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itsnotablogsblog · 2 months ago

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GOSSIP AND RUMORS LEAD FANS BAFFLED ; KNOCKED LOOSE AUDIENCE WANTS FORMAL APOLOGY?

Rumors about Bryan and Poppy. Jimmy Kimmel Apology, and the theory on music

This is solely for entertainment purposes only, if you have any theories and or questions about whats happening, feel free to comment down below

Hello! Welcome back to another tea rant.

Good morning! Good afternoon, and good evening!

Today it’s gonna be a little different than my usual routine.

We’re going to deep dive into this music industry, and how many artists today have marketing teams into getting fans to buy their music, albums, and much more.

And the tea about what’s been revolving around Jimmy Kimmel and the audience wanting a formal apology.

THE POPPY AND NOAH SITUATION

Of course, this long rant about people saying they’re “dating” or they’re not “dating” has been for a long while.

Ever since Noah asked Poppy about being in a collaboration, many fans speculate this duo is actually a thing.

Sounds like fans are getting confused.

What more grabbed my attention is the third user who had a very interesting theory.

PLANNED IN SECRECY? A Theory

In their post, they state that Noah and the band disappear for awhile, and when they come back either to drop a new photograph of Noah, or him showing off new merch, it seems to be all planned out.

I don’t know where to start, so let’s start out with the basics, how does the business actually work?

This theory led me to think and process what companies really want. Which is money. I think I’m going to break it down bit by bit into categories. Since this user is being specific.

CATEGORY 1 : LABELS

This is label marketing. The term used for music label industries, in which they want to sell items and sell products for bands

Such as Linkin Park, BabyMetal, Metallica, Knocked Loose, Bad Omens, BTS, anyone that has some type of contract with different music industries.

Now labels, they get you anything in the business. It’s their way to market off of your money for them to sell you what you want.

It’s not a bad thing actually, it’s been happening for decades. So it’s pretty normal for companies to do this.

Category 2: ADVERTISING

In this category, once they have a good understanding and both parties agree to run an advertising strategy or product they usually put it out on social media.

They can advertise a band, making collaborations with a person to help them out and find new audiences.

It’s their own way to market off and get money from their consumers.

Like for example how they did with Poppy and Bad Omens.

Poppy signed the contract with Sumerian for her new album “Negative Spaces”

This led Sumerian find different ways to advertise her in many articles, being photographed with Noah, and being photographed with the group to promote one of their songs.

I’m telling you now, please do not come after Sumerian Records, this is just how they do things and business. It’s normal for companies to do things like this. It’s their job.

With advertising, since each label manager has an employee their financing from, it’s a lot more easy to have them produce songs.

Category 3 : MANAGERS AND PR TEAMS

So as you might have guessed, each front person, has an individual label manager or management and what they call assistants PR teams.

So what do they do?

In short terms, they are responsible for everything, just like the band is responsible for gaining profits.

1. Booking Gigs

2. Negotiate contracts

3. Promote

4. Arrange schedules

5. Broker deals

6. Financial management

7. Advising bands on career decisions

8. Band scheduling

9. Booking and scheduling

10. Securing record deals

11. Attending a bands performance

12. Artist development

13. Branding

14. Career Development

15. Encouraging and supporting their bands

16. Network with other band managers

17. Record label representation

18. Working as hard as the band

If you haven’t seen the movie “American Satan”

In terms it’s like that movie, where a band is wanting a career path into the music business.

So why have managers?

That’s easy to say.

A band can’t do it alone. They need an anchor to support them. In this case management. Management can bring a band together to promote them.

For example, since Bad Omens is the new band and the most popular, my guess is that they signed with Sumerian Records for their talent.

See each label looks for talent or in terms “make the scene”

There’s a lot to explain here, from what I mean by this statement is that record labels look for talented musicians who in their eyes can become very successful in the long run.

As for PR management, their job is to solely focus on making sure they get their band visibility on various platforms. Like social media.

They are also responsible for scheduling interviews, make sure the frontman or lead singer gets a highlight of their performance, make sure they advertise their music. They’re responsible for scheduling tours.

Category 4 : MONEY INCOME

So this leads us to this theory this user mentioned.

Bands just don’t announce a new album or new merchandise until they have or have been set on how much they’re going to sell.

If it’s behind the scenes then i say it sure is dealt with secretly.

Money is a distribution. A lot of it comes from on how many people want to become rich. It’s a huge product among the United States.

In this case we could think of it as the higher ups.

This distribution is normal. It’s used for marketing, it’s used in jobs, it’s used in your day to day lives.

Money nowadays gets us everywhere. It gets us our groceries, it gets us monthly or weekly payments due to working regular jobs and eight hour shifts.

Well in huge companies, like music industries money is a huge deal. It’s a way of making money from advertising and selling products.

But that’s all I know so far.

This brings the theory into if it is actually all planned out

PLANNED OUT IN SECRECY

The user above mentioned that it could potentially be planned out.

I mean planning out every little thing that the band agrees on doing could be possibly the next big thing.

If they want to profit off anything, they have the power to do so.

If Bad Omens doesn’t post for many days or weeks at a time, maybe they’re planning out something big.

But this also revolves around how many tour dates and schedules they have to attend. Now this is where it gets interesting because whether or not we know how this music industry works, it makes a good theory.

THEORY #1: The Band Profits off of what fans buy.

Bad Omens is a good example on this subject. It brought me back to what I delve down into the rabbit hole.

For instance, concerts.

In this particular case, from what I’ve heard from many people that surprised me was the way they profit money from selling tickets.

This can be a good tactic, especially if they want to get fans to buy tickets. It’s their way to make the fans happy by giving them the option to buy merch, buy vinyls, albums, and many more.

THEORY 2: THEY LURK

For instance, this is just an FYI we know that Noah doesn’t have socials, and deleted everything off the web.

Just like Matt Dierkes, Bryan, and Ryder, they have socials. But what do they use them for?

I think if Noah was aware of what is happening around social media, he might be the one behind the Bad Omens official social media.

Maybe, he sees everyone’s comments and posts. To where they might have seen every beef and every rant that each fan posted.

This leads to the theory they might be lurkers and peep at every little detail that comes right out of the social platform.

Maybe Ryder and Matt keep tabs on everything and monitor what fans want.

Could it just be coincidence or is it real?

In the past, we know Noah talked to fans and kept them in the loop for new music and new albums back in 2019.

But after he disappeared from social media, this leads to the theory that he is still on socials.

But we can’t know for sure.

This has lead to many deep fakes and fake Noah Sebastian accounts that led many people to believe they are talking to the real Noah.

If people say to you he’s a real person talking behind the screen, then it’s probably not the real Noah Sebastian. A lot of fans joke about it, but I think it’s just dumb trying to troll other fans that he’s real.

I think it’s highly annoying that this shit keeps happening.

So why do they lurk?

This brings back to the tea blogs on this app, that many people have conversations about. But since they’re just speculations, it’s not something to deeply worry about.

It’s completely normal for people who work with bands have social media. This is another way to get fans and get followers to interact with the band and their assistance.

Whether they lurk on social media, they have known about situations.

They look out for the good comments and bad ones.

This theory also applies to them planning things out for the long run and possibly plan ahead for the fans to enjoy.

This includes their merchandise on their official website, their albums, and more likely their music.

What the fans look for and what they want in specific items, etc.

A band isn’t just people playing drums, guitar, bass, and backing vocals and having a lead singer.

It is a business.

If we understand that what they look for is good then they’ll find a way to advertise it. Planning it out in secret.

I’m not against anyone but it sounds fairly smart for companies to do this.

MORE BUYS = MORE BUSINESS

quality over quantity.

MORE BUSINESS = MORE MONEY

So when it comes to their merchandise, they look for the best quality of products to sell. This includes them making them in a factory where they work with several artists and producers.

Since Bad Omens have been doing this for years, they’re the ones buying the most to get what the fans want.

This is where when they put out their merchandise, fans buy the items and Bad Omens profit from them.

Now that’s a good way to make business.

And no, they’re not using AI to produce these results.

People tend to manipulate others into thinking it is AI, just because they want to start drama.

In this case, they are definitely not using anything related to AI.

That’s why they have the best tattoo artist and comic book writer Davis Ryder.

I think a lot of people tend to forget that they have a tattoo artist in their band which is Nicholas Ruffilo and Davis Ryder, who is responsible for making these designs stand out than most.

I’m not too sure about Jolly. But he does play a role

This leads to Jolly being the second person to help Noah produce and co-write songs.

Jolly and Noah have been doing this for years. They wrote Dethrone together and the past two albums of their launching careers.

Nicholas has been with them since they first met.

Folio came afterwards after finding a good person to play drums.

So for anyone thinking it is AI, it’s not. These men have been doing business since the very beginning of their careers.

Noah knows a lot about this business, since he was a teen.

He grew up knowing his way around bands.

From starting out to play guitar in one of the bands he used to be a part of in Washington, to moving to Los Angeles.

THEORY 3: SUMERIAN RECORDS

So, this leads to theory 3 being Sumerian Records and how they navigate through the music business.

Like I said, Sumerian records is a huge company. They are responsible for everything and everyone.

This leads them to the list of supporting the band.

They navigate their way through social media and putting out what profits them.

I’m not saying it’s bad for them to advertise their band. It’s actually good for them.

This has the best opportunity for the band to get money from the fans and tours for them to entertain. After all it’s an entertainment industry.

If you have seen American Satan, then it plays a role into this theory.

Bands look for what they want for fans to enjoy music.

This led to Bad Omens to support Linkin Park on them starting a new tour. With them bringing Erra, for Anything > Human.

Sumerian Records does support Bad Omens. They’re not putting them aside. If they were putting them aside for not showing them support then it would be the complete opposite.

If you guys remember they are working on a new album and new merch. Just like they did the past few years. Starting from 2019 to current 2024.

CONFUSION ON FANS

So if there is a theory that Sumerian is just doing this for marketing reasons there’s no need to worry.

It’s all part of the process for bands to do this.

There’s been a lot of speculation about it.

But since this is all just rumors and people gossiping that they’re definitely doing this for marketing purposes, it’s basically normal.

It’s not illegal to do.

The good news on this is that they’re gaining more money just by selling items that the band produces and makes.

Making fans happy and making the metal industry entertaining.

But a lot of fans are simply confused if Poppy is actually a stunt artist, that Sumerian put in order for her album to sell.

I think it’s a way to say

CONSUMER BEFORE THE BUYER

By this I mean the company that profits most from a band is that the band themselves is a consumer for the company.

They work with bands, make music and if they hit a million streams on this specific song it goes out to the public before they start buying vinyls and merchandise.

This makes a lot of industries take action and gain money.

THIS BRINGS ME BACK POPPY

If fans think that Noah and Poppy are dating then why isn’t there more publicity on them hanging out together?

From what we’ve seen and heard is that yes Noah likes to keep everything private.

Since we haven’t seen a lot of photos of them together, the rumors on them being involved romantically is a very low chance.

This brings the fact that maybe paparazzi are being paid to catch Noah in photos, with Poppy like going to Jimmy Kimmel.

I mean paparazzi, there’s a reason why celebrities hate people who take pictures. They can stalk you, they can come out of nowhere, they have things organized.

It’s all due to their own management and bosses that tell them what to do and when to be there.

Also journalists and media outlets.

The acting and music industry is big, bigger than any other business out here in the United States alone.

This keeps the fans and the audience guessing if they’re actually dating.

If this was all organized and planned out then the theory of being a secret to the audience might be correct.

Maybe it is planned out secretly.

Poppy alone, wouldn’t be doing this on her own. Sumerian always has something up their sleeve for their contract employees to gain popularity.

Anyways on the good side of things I have more tea to spill out

BRYAN AND POPPY

It sounds like this particular fan is suggesting that Bryan and Poppy are having a thing right after they looked at each other on Jimmy Kimmel.

Also blaming the bad omens fans for being weird?? How does that correlate to them having an idea if the Noah situation with poppy is real?

I mean would you rather get controversial and have the fans come after you?

Also who is this Andrew Davis??

Obviously he was replying to the OG Poster.

I think they’re just rage bait, but I don’t think Poppy would have sex with anyone just because she’s famous right? I mean she was engaged in 2021 I think.

But what about Jordan and Poppy?

Like heck forget Noah and Poppy, like if Jordan was to date Poppy, what would happen to his kids? Is he divorcing his wife? Is he no longer happy in his marriage?

Also this leads to my question if Jordan and Noah are friends.

Also did anyone see Bad Omens on Jimmy Kimmel? Or was it just Knocked Loose?

There’s a lot of speculations, and a lot of rumors.

What do you think?

PUBLICITY AND FAME

So where I left off on paparazzi, there’s always going to be a publicity being made.

In this case we see it a lot more when bands are out in the public eye, and where they are being seen.

If Noah and Poppy aren’t being photographed everywhere they go, then it’s probably because the media organized the whole event. Not just to promote them but promote their work and their brand.

But don’t let that stop you from buying from Bad Omens or Poppy.

In all honesty Bad Omens is a great contributor for letting their fans enjoy music.

Whatever tea blog you have read that said Noah doesn’t care about fans, then they’re probably in the wrong.

Noah wouldn’t create a band, he wanted to create a band, but he wasn’t expecting to get big. Now that he has grabbed attention and fame, this gives him the chance to make more music and more money to his expenses.

Bad Omens makes sure that what you buy from them are good quality. They have a great support system and merch support team that allows the seller to communicate with the buyer if some of their merchandise arrives damaged.

They make sure each fan gets what that they enjoy the most.

JIMMY KIMMEL FORMAL APOLOGY

This leads to my last rant that I recently seen which is that various audiences that saw Knocked Loose on Jimmy Kimmel want a formal apology.

It sounds like Jimmy Kimmel is getting bashed over how many audience viewers complained about Knocked Loose performance on “SUFFOCATE”

Let’s be real for a second, in the music industry there’s always going to be a lot of hate.

But this is tea where some audience viewers just didn’t like the performance.

So I watched part of the clip on YouTube since I don’t really watch television. The performance of Knocked Loose I mean if I was being absolutely honest, it wasn’t good.

Poppy’s moaning and screaming felt like a kid trying to get ice cream from a parlor.

It didn’t really sound so good at all. Also Bryan, could’ve done more to his part in my opinion.

But since this was at Jimmy Kimmel, the audience didn’t like it. So they decided to get a formal apology from either Knocked Loose or Jimmy himself.

I mean if you hated the performance, I think there must have been better ways rather than asking someone for an apology that they brought a good band out there to perform, but if that’s what you think then I’m not gonna question anything more about it.

To me frankly when they came out and sang the song, I could not even understand a word they were saying.

It was like they didn’t even try to sing the lyrics.

Here are what other people have said:

Facebook user recounted the show’s impact on their teenage son, writing, “I was sitting on the couch with my son who is an ADOLESCENT waiting to see the musical guest because we like the nice music the show usually books. By the third or fourth ‘JUNT’ from the guitars my son was in tears. He doesn’t like scary things and quite frankly I think the Kimmel show and its staff should make a formal apology.”

Another “keyboard-warrior” detractor echoed the age-old metal critique: the lyrics were unintelligible, and the screaming was unbearable. “If I have to read the lyrics I’ll just read them and not listen to someone yell them”. Another frustrated commenter expressed disdain for the chaotic energy, saying, “This what not enjoyable. And you can’t understand more than 5% of the lyrics. Moshing doesn’t not equal dancing.” The confusion in their typos only seemed to amplify the melodrama.

A “music expert” went on to say it wasn’t even music: "How do I sing along with this??? Lol sounds just like a screaming frenzy to me!! Actually starting to hurt my ears!! People who listen to this have no room to complain about crying babies or screaming two-year-olds taking a tantrum!! Ha ha unreal!!! They call this music Jimmy??"

That’s a lot of hate.

I think having them collab with Poppy was a bad idea.

Other people can think otherwise. I don’t get why Poppy is so popular when they ask to collaborate with her in particular.

Why do bands like her?

This might seem like a big jump but I feel like they just want Poppy’s attention and time to make a good impression on their album. But with what��s been happening with Bad Omens and them having new bands or new starting artists as fans and audiences, the newer generation of new bands want to be just like them.

They’re taking a big interest on Bad Omens, more to where they are inspired to do what Bad Omens is doing.

All of this is very weird to me.

#bad omens #bad omens cult #spill the tea #poppy and noah #nicholas ruffilo #nick folio #jolly karlsson #noah sebastian davis #drama #noah sebastian

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kivaember · 10 months ago

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there's a startling lack of allmind/iguazu fics out there... anyway this is the start of an allmind/iguazu oneshot im writing, so... enjoy!

It started with an innocuous mission request.

"Rb19 Iguazu: as per your standing search query, one job meets your parametres. Location, Grid 086. Client, Junker Coyotes. Target, RaD. Payment: 100'000 COAM. Do you wish to accept this job as an independent contractor?"

It didn't stand out as anything unusual. Iguazu abused the 'independent contractor services' that ALLMIND offered to all mercenaries on Rubicon - be they corporate or independent - trying his best to build up some personal scratch that wasn't directly tied to the Redgun's operational budget.

Every single sortie he did under the Balam banner he basically did for free. After deducting ammunition, repairs, fuel and a bunch of other bullshit auxiliary costs, Iguazu was left with barely two coins to rub together. The Reguns existed in perpetual poverty, indentured servants despite most of them being in denial over it, and Iguazu refused to let himself be content with that.

So he accepted ALLMIND's offered missions on the sly, pocketing a considerable chunk of the pay after she deducted a 5% 'facilitation cost'. ALLMIND even paid for the ammunition and repairs! It was suspiciously generous, but no matter how much Iguazu wracked his brains, he didn't know what ALLMIND was getting out of this. She was an AI, she didn't really have ambitions. It was likely she was just programmed by a complete dumbass.

Well, her deficiencies were his gain. After a few more months, Iguazu might actually have enough money to negotiate for an early release from his Redgun contract, and finally leave this whole life behind him. So, when that innocuous mission request rolled round, no different to any other job he'd taken before through ALLMIND, he'd accepted it without question and departed.

It ended up being the biggest mistake of his life.

"DAMN IT!"

Iguazu slammed his fists against the arms of his cockpit seat, his vision half-dazzled by the blinking red emergency lights. There was a faint stench of burning, but he didn't move to evacuate his wreck of an AC, stewing quietly as EN ANAMOLY flashed across his mostly inert console.

Fucker had somehow hit his generator after they got jumped by those random mechs... and just left him here?! Through HEAD BRINGER's thick chassis he could hear the sounds of combat, muffled staccato fire and the telltale 'pff-THWMP' of a piledriver engaging and driving its spike into solid, military grade steel. It galled him to know that Raven didn't need back up at all, that Iguazu had been viewed as an annoyance to be swept aside quickly to focus on the real threat.

How dare he... how dare he...?!

"Rb19 Iguazu."

He froze at the familiar voice, ALLMIND's detachedly polite voice crackly through his fucked console. The emergency power only really focused on powering the important things: life support and comms.

"I see that HEAD BRINGER has suffered from a catastrophic failure. Do you require extraction and repairs?"

Iguazu didn't immediately answer. His chest felt tight and his stomach churned, as he abruptly realised the predicament he was in. Iguazu never told the other Redguns about him taking sly jobs through ALLMIND, because he'd always finished them with only a few dents and scratches on HEAD BRINGER's paintjob, and ALLMIND usually buffed those out. He'd never full on wrecked before. Michigan might get pissed...

...which was whatever! Guy was always riding Iguazu's ass! This would just be one another thing he'd nag him about, and Nile will complain about the fact that this was done off company time so Iguazu would-

Oh.

Oh shit.

He'd have to... pay for repairs out of pocket.

His savings... all that COAM he'd managed to scrape together and save by taking these jobs, that'll be consumed and thensome to fix up HEAD BRINGER. Generators weren't cheap! Not at all! He would've preferred Raven shooting off a leg at this rate! Oh fucking shit cunt asshole fuck-

"Rb19 Iguazu."

"Will you fuck off!?" he half-shrieked. "I'm busy- fucking- argh, I'm so screwed! Why did you give me this job?! Why didn't you tell me the fucking freelancer was here?! I got caught totally off guard because of you!"

"I was unaware that Rb23 Raven was contracted by RaD at this time. His handler had submitted a stay in mission requests for the next two days."

What? Wait, Iguazu didn't give a shit about that.

"Well he's here! Kicking ass and being a fucking cunt as usual!" Iguazu seethed, and flung himself back in his cockpit chair, grunting when it jarred his Cerebral Control Spite. Irritably, he reached up, easing out the cerebral spike with an experienced and gentle care, closing his eyes against the brief moment of vertigo the disconnect brought him.

ALLMIND obliviously kept talking.

"I've initiated emergency extraction protocols. Please hold your position for the next ten minutes. You will be brought to an ALLMIND sponsored foundry for repair and recuperation. Do you wish to send a message to Rb09 Michigan-"

"NO!" Iguazu snapped. "No, don't tell that old man anything. He can't know I was out here!"

"I understand. Then I assume you wish for your bill of repairs to be discretionary?"

Bill of...? "You're gonna bill me?!"

"Yes. If you recall, part of the policy for the Independent Contractors System is that upon mission success, all repair and ammunition costs are absorbed by ALLMIND. Upon failure, the pilot takes full responsibility-"

Iguazu did not recall reading that at all, but... well, he just skimmed all the legal jargon and fine print when ALLMIND had first introduced this system to him, so it was likey he'd missed it. Crap. Well, there was the fish hook he had been marvelling the absence of.

"...how much will it cost," he asked stonily.

"If you don't wish to pay using COAM, an alternative means of payment can be arranged," ALLMIND said, and though she was an AI and thus lacking in emotion or human ambition, there was something... unnervingly sly in her tone. Smug, almost.

That fish hook now had a hundred cruel barbs on it. Iguazu swallowed, viscerally remembering the last time he heard those words - if you can't pay with money, then there's an alternative means of payment... - and how it ended up with him here: augmented against his will and fighting on a backwater planet for a company he despised from the very bottom of his soul.

"Depends on what those 'alternative means' are," Iguazu said warily.

"In pursuit of offering better services to the mercenaries I serve, and gaining better understanding of their wants and needs, it would be beneficial to have several mercenary subjects on hand to gather vital data from."

What? "You want me to be some guinea pig?"

"There will be nothing invasive. Not to the extent of your augmentation surgery. All data shall be harvested via simulations or logs you willingly submit from live combat. You will not be harmed or physically discomforted in any way."

This sounded way too lenient.

"That's it...?" Iguazu probed. "You just want... some fucking data from me? You can get that whenever you want as is! You definitely want something else."

"Of course. The data I automatically obtain is superficial at most. What I require is your biometrics."

"What, like my... fingerprints?"

"The biological performance of your body in combat, both real and simulated, its responses to actions taken by your AC whilst you are under high-levels of stress and synchronisation, its default state post-combat. Gathering this data will allow me to develop AC hardware that encourages perfect synergy between pilot and machine, the likes which Arquebus and Balam have not yet achieved."

Okay... okay, this was... Iguazu could not put his finger on it, but having grown up in the slums of Earth, where he'd met almost every single degenerate under the sun, an instinctive part of him was screaming this is a fetish thing the AI is making you participate in a fetish thing THIS IS TOTALLY A FETISH THING.

"..."

But even if it was a fetish thing, it was still a good deal. Iguazu's used to being horrifically violated, and this was the most gentle way of having it done. He could record this data and send it, and exist in blissful denial over whatever ALLMIND would do with it. She's an AI, she didn't have a physical body to masturbate with. She'd do... whatever it was AI did to get off. Have a power surge? Bluescreen? Whatever. Not his problem. Not thinking about it. Biometric data for possibly fetishtic purposes in exchange for HEAD BRINGER getting repaired and Michigan not knowing about his illegal moonlighting? Brilliant deal if you had no pride, and boy, Iguazu was used to tossing his aside when it was convenient.

"Fine. It's a deal," Iguazu gritted out. "I'll send you all the data you want after you repair HEAD BRINGER."

"Understood. Thank you for your cooperation, Rb19 Iguazu. This will serve to benefit ALLMIND, and in turn, benefit all mercenaries."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever..."

Actually, accepting that mission hadn't been the biggest mistake of his life.

Agreeing to ALLMIND's deal had been.

#armored core #armored core 6 #g5 iguazu #ALLMIND #allmind/iguazu #fanfic #this was fun to write tbh

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kinzig81 · 7 months ago

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Flat: $16

Flat Shade: $21

Fully Shaded: $29

Rendering: $36

Additional Character: $6

Complicated character fee: $4

Solid Color BG: Free Simple: Free

Scenery: $20 (I am new to drawing detailed backgrounds but I will do my best)

FULL BODY EXAMPLES

Simplistic Animated Pixel Icon: $30-$58

Simple Blink/Idle: $30

Additional Animation (Props, expression change, ect.): $12+

(Please let me know what you have in mind to give you a solid price) ^^

Complicated designs have an additional $6 dollar fee

(If you're not sure about your oc being complicated please feel free to ask!)

Additional character: $10

SIMPLISTIC ANIMATION ICON EXAMPLE

Sona Speech bubble/Yapper: $6

All sona speech bubbles must be a half body or headshot, if it were any bigger you wouldn’t be able to make out any details. This will be done in a more simplistic, chibi style compared to the rest of my work to make it look even better from far away or when shrunken down.

Please keep in mind it may look cruddy close up because it’s a small file, when it’s actually posted it will look fine.

(If you have an idea for something else other than a speech bubble lmk!)

SONA SPEECH BUBBLE EXAMPLE

PAGE BANNER: $45-$100

Basic banner with one to three characters and simple/solid color background: $45-$55

Four or more characters with a simple/solid color background: $55-$75

One to three characters in a scenery: $75-$85

Four or more characters in a scenery: $85-$100

This is all just an estimate so please DM me for a proper quote <3

WANT SOMETHING ELSE FROM ME?

Want something else from me but don’t see it on this price sheet? No worries, DM me for a Quote!

( Ref sheets, Fursuit badge, etc )

WHAT I CAN AND CAN NOT DO

I have the right to refuse a commission if I am not comfortable or feel like I won’t be able to complete what you are asking.

I CAN DO:

☆ Suggestive

☆ Ponies

☆ Furries / Anthro or Feral / Digi or Planigrade

☆ Monsters

I CANT DO:

☆ NSFW

☆ Mecha

☆ Humans

Payment Info:

I take Venmo or Cash App, You will have to pay me in full before I start to work on your piece. I will send progress shots and will not move further with the work until I get a confirmation to keep going.

DM me here on tumblr or over on Instagram to get your quote <3

No refunds.

( I’m so sorry for any sort of typos or errors, this is just a placeholder commissions sheet and will be replaced with a nicer one at some point )

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justinsentertainmentcorner · 2 years ago

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Alissa Wilkinson at Vox:

For the first time in 63 years, Hollywood has a double strike on its hands. The contract between SAG-AFTRA (the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, two guilds that merged in 2012) and AMPTP (American Motion Picture and Television Producers), which represents Hollywood’s studios and production companies, expired at midnight on Wednesday, July 12. SAG-AFTRA’s national board unanimously voted today to order a strike; membership had previously authorized the strike, with nearly 98 percent of voters in favor. Meanwhile, the WGA (Writers Guild of America) has been on strike since May 2. Like the WGA strike, a SAG-AFTRA strike comes with profound economic consequences. The WGA’s picket lines have already managed to shut down most productions in New York and Los Angeles and across the country as crew members refuse to cross. Since SAG-AFTRA represents 160,000 members — “actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists, and other media professionals,” as their website puts it — a strike would have profound effects on many industries. (By contrast, the WGA, which has just entered day 73 of its strike, has around 20,000 members.) To be clear, a strike doesn’t mean people can’t act at all; it means they cannot perform work for struck companies (which is to say, members of the AMPTP, like Disney and Netflix). Unless specific concessions are made, they can’t promote work for struck companies either. (Yes, their publicists are reportedly panicking.)

Major studios, for instance, have been dropping out of Comic-Con rather than have a poor showing with the few actors who might cross the picket line. You likely wouldn’t see actors promoting new movies (like Barbie or Oppenheimer) or walking the red carpet at film festivals; WGA members have already stayed away. And of course, they won’t be on set.

What does SAG-AFTRA want?

In many ways, what SAG-AFTRA wants is similar to what the WGA wants, all of which is driven by technology.

In a streaming-forward world, the typical TV season length has shrunk drastically, from the traditional broadcast model (up to 26 episodes per season) down to maybe eight or 10 episodes. That means actors are working far less on each job and tend to have larger gaps between jobs, which means it’s harder to make a steady living. But compensation hasn’t kept pace with the shift, and SAG-AFTRA is asking for a raise. (The specific terms are still scarce as negotiations continue.) Additionally, residuals — which are sort of like royalties, paid to actors when their work continues to earn money for the studio in the form of reruns or streaming content libraries — are at a level that the guild sees as unsustainable for its members.

Like the WGA, SAG-AFTRA is also enormously concerned about the potential for rapidly developing AI to replace its members. And it should be: AI can be trained on actors’ likenesses or voices, which can then be used to generate new performances both on-screen and in voice-over or other capacities.

In a bulletin to members addressing their concerns, SAG-AFTRA leadership cited creating guidelines around acceptable uses of AI, bargain protections against misuse, and consent and fair compensation when members’ work (such as their likeness or voice) is used to train AI systems and create new performances. “In their public statements and policy work, the companies have not shown a desire to take our members’ basic rights to our own voices and likenesses seriously,” SAG-AFTRA leadership noted.

[...]

Why isn’t AMPTP budging?

When asked, the studios tend to cite tough economics as the reason they can’t raise minimums or residuals. (They don’t talk a lot about AI, which in itself is probably worth noting.) Like the WGA, SAG-AFTRA takes issue with that math. In their bulletin, they note that “in sharp contrast to the diminishing compensation paid to our members, the studios are posting immense profits with a bullish outlook as demonstrated by lavish corporate executive compensation.” The reality is that studios and production companies are increasingly embedded in larger corporations and tech companies that are beholden to shareholders, and the way they think and talk about profit and revenue is different from the way the people who take home a paycheck do. It’s hard to argue with some staggering statistics about CEO pay at entertainment companies; average pay for a top Hollywood executive was $28 million in 2021, a hike of 53 percent from 2018. Disney CEO Bob Iger, who called the actors’ demands “not realistic” on TV on the morning the strike was called, recently signed a contract to run the company through 2026 and makes about $27 million a year.

On top of that, the AMPTP didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory in a recent Deadline article, published the day before SAG-AFTRA’s contract was set to expire, in which an anonymous studio executive told the reporter that with the writers strike, “the endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.” An “insider” quoted in the article called it “a cruel but necessary evil,” and the article suggested the AMPTP had no intention of returning to the bargaining table with the striking writers until October. WGA members reacted with scorn on Twitter, noting that AMPTP members will be hurt by these same tactics and that the economics of being a writer in Hollywood have prepared them well for this moment. “‘Let writers go broke’ would be a more effective tactic for an endgame if it hadn’t been their pre-game, too,” noted Fleishman Is in Trouble writer and showrunner Taffy Brodesser-Akner. The AMPTP soon backtracked the statement.

Yet, given its timing, some speculated the article had the hallmarks of being planted by the studio as a negotiation (or maybe non-negotiation) tactic aimed at scaring SAG-AFTRA out of going on strike. Furthermore, on Tuesday, reports surfaced that AMPTP had requested the aid of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) in mediating the contract with SAG-AFTRA. The actors’ union agreed to work with the FMCS, but issued a blistering statement aimed at the AMPTP. “We condemn the tactic outlined in today’s inaccurate Variety piece naming the CEOs of several entertainment conglomerates as the force behind the request for mediation, information that was leaked to the press by the CEOs and their ‘anonymous sources’ before our negotiators were even told of the request for mediation,” the statement reads. “The AMPTP has abused our trust and damaged the respect we have for them in this process,” it continues. “We will not be manipulated by this cynical ploy to engineer an extension when the companies have had more than enough time to make a fair deal.”

All of this suggests that AMPTP’s members believe that the unions will crack if divided and conquered. Others dispute that, framing this crisis as existential and noting the extraordinary solidarity from other unions in Hollywood, remarkable in contrast to the last strike in 2007. On Wednesday, the WGA, Teamsters, IATSE (which covers on-set tradespeople, such as electricians and greens people), and the Directors Guild (which ratified its own contract in June) issued a statement expressing solidarity with SAG-AFTRA. Whether the AMPTP’s tactics will ultimately prove to be effective remains to be seen.

[...]

Why is this strike so historically meaningful?

This is the first double strike since 1960, which alone is significant, but one of the stranger factoids is who led that strike. The main issue on the table was once again residuals, once again driven by a relatively new technology — this time, television. Both guilds were pushing for a similar demand: When they wrote or acted in a movie, and that movie was sold to a TV network and broadcast, the network would earn money from ads. The guilds wanted their members to be paid residuals, just as they would for a TV show. The studios, of course, didn’t.

SAG-AFTRA joins the WGA heading to the picket lines to conduct a strike, meaning that there is a double strike in Hollywood.

Concerns about AI and residuals are the driving force for the strike.

#SAG AFTRA #SAG AFTRA Strike #Strikes #WGA Strike #2023 WGA Strike #2023 SAG AFTRA Strike #AMPTP #Unions #Hollywood #Celebrities

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ghostopossumlives · 8 months ago

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elaborating on my theory.

I don't think that the upcoming court episode is going to be as simple as Mammon suing Fizz for quitting.

I think that he is going to go after Asmodeus.

As per my previous post I think that IMP is an illegal operation and are basically impersonating Satanic Imps that legally drag down people who bounce on Faustian bargains. I think that the "what overdue paperwork" might be one of those "jokes but actually subtle forshadowing" things like Moxxie's mafia reference.

IMP is going to get a contract that pits them against that spooky man. He's going to turn out to be an undead sorcerer evading damnation. Satanic Imps are going to show up and IMP is going to get busted.

Because IMP is now legally under Asmodeus's authority, he is going to be potentially liable for the fraud.

Mammon is going to use this to try to leverage Satan against Asmodeus and probably is going to act as a Prosecuting attorney.

Because of the way the imps talk about Satan, and the comparatively "nice" state of the Wrath Ring and the fact that most of the organized Imp criminal activity appears to be im other rings, I think that Satan is actually going to be a pretty neutral and lawful figure, rather than a clear ally or enemy like Beelzebub, Asmodeus, and Mammon. Satan is going to be the gruff judge of a court battle between Asmodeus and Mammon. In which he looks down on both of them.

(Also, every character we've seen who hails from the Wrath Ring has been significantly more well-adjusted than non-Wrath counterparts. Even Striker is more mentally well than half of the protagonists.)

I also think that Stella and Andrelphus are going to get involved to try to pile blame on Stolas.

I actually don't think that Stolas or Asmodeus's crimes are all that serious. I think if the book was really that big of a deal than Stella and Andrelphus would have gone after that before trying to have Stolas assassinated. The crimes that they can actually be convicted of are probably quite minor as far as Big Guy crimes go. I think that Blitzø is going to be the biggest criminal in terms of severity of their crime and direct involvement, but because of his friends' love for him, they are all going to be dragged into it.

Viv has said that Satan and Leviathan are going to be the most traditional depictions of Sins, which if that means Inferno lore, then Satan hates Heaven only half as much as he hates sinners, and Leviathan is the Sin most obsessed with fighting Heaven.

Striker clearly has a passionate hatred of the powerful. A trait very reminiscent of Leviathan. I think that Striker is working for Leviathan. I think that Leviathan is attempting to get Stella in charge of prophecies because she is an idiot who wouldn't do the job or pay attention to the prophecied failure of Armageddon. Leviathan refuses to believe that they could fail, and without someone to bring up the prophecy, they can start it.

I think that the Sinsmas episode is going to be less of a typical Christmas Episode and more of a Diehard homage. I think that Leviathan is going to try to time it so that Striker and Crimson take over the building and kill Stolas (to hide the prophecy), Satan (to destabilize hell and consolidate power), Asmodeus (to spark outrage in the common demons and consolidate power), and Mammon (because fuck him and to consolidate power) while the Cherubs and Dorks attack. That way Leviathan can point to the murder of the Sins by the (obviously all dead) cherubs and humans as Casus Belli for Armageddon. "Angels and Humans attacked us and killed our respected Satan, keeper of the peace, our beloved Asmodeus, whose love for Fizzarolli was guiding a new age of demonic progress, and Mammon! Join me and we will strike back against this angelic treachery!"

In the spirit of Diehard: Mammon is going to try to negotiate and get shot. Blitzø is going to be barefoot. Striker is going to fall off the building in slow motion.

#helluva boss #helluva boss theory

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sepublic · 7 months ago

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Megarus

Meet Megarus! He wields the Orange Magestone, which boosts strength, speed, durability; Basically any physical attribute. He is a boisterous, casual, and friendly individual; VERY friendly, in fact! While others may talk like supervillains, he often addresses and handles situations like a regular, good-natured guy who’d rather talk things out, assumes the best of people, etc. It’s a very down-to-earth approach, though his general optimism and positive attitude can come across as a bit uncanny, and even out of touch at times. Don’t be fooled, after all; Meg may be genuinely polite and good-mannered, but he still chooses to support and work alongside Majikus as a Warlock.

Being a dwarf, Megarus has an affinity for gold and treasure. And like many dwarves, this made him cross path with dragons; Specifically, the Westerns and their obsession with hoards. He fell under the employment of one of the richest, most powerful dragons in all of the Monster Realm, working multiple positions for his boss; Treasure hunter, enforcer, debt collector, financial and legal advisor to other clients, etc. In essence, he did a lot of customer service, which might explain a lot about his personality. Megarus often used his charisma to negotiate customers and debtors into remaining with his boss, working them through complicated contracts, and helping them find ways to pay off what they owed.

Still, he wished for more; Megarus was very pleasant about his wants. But he still had them. His exploits drew the attention of Majikus, who saw how he’d fit one of the Magestones perfectly; For this, she called upon Megarus and offered him a promotion as a member of her council.

Megarus was quite impressed, but he was also stuck; See, his employer quite liked him. His employer valued Megarus’ talent and skill, and saw him as property, essentially; And dragons are notoriously possessive, associating their hoards with their pride. To steal from them is a deeper insult than any other, and some will turn down the best deals imaginable, for they know that whoever is offering is attempting to seize something they refused to hand over; And that was an insult. So while Westerns typically prioritize their greed, their pride and possessiveness over what they already own can also win out in the end.

Thus, Megarus had job security; But a less nice term he preferred not to use was indentured servitude. And an even less nice term was slavery. But all of these were true, and he was well aware of it. So him and Majikus made it work, using a little bit of force as well. Megarus’ boss held a grudge over it, but Meg had won his freedom and joined the Warlocks in gratitude; Even if he owed nothing to Majikus, he genuinely believed in the cause and would’ve been compelled to go along anyway.

When Majikus handed out the Magestones to her fellow Warlocks, each came with a silver staff to channel its power. Megarus decided this was not quite his style, and asked to instead incorporate the Orange Magestone into the chained hammer he always used; Majikus didn’t mind and obliged his request.

Megarus is a swift, powerful fighter; He is fast and capable of rapid-flurry strikes and attacks, much quicker and more agile than one might expect. He can roll up into a ball and fire off sharp hairs like quills from his back. His magic uses the power of force, being able to generate things like tornados, and he’ll sometimes show off by summoning a couple of crystalline spikes to punch at foes, or a bejeweled football to hurl at them.

Megarus is a big fan of nice, fancy things; He has a taste for luxury, but he’s also a good tipper and quite generous. He can attach a scope to his right eye to examine artifacts and gauge their value, being well trained in the art of prospecting. He acts as an economic and legal advisor to the Council of Warlocks, keeping track of stocks, funds, budget, etc. His experience in customer service makes him vital to negotiating deals and contracts, as well as explaining them in layman’s terms.

Meg can somehow be both a showboat and humble, infuriatingly so. His upbeat attitude is in a way, a commentary; That one can be nice and polite, but this isn’t necessarily the same as kindness. Because while he’s a good sport with a sense of honor when it comes to combat, he’s still supporting a dictatorship wholeheartedly and attacking, even killing, innocents. Such demeanors can ultimately be superficial, as genuine as they are.

#Megarus #Council of Warlocks #oc #ocs #my ocs #my art #GEverse

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frothlad · 7 months ago

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As I wrote before, today's cases show clearly how this is a 3-3-3 court, with a radical right-wing trio willing to blow up precedent at any turn; a right-wing trio that is more traditionally conservative most of the time; and a left-of-center (but definitely not left wing) trio. In today's two cases, the right-wing trio joins with the radical right wing for one 6-3 case and joins with the leftish trio for a different 6-3 case.

Snyder v. United States, bribery

Let me begin by saying that this case is not an aberration. The Court has been engaged for some time in comprehensive narrowing of the federal statutes against bribery, led by the right wing, and it is flatly incomprehensible what their motive could be outside of bribery itself, or, worse, empathy for the bribee that they absolutely do not extend to any other kind of defendant.

Snyder, mayor of a small town in Indiana near my alma mater, where the city bought five trash trucks from a Peterbilt dealer for $1.1M. Snyder subsequently (the order of events is important for terrible reasons) walked into the Peterbilt dealership and said "I need $15K", and the dealer negotiated him down to $13K. Snyder later claimed this was for consulting services, but the dealership employees testified that no services were provided.

You will not believe the Court's opinion (Kavanaugh for six).

The Court draws a line between "bribery" and "gratuity", where bribery has to be paid in advance of the corrupt act, and gratuity gets paid after the corrupt act. Note: The statute does not use the term "bribery" or "gratuity". The Court concludes that the statute applies only to bribery. Note that the statute refers to engaging in corrupt acts in the expectation of a "reward", which absolutely sounds retrospective and hence a "gratuity" than prospective and a "bribe" but fuck textualism when it suits us, I guess.

Since Snyder got a gratuity rather than a bribe, his conviction is overturned.

Kavanaugh characterizes "gratuities" as things like gift cards, lunches, plaques, and books. Snyder got a check for thirteen thousand dollars. But that's definitely the same as your alumni association giving you a book on the history of the university when you give a speech at the reunion.

Kavanaugh claims this is a federalism issue, because somehow the feds can regulate bribery but leave it to the states to prohibit corrupt gratuities. Note: I am absolutely not agreeing with his category difference between bribes and tips; I am reporting his frame.

NONE OF THIS IS REMOTELY CONVINCING. This is a defense lawyer shooting the moon for his client when there's pictures of him accepting a fat envelope of cash from the union president.

But that's the Supreme Court's project: bribery isn't a federal crime unless you're basically on tape saying "if you give me big wads of cash, I will get you that building contract". The same moron who takes notes on a criminal fucking conspiracy could escape a bribery conviction under those conditions.

Gorsuch has a short concurrence where he -- this is hilarious -- invoked the rule of lenity to justify Snyder's innocence. How could Snyder possibly know that demanding a fifteen thousand dollar "gratuity" was corrupt and criminal?

Jackson for the left three. She is unkind to the majority opinion, because it deserves it. She mocks its theory of the case as being absurd, she jams "textualism" down their throats (since it's one of the tools that many in the majority claim to value most for statutory analysis), and flenses them over their crocodile tears for all the other government employees who'd have to worry about accepting a plaque while a man who delivered a million dollars of government money to a dealership then walked in and said "give me money" walks away fat and happy.

What a goddamn joke.

Again, this is the sort of thing that Congress could fix with a trivial update to the law. But Congress doesn't do its job.

-------------------------------------------------

Surgeon General v. Missouri, jawboning

Jawboning is the venerable practice of the government going to reporters, newspapers, and other media people and telling them to write stories favoring their interests and yelling at them when they write stories that expose their weaknesses or cast facts in an unfavorable light.

Cast your minds back to the long distant time of 2021, when government agencies like the CDC were trying to get entities like Facebook and Twitter (!X) to, y'know, not promote false stories about horse dewormer and vaccine dangers.

Now, the list of plaintiffs/appellees in this case is instructive. It's not Facebook, Twitter, et al. It's a couple of states and a handful of yahoos.

The claim is that the government coerced the social media sites into censorship and they were harmed by this (the states are exerting the "right to hear" of their citizens). They're advocating for the right to be told clearly false bullshit. And they're making shit up.

Naturally, they brought suit in a small town in Louisiana so that they could get a specific crazy-ass judge. The judge found for them, and in extensive "fact-finding" found many false things, like misquoting a CDC official to make it sound like he was issuing orders to Facebook. (Mike Masonic at Techdirt documents a lot of the falsehoods in the lower court opinion.) The lower court crazy-ass judge issued a breathtakingly broad injunction, basically preventing hundreds of officials across dozens of agencies from jawboning the media. Not compelling the media from doing anything, because the government cannot in fact compel the media; just jawboning them.

The Fifth Circuit narrowed the injunction to only the agencies that were actually sued. But they upheld the injunction for them. The Court stayed the injunction almost immediately.

Today, they throw the case out altogether. On standing grounds, of course, because this case should never have been allowed in the first place. To bring a federal lawsuit, you must show a) that you were harmed in a particular way b) that the harm can be traced to the defendant's particular act c) that the court can do something specific about. This case fails comprehensively and obviously on the first two -- the plaintiffs were not harmed by social media deciding what to show them and deciding not to promote their posts, and the social media corporations' moderation decisions are not traceable to the government actors. (In fact, if you look into details, the reason for much of the government jawboning is how often the social media operators are not in fact suppressing stories that the government doesn't like.)

This is exactly the same as the mifepristone case from last week: No harm, no case, get this shit out of here, Fifth Circuit smackdown.

Barrett for six, Alito for the BTA in dissent.

Barrett comprehensively dismantles the lower court (and calls out its fictive "facts") and the Fifth Circuit. It's nicely done. It stands as a pendant to Kavanaugh's opinion in the mifepristone case. I would suggest that there is, in fact, a very easy compare-and-contrast paper between the two (and that Kavanaugh would come off the worse in terms of style and originality).

Alito, who will swallow any horseshit the radical right-wing legal cabal gins up, clutches his pearls and falls onto the nearest fainting couch, he's so shocked and appalled and dismayed about how awful the government is, and hyperbolically calls this case "one of the most important free speech cases to reach this Court in years".

Sidebar: Of the three BTA justices: Gorsuch is the most like Scalia, with some principles and only mostly in agreement with the radical right-wing legal cabal, not in the tank for them; Thomas has taken his wins and used them to only move further out his SO UNIQUE YOU GUYS axis (e.g. his insistence on exactly historical models in rights cases). And Alito has gone into his dotage, unable to think any thought that did not ultimately originate in a Federalist Society model argument.

Again, this case is not a victory; it is only a refusal to cede ground. One hopes that the Fifth Circuit's judges learn from their zero-wins term at the Supreme Court. But realistically, no, they won't. They are true believers over there, unbothered by legal reality.

#supreme court

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allsassnoclass · 1 year ago

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hello, Hazel!

how about "let's go out for a cheap dinner" ft. mashton for the prompts?<3

hi ana! thanks for requesting!

mashton: "Let's go out for a cheap dinner"

Michael covers his face with his hands and groans, as loud as he can. It echoes slightly in the empty theater, or maybe he just thinks it does because his hands are creating an echo chamber, but either way it's equally as satisfying as it isn't.

"Mood," Luke says. Michael turns his head to look at him, sitting in the second row of the audience with his feet propped up on the chair in front of him, Sierra nodding sagely beside him. It looks like an uncomfortable position for someone of his size, but laying on his back on the hard, disgusting wooden stage isn't as comfortable for Michael as it could be, so he's not going to say anything.

"They should've done Beauty and the Beast," Calum repeats for the fiftieth time since they all began working on this production nearly two months ago.

"Or Shrek. Or Spongebob. Or Sound of Music. Or literally any other family-friendly musical besides fucking Mary Poppins," Michael agrees, just like he has every other time.

When he applied for the job to direct Mary Poppins at a community theater this summer, it had seemed like a good idea. Being partially-funded through Community Education, he was told that they would have full access to the theater, scene shop, and costume shop at the high school, as well as some additional rehearsal spaces there. The board of directors seemed really excited to dive into a family show after producing some more mature musicals in the previous years, and he got to hire the production staff, meaning he could ensure that he works with his friends this summer. He knew that Mary Poppins is a difficult show from basically every standpoint: the music is complex, the dance numbers are big, there's an inconvenient amount of settings, and Mary Poppins does magic at about 12 different points in the script, including flying across the stage. Still, Michael had been optimistic.

Michael had been a fucking idiot.

This has been, to put it plainly, the most frustrating directing experience Michael has ever had. The theater was a new build from five years ago, but apparently the blueprints have since been lost and no one at the school knows the measurements of the space. He keeps trying to negotiate with different flight companies so they can rent equipment, hire a trainer, and have Mary actually fly across the stage, but most of them are appalled at the quick turnaround and all of them need some sort of measurement of the space, not to mention that Michael has to wait for permission from Community Education before he can solidify a deal. Every time he thinks they have it, the school finds some sort of issue that takes him three days to smooth over, at which point they find another one, then later another one.

Administration doesn't seem to understand anything about urgency, because the production staff didn't get their contracts until a month after rehearsals began, so now everyone is scrambling to get things done, and they still don't know what the set will look like because they don't know if Mary will be flying or if they have to find some other way to imply that she is.

That doesn't even scratch the surface. The stage has dried gum on it but the custodians won't let them mop, let alone paint the stage so it actually looks nice and fresh instead of ugly and chipped. They don't have keys to the catwalk. They only just got keys to the booth tonight, and Matt and Roy spent all rehearsal up there trying to figure out how the sound and lights are set up, because it doesn't follow logic. The electrics aren't weighted, which could kill someone, but the weight station is a floor above and the door is padlocked. Michael has already requested a key, but he requested a key to the catwalk two months ago and still doesn't have it.

There's no dressing rooms, no backstage space, and no hallway behind the stage to cross from one side to the other unseen. Michael figures all of those are problems for tech week, but tech week is very quickly approaching, which is why Michael is currently laying on the stage having a mental breakdown two hours after rehearsal ended.

His phone buzzes. He checks it, exhaling when he sees who is texting him.

"Can someone let Ashton in?" he requests.

Someone, probably Roy, heaves a sigh and gets up. Michael stares up at the electrics and wonders if he can sue the school if one of the lights falls and lands on him.

"Well, this is pitiful," Ashton says a few moments later. Michael holds up his middle finger. Ashton probably looks lovely, even for this late at night, and looking at him will probably make Michael feel incrementally better, but he's decided to let himself wallow and therefore refuses to so much as glance at him.

"Come on, what was your win of the day?" Ashton asks. He started asking this after the second week, when Michael came home and told him that every day with this production feels like getting one win, then fifteen losses. The win is usually that the actors have learned something new. The losses are typically everything else.

"We got access to the booth," Matt offers. "Nothing in there is set up, but we have access, so Roy and I can actually start our jobs."

Michael gives a thumbs up.

"Hey, that's great! Is there anything else that you need to solve here tonight, or can I take your fearless leader home?"

Michael holds up his middle finger again. There's a beat of silence, then Calum's voice, holding all of the authority he needs as a stage manager.

"There's nothing else we can do tonight. Let's all go home."

Michael listens to everyone gather their things and put the theater back to some semblance of order. Something blocks the lights overhead, and Michael squints until the silhouette solidifies into Ashton, looking down at him. He really looks good, even when Michael is looking at him from the most unfortunate angle. He's wearing a bandana to keep his curls contained, something which he started doing again this summer, and his shirt is sleeveless, giving Michael a fantastic view of his arms. Michael really likes those arms.

Ashton holds out a hand. Michael drags a sigh up from the depths of his soul and takes it.

"What do you want to eat?" Ashton asks as he's hauling him up and Michael is doing his best imitation of a rag doll.

"We have no food at home. I do not want peanut butter and jelly."

"Let's go out for a cheap dinner," Ashton suggests. Michael rolls his eyes and slumps against him.

"I do not want McDonald's for the third time this week, and there's no where else near us open this late."

"I was researching and found a 24/7 diner about half an hour away. That'll give you enough time to vent and relax, and you'll probably get to sleep just as early as you would if we went home and you watched Netflix."

Michael considers, enjoying the feeling of Ashton's arm around him, supporting his weight. Ashton is always a fantastic combination of solid and soft, which makes him the perfect person to hug.

"I have a playlist ready," Ashton says. "No Mary Poppins on it at all."

"Twist my arm, why don't you," Michael concedes. Ashton ushers him off the stage to gather his backpack, script, and numerous writing utensils that have escaped their case. Calum has already stolen his keys to lock up, and by the time he turns out the lights and the group heads to the parking lot, Michael is feeling marginally more like a functional person.

"Come on, in you go," Ashton says after they call goodbyes to the rest of the staff, holding Michael's door open for him. The show must be taking a noticeable toll on him tonight if Ashton is babying him this much, but Michael is pretty lazy and isn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth right now.

Michael doesn't know what he'd do without Ashton, honestly. Between juggling his day job, rehearsals, production meetings, and all of the administrative bullshit that has unexpectedly come with this show, Michael barely finds time to exist, let alone eat and sleep and drink water. Ashton is the one who ensures that those needs are met, picking him up from production meetings once he deems that they've gone on long enough if Michael doesn't call before then, making meals that will be good reheated when he has time and scoping out places for them to get food when everything else is closed. He offers a patient ear when Michael needs to rant and practical solutions when he can, and Michael is man enough to admit that he would have fallen apart by now without the knowledge that there is someone who is in his corner and who will still love him if the production goes to shit.

"Hey," he says once Ashton starts the engine, his phone already hooked up to the car and an acoustic pop punk song beginning to play over the speakers. "I love you."

Ashton smiles at him, reaching out and tucking a lock of Michael's hair back, letting his fingers trail down Michael's cheek after. Michael closes his eyes, savoring the sensation.

"I love you, too," Ashton says warmly. "Now let's get some food in you. You can tell me all about the school's latest bullshit on the way there."

Michael sighs and presses back against his seat, looking out the window at the dark. quiet town around them. He starts talking, and Ashton listens attentively the entire time, even when Michael can tell from his clenched jaw and furrowed brow that he's angry on his behalf. Once Michael has gotten it all out of his system, he lets Ashton distract him with talk about his own day over a plate of pancakes and some bacon.

With Ashton's ankle hooked around his under the table, it's the most relaxed Michael has felt all day.

"Thank you," Michael says before they pay the bill. He means it for more than just the food, Ashton understands. He always does.

"I love you," Ashton says in reply, like it's an explanation.

Michael takes the last bite of his pancakes from the tiny diner that Ashton found to ensure that Michael eats well, and knows with certainty that he can make it through anything with Ashton by his side.

#my writing #mashton #ask box prompt #YES i was projecting. yes these were all real issues with our production i choreographed/assistant directed #however i think that the fact that i wrote at all is a big big big win!!!!#this is the 4th thing i've posted this year. at all. since january.#but we're vibing now!!!!#also i didn't think of this until i finished this version but i totally could've made this about vampires for you ana #like. ''let's go out for a cheap dinner'' that's vampire flirting for let's go kill some people #but no matter! what's done is done!#i already wrote a vampire thing this year so it's fine #chameleonsoul #ana

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literaticat · 11 months ago

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What are the confidentiality standards for agents? I've looked at the AALA ethics page and I only see financials mentioned in that regard. Personally, I would expect much more than that to be kept confidential, or at least within the agency, but I've had some contrary experiences with agents. I'm thinking of things like, editorial feedback for a book under contract, or a PB writer disliking illustrations for their book and negotiating around that, etc.

Agents are considered "fiduciaries" for their clients, and there are certain legal/ethical standards for fiduciaries. Basically, we have to keep your financial info (contract terms, etc) and other personal stuff we're privy to confidential and can't use it to benefit ourselves, we have to act in your best interest, we can't "double dip" (ie, get some secret money/kickbacks from the publisher for a transaction), we must disclose if there's a conflict of interest or anything like that, etc.

And just generally, you know, your business is your business, we're your business partner, so obviously we shouldn't be spreading your business around.

That being said, I'm not 100% sure what you mean with your examples? If you're having some kind of editorial conflict, or you're a PB writer and you have a big problem with the illustrations, it would be part of our job to help you handle those conversations as needed, or have them on your behalf. (The publisher might or might not agree to DO anything about that, but the convo could not exactly be "confidential" if you want to do something to potentially fix it!)

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mashmaiden · 2 years ago

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About Last Week...

So I debated for a while whether or not I was going to actually make this post, but I feel like my disappointment and annoyance needed to be a little explained.

Yes, I realize it was supposed to be a Callen-heavy episode, and knowing that the topic needed to be resolved I was not against that.

The thing that upset me more about the episode is the way it was executed, mostly writing-wise. And to be honest, I don't even know anymore how much that is the fault of our writers, and how much their hands are actually tied with scheduling and the episode appearance limitations.

A lot of my thoughts are similar to the ones I had post-Down the Rabbit Hole. The first thing I learned in my TV writing class, is your main cast should always be at the forefront, don't use guest stars to do the job of your mains. (I am STILL angry at DTRH for how anti-climactic that entire multi-season arc ended cuz Joelle just shot Katya with zero tension when no one was around)

It feels like it was written a bit generically like they weren't sure which actors would be there for the episode. Like, change the sniping analysis to the aftermath of a bomb, and most all of Kensi's role in the ep could have been Sam. When they have done this, I feel we lose the voice that has made each character special to us over the years. (Granted, this has been an issue all season, not just this last episode)

Back to The Reckoning. I loved the scenes in the mission with Fatima and Kilbride and our awesome office team (I loved them, but why are our main peeps not saving the day?!), but even when our baddie was holding guns on them, there was a lack of tension in the situation. Too much talking/explaining versus actually making me worry something might go awry! I guess I just miss the higher-stakes episodes of seasons past?! 🤷‍♀️

And on the topic of too-much-explaining, which again, has been a bit of an issue all season, onto the last scene. I was not a fan of Pembrook explaining Hetty's actions as he's just this third party who we really have no reason to trust. Obviously, a better way to end this plotline would have been an actual conversation with Hetty, so since Linda has not been able/available, I understand they had to figure out another way to do it. But I feel like in this case, even a letter from Hetty would have been a better choice for explaining her own reasonings. Or, they could have had Callen open that "only open when I'm dead" packet from Season 3... I'm sure there's plenty of newer stuff added to it by now.

Basically, I'm just frustrated at the effect the reduced episode counts for actors has had on the show as a whole. I think I'd have rather had only 18 episodes with everyone vs what we've got. It also worries me GREATLY for network television going forward, because it seems like at least CBS seems to be pushing this model on a lot of other shows as well. And that's after we hopefully push through this writer's strike (and whatever happens with the next two negotiation sessions too (actors/directors also have contracts up this summer).

Sorry this got long, feel free to ignore it.

#episode thoughts #anti something probably #I'm going to go with corporate tv studio bullshit #because while I really used to get mad at the writing #I'm really feeling like they're trying their best with what little they're given #I don't know anymore

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mlynar-nearl · 2 years ago

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So... since IS3 is on global now... How about a "fun" last stand scenario with the Nearls and co. Mlynar really getting into roleplaying the Last Knight type of shenanigans.

I've actually thought about doing this for a while since IS3 released at all since they did give us a canonical doomed timeline, and specifically mention that the knights of Kazimierz are one of the forces devastated by the seaborn and Ishar-mla along with the armies of Yan and Ursus. Mlynar is pretty powerful in lore, but you can't stand for long against something that is a concern for even feranmuts. I think, right now in Arknights, Sui awakening and Ishar-Mla being reborn are the two biggest existential threats to the entirety of Terra.

Good thing that timeline isn't the main canon one.

Obvious CWs ahead in this flash fiction for seaborn and major character death. This is, after all, the doomed timeline where basically everyone dies.

Required listening, actually: The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned)

When he was young, he remembers floating down a river into a lake on the back of a discarded housing piece from a small nomadic city with Toland Cash, who had insisted that when they break for the day they learn how to swim, because they don't need to come out of another job looking like drowned vermin.

It's been too many years since then, but Młynar remembers having rolled his eyes even as he agreed- after all, they were of Kazimierz, and would never even conceive of something bigger than a lake.

Hindsight begs to differ.

Młynar Nearl is not, and has never been, a knight of Kazimierz. Nor does he ever wish to be one. Nor, now, does he think he will die as one.

That's alright- it suits him just fine. It took too many months for Kazimierz and its neighboring nations- always suspicious of each other- to agree to terms negotiated by Rhodes Island in advance of Iberia's borders breaking. By the time that Kazimierz, Leithanien, and Ursus were sharing their armories and men, it was already too late- if it was ever not too late in the first place.

Margaret returned to Rhodes Island when the first news of the blockade at the Iberian border crumbling came through. As one of their most capable fighters, she went to the front without hesitation to help with evacuation of civilians to Rhodes Island.

Now, more than ever, he knows this will be the last time he sees her alive. She knows it, too.

That hadn't stopped her from putting her hand on his shoulder and saying, "You know what I have to say, uncle."

He does. "...yes, yes. Fear neither hardship nor darkness."

"...thank you," Margaret had said, quieter, squeezing his shoulder. "For everything."

"Margaret."

"Hm?"

"Come home."

"I will."

She doesn't. But they both knew that was probably going to happen.

Maria doesn't wail as much as she had the first time Margaret didn't come home. Instead, she sits in a corner of her workshop and cries in silence, and, like the first time, Młynar holds her.

"Maria," he says quietly as the day starts to break after they were informed that Rhodes Island has lost contact with Margaret. "Make me a promise."

"What do you mean?"

"Stay with Rhodes Island. No matter what. Do not put yourself in danger."

Maria is silent for a while. He knows she's just like her sister- just like him- in that she wants to say no because she can help people.

"I know you want to help. You will be the most help here, with your machines."

"You're right," she finally says, throwing her arms around him. "I promise, uncle."

"Good girl," he says quietly, holding her close. "You know you are the best of us."

Maria just sniffles.

It's three days later that Rhodes Island receives the call from the bounty hunters.

The seaborn have reached the borders of Kazimierz, and as per their contract with Rhodes Island, the guild is engaging.

Młynar is not torn about what he does next, only guilty that he does it to Maria so soon after Margaret had left for good.

"Uncle, you can't," Maria says as he packs his things. Her eyes are watery, and she hiccups with a held-back round of tears. "You'll probably be gone too."

"I know that."

"But why-"

Mlynar interrupts her by standing up to his full height and putting his hands on her shoulders. "Remember what I said, Maria."

"Stay with Rhodes Island."

"Exactly. Be the engineer they need."

"What about you?"

"As long as I'm alive, I will always find my way back to you, kochanie."

"Please don't do this."

"I have to."

"I don't get it. Why-"

"Why did Margaret go?"

Maria falls silent, sniffing a bit. They both know it was because there's no other choice. Everyone will be called upon to give what they can, and in place of having Maria's prodigious supportive skills, they are only fighters.

"I love you, Maria. Margaret loves you too. Don't forget that."

He picks up his bag and leaves, and again, he feels no urge to stay instead, only guilt that it had to be like this. But what can he do, in times like these?

It's raining.

It's always a problem on the front when it starts raining, because the seaborn will be energized, and the ground will turn to mud, hard to walk through, difficult to fight in. Młynar picks his way through to the Kazimierzan fort a few hundred meters down the road ahead, patchwork barricades set. He can hear the sound of crossbows and arts firing towards the enemy.

When he reaches the back wall, he lifts his hands to his mouth and whistles a bounty hunter's sign.

A familiar face leans over the parapet, looking down at him.

"Well, well," Toland Cash says, and though he's playing at being lighthearted it's clear he's exhausted too, "If it isn't Kazimierz's last knight."

"Do you have room for one more, Toland?"

"When it's you? Always. I'll get the barricades."

Toland disappears. After some minutes, there's the sound of furniture being moved behind the door, and Toland cracks the door open. "Come on, come on, hurry. Before one of them follows you in."

Młynar obliges, shaking off his jacket as Toland arduously re-blocks the door.

"Tell me, did you only come here for me?"

"Would it raise your spirits to tell you so?"

"It would raise my spirits just to hear your voice even more," Toland says, his voice bearing a tired edge to it. "Even if you were calling me every slur we've ever heard."

Młynar glances towards the stairs, where he can hear the shouts of battle.

"They don't need the likes of us up there yet," Toland says in response to the unspoken question. "You and I are too good at close combat, and we need to keep them at an arm's length right now. For now, what we do here is run food, water, originium arts focuses. Anything we have."

"Toland," Młynar says quietly.

"Hm?"

"It's good to see you."

"You too." Toland sighs, running a hand through his wet hair. "We don't have long left here. Are you sure you want to stay?"

"My place is with you."

Toland's ears twitch. "Would it have killed you to say that twenty years ago?"

"It'll kill both of us to say it now."

Toland snorts humorlessly. "No kidding."

"Do you have an evacuation plan?"

Toland pauses, frowning in thought. "I've been working on one the last few days. It ends about how you'd expect."

"Fight to the last man?"

"Mmm. Only, there's the problem of that. If anyone gets eaten alive...they told you about these things at Rhodes Island, didn't they?"

"Yes."

"They don't think like us, but we can't have them knowing what one of us knows," Toland says frankly. "On the first night of the siege, one of my guys got eaten. One of those things started mimicking his voice out in the forest. It killed whatever morale we might have had."

Młynar almost shudders at that. "So. It's a suicide mission."

"Right. I want to evacuate some of our best casters and snipers, and any civilians or anyone with decent medical backgrounds to Rhodes Island. Do you think they can do that?"

"A joint detachment from the remainder of the Adeptus and Rhodes Island will be sweeping the area in five days."

"Good," Toland says with a sigh. "There's a chance. I've told everyone since day one, die on your own terms, not theirs."

"Do you think we have five days?"

"Probably not. But now that you're here, I think our odds have improved significantly."

Młynar can't help but crack a smile at that. "So. You and me?"

Toland nods decisively. "You and me. Just like the old days."

"You and I remember the old days very differently."

Perhaps, in their youth, they could have doubled their final score for how many seaborn they held off during the evacuation of the fortress. But they're much older men, with many more regrets, and they stay fighting back to back, close enough to defend from being taken over.

Młynar is holding a barrier of light around them, assaulted by thousands of seaborn, when Toland's radio crackles.

"They got everyone!"

Młynar breathes a sigh of relief, pushing his barrier back against the seaborn.

"That's all we needed to do."

"I know we've beaten similar forty-to-ones before," Toland says, staring up at the writhing swarm of seaborn flesh trying to close in on them, stopped by a barrier of rain and light. "But I tell you what, master Nearl, as impressive as our work today was...I think this is the one where we lose."

Młynar cracks a sad smile. "I've never heard you be such a pessimist."

"Call it what this latest war has done to me," Toland says. One of the seaborn hisses at him. "It was good, huh? You and me."

"It was."

"It was an honor to get to fight with you one more time," Toland says quietly.

"You too."

Toland grabs Młynar's sword from his belt. "You remember what we talked about."

Młynar nods, holding the barrier with one hand, holding out his other for Toland's sword. "Better to die as yourself, was it?"

"Yeah." Toland hands Młynar one of his swords. "Here. I know it's going to be hard to hold the barrier while we do this."

"It'll probably collapse once you stab me," Młynar warns. "So make your own death quick."

"Yes, sir," Toland says. He lines up their swords, next to each other, pointed in opposite directions. He holds Młynar's blade up to his chest, and his own blade in Młynar's hand to his own chest. "Hey, if there's a next world, I wanna see you again."

"It's me who is never getting rid of you," Młynar says dryly.

They're silent for a few moments while rain hammers the top of the barrier of light, and the seaborn writhe outside.

"Toland."

"Hm?"

"...I'll see you soon."

Toland smiles sadly, shifting his grip on Młynar's blade. "I know."

He shoves the blade- and himself- forward, and the seaborn screech and tumble forwards as the barrier goes down.

They find they are successfully denied their prize.

#anonymous #ash answers #ash writes #i had this general idea kicking around for a while so enjoy some angst !

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mentalisttraceur · 1 year ago

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Hi! Just read your post on video games. That’s great that you are able to play for enjoyment! I was just wondering if you had any other suggestions on how to ‘restore the internal trust’ with yourself (not necessarily revolving around video games)

[context]

Quick aside: I'd characterize the difference as less about being able to play for enjoyment (that ability was always in the mix), but being able to play solely for enjoyment or at least without as much addictive, bingy, and completionist tendencies. (I'm assuming you already understood that and were just prioritizing conciseness and focusing on the part most relevant to the internal trust thing, so this clarifier is more for readers who don't see the original post and such.)

Off the top of my head I think the biggest thing is that it's going to be relative to you. What have you denied yourself, especially after "telling" yourself that you were going to do/enjoy/allow/indulge it? And by "telling" I mean not just explicit conscious thought, (sub)verbalized or otherwise, but also for example if you ever successfully motivate yourself by imagining doing something after, that's you using your "brain language" to tell some part of your brain that you're going to do that thing (and betraying the part those motivations come from if you then never do/attempt/pursue that thing). Similarly, how have you failed yourself, like not standing up for yourself or neglecting your needs, and so on?

One example I had a couple years ago had to do with work. I was very unhappy with several things in my life, and that included several things at my job. So I decided to quit.

(For those who don't know, in many places the whole "two weeks notice" thing is a courtesy, not an obligation - in the US for example, in a "right to work" state, you can just say "I quit" and leave on the spot (or just stop showing up, and if you're feeling nice somehow let them know you're done) unless you explicitly signed a contract to the contrary, and even then a court would probably throw out that part of a contract as invalid unless you actually got something you wouldn't normally get in return for waiving your right to just leave the moment you want to, but talk to an actual lawyer just to be sure. We normally don't do this because it can be a bit of a dick move which might burn bridges, and we often want our managers to be favorable references for future jobs. But I had a good enough relationship with my manager that I could have given the two weeks or not and it would have been fine either way.)

The very moment I told my manager that I was willing to give two more weeks if he needed that, I felt a very, very strong internal opposition, strong dissatisfaction and unwillingness. So much so that I immediately had to tell him "actually, sorry, I'm feeling something really strongly against giving two weeks" and then I had to think about it for a bit. I don't remember if I told him I'd give him a final decision later in the day or If I was able to resolve it right then and there, but that act of laying down that boundary and taking back the two weeks offer was very restorative of internal trust. My brain needed to see that I as the conscious pilot had the spine/strength/willpower and self-care priority to do that - once it did, the discomfort basically immediately relieved. (Of course, when I ended up staying three weeks instead of two to give retention offer negotiations more time, I started to feel it again, and if I had taken the safe path of taking the great-but-not-great-enough offer, or let it drag on any longer, that would've damaged internal trust rather than improving it.)

#language free thought #internal trust #wearing multiplicity #cognition #brain language #mentalisttraceur meta

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annaphoenix1994 · 1 year ago

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Ch.125 - Gaining Leverage

Previous Chapter - Masterlist 1; Masterlist 2 - Next Chapter

Phil and Tokala discuss their partnership; Baler and Simon have a talk; Baler learns new information about Kiera and also tells Simon about his new love interest at school.

Author's Note: Yes, this chapter is over 4k words with a bit of pending drama as well as a lot of fluff between Simon and Baler. I just love their journey together and how they truly view each other after their hardships. It makes my heart melt! Also, just in case anyone was curious: I start my new job tomorrow and I'm still slowly getting back on my feet! Money is still hard to come by right now, but I'm still able to manage and get food for myself as well as take care of my animals. Thankfully, this new job pays every week, so I'm so happy about that. I also have a set schedule so that it'll be easier to plan things throughout the day! I hope you enjoy this chapter! Hopefully I'll have another out in a couple of days!

“The value of the land is basically worthless without a water source, I’m afraid.” A lead executive on Tokala’s team explained.

“Worthless?” Adam, Phil’s lead executive on the project, scoffed. Aside from his arrogance, Phil thoroughly enjoyed the man’s cockiness when negotiating a deal. “A 40-acre goat farm sold for 3 million in the county over.”

“With a water source.”

“The water table on our property is 30 feet. I could dig a fucking well by hand.”

“I’d love to see that!” Angela fired back, far from intimidated from Adam’s negotiation tactics. “Your client already accepted our offer, you’re just supposed to red line the fine print if I must remind you of what your job entails.”

Tokala smirked with amusement.

“The fine print is shit. You get our land for free and then write off construction costs for years before we even see a dime?” Adam scoffed. “Phil, fucking Indian Tribes trying to steal your land.”

“The only reason you’re not choking on irony is the size of your mouth!” Angela snarled.

“Must I remind everyone that our goal here is to make a deal.” Natalie sighed.

“We agreed to a percentage as payoff. I can’t afford your asking price and build my desired project.” Tokala explained.

Phil shook his head, “I know how this works. You won’t spend a cent on construction. You’ll go to Chase or Rocky Capital and take a loan for the build. You’ll outsource the management except for promised jobs for family or friends. You’ll negotiate a heaping consulting fee for yourself and give speeches about how this will have a positive impact to the community with how much income will be brought in for schools and hospitals,” He explained, drawing in everyone’s attention by how great the future sounded coming from his mouth. “I oversaw the Las Vegas Lottery and partnered with managing casinos along the Strip. I helped write the book on this shit and I’m fine with all of this, but all I’m offering is that my piece of the pie will be just as big as yours.”

“I have no family to give jobs to, and my only friends are my partners in this business. Every dime of profit will go exactly where I say it goes. We both want the same thing, just different reasons.”

“Tokala, I look at the contract and I honestly can’t tell what you want.”

“Let me simplify it: I want everything the Jackson Valley Ranch sits on! I want that ranch and everything north towards Yellowstone and south towards Hot Springs. Do this with me and I’ll split it with you.”

“There’s probably not even a handful of people on this entire planet that can afford that ranch. You and I aren’t one of them.”

“You’re a billionaire, no?”

“Yes, but the only reason I am is because I’m smart with my money. I discuss strategies before falling through with a deal.”

“I have a plan for that, too.”

“Then what is it?”

“I only tell my plans to my partners. You and I aren’t partners… yet.”

“I’m not going to try and sabotage a deal here, Phil,” Adam spoke up, hating the sudden silence that fell between the two. “If you cede ownership of the land, would there be any worry of being pushed out by the opposing party?”

“And assume that Phil will get nothing?” Tokala arched his brow. “Is that what you assume my plan is?”

“Of course not. We’re just trying to be smart about this, too.”

“Strategize,” Phil corrected. “Is there a way that the percentage of the profit could become a percentage of ownership at the casino?”

“Unfortunately, the Tribal Gaming Commission will never license you,” Tokala answered with a sigh.

“Well, what about the hotel? We make the casino a separate structure – I own the hotel, you own the casino?” Phil proposed.

“That could work.” Natalie nodded, crossing her arms.

“I agree,” Adam nodded before looking back to Tokala. “I’ll draft a proposal. We don’t require a response right away, it’s just something to think about.”

“Of course.”

“Since we are all on the same page with the land, I would like to address a possible solution to these issues. I’ve gotten attorneys for the Clean Water Act and we are filing a lawsuit against Kiera Dutton for rerouting the river to alter the flow of the waterway. Since we have filed, we will present it to the EPA. Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout reside in these rivers, which is a food source for majority of the Grizzly Bears and Black Bears that wander through from the park,”

“Continue…” Tokala requested, a gleam of excitement in his eyes.

“Which is a violation of the Endangered Species Act.”

“Which is also a felony.” Adam finished.

“That’s the best news I’ve heard all day.”

“She has already been served the papers. I just figured I’d tell you the strategies after filing.” Natalie giggled.

“Good work.”

Kiera arrived home with a heavy sigh, eager to see her children and husband after a long day of staring at a computer screen. Unzipping her boots once she walked through the door, she mindlessly pushed them aside before hanging her coat on the rack as well as her purse, purposely leaving her phone somewhere inside as the smell of cooked beef flooded her nostrils. “What’s for dinner?”

“Baler suggested hamburger helper and it was easy enough for me to make,” Simon chuckled, shrugging his shoulders as he continued to stir the ground beef. “Is that okay?”

“I have no problem with what you two decide to make for dinner,” She giggled, meeting him at the stove to stand on her toes so she could press a kiss to his lips, smiling when she heard Baler purposely gag at the sight as he was sitting on the countertop, clear that he and Simon were having a conversation prior to Kiera arriving home. “Want me to make some sides?”

“We already have that covered, momma,” Baler snickered, leaning down so that she could greet him with a hug as well as kiss his forehead. “The twins are in the living room playing in their playpen. And before you ask, yes, I’ve been keeping an eye on them. Dad and I have been taking turns.”

“I know, baby. That’s why I didn’t ask,” She giggled. “I know you two always have them in your sights when I’m not home.”

“There’s also a slight change of plans, love…” Simon trailed off, causing her brows to furrow in confusion. “You know how we usually go to your mum’s for dinner on Wednesday’s? Well, I asked her if she’d rather come over here tonight.”

“Okay. I’ll be glad to see her over here so I can show her the Christmas tree I bought!”

“We’re really putting up a Christmas tree?—” Baler scoffed, dreading the day that he’d have to help Kiera put it up in the living room. Although he loved Kiera and Simon as his parents, putting up a Christmas tree as well as other holiday festivities is where he drew the line.

“We sure are and you’re going to help your dad chop it down.”

“Chop it down?” Simon asked suddenly, both he and Baler questioning her at the same time with the same look on their faces.

“That’s right. Mom knows a guy who was friends with dad since high school and he owns a tree farm. She and I both bought a new tree this year, so we’ll have two to put up,” She smirked. “We pick them up this weekend.”

“Bloody hell,” Simon sighed. “Looks like our hunting trip is postponed until Sunday, lad.”

“If you two want to complain about it, I’ll just do it myself.” Kiera arched her brow.

“No, we’ll do it.” Baler assured her.

“That’s how she does it, lad. It just took me three years to figure it out.”

“How she does what?”

“She’ll volunteer us to do something at the last minute, then pout when she hears me complain about it so I’ll feel guilty but even though I may not want to spend my Saturday chopping down a bloody tree, I’ll still do it because it makes her happy.”

“You sure did save yourself on that one, babe,” Kiera huffed, crossing her arms over her chest while she watched him and Baler smirk at her reaction. “I’m going to go change and find an outfit to wear tomorrow. You two sit and complain to each other while I’m gone.”

“I think you made her mad.” Baler whispered.

Simon shook his head, “No, I know when she’s mad. She can dish out the jokes but can’t take ‘em when I shoot back,” He said, knowing Kiera could in fact take a joke, but he was still in a playful mood. “One thing you’ll learn about women is that they love to volunteer us for things they can’t physically do because they know we’ll do it for them.”

“Why?”

“Because men are providers, kid. I’m going to sound old fashioned when I say this, but it’s the truth,” He shrugged, turning off the burner to the stove after the ground beef was done cooking to strain it in the sink before putting it into the mixture of the hamburger helper to let it simmer. “Women provide us by giving us children and the least we can do is be a helping hand when she needs it, but our main goal is to make sure our women are safe and feel like they’re safe when they’re with us because unfortunately, this world is too cruel for women because some men make it that way. It’s up to us to keep that part of the world away from the ones we love.”

“Didn’t think you could be so sentimental, dad.” Baler teased.

“I can be when I want, but don’t let your mum hear that,” He chuckled playfully. “She’s given me more than just the twins, but when she had those two, I watched her change completely from the woman I knew before to someone I didn’t think could be better.”

“What was mom like when you met?”

Simon breathed a chuckle, “She was wild. I’ve never met a woman that could physically terrify a man twice her size in my life.”

“Are you talking about yourself?” Baler snickered.

“If I’m going to be honest, yeah, she intimidated me – she still does sometimes.”

“She was in the military too, right?”

“If you want to refer to it like that, yeah.”

Simon glanced at Baler through his peripheral vision when he heard him scoff out of slight annoyance, “Dad, why are you so secretive about it? I’m old enough to understand these things…”

He huffed before stepping away from the stove to glance towards the hallway, seeing that their bedroom door was shut and listened for the sound of running water from the pipes below the floor, assuring himself that she couldn’t overhear what he was about to say next. “You think you’re old enough to understand?”

“I know I can.”

“Just promise me one thing.”

“Shoot.”

“You can’t look at her any different than how you do now. If what I’m about to tell you changes that, it should be how you can appreciate her more than you do now. She wouldn’t want you to feel sorry for her because it wasn’t her fault—”

“Dad, you’re scaring me…”

“Just promise me.”

“O-Okay, I promise.”

“That woman who came to the house while we were gone, that was Kiera’s supervisor in the C.I.A. She’s been involved in many missions that I was a part of too. When Kate shows up, serious things are about to happen—”

“So she’s about to leave?—”

“No, she’s not going anywhere, but I might have to—”

“Don’t leave.”

“It’s my duty, lad,” He arched his brow. “Only if I must. I met Kiera on a mission in Mexico. Unexpected for sure, but we worked alongside each other for a while before I developed feelings,”

“So, while it was raining bullets you were over there simping for my mom?” Baler snickered.

“Wh-? What does that mean?”

“What?”

“That word? Simp?”

“Oh, it’s like you were too focused on her when there were more important things going on or something like that,” Baler shrugged. “Like you were begging for her attention.”

“Not at the time, no. She definitely caught my eye, but when I’m on a mission, I’m focused on what I’m supposed to be doing because any mistake or delay and it’s your life and the life of others you’re risking.”

“So how does this factor into what you’re so secretive about telling me?”

“Got sidetracked,” Simon huffed. “Anyway, long story short, when we returned from leave, we were working with a commander who she had been investigating for tyranny. He found out she was investigating him, so when we got back, he forced her into his possession to find out any answers. When we found her, she was nearly unrecognizable – nearly beaten to death. I didn’t have to ask her what happened because it was obvious. More time went by before we found out our target was in Chicago. We get there, do our mission, and things took a turn for the worst—”

“Are you talking about that bombing that happened?” Baler questioned. “I heard that it was like the bombing that happened in Boston—”

“It turned into being a bombing, but it was originally a stealth mission,” He corrected.

“Were you there?”

“I held a sniping position on the adjacent building, yes.”

“That’s so fucking cool—”

“Focus, lad,” Simon reminded sternly. “On their way back to the main floor, Kiera, my Captain, and Sergeant along with some Marines were hit with an RPG. Johnny was the one who found her while I was making my way to the ground from the building I was in. Although I was terrified then, I still found it quite funny how the first thing she thought of after getting hit with an RPG was to bum a cigarette,” He breathed a laugh.

“So… She lived through getting blown up?”

“Obviously,” Simon scoffed. “And she didn’t get blown up, she got the worst of the hit when the RPG came through the building. Price was the one who used himself as a shield to protect her, but he was too late when he did and she ended up getting the worst of it.”

“Is… Is that why she has that scar on her face?”

Simon nodded.

“And the ones on her back?”

“How did you know about those?”

“I’m not stupid, dad. I noticed the first time she wore a dress the first summer I had with you guys and her shoulders and back looked like pepperoni. I knew they were scars instead of some birthmark.” He scoffed.

“Okay, but let’s not compare the looks of them to anything. She’s already self-conscious about it—”

“She shouldn’t. She’s just more of a badass than I thought she was already,” Baler shrugged. “How… How bad are they?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like… Is it her entire back that looks like that?”

“Yes.”

“Does it bother you?”

Simon furrowed his brows, “Does it bother me?”

“Yeah, like does it bother you that she looks like that now. Like, I’m not saying it to be mean because she doesn’t look bad, but… I don’t know. One of my friends dumped his girl because she got in a car wreck and is paralyzed now—”

“That’s not a friend, kid. Sounds like a bastard.”

“He is.”

“I wouldn’t continue to be his friend if I were you. I was on patrol that day I got the call about a wreck. I watched them pull that girl from that car and the first thing she asked was to call her boyfriend. And to now learn that he dumped her for it?”

“Fucked up, isn’t it?”

“Surely.”

“Still didn’t answer my question though.”

“The only thing that bothers me is that I wasn’t there to take the blow instead of her. Not once did it change how I felt about her. The only thing that changed was having to be more cautious around her. It’s been years, but she’s still healing from it. Her skin is very sensitive now and I must make sure she doesn’t overdo it when she does things she likes.”

“Is her skin sensitive or something?”

Simon nodded, “She doesn’t know it, but she aches when she lays too long on her back while she’s sleeping. I guess it’s because those grafts feel kind of tight to her, especially on areas as sensitive as her legs. I don’t sleep very well anyway, but I physically move her throughout the night in hopes of her not being sore in the morning.”

“Husband of the year,” Baler poked playfully, although he wasn’t going to admit that the new information, he just learned about how his father did acts of love for Kiera absolutely melted his heart. “So you really are a genuine man.” He teased.

“I don’t do it for the title, I do it because I love her. That’s what I meant when I said that us men are to provide for the ones we love. She gave me those kids and the least I could do is make it easier for her any time I can and more. So if she ends up wanting six trees to set up around the house, then you can bet your arse I’m going to cut down six trees.”

“Can you tell me more?”

He watched Simon shake his head, “I’m afraid I shouldn’t. I’ve already told you more than you need to. Just hold to your promise and don’t look at her any different.”

“You know I will.”

“Well, try not to make it obvious—”

“I’m going to look at her the way you said.”

“And what did I say?”

“To appreciate her more and that she wouldn’t want me to feel sorry for her,” He answered confidently. “Although I feel bad because I hug her kind of hard. Like I didn’t know it probably hurts and I don’t think about that stuff… I don’t want to stop hugging her, though.” He frowned.

“Then don’t stop hugging her, lad,” He assured him. “She’s never said anything about hurting afterwards, but I know she’s stubborn.”

“Should I just put my arms around her neck instead of her body?”

Simon nodded in agreement, seeing how concerned Baler was regarding the new information he had just learned. “Makes sense as to why sometimes I hear her wince when I do hug her every day.”

“It’s okay. She knows you don’t know about as to why she’s still sore from what happened—”

“She’d never tell me, either.”

“No, but that’s why I did. Even though you kept asking me to tell you.” He chuckled.

“Well, now I know what you expect of me when it comes to treating women… I can really use that advice now I’ve got a girlfriend…”

“You what?” Simon arched his brow.

“We’re not official… Yet.”

“Well, since you two aren’t “official,” you have plenty of time to make things right so that you can treat her well. What’s her name?”

“Holly.”

“Is that the girl—”

“-From the wreck,” Baler answered. “The one in the wheelchair.”

“You better treat her well, you understand?”

“Why do you think I wanted you to talk about mom?”

Simon tilted his head in confusion.

“Don’t make fun of me after I tell you this…”

“I’m offended that you think I would.”

Baler playfully rolled his eyes before looking to the floor, twiddling his thumbs in nervousness as he spoke, “I asked you to talk about mom because you get carried away. Yeah, I’m always curious about what you two did for work, but I’m really taking mental notes… I see how you talk about her and how you treat her and I just… I want to be you.”

Simon looked down towards the floor, unable to grasp the realization that he was an inspiration to someone. He really does look up to me, he thought, recalling the moment Kiera had told him how Baler felt about Simon. You were right, love.

“You… want to be me?”

“Yes. I don’t have the first fucking clue on how to take care of a girl, let alone taking care of a girl that can’t quite do the same things as me. She can’t walk on her own and is in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. I got made fun of because I confessed to my friends that I liked her and I thought I was in the wrong because my own friends thought it was stupid and I felt bad for telling them to fuck off, but I like her for who she is—”

“Please tell me you’re not still friends with them.”

“No, I’m not. At first I pushed myself away from her because I thought I had the same mindset as my friends and didn’t want to cause her more of a heartache, but this past week I’ve done nothing but help her out and pushed my so-called friends away because being around her made me happier.”

“That’s good, kid. So why haven’t you two made it official yet? You’re already referring to her as your girlfriend.”

“Did I?” He asked, furrowing his brows in confusion.

“You sure did. Looks like your heart has already decided for you.”

“But what if… what if I’m too fucked up to date her? I have a problem with my temper, I take forever to do things right—”

“I can assure you, we’ve both had our fair share of being “fucked up”. The only difference between you and I is that it took me 30 years to realize it and you had someone to save you from yourself.”

“That’s why I want to be you.”

The pair looked at each other for a few moments, now truly understanding their role in each other’s lives. Kid, as much as you’ve gotten on my nerves in the beginning, I’m sure glad you’re in mine and Kiera’s life.

On the other side of the closed bedroom door, Kiera sat with her back against it as she wept grateful tears, Kimber’s jaw laying on top of Kiera’s thigh as her fingers slowly moved through the Corgi’s fur. She failed to hear the entire conversation and felt bad for eavesdropping, but her heart was swelling with pride and love at the bond between Simon and Baler that distinctly grew over time. Babe, you were meant to find him that day.

“She will be your first girlfriend, yeah?”

“I hope so.”

“I’m sure you’ll be glad to tell your mum all about it.”

“I’m terrified to tell her. Can I wait a bit longer?”

“Why’re you terrified?”

“Because she’ll skin me alive if I do something wrong. I love her to death, but I also don’t want to risk messing up…”

“She won’t. Me and her have messed up a lot. That’s what makes us work. There’s not a relationship on this planet that has worked without mistakes. You’re going to make a lot of mistakes, even if you have us to guide you. It’ll show how you are as a man and how you handle things. This lass you’re talking to will see that, too. How you react and handle things shows her everything she’ll need to know about her relationship with you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Okay, for example: if you and her are talking in the hall at school and the kids that were picking on you for liking her came up and made a cheeky comment. If you defend her without question, then she’ll feel safe with you and want to reside in you. If you just let them make their comment or even laugh along with them, she’ll feel humiliated and want to distance herself. Remember what I said.”

“You already know what I’d do.”

“I’ve seen your temper,” Simon chuckled. “If you can defend your lass like you defended Kiera that day Brady was causing trouble, I have full confidence in you.”

“But he beat my ass—”

“Doesn’t matter. What matters is that you stood your ground and didn’t hesitate to risk getting hit again to defend yourself and your mum.”

“Yeah, well, you need to teach me how to fight because watching you beat him up was so cool.”

“I’ll show you one day.”

“What ever happened to him anyway?”

“…Let’s just say he found his way to work on another ranch…”

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