#this is from december last year so YAYYY | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

trylkstopocket · 2 years ago

Text

Week 18: I've never told anybody this

And a record day worthy of celebration. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Hello,

Welcome to Week 18 of my $20k to $500k in 1 Year Challenge.

One downside about this being a weekly email is that there's not always something groundbreaking to cover. After all, I'm only spending around 8 hours a week on the actual challenge website.

I've already written more than 100,000 words between my guides, past weeks of this challenge, and random articles on building a profitable site. Repeating myself would bore both of us.

There are still several relevant changes, takeaways, and ideas to cover today.

But, if this goes off the rails, you'll know why.

In Today's Email

The newsletter's continued growth.

A record day worth celebrating.

How does growing actually happen?

Google doesn't believe my wife exists.

A different way to make money with AI.

The public domain is your (content's) best friend.

Reposting on Facebook: it works really well.

Using simple formulas to not get overwhelmed.

An awkward story I've never told anybody...

These weekly emails will become monthly.

What happened since last week?

So far in January, the site has received 24,383 page views and made roughly $250. Hardly exciting.

But what is exciting: the newsletter.

I've now grown the newsletter to 16,321 subscribers and the open rate is maintaining nicely at about 26%.

Even better, the feedback from subscribers has been 99% positive.

Here are the Facebook campaign numbers since December 27th:

After the first week, the price per lead started significantly rising. This creative has simply run its course, so I have the campaign turned off for now.

I've been doing pretty deep dives into the Ads Library of several email-first companies (Morning Brew, Axios, etc). Last week I went over exactly how to do that.

I just launched a new batch of creatives this morning. In my next email, I'll let you know which approach worked the best.

In the meantime, I'll celebrate a record day. Yayyy.

Pageviews from the newsletter finally topped 1,000 in a single day on January 10th.

1,178 to be exact.

Mentally, this was actually very important because my frustration was growing.

Staying disciplined and trusting the process can be tough.

But then you see some sort of breakthrough. Then things (usually) go back down.

Then you see a new breakthrough that's a little better than the last one. Then it goes back down.

And this keeps happening until suddenly your floor is equivalent to the first breakthrough.

All of this has had me reflecting on something that seems obvious on the surface, but our emotions sometimes cloud the simplicity.

How does growing actually happen?

Am I doing everything I can to grow my loyal audience?

It's something I've done multiple times but I never tore it apart to figure out how.

Let me use the email you're reading now as an example. You're almost certainly subscribed to me because you heard about the maniac who said he can turn $20k into $500k in a year.

It’s compelling but, without follow through, it means nothing.

Take three possible ways I could have started documenting my challenge:

An email that shares all the latest numbers. Traffic, subscribers and so on. No details - just numbers.

An email that includes all the latest numbers and what I worked on.

An email that includes the latest numbers, what I worked on, my personal insights, and how I did it so you can too.

My open rate on this email is between 60 and 70%.

What would it be with scenario 1 after a couple of weeks? Dramatically lower, not to mention unsubscribes would be off the charts.

Nobody cares about numbers with no context.

In scenario 2, it's a little better but probably in the realm of average at best.

Even telling you what I worked on creates a lot more questions than anything else.

Scenario 3 is what I strive to do every week.

I have never sent a single email to you that I didn't put my entire heart and soul into... perhaps to a fault.

But because of my relentless pursuit to be "perfect," I'm rewarded with a loyal readership.

So why am I going on about this?

Because if I'm not putting the same energy into the actual challenge site's email, then I can't expect the same level of user retention and loyalty.

If we make sure that every single time a new person sees our content for the first time, it's the best it can possibly be, there is virtually no way we won't grow. It compounds.

Do this for a couple of years and suddenly you're sitting on a 6-7 figure business.

Or, in my case, hopefully one year.

What didn't happen last week?

I said I was going to be experimenting with Adsense placements this week.

What I did not see coming: Google turning off all of my ads because I hadn't verified the account.

Because Google only allows one Adsense account per person, I put the new one in my wife's name. Shhh.

I knew they wouldn't send payments without verifying her identity (she's real, I swear), but I didn't know they'd turn them off completely. So that derailed the plan, but we're back in business now.

For what it's worth, the Auto Ads are averaging around a $10 RPM. Actually not terrible for early January.

Backlink building also didn't happen.

As you probably know by now, I've never built backlinks manually. They usually just happen with good content.

Because I put myself in this one year time crunch, I plan to be more proactive about it. But it's also really boring, so I haven't done anything with that yet.

Unfortunately, I'm really not spending much time on the site, which I guess is the higher stakes part of the original tweet.

Why did I do this to myself?

Since there's not much more to report on the site itself... here are four completely random things on my mind that might help you in one way or another.

1. A Different Way To Make Money With AI

If I wanted to make money off the AI craze, I wouldn't even use AI.

I'd just start a website all about AI.

Just review every new AI tool, write about all the latest developments (including a newsletter of course), and be positioned for the explosion.

It would be a fun site to build.

Just imagine having the world's best cryptocurrency website before 2020 except this time the actual phenomenon is going to stick around.

2. Use the Public Domain

An underused source of content is public domain material.

I'd create a list of sites to find it, but these nice people at the University of Montana already did it.

Be sure to thoroughly look at the licensing information, but there's no shortage of things you can do with public domain content:

Use it to beef up your own content.

Repurpose it to make new content.

Build an entire site around surfacing it (think: historical site).

Sell products that feature it.

It's pretty powerful.

3. Reposting Content on Facebook

Over the past 14 years, I've generally stuck to posting new content to Facebook each day.

Once my bank of articles was big enough, I'd repost here and there. But generally, it was 1 new post per day, sometimes 2.

Lately, because Reach is so disappointing, I'm finding that you can repost a winning article much earlier.

For example, in late November, I had an article reach 35,000 people on my Page of 120k fans. Since then, posts have averaged around 10-15,000.

I posted that one again recently, and it reached 30,000 people.

There's no universal advice here other than experimenting and seeing what works best for you. But don't be afraid to repost the winners.

4. Using Easy Formulas to Write a Daily Email

More than once, a reader has reached out to tell me that writing a daily email (like I'm doing for my challenge website) is intimidating and overwhelming.

It can be, but by creating a formula, you can feel confident.

The email you're reading right now has no formula. I sit down, aim to cover what happened in the last week, sprinkle in a bit of entertainment, and hopefully provide you with a lot of value somehow.

That's probably why it gives me the most anxiety.

But for my challenge website, it's very formulaic:

Quote of the day: easy.

Intro paragraph: takes 1 minute.

Latest website content: 5 minutes.

Story of the day: this takes the longest.

Photo of the day: 1 minute.

On this day: 1 minute.

As you can see, most of the daily email is just pulling in very simple things. But, like those kids who summon Captain Planet, with their powers combined, it creates a really great email.

Check out The Hustle for a great example. It's probably my favorite newsletter.

And don't get me wrong, their email requires quite a bit of curation, but it's still a very formulaic strategy.

Don't get overwhelmed - just build out a plug-n-play system that works.

And Finally... Here's a Story I've Never Told Anyone.

I'm from a small town in Ohio, which came with two things that are relevant to this story:

Religion was a big part of my upbringing.

In the early 2000s, nobody else there was making money on the Internet.

Because of the latter reason, I was pretty secretive about what I did. Those around me, including my family, started realizing I was making quite a bit of money, but I didn't do anything lavish, so there was a "we don't get it, so we won't ask" thing.

Which I liked because it was too hard to explain anyway.

Meanwhile, my dad - who had an enormous impact on my life - was (still is) a part-time pastor at a church of about 25 people.

The amount of things he has always juggled is astounding, and I share his inability to stop taking on new things. But that's not the point here.

In 2010, I had gained an absolutely massive Christian following by accident on Facebook. I detailed how it happened here.

Through my nature as a so-called growth hacker combined with my religious upbringing, I noticed there was really only one video site serving that community: GodTube.

So I launched GodVine, a place for inspiring, happy, fun, and otherwise positive videos for Christians (and, to be honest, anyone). In a a matter of months, it became the largest video site in the space. The peak month hit $240k in revenue and $227k in profit.

But back to the actual story.

Nobody, including my family, knew I had this site nor did they know I was making that amount of money.

Every Sunday, I would drive to my hometown to go to my Dad's church.

One Sunday, when we went back to the house, my Stepmom just had to show me something.

It was a video she saw online of Elvis singing a gospel hymn in the 1970s. This was still an era where nobody, particularly slightly older people, knew their way around the Internet.

I think you know where this is going.

The site hosting the Elvis video was, of course, GodVine.com. My site nobody knew I owned but was getting 30 million visits a month.

She elaborated, and I remember these words very well, "This site is just fabulous. They are always posting the best videos."

It was really awkward. Do I tell her it's my site?

After years of never telling anyone exactly what I do?

So, I did the only logical thing possible - I just went with it.

"Oh, that's cool. Pretty neat site."

But that couldn't be the end of it. My Stepmom was clearly a superfan.

Was my life about to consist of my Stepmom continuously sending me links to my own site? And me pretending I haven't seen it even though I posted it?

It sounds silly to write this out, but if you’re anything like me, you spend far too much time trying to avoid any degree of confrontation or awkwardness instead of just being confident.

Not long after, I had several interested parties wanting to buy GodVine. The amounts being offered were going to significantly change my life.

As great as the money would be, all I could think about was how I was going to awkwardly tell my family. Not because of the money but because there had been too much GodVine talk to now suddenly announce I own it. At this point, most of my family members were subscribed and also constantly sharing it on Facebook.

It had become a situation like the Friends episode where Chandler doesn't correct his colleague who keeps calling him Toby.

It had gone on too long to just correct him. That’s how I felt

In September 2012, just one month before closing the deal and selling the site, I actually moved to Spain.

Some psychologists to this day believe I was running from that awkward conversation.

Maybe I was. I think I finally told her the truth in a text message.

All of this to say...

Ten years later, I've gone from building sites not even my own family knew about to building publicly with actual stakes at play.

Pushing yourself and getting outside of your comfort zone is really important.

But we also have to stay true to who we are.

The last 18 weeks of emails have been full of transparency - mostly technical and strategic. So I want to do the same when it comes to how I'm feeling.

Trying to grow a site to $500k while delivering value every week about growing a site to $500k is mentally draining. This doesn't account for anything in my personal life or my other businesses.

Taking care of my mental health and happiness is my priority, so I will be delivering these updates monthly instead of weekly. Every 1st of the month to keep it simple.

This also ensures that every update is filled with meaningful progress, not personal stories and fluff.

Now it’s time to focus.

Thanks for reading,

Scott

Unsubscribe | Update your profile | PO Box 1321, Topanga, CA 90290

------ Hello, ------ Welcome to Week 18 of my $20k to $500k in 1 Year Challenge. One downside about this being a weekly email is that there's not always something groundbreaking to cover. After all, I'm only spending around 8 hours a week on the actual challenge website. I've already written more than 100,000 words between my guides ( https://click.convertkit-mail2.com/p9unr238g2u9h3l6265tq/m2h7h5hox0vk79fm/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2NvdHRkZWxvbmcuY29tL2d1aWRlcy8= ), past weeks ( https://click.convertkit-mail2.com/p9unr238g2u9h3l6265tq/dpheh0hqxwvzmwhm/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2NvdHRkZWxvbmcuY29tL2NoYWxsZW5nZS8= ) of this challenge, and random articles ( https://click.convertkit-mail2.com/p9unr238g2u9h3l6265tq/e0hph7hkzw6922h8/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2NvdHRkZWxvbmcuY29tL2FydGljbGVzLw== ) on building a profitable site. Repeating myself would bore both of us. There are still several relevant changes, takeaways, and ideas to cover today. But, if this goes off the rails, you'll know why. ---------------- In Today's Email ---------------- * The newsletter's continued growth. * A record day worth celebrating. * How does growing actually happen? * Google doesn't believe my wife exists. * A different way to make money with AI. * The public domain is your (content's) best friend. * Reposting on Facebook: it works really well. * Using simple formulas to not get overwhelmed. * An awkward story I've never told anybody... * These weekly emails will become monthly. ------------------------------ What happened since last week? ------------------------------ So far in January, the site has received 24,383 page views and made roughly $250. Hardly exciting. But what is exciting: the newsletter. I've now grown the newsletter to 16,321 subscribers and the open rate is maintaining nicely at about 26%. Even better, the feedback from subscribers has been 99% positive. Here are the Facebook campaign numbers since December 27th: After the first week, the price per lead started significantly rising. This creative has simply run its course, so I have the campaign turned off for now. I've been doing pretty deep dives into the Ads Library of several email-first companies (Morning Brew, Axios, etc). Last week I went over ( https://click.convertkit-mail2.com/p9unr238g2u9h3l6265tq/owhkhqh4elp374iv/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2NvdHRkZWxvbmcuY29tL2NoYWxsZW5nZS93ZWVrLTE1LTE3Lw== ) exactly how to do that. I just launched a new batch of creatives this morning. In my next email, I'll let you know which approach worked the best. In the meantime, I'll celebrate a record day. Yayyy. Pageviews from the newsletter finally topped 1,000 in a single day on January 10th. 1,178 to be exact. Mentally, this was actually very important because my frustration was growing. Staying disciplined and trusting the process can be tough. But then you see some sort of breakthrough. Then things (usually) go back down. Then you see a new breakthrough that's a little better than the last one. Then it goes back down. And this keeps happening until suddenly your floor is equivalent to the first breakthrough. All of this has had me reflecting on something that seems obvious on the surface, but our emotions sometimes cloud the simplicity. --------------------------------- How does growing actually happen? --------------------------------- Am I doing everything I can to grow my loyal audience? It's something I've done multiple times but I never tore it apart to figure out how. Let me use the email you're reading now as an example. You're almost certainly subscribed to me because you heard about the maniac who said he can turn $20k into $500k in a year. It’s compelling but, without follow through, it means nothing. Take three possible ways I could have started documenting my challenge: * An email that shares all the latest numbers. Traffic, subscribers and so on. No details - just numbers. * An email that includes all the latest numbers and what I worked on. * An email that includes the latest numbers, what I worked on, my personal insights, and how I did it so you can too. My open rate on this email is between 60 and 70%. What would it be with scenario 1 after a couple of weeks? Dramatically lower, not to mention unsubscribes would be off the charts. Nobody cares about numbers with no context. In scenario 2, it's a little better but probably in the realm of average at best. Even telling you what I worked on creates a lot more questions than anything else. Scenario 3 is what I strive to do every week. I have never sent a single email to you that I didn't put my entire heart and soul into... perhaps to a fault. But because of my relentless pursuit to be "perfect," I'm rewarded with a loyal readership. So why am I going on about this? Because if I'm not putting the same energy into the actual challenge site's email, then I can't expect the same level of user retention and loyalty. If we make sure that every single time a new person sees our content for the first time, it's the best it can possibly be, there is virtually no way we won't grow. It compounds. Do this for a couple of years and suddenly you're sitting on a 6-7 figure business. Or, in my case, hopefully one year. ----------------------------- What didn't happen last week? ----------------------------- I said I was going to be experimenting with Adsense placements this week. What I did not see coming: Google turning off all of my ads because I hadn't verified the account. Because Google only allows one Adsense account per person, I put the new one in my wife's name. Shhh. I knew they wouldn't send payments without verifying her identity (she's real, I swear), but I didn't know they'd turn them off completely. So that derailed the plan, but we're back in business now. For what it's worth, the Auto Ads are averaging around a $10 RPM. Actually not terrible for early January. Backlink building also didn't happen. As you probably know by now, I've never built backlinks manually. They usually just happen with good content. Because I put myself in this one year time crunch, I plan to be more proactive about it. But it's also really boring, so I haven't done anything with that yet. Unfortunately, I'm really not spending much time on the site, which I guess is the higher stakes part of the original tweet. Why did I do this to myself? Since there's not much more to report on the site itself... here are four completely random things on my mind that might help you in one way or another. ---------------------------------------- 1. A Different Way To Make Money With AI ---------------------------------------- If I wanted to make money off the AI craze, I wouldn't even use AI. I'd just start a website all about AI. Just review every new AI tool, write about all the latest developments (including a newsletter of course), and be positioned for the explosion. It would be a fun site to build. Just imagine having the world's best cryptocurrency website before 2020 except this time the actual phenomenon is going to stick around. ------------------------ 2. Use the Public Domain ------------------------ An underused source of content is public domain material. I'd create a list of sites to find it, but these nice people at the University of Montana already did it ( https://click.convertkit-mail2.com/p9unr238g2u9h3l6265tq/z2hghnhozrn983bp/aHR0cHM6Ly9saWJndWlkZXMubGliLnVtdC5lZHUvYy5waHA_Zz0yNzUzNjImcD0xODM2NjMx ). Be sure to thoroughly look at the licensing information, but there's no shortage of things you can do with public domain content: * Use it to beef up your own content. * Repurpose it to make new content. * Build an entire site around surfacing it (think: historical site). * Sell products that feature it. It's pretty powerful. -------------------------------- 3. Reposting Content on Facebook -------------------------------- Over the past 14 years, I've generally stuck to posting new content to Facebook each day. Once my bank of articles was big enough, I'd repost here and there. But generally, it was 1 new post per day, sometimes 2. Lately, because Reach is so disappointing, I'm finding that you can repost a winning article much earlier. For example, in late November, I had an article reach 35,000 people on my Page of 120k fans. Since then, posts have averaged around 10-15,000. I posted that one again recently, and it reached 30,000 people. There's no universal advice here other than experimenting and seeing what works best for you. But don't be afraid to repost the winners. --------------------------------------------- 4. Using Easy Formulas to Write a Daily Email --------------------------------------------- More than once, a reader has reached out to tell me that writing a daily email (like I'm doing for my challenge website) is intimidating and overwhelming. It can be, but by creating a formula, you can feel confident. The email you're reading right now has no formula. I sit down, aim to cover what happened in the last week, sprinkle in a bit of entertainment, and hopefully provide you with a lot of value somehow. That's probably why it gives me the most anxiety. But for my challenge website, it's very formulaic: * Quote of the day: easy. * Intro paragraph: takes 1 minute. * Latest website content: 5 minutes. * Story of the day: this takes the longest. * Photo of the day: 1 minute. * On this day: 1 minute. As you can see, most of the daily email is just pulling in very simple things. But, like those kids who summon Captain Planet, with their powers combined, it creates a really great email. Check out The Hustle ( https://click.convertkit-mail2.com/p9unr238g2u9h3l6265tq/p8heh9h9e5mkl4hq/aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVodXN0bGUuY28v ) for a great example. It's probably my favorite newsletter. And don't get me wrong, their email requires quite a bit of curation, but it's still a very formulaic strategy. Don't get overwhelmed - just build out a plug-n-play system that works. ----------------------------------------------------- And Finally... Here's a Story I've Never Told Anyone. ----------------------------------------------------- I'm from a small town in Ohio, which came with two things that are relevant to this story: * Religion was a big part of my upbringing. * In the early 2000s, nobody else there was making money on the Internet. Because of the latter reason, I was pretty secretive about what I did. Those around me, including my family, started realizing I was making quite a bit of money, but I didn't do anything lavish, so there was a "we don't get it, so we won't ask" thing. Which I liked because it was too hard to explain anyway. Meanwhile, my dad - who had an enormous impact on my life - was (still is) a part-time pastor at a church of about 25 people. The amount of things he has always juggled is astounding, and I share his inability to stop taking on new things. But that's not the point here. In 2010, I had gained an absolutely massive Christian following by accident on Facebook. I detailed how it happened here ( https://click.convertkit-mail2.com/p9unr238g2u9h3l6265tq/x0hph6hnmdo8l9i5/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2NvdHRkZWxvbmcuY29tL2FydGljbGVzL3ZpcmFsLW5vdmEtYmFja3N0b3J5Lw== ). Through my nature as a so-called growth hacker combined with my religious upbringing, I noticed there was really only one video site serving that community: GodTube. So I launched GodVine, a place for inspiring, happy, fun, and otherwise positive videos for Christians (and, to be honest, anyone). In a a matter of months, it became the largest video site in the space. The peak month hit $240k in revenue and $227k in profit. But back to the actual story. Nobody, including my family, knew I had this site nor did they know I was making that amount of money. Every Sunday, I would drive to my hometown to go to my Dad's church. One Sunday, when we went back to the house, my Stepmom just had to show me something. It was a video she saw online of Elvis singing a gospel hymn in the 1970s. This was still an era where nobody, particularly slightly older people, knew their way around the Internet. I think you know where this is going. The site hosting the Elvis video was, of course, GodVine.com. My site nobody knew I owned but was getting 30 million visits a month. She elaborated, and I remember these words very well, "This site is just fabulous. They are always posting the best videos." It was really awkward. Do I tell her it's my site? After years of never telling anyone exactly what I do? So, I did the only logical thing possible - I just went with it. "Oh, that's cool. Pretty neat site." But that couldn't be the end of it. My Stepmom was clearly a superfan. Was my life about to consist of my Stepmom continuously sending me links to my own site? And me pretending I haven't seen it even though I posted it? It sounds silly to write this out, but if you’re anything like me, you spend far too much time trying to avoid any degree of confrontation or awkwardness instead of just being confident. Not long after, I had several interested parties wanting to buy GodVine. The amounts being offered were going to significantly change my life. As great as the money would be, all I could think about was how I was going to awkwardly tell my family. Not because of the money but because there had been too much GodVine talk to now suddenly announce I own it. At this point, most of my family members were subscribed and also constantly sharing it on Facebook. It had become a situation like the Friends episode where Chandler doesn't correct his colleague who keeps calling him Toby. It had gone on too long to just correct him. That’s how I felt In September 2012, just one month before closing the deal and selling the site, I actually moved to Spain. Some psychologists to this day believe I was running from that awkward conversation. Maybe I was. I think I finally told her the truth in a text message. --------------------- All of this to say... --------------------- Ten years later, I've gone from building sites not even my own family knew about to building publicly with actual stakes at play. Pushing yourself and getting outside of your comfort zone is really important. But we also have to stay true to who we are. The last 18 weeks of emails have been full of transparency - mostly technical and strategic. So I want to do the same when it comes to how I'm feeling. Trying to grow a site to $500k while delivering value every week about growing a site to $500k is mentally draining. This doesn't account for anything in my personal life or my other businesses. Taking care of my mental health and happiness is my priority, so I will be delivering these updates monthly instead of weekly. Every 1st of the month to keep it simple. This also ensures that every update is filled with meaningful progress, not personal stories and fluff. Now it’s time to focus. Thanks for reading, Scott Unsubscribe ( https://unsubscribe.convertkit-mail2.com/p9unr238g2u9h3l6265tq ) | Update your profile ( https://preferences.convertkit-mail2.com/p9unr238g2u9h3l6265tq ) | PO Box 1321, Topanga, CA 90290 ( https://click.convertkit-mail2.com/p9unr238g2u9h3l6265tq/6qheh8hp46zvdoco/aHR0cHM6Ly9jb252ZXJ0a2l0LmNvbS9mZWF0dXJlcy9lbWFpbC1tYXJrZXRpbmc_dXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPXBvd2VyZWRieSZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPXJlZmVycmFsJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9ZHluYW1pYw== )

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sanjithesimp · 3 years ago

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December event

Hello! So this is the first event I'm making ever...¡Yayyy! And I want it to be something special. I love writing and I want to make something special for all of you. Something that you and me will enjoy! So I made this prompts and you will be able to request 3 characters per prompt. I will try to update the spaces left for each prompt. The requests can be SFW/NSFW. One of the prompts will be open for people who want a specific prompt that they want to propose

I will be accepting the requests from now until the first week of December so be sure to send them before the deadline. I hope everyone gets to request at least once, even though I know that there are not many spaces. On the second or third week of December I'll start writing and uploading the requests, as that's when the semester will be over and I will have plenty of time to write.

Enjoy!!

🎄 Making a snowman

🎄Sleigh riding

🎄Making a candy house

🎄Going to pick a christmas tree

🎄Buying christmas presents

🎄Cooking for the christmas dinner

🎄Going ice skating

🎄Decorating the house for christmas

🎄Going to a New Years Eve party

🎄Making hot cocoa and watching christmas movies

🎄Cuddling in front of the fireplace

🎄Opening presents on Christmas

🎄Baking cookies for Christmas

🎄Getting a last minute date for Christmas dinner

🎄Propose your own prompt!!

I only have a few conditions for making the request:

First one is that it can only be one character per request

Be nice and respectful :)

I would like to give an opportunity for everyone to at least request once, so please be considerate and make only one request.

Also please specify the gender if not specified I will make it GN reader. (sorry for not specifying it earlier, if you want you can send me again your request <3)

Example of requests

Hello! Could I please have Ace x fem reader for prompt going ice skating? Thank you!

I'm new to One Piece so as much as I would like to write about more characters I can't because I don't know them all (currently watching Water 7 Arc so...it is obvious I am not close to knowing all of the characters ) So here's a list of characters that I'm comfortable writing about:

Luffy

Zoro

Sanji

Ace

Usopp

Nami

Robin

Crocodile

Smoker

Tashigi

#december event #event #writing event #writing #one piece #one piece x reader #one piece strawhats #sanji #usopp #luffy #zoro #ace #crocodile #nico robin #nami #portgas d. ace #monkey d. luffy #roronoa zoro #vinsmoke sanji

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btssavedmylifeblr · 4 years ago

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I forgot to send on my voting story. Ok so my brother and I both got mail in ballots, and let me tell you how we both forgot to mail it in so we just thought to bring them to our voting location. The lady there kinda yelled at us? She was confused and didn't know how to go about it. And honestly I just took it because we were the idiots who didn't mail in our ballots. We had to rip them up and they just us new ones to fill out in person and submit. Not exciting, but a story for void snippet. 👀

Anonymous said: Hi!! I'm so excited for void! I voted today around 30 minutes before the polls closed in my neighborhood because I had to wait for my dad and brother to get home from work since they wanted to go all together hehe. It was a pretty fast process! We just pressed buttons on screens (compared to last election where we had to bubble in everything by hand) plus, I got to keep the stylus that they gave us and it works on phones too! 🥰🥰 Thank you! I love your writing so much 💜💜💜

Anonymous said: I did mine through mail me and my husband did and we went to the post office a little while back and then he took us on a nice little date afterward and we got ice cream! Also I love void💖 keep up the good work

Anonymous said: VOTES FOR VOID??? I love democracy and I love VOID! So since May I've (temporarily) moved back home from New York to Indiana RE: covid; I've voted absentee for the both the primaries and presidential election (I'm still in IN rn...blah). I voted early and mailed in my ballot for the presidential election (about 3 weeks ago). Made sure my family was voting (brother mailed it in, mom dropped off a ballot, and dad did early voting) and encourage them to put up a Biden sign in our yard <3

Anonymous said: HI BEE! I ALSO VOTED TODAY! IM 21 SO THIS IS MY FIRST TIME VOTING FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION (my 18th bday didnt make the cutoff since im a december bday) im so happy to have done my part! I made sure to study up on the judges and policies and everything! Luckily the polling place didn't have a line so i was able to get in, get my ballot, and fill it in right away! I even dragged my mom and cousin to come with me. I made a joke on snapchat to encourage my friends to vote too. It was a pic of my "i voted" sticker with a caption saying "omg youre so sexy when you vote aHaha" -🦙

Anonymous said: this is my first time doing this so, so i hope i’m sending this correctly! i voted early in late september by mail! i live in a swing state, so it’s really important for me to vote and not waste time!! bc of my age, this is my first time voting so i’m really nervous 😅

Anonymous said: I voted by email! I'm overseas so I wasn't sure if my ballot would actually make it through in time, so I decided to go electronically. Had to sign a waiver saying I understand that my vote won't be anonymous but I haven't been given a reason to suspect voter suppression/fraud in my state, so I'm happy I think...!

Anonymous said: hi, i voted early on oct 24th. my absentee ballot didn't come in, so i had to travel back home to vote (~3 hour drive). when we got there, there was a ton of people outside the polling place, but no lines, so i was in and out pretty quick. it was my first time voting, so i had all the candidates i was voting for written down on a tiny receipt so i wouldn't forget 😅. my mom was with me, so she voted too. took a pic with my sticker (mask on for extra covid-ness) and went home. drove back the next afternoon!

whippedforkook said: Hi Bee. 💕 I voted in early October - nearly a month ago! 😱 It’s been really weird with all the lead up to the election because it felt like it should have been done once I cast my ballot! A lot of my friends have volunteered to get out the vote: writing postcards to voters, texting, phone banking, working the polls, curing ballots. I didn’t volunteer at all this year, but I hope that all of my friends’ hard work and everyone else’s is enough. I’m also hoping and praying that I will be in a better place mentally for 2022 so that I too can volunteer. Our work starts with 2020 not ends. 💕 Wishing you well. 💕

begineuphoria said: I went and voted last Friday as it was our last early voting day. No way was I going to wait until today with the crowds of people in my area that still act as if masks are somehow infringing on their rights. 🙄 It was a rather normal experience for the most part. Other than having to use a coffee stir stick to press the buttons on the machine to vote. In and out within five minutes.

Anonymous said: I voted down the street at this pretty park this morning. I got up at 5:30 and it was freezing. Luckily I wore like 30 layers and stood outside for 2 hours. Some nasty orange man supporters were rude but everyone else was pretty nice. A really cute older couple was playing soccer with pine cones and kicked it towards me to play too. Not the worst time tbh.

Anonymous said: Did mail-in voting in California! Extremely exhausting and took forever to research all the propositions - they are notoriously tricky in hiding their flaws and one side tends to outrageously outspend the other. But in the end I felt really good about my research and decisions! No need for you to post a snippet for this story - would like to save that to read sometime in the future ;) Thank you so much for doing this!

joonsgotthejuice said: Votes for void??? I am here! I went last Thursday and it was chaotic bc I kept going past the poll place but the line was soooo long so my mom called me and woke me up like "its pouring rain and the line is super short get up I'm gonna pick you up" so thats the story of how I got dressed in 5 minutes and dragged my ass to vote in the rain <3

Anonymous said: i voted early on thursday it was cold and rainy but i went in the late afternoon and thankfully the only waiting i did was a few minutes for an elevator i got very lucky and while waiting for the results is awful the relief that came from voting in general was just great

Anonymous said: Wheeew the polls just closed and I finally got to cast my ballot yayyy ( I was the one working the polls from earlier) it’s been a really really long day and we actually had surprisingly good turnout. I saw a woman try to vote for someone else who claimed to be “helping” and I saw a woman who I’m pretty sure was on some typa something 👀 Overall though I really I’m really thankful for people like you who encouraged people to get out and vote. I hope the odds are in our favor❤️🤞🏼

chelsea-chee said: Hello Bee! Today surprisingly my elderly father wanted to vote so I brought him out with me. He only cared about voting for Biden, which meant I got to help decide who he should vote for with the rest of the candidates and amendments! Say hello to baby bee for me as well! 💖

Anonymous said: Okay I gonna got a chance to vote today and the process wasn’t that bad actually. I went in just now and it wasn’t that busy( thankfully) so no lines. I’m from Texas and it’s gonna be almost impossible to turn this state blue, but every vote counts! I love that you are getting people to vote and also sharing your experiences as well!

owl-orgy said: Dropped off my mail in ballot at a polling location! I originally wanted to vote early in person because I was worried my signature wouldn’t match closely enough but ended up just turning it in and double checked today to make it said “ballot accepted and counted”!

Anonymous said: I voted in person this afternoon, better late than never I guess. I was gonna go last week but then I got cramps from hell. There was no one in line in front of me, I think my county early voted because it was packed everyday the last few weeks

Anonymous said: I voted early a couple weeks ago. Exciting thing though that did happen was I got both my parents to vote for their first time ever.

Anonymous said: I had a mail in vote. So, I filled it out and dropped it in at the ballot box at my library. (I also checked out books for the first time in years, so I had fun!)

bubblyjiminnie said: I literally just finished voting. Lucky for me, the line and wait wasn’t very long, and it was a nice enough day that the short amount of time I had to spend in line outside of the building wasn’t too bad. My social anxiety when it comes to stuff like this tends to be high but that’s what I get for waiting until Election Day instead of going the mail in route. This was only my second time voting, but I’m glad that I did 😊

Anonymous said: I turned my ballot in last week :) I’m not a big fan of crowds and I hate make spur of the moment choices but despite that the first time I was able to vote back in 08 my Mom pressured me into voting in person because “you’d have to experience it at least once in our life”. And ever since then I comfortably vote by mail. I take my time, do all of my research, listen to music, and best of all don’t have to deal with people.

Anonymous said: here in Washington state it’s super easy to vote. I dropped my ballot off in mid-October and it’s already been accounted for! Mail in voting and drop box voting is fantastic and provides equal opportunity and access. Sad to see some people in red states misinforming Americans about it! We also have a referendum for implementing mandatory sex ed, including teaching respect, empathy and consent as part of the curriculum so I was happy to vote yes on that too!

unionrox006 said: I voted about 2 weeks ago by doing a mail in ballot. The other eligible to vote members of my household did the same. We chose to vote by absentee ballot because both my mom and I have an autoimmune disorder, so we have to be careful going out in the pandemic. Tbh, the ballot layout was a bit confusing at first as was all the paperwork and required IDs and documents. But my dad explained it to me and we got them filled out and mailed off. Kinda mad I didn't get a sticker for it though

bluetostone said: Love this and so excited for the next chp of void! I early voted a few weeks ago and because I live in a pretty rural county I was in and out of my polling place in a few minutes. No sticker though 😢. I live in a swing state so it could go either way in terms of delegates. Just praying everyone is safe tonight as the results roll in...though, won't we not know for sure for a couple of days or weeks?

Anonymous said: My mom, sister, and I received our early voting ballots a while ago and I took the longest to fill mine out because it was making me anxious :,( but I did return it before it was due. I checked our ballot statuses and mine and my moms were accepted but my sister’s said they hadn’t received hers back. Then she got another ballot so she filled that one out too and I took it yesterday 👍👍 I think she got two because she changed her address late so they sent two?

vixsynsblog said: Non-interesting voter story: I'm paranoid and live in a highly divided area, so I filed mail-in ASAP, mailed it a few days after cause neighbors are nosy and don't understand boundaries. Was able to track my ballot through my credit company, which was nice. Only thing I was missing was my sticker. Never got one✊😔. So I had to improvise and write it in pen on my disposable mask. I'm working all this week so if riots break out from either side, I'll be at work. Prayers for the safety of others🙏

______

Waaah!!! Thank you all for voting!! You are all my heroes. I am so grateful and proud of you. I’m sorry I ran out of time to respond to you individually. I’m going to drop two big scenes from Chapter 7 in gratitude (one of which will be familiar to my patrons and one won’t). I’m hopeful I will have the whole next chapter out very soon. Love you all!

Void spoilers below the cut.

When you wake up in the morning, there are still no signed HR forms in your messages. Had you been a fool to think they were interested? How much time does it take to decide such a thing? Perhaps just by putting the idea out there explicitly, it had lost all of its taboo appeal.

There is a calendar reminder waiting for you: Today is chili pepper pollinating day. At least this gives you an excuse to talk to Hoseok.

You find the science officer in the lab as always, sitting with his knee up against his chest. Hoseok doesn’t look well. He’s got dark circles under his eyes.

“Hey, um…” You shuffle your feet. Want to fuck me? No wait…“You don’t look good. Were you here all night?” you ask.

He blinks at you, bleary-eyed. “Um, was I? Yeah.. I suppose. Lost track of time.” He rubs his eyes, before looking you up and down, then casting his gaze back to the floor.

All you want to do is ask about the forms. Or the meeting. Or what he thinks of you now. But you don’t. “I need to pollinate the chili peppers today.” Usually Hoseok is the person who assists with that. “But I can get one of the other guys to do it if you need the sleep.”

“No!” Hoseok lurches forward, standing up a bit to rapidly and needing to put his hand back on the bench to steady himself. “I mean, I’m fine.”

You should disgaree with him. He is exhausted. But you’d like more time to talk to him.

Pollinating the chili peppers is both time-sensitive and time-consuming, hence why it took two of you to get the job done. There were no insects on your ship to do the job for you and if they didn’t get pollinated, they wouldn’t bear any fruit. Your chili peppers were your favorite crop. Not only a vital source of Vitamin C, but all your food benefitted from having a bit of spice added to it.

You and Hoseok head for the greenhouse together. The intital set-up gives you something to talk about in the beginning. Hoseok gathers the pollen from one flower onto a paintbrush, then hands it over to you to paint onto the stigmas of each little flower on the next plant in the line.

Slowly the conversation dries up as you fall into a silent rhythm. Other than just enjoying the chili peppers, you must admit that this was one of your favorite tasks on the ship because of the high likelihood that the two of you would brush hands peridically. Always gave you butterflies. But today he seems extra intent on keeping his distance from you. Was he disgusted by you now? His hands are trembling.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

His hand twitches so hard that a little rain of yellow pollen cascades onto the floor. He curses in frustration before turning to face you. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Um, yes, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“This, um, plan of yours…” he gestures to the vague tension in the air. “It doesn’t feel like you.”

“I’m trying to save the mission. That has always been my top priority.”

“Yeah, I’m still not clear on how this benefits the mission.”

“Yoongi said…” you start to say, but are cut off my Hoseok’s derisive snort.

“Look, if you’re in love with Yoongi, just go date him, okay? Don’t feel obligated to include the rest of us out of pity.”

You frown. “I’m not… I’m not in love with him. It’s just sex. Just biology.”

“This isn’t you!” Hoseok argues back. “You hated the idea of anyone of us ever treating you that way. And now you just want all of us to… to… use you like that?” He splutters out the end of the sentence.

“No one is using me! This is my plan! I’m in charge!”

He sighs. “Well, I can’t be a part of it. Excuse me.”

______

Taehyung finds you in the gym. It’s good to see him up and about, even if his arm is still in a sling.

“Hey, so I need to talk to you about this, um, ape sex thing.” He fishes awkwardly into his pockets and pulls out his tablet. Maybe Jimin was right. Is Taehyung going to be the first to take you up on your offer?

You pause your jog on the elliptical machine. You wish you weren’t so sweaty and gross for this conversation. Taehyung is such an intimidatingly attractive man with those strong eyebrows and that perfect skin.

Taehyung opens up the tablet and flips to the form. It’s happening. He’s going to sign the form. Shit. Then what will you do? It’s one thing to say you want to have sex with your whole crew, but what if he’s hoping to go right now? You need a shower.

Taehyung has really nice hands. Long strong fingers delicately navigating the touch screen. It seems totally improbable that a man this attractive would be into you, even if you were the only woman in the universe. It just adds to your suspicions that hormones are driving everyone crazy. Perhaps if you slept with him once, he’d lose all interest.

He finds the form and then turns his gaze up to you, staring you down with those eyes. It’s a good thing that Taehyung rarely turns his full gaze on you, because it is almost too much to bear. Shit, is he just going to sign it? Is he waiting for you to give him some sort of signal?

“You can’t do this to Jimin,” he says.

“What?” Not what you were expecting. “Do what to Jimin?”

“This.” He gestures over the HR form. “Signing these forms with everyone. Having sex with everyone. You’re going to destroy Jimin.”

“Jimin’s the one who suggested this whole thing in the first place.” It’s a lie. You know its a lie. Or at least a gross exaggeration. But Jimin was the one who first brought up the idea of sharing. All for the benefit of the man in front of you now.

“No way.” Taehyung scoffs, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow. “No way was it Jimin’s idea that you sleep with the whole crew.”

“Well…” You can’t bear his gaze anymore and look down at the floor. “He wanted me to sleep with you.”

That surprises Taehyung. He puts down the tablet. “What? Why would he want that?”

This is awkward. “He, um, thinks you’re in love with me.”

“What?” There is only surprise on Taehyung’s face. It’s actually a relief to see that Taehyung is just as shocked by that idea as you were. “Why does he think that?”

“I don’t know…” You feel kind of dumb now. Of course, Taehyung doesn’t feel that way about you. Look at him. “Cause you told him you were jealous. Cause you can’t stand to be in the same room as us…”

Taehyung bites his lip. “Oh, um, shit, sorry, that’s not what I meant.”

If Taehyung isn’t jealous of Jimin...

“Taehyung…” He looks up, biting his lip. “What did you mean? Who are you jealous of?”

Taehyung’s eyes widen, but he doesn’t say anything. Instead he reaches for his microphone and mutes it. Out of respect, you mute yours as well. He glances toward the camera in the corner of the room, then stands up and begins unzipping his jumpsuit.

“Um…” You are distracted by the golden arms that peak from either side of the tank top as the zipper reaches his groin. “What are you doing?”

“Need something to block the camera.”

“We have towels,” you mutter. But he’s already stripping out of his shirt. The musculature of his back ripples. He hangs the shirt off of the camera to block the rest of the room from view.

“Yeah, but this way anyone watching will think we’re having sex.” His chest is just as attractive as his back and you flush at the sight of it. Mercifully, he zips back into his jumpsuit as he returns to his position in front of the exercise machine.

“You want them to think we’re having sex?”

“Don’t you? It plays right into your whole save the mission with bonobo sex plan.”

“I suppose.” Though the plan was also supposed to be that there would be no more secrets between the crew. “What plan of yours does it play into?”

“The one where Jimin doesn’t realize I’m in love with him.”

“You’ve never tried to tell him?”

Taehyung laughs wryly and shakes his head. “How would that conversation go? Hey man, I know we’ve known each other for years and I’ve already seen you naked and that you just think of me as a friend, but I’m in love with you. I know that’s awkward but now you have to spend the next twelve years with me, knowing that I’m attracted to you when you don’t feel the same way.” Taehyung sighs. “Doesn’t sound like a good plan to me. If he doesn’t feel the same way, I’ve just ruined the friendship for nothing and then I don’t even have that.”

“Yeah… I get that.” There’s something touching about realizing that Taehyung has been fighting the same battle as you for the last two years.

“I couldn’t tell anyone before launch because what if they wouldn’t let me go then? You know?”

“Yeah, the director wasn’t big on sending anyone who might ‘complicate’ the mission.” The two of you share a sad knowing smile.

“Yeah… And I thought it would be fine, you know? I like women too. I’d just date women until launch and no one would know. I wasn’t planning on falling in love with my roommate.”

“I don’t think any of us really knew what this would be like.”

“I knew it was going to be a problem. I should have pulled out…”

Your mind flashes back to that moment of doubt when Hoseok talked you into still coming on the mission.

“But I couldn’t just let him go off into space without me. Even if he’d never feel the same way, at least he’d still be in my life.”

The emotion in Taehyung’s words makes your eyes begin to mist. “You really do love him.”

“Yeah,” Taehyung sighs again. “But he’s in love with you.”

“Well, he thinks he is.”

“What does that mean?”

“He only feels like that about me cause he thinks I’m the only option.” You wonder if maybe he would feel differently if he knew about Taehyung’s feelings.

Taehyung frowns and shakes his head. “You don’t give him enough credit.”

“Oh come on, you know him. How many women did he date while we were in training?”

“A few…”

“And how many of them was he in love with before he found the next one?”

Taehyung bites his lip. He can’t really argue with that. “So why are you with him then, if you don’t think it’s real?”

You shrug, rubbing your arm. “He wants me. It’s nice to feel wanted, I guess.”

“You know you could have that with any man on this ship right?”

You scoff. “They’re all suffering the same delusion. It’s only-available-vagina syndrome. I just want us all to fuck and get it out in the open. Maybe if we could get it out of our system, they would see I’m nothing special. And then we can get back to the mission.”

Taehyung eyes you up and down. “You don’t give yourself enough credit either.”

You shrug. “You wait and see. Jimin will get bored of me. They all will.”

The two of you both slump backwards in your seats, mulling over your shared woes. Taehyung bends down and picks up the tablet again. “So what should I do with this?”

“Obivously, you don’t have to sign it. I should have realized that not everyone would be interested.”

“Jimin thinks I’m in love with you?”

“Yeah…”

“Is it okay if we let him think that for now? At least until I figure out how to tell him the truth?”

“Okay.”

Taehyung smiles and signs the bottom of the form, then sends it to you. Your phone lights up with a message. “Thank you,” he murmurs before he leaves.

#I'm not going to answer asks about the spoilers right now #because I want people to be able to avoid them until the chapter drops #but that should be sometime in the next week or so #votes for void

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lifesucksheres20bucks · 5 years ago

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The Memories of Christmas Past

my not so secret santa fic for my favourite bubs @pink-psychic , sorry it couldn't be better but I hope you enjoy ❤️

On a soft snowy morning, in the suburbs of New York City. Eddie and Richie slept in bed, all tangled up in one another. Richie was half awake already, he had somehow gotten used to waking up early. He knew their peace and quiet would soon be interrupted by excited screams but for now he tried to take in his beautiful sleeping husband as much as he could. Snuggled up a bit closer and kissed his temple a bit longer, not wanting to wake him just yet. However, that carefulness was disregarded quickly as he heard footsteps getting closer to their room and suddenly the door swung open.

“Daddy, papa! Santa came! We have to go open the presents!!, Olivia their oldest, screamed as she jumped on their bed.

“Liv, sweetie, we don’t jump on the bed. You might hurt yourself.” Eddie said, slowly waking up.

“Listen to your papa sweets, you know what happens when you don’t …. TICKLE FIGHT!

Richie grabbed his daughter and started tickling her and kissing her all over until she bagged him to stop.

“DADDY! Please stop! I can’t b-breath. AH daddy, I’m too ticklish, it’s not fair!”

“Okay sweetie but you promise you’ll listen to papa now?”

“Yes daddy I promise. Can we open the presents now?”

“PRESENTS?”, Charlie their three year old son, screamed as he ran into the room.

Eddie rubbed his eyes and slowly got up and grabbed his son.

“Yeah buddy we can go open the presents soon, do you guys want hot cocoa before? Why don’t you guys go wake up Luke with daddy and i’ll go make the hot chocolate?

“YAYYY!”

Richie hurried the kids to wake up their youngest son Luke. He was a calm child, unless he was with his brother, then he would feed off of his wild energy. When they all entered his room he was already fully awake standing up in his crib. He seemed calm at first but when he saw Charlie he started jumping up in down.

“Good morning buddy! You excited to see daddy huh?”

“No! Charwie, Charwie!!”

“Of course you want your brother. Well, news flash buddy, he can’t get you out of your bed. So, are you excited to see your daddy?”

“Dada!”, Luke said as he reached his arms out and whined for his father.

“I guess that’s good enough.” Richie said as he kissed his son all over his face.

“Dada! Down, down!”

Richie put his youngest down and he instantly ran to Olivia and hugged her. She quickly got him ready for the day.

While Eddie went to make some hot chocolate for the whole family. He heard Richie, playfully screaming at his kids to keep calm but then screamed about being super excited for santa. Eddie smiled to himself, hearing his family being so happy just made his heart filled with love. He heard what sounded like a thousand footsteps running into the living room and felt arms wrap around his waist.

“Good morning Eds, all the kids are up, our little Olive took such good care of Luke. I can’t believe he’s almost two years old. It feels like just yesterday we were bringing him back home.”

“I know, they’re all growing up so fast. How is Liv seven already? And taking care of her little brothers with so much love. She’s so mature for her age.”

“We got good kids, my love”

Richie started kissing Eddie’s jaw and quickly stopped when they heard impatient screams coming from the living room. Richie helped with the hot chocolate and they both hurried and brought their kids some.

“Why does Olifia, get mug but i get sippy cup”, Charlie whined at his papa

“Because Olive is older than you, buddy. She doesn’t make a big mess when she drinks” Richie answered ruffling his son’s hair.

“I don’t make mess”, he pouted

“Do you not remember what happened with the orange juice yesterday?”

“THAT NOT MY FAULT! Luke made me do it.”

“Nah ah!”, Luke replied

“It’s not very nice to blame everything on your little brother Charlie” Eddie interjected.

“Maybe we should open some presents now?”

The question was followed by a chorus of screams, the loudest coming from Richie. As the kids opened their presents Eddie went to sit on Richie’s lap, a habit he developed as a teenager but couldn't quite do anymore with all their children wanting to sit on their daddy’s lap. He wrapped his arms around Richie, nuzzled his face into his neck and admired his beautiful children. He didn’t think life could get better than this, watching the loves of his life filled with joy, in the arms of the man he loved. He was brought out of his daydream by a small nudge in his side.

“Eds, i think it’s your turn to open your present. Olive why don’t you pass that red box to papa?”

“Why is it so heavy?”

“Well, why don’t we wait for papa to open it and we’ll see”

Eddie took the box from his girls hands and looked over at Richie and saw he had the biggest grin. He slowly started to open the gift and found a scrapbook inside. On the cover was a picture of them on their wedding day at the age of 18 years old, in Vegas. Everyone said it was crazy, but the people that knew them, the losers, were 1000% on board with the idea. The gang knew they were soulmates and nothing would ever keep them apart. When they finished high school, they all drove down to Vegas on a “graduation trip”, the same night they arrived, they had tied the knot and never looked back. On every page was a picture of their life together, one on their first day of kindergarten, another with the losers at the quarry, a lot of them, taken at mike’s farm, drunk. Eddie started feeling his eyes water up and closed the scrapbook before more could come out.

“Richie, this is beyond perfect. I-I can’t believe you did this for me. I love you so much.”

“Spaghetti, maybe you should look into the box again, that’s not the only present.”

Eddie turned his head quickly towards the box and saw a large picture frame at the bottom, he pulled it out and started sobbing.

“Why papa cry?”, Charlie asked

“I think he really likes his gift.” Olivia answered

Eddie looked at the frame again and couldn't believe his eyes. It was a picture of him and Richie on their first Christmas together as a married couple and a second picture of them on their first christmas as a complete family. Seeing those memories took him back to their shitty New York City apartment.

-------

“Richie we have to have a tree! It can’t be christmas without a tree!”

“Eds, I know baby, but we really can’t afford one right now. We can’t even afford our rent this month. I’m already taking extra shifts at the radio station, just for that.”

“I know baby, I’m sorry for pushing it. It’s just not how I pictured our first Christmas together, that's all.”

“We’re going to have a gazillion more christmas’ we can make perfect in the future. Right now let’s just concentrate on not losing our home. I have to go to work, please don’t wait up on me like you always do. Go to sleep, Eds, you have an early class.”

“Okayyy, I will.”

“Goodnight spaghetti, I love you”,with that Richie kissed his husband and headed out the door.

Richie working the night shift at the station became a regular occurrence during their winter break. They barely had any time to see each other. He would come home at six AM and Eddie would leave for his job at seven AM. I definitely wasn’t the Christmas break Eddie had hoped for but he knew money was their biggest priority.

To his surprise, on December 24th, he got home from work and found their small apartment lit up by a Christmas tree.

“Richie? What the fuck, you got us a christmas tree? I thought you said no tree because they were too expensive?”

“Yeah, I still stand by that statement, I don’t want to pay 50$ for a tree...instead I stole an extra dead one from the sidewalk and I borrowed the lights from the station.”

“ ‘Chee, oh god, you shouldn't have!” Eddie said as he pulled Richie into his arms.

“You’re not mad, I got a dead tree from the streets?”

“Surprisingly, no, I don’t care. All of this is amazing, this is the best Christmas I could have asked for.”

“I’m glad you like it, love.”

“Since we have a tree, can we exchange gifts now? I know we said no gifts but I got you a little something.”

Eddie ran into their bedroom and came back with an old looking box.

“Here, open it.”

Richie ripped open the box and took out a very old looking microphone. It was a big silver one, that looked straight up from a vintage radio station.

“I got it at the flea market, the seller said it was from a radio station from the 50’s and I thought you might like it…it doesn’t work or anything but I thought we could use it as decoration or something around the apartment. ”

“Fuck Eds, it’s perfect. You’re perfect. Thank you so much for this.”, Richie grabbed his husband and kissed him.

“Let me get my camera, I want us to remember this. Our very first Christmas together.” Richie said with a quick kiss on the cheek before he ran off to the bedroom.

After a lovely evening of hot chocolate, christmas movies and lots of cuddles, they both fell asleep on the couch. For Eddie, this was one of his favourite memories with Richie, even more memorable than their wedding day. It was the first time they spent a holiday together as a small family. The first time it felt like it was the two of them against the world.

He never wanted that feeling to go away and it never did. Everyday with Richie topped the last and now, with their family, it was truly the two of them against the world. The gift Richie gave reminded him of that original feeling and it made fill with happiness. His kids got the presents they wanted and were happily playing with them as Eddie snuggled closer to the man that made this all possible. As cheesy as it is to say, the holidays were a magical time and he was reminded of that feeling, seeing his children so excited and happy made Eddie the luckiest man in the world.

He glanced over at the old microphone that sat atop their mantle over the fireplace and smiled to himself. Christmas mornings with his children and his husband were the best mornings and he couldn’t wait for the next one.

#reddie #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #reddie fanfic #reddie au #reddie one shot #christmas reddie #infinity war #it chapter 2 #it 2017 #it 2019 #this kinda really sucks and its horribly written but I cannot do anything rn for the life of me

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zuura · 4 years ago

Note

Hello Anto! secret santa here! ❤️ I was around the neighborhood and wanted to say hi! and of course ask you how things are going? How have you been? I'm always rooting for youuu! ~~ Looking back at our last messages, you mentioned that you got some recomendations of manga/ manhwa/ webtoons to read, and I was curious about those! Do you have any of them to recommend me too? (if you want to) - much love! take care! ❤️

oooo hello santa! i’ve been doing great cause i totally passed my two finals yayyy and i had a few days of rest and tomorrow (maaaaybe) i have to start styuding again for another one I have to take on December askdnjas

And that’s why I haven’t really had the chance to read the recommendations TT but these are the ones I got!: Here U Are!, Gourmet Hound, Bastard!, Orange Marmalade, Star x Fanboy, Winter Woods, Eleceed, Flawless (webtoon), Solo Leveling, Beware of the Villainess, Hirunaka no Ryuusei, Tsubaki-chou Lonely Planet, Tokyo Revengers, The Best Smell.

Some of the recommendations I got but I had already read them were: Dengeki Daisy (literally one of the best shoujos, really funny, and with a plot besides the romance, I loved it lots when I read it years ago!), Blue Lock (a really interesting sports manga because it’s super different from the usual ones, like they don’t care at all about teamwork here so imagine it aksjdnka also most characters are really good! it’s totally catching!), and Ao no Flag is the last manga I read, and it’s SO GOOD, very wholesome and lovely, I loved every minute of it!

Take care Santaaa<3

#bookie answers #anonymous #animangasecretsanta

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alwaysinstoryland · 5 years ago

Text

2019 Fic Year in Review

I did this last year and I thought it was fun and a great way to look back on the progress I’ve made during the year so I decided to do it again for 2019!

January

A Bad Idea

Wrote this at midnight while camping! I remember having the song stuck in my head and frantically typing to get everything down before my phone died. It was a fun time!

February

A Snuggle Bug

Managed to write a late Valentine’s Day fic this month despite the looming deadline of a massive research assignment that our teacher had decided not to give to us until late in the term. Posting this was fun because I had people being all like “omg ur teacher is evil” and it made me feel better lol

Little did I know she would only get worse -_-

March

Nothing was posted this month. I don’t think I did much writing either. I was just too busy with school I think.

April

Sleepy late night lucky charm

May

Nothing again!

June

This month, I started a ladrien fic for Ladrien June which I’m not listing here since it’s discontinued now. I might come back to it sometime later but it just wasn’t the right time for me to write it then.

July

I Wished For You

Stay as Long as You Want

Hey, You’re Cute

This month I did camp nanowrimo and wrote about 10k words I think so that’s pretty cool. My favourite thing from this month is ‘I Wished For You’ because it’s really cute and I really like it.

August

Nothing. I spent most of this month mentally preparing for my final senior exams which actually ended up being the easiest and the most fun exams I’ve ever taken. Our teachers hyped it up to be so important and really stressful but actually it was so chill! For the writing task I wrote a letter from the perspective of someone who had been kidnaped by people in hot air balloons. I had absolutely no plan and no idea what was happening but it was fun!

September

two dorks, one game

October

Come in from the Pouring Rain

November

Wait Before You Leave

Wow this was a bit of mixed month. For the first part of it I was the most stressed I’ve ever been mostly thanks to a certain teacher. But then I graduated and the second half of November was great. I didn’t write much because I had to recover from school but I managed to do one of the days of the lovesquare fluff week.

December

G’Morning Lovebug

Snowflakes and Iceskates

I was in Bali for pretty much all of this month so I didn’t write very much. I did get super inspired though and brainstormed a whole heap for my forest au (I really need a better name for it but forest au has just stuck lol) and I’m super excited to actually write it this year.

Total words written: Approx. 32,000

I’m actually really surprised at how many words I wrote this year! It’s more than last year, which I wasn’t expecting. I was keeping my expectations low though since I knew school would take up a lot of time but I’m happy with what I achieved!

I don’t know if you can see this very well but here’s how many words I wrote each month!

Goals for 2020

Yayyy goal time! My goals are pretty vague for this year but I do have a couple of things I definitely want to do!

1. I have recently decided that I’m going to write at least one Ladrien fic each month and I’m really excited for that!

2. I’m also gonna actually start writing that forest au I’ve been thinking about and maybe another au but we’ll see

So here’s to a year of creating!

#fic year in review #miraculous ladybug #fanfiction #2019 #ladrien #ladynoir #marichat #adrienette #happy new year!!

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parkersharthook · 6 years ago

Text

YouTuber Au

(Lucas Friar x Maya Hart)

Warnings: cheesy fluff

3.7k+ words

Maya is a famous youtuber, and this is her boyfriend tag video. Told from the perspective of the viewer.

“Hey guys it’s Maya and welcome back to my channel! Before I introduce someone special and start this video I just want to say that we reached 15 million! Yayyy go us and I love every single one of my hartists out there. I’m going to have a special video up on Friday celebrating 15 mil with some special merchandise drop and some other surprises!” Maya waved her hands excitedly. “But along with that Friday video I will have the regular Sunday one so this is a not-gonna-happen-a-lot-two-video-a-week thing. So stay tuned. Also, last week’s video where me and my friend Riley do the duct tape and the best friend tag in one just beat our record of 20 million views with 25 million views! I love you guys so much and remember keep being creative and keep being you.”

“Should I come in now?” Lucas’s voice said off camera.

Maya laughed and held up a finger, “Okay and now onto this video! I have gotten a lot of requests and comments saying I should do this so here I am… it’s the boyfriend tag! You have probably seen my boyfriend in the back of some of my videos but now here he is.” Maya waved her hand motioning for Lucas to come into frame and he fell onto the couch next to her. He was relaxed on the couch with his arm lazily over the back while Maya sat forward. She placed a hand on Lucas’s knee, “This is my boyfriend Lucas.”

He lifted a hand in greeting. Maya scoffed and pulled him into a sitting position by his jacket collar, “You aren’t in the light and please act somewhat excited.”

He adjusted his hoodie and lightly swatted her hand away, “I’m excited.”

Maya narrowed her eyes slightly but just nodded and look back towards the camera. “Okay but this isn’t just a normal boyfriend tag this is the extreme boyfriend tag! We have 30 questions and for every five questions he gets wrong, Lucas has to take a shot of something gross.”

He groaned in the background, “I didn’t know that! I wouldn’t have done it if I did.”

She patted his knee in fake sympathy, “that’s why I didn’t tell you. Okay so for the first five he’ll have to take a shot of lemon juice and then ketchup and then soy sauce and then fish sauce and then buttermilk and then if he gets all of them wrong he’ll have to drink all of it combined. How exciting!”

“I’m really not looking forward to this anymore.” Lucas groaned as he dropped his face into his hands. Maya ran a hand through his hair and quickly kissed the side of his head before pulling out her phone.

“So I asked all of my hartists out there to send in questions and I’ve chosen my favorite 30 so let’s get down to business. Okay first off an easy one, when and where did we meet?”

“We met when I was a transfer student in seventh grade. I had just moved from Texas and this short little blonde comes up to me in the subway and is hitting on me and then dating me and then breaking up with me in a span of five seconds.”

Maya held up her finger and pursed her lips slightly, “That’s not exactly how it goes. I was trying to prove a point to Riley that you can’t just wait for some guy to talk to you, you can make the first move. And that goes out to all my ladies out there because you don’t need to wait for a man, if you want it you can take it.”

“But I got it right?” Lucas said with an eyebrow raised.

Maya grumbled, “yes you got it right okay moving on. How long have we been dating?”

“We started dating around Halloween of senior year so like two and half years?”

Maya nodded, “yeah I would say that’s a good estimate.” She scrolled through her phone slightly, “Where was our first date?”

“We went to see a horror movie and then to pizza.” Lucas said with a smile.

“That was still my favorite horror movie I’ve seen. Though It was pretty good. Where and when was our first kiss?”

“It was in December a few months after we started dating and I had just found out my grandfather had died and I showed up at your window at liked 2 am and of course you were up painting and so you opened the window and pulled me inside. And then you kissed me.”

“That I did. See girls? You don’t have to wait for them to make the first move.”

Lucas nodded and kissed her, “Thanks for not waiting. What’s next?”

“When is my birthday?”

“Easy. January 15th.”

“What color are my eyes?” Maya instantly dropped her phone onto her lap and covered her eyes with her hands.

“Blue.” Lucas answered without missing a beat, “There a light almost icy blue and they’re gorgeous.”

“Aww thanks babe. Yours are okay.” Lucas dropped his head in a chuckle but picked it up when Maya chuckled darkly, looking at the next question.

“Where was I born?”

“Crap. Okay so I know you grew up in the Bronx so… the Bronx?”

Maya bit her lip slightly and shook her head, “Nope. I was born in Brooklyn in the back seat of a taxi.”

“You were?” Lucas said with a slight horrified expression. Maya just nodded with a cheeky smile and flashed a big thumbs up.

“Which food do I hate? Wait… that’s too easy. Name five.”

Lucas held up a finger, “Mayo.” Maya nodded and he picked up another, “Cauliflower.” Another nod, “Squash?”

Maya shook her head as she gasped, “No! I love squash.

“What food do you not like? You eat everything!”

“Sour cream, cottage cheese, and radishes. Those foods deserve to die in hell. Ok, when and where did you meet my parents?” Maya propped her head on her hand and looked at him.

“I met your mom when she came in for career day. I met Kermit when he came to New York for the forgiveness project and I met Shawn on your birthday.”

“What about when we were officially dating?”

“Well I saw your mom a lot because she worked at Topanga’s but they formally invited me to dinner with them one night and I think Shawn wanted to kill me.”

Maya laughed and nodded, “yeah I think so too.” She glanced back down to her phone, “Ooh a hard one! What’s my shoe size?”

“What?! How am I supposed to know that? I don’t even know woman’s shoe sizes. Um… an 8?” Maya huffed and threw her phone to the side.

“You got it.” She said dejectedly.

Lucas smiled brightly, “Really?” Maya just nodded causing him to laugh.

“Moving on, moving on. What am I good at?”

“Kissing.” Maya slapped him on the chest lightly, “Okay. Obviously art. I mean y’all have seen it.” He gestured to the camera, “She’s fucking fantastic!” Quickly he covered his mouth and looked to Maya, “Can I curse?” Maya snorted in laughter and nodded her head, “She’s fucking fantastic!”

“Thanks huckleberry. Now the opposite. What am I really bad at?”

Lucas thought for a moment before lighting up, “cooking. You are terrible at cooking. One time when she was just trying to make pasta and she almost lit our apartment on fire.” Maya cringed and nodded as she scratched her face.

“Yeah… that’s not my specialty. Luckily I’m dating someone who can cook. Okay, which sport is my favorite?”

Lucas smirked and obnoxiously popped his collar, “Baseball because that’s what I play.”

“Lol nope!” Maya laugh drawling out the nope, “basketball because it’s not boring as fuck!” Lucas pouted and Maya just patted his cheek. “What film always makes me cry?”

Lucas narrowed his eyes at her, “That’s a trick question. Movies don’t make you cry.”

Maya shrugged and nodded at the camera, “It’s true. I don’t know what’s wrong with me but I do not cry at the movies. Where would I love to travel?”

“You want to visit everywhere, you dream of travelling the world.”

“More specific.” Maya teased.

“Iceland.” Maya nodded and scrolled through her phone once more.

“If I could live anywhere, where would I live?”

“I feel like you wouldn’t move. You love New York.”

Maya hummed and shook her head in thought, “I do love New York but if I could I would probably live in Italy. I mean their food ohhh and their art! What weird talent do I have?”

Lucas took a minute to think about it, “I mean I don’t know if this is necessarily weird but it sure is impressive. You can bullshit a five page essay in like an hour and still get a perfect score. I just don’t see how it’s possible.” Maya held her hands beneath her face and tilted her head.

“I love putting myself in those shitty situations and then doing the bare minimum.” Maya said sarcastically. Her thumb swiped across the screen and momentarily paused before her eyes widened and she kept scrolling.

“Hey I saw that! Why did you skip it? What was the question?” Maya rolled her eyes and furthered herself from him.

“Nothing ranger rick… just a stupid question.” Lucas looked at her before lunging for her phone. She quickly straightened her arm, holding her phone away from him but due to his much longer arms he quickly snatched the phone from her hand and fell to the other side as he read the question. Maya threw herself over him trying to grab her phone back but failed.

“It says here ‘what is my nickname?’” He smugly looked towards her, “Why don’t you tell me Maya what is your nickname?”

She pushed off him and pointed a threatening finger towards him, “Quit it huckleberry!”

He sat up and smiled largely as he looked between Maya and the camera, “Well I call her Shortstack for obvious reasons and I also call her pancakes. Care to say why I call you that Maya?” Maya made eye contact and stared deeply at Lucas.

She huffed and slouched forward, “because I’m a shortstack of pancakes.”

Lucas laughed but leaned towards her, one hand cupping his ear. “What did you say?”

Maya stifled a laugh and shook her head at him, “Because I’m a shortstack of pancakes.” Her tone was a little louder but was filled with nothing but teasing love.

“Ah but there’s one more nickname I call you.” Lucas said in a sing song voice. “I also call you Penelope. And Hart sometimes.”

Maya groaned and flopped back on the couch, “Happy now?”

Lucas smiled giddily, “Yeah… get going this is getting fun.”

“Ok, but that might not even make it in the video because I’m the editor so don’t get too cocky… what kind of films do I like?”

“You love horror and comedy movies.”

“Bonus questions! What type of movie do I hate?”

“You really don’t like romance movies.”

“Except….” Maya continued on.

“Except for when you watch them with Riley and Zay.”

“Ok, here’s another easy one. Who’s my best friend?”

Lucas nodded and took her hand, “Well I would love to say Lucas but I know it’s Riley.”

Maya nodded and turned to the camera, “Yes and I do this every time she comes up because she’s my best friend but go follow her because she’s a beauty and photography blogger on YouTube. You can follow her @smileyriley.”

“Stop promoting her and keep going.” Lucas said while playing with her fingers.

“Where did we go on our first trip together?”

“Well we went on multiple field trips together during our high school days and of course there as the ski lodge but our first couple trip was when we went to Florida with Riley, Farkle, Zay, and Isadora.”

Maya nodded with a smile, “We went to Disney World. That was a good trip. Okay, how do I drink my coffee?”

“You have two moods. When you need to get shit done you order a straight black and when you just want coffee because you like it you get an iced coffee.”

Maya shook her head in disbelief, “You know me too well.” Lucas pulled her towards him and pressed a smiley kiss against her lips. She pulled away, “What’s my favorite video game?”

“You like the assassin’s creed series.” Lucas answered as he leaned back into the couch.

“Yeah I did.” Maya said, throwing her legs over his lap, “But my favorite is Call of Duty Black Ops or World War II. Probably because me and Zay played it all the time. Next question, what’s my favorite clothing item and what’s your favorite clothing item of mine?”

“You love your leather jackets especially the one Shawn gave you a while ago. And what’s my favorite clothing item of yours? I really like that red dress you have.”

“That red dress I have?” Maya asked with a laugh, “Lucas honey… I have a lot of red dresses. You might need to be more specific.”

Lucas sputtered slightly, “I don’t know. It goes all the way up to your neck and you typically wear those black boots that go all the way to your knee.”

“Oh.” Maya looked through her phone for a minute before showing him a picture, “this one?” Lucas nodded, “Good choice because I like that one too. This is the one he’s talking about.” She pointed the left corner of her screen and a picture of her wearing a bodycon velvet dress with over the knee black boots popped up. Her hair was pulled back and a leather jacket was held between her fingers. She looked stunning. “Okay moving on, am I a morning or an evening person?”

Lucas laughed as he threw his head back and clapped a few times, “How is that even a question? I wouldn’t dare and nor do I advise anyone to mess with you any time before 11 am. No, you are definitely a night person.” He answered as he rubbed her thighs.

“Okay I don’t know how many we’ve done but imma keep going. What was my first job?”

Lucas’s eyes widened, “Crap. I don’t know this.”

“I’ll give you two guesses.”

“Was it some fast food place?” Maya shook her head, “I don’t know. A dog walker?”

Maya laughed and shook her head, “No I taught guitar and art at a community center.”

“Wouldn’t that be volunteering?” Lucas asked.

“Not when they pay you.” Lucas laughed at her response, “What was my least and favorite subject in school?”

“History and art were definitely your favorites and you didn’t like math.”

“You got the favorites correct but while I didn’t like math I hated science even more. So you were wrong. What is one thing I love doing but most people don’t?”

Lucas laughed slightly and shook his head, “Ok so you love like breaking your makeup and then mixing it together.”

Maya laughed and nodded before holding up her hand, “Let me explain. I have a weird shade where I’m pale but I’m not typically as pale as the makeup is so I have to blend together a color that’s too pale and a color that’s too dark to make the perfect mix for my complexion. I know a lot of girls frown upon that but I really enjoy doing it.”

“Well you look great.” Lucas said earning a smile from Maya, “it would be a shame if someone ruined it.” Before Maya could do anything Lucas cupped her neck and pulled her face towards him as he licked her cheek. Maya groaned and aggressively rubbed her cheek.

“Ew, that’s nasty. Ugh you’re the worst which is why I’m asking you this. What’s our song?”

Lucas frowned and turned to the camera to explain, “This causes a lot of controversy in our relationship because I think it’s Your Man by Josh Turner because I sang it to her one time.”

Maya leaned more towards the camera to state her case, “I thinks it’s Humble by Kendrick Lamar because not only was I listening to it when you came to my window the night of our first kiss but it was also playing in Topanga’s when you asked me out.”

Lucas just stuck his tongue playfully out at her before smiling largely, “Why don’t we ask your followers. Please comment below if you think Your Man or Humble should be our song?”

“Wow, those are two really different songs.” Maya laughed at herself, “Okay last question. What TV show do I love that you hate?”

“So Maya watches this show called Big Brother that I’m positive a large portion of you guys watch to but I just don’t see the appeal of it. It’s too much drama.”

“The drama is the best part!” Maya yelled, “Also he doesn’t appreciate Avatar: The Last Airbender like he should.”

“Okay that one comes with reason. It’s about a bald kid that can bend the four elements? That’s so stupid.”

Maya shot up, “It is a quality TV show that deserves the love and support of all. I watched that show throughout my entire childhood and it was the best thing.” Lucas just reached up and pulled her down onto her lap.

“What happens now? You said that was our last question.”

Maya perked up as she smiled at the camera, “Wellll, you got seven questions wrong which means you have to take a shot of ketchup.” Lucas cringed as Maya got off his lap. Due to editing it quickly switched to Lucas sitting at the edge of the couch with Maya beside him and the shot of ketchup on the table in front of them. “Drink up.”

Lucas didn’t hesitate as he grabbed the glass and knocked it back. It slowly crept out of the glass and into his throat, causing him to gag. Maya covered her mouth with her hands as she laughed. Lucas groaned and quickly grabbed the glass of water and drank from it.

“Well I drank it all.” Lucas said with a frown.

“Good job, I’m proud of you.” Maya said before turning to the camera with a clap. Okay guys that’s it for this video but stay tuned from some hilarious bloopers from this goofball to my right and myself.” The screen cut to static and then and image of Maya sitting on the couch showed up. “You ready to go?”

“Yep.” Lucas said from off camera.

“Ok and this is my boyfriend Lucas!”

Lucas suddenly slid in behind the couch on his socks before losing balance and falling directly on his butt. Maya lost it as she peered behind the couch and laughed. It switch to the next video of Maya standing up to get a blanket but tripping over the rug. Lucas reached out to try to grab her but ended up just rolling off the couch and joining her on the ground. The last clip was of when Maya got up to get the ketchup and Lucas just grabbed her hand to pull her back. But unfortunately Maya fell backwards as her arms flew about and she smacked Lucas in the face. They laughed uncontrollably.

Another static noise and image filled the screen for a few seconds before it switched back to Lucas and Maya sitting on the couch.

“Okay everyone that’s the end of my video. I hope all of you enjoyed it and I hope,” she turned to her boyfriend, “I didn’t torment you too much. Leave a comment below if you want to see another video with Lucas in it or if you don’t. Don’t forget to like and subscribe to join the family. I’m so thankful and happy that we got to 15 mil and I love every one of you, from those who were hartists from the beginning to those who joined because of this video. I have some new merchandise out and a few art kits that I just dropped on my website mayapenelope.com/merchandise. If you’re not already following me you can hit me up at any of my social medias @mayapenelope on all platform. I’m also putting the link to Lucas’s social media down in the description. Don’t forget to be creative and be you. Don’t let anyone tell you how to act or who to be. Remember to spread love not hate and to not discriminate against anyone no matter their religion, race, sexuality, or heritage. Let’s make this world a better place together guys. Alright I’ll see you on Friday with my special video for celebrating 15 million! Love you guys!” Maya kissed her palm and pressed it against the camera’s lens cueing the end of the video.

~.~

Maya sat at her desk, her laptop open in front of her and her glasses rested on her nose. She scrolled through her feed, her mouth slightly ajar.

“Hey Maya, did you get to the store?” Lucas asked as he walked into her room. She didn’t respond, let alone move her eyes from the screen. “Maya?”

“Lucas come look at this.” She waved him over excitedly and he came and stood behind her, looking at her computer over her shoulder. She pointed to all the comments that flooded her newly uploaded video. “They loved you!”

“Of course they did.” Lucas joked.

“I’m getting a ton saying ‘he’s super-hot’ and that ‘she’s super lucky’. A lot of ‘relationship goals’ and ‘they’re so cute together’.” She smiled widely, “It was uploaded less than 6 hours ago and it already has 2 million view and half a million likes. Plus over a million comments. This is fantastic!”

He rubbed her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her head, “I’m proud of you Maya.” She tilted her head up to face him.

“I’m going to need you to be in a lot more videos, they love you.” He leaned down and kissed her.

“I would love to be on the famous Maya Hart’s YouTube channel.” He kissed her again.

“Also they think Humble is our song.” Lucas groaned causing Maya to snicker as he walked out of the door and left Maya to continue to marvel at how well the video was doing.

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