#too lazy to do bullet point bio so just have the whole thing

[lauriewestwood]

𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐨𝐝. 𝐡𝐞/𝐡𝐢𝐦. 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲.

𝐛𝐢𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐲. | 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬. 

CHARACTER BASICS

Name: Lawrence “Laurie” Jude Westwood Age & DOB: 31, April 25th 1991 Gender & Pronouns: Cisman & He/Him Time in Bradford Springs: 1 year. Sexual Orientation & Marital Status: Heterosexual; Single Occupation: Aspiring Fiction Writer / Part-time Personal Assistant to Dr. Evelyn Mendez Positive Traits: creative, independent, caring, attentive, hopeful Negative Traits: compliant, self-effacing, jealous, cautious, scatterbrained Neighborhood: Apartment in Southside, Bradford Springs

BACKGROUND

tw: parental death & drug mention

It’s been you and your sister for as long as you can remember, attached at the hip even when you can’t stand each other. Given you’re born a year apart, you know there was a brief time before her. You know it was tragic, too. Your parents were young and in love when you were born, the two of them just happy newlyweds who were eager to start their little family in a quiet corner of London. There are a few short months of bliss before all their happiness turns to grief — a car accident takes your mother’s short life, leaving her husband and young son alone. You don’t remember what that time was like, but you can imagine the horrors of your father’s suffering.

He’s never been a solitary creature — it isn’t your father’s nature to wallow in isolation, and he’s no good at being alone. Your mother knew this, too, and would’ve wanted him to find some joy in life again. She’d have wanted him to find a new woman to love, someone who would help raise her son now that she couldn’t. So your father does, and soon after he finds love again comes your sister Bella. There’s no questioning who your family is, growing up with the understanding that Bella’s mom is your mom, too ( any easy conclusion, considering all your scraped knees she kissed, all the lunches she packed for you, all the times she held you as you cried ). You are your little sister’s fierce protector, as well as her constant annoyance. So close in age that it’s always ammunition for an argument, she is the person you most love in this world, though you’re often the first person to piss her off, too.

It doesn’t take long for this family of yours to notice your natural talents for story telling — though your parents might call it lying, the way you can seemingly make up tall tales from nothing. In your school days, you’re surrounded by stories. You become enthralled with books, the magic of getting lost in the pages, emerging hours later as a changed person. As a hungry reader, you turn to writing, too. There’s no doubt that you’re gifted with pen and paper, then encouraged by all your doting teachers, then further rewarded by scholarship committees and prospective colleges. One autumn evening, a letter addressed to you comes and announces that you’ve been accepted to Columbia’s prestigious Creative Writing program, and you feel like fucking magic.

You’re happy out there in New York, for some time at least. Being surrounded by a new world of art and music and poetry and fashion rubs off on you in an instant. You find a new passion in menswear, dressing yourself to the nines for your walk to the store down the block, taking photographs with your group of friends who seem to do it all — they all identify themselves as actors/models/writers/producers/makeup artists and more. At least you’re writing more than ever here. You’re submitting your stuff to publishers, too, something your family always encouraged you to do ( but you never did ). You find friends in the other creatives, fall in and out of love a few times, and everyone else around you makes this life look easy. You try to keep up with them.

Maybe you spent too much time partying and not enough time writing, or maybe all those friends of yours really are just more talented than you. Either way, graduation comes and goes and you’re the only one without some amazing offer for a wildly cool and artistic job. Your friends take positions at magazines, fashion houses, entertainment giants, and more, but you find yourself stuck in NYC working a hundred different part time jobs. You’ve done the fast food thing, retail too, and even a stint working at a call center. You learn quickly that customer service sucks wherever you go. Your family reminds you that you don’t need to rough it out on your own, but your pride refuses them. Meanwhile, you try to find the time to write anything worthwhile — sometimes, you get lucky and make a few hundred bucks by writing articles for everything from clickbait web blogs to cheap fashion magazines, but you feel no closer to any means of success. In the few months you live there, you spend your time getting high, writing a lot, and sending your work to literary agents. No word yet.

Thirty comes and goes. This birthday marks a whole decade of you trying and failing to get your work published, so you take this as a sign: maybe the city isn’t the creative dreamworld you once idolized it to be. Seeking a change of pace, you reach out to your aunt Joelle in Colorado, and ask if you can stay awhile. While the surrounding mountains are beautiful, you haven’t lived here long enough yet to know if they harness any creative magic.

Six months ago, you managed to land a real job, something that got you out of your aunt’s house and into your very own apartment in Southside. A surgeon-turned business woman puts an ad out for a personal assistant, paying an almost stupid amount for how much work you think you’ll be doing. But soon you find out how busy she’ll keep you, running from the night club she owns to the dry cleaner, and then it’s off to the grocery store and over to the hospital, where she moonlights as a fucking surgeon. You’re considering asking her for a raise sometime soon, but you don’t want to fuck this up yet. You’ll need to work for her until you finally manage to write a book anyone actually wants to read.

HEADCANONS

Since working for Evie, you’ve had a bit too much fun making TikToks for work. Mostly, you use this as an excuse to get back into fashion now that you can wear whatever you want to work. Your viral hits include, “A day in the life as a Personal Assistant,” “Styling Joggers for the Office,” and “LOOKBOOK: from 4 o clock meeting with ur boss to happy hour drinks.” Secretly, you’re hoping you can get some sponsorships to help make ends meet.

You’re a reader, but what good writer isn’t? You’ve read all the classics at least three times, though lately, you’ve ventured into the contemporary now that you’re trapped in BookTok, too.

Nothing helps your writing more than weed — thank god there’s finally a recreational dispensary in Bradford Springs. A blunt to yourself and then you can get past that writer’s block, a fog that’s been stuck in your brain ever since you left New York. And, it’s nice to unwind with after a long day of managing your boss’ personal affairs.

You worry that you’ve peaked already, having graduated high school as a golden child with high academic honors and a bright future ahead of you. Oh, how far you’ve come crashing down since then. It’s hard not to compare yourself to all your old friends who’ve graduated from Columbia, and to your family members, and to frankly, most everyone  around you.

You have a dog — a sweet lab named Daisy ( which makes total sense, considering your love for The Great Gatsby ). 

Despite your previous stint in NYC, and the up and coming nightlife in Bradford Springs, you’ve never been big on going out. You typically only hit the clubs on business for Evie.

[autumnsharma]

⋙ did you see autumn sharma at that rager last night? i think they major in veterinarian science as a sophomore. from what i hear they’re enthusiastic & passionate, but they can be pretty aloof too, depending on who you ask. there was a rumor going around last semester that she threatened to sue her high school if they didn’t let her play on the boy’s soccer team because they didn’t have one for girls, but it seems way too wild to be true- maybe i’ll get to know UCSB’s resident gamine better & find out.

bio, taken connections, & wanted connections are under the cut!

this bio is in bullet points bc i’m lazy (oops).

i’m not ashamed to say she is aggressively a tik-tok bisexual

autumn grew up to an upper middle class family in portland, oregon; and was raised by immigrants.

her grandparents on her mom’s side moved to the US from india when her mom was just young. 

her dad lived next door to her mom, it was a classic neighbors falling in love type story. 

it makes autumn technically a first generation kid, but both her parents came to the us at a young age ( 3 + 6 ), and it’s much to the point that she was raised as a second generation kid.

because both of her parents worked a lot ( mom a nurse, father a professor at reed college in gender studies ), so her grandparents babysat her when she was younger and her parents worked.

her mom could only understand hindi, and not speak it. her father speaks hindi, but after a conversation with their parents (her grandparents on both sides), they decided they wanted their first child to have an easier life.

so autumn was raised only on english, and any family pets were given away when she was born, in fear of them hurting the baby.

is highkey ashamed for not knowing hindi, never took the opportunity to take hindi in high school or college (took italian instead) in fear of being made fun of or shamed for not knowing the language.

and so she has to work through school to pay rent, but her parents help her pay for tuition and books.

she works at a coffee shop as a barista!

her parents were a bit strict, but only wanted best for their baby girl.

does not do drugs. drinks socially. 

autumn has a tendency to see the world both as it IS and as it could be.

literally depending on her mood (and how much weed she has in her lol), she can see the world either as a studio ghibili movie, or some shitty place for everyone to live and demand that the world does better.

she wants to be in love with life, so she tries her best to do so

she loves the way a baby smells, wearing baggy sweaters that make her look even tinier, pays attention to the little things, literally stops to smell the flowers, asks someone if they’re okay if they’re looking down, smiles at strangers in the street,   loves a good cup of coffee, absolutely adores tiny versions of normal things

a whole ass HOE for coffee, drinks it like her life depends on it.

not ... that smart? like yeah, she’s not failing any of her classes, but she also isn’t excelling

her rumor is in fact True

on the soccer team here tho :) 

TAKEN CONNECTIONS

refuge on the roof (v1) - @sundazcd :  autumn takes refuge from parties a lot, needing some time to refuel and energize herself;  she comes across sunday, who’s usually smoking, and they just keep running into each other. a classic baader meinhof phenomenon until autumn cracks and finally just asks sunday for her number. 

refuge on the roof (v2) - @palmerfms :  true to it’s name, both jason and autumn seek refuge from being at the parties they are either dragged to, or think they should be at due to social norms in their social circles. besties bc they both hate large crowds. 

different font (comic sans) - @beaunjour :  autumn knows guys, okay? she was on the boy’s soccer team in high school for three years. she knows them in and out. or so ... she thinks? then beau comes along and is like naur, i can raise u one better !! and it’s actually sweet and romantic, which is weird because she never thought that she could do romance but here she is. tldr; fwb, but the benefits are ... romance. 

bad influence - ( @lexiweston ) : due to lexi being her captain, autumn is inclined to hang onto every word lexi says ... even if it’s going to parties instead of studying ... even if it’s doing things autumn wouldn’t necessarily see herself doing!

WANTED CONNECTIONS

partner in crime  they do literally everything together, are tied to each other’s hip, would probably die for each other idk i wouldn’t put it past them! 

a go to fwb  she gets stressed and needs to Un-Stress. strictly no strings attached!

more to come im just braindead

okay that’s all thanks for coming to my ted talk

[stephinsshortstories]

Story 2.1: Student Lounge Smoothies

(Part 1, I hope?) A confession from one athlete to another, and all the anxiety that comes with it. Sometimes you just gotta swallow that lump in your throat and shoot your shot!

Like 1.1, this story is one of my most “realistic” premises. That means a believable setup, and no magic or plot tomfoolery! Themes include wlw crushes, the dynamics of asking someone out, and other beautifully human experiences.

This is another fairly early work of mine, and it’s written from a perspective I have only partially experienced myself, so it’s a bit of an experiment! Please share constructive critique if you’ve got it.

While the following story doesn’t contain overtly sexual content, I still ask those under the age of 18 to pass on it. Also, be warned, it can take up a lot of space on your dash!

The locker room flooded with bodies quickly. It was Friday, everyone was desperate to get changed and get out, and Coach Theresa always made Friday workouts the worst. “To make sure nobody gets lazy,” she’d say. The atmosphere hung heavy with sweat and a generally ubiquitous urge to not be there longer than necessary.

         Like most of the university lacrosse team, Kate was in a hurry to split.

         “Dammit…” she whispered to herself, seeing the line forming for the showers. She hadn’t muscled her way in enough in the initial rush; most of the team beat her to the stalls. Still, she decided with a groan, they were faster than going back to her dorm.

         Not being able to do much before a proper shower, Kate waffled for time. She hang restlessly at her locker, watching small pockets of conversation ripple through her teammates. A couple of her friends passed her on the way out, and she resolved with them to hang out in the student union tomorrow night, and threw in a few jovial complaints about their Molecular Bio lab project. Kate watched a majority of the girls trickle out over ten, maybe fifteen minutes, and silently castigated herself for not pushing more every time someone left. How very freshman of her.

         Nineteen, and still can’t grow a goddam spine, she thought.

         By the time Kate finally got in and out of a shower, only a few of her teammates remained. Trish, Gina, and Dana were discussing something by their lockers, Yasmin was tying her shoes to leave, and someone whose name she tentatively thought was… Verdana? Verona? Whoever. She was stuffing dirty clothes into a drawstring bag.

         Nobody’s really focused on me… I think I’m okay to get changed, Kate reported to herself. Equal parts social anxiety, shyness over changing publicly, and shyness over her outfit made her tense and hyper-vigilant. Today even more than usual. When she’d first arrived on campus in the fall, some new friends had quietly and coyly recommended her a certain club downtown. Now was finally the Friday night Kate had mustered the courage to go out, and really experience nightlife… her parents had been pretty strict, and while she’d had her fair share of boyfriends (and a few very secret stints with some girls, as experiments), the hot, neon, underground appeal of a real nightclub represented a whole new level of tantalizing freedom. Dances, drinks, the like…

         Kate shook herself from the daydream and began to quickly put herself together. Along with clothes and shower gear, she had a makeup kit and a brush with her - she planned on meeting her friends downtown right after practice. However, after just a few minutes, less than half dressed…

         “Hey. Katelyn, right?” a voice over her shoulder asked. Kate jumped. Wheeling around quickly, she was met face-to-face by the toned, imposing figure of Quinn Baker, the team captain, standing over her. She seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

         “Yeah! Uh - yeah. Kate. What’s up?” Kate stammered, finally regaining composure halfway through.

         “Quinn. Captain Quinn. Yeah, yeah, good to meet ya - can we talk for a minute?” Quinn was still wet, and was wearing a t-shirt and a towel on her waist - she must’ve been in the shower when Kate had scanned the room.

         “Yeah, uh - sure, what do you need?” Kate was startled sick, which turned to heavy nervousness; the only reason she could think of for a captain to be pulling aside a random freshman on a team dozens strong would be for a chew-out. Kate’s mind was racing, but she was utterly sure that that would be the last thing she could handle right now.

         “I just wanted to ask you a few things,” Quinn, noticing Kate sweating bullets, tried to ease back. “Nobody’s in trouble… but for starters, thanks for picking lax, always good to see new recruits and all.”

         “Uh, yeah, I played it through high school, wanted to stick with it here. Nice to meet you… what did you need to ask me?”

         “Well, kinda a lie, I more want to talk to you than ask you stuff. First of all, I take it you have plans tonight? You seemed to be getting dressed up in a hurry. Most people don’t wait long for shower here.”

         “Yeah, meeting some friends at a restaurant downtown. The walk back to the dorm would’ve taken longer…”

         “Fair enough. But Kate, you don’t need to bullshit me. It’s not a restaurant, is it?

         Kate began to sweat again. She didn’t mean to lie, but saying she was going clubbing to the team captain wasn’t a good plan. Quinn continued, as if reading her mind,

         “Probably clubbing or something, right? That seems a bit better fitting for a sleeved tube top and jeans. Don’t worry. Everybody’s played the fake-ID game at some point. I’m not gonna cut you from the team or anything for it. But I also take it from how buggy you are right now (and the outfit) that this is gonna be your first time. Nervous and shit, right?”

         “Right. Going to a place a few friends whispered to me about,” Kate blushed. Quinn seemed cool, anyway… she was standing really close.

         “Yeah,” Quinn leaned against the bank of lockers and folded her arms. “And I also figure you’re interested in more than drinks… you may want to stuff those in a zip pocket.”

         Kate blushed much harder, pushing the two condom packets deeper into the coin pocket on her jeans and averting her gaze. Arms folded under the chest, she couldn’t help but think, was a good look for Quinn…

         “And-“ Quinn lowered her voice, speaking subtly- “you didn’t zip your bag all the way. Those pins on the jacket in there… you’re interested in an overnight, not necessarily with a guy… aren’t you?”

         “Uh! I dunno-! I-“ Kate’s face flared red and she began to panic, eyes darting around. She clenched her bag to her chest nervously. She wasn’t comfortable pinning down a sexual preference yet, and had hoped the club excursions would help her find out. The pins on her jacket were a plan to attract anyone she could - now, mortifyingly, she was found out. By the captain of her lacrosse team, no less.

         “Listen. Calm down, or you’ll out yourself before anyone else. Don’t freak out, I’ve been there too. Most people have. I’m not gonna repeat it. But I am gonna tell you this - the age restrictions on clubs are there for a reason, and it isn’t just the booze. As a senior, let me tell you to steer clear of those joints until you’re more acclimated to the area… and maybe have a bit more confidence, with friends you’ve known longer, too. Most people there are normal, but there are creeps, and they can smell green from across the floor. Don’t worry. There are other ways to find a good time.” Quinn patted Kate on the shoulder, and left for her locker.

         Kate was numb. She was still terrified, a bit traumatized by suddenly meeting an upperclassman like that, but also… relieved. For every bit of curiosity and desire for freedom in her head, there had been three huge chunks of nervousness. Subconsciously, she’d already known what Quinn said, but it was nice to hear it from someone else. It gave Kate a justification to herself to cancel, and breathe a sigh of relief. Other ways to find a good time, Quinn repeated in her mind.

         She called her friends, getting out with the excuse that Coach had held the team after practice for a meeting, and resumed getting dressed. Torn jeans, sleeved tube top… yeah, kind of clueless attire for clubbing, she supposed. Then, the jacket… Kate pulled it out of her bag and looked at it for a moment. Leather the color of dark chocolate, cut to the rib line, the right lapel sporting a handful of pins including the pansexual pride flag. She did honestly consider herself pansexual… but she did still need to experiment, too. Kate stared at the pins. She gulped down a bold idea, steeling herself. On the bright side, at least Quinn had already broken the ice…

         Most of the girls had left the locker room by this point. Quinn herself had her bag slung over her shoulder and was headed out.

         “See ya around,” she waved as she passed Kate.

         Gulping, slinging the jacket on, and grabbing her bag, Kate started after Quinn. Her nerves were freezing over, but once she was in motion she couldn’t stop. She grabbed Quinn’s shoulder just as she exited out into the main athletics hallway.

         “Hey, um…”

         “Yeah? What’s up?” Quinn responded brightly, amazing Kate with her relaxedness.

         “Well, I really appreciate what you said. I… I needed to hear it. And you’re really cool, keeping things low-key.”

         “Yeah, uh, no problem, I mean-“

         “Do you want to get a drink with me?” Kate’s impulses pulled the trigger, for better or worse, before her anxiety could get in the way. Her heart stopped.

         “Weh- uh, uh… y-yeah. I guess so,” Quinn stammered, dumbstruck. Kate barely noticed her own amusement at the towering senior’s break in compsure, given the crushing tightness in her chest. Her heart began to pound - Quinn had actually said yes! She honestly hadn’t thought this far ahead.

         “We - uh, we could get smoothies or something from the student lounge… guess I technically shouldn’t get actual drinks with my captain right now,”

         Quinn giggled a bit. “Yeah, totally. It’s… uh…” she paused.

         Kate’s chest could barely expand for her to breathe.

         “…It’s on the way to my apartment.”

[cxtaclysmics]

Basics Name (& pronunciation): Arden Thompson Date of Birth (& age): October 31, 1989 (31) Place of Birth: West, Texas Gender: Cisfemale Occupation: Third year surgical resident  Current place of residence: Staten Island

im gonna do bullet points bc i’m too lazy for a full bio

Arden was born in West, Texas. Her parents were both surgeons, and she rarely saw them.

She tried to say it never bothered her. She had a nanny that practically raised her for years. She was proud to have parents that were world renowned surgeons, and Arden tried her best to understand their work. Still, it was never easy to not have parents around. Her mom would always say that she was good at work but she was never good at the whole ‘mom thing’.

When Arden was 15, her mother was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and was forced into a early retirement from surgery. It was then that Arden realized that her parents would of much rather preferred to be home than at the hospital. Arden grew close to her mother, and she practically considered her her best friend

As time went on, Arden realized she wanted to be like her mom. Her mom’s focus was in cardio-thoracic surgery, and there was just something so exciting about saving a life and holding a heart in your hand.

At the age of 18, Arden moved off and attended Dartmouth University--her parents alma mater, and four years later she went to medical school at the same place.

In her senior year of medical school, her mother took a turn for the worse. Her father had taken medical leave to take care of her, but things weren’t looking well. Arden reluctantly took a year off to return home to care for her mother

Six months later, her mom passed away. Arden was devastated, and originally planned to not go back to medical school. She would stay in Texas with her father and do something else with her career.

However, her father urged her to go back to school since that’s what her mom would have wanted. He was right.

Arden returned to Dartmouth and finished at the top of her class in her final year and she had never been prouder.

She started interning at Dartmouth as she awaited to here from a top hospital in New York regarding a potential residency. 

After finishing her internship, she moved to New York to be a surgical resident. She’s been living here roughly three years now.

Personality

Arden considers herself to be more compassionate than her surgical coworkers. She takes everyones thoughts into considerations, and her patients are the most important part of her life. She wants to be great, and that comes with a certain level of arrogance. She has the tendency to talk about her work and nothing else because it’s what she’s proud of. She is a tough shell to crack, and opening up to others isn’t easy. She was never good at making friends. She’s quick witted, sarcastic, and loves to see her friends laugh. She has a dark sense of humor which is to be expected.

~this trash forgive me~

[buckthegrump]

Where You Go - 3

After a run-in with some hitmen, you find yourself with a new protection detail.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Female Reader

Word Count: 1423

Warnings: gun stuff (but it ain’t what you think)

A/n: (Infinity War/ Endgame who?) if you want to be tagged please look at the link in my bio

“Good, Agent 99,” the agent told Y/n as she disarmed another adult more than twice her size.

Y/n looked up at Agent Melinda May who was training her. Y/n had been found by Coulson on the streets. When May found out she took the young orphan into her custody and started teaching her the basics in fighting.

Y/n had excelled at it and for that May was glad. It took a weight off May’s shoulders knowing that the young girl would be able to mostly defend herself if she were to find herself in trouble. Because despite her best efforts, Agent May was developing a soft spot for the young girl, so much so that Y/n had started calling her mom in when they were at home and May hadn’t done anything to stop it.

May was teaching her to not rely on weapons because there may come a day when she found herself in the middle of a fight without one. May said she wanted Y/n to be prepared for any situation. 

There was a break in the drills as one of the leaders of SHEILD came into the gym and walked up to May and Y/n.

“Director Pierce,” May greeted him almost coldly.

He didn’t return the greeting. Pierce looked from May to Y/n then back to May.

“We have an assignment for her,” he said. May looked at him in horror.

Y/n looked at her guardian, even she knew that she was too young to go on a mission. She wasn’t even old enough to get into the academy yet. May looked back at her and Y/n could see the fear in her eyes.

“She’s too young,” May voiced. “What mission could you possibly have for her that an adult could not do?”

Pierce put his hands on his knees lowering his face to Y/n’s level. He had a smile on his face as he asked, “How would you like to go to a dance school?”

~

When Y/n woke it was still dark outside. Praying to a god that she didn’t believe in, she looked at the clock on her bedside table only to see that it was barely even 2:30 am. With a happy sigh, she put her head back on the pillow and fell back asleep.

Not two minutes later a loud crash came from across the hallway. She groaned and covered her head with her pillow before remembering who now lived across the hall from her and she sprang out of bed.

Without thinking, she walked towards the front door and grabbed the handle of something from her kitchen before opening her door and barging into Bucky’s place.

It took a minute for the scene in front of her to register. Bucky was standing in the middle of his kitchen pots and pans scattered across the floor. He was reaching up to grab something out of an open cabinet standing on his tippy toes. He looked at her frozen in his spot. Her brain didn’t have the capacity at that time to wonder why he hadn’t attacked her the moment she walked in the door unless he heard her door open.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Y/n asked lowering her makeshift weapon.

“Sorry, did I wake you?” He asked a little sheepishly.

“Yeah you woke me, you woke the whole fucking block,” she said in a rage and looked down at the pots and pans then back to the open cupboard. “Who the fuck puts pots and pans in an upper cabinet? Are you a fucking psychopath?”

“I was gonna make some soup,” he shrugged.

“I don’t get how someone who was trained to be stealthy could make so much noise at 2 am.”

“Why are you holding a bottle cleaner?” Bucky asked.

Y/n looked down at what she’d grabbed from her kitchen to find that in fact that she was holding a bottle brush. She pointed it at Bucky in a threatening manner, or as threatening as one could get with the dumbest weapon in the world.

“Fuck you, next time you can die,” she told him and walked away from him.

Not bothering to lock her door she fell back into her bed and drifted into a dreamless slumber.

~

This time when she woke up, the sun was shining through the windows. Luckily it was a Saturday morning and Y/n had no plans so she was perfectly content to lay in bed until she was good and ready to get up. And she would’ve if she hadn’t felt a presence in her room.

Y/n shot up pulling the knife from its spot under her pillow and pointed it at the intruder next to her bed.

Bucky was sitting in a chair that didn’t belong in her bedroom, glaring at her.

“What the fuck is your problem man?” She yawned lowering her weapon.

“You left your door unlocked and didn’t instantly notice when I broke into your house,” he deadpanned. “You can’t claim to be able to take care of yourself if I can break into your home so easily.”

“I will remind you that you woke me up at 2 am because you don’t know where pots and pans go in the kitchen,” she said. “Everyone knows they go on the bottom shelves so if you drop them they don’t make as much noise!”

“Get up, you need to learn self-defense.” Bucky got up and began to leave the room without the chair.

“Take the chair, you moron!” Y/n yelled after him but he left it there and she was too lazy to move it herself.

~

They were at the shooting range in the Avenger’s compound. The compound was almost completely empty except for maybe some straggling cleaning employees doing their job and Natasha who was watching from the observation room.

Bucky was standing in front of a table littered with guns. Y/n looked at the guns in disgust as the Sergeant explained everything there was to know about each one and which one she was most likely to come across and which one would be easiest for her to learn to use.

Y/n stopped paying attention three minutes in and was thinking about what the next thing she should have her students read. She was thinking something a bit more fun than making them read any of the quote/unquote classics because she personally found them to be incredibly boring.

Bucky clearly caught on to her zoning out during this particular training session and slammed his open palm on the table to get her attention. Y/n blinked her eyes and turned her attention back to Bucky who was yet again glaring at her.

“Do you ever make a face that isn’t a glare?” She asked before he even spoke a word. “You know that if you keep scowling like that you’ll get wrinkles. You should really smile more, you’d be so much prettier if you smiled.”

“Is your life a joke to you?”

“Yes,” Y/n said but he ignored her answer having more a rant to go on.

“Because we are risking our lives to make sure that you stay safe and I don’t know why we continued to bother if you’re just going to treat this all like some cosmic joke,” he said, “You need to learn to use a gun in case I’m not there to protect you.”

“I don’t like guns,” she stated simply.

“Doesn’t matter you need to learn how to use one,” he repeated.

Y/n stared at him for a moment before picking up the Glock 17, after disabling the safety she fired six shots at one of the targets hitting the bullseye every time. She turned back to Bucky, put the safety back on let the magazine slide out of the handle and removed the bullet from the camber all without missing a beat.

She set the parts of the gun back on the table and looked at a shocked Bucky.

“Just because I don’t like guns doesn’t mean I don’t know how to use a gun, Barnes. And if I need one, I’ll take one. But you will not convince me that I need to carry one at all times.”

Without another word Y/n turned and walked out of the shooting range not waiting for Bucky’s response.

“Nice going, Barnes,” Natasha muttered through the intercom. Bucky gave the redhead an unimpressed look.

[apparentlynotreallyfinnish]

Do you have any advice on how to develop a long fic plot? Most of my ideas have little plot, and I have no idea how to come up with one. My simple ideas might be okay for a 2000 word fic, but not a 75,000 word one. My ideas are like Rhett and Link go to a fancy restaurant, or Rhett has a backache and Link massages him. They aren’t these big, multifaceted ideas that make a whole story like good writers (like you!) seem to have. I wish I could figure out how to get better at ideas and plotting.

Hello, lovely anon. I’m gonna describe my process plot planning Let Me Be Your Light. Maybe that will help you. :)

This became quite long, sorry…

It started with the idea of Rhett being a lighthouse keeper. That was the starting point. (I’m pretty sure I was heavily influenced by @its-mike-kapufty‘s tmoy fic that was posting around that time and wanted to do a grumpy Rhett.) I don’t remember if Link being a helicopter pilot was the first thing I thought for him but it was one of the firsts. I wanted them to meet intermittently so there would be plenty of pining (lol). I decided on a monthly meeting and figured a year would be a good timeline. So, originally the fic was supposed to be 12 chapters long. 

I started by doing some research on lighthouses and decided that it would be located on Canada. I did some weather research and figured that near St. Johns would be best fit for the mood of my story (or the mood I had in my head at that point). I actually found two islands names North and South Bird Island and made up a third one for Rhett. ^^

I did some research on the area’s flora and fauna and what kind of unusual weather they might have etc. Some of it is used in the story, most is not. I had about 4-ish pages of notes on Newfoundland after I was done with my research. (Side note, don’t get too caught up on this part. There’s always more stuff to research. You gotta stop at some point and actually plot plan/write.)

The grumpy Rhett premise kind of naturally lead to a ‘hate to love’ story but that’s something to decide. What excites you? What kind of fics do you love to read? What would you like to read but haven’t seen?

I wrote little character bios for Rhett and Link. Not sure if anyone cares but here they are (some stuff was added later after developing the plot):

Rhett: writer, phd in some scientific field, a marine biologist. Lives off of book money and writing scientific excerpts for magazines.  Was married. Wife died (was pregnant) when he was 33. They were in the car together. He has severe ptsd and survivors’ guilt. They’d been together since high school. Been alone for 8 years. Been at the light house for 6 years. A colleague helped him to rent it. The lighthouse itself is automated. He does do little maintenance stuff like clean the solar panels and change parts etc. Is probably like a 1-2 in Kinsey scale. So mostly straight but…  Being alone is kind of a punishment but also something he needs, because people and crowds freak him out. He was like that even before the crash, but it made it worse. Also, can’t deal with people anymore. Especially happy people. Is basically afraid of happiness.

Link: a helicopter pilot, the supply runs are a monthly sidegig. Usually flies a medical helicopter. Openly gay. Dating a lot, a few longer relationships but nothing really serious.  Always felt like something didn’t add up. Generally happy person with childlike wonder. Very impulsive and emotional. Open book. Often speaks before thinks. Has a lot of buddies but not many close friends. Always felt it was hard to feel connected with a person. Might be because was in a closet for a long time and always felt like he was lying to everyone around him. Has been out for 10ish years now. After he came out, kind of went to the other extreme and constantly threw his gayness in other people’s faces. Is still a bit like that but not so much. Loves flirting and getting a reaction, but really just wants everyone to be happy.

I would probably do this for other major character but didn’t have many in this fic. Stevie and Alex kind of sneaked their way in later. :D

I’m a visual planner so at this point I took a big sheet of paper and divided it into 12 section. I wrote the beginning (they meet for the first time) and the end (the proposal) in boxes 1 and 12. Then I added some bits: this is where they fight, this is where Link can’t come, this is when they have sex for the first time, this is where Rhett needs to go to the hospital etc. Then I looked at my researched and did some shuffling around to match the weather appropriately. The beginning month was purely decided on the fact that I had to have Link stay the night during the Nor'easters (storm) that are the worst between November and March. There were other stuff too, like when was the best time to see the icebergs. I went a bit crazy here and actually looked at weather history form 2017 (or 2018, not sure anymore) to get exact weather information for the dates. So while I was writing I knew exactly what the weather was like. :D

Little by little I added bits and pieces. This took a few days. I can’t really give advice how to exactly do this. I just think of stuff up and try it out. When I had something for every month I started to write.

I can’t have a too detailed plan. Usually I have a sentence or two per chapter; the main thing that needs to happen. Otherwise I won’t feel compelled to write. But this may be different for you. Some people need the detailed plan.

The plan changed a little when I started writing. After I wrote the first chapter I added the stones. At first I searched for a new stone every time I wrote a chapter but after like 4-5 chapters I made a plan and figured all the rest, so I had a list of those. The last few changed though when the whole ending changed.

I updated my chapter plan as I wrote. I write in order. Some people write the bits they are most excited about first but I could never do that, I’d never finish the boring parts after. I need the good stuff as a motivation to get over the writing lulls. 

I got @sass-and-panache as a beta after I had written the first chapter. She helped immensely with the plot planning. We brainstormed together when I felt stumped and she regularly reigned me in when I went OOC with my characters. Sometimes I get stuck on a tiny idea and refuse to realize it does not work in the story. She was very good in telling me when I did this. There were a few things we disagreed on, though. ;) And when that happened I just did what I wanted. (Because I’m stubborn AF.)

Gosh, this became obnoxiously long… Sorry. Not sure if there is anything useful here. Maybe I’ll try to bullet point a bit:

1. Think of a premise. A couple dynamic you want to explore or an interesting setting or maybe a certain kind of ending.

2. Do some research if you can. It might spark some plot points you wouldn’t have thought otherwise.

3. Get to know your characters.

4. Make a plot plan. Visual or written. Don’t consider it written in stone. It will change.

5. Write.

6. Talk to someone about your plot. Get a beta if you can/want.

7. Re-plan if necessary.

8. Write some more.

9. Get stuck researching puffins (oh, sorry, that’s just me…whoops!).

10. If something doesn’t seem to work, don’t be afraid to scrap it. I’ve written whole chapters again when I’ve realized they didn’t fit the story. (If you do this, save the scrapped bits on another document. Sometimes you can use parts later.)

11. Write some more.

12. Cry when it’s done.

13. Write a way too detailed description how you planned the fic that no one wants to read. Think about deleting it and replying something else. Be too lazy to do so.

I hope this helped. Or if it didn’t, I hope this amused you a bit.

[alcarrows]

have you been re-introduced to ALECTO CARROW? last we heard, the PUREBLOOD was most familiar with TIMELINE ONE. I don’t recall if they were always a RAVENCLAW, but I’ve heard the SEVENTH YEAR is still SHARP, POISED, LOYAL and CAUTIOUS, PROUD, DESIROUS, so that’s familiar. at least SHE remembers her way around the castle. ( zoey deutch; zoe, 20, cst )

alecto has a stats page on her blog and her bio from the main, as well as a pinterest board and playlist! but under the cut i have a ( not very ) little bullet point bio!! it gives the gist. anyway feel free to like or hmu bc i want to plot with everyone!!!

pride’s a nasty sin. alecto reminded herself of this every morning when she woke, and, after those blissful few moments between reality and dreams, reminded herself the mess her pride got her into. her family was never the sort to teach their children to be paragons of virtue  ---  but never did they teach them to let their sins run wild. carrows were precarious balancing acts, a little too wild and too reckless to ever be the golden children. but their blood was true and their convictions honest, so people forgave their transgressions; expected their transgressions, even.

it was a strange mantle to be born unto. be good, but not too good; be wild, but only as wild as your leash allows. it always chafed alecto, the sweet-faced pureblood daughter with a wandering mind. 

she was always happy that more wasn’t asked of her  ---  that grumblings of politics she found unsavory were never thought to be of interest of her  ---  but wasn’t it a little insulting, too? she had such a sharp mind, after all, and doing nothing but dainty, husband-finding diversions made her feel like she was going insane. she was grateful that the old purebloods were too lazy to force change; she had a feeling any changes they wanted wouldn’t suit her sensibilities anyway. but in the meantime alecto knew very well she couldn’t force any changes of her own, either. 

it wouldn’t do to cause a ruckus.

ravenclaw wasn’t quite a disappointment, but at eleven when she wrote home news of the sorting, she knew she’d lost any chance of being the favorite. a girl, darling little thing, with a whip-sharp mind  ---  that she made sure to only publicly use for chess and russian literature, but was a problem all the same. she would bring no heirs, and the thought of the mind on her made it harder for the family to pawn her off on some other bloodline’s idiot sons. she would never be the trophy girlfriend hanging off their arm.

her family was fine with it, really, and they left her alone so long as she feigned vapidity in all areas but her carefully plucked passions. she was a whiz with languages and dueling and history  ---  oh, but goodness, bigoted politics were such a boring thing. itty-bitty alecto felt faint at the very thought.

carrows were precarious balancing acts. alecto reminded herself of this, too. she hated the routine she lived ( being herself until she snagged watchful attention, and then pulling back into a placid-faced nobody of a girl ) but it was survival. because alecto had a secret: she couldn’t care less about blood purity and all the battles it begot. she had quite the mind for politics, in all honesty  ---  but her personal beliefs were at odds with the family’s inbred ideologies. they didn’t act on them, but they were toxic and present all the same. 

the only reason she stuck around, kept quiet and still, was because the system benefited her. and family, well, that was everything, too. there wasn’t a disloyal bone in alecto’s body, so long as that loyalty was sworn to anyone but herself. she could never do it  ---  picking up to leave might satisfy her restless spirit, but her pride would curse her should she ever be so weak as to do what she wants.

after all, it seems the pureblood way to have a million desires burning quietly up your spine as you sat doing nothing. she couldn’t afford to cost her family’s pride by being selfish and causing a scene, a scandal. she was too smart to do something so stupid as gamble away her comfortable life for the sake of something as silly as her wants. her dreams. her beliefs. 

but just because she didn’t turn her back on the world she’d been brought up in, alecto still hated the watchful eye of society and did her best to turn away any closeness, lest someone see too true a version of her  ---  she reveled in ravenclaw and preened under attention, but those were little wants. indulgences. she’d never allow herself anything more, and she’d never let someone see every part of her. it felt lonely, but it was sustainable. it was safe. letting anyone in or leaving anyone behind was too much. 

the thing was that she’d always had a mind for strategy, a mind more battlefield than mind. and oh, alecto knew she could look so good, shrouded in warfare  ---  even if it was only the war her own rocket-quick departure would surely bring. but where would that leave the rest of her? where would it leave her every carefully constructed persona? 

for years it was easier to stave off that line of questioning. to ignore that she didn’t fit into the world her name gave her birthright to, to ignore that she didn’t want to be a part of it at all. 

alecto just had to strap her knives and wand to her thigh with pretty little garters, the better to flash the steel beneath silk skirts and lace robes. she learned to enjoy the refined burn of downing shots worth more galleons than some would ever see. she learned to love glittering adornments, and tossing her hair, and beguiling with a single flash of her pearly-white fangs. to turn a biting turn of phrase softened by gleaming eyes. she was good. except when she was bad. and loathe though she was to admit it, she could still find enough ancient carrow in her to be very, very bad when she so chose.

badness could very easily be written off as youth, except by those who shared alecto’s youth with her. then, well, it was her destructive carrow tendencies coming out to play. it was her forgetting which line in the sand she was supposed to pretend to care about. it was her doing very reckless things, perhaps unknowingly  ---  or perhaps awaiting the mess she’d leave in her wake. she’d have to fix the mess, of course, and in that fixing would lie the cool reminder that she looks like any of the rest of them, now, but she will always be a carrow. and carrows are too sharp, too much, and so alecto is, as well. 

( the secret was she was too much alecto to be anything, really )

if she left all this behind, where could she possibly fit? who else would take her for all her sins and virtues, her lies and unwitting truths? as much as she is able to see through the facades of pureblood society  ---  and she is uniquely able to. has always known that they are all lucky the old guard is too comfortable and tired and dumb to act on their prejudices, has always known that beneath the glamour lies a grit. for all of that, alecto still feels ties to the only awful world she has ever fully known. 

the nature of it, she knows logically, is that it gets its dark claws into the core of you. instills a love of family, a love of pride, that keeps you from leaving. even when most days you want nothing more than to separate from the pack and finally become yourself. 

to her family, to those few that matter, alecto is too soft, and there’s the greatest irony. alecto resents her enjoyment of the things she made herself into, all those years and years ago  ---  the dresses and the parties and the champagne, and the flirting, laughing ease of life. she’s very good at playing her role, but when she needs the reminder of herself, she’ll proudly hint at challenging ideologies, flash her house colors, show her wicked words. but at home, well, that’s child’s play.

could she ever run from it all? sooner or later her family will turn her into a truer, crueller carrow. or maybe the rest of the wolves will take the ’ pretending ’ out of her facade. the independent charade has always been for her benefit only  ---  she’s loyal to a fault, and though either outcome would kill her, she’d succumb to one all the same.

with the revelation that there were other worlds like her own, but not, running congruent in time  ---  with the revelation that in one there was a war that brought her to this strange new existence  ---  alecto isn’t sure where she stands. the reality she now faces seems to be one where the adults she’s known all her life aren’t so lazy or useless anymore. a war is afoot, and with it come a whole host of new choices alecto has to navigate with the same sure-footedness she’s come to demand of herself. this could be her chance to break away from her family for good; to rebel in a final feeling way and become someone else entirely. or it could be time to see the consequences of her mind come calling. 

she doesn’t know if the old alecto from this new reality worked behind the scenes for the apparent war efforts for a cause she abhors. she doesn’t know if that girl was already in the process of leaving. and alecto so hates not having all the information.

and she hates even more not knowing if having all the information would help or hinder her choices. for the moment, alecto has decided to continue on with life as she always had, even if this is most certainly no life she’s ever known before. who would she be if she didn’t roll with the punches, take pain and doubt in stride? she cannot afford to slip up now, when the possibilities are dizzyingly endless. 

[peaches-of-1]

(Y/N), Namjoon, and The Great Comet of 1812 (Cont)

This is part 2 of this story. I’ll be releasing them all today, so don’t worry about missing any or having to wait long for the next part.

Changes: Russia is changed to Korea. Hanboks and such are worn. Instead of French being high language, it is English. Everyone is speaking in Korean, but since English is the language I am writing in, them actually speaking in English will be denoted by (^) being around the word(s). Example ^I love you^

Mstrlst in bio!

After the show, Jin and his sister went to her place for a bit, still in good spirits and not wanting the night to end. Hyolyn just wanted to grab her purse and leave, but her brother ended up talking to her husband while she scoffed and left ahead of them all.

Jin bowed to the younger but richer man, “Good evening, Namjoon, studying?” Namjoon replied, “Yes, how was the opera?” “Lovely~ (Y/N) was there.” He perked up at the mention of her name, “Oh? Dear Jackson's betrothed?” The man looked away from his book and towards Jin. “I have known her family for years and long carried affection for her.”

Seokjin rolled his eyes. The amount of times he had been told this were astounding, “Yes… charming.” He clapped his friend’s shoulders. “Look, Yoongi’s coming around, and we're off to the club. Will you come, old man?”

Drinking? And he wouldn’t be alone?

Joon’s reply, “I will come.”

“Lend me 835.53 won?”

Yoongi entered the room jamming to a tune he often sung when excited, “Drink, drink. Gonna drink tonight. Gonna drink tonight. Gonna drink, gonna drink, gonna drink tonight. Gonna drink tonight. Gonna drink tonight. Gonna--”

The other men joined in as they rode to the nearest club gathering, “Drink, drink. Gonna drink tonight. Gonna drink tonight. Gonna, gonna drink, gonna drink tonight. Gonna drink tonight. Gonna drink tonight.”

It was a song everyone in the club knew, and so they were singing it when the three men arrived to join the party. Hyolyn waved them over since she enjoyed the company of 2 out of three of the men.

Drink with me, my love For there's fire in the sky And there's ice on the ground Either way, my soul will die Whoa-ohhhh-oh-ohhhhh-oh-ohhh oo-oh-oo-oh-oo-oh

Grabbing his first drink, Namjoon told his friends, “The doctors warned me that with my corpulence.”

Others scoffed, “Corpulence!”

“Soju and wine are dangerous for me.” He downed the first cup and got another fill. “But I drink a great deal. Only quite at ease after pouring several glasses mechanically into my large mouth.” Now when one drinks and drinks a lot, they tend to feel a pleasant warmth in their body as well as a sentimental attachment to their fellow man. That was the same here. People who were known as shy or the usually kept to themselves became more tender and loving and touchy with the consumption of alcohol. Others cried in corners but the other drunkards came over to comfort them.

Looking over at her betrothed as she sat on a table, Hyolyn told her husband to keep drinking since it was the easiest and best way to keep him busy. He did. Then both Yoongi and Jin cheered on their friend in his drunken endeavor to chug himself into an early grave. But it was all in the name of fun, of course.

Nearly an hour had passed at this point where Jin pouted and stared into his mug of beer, “(Y/N), oh (Y/N)! Her arms, her shoulders, her neck, her feet.”

Hyolyn chuckled, “The air of a connoisseur.”

“I will make love to her!” He loudly proclaimed.

Suga, standing in between Hyolyn’s legs, hands on her thighs, decided to warn his friend against such a choice, “Better not, ^mister^. She's first rate, but nothing but trouble.”

Both him and his lover said, “Better wait ‘til she's married!”

Seokjin was actually a married man. This was a fact known only to his intimates since a Chinese landowner of some small means had forced him to marry his daughter.

He waved it away, “Nevermind about that now. It doesn't matter; I don't give a damn! Just as a duck is made to swim in water God has made me as I am. All I care for is gaiety and women and there's no dishonor in that. As long as there's money and soju, I'll keep a feather in my hat.”

The whole hall was a beautiful sound of clamor and excitement, “Whoa-ohhhh-oh-ohhhhh- oh-ohhh oo-oh-oo-oh-oo-oh!” Now past the giddy stages of his drunkenness, Namjoon bemoaned his current situation as he usually did, “I used to love! I used to love! I used to be better!” To which his friends replied, “Keep drinking old man.”

Honestly, Hyolyn was over it, “Drink, drink, drink. God to think I married a man like you!”

“Don't speak to me, wife! There is something inside me…” He didn’t know what, but he knew that she wasn’t helping.

“Suga, pour me another!”

Namjoon continued talking to himself and contemplating life, “Something terrible and monstrous…” It had been many hours now since this party began and it didn’t seem like there was any sign of it ending any time soon. Yoongi, now with Hyolyn on his lap, raised a toast, “Here's to the health of married women, and a smile lurks at the corner of my mouth. Here's to the health of married women and their lovers!”

Everyone who heard raised their glasses as well, “Here's to the health of married women! Here's to the health of married women, and their lovers!”

It took a while, but Namjoon began to realize what was going on. His suspicions. The gossip. The constant whispers about his relationship or lack of with the woman he had never consummated his marriage with. Yoongi was all over her. All over his wife!

“Here's to the health of married women! Here's to the health of married women! And their lovers!”

Angry and drunk, Namjoon shoved the black haired man, “How dare you touch her?”

Not even trying to hide things, Yoongi replied, “You can't love her!”

“Enough!” He bellowed. “You bully, you scoundrel! I challenge you!”

Whispers spread and people moved about to give them space. The two men began to walk outside.

Suga was simply amused, “Oh, a duel? Yes, this is what I like.”

With slight worry about the outcome, Hyolyn tried to stop the man she married, “He will kill you, stupid husband.”

If you may recall, Suga was a very good shot. He killed the brother of a very important man and was fawned over for it. There was grounds for his cockiness especially when it came to the terms of a duel.

Did Namjoon care?

“So I shall be killed! What is it to you?”

Nope.

He reached his hand out to his friend, “Hyung, my guns.”

To which Jin gave to him, but not without speaking his mind, “Oh, this is horribly stupid.”

Yoongi had his guns too, “Well, let's begin. This is child's play!”

People watched from the windows and the stoop of the two men who had gotten drunk and angry as men tended to do when drunk. Especially if a drink or twelve was how they decided to “cope” with their feelings.

One man spoke, their referee, “As the adversaries have refused a reconciliation, we shall please proceed with the duel. Ready your pistols...And on the count of 세 begin to advance! Everyone counted, “하나 , 둘 , 세!”

Jin hated this, “Namjoon, hold your fire. Joonie, hold your fire. Namjoon, not yet!”

The trigger was pulled by a man who could barely stand on his own two feet. The bullet hit its target.

Suga reared back, “No! Shot by a fool!!!” This evern sobered Namjoon up real quick, “No, wait, I didn't mean –” “Quiet, old man!” The other man yelled back. “My turn.” His turn to shoot, and Namjoon’s turn to…

“Namjoon, stand back!” Jin ordered, not wanting to see his brother in law get hurt. Gunshot. Hyolyn screamed, but for who? A moment later, and it was revealed that the younger man was unharmed.

Yoongi couldn’t believe it as he stumbled, “Missed, missed. Oh my mother, my angel. My adoréd angel mother.” He was losing blood fast and wasn’t making any sense. “Take him away.” The only important woman in this scene said.

As onlookers began to help get Suga to the nearest surgeon’s, the referee said, “The sun is rising, the duel is at an end, and Kim Namjoon is the winner.”

He would hardly call this a triumph, “Winner? Winner.”

His wife took one more jab at him before walking away, “You are a fool!”

Ladies laughed but were silenced as Hyolyn looked at them with sharp and unamused eyes. They quickly went back inside to see if there was any more money to be made before the sun was completely up. Jin walked beside his sister, “Well, sweet sister, you certainly bring out the beast in men.” “What can I say? It's a gift.” She said quite bitterly.

“How I adore you.” He said and opened his sister’s carriage door for her. He asked her, “Will you ask (Y/N) to the ball tonight?” before closing it. Hyolyn smiled at him, “Of course, dear brother.”

Seokjin closed the door and his sister rode off to get some sleep. He returned to his friend who was staring at the blood stained snow only a few feet away.

“Come on, old man, let's get you home.”

“In a moment.” “Sleep it off,” he helped his old friend up. “And be happy, we live to love another day.”

Now at home, in a place that wasn’t his bed and yet not his study, Namjoon became introspective using his sober mind, something that rarely happened. He tried to keep it at bay. However, the fact that he could die and very soon had been put right in front of him tonight after challenging the best marksman to a duel.

He wiped his lips from the vomit that just passed them, slammed his gun down on the piano’s top and began playing the same chords over and over again.

“Is this how I die?” He asked himself. “Ridiculed and laughed at. Wearing clown shoes? Is this how I die? Furious and reckless? Sick with booze?”

Looking around at the empty and dark room, he asked to no one but himself and started playing like he used to, “How did I live?”

He tasted every wasted minute, every time he turned away from the things that might have healed him. How long had he been sleeping?

“Is this how I die?” The question came again to Namjoon. “Frightened like a child? Lazy and numb? Is this how I die? Pretending and preposterous and dumb?” He scoffed. How did he live? Was he kind enough and good enough? Did he love enough? Did he ever look up and see the moon and the stars and the sky?

He was furious at how blind he felt, how blind he had made himself, “Oh why have I been sleeping?”

A thought came to his head. It was so strong, that it stilled his hands. They say we are asleep until we fall in love. We are children of dust and ashes, but when we fall in love we wake up and we are a God and angels weep.

Namjoon was more than asleep. He might as well be dead due to his lack of ever loving someone. But if I die here tonight, I die in my sleep. As he saw his unfinished books lying all around, he got mad and spoke quickly “All of my life I spent searching the words of poets and saints and prophets and kings, and now at the end all I know that I’ve learned is that all that I know is I don’t know a thing.”

It was so easy for him to close off and place the blame outside. He was always just hiding in his room at night so terrified. He thought of all the things he could have been, but he never had the nerve.

Life and love?

He didn’t deserve either after throwing everything away.

“So all right, all right! I’ve had my time. Close my eyes, let the death bells chime! Bury me in burgundy, I just don’t care! Nothing’s left! I looked everywhere!”

If books didn’t have the answer. If booze didn’t have the answer. How would any one man have the answer to life, to love that he had been searching for his entire life?

Is this how I die?

“Was there ever any other way my life could be?”

Is this how I die? Such a storm of feelings inside of me?

He gripped the end of his bed as tears fell from his eyes, “But then why am I screaming? Why am I shaking?”

Kim Namjoon didn’t dare ask he next questions out loud, Oh God, was there something that I missed? Did I squander my divinity? Was happiness within me the whole time?

They say we are asleep until we fall in love. We are children of dust and ashes, but when we fall in love we wake up and we are a God and angels weep.

If he would never love, he believed he would die here tonight and in his sleep.

“They say we are asleep until we fall in love...and I’m so ready to wake up now.” He threw away all his bottles, just chucked them out the window. Maybe it would help. Maybe something good would come of it.

“I want to wake up!” Namjoon admitted. “Don’t let me die while I’m like this. I want to wake up! God don’t let me die while I’m like this. Please let me wake up now! God don’t let me die while I’m like this!”

He would do anything. He was on his knees. All he wanted was to fall in love with someone. It didn’t matter if they loved him back. Kim Namjoon wanted, no had to feel what love felt like at least once his life no matter the cost.

Tears started to stream down his face as he yelled, “I’m ready! I’m ready to wake up!!!”

But would he ever truly wake up?

Early Sunday morning, you and Jeongyeon lit a candle placed far away from any doors and looked in the mirror to see if any premonitions of the future could be seen. She told you to look, but you saw nothing.

“I see my face.” You said.

To which Jeongyeon replied, “Don’t be silly. They say you can see your future in the long row of candles stretching back and back and back into the depths of the mirror. In the dim confused last square you’ll see a coffin or a man.” She rolled her eyes. “Everyone sees a man.”

All you could see were the candles stretching back so far away, “I see the mirrors...I see a shape in the darkness. Is it him or is it—He’s lying down!” You grabbed Jeongyeon’s arm. “Oh Sonya why is he lying down? I’m so frightened!”

You feared that Jackson would never come or something will happen to you before he did.

Interrupting, Youngja called from the foyer, “Sunday morning! Time for church!”

On your way there, as it was customary and not necessarily because you had faith, you worried no suffered more now than before. The theater and Seokjin. That man who aroused such terrible feelings you didn’t understand.

In your mind you asked to anyone who was listening, Have I broken faith with Jackson? Am I guilty?

After church, Youngja left for Prince YG’s place, screaming, “The rudeness of that man! I’ll straighten him out!” She said, grabbing her heaviest fan. You didn’t even wanna hear that name again, “That terrible old Prince. I can’t bear to think of it! I’ll shut myself in my room, and try on new dresses!”

Making your way to your room, you undressed to be only in bloomers while your cousin went off to say goodbye to your godmother and then off to write some letters. It is what people often did in their past times.

And just after Youngja left, there was a knock at the door. You had just turned your head to the glass when you heard a voice that made you flush.

“Oh my enchantress, oh you beautiful thing. Charming, charming. Oh, this is really beyond anything.” It was Hyolyn dressed as beautifully as always, a dark fur coat draped across her green and black hanbok.

Although the other maids were lowing their heads, not daring to set their eyes on you in this undressed state, she eyed you up and down. It was a curious thing, but you didn’t hate the attention. Of course she wanted to look at you. You were you.

Hyolyn went to the closet, looking through your things casually and eventually pulling one out to look at better, “These dresses suit you.” She motioned to her own clothing now that her coat was off. “This one, ‘metallic gauze’ straight from Paris. Anything suits you, my charmer.” Your cheeks were on fire. To say you had a praise kink wouldn’t be wrong, but it wasn’t sexual satisfaction that you were getting from this. No, not at all. Flattery was simply something you ate up quite easily and also got a lot of. You were spectacular in every area of life, obviously, but it didn’t hurt to hear it from others who agreed as well.

“You’re so ^charming, so charming!^ You are such a lovely thing oh where have you been? It’s such a shame to bury pearls in the country ^charming, so charming^ quite charming.”

Another and more revealing dress that you had gotten (even though you weren’t sure you would ever wear it) was taken out of your wardrobe by Hyolyn. You were still in just a bra and panties soaking up every drop of attention.

The dirty-blonde girl got you to stand up and held the dress in front of you, “Now if you have a dress, you must wear it out. How can you live in Seoul and not go nowhere? So you love somebody?” She sat on your bed, “Charming, but that’s no reason to shut yourself in. Even if you’re engaged, you must wear your dress out somewhere.”

She threw the dress on the bed and held both of your hands, sitting you in front of your golden vanity. Hyolyn spoke as she styled your hair, “My brother dined with me yesterday, but he didn’t eat a thing cuz he was thinking ’bout you. He kept sighing about you~.”

You had to stand up and hold your cheeks as they began to warm and blush once more. Again she called you charming in English and asked how someone as beautiful as you could’ve stayed in the Korean countryside for so long. How a charming person such as yourself enjoyed living in such a boring place.

Compared to the city, she was right. “Now a woman with a dress is a frightening and powerful thing. You are not a child when you’re draped in scarlet and lace.” Hyolyn took the simple pearl locket you had gotten from Jackson from your neck and playfully ran away with it. “Your fiancé would want you to have fun rather than be bored to death. ^Go out in the world rather than dying from boredom^”

She instead gave you the double layered pearl necklace she had been wearing at yesterday’s opera. You still weren’t sure if this would be the right thing to do what with your head still swimming about questions of the heart. Why would he talk about you so much to his sister? Would he even want you at the party? He did invite you before, but for what reason?

Hyolyn could see the questions as if you had written them plainly on a blank page. She smirked at how naïve you were and decided one more thing that would get you to say yes. Playing her biggest card, she gave you the brightest grin.

“My brother is quite madly in love. He is quite madly in love with you, my dear~”

No way. Even though she spoke, it was hard for you to listen as a new and more fabulous dress was tied around your waist. It seemed to be the one Hyolyn liked the most on you. Was his love truly the reason for him wanting you to come to the ball? It’s not like anyone would ever lie to you about such things, so it had to have been the truth.

What once seemed so terrible, now seemed simple and natural. She knew that you’re engaged, and still she talked so frankly. So it must be all right!

Hyolyn knew she had you and sprinkled more compliments on just in case, “There is a ball at my house tonight. You must come~ Oh your wide-open, wondering eyes! You will be the prettiest there~!”

How the thought of throwing them together amused her!

“You must come~”

You nodded and answered, “I will come.” with a giggle.

As she left, you admired yourself in the mirror. This white dress sparkled and shone more than anything you had ever worn before. It was devoid of any straps or sleeves that weren’t completely made of thin lace. The layers of the skirt made them fun to hold and twirl around in since they would fly up like angel wings.

Jin was waiting at the door. Waiting at the door, waiting. Simply waiting at the door. Waiting at the door, waiting.

Oh, how I adore little girls! He thought to himself. They lose their heads at once!

You entered in your whitest of dresses with pearls in your hair and white lacy gloves on your hands. Jin was dressed in the fashion of a European soldier such as those seen in the Nutcracker play you had gone to since you were a child. Nothing like the opera of yesterday.

He eagerly grabbed your hand the moment you entered and began twirling you about the dance floor. You were seized by feelings of vanity and fear since once more there was no barrier between you and him. Whispers and moans, and ringing in your ear though nobody was as close to you as Jin was. There was no barrier.

Things were divine, delicious, but you did not see or hear anything. You were borne away to a senseless world so strange, so remote. You no longer knew good from bad because of Seokjin. Kim Seokjin.

One thought crossed your mind, I'm so frightened.

“You are enchanting.” He said.

But his words didn’t comfort you as much as they should have. And as you danced, he pressed your waist and hand and told you that you were--

“Bewitching.” Then he smiled, “And I love you.”

He was more bewitching as he said those words, “And I love you”

And during the ecossaise, he gazed in your eyes. He said nothing just gazed in your eyes, your frightened eyes. Jin had such confident tenderness, you could not say what you had to say. Instead, you tried to lower your face as not to be entranced by his deep gaze. It didn’t work.

Instead, he lifted your chin up and spoke, “Don't lower your eyes. I love you. I am in love, dear. I am in love. Gaze in my eyes. I love you. You are bewitching. What can I do? Darling, what can I do?”

You replied with shaking confidence, “Don't say such things. I am betrothed; I love another.”

“Don't speak to me of that when I tell you that I am madly, madly in love with you!” He licked his plump lips. “Is it my fault that you're enchanting?”

All you could think about was how you were so frightened. You didn’t understand anything tonight.

Jin held you closer, “I'm here now~”

And tilted his head to kiss you, but you broke away, pushing him. What was going on? This wasn’t who you were! Was it?

“(Y/N)?” He spoke.

You could feel his eyes upon upir. Blocking your path, he brought your face close to his. His large, glittering, masculine eyes were so close to yours that you saw nothing else.

“Is it possible that I should never see you again? I love you madly! Can I never?”

Seokjin chased you through the halls of the divine dance, “(Y/N)?”

He was finally able to catch you with both hands that pressed into your arm.

“(Y/N)?”

He’s hurting your hands as his grip slipped to them!

“(Y/N)?”

You didn't understand. You had nothing to say...as he kissed you. So rough and desperately that you could not help but kiss him back and hold him tight. Not even sure where you were or whose eyes were on you. Not caring, either. Jin and you embraced passionately as heat took control of your actions. Burning lips pressed to yours until he pulled away after what felt like an eternity. You silently asked for someone to tell you what just happened. You’re trembling. It was all so frightening.

Jackson. The name floats in your consciousness, but you love Jin. Of that there is no doubt. How else could all of this have happened? How else could you have kissed? It means that you have loved him from the first. It means that he was kind, noble, and splendid.

And I could not help loving you. I will love you, Jin-oppa. Your heart beat. I'll do anything for you.

You can only look at each other as you both promised, “I'll do anything for you.”

Before you realized it, you ran back to him and he took your hand. The two of you left the party to do what most people did when they leave a party with someone they were romantically and physically attracted to. Especially when they believe they are in love with one another.

[ffsraine]

Hiya Loves!! I’m Dove and this is my mess of a child Raine!! You all usually see me on the main and now I’m so excited to rp with each and everyone of you!! Under the read more you’ll find a bit more about Raine and some suggested plots!!

♡. — (Danielle Campbell, 22, she/her) There’s RAINE PETERS, haven’t seen them in a while. They WERE BORN HERE and is known as the FIREBRAND around here.They are a/an PANSEXUAL FEMALE and I know that they are a LAW STUDENT. They seem INTELLIGENT & FOCUSED, but also RETICENT & STUBBORN. I heard they have a SET OF WAVES on their RIBCAGE. So I guess they are paired with ANY MALE FC, can’t wait to see how it goes

Okay so I’m gonna do this in bullet points so that hopefully I don’t get too carried away!!

A B O U T

Raine is the youngest of three children she was born into a wealthy family with a LOT high expectations.

Her family was one of the firsts on the island and her grandfather (was gonna say father but then I did the math and assuming that he was around forty at the time, he’d now be 97 soooo) actually went into business with the government when opening the island and helped with the construction of the island. They now own a string of shops throughout the island.

Most of her family is very proud to be a part of the Anteros legacy, Raine however is the complete opposite. When she was younger she used to dream about ways she could escape the island, but she knew they could never become a reality.

Her older brother Jasper is probably her best friend./ .He’s the only person she’s always known she can really on and truly be herself with. She confides in him and would do anything for him

She never really believes in the concepts of soulmates, she thinks the whole island is a bit of a sham for hopeless romantics and never really thinks she going to meet her soulmate.

That being said she is just about the biggest commitment-phobe you will ever meet!

She has only really been in one relationship in her life but it ended up a complete mess and her brokenhearted. ( WANTED CONNECTION PLS ) It was the only time she truly opened herself up and could see herself with someone and she ended up alone, again. so trust issues, ya know?

She is brash, sarcastic and doesn’t really care much about what people think about her.

She wants to study law to uncover the truth and help those whose voice has been diminished in the crowd.

She has the biggest soft spot for animals, but don’t call her out on it ok

So that’s a couple points on my lil bby!! I’m gonna post this on her bio page  bc i’m too lazy to do a lengthy bio right now. I’m going to leave a couple of suggest plots below and feel free to message me for plotting (it doesn’t have to be for any of these, it can be just in general) or if you want to talk about anything!! Let’s be friends!!

P L O T S

&& EX BOYFRIEND — okay so get ready for some anGST. So picture this whirlwind romance that happened when they were both in high school. He was her first love and she was completely enamored with him (feelings don’t have to be reciprocated, maybe that was part of the problem???) But then it all came crashing down (was it something mutual? was it his fault? was it her fault? LETS FIND OUT) and as much as she tried to fix it all slipped though her fingers. Now when they see each other it’s all snide remarks and bringing up the past

&&FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS — not you’re usual fwb. probably considered another one of raine’s closest friend, but they also sleep together. they are probably one of the people on the planet that knows her best, but they also sleep together and show affection for one another, but completely platonically. they both care for each other deeply but they both know that it will never move onto a relationship.

&&CONFIDANT/BEST FRIEND — one of the very few people that she opens up to. probably has known her since she was younger (maybe middle school) and knows everything she has been through. one of the few people raine knows she can count on

&&ROOMMATE — just because her parents are rich, doesn’t mean she is. she hardly accepts her parents money and prefers to fend for herself. they send her nice things but she never asks them for money (unless shes desperate which is hardly ever).

[yvcttes-blog]

check me out, sliding my intro in here like i haven’t been slacking hard and wasting my time watching youtube videos... ANYWAYS. hello doves! i’m vee (she/her) and i’m hyped af. fair warning, if you plot with me i will come at you with head canons at any point of the day. probably in all caps. and if you’ve read this, we kinda have to plot or gush about our muses ok. i don't make the rules.

if your lazy like me and you want the cheat version and just the bare bones basics, just scroll your cute butt to the bottom and i’ve have some bullet points so you get the just of it, yeah?

if your brave and you wanna get to the dirty details, i wrote a little (actually it’s huge ok) bio thing for her but honestly, feel free to skip this part because i went hard and it’s not short ok. it’s gonna take a hot minute. but it’s a little boujee bio so give yourselves a pat on the back if you managed to read it all.. bless you and your beautiful soul.

** also !! in case you’re confused, auto correct is the devil. her name is Yvette.

( ashley moore. cisfemale. she/her ) // oh god. was that ( yvette martin ) the ( caterer ) on set ? i heard everyone in valence studios calls them ( yve ) though, you should go and say hi because they’re pretty ( charismatic ) though i’ve been told they can also be ( enigmatic ). if anything, they’re known to be the ( reticent ). if i had to describe their story in six words it’ll be ( the cuts healed, her heart didn’t ).

I. YOU’RE THREE YEARS OLD. the memory is hazy; all blurred out edges and fabricated details at best. all you truly have is your parents colourful recollection to go by but here, this moment is the beginning of everything. you’re three years old and on your way to your very first dance class. it’s not terribly impressive. the dance studio is small and all assortments of children bounce around, their reflections doubling, tripping against the mirrored walls. your fingers curl in the fabric of your small tutu and giggles slip past your lips every time your ponytail swings round. they tell you feathery tales of how your eyes lit up like stars and how the grin stay plastered to your face for hours to come. they talk about how even after one class, you knew you only wanted to dance. II. YOU’RE SIX YEARS OLD. america; the land of opportunities, they say. clutching tight to your sister’s hand, you step off the plane and into what is to be your knew home. it’s louder and busier then france ever was. the language is hard and clipped and gratingly foreign to your ears. it’s horrible at first; your heart so desperately wishing it could go back, go home, but your mother wipes your tears and promises you a better world, a new life. your young mind begins to soak up the foreign tongue like a sponge, your toes find purchase on a new dance floor and you surround yourself with new friends. america as it turns out, is not as bad as you thought. III. YOU’RE TWELVE YEARS OLD. words like ‘exotic’ and ‘reclusive’ are thrown around. they are much more preferable to the ones whispered behind your back. teenagers, you discover, are far more cruel then their young souls ought to be. you’re different from your classmates, your skin is darker and your hair wilder and your eyes are not the colour of summer grass but rather of freshly ground soil. you’re an easy target, or so they believe. you don’t have time to hang out after school or swap chatter over reality television during breaks. your days are littered with school work and your nights are spent perched on pointe, trying to make the seemingly impossible look as natural as breathing. your toes bleed, your skin blooms with angry bruises and your muscles scream for mercy, but you tape up your cuts and ice your bruises and do it all over again. you tell yourself that it doesn’t matter what you’ve had to sacrifice, it doesn’t matter that your childhood friends have abandoned you because you’re a dancer. this is the price you pay to be great. IV. YOU’RE FIFTEEN YEARS OLD. julliard comes knocking at your door. a school revered for it’s dance program, for training the very best of the best and they want you. they extend an invitation to fly to new york for their prestigious summer program; to train with their teachers, to learn and impress and dance on the very stage that produced legends. you can’t say yes fast enough, can’t pack your bags fast enough. it’s a strain on finances and a gruelling test on your body, but every compliment thrown your way makes it all worth while. next year, there will be a spot waiting for you. you’re heaving on the floor, spent and drained but you feel as though you’re about to be split open and stuffed to the brim with blazing sunshine. V. YOU’RE SIXTEEN YEARS OLD. it all ends with a bang. with a crunch. with the deafening sound of metal and glass and pure devastation all mashed together. it’s an accident, or that’s what they tell you. an eighteen wheeler ran off the road and straight into your car. they tell you it was instant, that she felt no pain in an attempt to make it somehow easier to swallow. not even the drugs pulsing through your veins can quell the shattering of your heart, your soul. your sister is gone. you survived, left with nothing but screws in your knee and a titanium rod connecting the bones in your leg. one broken ballerina cursed with bones made of tin. this is not how the story goes. VI. you begin to know the inside of hospital walls as well as most girls know their favourite malls. the smell of antiseptic, the bleach white walls and the cooing sounds of nurses soon becomes the soundtrack to your days. it’s horribly uncomfortable, trying to reteach your body how to do something that was once so innate. with every bend, every stretch, it’s a struggle not to wince, not to grimace in pain. breaking in pointe shoes is preferable to this suffering. no one said rebuilding your body would be easy, but they also never told you just how hard it would be. you break and break and break again but somehow, some way you get back up. eventually you stop cringing so often. eventually the exercises become easier. you can move freely now, gaining back an almost full range of motion. you add in weights and you start testing the limits of this body of yours that feels brand new and yet impossible old all at the same time. VII. they always told you that if your work hard enough, if you want something bad enough, you can do anything. they don’t tell you how cruel this world can be. because while your doctor clears you to dance again, he only does so after strapping a ball and chain to your ankles. yes you can dance, but not like you used to. never like you used to. your knee can’t handle the strain, they said. the pressure and utter perfection ballet demands is much too big for a broken body to handle. julliard rescinds it’s offer; they are in the business of dancers and you are no longer what they need. scholarships vanish along with everything that made you who you were. and just like that, your dream has slipped forever out of your grasp. you are shards of a shattered doll, carelessly glued back together in an abstract picture of what once was. whole once more but forever broken. VIII. YOU’RE SIXTEEN YEARS OLD. your family is fractured. your father can’t look at your mother without seeing the daughter he lost and your mother can’t look at you without being reminded of the child she’ll never see. your father tells you that it will get better, that your mother can’t help it, that he will always love you. he talks of your sisters death like it’s the weight of the world, crushing the bones in atlas’ back. you want to scream, want to cry because you’re hurting too but no one seems to hear it. but grief is a festering wound and no amount of settlement money can stitch it back together. your parents never stop fighting. your mother can never quite look you in the eyes, can’t stand to be around you for more then a few fleeting moments. your father moves out because he can’t stand the inside of your family home anymore. the divorce is only the last nail in the coffin. you’re all that’s left when the dust settles. IX. YOU’RE SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD. try, just try. words your therapist whispers over and over again. those delicate balcony doors leaning towards a ballet career have been chained shut but you can’t seem to tear yourself away from them, to turn your back on the dream you lost. try, she says. a women like you can not survive without passion. she pushes and prods and demands more and more from you, prying you open with the bend of a crowbar, with the sharp edges of a blade. try. so you do. if only out of spite at first, if only to shove each failure back into her face. you can’t find the stillness required to get through a book or the fine tuned ear to create symphonies in your mind and you’re certainly no artist either. but eventually you stumble into the kitchen. there is a strange sense of calm you discover amongst the pots and pans, an innate rhythm your body seems to fall into. it’s almost a dance, for lack of a better word. it’s something. X. YOU’RE EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD. you haven’t swapped one dream for another. that’s not how this passion thing works. but you’ve found a place to take refuge, a place to quiet the raging of a restless soul like yours. you’ve always been good in the kitchen, but now you’re becoming great. mixing and crushing and blending ingredients together feels a bit like breaking apart choreography. soaking up steps in the form of skills and designing routines has morphed into crafting recipes. it’s individual ingredients and steps that weave together to create something like art. no, not something like it. art. and for the first time in a long time, you find yourself wanting again. XI. YOU’RE NINETEEN YEARS OLD. your father is getting married again. he extends the invite like a bouquet of wilting daisies. he’s still your father, he always will be, or at least those are the words he whispers to you. but he’s found a new life. he’s moving on and crafting a future with someone new and you will always be a chapter in his past. you haven’t spoken to your mother in what feels like forever; of course she doesn’t come to the ceremony. you’re father grins brilliantly and all his guests cheer because he’s finally getting a second chance to do this family thing right. that night you don’t weep at the edge of your sister’s grave, the tears won’t come. instead it feels like the bitter end to something that had broke long again. it’s just you now. XII. YOU’RE TWENTY YEARS OLD. you’re working in a food truck when the offer comes. you’ve worked long and hard and absorbed as much knowledge as you can from your superiors but you’ve got your own truck now. she’s a customer you’ve seen a few times now, always coming back for more and more despite the hurried way she seems to gulp down each helping of food. instead of shouting her order up at the open window, she lingers, only approaching when the mass of customers has finally died down. she offers you a job, catering for a network she represents. the hours are longer but the pay is better and the menu is yours to create. you jumps at the chance. XII. YOU’RE TWENTY ONE YEARS OLD. your days are filled with vibrancy and noise and an array of flavours so bold it’s a struggle to keep the excitement at bay. you get the freedom to experiment and the challenge of creating for a multitude of artists. you’re days are louder then life but your nights take on a quieter note. despite the livelihood of the day, you retreat back to an empty apartment. some nights are harder then others; when the silence is particularly heavy and the weight of it all presses down hard enough to make your bones splinter. on those nights you wonder if you’re too far gone to come back. your leg still twinges when the temperature drops and your skin is still riddled with scars but you’re moving and you’re creating and feeling and that is enough for now. it has to be enough.

OKAY QUICKIE INFO:

she’s a frenchie. born in france but she moved to america when she was six so she’s got that bilingual life.

she’s a cateror for the show, so when you’re hungry and craving all the goodies, she’s your girl ok.

she used to be a ballet dancer and a really fucking good one.

when she was sixteen, her and her sister got into a car accident and while she survived, her sister didn’t. it really messed up her leg and she ended up needing to get screws in her knee and a metal rod in her leg. and while she spent months doing physical therapy and rebuilding her strength, she just wasn’t able to dance the way she used to.

she discovered her love for food through baking. she got into it while she was in physio and it really became a peaceful comfort for her. and after losing dance, it was the only way she could create art again, you know?

she’s damaged goods, like we all are. but she’s got all the basics you know. trust issues. broken family. broken heart. all the good stuff.

she’s the type to talk a lot but say nothing you know? she’s really good at deflecting conversations and basically revealing nothing too personal about herself.

sarcasm and self deprecating humour is her thing.

basically. she’s lonely as fuck. but only admits it to herself.

[evangclines-blog]

*carrie bradshaw vc* as i sat there typing up an intro i couldnt help but wonder, is an intro still an intro without the zsa zsa zsu ? when it comes to embarrassing yourself, how do you know when enough is enough ?  i clearly dont know the answer to that bc i just edited That Picture™ of That Annoying Bitch™ carrie bradshaw ( god bless for the other three … ammirite or ammirite ? ) like the complete and utter Embarrassment that i am . and all of that for a terrible  no good  very bad joke . can u say pathetic ? anyway … wHaT uP pALs i’m the Worst™ but you can also call me isa. im awful at intros and i watch too much satc even tho i claim to hate carrie every single day of my life ( dont believe me im a Liar ) and talk about dogs way too often but i am so excited to be here wowie so if you feel like plotting or becoming bffls then hmu …  enough about me tho u can read up on this bitch evie under the cut.

oK so to start this off i’ll talk about evie’s childhood/home life all that fun stuff complied into one little bullet point bc like i said … im the worst at intros. bUT BaSicaLLy shes the child of this hollywood power couple from way back in the day like idk harrison ford and calista flockheart maybe. her dad was this big shot producer and her mom was an on the rise actress, so she spent a lot of time being passed from nanny to nanny while her parents were traveling for a movie or out late for an awards show so she got a bad case of the un-cureable Not Held Enough as a Child Syndrome. so beneath the editorial facade of white collared shirts and pleated tennis skirts she kinda grew into a girl who had been made into a numbed toy meant to entertain. i like to compare her to amy elliot dunne … u kno w/out the psychopathic tendencies but more so the whole amazing amy thing that troubled her past. her parents def had this idea of who they wanted her to be in their minds that was ultimately everything she was not, and so she put up false pretenses and lost herself behind the mask she put up for the public in an attempt to become this glorified version of herself.

i spent a long ass time bouncing back and forth between several careers for her. an actress wouldve been a basic choice considering her background and she would hate the thought of people thinking the only reason she earned a spot on the silver screen was through her father but lbr thats the only way it would happen probably so instead i went w her being a dancer but then i got to thinking … she has always done the most to appear perfect to the public, a publicist would be the perfect job for her honestmeme? so instead of her being juSt a dancer, shes a former ballerina who suffered from a career ending injury and needed a distraction because she is v ambitious and so she had to channel all the pent up ambition into something else so she enDed up interning for a pr firm. 

maybe one day i'll add her bio but today is not that day. but basically she’s v headstrong. likes to consider herself a force to be reckoned w/ v self absorbed and way too focused on her image. 0/10 would not recommend. i got lazy plus i dont know what else to add. now i have to go work on my theme.

[musicfeedsmysoul12]

Thief

Summary: Midoriya Inko is in a hospital bed, on some false charge pinned on her by the gang. She's grumpy, tired and just wants to sleep. Then a man walks in with an offer. The Military or jail.

It's a no brainer.

Fandoms: Mass Effect and BNHA

Tags: Fusion, Crossover, Midoriya Inko is Fem Shep, Quirkless David Anderson, Earthborn (Mass Effect), Hospitals, mentions of quirk discrimination

AO3

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Midoriya Inko is lying in the uncomfortable bed that most hospitals have for their patients that might end up in jail. Given she has a pair of Omni-Cuffs that are keeping her chained to the bed, and a Quirk suppressant coursing through her veins, she’s pretty sure that’s where she’s going to end up. Her hair has been shaved on one side, a large abrasion from the bullet that had nearly killed her left on her skull. A police officer had come, along with some random hero intern Inko barely remembers the name of- the kid looked terrified to be in the hospital room of someone who apparently arranged for the shoot-out to happen.

‘He won’t last as a hero,’ Inko thinks, remembering him. The look the cop gave him showed he agreed.

Inko hadn’t done it. She knows what she’s good at it and it isn’t that. Inko is a thief and a shooter. The last time the Tenth Street Reds let her plan anything she ended up destroying six cars. They knew better.

It all pointed to someone putting the blame on her. Inko gets it. She’s some random grunt, the lower ranks of the gang. Small-Object Attraction isn’t flashy, and Inko might be a pretty good thief, but in the scheme of things it didn’t matter.

Cut the dead weight. Nothing she could do about it.

Inko lets out a huff, closing her eyes and trying to get some more sleep when the door swooshes open. Opening one eye, she sees a man enter the room, dressed in some Alliance blues. He’s a handsome man, she notes but she scowls still.

“What’s a gaijin doing here?” She demands, sneering her words. She turns her head to glare, opening both eyes. The man raises an eyebrow.

“You don’t hear that word much anymore for humans,” he muses aloud in Japanese. Inko can tell by the accent, the lack of the perfect wording provided by the translator she had to bargain for a month for.

Most people are lazy nowadays, with translators in their skulls that let them know so many languages. Why bother actually learning one when nine times out of ten someone has a translator in their skull? However, you could always tell when someone took the time to learn the language, by the fact it was accented and not perfect.

“I call it like I see it.” Inko sneers. She doesn’t actually mean it. She and the other Reds usually use it for aliens, which is what most of Japan uses it for after First Contact. But some people just can’t let go of prejudice. Besides, she doesn’t want to be nice.

She’s being pinned with a very bad charge and she didn’t even do it. She doesn’t want to get pinned with it but she’s no snitch. She’s a thief and a gang member but she’s no snitch.

She’s angry. She’s tired. She wants to punch someone in the face. Snarking off is her best choice right then.

“My name is Lt. Commander David Anderson. And I have a proposal.” The man says and she rolls her eyes as dramatically as she can.

“I ain’t a fucking mail order bride or some shit so you can get housing on leave.” She tells him. He in turn snorts.

“Nothing like that. What I’m here for is to ask if you want to join the Alliance Military.”

Inko stares before she barks out a laugh.

“You’re shitting me.” She says. The man doesn’t flinch. “Me? A two-bit petty thief with a lame-ass Quirk?”

“Quirks don’t matter,” Anderson says and she gives another eye roll, using her whole body to do so. Her green hair- sadly partly shaved thanks to the awful burn she had on her head now- flicks over her face from the force of it.

“That’s what people say, and it’s bullshit.” Quirks did matter. Small-Object Attraction was fine for stealing credit chits or lifting things but most agreed with was fucking worthless otherwise. Not like Ken who could turn into metal or Hina who could fly.

Anderson digs something out of his pocket to show her. A license- old plastic which was still used on Earth. Some Quirks reacted funny to tech, and it was simpler to keep things fairly low tech on Earth in answer. Inko looks and freezes.

The line where it says Quirk- there’s the word Quirkless. She stares at it and then at him.

“On Earth, it may matter. Out there? Not so much.” He smiles. “We employ a lot of Biotics too.” Inko snorts. Biotics are technically Quirkless but given they could use Biotics… most don’t consider them to be.

“... I’m a petty thief. Why me?” Inko Asks.

“Two reasons. One- I saw that move you did where you pulled the trigger of the man you were facing in the shoot-out,” Anderson grins and Inko does too. One of the few things she does well with her minor Quirk, pulling triggers. “The second… you ever met your mom?”

“No. Dad said she got herself killed.” Inko shrugs at his look.

“Your mother was Hannah Shepard, part of the Alliance,” Anderson tells her. “An old friend. It’s partly because of her that I offer this chance.”

A part of Inko wants to sneer about that, that he only wants to help her because of her mom. But well, what does it change? He’s still going to help her, he’s still going to save her.

If she takes the deal.

… Who is she kidding? Jail for the next twenty years or the military. It’s a no-brainer choice.

“Where do I sign?” She asks.

Anderson pulls out a datapad and hands it to her. She flicks it on to find most of the paperwork already filled out- he probably got the doctors to do it. She stops at the name though.

“My mom’s name was Shepard, right?” she asks.

“It was.” Anderson agrees. Inko quietly deletes Midoriya from the last name and puts in Shepard. It looks clunky, with random English letters next to kanji. She can’t care though.

She hands it to Anderson who raises an eyebrow. She shrugs.

“I’ll go and deal with this,” Anderson tells her. He nods and leaves. She lays in the bed, staring at the closed door for a bit before she smiles and turns her face to the ceiling.

Looks like a thief is going to be someone else.

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As we know I get a lot of fic title ask games.

One of them gave me the thought of an AU where Inko is Commander Shepard so I've been working on them on and off. (I also have a TikTok AU where Inko is Fem Hawke from Dragon Age... it's fun)

Don't expect this little series to often be updated, it's a fun little AU but I have other AUs I'm focusing on. I just thought to post this for fun.

Notes: -You can't be a biotic and have a Quirk. This is something that will be brought up but there's a lot of legalities around it- are they Quirkless or are they Quirked and the such.

-Asari who have human 'fathers' have a 50/50 of having Biotics or Quirks. Since it's been only a little while, it's only been noticed in the last five years.

-Future pairing is Garrus/Fem Shep

-Izuku is Inko's bio kid but I'm playing with how. Ideas welcome.

[airportb]

Lab Safety Precautions

This is a BSL3 lab, so there should be lots of precaution taken to avoid exposure to unwanted things.

This is an 18+ blog. There is NSFW writing on this blog. There may also be dark content because I write whatever I want and share what I want and if you don’t like it, well, I’m sorry. I love having you in my class, but you can drop the course at any time. All my works, regardless of content, will always be tagged properly to avoid anyone seeing things they don’t want.

When the the TA is having office hours, asks are open and I will accept requests for drabbles, HC’s, and oneshots, so feel free to raise your hand and ask a question.

Asks are always open for thirsts or anons or anyone else who wants to hang out with me, regardless of whether the TA has office hours. Please interact with me, I’m bored. And I love you.

I don’t write ships, just [character] x reader. Now, I will 100% write for [multiple characters] x reader because that is my favorite, bring on the poly or three/four/fivesomes. If I am not comfortable writing a request, I will message you to let you know (unless you’re an anon, in which case, I can’t and you’ll just never see it). I don’t have a lot of hard limits yet for my writing as I’m not sure what could be requested. I will not write anything NSFW for underage characters however. In Haikyuu, if it is NSFW, it’s post timeskip. In BNHA, anything NSFW will be about ADULT pro-heroes that are aged up.  

Examples of what you can request when the TA has office hours:

Drabbles: No longer than a couple hundred words, straight to the point. 

HC’s: Mostly written in bullets; if I get too excited, maybe a drabble or short fic at the end.

Oneshots: Self explanatory, it’s a whole, written out little story. There is no word limit because I tend to go overboard most of the time. Give me an idea and we’re probably going at least 5000 words. 

Playlists: I absolutely love music so if you want to give me a character and a short scenario, I’ll make you a 5-10 song playlist for it! 

Moodboards: I love making them and they make me happy!

Do not repost my content anywhere. Reblogs (and comments) are awesome and welcome. Reposting on other sites? No. Be cool friends. All my fics and drabbles will be posted later on my AO3 account as well and the link will be in my tumblr bio (eventually, I’m lazy right now).

If you follow all the lab safety precautions, I think we’re going to have a great semester!

-Dr. B

[brittanyyoungblog]

6 Simple But Effective Tips to Up Your Tinder Game

Swipe left for no, swipe right for yes. Tinder’s game is deceptively simple. While it’s easy to swipe right on 100 profiles, unless you’re incredibly lucky not even half of those will become matches, and less than half of those will become dates. There’s no silver bullet to get everyone to swipe right on you, but there are definitely things you can do to improve your chances. Here are six tips to improve your tinder game and get you more matches and more dates.

1. Use clean, attractive photos. Your profile photos are the first thing people see when they swipe onto your profile, so it’s important that they look as good as possible. Tinder allows up to six photos, so if you don’t have six you might want to grab some a friend and go for a quick photo shoot.

The key to good Tinder photos are bright, clean shots of you smiling. You get bonus points for interesting locations, funny situations, and stylish dress. You get docked points for poor photo quality, group shots, and wearing hats and sunglasses. (I could write a whole article on how to take great dating profile photos, and I did.)

2. Write a witty, informative bio. The bio is the second most important component of your Tinder profile, so it’s important that you nail this one, too. The bio offers daters looking through your profile a more holistic view of your personality. In your Tinder bio, you should write a bit about your personal interests, what you’re looking for in a relationship, and some fun facts. It helps to tailor your profile to the type of people you’re trying to attract. Include details about yourself that are similar to those you might want for a partner. You have 500 characters to condense your life into something coherent and interesting, which is pretty much impossible, but if you want to win Tinder you have to try.

It’s difficult to make the person on the other side of the screen laugh, but if you can you’re in good shape. Be clever. Be original. Make jokes that are lighthearted and inoffensive, while revealing information about yourself. Take a look at what others have done or these examples of funny Tinder bios, but don’t copy. People can tell when something’s been copied off the internet.

3. Swipe selectively. Don’t swipe on every pretty face. Swipe on people you think you’ll have genuine compatibility with. That doesn’t mean that you’re going to marry the first person you match with, but it does mean that you’ll have a better chance of hitting if off with the people you match with. Base your swipe on what their profile says and whether or not it seems like you share similar interests and values. If you’re a music fan, and they have a photo at your favorite band’s concert swipe right. If you’re an avid fisher, and they’re a vegan swipe left.

4. Swipe out of your league. A study published in Science Advances suggests that people often swipe out of their league on dating apps and are successful in doing so. People pursue others on average 25% more desirable than themselves (measured by inbound messages and the perceived attractiveness of those messages) and often match with those people. So don’t say no because you think it won’t work out. It’s always worth a shot.

5. Stand out from the crowd. When you reach out to someone on Tinder, don’t just say hey. It’s the most overused opening line, and will make the other person think you didn’t put any thought into your message, which you probably didn’t. Online dating is great for the options it provides us, but the options are a double-edged sword because we can blend into a sea of other faces.

When you meet in person, the person you’re flirting with can pick up on all sorts of nonverbal cues that they can’t access online. In the world of online dating, their information is limited. If you start with a lazy intro, it’s going to count against the points you racked up with your profile.

6. Be perceptive and relevant. Getting a conversation started online is often the most difficult part of online dating. When you’re figuring out what to say, all you’ve got to go off on Tinder the short bio and six photos or less. In other words, there’s not a lot, so you’ll have to be extra sharp at assessing their profile to come up with something relevant to say.

See if they’ve listed anything interesting in their bio or showed off an interesting location or activity in their photos. Common ground is your best conversation starter. And if you’re able to leverage humor into your opener, then go for it.

Tinder seems easy, but getting to the date isn’t always easy. Some of these tips may seem like more work, but being a good online daters is about making your profile and messaging the best they can be through small tweaks. Chances are you’re 80% of the way there but the last 20% will get you to the finish line.

  The post 6 Simple But Effective Tips to Up Your Tinder Game appeared first on The Date Mix.

from Meet Positives SMFeed 8 https://ift.tt/2DkieIA via IFTTT

[hotspreadpage]

How to use SEO on LinkedIn

SEO on LinkedIn is too often overlooked, and it’s time you start viewing LinkedIn, just like Google, as a search engine. With access to a whole network of professionals, the opportunities for those who are savvy enough can be endless. LinkedIn is the most popular platform for B2B companies to acquire new clients so being able to optimize your LinkedIn presence has a whole array of potential benefits – both for your personal profile and also for your business.

Due to its high domain authority, search engines deliver a lot of results from LinkedIn in the SERPs for certain search terms, particularly those revolving around job roles. This post considers how you can stand out and how to occupy the top spot for your business.

Devil in the detail

The first step is to fill out as much of your profile as you possibly can. Don’t be lazy and avoid cutting corners – provide the details which will help to elevate your profile. But don’t just mindlessly fill in all the fields; make sure to be descriptive, engaging and use carefully chosen words. Keep it descriptive but to the point through revealing the important information but leave a tad of intrigue. Use bullet points or lists to make it more digestible and encouraging to read.

Remember to upload a clear, professional picture. If you still have your graduation picture, it gives the wrong impression and suggests you are a university grad, not a respected professional with three years of valuable experience under your belt. Right or wrong, consciously or subconsciously, people will inevitably base their first impressions on your picture. Give it a little thought and don’t just publish a pixelated picture from that bar the other night. As a final picture tip, make sure it is named appropriately to increase your chances of appearing in image searches.

Think in keywords

Just like you target certain keywords when optimizing a website, you need to do the same when optimizing your LinkedIn and give considerable thought to user intent when approaching the SEO of a website.

As with optimizing a website, be sure not to overdo keywords. It’ll be so obvious to anyone reading if you’ve stuffed the keyword ‘content marketing expert’ into one paragraph seven times. Remember to be engaging and genuinely interesting. Getting people to find you is only the first step – what’s going to make them ‘convert’, or hit you up with a snazzy job offer / potential new business?

Make use of the summary section to further amplify your keywords. This is likely the first section people will read on your profile, so it goes without saying that you need to make it absolutely flipping fantastic. Self-promotion is great, but put the focus on how you help others. People aren’t visiting your profile to see you congratulate yourself; the chances are that they want something and you need to demonstrate how you’re the right person to speak with.

Customize your URL

If you’ve never previously thought about this, then just take a second to glance at the URL for your LinkedIn profile. A vague reference to your name is not helpful for anyone, particularly not for search engines. Take a second to update your custom URL to something that includes your full name. If you’ve got a painfully common name like myself then you may need to be a bit creative, but keep it professional and as clear as possible. An easy way of doing this is to think whether you’d be happy seeing that URL on your business card.

Network as much as is socially acceptable

LinkedIn is, at the end of day, an online space for networking. So don’t just make your profile pretty – you’ve got to use it. In a very similar way to building links in SEO, if you haven’t got any connections on LinkedIn then you’re far less likely to appear in the search results.

Networking is arguably one of the most important points here. LinkedIn’s search algorithm is based first and foremost on showing people with similar connections and groups. You’ve probably noticed that the results which are prioritized when you search on LinkedIn are those with 1st, 2nd or even 3rd level connections to you. It, therefore, follows that the more people you are connected with on LinkedIn, the more likely you are to show up in the search results. It’s a social network after all, so be social, and network.

Engagement and interaction

You’ve got opinions, so share them. You’ve got expert knowledge, so divulge it. You’ve got a voice, so use it. Like any social network, it’s absolutely imperative to engage with people if you want to make the most out of it. Although this may not directly increase your chances of being found in the search results, it does increase your exposure to other people on LinkedIn. And one thing always leads to another.

Participate in groups

This is an extension of the points about engaging and networking. Groups are an excellent way of finding like-minded people in your industry. Spend some time identifying the groups most relevant to your expertise and profession. It also makes you more visible, as joining a group with thousands of people will suddenly make you more relevant to them in terms of the search results. You’ve got nothing to lose and you’ll probably gain a lot along the way.

Collect endorsements

Nobody seems to know whether or not a higher number of endorsements or recommendations helps your profile appear higher in the search results. Either way, it’s certainly worth trying to collect as many of these as possible. Just like buying a product based on positive reviews, it’s the same theory for hiring humans. Endorsements and recommendations imbue a level of confidence and trust in the authority and credentials of a given person or business.

Just being really good at what you do, sitting back and waiting for the endorsements to come in probably isn’t going to cut it. Take a proactive approach and start endorsing or recommending people in your network. Don’t expect to get anything back as standard, but with any luck, you’ll get at least some people to return the favor.

Sharing is caring

Let’s admit it, one of the primary functions of LinkedIn is shameless self-promotion. This is a place where you can proudly share your work, show it off to the world, and create open discussions.  Just remember that sharing is caring but oversharing is overbearing. As long as you are sharing content and updates which are genuinely interesting and provide value to people, then you’re golden. Don’t approach it as a way to stroke your ego – that’s a recipe for disaster – rather, it’s about collaborating on ideas and sharing value. In short, it’ a great way of interacting with your network and reaching new people. This leads to new connections and a wider network and, a better chance at ranking highly.

Publish posts on LinkedIn

This is different to sharing articles you’ve written elsewhere. Just click on ‘Write an article’ underneath the status update and lay down your best words. Pushing out content as part of an SEO strategy helps boost your authority and ramp up those rankings and the same goes for LinkedIn. Publish some brilliant articles and you’ll be hailed as the go-to industry expert in no time at all. Actually, it does take a bit of time but it’s absolutely worth doing if you are looking to build your LinkedIn profile and enhance your personal brand.

Writing optimized content for LinkedIn is no different to writing content as part of an SEO campaign with all the same rules applying. You can also repurpose content you’ve written elsewhere – just don’t duplicate content because we all know how Google feels about that. For example, if you have an article on your blog that’s no longer doing particularly well, it’s worth including a synopsis of the post as an article on LinkedIn and then link to the full article on your blog. This can also work vice versa.

Generate links to your profile

If you’re even a little bit familiar with the world of digital marketing then you’ll understand the importance of backlinks. It’s no different when you’re trying to rank your LinkedIn profile higher. Always be aware of trying to gain backlinks to your LinkedIn profile at every possible opportunity.

If you’ve got a blog, be sure to link back to your profile. Add a link to your email signature. Promote your LinkedIn profile across other social media accounts. Guest posting is another great way to build on those links, as it’s very common practice to include social links in your author bio. You’ll then find a snowball effect – the more links you have, the more people will see your profile, the more people will engage with you, the higher your profile will rank and the more links you’ll get… you get the idea.

Final words

Many of the above points can be applied to both your personal profile and your business page. Make the most of SEO on LinkedIn and you’ll be able to reach new audiences, generate leads and build on your professional profile. As a final point, don’t forget to make absolutely sure that your LinkedIn public profile is visible and not hidden.

    How to use SEO on LinkedIn syndicated from https://hotspread.wordpress.com

[alanajacksontx]

How to use SEO on LinkedIn

SEO on LinkedIn is too often overlooked, and it’s time you start viewing LinkedIn, just like Google, as a search engine. With access to a whole network of professionals, the opportunities for those who are savvy enough can be endless. LinkedIn is the most popular platform for B2B companies to acquire new clients so being able to optimize your LinkedIn presence has a whole array of potential benefits – both for your personal profile and also for your business.

Due to its high domain authority, search engines deliver a lot of results from LinkedIn in the SERPs for certain search terms, particularly those revolving around job roles. This post considers how you can stand out and how to occupy the top spot for your business.

Devil in the detail

The first step is to fill out as much of your profile as you possibly can. Don’t be lazy and avoid cutting corners – provide the details which will help to elevate your profile. But don’t just mindlessly fill in all the fields; make sure to be descriptive, engaging and use carefully chosen words. Keep it descriptive but to the point through revealing the important information but leave a tad of intrigue. Use bullet points or lists to make it more digestible and encouraging to read.

Remember to upload a clear, professional picture. If you still have your graduation picture, it gives the wrong impression and suggests you are a university grad, not a respected professional with three years of valuable experience under your belt. Right or wrong, consciously or subconsciously, people will inevitably base their first impressions on your picture. Give it a little thought and don’t just publish a pixelated picture from that bar the other night. As a final picture tip, make sure it is named appropriately to increase your chances of appearing in image searches.

Think in keywords

Just like you target certain keywords when optimizing a website, you need to do the same when optimizing your LinkedIn and give considerable thought to user intent when approaching the SEO of a website.

As with optimizing a website, be sure not to overdo keywords. It’ll be so obvious to anyone reading if you’ve stuffed the keyword ‘content marketing expert’ into one paragraph seven times. Remember to be engaging and genuinely interesting. Getting people to find you is only the first step – what’s going to make them ‘convert’, or hit you up with a snazzy job offer / potential new business?

Make use of the summary section to further amplify your keywords. This is likely the first section people will read on your profile, so it goes without saying that you need to make it absolutely flipping fantastic. Self-promotion is great, but put the focus on how you help others. People aren’t visiting your profile to see you congratulate yourself; the chances are that they want something and you need to demonstrate how you’re the right person to speak with.

Customize your URL

If you’ve never previously thought about this, then just take a second to glance at the URL for your LinkedIn profile. A vague reference to your name is not helpful for anyone, particularly not for search engines. Take a second to update your custom URL to something that includes your full name. If you’ve got a painfully common name like myself then you may need to be a bit creative, but keep it professional and as clear as possible. An easy way of doing this is to think whether you’d be happy seeing that URL on your business card.

Network as much as is socially acceptable

LinkedIn is, at the end of day, an online space for networking. So don’t just make your profile pretty – you’ve got to use it. In a very similar way to building links in SEO, if you haven’t got any connections on LinkedIn then you’re far less likely to appear in the search results.

Networking is arguably one of the most important points here. LinkedIn’s search algorithm is based first and foremost on showing people with similar connections and groups. You’ve probably noticed that the results which are prioritized when you search on LinkedIn are those with 1st, 2nd or even 3rd level connections to you. It, therefore, follows that the more people you are connected with on LinkedIn, the more likely you are to show up in the search results. It’s a social network after all, so be social, and network.

Engagement and interaction

You’ve got opinions, so share them. You’ve got expert knowledge, so divulge it. You’ve got a voice, so use it. Like any social network, it’s absolutely imperative to engage with people if you want to make the most out of it. Although this may not directly increase your chances of being found in the search results, it does increase your exposure to other people on LinkedIn. And one thing always leads to another.

Participate in groups

This is an extension of the points about engaging and networking. Groups are an excellent way of finding like-minded people in your industry. Spend some time identifying the groups most relevant to your expertise and profession. It also makes you more visible, as joining a group with thousands of people will suddenly make you more relevant to them in terms of the search results. You’ve got nothing to lose and you’ll probably gain a lot along the way.

Collect endorsements

Nobody seems to know whether or not a higher number of endorsements or recommendations helps your profile appear higher in the search results. Either way, it’s certainly worth trying to collect as many of these as possible. Just like buying a product based on positive reviews, it’s the same theory for hiring humans. Endorsements and recommendations imbue a level of confidence and trust in the authority and credentials of a given person or business.

Just being really good at what you do, sitting back and waiting for the endorsements to come in probably isn’t going to cut it. Take a proactive approach and start endorsing or recommending people in your network. Don’t expect to get anything back as standard, but with any luck, you’ll get at least some people to return the favor.

Sharing is caring

Let’s admit it, one of the primary functions of LinkedIn is shameless self-promotion. This is a place where you can proudly share your work, show it off to the world, and create open discussions.  Just remember that sharing is caring but oversharing is overbearing. As long as you are sharing content and updates which are genuinely interesting and provide value to people, then you’re golden. Don’t approach it as a way to stroke your ego – that’s a recipe for disaster – rather, it’s about collaborating on ideas and sharing value. In short, it’ a great way of interacting with your network and reaching new people. This leads to new connections and a wider network and, a better chance at ranking highly.

Publish posts on LinkedIn

This is different to sharing articles you’ve written elsewhere. Just click on ‘Write an article’ underneath the status update and lay down your best words. Pushing out content as part of an SEO strategy helps boost your authority and ramp up those rankings and the same goes for LinkedIn. Publish some brilliant articles and you’ll be hailed as the go-to industry expert in no time at all. Actually, it does take a bit of time but it’s absolutely worth doing if you are looking to build your LinkedIn profile and enhance your personal brand.

Writing optimized content for LinkedIn is no different to writing content as part of an SEO campaign with all the same rules applying. You can also repurpose content you’ve written elsewhere – just don’t duplicate content because we all know how Google feels about that. For example, if you have an article on your blog that’s no longer doing particularly well, it’s worth including a synopsis of the post as an article on LinkedIn and then link to the full article on your blog. This can also work vice versa.

Generate links to your profile

If you’re even a little bit familiar with the world of digital marketing then you’ll understand the importance of backlinks. It’s no different when you’re trying to rank your LinkedIn profile higher. Always be aware of trying to gain backlinks to your LinkedIn profile at every possible opportunity.

If you’ve got a blog, be sure to link back to your profile. Add a link to your email signature. Promote your LinkedIn profile across other social media accounts. Guest posting is another great way to build on those links, as it’s very common practice to include social links in your author bio. You’ll then find a snowball effect – the more links you have, the more people will see your profile, the more people will engage with you, the higher your profile will rank and the more links you’ll get… you get the idea.

Final words

Many of the above points can be applied to both your personal profile and your business page. Make the most of SEO on LinkedIn and you’ll be able to reach new audiences, generate leads and build on your professional profile. As a final point, don’t forget to make absolutely sure that your LinkedIn public profile is visible and not hidden.

  from IM Tips And Tricks https://searchenginewatch.com/2018/05/18/how-to-use-seo-on-linkedin/ from Rising Phoenix SEO https://risingphxseo.tumblr.com/post/174016560730