folks on the ticket side, sure. But do you have customers as well? I think the folks that have and maintained a book of business are going to be in a really strong spot.

2. The person with the money is going to be able to control the conversations. There is still private equity money floating around right now, but I’m not sure we’ve seen the end of a lot of the challenges the economy is going to hit. So if you are thinking you can put together deals and find the money, that may not be the case when tickets start becoming available. So hold onto your money.

3. If your business overlaps with the secondary market at all, you have to plan your going forward strategy: *What is your value going to be? * Who are you going to work with?

It will be different than it was before and if you aren’t prepared, you can lose to other competitors in your market because the competition will be even more intense than ever before.

I’m going to think through this a little more and I’ll probably have some stuff to post to DaveWakeman.com later this week.

2. Games are coming back:

We have the NBA and MLS announcing plans to come back this week and we have MLB, which I will get to in a bit, not announcing!

The Premier League is on its way back with only one player testing positive in the last round of test, he is a member of Tottenham Hotspur and no one wanted to say Serge Aurier, but everyone was joking around his name since he was busted breaking the UK’s quarantine order 3x.

While there won’t be fans at the Premier League games, there will be refunds and lots of them.

The Champions League looks like an 8 team tournament in Portugal. I’m a little torn about scrapping the second leg of the semi-finals because of how exciting the semi-finals were last year. 95:01.

There are a lot of things still to be worked out and everyone has to balance safety, science, and more. It is good to hear Mark Cuban talk about having a vaccine sooner rather than later, but we also need to consider where the vaccine will be developed and how quickly it will be rolled out to various countries.

That out of the way, we also need to beware of a lot of these articles and ideas that are floating around that say the virus is going to change everything for all time. There is no evidence that any of this stuff will come to pass from previous financial or medical crises.

Let’s keep in mind a few things:

* Many of these social distancing plans in arenas are going to be unworkable logistically.

* Let’s figure out how exactly pricing is going to work and where folks fall on that could hamstring the success or failure of these ideas.

* We still really don’t know what is going to really happen with the virus or the economy. From day-to-day, we can get one idea offered up as the key takeaway and the next it is something new. So until we have a clear plan with some clear guidelines and expectations, it is going to be a bit of a two-steps-forward and one-step-back situation on having fans at the events, even outdoors.

Though I do like the lessons that Andrew Lloyd Weber is offering up from Seoul and now working to try out in London.

3. Recovery from the coronavirus may look like the recovery from war and less like recovery from an average recession:

I’m allowed on non-ticket related dense document a week to make a point, right?

This one from Les Binet is pretty great to read through and think about. All of the suggestions in the summary are things we should be thinking about and asking ourselves how we can do them.

Will we? That’s another story.

Look, I’ve said it a few times already, but the competition coming out of this crisis is going to be intense and it will be every organization for itself so you have to be able to be agile in your strategy and adapt your marketing and sales techniques much more quickly than you ever have before.

In New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, announced a number of new programs to help the arts and creative sectors in NZ. This is great and in the UK, there have been calls to do something similar for the arts and entertainment sector.

There have also been a number of different efforts in the US to try and push towards some form of bailout or support for the world of live entertainment. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that despite it being a completely relevant thought, the likelihood of something like that happening in the States anytime soon isn’t great.

What does this mean for all of us?

* Focus on telling stories about the impact of attending live events. That’s not something that has been done very well in a lot of places in the past, there is no time like now to rethink the way that shows and events and games are marketed and advertised.

* Make sure that you are helping folks buy tickets, merchandise, and other items as quickly and simply as possible.

* Be creative in what you offer, how you sell, and what you create to share with your customers.

4. Australia is urging a spring 2021 reopening with no social distancing:

While their neighbors in New Zealand are potentially going to be able to go back to normal with events by the next newsletter.

Across Australia, we are seeing a lot of organizations and codes struggling to recover coming out of the coronavirus. The A-League is hanging on for survival. Rugby is hurting.

And, as the battle between the AFL and NRL points to, the competition for market share and attention is going to be huge as well.

The road to recovery for Australia will be difficult, but they are also dealing with their first recession in around 3 decades…so they likely have some ideas or some ways of dealing with things that are going to look unique to all of us.

Let’s think about a couple of things here that apply to everyone:

* We need to recognize what New Zealand has done well and where we can learn and take ideas to help us all. I recognize that they are in a really unique situation, but there are still a tremendous number of lessons there. We will also learn a lot from how their opening up goes.

* The battle over sports dollars is going to be interesting because Australia is sports mad and the AFL has always had a pretty big lead in fandom. Over the past year, I’ve noticed some challenges to that crown from the NRL and many of my friends and colleagues are giving me the “you got to get to rugby, mate.” And, heading out of the pandemic, it is good to see AFL clubs like Port pushing their revenue-generating activities…because you know how I feel about marketing, “I got into it because that’s where the money is.”

Here the thing is, the Australians and the New Zealanders do have a history of being advanced in their membership and partnership schemes and I’ve met some of the best arts marketers that I know when I’ve been in Australia. So I think they are going to come out of this fine, but I will be interested in seeing how they experiment with their steps out of the coronavirus.

5. Is baseball trying to throw itself into a Great Depression of its own making?

Ahhh…baseball.

I think I’ve spent far too much time writing about baseball here, but it is Friday and we still don’t have a deal for a baseball season.

And, the easy answer to throw out there is money.

That’s also likely to correct answer, but you could pick different adjectives to spell it out if you’d like. Fill in your best adjective here and send it to me_________.

Many teams have used the coronavirus and negotiations about the baseball season to push through cuts to their minor league systems, leaving over 1,000 players looking at the end of their baseball careers.

With as much as 70% of their revenue coming from having fans in the stadium, there isn’t as big of an incentive to start up the baseball season as there may be for other sports.

Scott Boras sent out an email last week telling his clients not to “bailout” the owners that made a lot of debt-fueled deals and acquisitions over the last few years.

This seems like an acceleration of the labor negotiations and what was already being predicted to be challenging negotiations between baseball and their player’s union, but here is the thing, if baseball doesn’t find a way to pull their act together…I’m not sure that baseball finds a way back.

After the 1994 strike, it seems like baseball went from a 30-year cold war between players and owners to a 25 or so year cold war that is now coming to a head.

I understand that baseball is going to parade out this number that they are making more money than ever. And, there are many examples of businesses throughout history that were doing well, until they weren’t.

Baseball used to dominate the American sports consciousness.

Now, I’d put baseball behind the NFL, the NBA, and the Premier League…and I’d say the gap between those top 3 and MLB ain’t close.

I’ve written a lot about baseball in the past because I love it. But the game has to do a few things better, starting with getting whatever kind of season they can together.

After that, I have 3 specific ideas that I’d suggest:

* Get your marketing together. Like a lot of places I talk with and work with, we have to keep our eyes on the prize. The object of marketing is to make money. All the other funny metrics are secondary to whether or not folks are coming into the ballpark and spending money.

Deals with brokers, partnerships, and all the other things are great but they are going to start losing their appeal if folks aren’t in the ballpark and your partners can’t achieve an ROI on their investment.

* Work on your pricing. Baseball has far too many games and seats to try and price everything at a premium. If everything is a premium, nothing is a premium. Or, you are teaching people something worse, they just don’t want me at the game.

* Be creative. The average baseball fan has been getting one year older every year for as long as I’ve been paying attention. The graying of the fan base is a killer. But more importantly, you need to be rejuvenating your fan base because from year to year or phase to phase in folks’ lives, they are going to have a different need or want for attending your games. So you have to have more fans than you can ever serve always cycling through.

This means you’ll need to be creative with your marketing, with your in-game experience, with the way you engage your fans and more.

The key is that coming out of the pandemic, baseball can either have a creative rejuvenation or it can stick its head in the sand and struggle.

I’m cheering for baseball because I’d like to see another Mets’ World Series win!

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What am I up to this week?

I didn’t get nearly as much done this week as I wanted to because living in the District was stressful this week.

I am loading up podcast and webinar replays for y’all.

I’ve got a feeling folks are having a little webinar fatigue, am I right? If y’all have the stomach for a few webinars, let me know. If not, I may try and do some sort of conference call type thing.

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Talking Tickets 5 June 2020–Brokers! Baseball! Australia! And, More! was originally published on Wakeman Consulting Group

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