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jungshookz · 3 years

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skate a little piece of my heart; jjk

➺ pairing; jeon jungkook x reader

➺ genre; rollerskatinginstructor!jungkook!! sfw!! fluff!! honk honk humour!! jungkook is a very handsome instructor and y/n can’t tell if that’s a bad thing or a good thing

➺ wordcount; 6.3k

➺ summary; your two left feet and complete lack of balance isn’t the only thing that’s making you weak in the knees this valentine’s day.

➺ what to expect; “rollerskating is already hard enough as it is, and now i have to do it in front of him?!”

➺ currently spinning on the record player; how deep is your love; bee gees

»»————-　💫 ————-««

“this is so dumb.”

“safety is never dumb, y/n!” taehyung raps his knuckles against the top of your helmet and you scowl before swatting his hand away, “now, where are your kneepads?”

you let out a groan before tilting your head back slowly, your eyes widening in slight panic at the surprisingly hefty weight of the helmet

your arms flail for a second and you immediately reach up to grip both sides of the helmet before forcing your head back up

jesus

you nearly snapped your own neck there

of course, snapping your own neck would mean not being able to skate because you’d technically be dead… so maybe that’s not such a bad idea after all…

(by the way, it’s concerning how many times you’ve considered literal death just to get out of doing something.)

“are you going to lift your leg for me or do i have to do everything for you?”

you look down to see taehyung down on the ground in front of you holding one of the knee pads and you frown lightly before lifting your leg and placing your sock-clad foot on his knee

“please tell me this is the last of the safety gear…” you whine, “tae, i literally look so dorky right now- no one else is wearing helmets or knee and elbow pads!” you gesture to seokjin and namjoon who are busy putting on their skates over on the other bench before scoffing lightly and crossing your arms

if namjoon (arguably the klutziest one out of this group of people) isn’t even wearing a helmet, then what does that say about you??

you’ve seen him trip over nothing and scrape both his knees so why are you the only one wearing all of this junk?!

“i took you ice-skating over christmas and you fell flat on your ass more times than i could count, and you insisted that you didn’t need any safety equipment even though it was alarmingly clear that you did. i basically spent two hours making sure you didn’t die-” taehyung looks up at you with a raised brow, “do you want to fall and split your skull open in front of everyone?”

“if it means not having to gear up in all this dorkware- then, yes. i would love to have my brains splat across the rink in front of everyone. in fact, that would probably be less embarrassing-” you grumble, flinching slightly as taehyung suddenly yanks hard to tighten up your laces, “i’m an adult, taehyung! grown-ups don’t need to wear all of this!”

“grown-ups don’t throw tantrums either, but here you are…” taehyung mutters under his breath, putting your foot down before giving your knee a slap, “perfect! we’re good to go!”

“yeah, yeah…” you reach under to scratch at your elbow only to feel your nails scrape against the smooth surface of the plastic protection shell and you resist the urge to rip it off out of frustration

taehyung decided that it’d be a great idea to bring everyone to a rollerskating rink for valentine’s day this year instead of… letting people go out to intimate dinners and celebrate on their own… because, quote, ‘i just want all of us to spend more time together, and what better day to do that then on valentine’s day?? …ooh, we should call it pal-entine’s day. ha! get it?? because we’re all pals-’

(he was dumped recently, so everyone’s kind of letting him run the ship for now. …basically, no one can say no to taehyung unless they want to see him burst into tears. he’s still in a very delicate state.)

but, honestly… a rollerskating rink!

out of all the places to go to!

you already have two left feet, so forcing said left feet into shoes with wheels is a horrible idea

“i think it’d be best if i just sat back and watched you guys!” you try for the umpteenth time to get taehyung to let you off the hook, “plus, they sell chilli dogs here and they actually smell really good and i kind of want to order one for myself even though it might end in me having to get my stomach pumped-” you gesture back towards the refreshments counter and taehyung shakes his head before sticking his hand out for you

“there’s plenty of time for you to scarf down a rubbery hotdog later- now, c’mon-”

“i don’t even know how to skate!”

“that’s fine, you’ll learn! it’ll be like riding a bicycle except you are the bicycle-”

“you know, i’m just going to be complaining the whole time, and it’s going to ruin your time here. honestly, tae, why am i here??”

“because i’m not emotionally stable enough to spend valentine’s day alone yet and i need to surround myself with as many people as possible otherwise i’m going to be alone with my thoughts and i’m going to spiral!” taehyung’s voice cracks as he snaps at you and you immediately press your lips together and avert your gaze, trying to ignore the weird glances the two of you are getting from the strangers around you

…

“okay, well-” you push yourself up off the bench before wobbling slightly and reaching over to grab onto taehyung’s arm for stability, “i don’t know about you, but i’m most certainly ready to tear up that rink!”

“perfect!” taehyung chirps, quickly reverting back to his ‘everything is fine and i’m definitely not dying on the inside’ state, “and don’t worry. rollerskating is much easier than ice-skating, so there’s less of a chance of you potentially embarrassing yourself here-” taehyung gives your hand a pat as the two of you shuffle your way towards the entrance gate, “trust me, you’ll get the hang of it as soon as you start!”

“you saw me on ice…” you snort, your knees already wobbling as you take your first step into the rink, “i really don’t think i’m going to be any better on wood-”

“well, lucky for you…” taehyung lets go of you and you immediately cling to the railing in panic, “i went ahead i hired an instructor for you!”

you frown as you pull one hand away and rub your fingers together

god, why are the railings so sticky-

“you- woah, hold on a second-” you look up and over at taehyung with wide eyes when you finally catch on to what he just said, “i’m sorry, you did what?”

“what? i can’t stay by your side and watch you all night.” he shrugs, placing his hands on his hips as he stands in front of you, “we were moving so slowly on the ice that i was sure it was starting to melt underneath our skates-”

“you just told me you don’t want to be alone and now you’re handing me off to someone else instead of spending time with me??” you frown, manoeuvring your stance so that both your hands are gripping onto the railing behind your bum, “why force me to skate if you’re not doing it with me?”

“i mean, i obviously want to spend time with you, but i also don’t want to be skating, like, one mile an hour-” taehyung snorts, “i’m forcing you to skate so that one day, we can skate together without me having to worry about you slipping and sliding all over the place like a baby giraffe!”

“well, why can’t you teach me instead of paying for someone else to do it?”

a brief moment of silence passes as taehyung rolls over to get you to release your iron grip from the bars

“…because teaching you how to skate instead of actually spending time skating sounded really boring-” he mutters quickly, your eyes widening as you turn to look at him

“wha-”

“also-” he cuts you off, placing his hands on your hips from behind as he starts to roll you forwards slowly (though, you haven’t noticed this yet because you’re still focused on the fact that he didn’t want to teach you - you’re a great student!!), “there was a girl who kept smiling at me when i was strapping you up in all your gear, and i need to find out if i still have game or not-”

“this sounds more like you’re trying to fill the empty void inside of you with meaningless sex, which, by the way, isn’t a very healthy coping mechanism-”

“i will fill this empty void inside of me in whichever way i want, thank you very much-” taehyung snorts, shaking his head, “plus, it’s too late to back out because the policy states that they don’t take refunds and he’s already here-”

“wait, what??” you immediately look back to the front, the fact that you are being rolled towards someone now sinking into your brain, “who- oh my god, stop rolling me-!”

taehyung’s fingers dig into your hips as he comes to a sudden halt, “what??”

“spin me around.”

taehyung blinks before slowly turning you around so that you’re facing him and you pray to god that you don’t look like some kind of rotating rotisserie chicken right now

you open your mouth to speak when you finally see taehyung’s face again but he continues to spin you slowly so that you end up in the same position you were in a second ago

...

“for god’s sake, taehyung- spin me around so i’m looking at you, you moron-”

“ohh, okay, i thought you just wanted to spin you around for fun-”

“why would i want you to spin me around for f- okay, that’s not important right now-” you shake your head, “i just want to say that the only reason why i’m doing this is because you kind of sprung this on me last minute and i don’t want to inconvenience anyone, but just know that you now owe me big time- now, spin me back around and wheel me to whoever i’m going to be stuck with for the next couple of hours.”

“noted!” taehyung chirps as he rolls you back so you’re facing the front, “he’s right over there by the other entrance- the guy in the yellow-” your eyes flit around until they land on the guy in the yellow and you immediately feel your heart starting to beat a little harder in your chest at the sight of the guy in the yellow, “his name’s jungkook, he has a shining five-star rating, he’s a wonderful teacher according to all the parents whose kids he’s taught- i’m pretty sure you’re his oldest student so don’t embarrass yourself-”

you feel your mouth go dry when jungkook reaches down to adjust the bottom of his tied button-up shirt before opening the sides of it a little more to show off his chest

he reaches up to twirl a loose tendril of hair around his finger before gently pushing it back and running his hand through his hair, poking his tongue against the inside of his cheek briefly

oh no

oh, no

he’s attractive

he’s very, very attractive

“tae.” you keep a polite smile on your face as you slink your right arm behind you to attempt to blindly punch him in the gut, “why didn’t you tell me that the instructor was cute?”

“oh, i’m sorry.” taehyung responds sarcastically, “i didn’t think attractiveness was an important factor when considering an instructor.”

“well, it is when the instructor looks like that-” you feel your cheeks warm when jungkook smiles brightly at the two of you before waving enthusiastically, “rollerskating is already hard enough as it is, and now i have to do it in front of him?!”

“i don’t know what there is to freak out about. the guy’s handsome- so what?” taehyung waves back at jungkook before giving your hips a playful squeeze, “if anything, you should see this as a bonus - you get some eye-candy while you learn!”

“okay, well, don’t make me sound pervy-”

“not to mention, he’s your age! so it’ll be like you’re just hanging out with a friend-”

“a friend?! taehyung, i’m wearing overalls, my hair is in pigtails, and all this protective gear that you shoved me in makes me look like an eight year old-!” you gasp when you feel yourself suddenly bump into something hard and taehyung quickly loops his arm around your waist to keep you from toppling over

it’s a second later that you realize the something hard that you bumped into was jungkook’s obviously broad chest, so obviously this rollerskating lesson is already off to a fantastic start

“woah, you got it?” jungkook holds both his hands out in case you fall over and you let out a nervous chuckle before reaching up to push your helmet up slightly

“i’m fine!” your voice cracks and you clear your throat quickly, “…hello.”

“hi! it’s nice to meet you- y/n, right?” jungkook sticks his hand out for you to shake and you smile nervously before reaching out to take it, “my name’s jungkook! i’m super excited for today. we’re going to have a lot of fun together.”

you don’t know if it’s just because he’s clearly one of those fun and overly friendly! instructors or if he’s just naturally bubbly but he’s talking to you like you’re a child

(you probably could’ve ditched the pigtails today.)

“okay, i’m going to go off now so let me just hand y/n over to you-” taehyung arm slips from your waist before he gently rolls you towards jungkook, “you two have fun!”

your hands immediately slap down on the railings right as you feel yourself about you slip and you let out a breath of relief

that was a close call

“we will!” jungkook smiles, waving at taehyung as he skates off, “you enjoy yourself out there!”

you watch helplessly as taehyung skates away, jungkook turning back to look at you with a (very handsome) smile

you feel your heart skip a beat once again and you immediately curse in your head

…you’re screwed.

»»————-　💫 ————-««

“because of the balance and control required, it’ll take a little bit of getting used to- but once you get the hang out it, rollerskating is super fun!” jungkook reaches out so you can take his hand, “do you wanna let go of the bar for me?”

there are a lot of things you’d like to do for jungkook but letting go of the railing and potentially falling in front of him is most definitely not one of them

“you know, i think i’m good!” you chuckle, your knuckles practically going white at how tightly you’re gripping onto the railing, “why don’t you just keep talking while i… you know, get used to the feeling of just standing while wearing skates?”

“okay, if that’s what you’re comfortable with, that’s what we can do. let’s see… ah!” jungkook perks up, clapping his hands together before gesturing down to his own feet, “so, you’re gonna wanna keep your feet shoulder-width apart. can you do that for me?”

you look down at your feet, not at all surprised to see that they’re practically glued to each other

okay

shoulder-width apart

you can do that, right?

you lift your right foot up slowly before quickly moving it farther away from your left foot, your skate skidding slightly against the floor as you stomp down

goD these skates are clunky

you’ll never understand how people find this activity genuinely enjoyable

“see? not so bad, right? now, i’m really going to need you to let go of the bar for me so that we can move onto the next step- i swear i won’t let you fall if you take my hand.”

your eyes flicker down to his outstretched hand and you twist your lips uncertainly, “you promise?”

jungkook places his hand over his heart, “i promise.”

you lift one hand off the rail and quickly take jungkook’s hand, pausing for a second to make sure that everything feels okay before quickly lifting the other hand off the rail

you practically slap your hand down on jungkook’s other palm and let out a breath of relief as soon as he grips it tightly, and you look back in concern when jungkook starts to pull you away from the railing

“there you go! see?” jungkook smiles brightly, giving your hands a squeeze to get you to focus on him instead of the bars, “not so bad, right?”

“yeah, i guess so…” you puff out, feeling your heart starting to pound harder not onLY because the safety of the railings have been taken away from you but also because jungkook’s hands are… very soft.,,. and very warm,.,. and very pretty.,., and all-in-all very nice

“okay, step two. so, this next part is going to make you feel a little silly, but we have to walk like ducks because it just makes the process of walking easier. you kind of have to point your toes outwards- yeah, just like that! and don’t forget to squat a little-” jungkook hums, leaning over a little so he can look to see if your stance is okay, “perfect! we’re just going to keep practicing until you get used to walking...”

“you know, taehyung actually took me ice-skating over the holidays and i fell, like… ten times.” you snort, keeping your eyes on your skates as you take one small step after another, “i thought rollerskating would be easier but i feel like there are more rules to worry about…”

“oh my god, don’t even worry about it-“ jungkook snorts, shaking his head, “i’m an awful ice-skater. you’d think it’d come naturally to me because i can rollerskate- plus, i don’t see the fun in ice-skating! i know it’d never happen but i’m always paranoid that the skates are going to slice-”

“-the ice open and you’re going to fall through and plunge into the icy water?”

“exactly! see, you get it.” jungkook grins, leaning down a little to check your posture again, “you know, you’re a complete natural. i don’t know why you were so nervous to begin with!”

you snort in response and resist the urge to tell him that his face was one of the major things that contributed to your nerves

“ooh, and you know what else i hate about ice-skating?” jungkook gasps, “that if i fall and get my hands on the ground, someone’s going to skate over them and amputate all of my fingers.”

you immediately burst into giggles and he gawks playfully

“are you laughing at a genuine fear of mine, y/n?? i didn’t take you to be someone who could be so cruel…”

“no, i’m not laughing at you!” you smile softly and you can’t help but note how warm and comforting his presence is, “i’m just- i said that exact same thing to taehyung when we were ice-skating and he said i was being ridiculous, so it’s nice to know that someone shares the same opinions on ice-skating as i do.” you instinctively squeeze jungkook’s hands when you feel the wheels roll out from underneath you a little and you end up jerking forward a little

“woah-! you’re okay- i’ve got you…” jungkook rubs his thumbs over your knuckles reassuringly as he waits for you to regain your balance and start walking again, “i told you i wouldn’t let you fall, remember?”

“yeah…” you smile shyly, feeling your cheeks heat up a little

you don’t feel as nervous anymore

no wonder jungkook has a five-star rating as an instructor

he’s great!

“also, you do realise we’ve walked, like, an entire round around the rink, right?”

“what? we have?” you pause, looking up from your skates for the first time in ten minutes

you’re almost at the spot you were at right when you first started

woah

wow!!

you didn’t even realize!!

that’s so cool!!

you walked an entire round without falling (a lot of almost-falling, but you’ll take it)!!!

“i mean, i don’t know about you, but i feel like we can move on to gliding now…” jungkook whistles lowly, “you’re a very fast learner so i’m not worried.”

“gliding is…” you lean over a little when you notice taehyung having a blast at the other side of the rink with his new companion, the two of them skating side by side

she laughs at something he says before playfully swatting at his arm

it’s just good to see him smiling and not crying for once

one of the things that you love most about taehying is that he’s so in tune with his emotions, but when his ex (he forbade you from saying her name) broke up with him, he cried so much that you were pretty sure he had completely dehydrated himself

so it’s nice that he seems to be enjoying himself!

“so, gliding is-” jungkook steps over to get right into your line of vision and you quickly look back at him with an attentive smile, “basically turning your steps into smoooooth strokes. instead of dropping your foot straight down, you’re going to be pushing it forward and out. it’s kind of hard to explain gliding… you kinda just have to let momentum carry you forward and do its thing, you know? it’s literally just a one foot after the other situation.”

“well, if you can glide backwards, i’m sure i can figure out how to do it normally.” you point out, jungkook snorting in response

“trust me, you’ll be able to pick it up quickly. remember that when you’re gliding on one foot to keep your other slightly hovering above ground so it doesn’t interfere-” jungkook stops himself when he notices your brows knitting together (you seem to do this a lot when you’re focusing too hard on something), “ah, you know- i find that it’s easier to glide when you’re not actually focused on the gliding!” he chirps, giving your hands a reassuring squeeze, “if it helps, you can keep your eyes on me instead of staring down at your skates.”

hAh

if anything, staring directly at jungkook is going to throw you off your game compared to keeping your eyes glued on the ground

“okay, i will... try not to focus on the gliding while simultaneously focus on the gliding.” your tongue instinctively pokes out slightly in concentration as you push forward with one foot, being sure to keep your other a little above ground just like jungkook said

you quickly switch to the other foot when you feel your right foot slowly starting to lose momentum, pushing off with your left instead and lengthening your stride so you can skate a little further

hey

look at that!

not bad!!

“look at you go, superstar!” jungkook cheers encouragingly, grinning from ear to ear as he watches you gliding flawlessly, “you were born for this!”

“you know, you may have a point- woAh-” your skates roll out a little from under you and you lurch forward, jungkook quickly sliding his grip from your hands to underneath your elbows to keep you from falling, “...yeah, so i spoke too soon.” you huff, blowing a strand of hair away from your face as you glance up at jungkook, still bent over at a ninety degree angle

“it’s my bad, i think i may have blown up your ego with all my compliments-” the sides of his eyes crinkle as he laughs, “all good?”

you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and feel a piece of your soul float out from your body when you realise you basically look like a little old woman clutching onto one of those rolling walkers

wow

the possibility of jungkook being interested in you was low to begin with, but now it’s probably been squashed entirely

“uh, yes!” you clear your throat as you force yourself to stand up stick-straight, your knees clacking together for a second before you get back into position, “all good! i’m all good. we’re good.”

oh boy

if it makes you feel any better… it can’t get any worse than this, right?

“i-” you jolt when the music suddenly clicks off and is replaced by the shrill ringing of microphone feedback

“youch.” jungkook winces, raising his shoulder slightly and tilting his head down towards it so he can try to cover up one of his ears

your brows furrow in confusion as you look up towards the speakers, unsure of if there’s just a technical difficulty or if something important is happening, “what’s going o-”

“sorry for the interruption, skaters! we just wanted to cut in and wish every single one of you a happy valentine’s day...”

a large disco ball lowers from the ceiling as the lights begin to dim, the room suddenly engulfed in a warm pink glow as visions of glinting sparkles and hearts reflect from the disco ball onto the wooden floors along with the velvety walls

oh, god

seriously?!

you look up towards the speakers and resist the urge to curse and shake your fist at them like an angry old man

haven’t the people here considered that there might be single people in the rink?!

…on valentine’s day…??

yeah that doesn’t make much sense

“grab your lover and glide along the floor as we play you some romantic tunes on this romantic evening… also, to the owner of a baby blue mercedes-benz convertible- i repeat, a baby blue mercedez-benz convertible... your car is parked in a tow-away zone. that’s all!”

the bee gees’ how deep is your love starts to play and you quickly pull your hands away from jungkook’s, your face flushing in embarrassment at the sudden change in atmosphere

you wobble slightly as soon as you pull away and immediately stick both your arms out in a poor attempt to keep balanced

okay

all you have to do is glide your way towards the exit so that you’re not just awkwardly standing in the middle of the ring while lovey-dovey couples skate around you

it’s only then that you realise that jungkook is facing away from you and seemingly looking for someone

you tap him on the shoulder and he turns to glance at you, “yes?”

“who... who are you looking for?” you frown, leaning over to peer over him so you can see what he’s seeing

“hm? oh, i was just looking for your boyfriend…” he trails off, continuing to look around the rink, “the two of you probably want to skate together right now and you’ll get to show off your brand new gliding skills, which is exciting-”

“boyfri- are you talking about taehyung?” you snort, quirking a brow in amusement, “he’s… oh my god, he’s definitely not my boyfriend. i’m only here for emotional support because he just got out of a relationship- we don’t have to get into it- the point is, he’s not my boyfriend. i don’t, uh, i’m not in a relationship at the moment. i’m… very single.”

why are you still talking?!

you clear your throat as you look for the nearest exit gate

“oh!” jungkook blinks before turning back around to face you, “in that case-“ your eyes widen in surprise when he sticks his hand out for you to take, “shall we?”

you blink down at his outstretched hand cluelessly before suddenly realizing what it is he’s asking

“oh, i-” you snort, immediately shaking your head, “no, you don’t have to do that…”

“what do you mean?” jungkook frowns, tilting his head curiously, “you don’t want to skate with me? after all we’ve been through?? y/n, you’re breaking my heart here!” he jokes, clutching at his chest before pouting (quite cutely) at you

“n-no!” you laugh lightly, shaking your head, “i mean, of course i’d love to skate with- i-it’s very nice of you to offer, and i know you’re obviously being paid and stuff but you don’t… ah, you don’t have to force yourself to skate with me if you don’t want to...” you mutter, reaching up to scratch the back of your neck, “like, i’m sure taehyung’s already planning to give you an extra big tip for basically babysitting me all night so you don’t have to force yourself to do anything extra-”

“no, i wanna skate with you!” jungkook interrupts, skating over so that he’s standing next to you instead, “plus, it’ll be good practice, right?”

“well, i-” you don’t get a chance to respond before jungkook’s suddenly slipping an arm around your waist and holding onto one of your hands for extra support, “i don’t know, i suppose i’m just not used to gliding without holding both of your hands so i’m just worried i’m going to make both of us fall somehow which would be mortifying-”

“that’s alright, i can hold both your hands if you feel safer that way,” jungkook chuckles, his arm sliding away from your waist so he can swivel around and stand in front of you again, “after all, it’s better to be safe than to be sorry!” he takes your hands gently as he starts to skate backwards, his thumbs rubbing the tops of your knuckles comfortingly

-‘cause we’re living in a world of fools... breaking us down... when they all should let us be... we belong to you and me...

how deep is your love continues to echo all around you and even though you feel a little awkward skating around with your instructor to a very romantic song, you have to admit that this was a great choice of song for valentine’s day

it’s a timeless classic!

“so, you, um…” jungkook clears his throat after a minute or two of comfortable silence, turning back for a second to glance over his shoulder and make sure he’s not about to crash into anyone, “what kind of things do you like doing?”

and it’s me you need to show... how deep is your love?

“rollerskating. is it not obvious?” you joke, looking up at him and reminding yourself that you should make more of an effort to look at him and noT constantly at the ground, “um, i don’t know! that’s kind of a broad question, i guess. i like... i like... i like painting-! i mean, i’m not good at it, but it’s a pretty relaxing hobby...”

“painting is nice!” jungkook nods slowly in agreement before perking up slightly, “say, have you ever been to a pottery studio?”

“you know, i actually haven’t!” you shake your head before staring past jungkook’s shoulder in thought, “i should go to one... it sounds like a lot of fun! do you...” you cough quietly and avert your gaze slightly, “do you go there often with your... uh, significant other?”

“me? oh, i’m not in a relationship.” jungkook chuckles before giving you a shrug, “none of my co-workers wanted to take the valentine’s day shift because they actually have someone to spend valentine’s day with, so... that’s why i’m here!”

“oh! so, you’re…” you trail off before pressing your lips together and giving him a firm nod, “i see.”

so you’re both single?

interesting

very interesting

you can’t help but wonder if he’s looking to change that

“i-”

“incoming!”

you don’t even get a chance to turn around to see what’s going on when suddenly someone’s basHING into you from behind and making you lose your balance

and the next thing you know you’re stumbling forwards and poor jungkook’s reflexes aren’t fast enough because-

“oh-!” you land on top of jungkook with your legs on either side of him, your knee pads clacking loudly against the ground, “oh, shit-”

“sorry! my bad!” taehyung glides past you with a sheepish smile before not-so-subtly gesturing to the girl he’s got on his arm and giving you an obnoxious wink and a thumbs up as a way to let you know he’s definitely getting boned tonight

you want nothing more than to rip your skates off right now so you can chase after him and bash his head in

you turn to look down at jungkook, immediately raising your hands up off his (broad, broad) chest as your entire face flushes bright red, “i am- i am so sorry- are you okay?? is your head okay?? i can- i can give you my helmet!” you wince, reaching up to unbuckle your helmet before hastily taking it off and tossing it aside

“don’t sweat it, i’m completely fine-” jungkook laughs lightly before shaking his head, propping himself up onto his elbows and blowing a curled strand of hair away from his eyes with a puff, “my head’s fine! luckily i didn’t hit it on the ground or anything like that, but my ass-”

“oh, god. i’m so sorry- here, i’ll-” you attempt to get up off the ground only for the wheels on your skates to roll out from under you and for your knee to smack against the ground again, jungkook grunting as you bounce on him a little harder than intended, “oh, jesus christ-”

great

there’s no way you’re going to be able to get up because of these stupid skates and now your very cute instructor is a hostage in between your thighs!

“this is so humiliating, i am... so, so sorry- i’m definitely forcing taehyung to give you a generous tip after all of this is over-” you laugh uncomfortably, your hands about to place themselves on jungkook’s chest again before you quickly move them so that they’re on either side of his head instead

of course, this position isn’t any better because now you’re just staring down at his face directly

little white hearts from the disco ball float over his face and though you know this is hardly the right time, your heart can’t help but go badumpbadump at the reminder of how pretty jungkook is

“okay, wait, what if i-” he suddenly sits straight up and your eyes immediately cross at the close proximity of your faces, “hi.”

you don’t know if it’s even possible but you feel your face get even redder and you find that you’re unable to look away from jungkook

he has very sweet-looking eyes

they’re a very nice shade of brown

“i- uh, hello.” you clear your throat quietly, pressing your hands as close to your own chest as possible so that you’re not touching jungkook, “hi.”

the last thing you want is for him to accuse you of groping him

but maybe it’d be a good thing to get a lifetime ban from the rollerskating rink

then taehyung will never be able to force you to skate again!

“we should take your skates off so that we’re not stuck like this all night.” you twitch when you feel jungkook’s hand slide down the side of your calf before reaching the top of your skates, “do you think you can undo your other one for me?”

“ah- yes. yes, i can do that.” you turn away so you can look back at your skate, reaching down and ripping the velcro strap before hurrying to undo the laces

you feel jungkook fumble at your skate, yanking the tie loose before trying to help you wiggle your foot out of it, “okay, just pull your foot out-”

“yeah, lemme just-” you have to shuffle forwards in order for jungkook to pull the skate off of you and your nose crinkles when you realize you’ve just gone ahead and fully pressed your chest to jungkook’s

wonderful

just wonderful

(for the record, he smells really good... but you’re pretty sure you sound like a creep right now, so maybe you should go ahead and scrap that thought.)

“what happened to not letting me fall?” you joke lightly as you get up off the ground, hoping to ease the tension a little from whatever all of that was, “are you sure you’re okay? i didn’t break anything?”

“i promise you i’m totally fine-” jungkook gets back up onto his feet and bends down to pick up your skates before popping up to look at you with a grin, “and it only happened because i was distracted!” he pauses for a brief moment before tilting his head, his smile softening, “can you blame me? you’re very pretty.”

you weren’t expecting him to say that

“oh, that’s- ha… that’s very nice of you.” you reach up to scratch the back of your neck before letting out a nervous chuckle, “you are… also… quite… visually appealing.”

quite visually appealing

why are you speaking like an alien trying to convince everyone that they aren’t an alien?!

“so, there’s still about half an hour left of your lesson left, but i feel like you’ve had enough of skating for now.” jungkook changes the subject quickly and you can’t help but notice that his ears are starting to get red, “we can just sit on the bench and rest... or do you... uh, do you maybe want to share a chilli dog with me?” he asks quietly, and for the first time since meeting him he’s the one who looks away from you first

“...you know, i think that might be the most romantic thing anyone’s ever said to me.” you giggle, reaching over to loop your arm through his when he sticks it out for you, “i would love to share a chilli dog with you.”

“not to flex or anything, but i do get the employee discount…” jungkook clicks his tongue, reaching up to pop open his collar obnoxiously before turning to give you a wide grin, “and if that doesn’t impress you, i don’t know what will.”

🎙️help me help you make your wishes come true (send me a request!)

✨why don’t you explore the rest of the library while you’re here?

💫or perhaps you want something shorter to read?

🌟or something even shorter?

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bolddeducktionneverfails · 3 years

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・゜-: ✧ :► 🌩 : ✧ :-゜・

Selene’s Statements About Della Duck

| ✖ | 🌕 | 🌕 | 🌕 | 🌕 |

When it comes to Della’s decision with The Spear, we’re meant to believe she was more excited about taking a quick joyride in orbit than prioritizing motherhood. We’re also supposed to believe that Della’s crash-landing was the thing that humbled her into being more family-oriented.

But even with the show being over, there are still some things about this that leave me unconvinced...I mean, yeah, it was very convincing after Scrooge gave his perspective of the ordeal, but as Season 2 progressed, I began to question this retelling...

Although taking the Spear was presented to us as this big, selfish mistake that Della has been trying to make up for and get past, other cases that resembled this story or touched on a contributing factor, didn’t quite treat it as such. Space-related imagery and the like continued to be brought up in the background; even after major events like Della’s return, Lunaris’ defeat and Penny settling her homesickness...it felt like there was something much more important that needed to be said beyond Bradford’s small mention in the finale.

If these other situations in the series truly were inspired by Della’s situation and if she was completely in the wrong, then there would have been more things to further cement this to line up with Scrooge’s perspective. If what he said was exactly what Della was doing, it should be reflected in these other stories as irrefutable no matter how you look at the situation. There shouldn’t be anything that makes us want to second guess...and yet, there’s enough room to think about this.

Dewey and Webby meeting Selene in her garden was one of the first moments I started to question when I looked back at it. As soon as a negative view of Della was said, Selene immediately, without a doubt, went against it by claiming otherwise. At this point in the series, it could have been argued that she was just looking at her friendship with Della in a rose-colored way, but as the time went on, a lot of the information she gave about Della became evident.

In a similar manner, it was once believed both inside and outside of the show that Della had died after getting lost in Space. But the Sphere of Selene itself was hinting towards the opposite; that she was actually alive on the Moon.

Let’s take a deeper look at what Selene was saying about Della here:

“So, we’re back to “she stole Scrooge’s spear and betrayed the family” then. Great.”

“Whaat? No way! She loved her family more than anything in the world!”

This was suggesting that Della was always family oriented, not suddenly after her arrival to the Moon. This is proven through the episodes we’ve seen with her as a child.

In “The First Adventure!”, Della stayed persistent in convincing Scrooge that it would be better to take Donald and her with him, than to search for The Papyrus of Binding by himself. Later after he agreed, both Donald and Della had to get after him for caring more about his business than enjoying the adventure he was having with them. In “Last Christmas!”, Dewey had to explain to Donald why Della was so upset with him. She had planned for the night to be spent going on a mission together but Donald misinterpreted her actions and skipped out to do his own thing.

Even in the Pre-Spear comics IDW provided, it was Della who was chosen to remind Donald about what it means to be family in Issue # 3. And while the comics don’t determine the canon, the writers who developed these stories were given insight about how the show’s universe works and how the characters are supposed to act. The writers in both the show and the comics could have easily slipped something into these stories to demonstrate how wrong Della was to go into outer-space at the time that she did. In the child episodes, they could have highlighted her selfishness directly by making her want to catch Santa to steal all of his presents or having her extremely eager to make her own request with the papyrus. Why would the showrunners miss out on that opportunity...twice? Why are other characters focused on being in the wrong, but she isn’t?

As an adult, it didn’t feel right to have Della fussing at Donald and Louie for taking significant leaves and not being mindful about the impact of their actions, if she basically did the same thing. It never came off as not wanting them to make the mistake she made, it always sounded like she would know better. She was so quick to point out this problem she had with others that it felt like she forgot about herself. On one hand, this makes her look like a hypocrite, but on the other, this gives off the notion that being selfish and leaving her family out of big events, is not initially a part of her nature.

The closest case we have to better reflecting the Spear situation is in “Trickening” where Della’s desire is at a level of uncertainty that could easily be misinterpreted. In this episode, she wanted to join in on what someone else was doing to give the trick-o-treaters a memorable Halloween. She was aiming to share her love of the holiday with them, but she was so caught up in making it special, that she didn’t realize this plan was way too intense.

Donald was completely opposed to it like he was with her space travel proposal. He wanted to make his sister understand that she was doing too much, but she ignored his concern and tried to push past him. If Della was supposed to learn that she should listen to Donald more, you would think she would have taken that into consideration much sooner instead of having a huge relapse. Della showing improvement after a major mistake would be too important of a thing for her to revert on, so, having a similar situation in “Trickening” was more than likely done to help us understand something about the Spear one better. As the twins fought, he begged Della to think of the kids and she stated this was exactly what she was doing. This suggested that Della had the same mindset when it came to her own kids.

So, as both a kid and an adult, she has been portrayed caring more about family than other things like adventure itself or some kind of item she could get out of it. If she loved her family so much, then what on Earth would make her leave during such a crucial time and jeopardize the chances of ever being with them again?

“Last Christmas!” showed us that Della doesn’t adventure out on her own unless she feels like she has to. If she didn’t go out in the snow after Donald refused to come with her, then she would have missed out on her chance to catch Santa as a present for Scrooge. Like her Santa hunt, Della originally intended for her space trip to be a family thing. If a parallel is meant to be made here, then that opens up the possibility that Della took the rocket so that she wouldn’t miss her chance to do something special for her family; more than likely, something for HDL’s birthday that could not wait. That could explain her urgency and lack of detail in the letter she left for Scrooge.

If she was just taking the rocket for a spin, she wouldn’t need to word her letter like that. She would have used it as a way to express her gratitude towards her uncle for having her project built. Why would the showrunners have her letter be like this purely for the sake of suspense if we’re supposed to be looking for clues? This is another thing that is too important for them to have pulled something meaningless here. If she had to leave a letter for Donald about naming the boys for her too, then it sounds like she was doing something that may not have been able to be done in time before their hatching. Or, I suppose, in case she didn’t make it back at all. Either way, both messages showed that she thought about the consequences beforehand.

In addition to the garden meeting on Ithaquack, something else that made me slowly change my mind about Della’s decision was how she had brought her copy of the family photo with her. Having it placed on the dashboard in front of her as she traveled through Space, seemed to imply that family was a driving force in her choice to continue in the direction of a storm she could have easily avoided. In Scrooge’s flashback, it seemed like Della was enjoying the challenge she was faced with before the rocket was struck. But when it came to showing her perspective, she wasn’t having a fun experience at all.

“Aw, Della wasn’t just a good person...she was the greatest! And she made everyone around her better.”

When Launchpad defined what it meant to be a Senior Woodchuck in “Challenge”, I immediately made a connection to what Selene had said. It’s a bit uncertain whether Della became a Senior Woodchuck or not, but she was still a dedicated member of the Junior Woodchucks and that sort of implies that she was someone who often looked out for others. This coincides with how Della encouraged HDLW in “New Gods” and helped to bring the children’s feelings of inferiority to Scrooge’s attention. Della eventually helped to make Penumbra a better person once the lieutenant realized that her jealousy and suspicion advanced Lunaris’ invasion. The betrayal against the pilot made her a hero in the eyes of her fellow Moonlanders again, but it was through a lie and that didn’t settle with her. Acknowledging the fact that she messed up motivated her to regain her heroic title in the right way.

None of the points that I’m bringing up in this is to say that I don’t think Della was flawed or that she isn’t really an impulsive character, but that maybe there was a different kind of mistake she made with her rocket plans than what we were being told.

“Maybe the spear isn’t an artifact...maybe, it’s something else!”

“Your mom did love a good mystery!”

This part makes me think of the riddle from Della that the boys would later find in “Castle”. It led them on a quest to find a lost crown, but similarly to The Spear, they found out that this treasure was never an actual crown--it was a sailor’s hat in a duffle bag. It was within the castle’s catacombs where HDL realized that the riddle was originally intended for Donald; another character who is supposed to be looked at as their parent. An imprint of the Spear’s blueprints were later discovered on the back of the paper Della’s riddle was written on.

The way Selene mentioned mysteries right after Webby wondered about the spear being something else, seems to suggest that Della’s disappearance could have been due to her wanting to solve a mystery of her own. In “Last Crash”, Scrooge did compare Dewey’s hunt for the missing photo piece with how he previously failed to keep his niece safe from the cosmic storm.

“Here. It’s not a spear, but it’s a treasure even Della never found.”

This feels reminiscent of Della’s old journal statement about how she never found Coot’s armory. In this episode, it was explained that her younger self was looking for something in relation to the non-McDuck side of HDL’s family. Webby wanted to follow in Della’s footsteps and bring the boys with her on an epic journey to finally resolve this mystery, but once they reached their destination, it landed them in a room full of corn instead. Because the treasure was expected to be materialistic rather than sentimental, the trip looked like a big waste of time. It wasn’t until a spark was set in motion, that the characters were able to acknowledge the importance of what they discovered.

I noticed many elements in “Coot” that could be paralleling things in relation to Della’s journey. On her side of the story, she was determined to complete the task of celebrating her family at the fort, but a setback prevented her from doing it sooner. There was also an cloudy formation that accompanied a crash as well as there being a moment where her vehicle needed to be reassembled.

If Della was looking for a treasure of some sort in Space, perhaps she didn’t reveal this afterwards because, like Scrooge was with her, she was embarrassed about her failure. Selene implied that Della was usually great at accomplishing cases like these but this one resulted in a major loss that caused a decade of separation.

“Don’t give up, young duck. Your mother never did.”

There is definitely no exaggeration about this. In spite of all her struggles, Della continued to press on until she made it back home.

As I was observing the occurrences in Season 2, I noticed that there were key moments about her departure from the Moon that line up with her departure from Earth. If she was working hard to get back to her family on Earth, then there could have been something about Space that she was working just as hard to get to. If there was a particular goal with Earth that Della wanted to include the Moonlanders with, then there could have been something particular with Space that she wanted to include her family with.

Della had to leave the Moon earlier than expected because an emergency came up. That creates a possibility that there was some kind of emergency that caused Della to launch The Spear from Earth sooner than she intended to. Both departures resulted in leaving groups behind and breaking a promise she made to them. Della was very concerned about what the Moonlanders would think about her being gone and while Donald was the one who made a promise about never spending another Christmas apart, she had to have agreed to it; she’s the one who made a big fuss in the first place. If Lunaris' claim of Della being a traitor was false, then there's a possibility that Scrooge's explanation wasn't true either. What could strengthen this is how he was wrong about Della in “Raiders” during its own parallels to the Spear incident.

Adding on to what I said about “Trickening”, If both of these situations were meant to be reflective of Della taking the Spear, then she wasn’t using the kids to mask a selfish desire, she was seriously doing it for them. Lunaris told the rest of the Moonlanders that Della made up her stories about Earth to trick them into letting their guard down, but that was never part of Della’s plan.

So from evaluating Selene’s statements we can gather:

That Della was always family oriented and that betraying her family for the thrill of adventure or the sake of something materialistic, is considered out of her character

Della doesn’t adventure out on her own unless she feels like she absolutely has to

Della may have taken the rocket so that she wouldn’t miss her chance to do something special for HDL’s birthday

Della’s letters to Scrooge and Donald showed that she thought about the consequences before taking the Spear

Della may have not avoided the storm because there was something in the direction of it that she was trying to get to

That even in the past, Della was someone with the tendency to look out for others and make them better people

There may have been a different kind of mistake she made with her plans than what we were being told

That Della’s disappearance could have been due to her wanting to solve a mystery of her own

That if Della was looking for some type of treasure in Space, there’s a higher chance that it was of sentimental value rather than what we would have normally expected it to be

She was more than likely looking for something in relation to another group of people who would also qualify as being part of HDL’s family

Della might not have revealed this afterwards due to her being embarrassed about her failure

Maybe she didn’t tell Scrooge and Donald the truth about her outer-space proposal because she wanted it to be a surprise

If the kids succeed in finding the armory’s gold with realizing it...perhaps in some strange way, Della may have unknowingly completed her goal too

That Della was always known as someone who persevered whenever she had her heart set on something

Della’s plans to enter Space may have played out in a similar manner to her plans to come back home

An emergency in relation to her goal could have caused Della to leave sooner

There’s a good chance that Scrooge may have been wrong about Della’s intentions

If there was nothing significant shown ahead in the storm, then what was Della working towards? Before this episode aired, there were comments here and there speculating that the cosmic storm was a wormhole that sent her into the future. I think that especially at this point, it could have been some kind of portal. The clouds were in the formation of a tunnel and an underground tunnel was what led to the golden armory, so, whether she realized it or not, the storm could have certainly led to the treasure she was seeking. It could have been a portal to a place that wasn’t easy to realize until you’ve passed through it. The Shadow Realm was a hidden dimension that made Lena seem invisible while she was trapped there. Or, maybe like the wormholes in “Neverrest”, the storm could have been a shortcut to another area of Space.

If Della had a bigger reason for taking the Spear then why didn’t the showrunners go into that before the series ended? Maybe in a similar way to Negaduck’s return, they wanted to get to that but something caused a change. Perhaps there wasn’t enough room to conclude it while also doing the same for Huey and Webby’s F.O.W.L. arc. Interviews with Vulture and SyFy Wire revealed that twenty minutes had been shaved from the original finale script during finalization as well as there being fifty-five-ish episode ideas leftover that we didn’t get to see.

Another potential option for the additional Spear information is that was always set aside in case Disney greenlit a fourth season. All of the other seasons provided something new about The Spear of Selene and the subject matter is deeply tied to the series, so it would be pretty strange to suddenly stop mentioning it in the next continuation. Maybe Huey and Webby’s arc needed to be focused on first because there’s something about Della’s decision that further connects the two. I’m just...really doubtful that we were given so much build up against the narrative with no intention of it paying off at some point.

I would love to go in fuller depth about what I think could be going on with Della’s story, but it’s SOOO much work to put everything together for evaluation...I’m not sure how long it’ll take to get it done. I started a multi-part essay about this two years ago and wanted to have it finished before Season 3 but there was too much left to finalize in the last section….

Right now, I can only manage to make singular posts like these and shorter...but there are older, slightly outdated traces of my theory if you look around my blog long enough.

| ✖ | 🌕 | 🌕 | 🌕 | 🌕 |・

゜-: ✧ :► 🌩 : ✧ :-゜・

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thefinalcinderella · 4 years

Text

Scary Monsters! Story Summary (Part 1)

I don’t think anyone’s translated this story yet so I’ll just summarize it

The more events we have, the more I’m convinced that they take place in an alternative timeline or something. I don’t know if this was confirmed in the guidebook though

Wow I still can’t summarize for shit

Episode 1-1 Everyone should have fun

- Another day of school ends for MC and Grim

- Grim randomly mentions that there’s too much distance between the Ramshackle Dorm and the school (isn’t it the opposite though?)

- When they get back to their dorm they are stunned to discover that the front yard has become a weird mix of Chinatown and Halloween

- Lilia shows up (and introduces himself again, hmm) and scares us, apparently everything there is made by the Diasomnia dorm students

- This is our first time seeing Diasomnia mobs, who are arranging the decorations in the yard

- Deadbeat Crowley strikes again! Apparently he told Diasomnia that MC and Grim agreed to let them set this stuff up

- MC asks why all the decorations, and Lilia explains that it’s for Halloween! Apparently Malleus insisted that they spend Halloween at the Ramshackle Dorm

- the ghosts are out and they’re impressed by how extravagant it all is and even encourage them to do more without minding us (thanks guys)

- Grim doesn’t know what Halloween is, shocking everyone

Episode 1-2 It’s our festival!!

- The ghosts explain that Halloween is an important event in Twisted Wonderland

- Lilia explains that it’s when all the ghosts return to this world from the other world; the decorations are to entertain them

- Everyone wears costumes like ghosts and monsters because many ghosts like to play tricks on people (since there’s not much opportunities to interact with the living); these ghosts can be dispersed by giving them candy

- Lilia mentions there are also evil ghosts that can’t be controlled (foreshadowing much?)

- Lilia implies that he knows about the ghosts we met in the mine???　Or something like that??? (”I think you two also have experience with ghosts who do bad things?”)

- Wearing costumes is for scaring those evil ghosts back and driving them away...but that’s just a story from a long time ago, and now it’s just for fun cosplay

- Ghosts say not to worry about anything, Halloween was always like this since they became ghosts

- the living can’t actually see ghosts since they’re not supposed to stay in this world unless they have strong attachments or goals, so the ghosts who do stay in this world are very unstable existences *cough* Eliza *cough*; they can’t be seen in places other than places like NRC where there’s strong magical energy, so yeah ghosts are actually rare

- Ghosts emphasize that it doesn’t matter whether or not you can see ghosts or not, Halloween is supposed to be fun and that’s all that matters

- MC says that Halloween is also pretty famous in their hometown

- Ghosts (in front of Lilia): Oh MC you have Halloween back in your world too? What a coincidence (How many people know MC is from another world??)

- Lilia doesn’t seem surprised so I assume he knew

- NRC has a special Halloween event too, which we will learn about soon

Episode 1-3 It’s quite photogenic

- The ghosts start snapping pictures with their phones (yeah that’s right)

- They bought them this year online

- Grim is jealous because he has to share with MC

- They have a MagiCam account too, they only have 5 followers

- Grim is surprised they show up on camera since usually that can only happen with the ghost camera

- Lilia explains that since Halloween is the time of the year where this world and the other world are the closest, so this is when ghosts are the most powerful which is why they can show up in photos; it’s just in NRC tho

- They tell us to look forward to Halloween

Episode 1-4 The best Halloween

- The next day in class, Crewel says it’s one month to Halloween and everyone’s excited

- Ace and Deuce are also excited, talking about decorations and stuff; even the Ignihyde students come out of their rooms for Halloween

- Crewel: The week before Halloween is “Halloween Week”, which is when the students run a stamp rally event for outsiders

- Each dorm choose a place in the school as a spot for the stamp rally and decorate it; what’s important is that anyone can freely participate--in other words, guests from outside freely walk around the school

- The reason for this is to thank the people who live on this “Sage’s Island” (where NRC is located) for their understanding and cooperation, and it’s a chance to show them how much the students have grown and stuff

- In order for the event to move smoothly, each dorm sends out students as staff on the management committee

- Naturally, this is the first time we’re hearing of this (thanks Crowley)

- Deuce tells us not to worry and ask him if we have any questions since he’s part of the committee (it’s chosen by lottery)

- Also there’s a Halloween party on the 31st which everyone can join, students and ghosts included

- Ace’s brother showed him pictures of the food

- It’s next to prom as a big event at NRC (yeah prom exists too)

Episode 1-5 Are you ready?

- A month later, 8 days before Halloween

- the committee gathers, it’s composed of Deuce, Cater, Jack, Azul, Jade, Kalim, Vil, Epel, Idia, Lilia, and Malleus

- Deuce was an hour early to the meeting lol

- Idia is there in person

- Vil is the head of the committee, he talks about the stamp rally and how guests who collect all seven stamps get candy at the entrance gates

- Cater: “Wow Headmaster you’re so generous!” Jade: “It’s a small bag of candy that isn’t even 100 madol” (I wonder about the finances of the school sometimes)

- The stamp rally is from 10 am to 10 pm, they have to be there at all times so they’re excused from classes, taking turns in each dorm

- It’s going to be a hectic time but everyone’s fired up

- They decide to go around and see all the different dorm setups and costumes, Diasomnia is first

- Malleus chose Ramshackle for the stamp rally place because it’s a dump basically (Deuce: Sorry MC)

Episode 1-6 They are crying with joy!!

- The committee’s at Ramshackle; Sebek is as Sebek as ever

- Malleus and Lilia change into their costumes which is eastern dragon ghosts

- Diasomnia was traditional ghosts last year but decided to change it up this year

- Sebek is simping so hard he’s crying lol

- Vil made the costumes for them; he complains that Malleus gave an 1 hour lecture about how “eastern dragons (ryuu) and dragons are completely different” after he said that it was meaningless for Malleus, who is a dragon, to dress up as a dragon

- Malleus goes at it again and is apparently talking very quickly like Idia, what a nerd lol

- Crowley says that when the rally first began, everyone just wore sheets over their heads, but some students started putting more effort into it and then everyone started doing it too and the dorms are basically competing against each other

- Silver says that the Ramshackle decorations are inspired by a country Lilia travelled to before; Lilia says that some ryuu are even the guardian deity for a family

- All the decorations use up a lot of magic to maintain, as expected of Diasomnia

- Next they’re going to Heartslabyul’s spot, which is near the greenhouse

Episode 1-7 For a scary taste

- They’re in the Sub-Tropical Zone, where it’s decorated with the theme of graveyard, and the costumes are skeletons with white ribbons as the bones

- They had a hard time balancing authenticity and the fun of Halloween

- Deuce suggested they be “skeletons covered in mud” lol

- Cater was the one who came up with the idea of using ribbons and lace from looking through his MagiCam likes

- The heart you can see through the “ribcage” is made of roses

- the gravestones are made of styrofoam

- The Heartslabyul students are used to working hard for Unbirthday Parties and following rules so it wasn’t hard for Deuce to order his upperclassman around; it’s actually more relaxing since there aren’t so many weird rules

- Malleus: As expected of Rosehearts, you discipline your students well every day Riddle: That makes me sound like a tyrant! (Uh...)

- Next is the alchemy classroom where Octavinelle has their spot

Episode 1-8 The richest

- Everyone agrees that the classroom is too creepy and will probably make little kids cry

- Floyd: I know right??

- The Octavinelle costumes are mummies

- They decided on that because it’s the complete opposite of merpeople

- They combined the old-fashioned image of mummies with style

- The decoration theme is “Mad scientist’s lab”

- The culture tank looking thing lights up at night

- Everything was finished up by a contractor since they’re busy with making a Halloween menu for Mostro Lounge

- Kalim is confused since all the dorms get the same amount of money for decorations and costumes

- Apparently Jade is in charge of accounting and he’s supposed to make sure no one goes over budget or there’s no weird money transfers and stuff like that (Who assigned him this job?)

- Jade: Me? Do something suspicious? Why I never!

- What they focused most on was cost optimisation

- It involves haggling and using old stuff; they used up all their budget

- The remaining money from the other dorms will be used for the halloween party

- TLDR Octavinelle is scary

- Next is Scarabia, near the shop

Episode 1-9 Isn’t it an awesome idea?

- They arrive at the shop which looks all messed up

- Jade: It’s just like MC’s Ramshackle Dorm

- Scarabia’s costume is werewolf

- Jack says there’s a legend in his hometown about becoming a werewolf if you stay up late

- Kalim tries to act scary but fails bc he’s too cute

- Jade: It’s like a visiting a petting zoo

- Kalim says that the rugs and fabrics they used for the decorations are all made from plastic bottles and recycled plastics, and that they’re aiming for a society where humans and nature coexist happily--in other words “Sustainable Halloween”

- It’s all Jamil’s idea of course

- Next is Savanaclaw at the colisseum

Episode 1-10 We worked hard!

- there’s a ship

- Savanaclaw’s costume is pirates

- Jack talks about reading a book about a pirate who fought against a giant crocodile in elementary school and how he pretended to be a pirate

- It’s a famous series apparently, called the Adventures of Captain Beard

- Wow Leona is acting like a dorm leader for once? This really is an alternate timeline

- You can go inside the ship and Ruggie made the gold coins

- Even Idia is impressed by how good the replica is

- Everyone is shocked when it’s revealed that the Savanaclaw students made everything by hand; they’re able to do it because of training everyday for magift

- Next is Ignihyde in the library

Episode 1-11 This much is just common knowledge

- Ignihyde does projections of jack o’lanterns and creepy looking trees

- Ignihyde’s costume is a pumpkin knight

- The pumpkin knight is from a horror movie called “Pumpkin Hollow” which no one except Idia has heard of

- The pumpkin knight is filled with the hatred of uneaten, undecorated and thrown away pumpkins and it returns to the village it was harvested in to attack people each night

- the decorations are recreated from the movie and Idia is supposed to show up as the pumpkin knight

- Idia can talk normally bc his face is covered

- Now for the last dorm, Pomefiore in the mirror chamber

Episode 1-12 The Dual Play of Terror and Beauty

- Idia can walk around in the armor easily because it’s made of light materials, and the sound effects come from a speaker (what a nerd)

- Usually, the mirror chamber is closed to outsiders, but Halloween Week is an exception

- Photography of the mirror of darkness is forbidden since it’s so important

- They get there and it’s...not decorated at all!!

- Rook explains that the mirror chamber is already beautiful so there’s no need for decorations

- Vil: Our existence is the greatest collaboration that will make the mirror chamber stand out; it’s important to dress to match the location

- Pomefiore’s costume is vampires

- Everyone’s speechless by the beauty lol

- They also focused a lot on the makeup so it will give the impression of captivating vampires or something like that

- the aim is “degenerating beauty”

- Vil and Rook are both sad that vampires can’t look in mirrors, so they can’t see their beauty lol; that is why they are so attracted to the mirror chamber (I think this is their backstory or something)

- They only put up signs banning photography

- Crowley: Look! The mirror’s happy too! Mirror: ...

- Halloween Week starts tomorrow

#twisted wonderland #scary monsters #screaming halloween show

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tuliharja · 4 years

Note

Oh, the otp asks are so interesting! Would you consider for HashiMito answering the following: 3, 9, 12, 21 and 24? I hope it's not too much, but with canonical, and so politically-involved couple those are super interesting.

Thank you so much from the ask @olliya!

Yes, I agree to you! OTP asks are always so interesting~. And I don’t mind at all, since HashiMito is one of my otps, so I was really happy to receive this ask from you! Not to mention the fact you picked very interesting ones. Thank you again from the ask. ^^

(The asks can be found from here.)

Alright, let’s put those shipping goggles on! *Cue for a very long post.*

3. If they complimented each other, what would they say?

Hashirama would probably try to write sonata to Mito and once he would realize it’s much harder than it seems, he would end up asking Tobirama to help. With the help of Tobirama, Hashirama would make most brilliant sonata ever, but once he would present it to Mito…she would be left highly unimpressed.

“Hashirama, did you perhaps ask help from Tobirama?” Mito questioned from her husband, before she sighed. There wasn’t any reason to ask that question when she already knew the answer, yet watching her husband turn into a spluttering mess brought her some sort of amusement. Deciding to be merciful, Mito gently cupped Hashirama’s cheeks, giving him kiss to his forehead. “Hashirama, you don’t have to make me sonatas, poets, or anything that would be too elaborate. As long as it becomes from your heart, I don’t mind even if your compliments would be extremely tacky.”

She watched how her husband slowly turned into a sobbing mess, gently brushing his hair as she merely allowed him to relax in her arms.

After that incident, Hashirama would gift Mito flowers. Being the expert, anything related to plants, he would know each and every flower and those meaning. He probably wouldn’t be best with actual words, but each bouquet would hail Mito’s beauty, kindness, power and how lucky he was when Mito did choose him.

Mito would had mastered the use of words, because she would know how valuable the talent of speaking would be. She could make even most praising comment sound like most wicked insult ever. That’s why, she would rarely compliment Hashirama as she knew her husband already received lots of compliments as he wasn’t any ordinary man. Repeating those same compliments would sound just hollow, empty and she didn’t want that. She would also know repeated words would turn meaningless, so she would rarely use endearing words about Hashirama.

To everybody else she would seem cold as ice, but in those rare moments when she would compliment Hashirama, he would take those into his heart and cherish those. Such occasions would be when Hashirama would manage to genuinely surprise her, show genuine understanding about her feelings and hopes, and take into consideration her wishes. But the most cherished moment would be when Mito would finally admit to Hashirama she was pregnant, while she was a Jinchuuriki. Hashirama would reassure her he wouldn’t leave her and make his best to ensure both she and the child would be safe. After she would calm down, she would spill her heart to Hashirama, telling how blessed she was to have such wonderful husband that would still stand next to her even when she was carrying Tailed-Beast. She would hail his strength, kindness, understanding and way too big heart. Later on, that night they both would compliment each other’s bodies in very sensual manner. ;)

9. Have they made each other cry?

Yes, since what would marriage be without any tears? There have been happy tears, but also sad ones. Happier tears have been in happy occasions, such as when they got married, when their first child did bear and when Mito would tickle the hell out of Hashirama. Who said Mito couldn’t be mischievous when she would want to? They’ve also been crying tears of joy when they got their second born (because it’s kind of their own fault they got a child, now isn’t it? xD)

There has also been tears, when Hashirama has tried to cheer up Mito when she has had extremely bad day when dealing Nine Tails just to see her wife happy. But there has also been tears of sadness as at times Hashirama’s gambling problems would be too much for the stressed-out Mito. She would hide her tears, but Hashirama would know. He would eventually weed out his gambling problem, when they were at the risk of losing their home and the tear-streaked look Mito gave? Yeah, absolute broke Hashirama’s heart. There would also been tears when each of them would get so badly wounded, they would be at the brink of death. One of such was after Mito sealed Kyuubi inside of her. Hashirama was sure Mito would perish as it seemed holding down the beast was too much for her. Hashirama’s eventual death also made Mito cry as she felt like her whole world collapsed at that exact moment, but such is life: many different types of causes which can make one cry.

12. Do they have differing political opinions?

Many people think they would have, but in reality, they don’t have expect in minor businesses. The political field can be extremely messy, especially when considering the fact Hashirama was doing something (building first ninja village) that hadn’t ever been done before.

Before Mito married Hashirama, she understood right to way for things to work she had to do some groundbreaking thinking. She knew if she married Hashirama, she wouldn’t just switch her Uzumaki family to Senju family, like in old times. No, what Hashirama was offering was that, she could still be Uzumaki and Senju. In old times, when one was wed to some more powerful clan, you had automatically become part of that clan. You had to basically throw everything that you had been before, expect your ninja talents. While you could gain a new and possible better family, there was always that fear if your spouse would die. If your spouse would die, you would automatically become an outcast. Just fodder to be used in next fight against some other clan, unless you would marry someone else or become a concubine. The option to go back to your old home wasn’t anymore an option, since you had quite literally been kicked out from there. Of course, some bigger clans treated this possibility much ‘nicer’, but the fact was, your position would still be bad compared to anyone who had born in the clan.

Now this Hashirama was offering something else. A village where you wouldn’t be an outcast, should such a thing occur. Hashirama painted all pretty pictures how they all would be one ‘big happy family’. Of course, Mito knew such thing would take time. But the possibility was tempting and since Mito didn’t want to forget her roots even if she would marry someone, she agreed upon this. She even went so far as convince Uzumaki clan to make their own village, Uzushiogakure, as the Uzumaki clan wasn’t yet ready to be part of some other village. In that way, Mito could keep one leg in her home and one in her new one. It also served as a way to ensure she wouldn’t be treated poorly in her new home, since at times when one would be married to some other clan, the new clan could treat the new spouse extremely badly. Of course, she didn’t have to worry about that (given the fact Hashirama was Hokage).

As time went on, Mito started to see better Hashirama’s views. She liked quite many of those as if those all would become true, there wouldn’t be anymore war, everybody would be treated equally and the children would be taken care of by everybody, even if their parents would die. Of course, she disagreed upon some things her husband suggested, such as sharing Tailed-Beasts between each newly formed village, but to make things work she understood everybody should have equal power at the palm of their hand. She also disagreed when some clans that joined Konoha would get some privileges such as Hyuugas, but since they were newly formed village that was striving for something new, even she understood some sort of bait was needed to get them join them. Things like these made disagreements between her and Hashirama as at times she felt like Hashirama didn’t care or see wrongness that he tried so much to weed out. Times like those, she felt like the village mattered more to her husband than anything else… in those darker times, she would deliver some cold facts to her husband that would make him despair over some of his choices. In those times, Mito would see the man behind the God of Shinobi whom she would comfort as she knew for things to work, they had to stand united together or watch the world burn.

21. How have they changed each other for the better/for the worse?

Hashirama believes his actions toward Madara did drive Mito to seal Nine Tails inside of her which basically did change her in more ways than anyone could had at first believed. While that was true, what Hashirama had hard time to grasp was the fact Mito did it willingly. Hashirama felt incredible guilt about that, because that event made Mito more prone to display her negative emotions. While that might sound like a good thing, because before that Mito tended to hide her negative emotions, it wasn’t at all fun and games when Nine Tails’ negative chakra was leaking out of Mito and she was trashing Hashirama around their house like a ragdoll. In those moments when Mito was very upset or angry, she reminded more a wild animal more than a person.

At first it was very hard, since Hashirama quickly learned Mito had tons of pent-up anger in her. His paperwork being late? Angry kyuubi-Mito. Him forgetting the dishes? Angry kyuubi-Mito. For a while it felt like there were two people inside of Mito, which was true. It took lots of patience, motivational talking and reassurance from Hashirama to make Mito understand not to hide her ire, no matter how small it would be. Eventually Hashirama managed to make Mito embrace her more ‘negative’ self that actually improved their relationship greatly. It also helped Hashirama to understand Mito better.

While Hashirama was already a stunning leader even before Konoha was founded, he was extremely poor what came to social skills. He could give motivational speeches to anyone, but if he had to make deals, small talk, simply listen or anything that would need any kind of ‘fine’ talk, he would more than often ask Tobirama’s help. Yet that behavior wouldn’t anymore cut when he become Hokage. He couldn’t anymore push Tobirama to deal with the stuffy, boring affairs and go train with their students. Which is where Mito stepped in. She put Hashirama through a mini hell to drive into his thick skull at least the bare minimum of social skills. It opened a whole new world to Hashirama. While before his overbearing personality had made some people feel uneasy and even that, he didn’t realize they might actually have brilliant ideas, he would now calm down and listen them. His relationship even with Tobirama did improve, because now he would listen his little brother giving him a speech of his latest invention, that actually made Hashirama understand Tobirama and him weren’t that different. They both were passionate people, yet because he barely before did stop to listen his brother’s ‘odd ideas’ he never knew.

While Mito’s social skills course did bring lot of good things out of Hashirama, it also brought his darker side. Hashirama could now use his ‘happy-go-lucky’ character at times as a façade to gather information and later on use it against Konoha’s enemies as most of his opponents only saw a fool front of them. But Mito teaching how to wear a mask in important meeting? Hashirama was eternally grateful to his wife about that.

24. What is something they have each had to forgive the other for?

When Mito married Hashirama she vowed to herself she would protect Hashirama, no matter what. But to do so, she had to do it while remaining hidden. She would protect Hashirama from the shadows, even going so far as kill someone if they threatened her husband. She would even create secret service, ANBU, just to protect her husband. They were an organization that worked in the shadows, that no-one knew, especially Hashirama. Expect, Hashirama did knew. He knew exactly what his wife was up to, yet he never addressed it as he waited Mito tell him about it. When years went by and Mito still didn’t tell him, Hashirama started to feel uneasy. He would drop intentionally questions or make scenarios that could make a perfect opportunity for Mito to tell about her role in ANBU and the organization itself. But she never did. It started to eat Hashirama in and out. While he knew Mito had her best intentions toward him, it still made Hashirama feel like unworthy of the truth. Didn’t Mito trust him? Did she think he was still that fool that she had met those years ago? Hashirama wanted to trust Mito, but he didn’t want to confront her. It wouldn’t had been same as if she would tell herself the truth.

To numb the pain Hashirama turned into drinking and gambling. With a good buzz he could make his doubts away as it would leave his core thoughts: that which were love. Gambling also brought a thrill to him that he hadn’t felt ever since he had become a Hokage. Maybe Mito wanted simply feel thrill? The adrenaline that would pump to his veins when he would bet everything to win or lose was just exhilarating. Though each time when he would lose and face upset Mito, he would feel a sting of guilt just to remember his wife’s secret. So, another night with gambling it was! Hashirama’s actions were slowly spiraling out of control and he only came into a rude awakening of reality when he faced tear-streaked Mito. She told him they were about to lose their house and everything, if he wouldn’t just stop. It was that moment the two realized they had to change, or they would lose them. Mito was stressed over the fact she tried to keep Hashirama safe, but it was harder than she had first believed, while Hashirama had tried to escape his problems with drinking and gambling. This event was one of those turning points with them as they slowly started to unravel those all. Eventually Mito told Hashirama the truth which lead into his own confession, making both of them to forgive each other and slowly strengthen once again their strained relationship. But even though they had managed to tackle this particular obstacle on their married path, there was still one big obstacle that had been slowly marinating.

While Mito understood in some level Hashirama’s deep friendship with Madara, at times it was extremely hard. In most situations like these, one would pick in a heartbeat their partner. But in Hashirama’s case, it wasn’t ever that simple. While Mito trusted Hashirama, it still made her at times doubt herself and her position as his wife. When she tried to talk about her doubts, most people would dismiss her and tell her how lucky she was. She was married to “God of Shinobi”, so why she was complaining? Wasn’t it beautiful her husband was friends with his childhood friend who had been Senjus mortal enemy? It made Mito hide her doubts and concerns as she all but turned eventually a blind eye her feelings. The worst part was that, Madara was actually nice toward her. But it all came crashing down when she sealed Kyuubi and she realized hiding her negative feelings wasn’t anymore that easy. Her all doubts came flying out of the box that had been hidden deep within her heart. She knew she had to learn to forgive her foolish husband his past ignorance and be more straightforward with Hashirama as Hashirama could be at times very dense. She eventually did forgive Hashirama when he showed her, she was extremely important to him and being friends with Madara didn’t take out or lessen his love toward her.

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juvellita · 5 years

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messy kbtbb character analysis

So… Let me just say that this is going to be LONG and MESSY post. I will try my best to make an analysis of all Kbtbb characters. Eisuke’s might be the longest, just because know about him more than any other bidders. This is more geared towards to those people who still have negative misconception about KBTBB. I get it. Their season 1 prologue did not give the best impression of those guys. I want to give you an insight of characters’ past, and why they are the way they were when MC first met them. PLEASE feel free to express your thoughts/ add on the comment section/reblogging! Let me know of what I am missing from character. I want to hear your analysis of characters too.

MORE UNDER

First things first. Let’s jog back to season 1. I know MANY people did not like this game in the beginning because how it hinted on human trafficking. Let me clear this out first; when Eisuke and other bidders created the auction, they made a rule of not selling any human in an auction, unless they are willing to be sold. This is mentioned in Episode 0: The Promise substory.

That’s not all though. Bidders approached mc in almost..inhuman manner. They treated her as a weird creature that they have never seen before. Why do you ask? All bidders have some sort tragic/traumatic past that cannot be easily cured. I have mentioned this briefly in my “short bidder’s complexity summary” post, but every single one of them has a reason why they cannot trust anyone that easily. Let’s look at each character in depth.

Let’s start with Ota and Eisuke, since these two characters were the MOST controversial characters when they were first released ( I apologize in advance if I miss anything for Ota. I have played his route every now and then, but I never actually read all his stories). WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD if you haven’t read any of their stories yet. Also… ALOT OF FAWNING UNDER EISUKE’S

First, Ota Kisaki (The Angelic Artist).

Essential Question: Why does he treat MC like a pet at first?

He was an unique artist ever since when he was little. No one acknowledged his art, except this guy named Doi (I believe), who was an artist. He keeps encouraging Ota to continue with his art, regardless of how others thought his art was so weird. This kind of event makes Ota ABSOLUTELY trust in Doi. He was the only one who supported his art preferences. Why is there reason not to trust him? Until… Doi plagiarized Ota’s work, and claim it as his own. At that time Doi was much of bigger artist than Ota, so Ota didn’t have any power to fight back that it was a lie. This.. made tragic mark on him. He refuses to trust anyone. I mean, it’s arguable right? Doi WAS the only one he trusted (before MC came into his life of course). He then creates this facade of “Angelic Artist”. It was his way of separating between the real him and the expectations from the others. That way, he wouldn’t have to go through the pain he went through again. When he first met MC, he called her ‘Koro’. The name ‘Koro’ was a way for him to put a distance with MC, since he refused to trust anyone after his most trusted companion betrayed him. A lot of people argue that how he treated MC like a pet was inhumane. I understand this also, because trust me… I was one of those people. However, the main purpose for calling her ‘Koro’ wasn’t to treat her like a pet. He was simply..afraid of getting close to another person and being hurt again. Koro starts out as a way to put boundary between MC and Ota. As the season continues, it becomes affectionate nickname for MC.

Eisuke Ichinomiya.

Essential Question: Why is he inhumanly cold?

Oh man, You all know how much I LOVE Eisuke (I mean.. Just look at my shet spam on my blog). I will try my best not to only fawn over him in the duration of this post.

Where do I even begin with Eisuke? I mean, I think his first description was “Cold-hearted billionaire”. He probably went through A LOT during his career. But If you still think he is cold-hearted, please look at all my screenshot spams. At least to Mc, he turns squishy marshmellow. When MC gives him that puppy dog eyes or when she smiles at him with uncontrollable happiness, there is NO way this man can say no to her.

In his Childhood Promise Substory, Eisuke only wanted power to save and protect ones he cared about and himself. He might come off as only selfish person in the beginning, but as story progresses on, you will know that is not true. He has difficult time expressing things in words.

Let’s first look at his family background. “Ichinomiya” isn’t his actual biological name. When he was young, his family went bankrupt. His father disappeared (Eisuke finds him again in season 5), and shortly after his mother’s health got worse and passed away. He got separated from his little sister (who he finds again in his s1 sequel), and Akira Ichinomiya adopts Eisuke, who was good friend of his biological father. Before meeting MC, everyone who approached him, only approached him for his power and money. Up until his S1 epilogue, he used to have a groupies, who were obsessed with Eisuke. When he sees them shet talking about MC, he threatens them he will ban them if they keep on creating a scene in his hotel (and we never see them again after that). Anyways, back to my point. These groupies only loved Eisuke for his money, power, and looks. Did they know a single thing about Eisuke? I doubt it. He only kept them around because he needed someone to numb his loneliness(numbing doesn’t solve any problem. He knew this, but regardless, he needed someone.). But beneath that cold facade, he was an absolutely lonely person. No one really loved him for he was. He was craving for genuine love, but no one gave that to him.. He have gave up on the idea of getting that love..Until Mc came to his life. MC was the only one who was able to see through Eisuke, and realize he is lonely. She never approached him for his power or money, and he realizes that her actions and thoughts toward him are genuine. (Seriously… read his pov if you have not, because they are the VERY reason why I LOVE Eisuke so much.) But he sometimes have wonders about what love is, since he was never used to being loved so genuinely by someone. In his season 3, he has doubts that his adoptive father actually loved him. Everyone around him only saw him as a man ‘capable’ of handling business. However, when he confronts Akira about it, he says that he wanted Eisuke to understand family love. He also claims how he is happy that Eisuke has finally found someone who can love him unconditionally (referring to MC). Then throughout multiple s3 substories (such as his bday story, under his protection, etc ...), you can see how the definition of ‘love’ changed for him. At first, he thought it was unnecessary thing (meaningless to say aloud). However as him and mc gets close in relationship, he notices expressing love for someone you love is important (hint s5). We also see that he is emotionally unstable. Mc is his big emotion supporter. You can see his emotion breaking through BIG TIME when MC gets in life or death danger (refer to my Desperate moment post if you haven’t already).

I want to also bring this to light: Eisuke has so many enemies. I don’t know what stuff he really did, but I can say some are just falsely created by some influential being. If you ever played Eisuke’s s2, do you remember how Shuichi and Hikaru approached Eisuke? Hikaru was assigned to assassinate Eisuke, believing that he was the one who killed his parents. Same goes for Shuichi. He at first believed that Eisuke was behind everything that happened to his family. However, after s2, they somehow realize that that is not the case. Some mastermind was controlling them to get rid of Eisuke. This still reminds mystery. I really hope they cover this in his s6 or s6.5.

A lot of thing that I mentioned for Eisuke, I have already mentioned through my screenshot posts, or other bloggers have said it already. It might sound repetitive, but I cannot enforce enough, how much mc means to Eisuke. She is basically his life, one existence that will drive him insane if MC is in trouble in any way (but then again, Eisuke is so extra sometimes LOL). He will literally do ANYTHING to make happy. Mc isn’t a selfish person, so this won’t EVER happen but, in theory ( I DID SAY IN THEORY, SO DON’T FREAK OUT), if she ever wanted someone to disappear because they have hurted her ever since she was little, Eisuke will not hesitate to make that come true (actually he will do it before she even mentions it). He believes that anyone who makes mc sad should not exist (at least not close to them). I mean… he even says this to his own son LOL. He will not hesitate to keep mc in his penthouse all day if he feels like she is in danger. Only reason why he doesn’t do this much anymore is because he knows how much mc doesn’t like that . This is where yandere eisuke came from because of how he is sometimes abnormally OBSESSED with MC. I mean...installing security cameras all around his hotel JUST for MC’s safety (and to check on her ...for his benefit). This just proves how all sense of his ‘logic’ flies out of window when it comes to MC. He perhaps might not know the ‘normal’ way to express his love, but he tries his best to show MC that he loves her. And mc knows this.

Any ways… I am gonna end my Eisuke post here… if I continue I will end up fawning more over him. SORRY I WAS SUPPOSED TO ANALYZE. I ENDED UP FAWNING

Baba Mitsunari

Essential Question: Why is he known as ‘playboy’?

There are many theories that this man has depression, which I honestly can see why. He is the nicest bidder in everyone’s route. He usually says hi to MC first when she comes in the penthouse, and cheers her up when she is seriously feeling down. He is quick to lend a hand when any of bidders are in trouble. His man has a tragedy… of not being able to truly love anyone, because he is scared that his ‘thief’ title will hurt the one he loves. He also wants to be loved like Eisuke and Ota, and give love, but he is SCARED. Unlike Eisuke or Ota though, Baba has tendency to deprecating himself. He once genuinely fell in love with this girl named Cynthia. However, he decides to leave her because he was scared that he would hurt her because of his career as a thief.

I have said it once, but I honestly think Baba is underestimated as a character. If I look at him closely enough, he probably is saddest character in KBTBB. Sad i mean…only one who probably realizes that he is sad. Other bidders are too prideful or disinterested in emotional feelings before mc comes in. Baba is probably the only character who is fully aware of what he is feeling even before mc coming into his life. I do not know much about Baba, but I can tell this much from observing him in Eisuke’s route. He only became known as ‘playboy’ because he knew he wasn’t able to stick to one woman without hurting them. Instead, he tries to numb his depression by having a lot of women around him, which obviously doesnt work.

Mamoru Kishi

Essential Question: Why is he so darn lazy?

You might not believe it but he used to be very passionate about his career. He had a investigation partner named Minami. However, one day, for some mysterious reason he died. Mamoru has made several attempts and proposals to solve the mystery of his death, but interpol has rejected his idea every time he proposed it. They all thought it was unnecessary to reveal that case was closed (in his route, we figure out Aida was behind all this). From that point on, he realizes how crooked and ‘good for nothing’ his job is, and he loses all motivation to work hard. I have never played his route so I cannot say much about him. But he is very skilled detective/policeman. He may not seem like it, but the way he gets Eisuke all those confidential information about interloper… i mean, I don’t think normal policeman can do that! In Eisuke’s season 5, Eisuke worries about Mamoru’s job in danger if he went such length to help him. But he assures him that it is fine since he is known as ‘slacker’ and so no one cares about him. He would go full length to uncover the truth once he sets his eyes on something.

Soryu Oh

Essential Question: Why is he allergic to women?

I mean… mainly because of his mafia title. Just like baba, he doesn’t think he deserves ordinary happiness nor could ever get one because of his career. Most times, his job is life or death matter. He has strong sense of what is ethical and what is not. He would hate to put anyone in danger because of him. Beneath that cold exterior, he is probably most normal person amongst the bidder. He is also the one who is (personality wise) close to describing mc. When he meets mc, and sees her devotion to stick something that she set her mind on, he falls for her.

I also think one main reason why he hated women is because how they were ‘used’ to secure his life. In one of Eisuke’s substory, Soryu mentions that he lost his virgin because it was ‘life or death’ matter. Although it is clearly not addressed, there might be some unspoken reason why he used not like women.

FYI... I typed this out on word doc first... it turned out to be 5 pages...

#eisuke ichinomiya #soryu oh #kbtbb #kissed by the baddest bidder #baba mitsunari #ota kisaki #mamoru kishi #hikaru aihara #shuichi hishikura

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aconitemare · 5 years

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[jaydick - flash fic: Valentine Crime] Pink Lovers

AO3

Summary: “I love you,” Dick whispers against their mouths. Then his head pulls back and slams into Jason’s.

A Valentine's Fay Festival hands out a batch of the Joker's version of candy hearts: drugs that cause lovers to become violently obsessed with each other. Jason has better things to do than pop candy on Hallmark holidays, but Ordinary Guy Ric Grayson clearly does not.

“I love you. I love you. I love you. I love — augh!” The man’s saccharine chant is cut short by a gun cracking against his skull. His body goes limp and Jason catches him before he can hit the asphalt of Park Row Hospital’s employee parking lot. Across from them, an older woman in a lab coat presses herself against a Honda. Her blonde hair escapes in wisps from her toppling bun, glasses askew on her thin nose.

Jason looks at her through his helmet. “This your boy?” he asks. She shakes her head in a negative reply although her eyes remain transfixed on her assailant. She looks like a rabbit about to hightail it out of the meadow.

Jason adjusts the man in his arms, the attackers’ balding head lolling backwards. Jason peels the man’s eyelids back. They’re exactly what he expects: scleras an unnatural pink, a shade reminiscent of Pepto-Bismol. Red veins web outwards, spindly and swollen. In the center are the pupils blown wide enough to swallow the iris, inky black and forming a nebulous heart as if someone had painted it in with watercolor.

“He’s just a work friend,” the doctor explains.

Jason releases the eyelid. “I don’t think he got the memo,” he informs as he gets to work on binding the man’s wrists and ankles.

“He’s not like this. I’ve known him for years, he’s — ”

“Do me a favor, doc.” Jason hefts the man over his shoulders. “Go straight home. Unless you live with your partner, then check into a hotel and don’t talk to anyone who’s not family. No responding to texts, no Snapchatting, just stay inside until the news says it’s safe to be a person again.”

The doctor nods slowly, expression numb with shock. “There was something about this on Channel 4, wasn’t there? I caught some of it, but I’ve been so busy — I wasn’t really… ” she trails off.

Jason sighs; he’s had this conversation several times today. “Latest Joker hijinks.” He runs her through the spiel: a little over an hour ago, candy hearts were handed out at the Valentine’s Day Festival occurring uptown. Everyone who had some soon became violently obsessed with their beaus. At a festival targeting couples, most of the infected didn’t stray very far before getting apprehended on-sight. Trouble is, not everyone was with the one they love and those lonely hearts are left to seemingly attack at random.

Not everyone wears their heart on their sleeve. Or some just can’t see the obvious.

“I don’t think I’m that popular to get another attack,” says the doctor with a breathy, frazzled laugh. Jason merely shrugs.

“Don’t sell yourself short.” He leans towards her. “Seriously. Don’t risk it. It was a big festival; who knows who was there,” he adds more lightly. He leaves her to get in her car and do whatever she’s going to do. His own car is hastily parked from when he spotted the two earlier. He drops the man and pops the trunk to the sight of one of the pink-eyed crazies woken up and squirming around. Jason prepares some anesthesia and injects the needle into the throbbing vein of pinkie’s throat. Then he repeats the process with the new guy to be safe and dumps him in the trunk.

Robin’s voice filters through the com. “I’ve taken down four pink-lovers thus far,” he brags.

Jason snorts. Over the com, he says, “I’ve bagged five.”

“No, you haven’t,” Robin scoffs.

“More the merrier, boys,” Oracle interrupts, buried laughter deepening her voice. “We appreciate your help, Hood,” she says like a kindergarten teacher rewarding the bad kid for class participation.

“Yeah, yeah. It’s my city, too. And you’re down a dick,” he justifies. The bats all keep tabs on “Ric” the best they can, which admittedly hasn’t been difficult considering Ric’s life is remarkably routine for a vagrant. Jason pays him a visit every now and then. It’s plain Dick is regaining memories; nowhere near as many as the bats would like, but any amount has Ric tensing up suddenly during their (infrequent, sometimes fun, often frigid) conversations and running off.

“How’s that antidote coming?” Jason asks. He should probably get going; the goal is to deliver the pink-lovers to the batcave for treatment, picking up any strays along the way. It’s boring as shit. The infected are rabid but ultimately still ordinary people easily taken out. It feels more like a weirdly festive scavenger hunt than an actual mission.

“Finished, but questionable,” Oracle answers. “Joker basically built upon an earlier bioweapon of his maniacal invention, so we’re hardly fumbling in the dark here but… without a rational human test subject, we can’t in good conscience administer the serum to the pink-lovers we have — ”

“Strapped and ready?” says Jason. He removes his helmet and the pack of cigarettes from his pocket, considers smoking one just to delay inevitably being in the same room as Batman, and then shoves the pack back in his jacket. He gets behind the wheel instead, leaving his helmet on the passenger seat. “Just pop one of the candy hearts and then test the antidote on yourself.” The engine purrs with the press of a button.

Oracle’s response is not immediate. When it does come it sounds reluctant and somewhat distracted. “That’s what we may end up having to do, yeah. Everyone’s on reconnaissance at the moment, but I guess whoever drops off the next batch of pink-lovers wins a special candy heart.” Jason drives down the road slower than his foot itches to go. He needs to keep an eye any signs of dispute from festival stragglers. “You’re not volunteering, I take it?” he says idly.

Oracle laughs over the com. It’s sharp, almost painful, in his earpiece. “I’m way too important to risk, Hood, you know that,” she quips. “More to the point, I’m not in love. At least, that’s my guess as to why I didn’t go all cray-cray when I did pop a candy heart. I then suggested Batman take one — he just tensed up and ran off into the night. Well, early afternoon.”

Movement from a third-story apartment window catches his eye. “Way to take one for the team,” he murmurs, slowing down and craning his neck.

Batman, as it turns out, is not one to let his good name be sullied because he growls over the com, “If the toxin does have an effect on me and the antidote does not work, that leaves fewer eyes on the streets which, if you have not noticed, are littered with intoxicated citizens cognitively closer to homing pigeons than human beings.”

“It’s true,” Robin vouches. “I just witnessed one get hit by a car because their partner was across the street.”

“Robin.”

“She’s fine. I escorted her to the nearest hospital and told them to get the straps until we have distributed the antidote,” he defends primly. Meanwhile, Jason tries to parse out the body language of the exposed couple. One’s arms extend; another’s push them away. Playful or hostile? Playful or hostile? Jason muses.

Now Red Robin chimes in, in his usual world-weary tone, “These pink-lovers are more dangerous to themselves than to their targets. They’re out of it — like, totally vacant. The Joker stayed on-brand for this one.”

Jason dismisses the movement as innocent as the couple embraces. His eyes return to the road in time to see a man standing there dumbly. Jason has his foot on the brake too late and his heart lurches into his throat, his stomach following suit. Then the man leaps onto the hood of Jason’s car. The wheels stop abruptly and the man must overcompensate for the force, because instead of being thrown off, his head bashes against the windshield.

This all happens within — a second, two? — three at most. The next second, a car blares its horn angrily before briefly swerving into the other lane to pass him. Jason registers this only distantly. He’s focused on the familiar face of the man clutching his forehead, eyes Pepto-pink and staring into Jason’s. Blood escapes the press of his fingers, collecting at the dip of his broken nose before trailing onto his cheeks.

Jason pulls over; a task that is mildly complicated by the asshole sticking to his windshield like a bug. He practically kicks the door open. His concern, that sick twist of worry in his gut, is feeding into his agitation. As if gathering kindling, Jason’s mind runs through how this happened. The idiot clearly was at the Valentine’s Day Festival. Of course he was; he’s not Nightwing with a checkered love life or a full plate of crises to resolve. He’s just Ric, an ordinary guy with an ordinary job and an ordinary girlfriend to attend silly festivals with. Happily living out his new life as a passive civilian: a victim waiting to happen.

Jason is barely out of the car when Dick jumps him. His hands fist into Jason’s collar, trying to shove him back in the car with brute strength. It’s considerable strength, too, considering the months of disuse as a cabbie. But beyond that strength, Dick doesn’t attempt to maneuver him and Jason’s knees don’t buckle. “Get off,” he grunts, seizing Dick’s arms.

“But I love you.”

The phrase hits him like a blow to the chest. Jason looks at Dick, really looks at him. There’s an ugly bleeding gash across his forehead above his angular eyebrows — one now sporting a fashionable slit — and his black hair is growing back fuzzy. Last week Dick’s fingers clasped Jason’s wrist as he laughingly guided Jason to pet the top of his soft head. Today Dick grins joylessly at him, any trace of his baby blues wiped out by the Joker. Jason’s heart sinks with the weighty meaninglessness of Dick’s confession.

He doesn’t want to look at Dick’s face anymore and forces him to face the other direction. “Jason,” Dick says. His name sounds so clear, so conscious on Dick’s tongue. It doesn’t sound like the Joker. But then Dick repeats, “I love you.”

Anger strikes Jason whip-fast. I love you is sacrilege coming from this body that belongs more to the Joker — more to Ric — than the man who should’ve said it. Maybe Dick would even have had reason to say it from the scraps of their lives he and Jason managed to share together, between all the hatred and the death, the lies and disappearances and new identities. Jason still isn’t sure if that’s what he’s been wanting from Dick, some verbal confirmation of a felt truth, but it’s irrelevant now. Another thing the Joker has taken from them.

Jason swings Dick around harder than necessary and pins him against the car. He knows it’s a waste of time but still stares into that manic pink, searching desperately for something. He wants some remnant of Dick Grayson to peer at him through those unnatural pupils, make itself known through a sliver of sky-blue iris or a flicker of intelligence. Inky hearts watch him back.

Jason is caught off guard by the legs that wind around his waist. Dick’s ankles cross together and bring Jason closer. Their heartbeats travel from one chest to the other. Jason just stands there, dumb, between Dick’s thighs until he can actually feel Dick’s heartbeat adjust to his.

Dick rests his forehead against Jason’s. Jason stops breathing. Dick’s lips touch his but don’t press in. “I love you,” Dick whispers against their mouths. Then his head pulls back and slams into Jason’s. Pain reverberates through his skull in a hot pulsing motion. He releases Dick automatically, but Dick merely stumbles forward in his own pain. Jason catches him only to violently throw him to the ground and rush to the car.

Jason retrieves a shot from his anesthetics kit while Dick clatters to the asphalt like a finished wind-up toy. Jason pops the trunk as Dick rises again and tries to wrench Jason bodily the ground. He resists Dick well enough, but does briefly lose his footing. Dick knocks the needle from his hand. “I love you,” Dick chants. “I love you. I love you. I lov — ”

Jason barrels towards him. “Shut up!” he shouts. He topples Dick over. The two grapple on the cement, Jason twisting Dick’s arm. Dick cries out but otherwise remains focused on getting the upper-hand. Dick attempts to gouge his eyeball out. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Jason seethes, catching Dick’s wrist and snapping it in a flash of fury. Dick screams and Jason thinks there’s something to be said either for Gotham law enforcement or people’s reluctance to be on the streets that no one has grown curious about the Red Hood beating the shit out of some guy in broad daylight next to a trunk of unconscious bodies.

Business as usual, he guesses.

Jason quickly stands and dashes for the shot. Dick struggles to his feet with the broken wrist. He’s on Jason shortly, but his grip is weak and Jason is ready with the anesthesia. He whirls around and snatches Dick’s broken wrist. Dick curls inwards. It’s the opening Jason needs to plunge the shot into Dick’s arm. The reaction isn’t instantaneous. Nevertheless, Dick’s movements slow from wild animal to netted fish and his unnatural eyes drift shut.

Jason zipties him particularly well. He props Dick up, douses a cloth from the front seat with his water bottle, and gently dabs at the blood on his face. Jason’s anger softens to concern over how much pain Dick will be in when he wakes up. He tries not to picture him wincing awake beneath the bloody cloth as if from some ugly dream. Jason tries, first and foremost, not to want things Dick can’t give him.

The com alerts him that Batman has tested the candy heart and is under its effects. The antidote is being administered.

Bruce’s backseat-driving whilst being restrained turns out to be the real trial. The antidote’s guesswork is spot-on and the worst side-effect is the full body rash that covers Bruce and the other pink-lovers’ skin in red splotches. The bats are still in and out the cave, but most of them stay to help recover the victims. Barbara eventually wheels over to Dick and disinfects the soft hollow of his arm. As she does, she side-eyes Jason and asks, “So, how’d you find him? Attacking his hot new bartender girlfriend?”

It’s either weariness or bitterness that tingers her sarcasm a darker shade than usual. Jason doesn’t know her or her relationship with Dick well enough to tell which. He leans against the wall and watches her fasten a tourniquet around Dick. His nose has been reset and his head bandaged. The wrist is in a temporary velcro brace.

“Something like that,” murmurs Jason.

Barbara, ever vigilant, not only notices the word choice but doesn’t let it go. “Something like that? As in he was attacking someone else. Wasn’t he?”

Jason merely shrugs. He’d be content to leave it at that except he’d rather satisfy her with useless details than encourage her with silence. “I found him on the edge of downtown. He wasn’t attacking anyone, but the name he called for wasn’t Bea.” Jason drinks from his water bottle. “That’s all I’ll say. Ric’s made it clear he doesn’t want us prying.”

Whether Barbara wholly accepts this information, he can’t decipher. She’s concentrating on the needle sinking into Dick’s vein, her long red hair obscuring half her face as she ducks her head down. She does, however, argue in half-distraction, “No one, including you, has completely respected that.”

Jason neatly deflects the accusation. “That’s to make sure the idiot doesn’t get himself killed by enemies he can’t remember. Beyond that, what’s his life is his life. Not about to snitch on him to his ex-girlfriend.”

It’s a low blow, one which Barbara responds to with an icy gaze that holds onto Jason with cold, clinging fingers. Regardless, his jab has the intended result: Barbara drops the conversation and moves onto the next pink-lover without a word further.

Jason could help out with the injections, but no one directly asks him to and he’s feeling like he’s reached his quota for bat-cooperation. Instead he pulls up a chair next to Dick and stays on his phone to avoid seeming overly invested in Dick’s progress. With time, though, and the activity whirring around him, Jason does partly forget about the man passed out beside him. At least to the extent that he’s surprised to hear Dick’s voice — rusty with sleep but always, always possessing that slight musical lilt — announce, “I’m annoyed.”

Jason glances down. Dick’s eyes are more than Jason expects, which means he’s probably been awake for a few minutes. They’re also lucid blue, the only reminders of his mania existing in the bloodshot veins.

Dick’s throat swallows dryly. “I know,” he begins thickly, “I probably don’t have to be. From the looks of this creepy dark room brimming with people also strapped to gurneys, I’d say this has a chance of genuinely being a ridiculous coincidence that I ended up here.”

Jason wants to kiss Dick’s tired eyes and tell him to sleep until all the red is gone. He doubts that would go over well. Tentatively, he inquires, “Do you remember what happened? What you did to — get here?” he finishes lamely. Hopefully it doesn’t come off as blame-finding to Dick as it does to himself.

Dick licks his lips. “Some of it. Enough to know I probably have a lot of texts from Bea that I’ll put off longer than I should.” He laughs so thinly it could be a cough if not for the wry smile.

Jason considers laughing back, just as some knee-jerk social reaction, but he doesn’t feel up to it. He turns his phone absently around in his hands. “Yeah, well, don’t put her off too long. This situation isn’t what I’d call easily salvageable.”

Dick’s gaze slides towards him. Their eyes meet. Jason wishes he could read Dick like he knows Dick can read him. “What happened, Jason?”

So Jason tells him. Dick takes it all in, processing sluggishly. Jason nearly opens his phone for something to do when Dick cracks out a “wow.” The word is dry and scratchy, prompting Jason to unscrew the cap on his water bottle and hold it to Dick’s mouth. When he takes it away, Dick continues clearer, “Not many scenarios wherein your girlfriend could be mad you didn’t kill her, huh?”

“Not many I can think of.”

They’re quiet again. Jason doesn’t open his phone this time. He waits.

“I think I meant what I said,” Dick admits. “I mean, I guess the Joker knows better than I do — ”

“Don’t.” Jason can’t listen to that. He hates that name in a way Ric will never get. But Jason can’t let the Joker be any more a part of them than he already is after the festival.

“Okay,” says Dick, bemused. “I just — I don’t know you. Not really. Sometimes I get flashes of our past together. I like them. And I like us together now, but. It’s not enough.”

Dick’s rejection seers through Jason, flays him alive. You’re not enough.

Dick mercilessly charges on. “I don’t even know if those feelings are mine or — or Dick Grayson’s. I don’t want something that’s his — ”

Jason refuses to hear more of this spiel. “You’re the same person,” he snaps.

Dick falls silent. Jason is grateful for the chaos around them that allows this bubble of privacy. He is starting to shake, raw from the anger and hurt.

“I know,” Dick says faintly. Startled, Jason accidentally looks up from his hands; Dick is staring straight at him. “I don’t want to be him. I know I am, but I don’t want to be because then I’ll wind up inheriting his life and all the mistakes from it.”

Jason smirks. It’s so damn predictable. Of course this is how Jason would be loved — with regret. “Like me,” he concludes.

“No,” Dick immediately disagrees. “I don’t remember much of us. Mostly the good things actually, but — no, I feel it. You’re not one of my mistakes, whatever you are. Whatever we were, it wasn’t a mistake.”

Jason doesn’t want to tell him the pathetic truth of how they were never anything.

“Jason,” Dick says softly. “I’d like to get to know you.” He eyes the milling bats with something akin to queasiness. “Just you,” he clarifies. “And not as a trial basis for everyone else. This isn’t some open-door policy on my life, but. But. If you can leave — ” Dick gestures his good hand, the one attached to the IV, to the cave, “ — whatever this is behind you when we hang, then this could be something. Maybe even something good,” he adds with a teasing smile.

Dick’s expression is openly hopeful. Jason’s heart aches. He wishes love didn’t feel this way all the time. Truthfully, he doesn’t know if he can compartmentalize like Dick expects. Nor is it fair for Dick to expect that from Jason who does remember, whose life isn’t a before-and-after picture but a composition piece of everything he’s been through.

Yet Jason swallows the cinderblock in his throat and says, “Yeah. I think we can do that, Ric.”

Dick’s bad hand twitches. He winces around his smile, that legendary Dick Grayson smile that wins over the toughest crowd. Even ones as tough as Jason Todd, Park Row streetrat with a penchant for fistfights and posturing. Jason snorts at the humor of it all, of his life, and reaches across Dick to lightly squeeze the fingers on his good hand.

Dick squeezes back happily. “Think you can take me home without drawing suspicion?”

“What, about us?”

Dick nods.

Jason considers the question. No one is looking at them. No one has even spared them a single glance. And as landmined as that short conversation with Barbara was, suspicion towards Jason’s dodginess regarding Dick’s love life wasn’t one of those mines. “Yeah,” Jason answers. “I think I’m pretty good about not wearing my heart on my sleeve. What about you, pretty boy?”

Dick’s grin dazzles. “The best,” he replies.

#jaydick #jaydick_flashfic: valentine’s crime #jason todd #dick grayson #dc #fanfiction for the void

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takaraphoenix · 6 years

Note

"You're weird" _ "Or you're just basic" for Jace/Sebastian

Jace frowned annoyed at his mirror image. He had been trying to fix his hair for ten minutes now. But it kept falling into his face, all... soft. How did his alternate self not own any hair-products?

For now, he had to go and figure out how to find Clary so they could end this quest.

They needed to hurry.

"You're looking lovely as always, angel."

Jace blinked slowly. He had just exited his food truck – coffee truck? He had a truck. That was bizarre already. He was a... mundane. Wearing soft, pastel-colored clothes, having his hair fall into his face, having a mundane job. Everything about this was bizarre.

"I...", started Jace before he ran out of words.

The blonde in front of him was handsome. Very sharp cheekbones, bright and intense eyes that seemed to penetrate Jace's very soul. They were so intense that Jace felt himself blush without meaning to, like his body – this body – had a very distinctive link to that gaze.

"You done here?", asked the handsome blonde with a smile. "But before we leave..."

A sharp intake of breath escaped Jace as he was being pulled into a kiss. His body reacted on autopilot, seemingly very used to kissing this man. Jon. His boyfriend. The thought immediately invaded his mind, filling him with warmth and comfort in a way Jace had never felt before.

"You're unusually quiet, babe", chuckled Jon, gently tucking Jace's hair behind his ear. "Come on. We're running late for dinner, my love. Don't forget your helmet."

My love? Babe? Angel? Did this guy even know Jace's name? Honestly, all those petnames were embarrassing – so why did they make him feel so... warm. Blinking slowly, Jace returned to his truck to find a motorbike helmet. Reluctantly taking it and putting it on, he went to follow Jon. This wasn't the mission. He needed to find Clary. To hurry her along. But maybe this – boyfriend – of his could help him? Perhaps he could subtly ask to be dropped off at Clary's? Assuming that this Jace even knew this Clary. And really, why should they? The two had nothing in common, shared nothing. Jace had been born in Idris and if Idris was not a part of this world... shouldn't he have grown up vaguely in Europe? The closest to where Idris was?

"Come here, love", ordered Jon as he sat down on a very sexy bike.

Blinking overwhelmed, Jace just followed the blonde's lead and found himself pressed against his boyfriend. This was stupid. This shouldn't make his heart race like that. He didn't even know the guy. It wasn't as though he was Jace's boyfriend. He was the boyfriend of alternate Jace.

"I really hope you didn't snack on too many of your own baked goods again", chuckled Jon when they reached their destination. "Though I do understand why you'd do so. You're an incredible baker, love. Now let's go inside and don't let father fluster you again."

Dazed and still overwhelmed by this bizarre reality, Jace allowed himself to be ushered inside, just to find himself opposite a startled Clary. The two just stared at each other, until Jon stepped up to hug Clary, startling Jace even more. He frowned confused and looked around, just to find the explanation hang on the wall. A family picture. Valentine Morgenstern, Jocelyn Fairchild, Clary Fray – and Jon. There was a brother. Clary's brother. Jace was dating Clary's brother, who was very much alive in this reality. Then again, why wouldn't he? Valentine apparently wasn't insane and he thus hadn't caused the fire that supposedly killed his son.

"Jon! Will! You're here", called Jocelyn out with a bright smile.

Jace paused utterly confused, looking at Clary a little lost. She just shrugged. The next moment, Jace was being pulled into a tight hug by the redhead who smelt like cinnamon and warmth. It got very weird when Valentine clasped a hand down on his shoulder, smiling.

"William. It's so good to see you", smiled Valentine pleased.

William? Okay. Sure. Alternate reality. If there was no Shadow World, why would everything be the same? Old Shadowhunter families had stronger naming traditions than mundies. Being mundies, they might have picked different names. Maybe... Maybe his mother had survived his birth in this reality and she had gotten a say in naming him...? William Wayland. There was something nice about the alliteration. He could work with this, for now.

"You're coming to the party, right?", asked Jocelyn smiling, holding Valentine's hand and looking from him to Jon. "You're not bailing again. You know this is important to your father, Jon."

"Love, don't pressure the boys. They're young and busy", laughed Valentine.

Jonathan made a face and grabbed Jace's hand, lifting it up to kiss his knuckles. "I suppose we will. Unless you come up with some very creative excuse, love?"

"I... I got nothing?", offered Jace with a shrug.

Valentine laughed. "That's why I like the boy. Now come, I made spaghetti."

Jace followed Valentine to the kitchen, to sit around the table with Valentine Morgenstern, Jocelyn, Clary and Jonathan. Really the only way to describe this reality was: Bizarre. Jonathan leaned in and kissed Jace's cheek. Just like that. Without reason. Just to... be affectionate.

/break\

"Jace? Jace, we... we need to talk about this. You need to talk about this."

Jace glared as he looked up at his parabatai. Wrapping his arms around his legs, Jace waited for Alec to come and sit down next to him on the bed. The two had a big fight about Clary, but after everything that had happened... The parabatai would always put each other first. Stupid fights, they meant nothing compared to the bond they had. And Jace knew he had been stupid. But he had also explained it to Alec, that seeing Clary so broken over losing the one parent she still had, that it reminded him of himself, that Jace somehow just... couldn't turn away. Alec, who had seen Jace back then after losing his father, he understood it a little better. He still hated that Jace had picked the helpless mundie over him, but he understood it in a way.

"Valentine is your father", whispered Alec.

"He's not", muttered Jace before pausing. "I mean. He posed as Michael Wayland and... raised me, but he's not my biological father."

"How can you be so sure?", asked Alec with a frown. "Does it not make more sense that he and his son went to take over the Wayland family...? More sense than, what, have him steal... another child to raise as his own? And where would be the real Jonathan...?"

"I don't know. I don't know any of the answers to that", sighed Jace. "But I know I'm not Jonathan Morgenstern, because I... because I met him."

"You met him? Where? How?", asked Alec with a frown.

"Well... while... while we were fighting, Clary and I kind of... went to a parallel universe", muttered Jace with a half-shrug. "A world where... where Valentine wasn't insane, because there was no Shadow World. And Valentine and Jocelyn were happily married."

"Oh. Yeah, you would have been raised by them if you were actually their son", nodded Alec.

"On top of that, I was... I was kind of... dating Jon?", offered Jace in a hushed voice.

"Dating? A... A guy? Jonathan Morgenstern?", asked Alec stunned, leaning back.

"I mean... I...", started Jace before he paused. "I don't talk about it a lot, because I know... it's not very welcomed by the Clave. But I kind of... do swing... both ways. I've had flings with male Downworlders before. That's not... it..."

"You... You do...", whispered Alec surprised.

"I would have... told you, but... I... I just... I didn't want to drag you into this, in case it meant trouble for me and considering I just had... meaningless flings... I didn't think it'd mean anything. I figured, one day I'd actually meet a nice girl, get married, bring honor to the family, all that stuff, you know? Because I've never actually been in love."

"Okay", nodded Alec and cleared his throat. "But... in this parallel world...?"

"I loved him", whispered Jace with a frown, folding himself even smaller. "I could feel it. It was like the body's memories – my conscience was in the other Jace's body and... I felt the echo of his memories. His feelings. And the other Jace loved him so much and... Jon made me feel... warmer than I've ever felt before. Like, warm from the inside. Safe. It was... odd. I never felt that way."

"Okay. So, Jonathan Morgenstern was alive and you loved him", nodded Alec and heaved a sigh.

"Yeah", nodded Jace with a frown.

"What... do you want to do, Jace?", asked Alec with a frown.

"I don't know", shrugged Jace and shook his head. "I just... I think I want to find him?"

"You really think he's still alive?", asked Alec. "I just... are you sure you're not setting yourself up for... disappointment? What if... he's dead, or... a villain?"

"I don't know, Alec", sighed Jace. "I really don't know. I just know I... I need to find him."

"Then we'll do everything to find him", promised Alec softly.

/break\

Only that it got all a little delayed when Valentine stole the Mortal Cup, kidnapped Jace and tortured him for a couple days. And even after Jace managed to escape, he was still not safe. Aldertree made sure of that, of making him feel not safe in the Institute. So he moved in with Magnus.

"You look horrible, blondie", noted Magnus as he sat down next to Jace.

"You get kidnapped by Valentine for a fun boat-trip", grunted Jace annoyed.

Magnus huffed amused and summoned some sandwiches for Jace. "Eat something. I know you've barely eaten, or slept. And then tell me what's on your mind. Not the kidnapping or the... torture. There's something else nagging on you."

"Valentine", muttered Jace. "Pretending to be my father. He... He did... on the ship. Made... spaghetti. Like he used to as Michael Wayland. Playing up the father-card. Pretending he actually is my father, when I very well know that... that I am not Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern. Only that now... I don't... I don't know who I am at all anymore... Am I Michael Wayland's child and Valentine just killed him and raised me? Or am I someone else entirely...?"

"That's... awful", offered Magnus gently after a moment, a little surprised that Jace had actually opened up to him about this. "Is there anything else you want to tell me...?"

"You're... powerful. You're a powerful warlock. Do you think you can... track him?", asked Jace.

"Track him? Who?", asked Magnus a little confused.

"Jonathan", whispered Jace, not looking at Magnus. "I've been... thinking about him. A lot."

"Because of what Valentine did to you?", asked Magnus concerned.

"Not entirely", shrugged Jace and took a deep breath. "Before. Before he... took the Mortal Cup. Clary and I, we went to an alternate reality and I... met Jon there. I met him and I just... if there is any chance that he did survive, I need to make sure Valentine doesn't hurt him anymore."

"I'm not sure how, since I have nothing of his", admitted Magnus with a frown.

"We can ask Jocelyn. She must have something", replied Jace determined.

"This is surprisingly important to you", mused Magnus as he nodded.

Jace just shrugged and shook his head. No need to tell Magnus about that.

/break\

"You're not going to Edom alone, Jace! That's ridiculous!", exclaimed Clary. "He's my brother!"

Jace gritted his teeth annoyed. He didn't want to endanger Clary. He had hoped Magnus' tracking would lead to some dungeon somewhere. But apparently, Jace had gotten away lucky when Valentine had faked his death, because when Jon became inconvenient, he just... got banished to literal hell. They had found out so yesterday, after Clary had more or less borrowed the small wooden box with Jonathan's belongings and also a lock of his hair. It took some time, because Jonathan wasn't actually on this Earth, but Magnus did manage to track him.

"I think that neither of you should go", grunted Alec, arms crossed and glare on his face. "This is insane, Jace. You don't even know him. You don't know what being raised by Valentine and living in hell for who knows how long might have done to him!"

"So what. He doesn't deserve to live in hell! No one does, Alec!", exclaimed Jace angrily.

"If this is about that alternate reality-", started Alec.

"No! I mean, yes, I just... I don't know!", growled Jace. "I don't know. I just know that, on that ship, one of the main things that kept me fighting and not giving in was that... that memory... of... the way he made me feel. How much he... loved me, in that other reality. I know it's stupid. I know that wasn't me and I know that wasn't actually him. I know this Jonathan will be different from that Jon, but... if there is anything we can do to free him from hell, we need to do it, Alec. I need to do it."

"Then I will come with you", stated Alec seriously.

"I'm sorry, can we maybe wind back to the part where Jace was dating the alternate version of Clary's brother?", asked Simon. "And where my girlfriend wants to go to hell."

"Simon", sighed Clary a little flustered. "I'll be fine, especially with Jace at my side."

That was a recent development. Jace wasn't really sure what to think about it, but the nerd made Clary happy and he knew he had no feelings for Clary. Not like that. He had felt drawn to her at first, in the excitement of all the adrenaline rush this had given them. But there was nothing substantial there. If he thought about the way Jon had made him feel in that alternate reality though, he knew he couldn't chase any what if with Clary, because she'd never make him feel that way. But he also knew that it was insane to chase a what if with a Jonathan he didn't know...

"Jace...", started Izzy softly, looking at him. "You've done a lot of reckless things to help Clary, but this takes the crown. Are you really sure about this...?"

Gritting his teeth, Jace grabbed Isabelle's hand and squeezed. "Yes. Yes, I am, Iz. Trust me."

"Magnus?", asked Alec, looking hopefully at his boyfriend.

"I don't like this, darling", sighed Magnus with a frown. "I... I don't like any of this."

"I know", whispered Alec and cupped Magnus' cheek. "I know. Neither do I. But I won't let my parabatai go to hell alone. Can you... Can you send us?"

Sighing, Magnus nodded. "It's important that the three of you do not get separated. And that you hurry. Edom is dangerous. Please be safe."

Alec smiled and leaned down, kissing Magnus. "I promise I will."

"You too, Fray. Watch out for yourself", huffed Simon, hugging Clary tightly before kissing her.

Jace watched the two couples with an oddly empty feeling in himself. He had never experienced romantic love before. And he had never actually longed for it either. But now that he saw it around him and now that he had this echo of a knowledge of what love felt like...

"Let's go to hell", grunted Jace, taking Alec and Clary by the hands.

/break\

Jonathan had always pictured what it would be like, to escape Edom. He had planned it, he was so close. He would summon the demon Azazel and make a deal. He would escape, find his mother and sister, claim the life that should be his. He would find the other Jonathan and make him pay for stealing his life, for being daddy's golden boy.

"J... Jonathan", whispered the redheaded girl shocked, staring at him.

He looked at her, confused. Humans. Down in Edom. Well, they weren't going to survive long.

"Jon?", whispered the blonde next to her, his voice gentle. "I'm Jace. That's Clary, your... your sister. We came... to save you."

That was in no way how he had ever pictured escaping, or meeting those two. He frowned as he stared at the radiant blonde. He was so beautiful. Unburned, with soft-looking skin, adored with runes. Golden hair framing his face – Jonathan remembered, faintly, that he used to have such hair too. There was a third with them, a weary looking dark-haired man.

"Let's get back. Magnus said we gotta hurry", urged the dark-haired one.

"Why would you do this?", asked Jonathan skeptically.

"You're my brother", declared Clary fiercely. "Of course I'd come for you!"

Of course. The way she said those words. With so much determination. Jonathan didn't understand where it came from or what it meant, but it sounded like the thing he had craved all his life. He went with them, because he had wanted to leave hell for a long, long time now. He would decide everything else afterward. What to do, what to do with them.

/break\

"It's going to take a lot of magic and many sessions to do it, but yes, I believe I can heal that."

Jonathan blinked as he looked at the warlock circling him. He didn't understand what was happening at all. Not why he was back on Earth, why Clary and Jace had come to return him, not why the warlock was willing to fix his burned skin.

"We can't bring him to the Institute", whispered the dark-haired tall one.

"I know that, Alec", hissed Jace back. "We'll... find a solution."

"He's your responsibility, blondie, but for now he can stay here. It'll make more sense for the treatment too", sighed the warlock. "I am Magnus Bane, by the way."

"Jonathan", whispered Jonathan, staring blankly at the warlock – Magnus Bane.

"Not the chatty type", chuckled Magnus amused. "Oh well. My other roommate talks enough for two, so that evens out, I suppose. I do wonder, when did I open an orphanage for Shadowhunters?"

"Don't be dramatic, Bane", huffed Jace and rolled his eyes.

"Thank you, Magnus, for taking yet another stray in and for helping me save said stray", stated Magnus in a voice that was meant to mock Jace. "Why don't you go and be useful instead? Show our new guest his room. It's opposite yours, blondie."

"Come on", nodded Jace, looking at Jonathan.

Why was he doing this? Why was he being nice to Jonathan? He of all people. The one Jonathan had vowed to hate and to destroy. The one he thought he was going to face off against. Instead, he showed... he showed Jonathan a kindness that Jonathan had never experienced before.

/break\

Jonathan was dazed as he stared at his own mirror-image. Handsome. Sharp cheekbones, deep eyes, bright-blonde hair. It was just a glamour for now, Magnus said the treatment to actually heal and restore him would take some longer. But this was what he would look like in the end...? He still didn't quite understand how they knew this. He had been burned as a child, after all.

"Okay, so we angel-blooded ones would actually activate the Soul Sword. But Jonathan would be able to destroy the Soul Sword. At the cost of his own life", summed Jace up in the other room.

"So Jace and I can't touch it under any circumstances", sighed Clary. "But we need to free Simon."

"As of right now, Valentine still thinks that you believe his lie to be his son, right?", asked Alec, pacing the room and looking at Jace. "Because I think I have a plan..."

Jonathan watched them passively from the doorway. He was still trying to find their angle. Was this it? Had they brought him back to use him to destroy the Soul Sword...?

/break\

The war was won. Officially won. Jace was drained. Quite literally so. He had given his blood to Simon to save his life. That had been Alec's plan. Jace had used a glamour to pose as Clary, because if Valentine actually got a hold of Clary, while threatening her boyfriend and best friend, Alec didn't quite trust her not to do something reckless to save his life. Isabelle all the while was posing as Jace and making Valentine believe that Jace wanted to pull and 'destroy' the Soul Sword in one of his heroic sacrifices of which Alec had immediately accused Jace. Which wasn't far off. If he carried the demon-blood, he would use it to destroy the sword. But this way, they could secure it.

This way they had secured it. No one on their side got seriously injured, Isabelle had secured the sword, Alec and the troops had gone and arrested Valentine and his men.

Exhausted, Jace stumbled out of the Institute to see the most impossible thing. Simon and Clary, laughing, Simon whirling Clary around in the sunlight. They looked like the perfect couple. So happy. Jace's heart clenched, aching for that happiness too.

Shaking that thought off, he headed back toward the loft. Back... home. To see how Jonathan was doing. He knew it was stupid. The emotional attachment he had to a man he didn't know. But in a way, were they not linked? Connected by their past. Being raised as Valentine's sons and heirs. Tortured and abused by the mad man and tossed aside when no longer useful.

"You look dreadful, Jace."

Jace smiled faintly at the voice and at seeing Jonathan sit on the couch, watching him closely. Over the past week, Jonathan had grown maybe a tiny bit more comfortable around here. He definitely did not trust them yet and was looking for some ulterior motive – and Jace couldn't blame him for that. But it was... nice. Coming home to see Jonathan waiting for him.

"Being drained by a vampire does that to you", snorted Jace and collapsed next to Jonathan.

"I don't understand why you brought me here", stated Jonathan with a frown. "This morning. When you talked of a demon-blooded Morgenstern who could destroy the Soul Sword, I thought that was it. That was why you brought me back. To use me to destroy it. But... you didn't."

"I can... tell you why I brought you back, but you'll think it's irrational and stupid. I know it's irrational and stupid", offered Jace with a sigh.

"It can't be more irrational and stupid than anything I have come up with in the past weeks."

"Wanna bet?", snorted Jace and shook his head. "Clary and I went to an alternate reality, where there are no Shadowhunters. Where... Where Valentine was never an insane genocidal maniac. And Clary and I, we... saw you. We saw Jocelyn and Valentine happily married. We saw you. Happy and good. That's why we started looking for you, because we learned that you were alive."

"On a theoretical level, I... might understand why Clarissa wanted to find me. I am her brother and she is the bright, innocent counterpart to me", noted Jonathan thoughtfully. "But you."

"I... We were dating in the parallel world. Like I said, irrational and stupid, but I could feel what my counterpart had felt. I could feel the love he held for you and I could feel... how much that other you loved the other me. I needed to save you."

"Very well, you win. That is more irrational and stupid than any of my theories", agreed Jonathan slowly, looking at Jace surprised. "I am not that person. I don't even know you. I spent all of my life hating you for taking what was mine. My father's pride and praise."

"I... I'm...", started Jace surprised, feeling oddly like he had been slapped.

"Never mind", sighed Jonathan and shook his head. "I have... no burning hatred for you anymore. I am mainly just... confused by you. You're... weird."

"Or you're just basic", huffed Jace with a shrug. "Whatever. I'm going to get some sleep."

Jonathan tilted his head. Him? Basic? Really, Jace was very weird. But somehow Jonathan found it both amusing and intriguing. Which in itself was a problem, really.

/break\

It had been weeks now. Weeks since Magnus had managed to fully restore Jonathan's skin, to end the agonizing pain the burns had brought with them. Weeks since the war had ended and Valentine had been brought to Idris to be served justice. Weeks of Clary being gentle and trying to get to know him, telling Jonathan about Jocelyn, about their mother. Jonathan always pictured latching onto her, once he would be freed. Clinging onto her as his light. Yet... Yet he found himself seeking out Jace and his warmth and light. The first person he had seen in Edom, to bring him back.

"You play beautifully", noted Jonathan where he sat on the couch, drinking wine.

Jace was playing the piano for him. Well, he was playing the piano. Jonathan had just taken to claiming that time as his time sitting on the couch, drinking wine. Tucking his hair behind his ear, Jace turned toward Jonathan and smiled. When Jace smiled at him like that, it made Jonathan feel warm. A warmth he missed since coming back to this world.

"You said that the alternate versions of us were happy", mused Jonathan reluctantly as he got up from his seat. "I don't know what happiness means. But I know that I have been feeling... drawn to you... for the past weeks. Like a moth to the light."

"Well, now you're just weird", huffed Jace flustered.

"Perhaps it is you who is basic?", suggested Jonathan amused.

He reached out to cup Jace's cheek and tilt his head up. Jace looked particularly pretty like that, looking up at Jonathan from beneath his long lashes, with his plump lips parted a little. Tempting.

"I have a feeling this is a horrendously bad idea", whispered Jace as Jonathan leaned down.

"According to your parabatai, horrendously bad ideas are your thing", offered Jonathan smirking.

Before Jace could voice any form of protest, Jonathan's lips were upon his. And it simply felt right. Both of them felt at ease, balanced out. Like this was where they belonged. With each other.

Read this here on FFNet & here on AO3

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dixie78 · 6 years

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Deep Dive Episode: Jobseekers and Personal Brands

In this episode of In-Ear Insights, listen as cofounders Katie Robbert and Christopher Penn discuss all things employment for jobseekers, such as:

What jobseekers should be doing in interviews

Tactical tips for LinkedIn profiles

Is Comic Sans ever appropriate?

What hiring managers really want

How to demonstrate skills without breaking NDAs

How many jobs to apply for every week if you’re unemployed

Tune in now, and be sure to subscribe to the podcast.

Machine-Generated Transcript

What follows is an AI-generated transcript. The transcript may contain errors and is not a substitute for watching the video.

Christopher Penn Alright, so what’s our question today?

jobs and things and the variations because obviously we’re looking at our data, what do we got? Well, so

Katie Robbert there was different things around data science jobs, data analyst jobs, business analyst jobs. So I think the question is, you know, if you are looking for a job in this market today, where do you even start? Like, what are the top three things that you as a job searcher should know? Well,

Christopher Penn let me throw it back to you for a second because, you know, obviously,

we started a company, but we also know lots of people who are looking for work and have been counseling various people about what what to look for. When you talk to somebody I know you have relatives who are who are currently in the job market, when you talk to somebody about looking for work and find out what are you telling them today?

Katie Robbert I guess it’s not so much what am I telling them, but I’m asking them questions for them to come to their own answers is, you know, what do you want to do? And so I don’t think it’s as simple anymore as just saying, I want to be a business analyst or I want to be a data analyst, because I almost feel like we’ve got to a place where job titles are completely meaningless, because there’s so many different variations of a data analyst or a data scientist or a business analyst that you really have to start to hone in on what is it that you actually want to do craft the position from there and then try to find the best match,

Christopher Penn but

how do you then get around all the enterprise HR systems that are just, you know, fishing for keywords,

Katie Robbert that’s when you have to do the super annoying thing of having 20 different versions of your resume that match the specific job that you are going after looking for a job is a full time job in and of itself, it’s a lot of hard work and it’s a lot of, you know, not hearing anything back or rejections, you’re basically pitching yourself and your personal brand saying, I stand out from the hundreds of other people who have applied for this single position. And so I guess, you know, the question I would pose to you is, how do you stand out

Christopher Penn so standing out is I know people dislike this term so much but too bad

is your personal brand right? I think what the best definitions I’ve heard of a personal brand was by a comedian actually z. Frank who said on his show, aptly named the show that way, way back in the day, so that a purse a brand is the emotional aftertaste from a series of experiences. So when you like you don’t the example you gave us, there’s a big difference. Brand wise, emotion wise, between when you say grandma’s cookies, right, brings up a certain feeling, unless your grandma was like a hair, I’m an addict. And then and then old people’s cookies, right? It’s a very big difference between those two, the emotions, those contracts. So when you talk about somebody who says, I’m a business analyst, what emotions does that bring up? And that’s something that people have to think about is like, Am I saying words that create the emotions that people need to feel in order to say, Yeah, I want to talk to this person, this person inspired a feeling in me. So, you know, to your point, if 8 million people all have the same job title analyst, well, great than analyst is going to conjure up boredom, it’s going to conjure up a commodity and necessity that you don’t really want you at the lowest cost commodity, you know, you want the cheapest part that you can get away with. And not someone goes, Oh, I want that. I mean, that’s why so many people have changed their titles from like, you know, bi and business analytics and stuff to data scientist because data centers like, Ooh, that sounds interesting staying as opposed to business, you know, bi manager like, oh, more that crap that we’ve been bantering of the buzzwords when you you know, you used to, you’ve managed many, many larger teams, and I have when you are on the hiring manager side, what is it people do in interviews, the stuff that stands out to you?

Katie Robbert Well, when I worked more closely with the technologists and the analysts, and the engineers, we would give them problems to solve right there. And then, you know, because we wanted to see their problem solving skills we wanted to see, we wanted to test their knowledge. So sometimes, like when we were interviewing database architects, we would literally have a piece of paper with a couple of like boxes on it. And we would describe a scenario of, of a database that we were trying to construct and watch them start to, like, draw out the way that they would construct it now, we weren’t looking for the right answer. We were looking for that critical thinking. And, you know, in the event of a business analyst, that’s a person who should be asking more questions than giving information. So what always stood out to me was in the event of a business analyst, someone who asked more questions than answered them, for example. So a business analyst by nature needs to be curious, a business analyst needs to keep digging deeper. And so if I said to someone, okay, so I have this problem, it goes ABC D, this is exactly what I want, I wouldn’t expect them to be like, Okay, that makes sense. I would expect them to start asking me more questions. And really sort of interrogating me as the interviewer because they are treating it like they are the business analyst already. And so that to me, is something that always stood out with someone who stayed true to what

the personality was needed for that particular role. So even a data analyst they need to be curious need to ask questions versus just giving like Well, here’s the answer Well, no, don’t tell me the answer ask more questions

Christopher Penn the nose you know that that brings up something from about eight, nine years ago. Now, do you remember former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld? questionable comments at a press conference where he was talking about, you know, well, they’re the known knowns. And there’s the known unknowns, and then there’s the unknown unknowns, it was in reference to, you know, something political at the time, I think that’s actually kind of a fun way to think about that, about how you should be thinking about positioning yourself as someone who’s looking for data science job of marketing job, whatever,

if you were to say, if you think about a company’s problems as, as a GPS, right, there’s a destination, and there’s how you get there, if you have, if the company has the how to get there, and the destination, they are known knowns, you know, everything there is, and so they’re going to try and say, okay, we know what we need to do, we know who we need, so we’re gonna get the lowest possible cost, that’s commodity job, right? Because it’s, it’s just getting the thing done, if you know the destination, but you don’t know how to get there, or, you know, the lay of the land, but you don’t know where to go, that’s a higher price commodity, because you don’t really know there’s a piece you’re missing. And kind of going back to that what you’re saying about asking questions, right? A really good analyst to be like, okay, so you know, where you want to go, but you don’t know how to get there. Let me help you fill in the pieces more of a consulting role. And then if you have no idea where you are, you don’t know how to get there. And you’re lost. You’re in a foreign city, someone dropped you off, you know, in the middle of St. Petersburg, and you don’t speak Russian,

you’re totally hosed. And that’s when you need that like that. That really elite

not even a data scientist or something. But someone who’s a strategist that that top shelf I no problem offer. Yeah. Problem Solver. Who can say, Okay, here’s everything you’re going to need. Because you can’t you don’t know what you don’t have no idea which way is up. And so

from a career perspective, you always have to decide who you are, like, Are you are you just the cog that fits in the machine. And there’s a place for that, because some companies will pay for that hundred percent, but they’re not gonna pay a lot for that. Are you a, an unknown solver that can fix either how to get there or where to go? Or are you that rare, you know,

super problem solver, that frankly, is never going to be an open jobs because a company or does even know how to ask for help us only that they’re going to hire somebody like a Deloitte or an Accenture. Right.

Katie Robbert Well, and I think that, you know, so that’s. So that’s a really good way to sort of think about how do you stand out in the job market is, first of all, figure out what you’re good at? What are your strengths, and I think that that’s something that people tend to gloss over because they’re just trying to be everything to everyone. And so, you know, maybe you’re not a strategic thinker, but that’s okay. You don’t have to be to be valuable, you know, or maybe you’re not the button pusher. That’s okay, too. So what else do you bring to the table. And I think that a lot of job seekers get so hung up on trying to be able to do it all, you know, they want to be the jack of all trades, they want to be that one person who’s valuable to everybody. And that’s just not sustainable. So in your example, you know, which of these buckets do you fit into? You know, are you the person who can do the thing? Are you the person who can figure out how to do the thing? Or are you that person who nobody knows, even knows who to ask for? Because you can do all of it? And to your point, that’s like the 1% Yeah,

Christopher Penn it’s, it’s kind of like

a professional sports team, right? You’re gonna have a couple of like one or two Mbps and then you’re gonna have the supporting cast, right? It’s very difficult to pull off an ensemble where everybody’s to start. In fact, I forget which Olympics it was. But there was one Olympics where it was the first Olympics were professional basketball players are allowed to be on the US Olympic team. And I recall it being a disaster because everybody wanted to be the star. Yes,

Katie Robbert yes, that’s well, and there’s a really bad analogy. But you know, it’s the whole Indians and chiefs thing of, you know, not everybody can be a chief, you have to have some Indians are not everybody can be the general you have to have some soldiers. And I think that, you know, you don’t need to go into an interview trying to establish yourself that you are

the general already I think what I tend to look for in a potential hires is someone who goes in who’s has the right personality mentality and is trainable because what I found in my experience is if you have somebody who is already so set in their ways, they’re already their mind established as leader, you can’t train those bad habits. And so I’m always looking for someone who’s a little bit more junior who is trainable that you can sort of hold on to for the long term and sort of help them grow their skills in a way that’s most valuable to your company. And so that sort of goes back to what stands out to a hiring manager. And for me, it’s having enough confidence to ask questions or say, when you don’t know the answer to something versus someone who’s trying to answer all of your questions, even if they know that the answer is wrong. So, you know, let me back up a little bit. I’m not looking for someone who’s, you know, necessarily so Junior that to your point, they don’t even know how to turn on the GPS, right? I think that it’s more you’re looking for someone who says, Okay, I understand what you’re saying, You’re trying to get to Africa. But it sounds like you don’t have a boat, right? Or plane or a plane. So let’s work together to figure out what are your other options, or let’s figure out how to build a boat or build a plane or something like that. So, you know, they’re able to ask those questions are really say, is Africa really where you’re trying to go? Or did you mean you’ve really just wanted to go to Des Moines.

Unknown Okay.

Christopher Penn tactically, one of the things I see most wrong, I see two things really wrong with people’s applications. One, I remember when you and I were looking through resumes to get every resume looks identical,

people are not using enough of the tools that they have today. Access to, like, if you have access to a smartphone, you absolutely should have a, you know, a 123 minute video on your personal website, which you should also have today, or your LinkedIn profile, at the very least introducing yourself, okay, this is who I am, this is what I do. You know, what questions can I answer from you. And the second thing is that when we look at people’s resumes, and profiles, everything is all about activity. And nothing is about outcome. Very few people put down, like, Hey, I increase the ROI of our pay per click marketing by 46%. Instead, they put down I managed 44, you know, pay per click campaigns a week, well, that’s great. But that’s not what we’re buying. If we’re buying a solution, we’re buying what you did to

Katie Robbert write how you helped the company. Yeah, I run into that a lot, as well as there’s no outcome metrics. And that’s actually a lot of the council that I’ve been giving lately is, but what did you do? You know, so when you look over your profile is riddled with words like manage supervised, coordinated, nobody cares about that. Take that out, because you’re going to have 8000 people who have done who, who say they have coordinated these things. But really, they put a bunch of Excel charts together. And that in their mind is the way that they coordinated something, tell me what you did. Tell me the outcome. Tell me the metrics. Tell me why you’re going to not waste my money. If I give you $5,000 to work with what can you do with that? Yeah,

Christopher Penn I remember there was one person I remember we talked to on the phone a few months ago, who was it took a little while to get to. But by the end of the interview, it was very clear that person didn’t actually know how to do anything. They they knew the theory only and, and they relied on a team of like, 40 people to essentially do the work for them. Yeah,

Katie Robbert which is fine. There is and is that person trainable. If you don’t know the thing, just admit it. And I think that that, for me is a huge pet peeve, because I’ll know very quickly if you don’t know what you’re talking about. So trying to pull one over on the person who’s interviewing you is never a good idea. Don’t pretend you know more than you do. Because that’s never going to set that’s never going to put you in a good light. And I think the other thing that at least I see, because your point all all the resumes look like the ones that stand out are the ones that forgot to spell check. But more than just forgotten spellcheck forgot to grammar check. And so that to me, is a huge Miss, because those are the you know, it’s that’s not new information. But those are the resumes that get tossed immediately. If you can’t be bothered to not only spellcheck but also make sure that it’s formatted correctly,

you’re not using like pink Comic Sans and like to use on your resume. And it’s not, it’s not gonna be taken seriously. Maybe there’s a job out there that calls for that. But you need to know that in advance. If you’re going for a data analyst job. Using Comic Sans probably is not the best way to present your personal brand.

Christopher Penn Yeah, although there is a time and place for everything once Exactly. Well, and you know,

Katie Robbert so perhaps, if you are applying for, you know, a social media coordinator or something like that, and demonstrating your use of emoji is a good thing, you know, so, but again, it’s that demonstrates that you understand the job, you understand what’s required of you, and what your skills need to be. Because if you’re just throwing everything out there all at once, then nobody knows who you are. Yeah,

Christopher Penn exactly. It would David most used to say that we have 37,000 things on our brochure to prove what we’re not good at anything.

Katie Robbert Yes. Well, and I think that’s, that’s the other thing get to the point, really quickly have an executive summary or that one liner of you know, here’s your tagline, I am really good at, you know, staying under budget, or I am really good at you know, herding cats, like whatever. The thing is, that you are really good at state that up front, don’t bury it somewhere else. I would say flip that around even more. It’s like, when you hire me, you will save X dollars. Exactly. Well, and I think that that’s really good, too, is, you know, even though the resume needs to be about you, if it’s to sender centric, if it’s too I did this, I get this Okay, well, what are you going to do for me as a hiring manager? What are you going to do for me as the company and so that might actually be something that people don’t really think that much about is how does the resume read to the person reading it? Does it make you sound like a narcissist, or does it make you sound like a team player? Yep.

Christopher Penn I mean, at the end of the day, it’s the same as all b2b marketing at the E as a job seeker, you have to you have to solve a one of four and ideally all for problems, which is how are you going to make me money? Save me money, save me time, aka not make my life harder, or keep me from getting fired? And if you can’t answer that, if what is on your resume, or your LinkedIn profile does not answer those questions. There’s no reason to hire you. Because I don’t need people who make my life harder.

Katie Robbert That’s right. No, and we’ve had that no, I’m not, you know, that costs more money. And that costs more time. So as a job seeker, basically, the things that you’re looking to do is to stand out. So when you mentioned, Chris, that people aren’t using some of the tools they’ve had, that they have at their disposal, you had mentioned having a personal website or having a video on their LinkedIn profile, is there any other things that they can do that are sort of low hanging fruit that you think people have,

Christopher Penn everyone has access to a word processor, a spreadsheet and the slide deck, right, because Google Docs is free,

if you have access to the Internet, and you are because you you’re listening to this,

then you have access to those tools. So even if you like, I totally get there’s some people like I don’t want to be on video. And the work I’m applying for it does not anyone that does not apply to his own need for me to be customer facing whatever video may not be the right tool. But audio like this podcast, this is an example of something that you could be a part of, even if you don’t have your own, you know, guest appearing on other people’s shows, there are podcasts for everything. Now there are, you know, people who there are automotive industry manufacturing podcasts. So if you will work on an assembly line supervising robots, guess what, there is a channel and a forum for you. If you have the ability to write and your job is focused on writing, you should have something published out there, right. It doesn’t have to be a 50,000 word novel. It could be a 10 page paper, but it shows Hey, I’m capable of this work output. It’s really hard, especially now with the knowledge economy and with MBAs and intellectual property and stuff for people to be able to share work, they’ve done it previous companies. So if you have your own thing that you’ve written, hey, here’s the thing I made that is for public consumption. If you’re a coder, and you don’t have your own repo and stuff on GitHub, that’s a miss like, yeah, you know, here’s a piece of open source software, even if it’s like, five lines of code that just change help someone change file extensions in that directory. That’s something you should be doing, whatever you do, whatever you work in, there should be something that people can see, oh, that’s what you do. And that’s the quality of the output you get. If you are an accountant, like, Hey, here’s a super easy personal spreadsheet you can use to balance your books, by the way, I’m for hire, you know, so and so forth. Mm hmm.

Katie Robbert Yeah, no, I mean, that completely makes sense. I think that, you know, people underestimate the value of having a portfolio of your work. I think that people struggle to figure out what that looks like for them. Because typically, when you think portfolio like, well, if I were a graphic designer, that would be really easy to put together because it would just be samples. But you know, I’m a project manager. So how do I put together samples of my work? Well, I would like to see a roadmap, I would like to see a timeline, I would like to see how you balance a budget or how you resource and you have samples of that. And, you know, to your point, Chris, maybe it’s not, you can’t share some previous work that you’ve done. So just mock something up that demonstrates your skill set. And those are really easy things for anyone at any level to be able to put together I would say, the mock up is probably even a better idea than the existing thing. Because, you know, you and I have both been in jobs in the past where we had constraints imposed upon us by the companies that we worked at, like, Hey, you must do it this way. And we’re like, this is the stupidest possible way you can do

Christopher Penn this thing.

But if you mock it up, there’s nothing saying, Okay, this is the best practices with the best practice looks like even if you never got a chance to do that in production. It demonstrates Hey, I know what the best practice is. And if you hire me, this is what you could have, rather than this is the crap that was forced to produce the last company is the last company only wanted left handed widgets? Mm hmm. Well, and, you know,

Katie Robbert to that point, you know, I think, again, people struggle to figure out well, I’m applying to be a social media manager. So what kind of a portfolio Can I show, mock up a tweet, mock up a Facebook post show that creativity that you want to be able to do on a regular basis show basically put together your dream job in a portfolio package, and there will be something out there for you. Yeah,

Christopher Penn you’re a lawyer, right up a case study to show like, Hey, here’s, here’s my prospect or, you know, this is where something like a blog actually makes a lot of sense is, you should be able to offer your perspective that has value. So if you’re, say, an accident and injury lawyer, and you see this a new story about how homes are more flammable now than they used to be 50 years ago, guess what, that’s a perspective you can offer that demonstrates Hey, I can think about the situation, I can see a contemporary parallel, and here’s my perspective on how to approach it. And oh, by the way, if you were to hire me into your firm, as a, as a law partner, I would be able to bring in this new line of business that you’re not thinking about, because, you know, homes are more flammable. So I can’t think of any profession were doing something that demonstrate your expertise would ever be a bad thing. I would

Katie Robbert agree with that. I would agree with that. Um, okay. So the takeaways for people who are job searching is have a LinkedIn profile, that is the absolute minimum thing that you need to do, don’t underestimate the importance of having a digital footprint. In this day and age, you need to establish that you are a real person, and that you have real experience. So LinkedIn is free, if you’re using the free version. So you can establish yourself that way, it’s very easy to create a personal website at this point in time, there’s a lot of free websites, there’s a lot of very inexpensive drag and drop website templates that you can do, you can start a blog, there’s a lot of free ways to do that, that will demonstrate your expertise, put together a portfolio and maybe you can how’s everything in LinkedIn, you know, use the tools that you have at your disposal disposal, and think about the things that you actually want to be doing with your career and focus it around those goals. And, you know, probably the best advice is, don’t forget to tap into your network, you never know where conversation is going to lead

Christopher Penn actually, the say the the biggest and best devices, going back to what you said at the beginning, which is looking for work as a full time sales job, you’re selling the most important product of all, which is your expertise. Thanks. And if you are not approaching, and as a 40 hour a week, full time job, you are short changing yourself. And, and you are diminishing your earnings. If you are, you know, a good salesperson should be cranking out, you know, pitches, especially if it’s a known product, like a resume or, you know, that that’s once you’ve got the the sales enablement materials you should be doing at probably close to 40 a day, right. And you use software you sites like indeed. com and LinkedIn stuff, but you should be cranking out 40 to 50 job applications per day. And a certain point becomes a numbers game. At a certain point, you’re like, Okay, I’ve cranked out 1000 we used to use back I know, as a technical recruiter, we use the the 10 to one ratio for every 10 the views and forever, you want to interview you want, you need to have 10 applications for every 10 applications, you know, 100, you know, thought process. So every. So if you want 10 shots at 10 different companies, you’re talking probably 1000 to 2000 applications. And that’s the environment that we’re in right now. The economy is good for job seekers, we’re recording this in your mid 2018 that can change literally on a dime. So if you are in the market right now, make the most of the time you got right now and, and crank out you know, be that’s your measure, if you’re not doing 200 applications a week do more well. And, you know,

Katie Robbert as sort of that final parting thought, you know, 200 applications a week might sound daunting. But if you use all of the different piece of pieces of advice that we’ve been talking about to set up your personal brand, set up your profile, your resume, those types of things, it’s actually not that difficult, because you have all of the organizational work done up front, and then it’s just pulling out the puzzle pieces to match with whatever job it is that you’re looking for. So prepare up front. It’s much much like meal prepping, because then you don’t have to think about your meals for the week. Do all of your cooking on Sunday, break it out into bite sized pieces. And then you can mix and match and have meals throughout the week. It’s the same thing with job hunting, be prepared up front have all of your different pieces, your portfolio, your samples, your website, your you know, references, those types of things, and then mix and match with all of those different open positions and it won’t feel very daunting anymore. It’ll actually become very automated very simple, very efficient when you

Christopher Penn think about it 200 a week you’re like right sounds like a lot it’s five an hour once you’ve got all those pieces to you can you search for and find five positions you know every hour to apply for on and indeed cop The answer is almost certainly Yes. Unless you do something really, really really niche.

Katie Robbert Yep. And if you do something really niche or if you’re struggling call us we can help.

Christopher Penn Alright. As always, please subscribe to the YouTube channel the newsletter and we will talk to you soon.

The post Deep Dive Episode: Jobseekers and Personal Brands appeared first on BrainTrust Insights.

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talabib · 3 years

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Make Your Money Work For You.

Getting on top of your personal finances can be tricky. For millennials, it’s a trickier proposition still, because this generation faces a unique set of economic and financial challenges.

But if your financial situation poses a problem, avoiding that problem will only make it worse. It’s time to rip off the band-aid, bank-account-wise. The sooner you learn to budget, start to save, and educate yourself about investment options, the sooner you’ll achieve financial success.

Being debt-free and financially autonomous has a positive knock-on effect that you’ll notice in every aspect of your life. Taking control of your finances means being able to pursue your passions, hone your confidence, and broaden your career options – it might just be the ultimate form of millennial self-care.

Millennials need to adapt to a changed economic landscape.

Millennials are a generation often stereotyped: They’re addicted to Instagram! They love queuing for cronuts! Such stereotypes, though, are far too narrow to accurately apply to all millennials. After all, this generation of people, born between the late 1970s and the mid 1990s, is the largest and most diverse generation in history. Unfortunately, there is one thing most millennials do have in common, especially in the US. They face unique challenges on the road to achieving financial success.

Previous generations since the 1950s have enjoyed relative economic stability throughout most of their working lives. As a result, they trod a fairly uncomplicated path to financial success. Let’s call this path the success sequence. It starts with acquiring a steady, life-long job, followed by purchasing property, acquiring assets, and finally, retiring with a healthy nest egg.

In the wake of the 2008 global recession, however, the economic landscape changed. The job market became volatile right at the moment many millennials were trying to enter the workforce. A steady job, the first step in the conventional success sequence, became hard to find.

Post-recession, many millennials are still scraping by: The cost of living continues to rise, whilst at the same time, wage growth is sluggish with salaries unable to keep pace with inflation. Housing prices are through the roof, which means millennials struggle to get onto the property ladder. And, finally, when it comes to securing a decent retirement, 72 percent of millennials have less than $10,000 saved for this purpose.

It’s clear that millennials face obstacles to achieving financial security. Worryingly still, many millennials currently lack the knowledge and confidence necessary to overcome these obstacles. A 2014 study by The George Washington School of Business surveyed over 5,500 millennial Americans between the ages of twenty-three and thirty-five. It found that 76 percent were financially illiterate, meaning they were unfamiliar with even the basic concepts of personal finance.

No wonder then that, according to a 2015 Gallup study, 70 percent of millennials report feeling financially stressed! The conventional success sequence that worked for previous generations is no longer applicable. This doesn’t mean, though, that millennials can’t achieve financial success on their own terms.

You’re not bad with your finances – you just lack confidence.

Forget stocks, bonds, and equity. Your greatest financial commodity is your confidence.

Financial confidence is the secret ingredient that empowers you to take control of your money and start making smart financial decisions. It’s not tied to how much you earn, either. You could be earning a lot of money but lack the financial confidence to convert your salary into monetary freedom. Conversely, you could be making a moderate wage except, with financial confidence, are able to convert your income into real, lasting wealth.

If you’re scared to look at your bank balance or you’ve put saving for retirement into the ‘impossible’ column, you’re probably lacking financial confidence. That’s understandable! Our financial systems are designed to confuse consumers and undermine their confidence.

Banks want you to pay higher fees. Lenders want you to lock into disadvantageous loans. Credit card providers want you to rack up debt. At the same time, media and advertising bombard us with messages to buy items like designer handbags or the latest smartphone, which distract us even further from the goal of financial security. It explains why so many of us slide into debt or make ill-advised impulse purchases. But here’s the good news. A patchy financial track record doesn’t mean you’re innately bad with money. It means you lack the skills and knowledge to handle your money with confidence.

One key factor inhibiting your financial confidence may be that you can't accurately envision financial success. Many of us have an inaccurate idea of what financial success actually entails. We picture wealth in terms of things: houses, cars, designer clothing, expensive meals and holidays. But this picture of financial success can seem totally unattainable. Worse, it can lead us to make poor purchasing decisions in a misguided attempt to live the ‘rich life.’

If you want to achieve true financial success, you shouldn’t work toward simply acquiring material things. Instead, you need to work toward financial autonomy. When you’re financially autonomous, you’re debt-free and not living paycheck-to-paycheck.

After you achieve financial autonomy, work towards financial freedom. This means having enough of a cushion that your finances don’t dictate what your life looks like. Imagine having the financial flexibility of taking time off work to travel, or to pursue a passion project!

If you’re ready to start working towards total financial freedom, the next step is tough but necessary: you need to become debt-free.

The main obstacle to financial freedom is debt.

Being in debt can be an isolating experience. Your peers are out there flaunting new purchases on Instagram, while you’re up at 3am wondering if you’ll ever be able to pay off your credit card bills. Rest assured, if you’re in debt, you’re not alone.

Take credit card debt, for example. In 2017, according to the Federal Reserve, US consumers put $1.021 trillion worth of purchases on credit. Additionally, roughly half of millennials report having debt spread across more than three credit cards.

The problem with credit cards is that they make it incredibly easy to live beyond your means and, unless you pay off the balance each month, this debt can snowball. That’s because every month, your bank charges you interest on purchases that aren’t paid off. Ever heard of TCP? It stands for Total Cost Price. Paying for items on credit often means their TCP works out higher than the number on their price tag. If,for example, you put a $2000 laptop on credit and didn’t pay it off for three months, factoring in the interest, the TCP on that purchase is now somewhere around $2260.

Worst of all, when you’re in debt, any money you have to spare goes into paying off that debt. When you’re debt-free, however, you can put that spare income into assets or investments, which can generate wealth.

Financial freedom and debt are simply incompatible. Whether you’re paying off your credit cards or your student loans, going debt-free should be your first financial priority. Here’s a simple way to tackle the problem.

To start, list all your debts in ascending order. It’s tempting to tackle big debts first, but strategically, it’s better to pay off the smallest ones. Researchers at Northwestern University have found that paying off smaller debts creates a sense of momentum. People who followed this approach were, in general, more likely to pay off the rest of their other debts.

You can meet your repayment targets by creating a rudimentary flash budget.This is a budget designed around one goal only – in this case, becoming debt-free. Establish your income and your expenses, and then subtract your expenses from your income. Whatever’s left over goes straight to that debt. Cutting your expenses or upping your income will accelerate your ability to pay off your debt for good. But best of all, living within a budget doesn’t mean living without indulgences.

Sticking to a budget doesn’t mean giving up life’s pleasures.

Millennials, or so the stereotype goes, would rather spend their hard-earned cash on avocado toast than into savings. If they budget right, though, millennials can have their avocado toast and save, too.

It’s all too easy to equate budgeting with cutting out purchases that, while inessential, bring passion and meaning to our lives. But, guess what? The secret to budgeting doesn’t lie in living ascetically, it’s in prioritizing purchases that bring you pleasure.

There’s a widely-used formula in Silicon Valley known as the 80/20 rule. The idea behind it goes that eighty percent of effects can be traced back to only twenty percent of causes. The best strategy, therefore, is to identify and concentrate on the small proportion of your actions that are yielding the largest proportion of results.

The 80/20 rule applies neatly to personal budgeting. Take account of your fixed expenses, like rent, debt repayments, and monthly bills. What you’re then left with are your variable expenses, or non-essential purchases. From there, identify which core groups of variable expenses bring you the most pleasure.

You can approach this task by going ‘old-school’ and printing off your account statements. Highlight all the variable expenses on the document that feed your passions and circle all the variable expenses that didn’t. You might be surprised by how many passionless purchases you make each month! These are the expenses you’re going to try and eliminate.

Meaningless expenses differ from person to person. If you’re a serious coffee-lover, don’t even think about cutting down on your morning latte. But if you drink your daily to-go coffee without even registering the taste, this might be an expense you can do without.

Once you’ve eliminated meaningless purchases from your budget, you’ll have more cash to play with each month. It’s key that this extra cash goes towards paying off debt or into growing your wealth, so make sure the surplus never hits your checking account. Instead, set up an automatic payment to either your savings account or to your credit card account. That way, while your debt dwindles or your savings grow, you’ll still get to treat yourself to the things you love.

Buy big-ticket items strategically to get the most out of your purchases.

Sick of taking the bus to work every day? Ready to stop lining your landlord’s pockets with rent checks? If you’re on the brink of making a big-ticket purchase, like buying a car or investing in property, be smart about it.

Here’s the thing about investing in a car – it can’t be done. That’s because a car isn’t technically an investment. An investment appreciates, meaning its value grows over time. A car is an expense that depreciates, or loses value year after year. According to a survey by Carfax, the typical new car depreciates by 10 per cent the minute you drive it out of the dealership.

So, if you’re in the market for a car, the smart money is on buying second-hand. Ideally, plan to pay for your car in cold hard cash. Many dealers are willing to negotiate on price if you can give them cash upfront.

Unlike a car, a house is an investment. But that doesn’t mean you should be falling over yourself to get on the property ladder.

For millennials, buying a house too early might be the worst financial investment they can make. Millennials can expect to change jobs every 3.7 years and move house up to 11 times on average. If you buy a house and then suddenly need to sell up and move, you could easily lose money.

If you’re ready to take the plunge and go in for a home, all your debts should be paid off before you buy. If you have a bad credit score, your lender is likely to set you a higher interest rate. In addition to being debt-free, you should have a 20 percent deposit ready to go.

If this financial prep sounds like a hassle, consider this: in 2018, the average American home cost $362,000. But the length and terms of the average home loan can vary wildly, according to your credit rating and the size of your initial deposit. If, for instance, you take out a 30-year loan with a fixed interest rate of 4.591 percent, totalled up, that $362,000 house will actually cost you $652,110. Compare this to the same home, paid for through a 15-year loan with a fixed interest rate of 3.645 percent. Ultimately, it will cost you $448,777 – that’s over $200,000 cheaper than the same house paid for with a less favorable loan. It goes to show that investing before you’re ready can end up costing you more.

So, remember: don’t invest early, invest optimally – that’s the secret to living the rich life.

Three easy steps to saving will set you up for life.

Thinking about how to fund your future can be stressful. But don’t get overwhelmed – take control! Meeting three simple savings objectives will get you on the right track.

Your first savings goal should be an emergency fund, with enough in it to cover any unexpected expenses that might otherwise push you into debt. As a rule of thumb, the typical millennial should aim to have about $3,000 stashed away. Make sure this money isn’t tied up in investments. It should be easily accessible in the event of an emergency. This is, after all, what it’s there for.

Next, establish a slush fund. You should have enough money in here to cover your expenses for three to six months. If you become sick or lose your job, you’ll be grateful for this cushion. While your slush fund should be in an account that’s easy to get at, don’t let that cash just sit there. Choose an account with a high APY or Annual Percentage Yield – an interest rate paid to you annually.

The final non-negotiable savings goal? Your retirement fund. If you’re a millennial, time is on your side here. Start investing in your retirement now and you’ll reap the rewards down the line. To build a healthy nest egg, though, your money needs to be earning interest. The best way to do this is to deposit it in a high-interest, dedicated retirement account.

If you’re an American millennial in an entry-level job, opening up a Roth IRA, or a Roth Individual Retirement account, is one of the smartest financial decisions you can make. As of 2018, you can deposit $5,500 in your fund annually. Best of all, the capital you invest and the interest your capital accumulates aren’t considered as part of your taxable income. That means you’re saving for your retirement and saving on tax at the same time.

It’s always a good idea to diversify your savings and investments, by splitting your savings into different accounts or funds. With that in mind, consider splitting your retirement savings between an IRA and a 401K, another tax-advantaged, dedicated retirement account. Some workplaces offer contribution matching, where every dollar you invest in your 401k is matched by your employer. Failing to take advantage of this scheme is like saying goodbye to free money!

If you’re living and working outside the United States, look for dedicated retirement accounts that offer similar tax advantages, and check to see if your employer offers matched contributions on retirement funds.

With an emergency fund, a slush fund, and a retirement fund established, your financial outlook gets a lot brighter, and you can start looking to the future with anticipation, rather than dread.

Investing might be more accessible than you think.

You work hard for your money, but does your money work hard for you? When you invest, you put your money to work. As a result, you can quickly grow your capital.

But how does investing work, exactly? Here’s the basic principle. Money has utility, or buying power. When it’s sitting in your account, untouched, you’re not accessing that potential utility. Lending your money to a third party, like a bank or a fund, allows them to use your money to turn a profit. In exchange, that third party offers you a rate of return, or a percentage of any profit they’ve made with your initial investment. There’s a catch, though. If that third party doesn’t make a profit, you won’t see a rate of return. You might even end up losing your initial investment. Nevertheless, investing wisely is the surest way to grow your finances.

When it comes to what you invest in, you have a number of options. Here are some of the most common:

Many people choose to invest by buying equity, meaning they purchase a stake of ownership in a company. This equity is issued in the form of stock, which is a small fraction of a company. When you own a fraction of a company, you receive a fraction of any profits the company makes. As an individual investor you can buy stocks through public stock exchanges, like the NYSE, NASDAQ, or LSE.

As an alternative to investing in stock, you can invest in bonds. Here, you’re still dealing with a company, but rather than purchasing a stake in it, you’re lending the company money. A bond functions like an IOU. For example, if the company needs to raise capital to make a large acquisition, it releases a number of bonds. After an agreed amount of time has passed, the company returns your money with interest.

If investing in stocks and bonds yourself doesn’t sound appealing, try investing in a mutual fund. Mutual funds are collectively financed by investors who decide to buy into them. Their pooled contributions are then invested by a fund manager. Having a professional manage your investments eliminates the need for guesswork and is a great option for those who don’t feel confident playing the stock market themselves.

Streamline savings and invest efficiently by embracing technology.

Now that you’ve given your finances a makeover by paying off your debt, streamlining your savings, and started investing, it’s time for the finishing touch: setting your accounts and investments to autopilot.

To begin, find your financial flow. Every month, as your salary comes into your checking account, it’s up to you to divert that stream of money so that it flows to meet your financial goals. Establish how much of your monthly income you want to put towards paying off debt, bulking up savings, and growing investments. If you’re tackling a student loan, set aside 15 percent of your monthly income for making loan repayments. To do that, set up an automated payment for that amount which will go from your checking account to your student loan account every month. Do the same for savings and investments. With your financial flow established, you don’t have to think about how to allocate your finances each month.

Another useful tip is to try and consolidate your accounts as far as possible. Open your checking account, your emergency fund account, and any other savings accounts through the same bank and try to use the same brokerage firm for your retirement accounts and investments. That way you’ll save on transfer and withdrawal fees.

Tech-savvy millennials are also uniquely placed to capitalize on automated investment services. In the past, investors have managed their portfolios by turning to financial advisors. But a qualified advisor can be expensive to hire and many won’t take on clients whose portfolios fall below a certain value. As a result, entry-level investors have been shut out from accessing this level of support.

Some players in the financial services sector, however, have started to embrace automation. This means that formerly intricate and labor-intensive processes can now be performed with ease by automated robo-advisors. The new breed of online investment services can offer high-level services such as rebalancing, whereby an investment portfolio is continually reshuffled so it never takes on too much risk. Previously, these kinds of services were only offered by financial advisors to clients who could make a hefty initial investment. Betterment, Wealthfront, and Personal Capital are all web-based investment services that offer robo-advising for personal investors.

As an added bonus, these online services are far less costly. Conventionally, financial advisors charge a fee that comes to between one and two per cent of AUM or Assets Under Management. That means, if you hire an advisor to manage an investment of $100,000, you’re on the hook for $1,000 to $2,000 in annual fees. By contrast, automated investment services charge an average of 0.5 percent.

So, consider downloading a portfolio management app, where you can check your investments between scrolling Instagram stories. Now you’re making money, millennial-style!

Many millennials feel overwhelmed by the economic challenges they face, and are often ill-equipped to get their finances together. But this doesn’t need to be the case! Simple steps like learning to budget with passion, structuring your savings account, and taking the plunge and investing in homes, stocks or bonds, can set the typical millennial on the road to financial success. If millennials can cultivate the confidence to establish sound financial habits, they’ll soon start to reap the rewards.

Action plan: Get (financially) naked.

Thinking of getting married? Then, you and your partner need to bare all, financially speaking. Financial stress is cited as one of the leading factors in divorces. That’s why your “happily ever after” begins with laying numbers on the table. Sit down with your partner and compare your respective debts, savings, and credit scores. Awkward as it may seem, having a frank conversation about your financial status, spending habits, and savings goals will set you up for a healthy financial partnership with your future spouse.

#Make Your Money Work For You.

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douchebagbrainwaves · 3 years

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HERE'S WHAT I JUST REALIZED ABOUT BRICK

Technology is a lever. Hacker News is an experiment, and an experiment in a very powerful position despite its small size, just as you can't find north using a compass with a magnet sitting next to it. You need to for your own sake. And not just because they'd be a lot simpler. The least ambitious way of approaching the problem is to start from the symptom and hope to fix the underlying causes. You rarely hear of a startup that's working around the clock doing deals and pumping out new features, and dies because they can't help it. The same happens with writing. Art has a purpose, which is the same they face in operating systems: they can't pay their bills and their ISP unplugs their server. It seemed obvious that beauty, for example, that you're going to sound a lot smarter talking about that than the business model. The most famous example is probably Steve Wozniak, who originally wanted to build microcomputers for his then-employer, HP. Because PR firms tell them to stop. In a remarkable coincidence, Ms.

It doesn't add; it multiplies. For products of nature that might work. A lot of doctors worry that if they don't like what they're supposed to, they'll raise the stock price, which is to interest its audience. All of you guys already have the first two. So Yahoo's sales force had evolved to exploit this source of revenue to depend on. If one of the keys to retaining their monopoly. Investors looked at Yahoo's earnings and said to themselves, here is proof that Internet companies can make money. Viaweb's was the Microsoft Word of ecommerce. This is a good instinct; investors dislike unbalanced teams. Much of the time, writing about economic inequality is the inevitable fate of countries that don't choose something worse. In the software business in this respect?

The force of a refutation depends on what works to treat as property. Neither Bill Gates nor Mark Zuckerberg knew at first how big their companies were going to grow into big, beautiful swans. A poor student who could afford only rice was eating his rice while enjoying the delicious cooking smells coming from the food shop. The average trade publication is a bunch of guesses, and guesses about stuff that's probably not your area of expertise. Is counter to the general trend in software development for the last several decades. Even the most ambitious startup ideas are. And, like Microsoft, they're losing. Then there are the tricks people play on themselves. I call the Fluff Principle: on a user-voted news site, the links that are easiest to judge will take over unless you take specific measures to prevent it. They'll just lose the de facto monopoly on certain types of learning that they once had. So for example a group that has built an easy web-based database might resist calling their applicaton that, because it could be shipped to Europe. But boy did things seem different.

It felt like releasing software without testing it. Real estate is still more expensive than just about anywhere else in the country. Instead tastes are a series of concentric rings, like ripples in a pond. It has an English cousin, travail, and what it means is torture. Good ideas always tend to win eventually. So if you want to know what the basic human reaction to a piece of writing and step back and ask whether the author is wrong or right than what his tone is. The good things in a community site come from people more than technology; it's mainly in the prevention of bad things that technology comes into play. And that has a bunch of hackers.

Hacker News needs to avoid: bad stories and bad comments. It's a good exercise for you, too, to sit down and try to figure out how to make money from it. They'll just discard that sentence as meaningless boilerplate, and hope, with increasing impatience, that in the next sentence you'll actually explain what you've made. You can't expect employers to have some kind of paternal obligation that isn't there in transactions between equals. For example, if a senator wrote an article saying senators' salaries should be increased, one could respond: Of course he would say that. If all you have to do is expand it. In Hollywood, these phrases seem to be deliberately trolling, we ban them ruthlessly. Lewis in The Boston Globe. We can, however, which makes images with definite shapes more engaging than mere blur. Not just the first step into a swamp. The theory is that minor forms of bad behavior encourage worse ones: that a neighborhood with lots of graffiti and broken windows becomes one where robberies occur.

Right now, ambitious kids going to art school run smack into a brick wall. Losing, for example. It would be pretty cool if merely by staying in regular contact with us will push you to make things, taste becomes a practical matter. I don't know if this one is possible, but there you face bureaucratic obstacles that would slow down a startup. One of the weirdest things about Yahoo when I went to work at Yahoo. We estimated, based on some fairly informal math, that there were about 5000 stores on the Web. But the reason reporters ended up writing stories about this particular truth, rather than how or by whom. Newspapers and magazines are just as screwed, but they are at least declining gracefully. Maybe it's not a sign of sanity. Maybe options should be replaced with a new protocol. If people are expected to behave well, they tend to repel you. Such messages must be implicit.

But with the arrival of networks, it's as if we've moved to a planet with a breathable atmosphere. Readers aren't the only ones who've noticed the change. But they could not have put into words exactly how their ugly ducklings were going to grow into a giant company? It sounds ridiculous to us to treat smells as property. If anyone is dishonest, it's the reporters. In the channel era, both flowed down from the top. Roughly that you can't fool mother nature. Most startups face similar challenges, so we encourage them to focus on just two goals: a explain what you're doing, and b don't just like whatever they grew up with. But we weren't saying this to be benevolent. Now we have a way of classifying forms of disagreement, and probably also the most common. If you pay them by the hour, they'll work a lot of work. But it will happen, and it would still be just as great an achievement as the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel to a blank canvas is that the only thing to interest someone arriving at HN for the first time.

Thanks to Aaron Swartz, Robert Morris, Joe Hewitt, Reid Hoffman, and Sam Altman for their feedback on these thoughts.

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entirebodyexercise · 3 years

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6 Weight-Management Practices the Pros Follow

The most intelligent means to handle your weight for endurance efficiency is to emulate the techniques of the fastest men and also women in the world. This post is from Racing Weight, Matt Fitzgerald's tested weight-management program developed specifically for endurance athletes.

The leanest bikers, joggers, and triathletes are typically likewise the fastest endurance ones. This pattern holds even within the choose ranks of the experts. One study reported that in a tiny group of elite Ethiopian runners, all which were very lean as well as extremely quick, those with the least body fat had the most effective race times.

Genes account for a portion of the difference in body fat levels in between private endurance professional athletes. There is a propensity among us age groupers to overstate the value of the genetic payment to leanness in the pros. We want to think that the world-class males and females that were honored with the ideal DNA can consume whatever they want without placing on body fat.

In reality, the majority of the leading cyclists, joggers, and triathletes work very hard at managing their weight and also body make-up for efficiency. Just what's more, they have the tendency to depend on the very same methods to remain lean. As well as presume just what? The identical methods of weight monitoring that work so well for the globe's best endurance professional athletes are could assist daily rivals like us accomplish our optimum racing weight as well, also if that weight is a couple of pounds more than the pros'.

I have actually invested a great deal of time researching the diets and also weight-management methods of world-class endurance professional athletes. In 2009 I collected the top 5 as well as linked them into a methodical program in my publication, Racing Weight. Given that then I have actually determined a 6th key method and also added it to the recently released 2nd edition of Competing Weight. Allow's have a look at these 6 methods.

Step 1: Enhance Your Diet regimen Quality

After graduating from the College of Wisconsin in 2007 as a five-time NCAA champion, Chris Solinsky moved to Portland, Ore., to run expertly for Nike. He likewise decided to boost his eating practices. As opposed to adopting a diet plan with a name (e.g. vegan, paleo, gluten cost-free) as well as lots of odd rules, he merely boosted the total high quality of his diet plan in commonsense ways, consuming more veggies, less icy pizzas, etc. Consequently he shed several pounds and accomplished an efficiency innovation, establishing an American record of 26:59:60 for 10,000 meters in 2010.

Increasing the total quality of your diet plan is the most basic and also most efficient means to drop excess body fat and move closer to your optimum auto racing weight. That means eating more of the 6 groups of top quality foods-- vegetables, fruits, nuts and also seeds, lean meats and also fish, whole grains, and also milk-- and less of the 4 categories of low-grade foods-- polished grains, fatty meats, desserts, and fried foods. In Racing Weight I provide an one-of-a-kind scoring system that allows professional athletes to easily rank the top quality of their diet and methodically increase it.

Step 2: Manage Your Appetite

At the height of his training for the Ironman Globe Championship annually, triathlon tale Peter Reid maintained no food in his kitchen area-- none-- to make sure that he would not be tempted to overeat. It was an extreme action, but Reid knew his excellent auto racing weight was 164 to 165 pounds (or 7-10 pounds below his natural off-season weight) as well as he recognized that he can not reach his auto racing weight if he completely indulged his hunger. It's tough to argue with the outcomes: three triumphes and also 3 runner-up surfaces in Kona in between 1998 and 2004.

Research carried out by Brian Wansink, writer of Meaningless Eating, and also others has demonstrated that many people automatically consume a lot more food than they need unless they take mindful actions to regulate their "food environment" and eat even more mindfully. These procedures do not should include removing every one of the food from your cooking area, yet they may include eliminating every one of the low-grade temptations from your kitchen and replacing your present meals with smaller dishes on which you serve on your own slightly smaller sized portions.

Step 3: Balance Your Power Sources

The globe's ideal runners originate from Kenya and Ethiopia. The diet plan of the normal Eastern African jogger is 76 to 78 percent carbohydrate. Compare that to the diet plan of the typical American, which is just 48 percent carbohydrate. Research going all the method back to the 1960s has constantly revealed that a high-carbohydrate diet regimen best sustains intensive endurance training. The low-carb diet plan craze of the late 1990s and very early 2000s has actually cast a lengthy shadow, triggering many age-group athletes to consume as well little carb to properly support their training.

Actually, not every endurance professional athlete needs a high-carb diet plan. Carbohydrate demands are carefully connected to training quantity. The more you train, the more carbs you require. Use this table to determine the day-to-day carbohydrate intake target that's right for you.

Step 4: Monitor Yourself

When Bradley Wiggins won the Excursion de France in 2012 he considered 158 pounds and had 4 percent body fat. Four years earlier, when he won his last Olympic gold medals as a track cyclist, Wiggins weighed 180 extra pounds and his body fat level was a few factors greater. His slendering was a major variable in his Scenic tour de France victory, and he achieved that slendering partially by continuously monitoring his weight as well as body composition.

In business there's an expression: "Just what gets determined obtains handled." If you're attempting to minimize your weight and also body-fat percentage, it only makes sense to determine these points regularly. The pros do, and research study has shown that nonathlete dieters who evaluate themselves typically lose extra weight compared to those that avoid the scale. I suggest that all endurance athletes evaluate themselves at the very least as soon as a week as well as use a body fat range such as the Tanita Ironman to estimate their body-fat percentage as soon as every four weeks.

Step 5: Time Your Nutrition

A normally huge man that when tipped the ranges at 200 extra pounds, professional triathlete T.J. Tollakson stays lean by frontloading his everyday power consumption according to the adage "eat morning meal like a king, lunch like a royal prince, as well as dinner like a poor man."

With respect to weight monitoring, when you eat is nearly as vital as just what you consume. The most crucial times of the day to eat are in the morning as well as within a hr after exercises since calories consumed at these times are much less likely to be stored as fat as well as more most likely to be integrated into muscle mass tissue as well as made use of for prompt power needs.

Step 6: Train for Competing Weight

Nearly all specialist endurance athletes train by just what's called the Lydiard approach, which entails doing a high volume of training, concerning 80 percent of it at low strengths, 10 percent at modest intensities, and 10 percent at high intensities.

While a low-volume, high-intensity strategy to training has gotten popularity among age-group endurance professional athletes recently, it is not the most effective means to train for endurance efficiency or achieve a lean body structure. Research gives clear support for the Lydiard method that is made use of virtually generally by the elites.

Obviously, couple of age groupers have the moment, power, or durability to educate as much as the pros do, yet that's not the factor. The point is to maintain a training quantity that is close to your personal restriction and also to maintain the strength low for four from every five exercises. If you do this you will shed far a lot more calories as well as develop greater cardiovascular fitness than you possibly could by doing the small volume of training you can take care of if you go hard (or also reasonably difficult, as a majority of age groupers do) in many workouts.

When it pertains to training and also consuming to obtain your optimum auto racing weight, the very best point to do coincides thing you carry out in races: adhere to the pros!

Racing Weight, 2nd ed.

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Racing Weight, 2nd Ed.

How to Obtain Lean for Peak Performance

Matt Fitzgerald

#cardiovascular fitness #fitness #weight #workouts

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