#holy filters Roy
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on the sixth day of halloween my true boo gave to me...one (not) hallucination
Any mission that the Outlaws were able to get away from was a good mission. Except they’re maybe having some issues with the actual getting away part. Kori is out for the count — Jason has her in a fireman’s carry, walking backwards while he covers their retreat — and Roy is well aware that there is probably something really wrong with his leg. But he can hobble onto the ship and get it into the air and —
They make it out of danger, which is to say, the planet they’re leaving doesn’t have space travel yet, before the alarms start going and he’s pulling up the screen and —
“Shit, shit,” he chants and tries the fixes he knows and, he presses the intercom button so that he can be heard wherever Jason’s ended up — his bet is on the infirmary getting Kori settled, and healed if he can. “We’re losing pressure, bad. There’s a break in the hull, front port — if you can get Kori awake she might be able to weld it shut until we can get somewhere to fix it for real, but we’ve probably only got like three hours before we’re space dust if we don’t stop it.”
“Kori isn’t going to wake up for a while,” Jason says from behind him, and Roy jumps so hard in shock he jars his leg and has to swallow back a pained whimper. He must succeed because Jason doesn’t stop talking his voice no longer filtered through his helmet. “I’ve got her stabilized but the system can’t figure out what they drugged her with. But I’ll take care of the hull if you can just keep driving us home.”
And as soon as Jason says that the alarms stop blaring and when Roy checks the readouts it says they’re holding steady and that doesn’t make any sense. Kori can seal up a crack but Jason can’t — and how could he do it from the bridge with him — what did he do, threaten to shoot at it and make it behave?
“How —“ Roy turns around and abruptly forgets how to breathe. “Okay,” he says, transfixed and having more than a little trouble thinking, “I know I said that the only place I was hurt was my leg, but I think I was wrong. I think I hit my head. Or got drugged. Or something because…” He gestures expansively with his hands even though there’s no way Jason could intuit what he’s seeing.
And he, honestly, doesn’t have words for it.
Jason walks closer. And Roy honestly isn’t sure if he’s a hallucination, although he can feel the vibration of the steps on the metal flooring so if he’s a hallucination he’s a solid one, or if the hallucination is just what he’s wearing. Which is, well, it’s not his Red Hood gear that’s for sure.
But Jason is frowning and his hands are coming up to Roy’s shoulders and carefully guiding him back to sit down and then those same careful hands are checking Roy’s head and —
And Roy cannot think because there is a cleavage window and he’s not blind, he knows that Jason has a nice chest, the things he wears under his body armor are tight but…but this is — this is just too much.
Something about the cleavage window is a lot more provocative than just no shirt, too, and Roy can’t even make fun of the fact that the cut out is in the shape of a bat because — because if he makes fun of it maybe it’ll go away and that is absolutely the last thing he wants.
Of course, if it’s a hallucination it’s going to either go away or get worse or something but —
Holy shit, he’s just going to enjoy this for as long as he can.
“How many fingers am I holding up?” Jason asks, and Roy can see there’s a hand extended but he cannot move his gaze from where it’s locked. Jason is always covered up — which Roy hasn’t thought much of until now and now he’s not sure he’s going to be able to think of anything else ever again.
“Are your nipples pierced?” he asks, his own voice sounds an octave higher and much breathier than he’s used to but, well, he’s pretty sure no one could blame him if they could see what he’s seeing. Which no one else can because this is absolutely a figment of his imagination.
Jason laughs, which does interesting things to his chest and Roy is starting to wonder if maybe the oxygen leak was worse then he thought and he’s dying and hallucinating and —
But Jesus, what a way to go.
“You’re fine, Harper,” Jason says with a huff, but his fingers are still gentle against the back of Roy’s skull.
“I know you are, but what am I,” Roy responds and then fails to stop his hand from reaching up and touching the chest in front of him. For a hallucination it seems very solid. And he’d think that maybe Jason was actually there but he can feel the warmth of silky skin and — “Jesus,” he breathes. “I might be dying and my mind is trying to give me something nice to see.”
There’s a choked sound that Roy thinks is probably a smothered laugh. “Okay, get the autopilot set up and we’ll get your knee looked at.”
Roy would, he really would, but as much as he’s bragged about being able to fly the ship blindfolded or one handed he actually can’t and he can’t look away from the glorious sight in front of him so — he whimpers when Jason turns him around, and he tries to keep looking over his shoulder but then those hands are turning his face back towards the screen and —
Petulantly he gets the autopilot set up towards the nearest friendly planet they’ll be able to do repairs at. There’s still, he thinks, a decent chance they’re actually already dead but he might as well try and hey, if they’re not and he just took a knock to the head it’ll be a good story later.
“There, set,” he says, and promptly turns around — only to be lifted up and out of the chair and — okay, so it’s not a cleavage window but it’s still a good view. The hallucination suit is a lot tighter than the Red Hood outfit and Roy wants to know if he can petition for Jason to swap his pants out for tights because damn. “Are you wearing heels?” he asks, after a moment as his gaze trails closer to the ground.
“I’m literally holding the ship together and you care about my heels,” Jason says, voice light like this is something they joke about and Roy is just, not having a good time processing.
“They do,” Roy says, reaching out a hand to pat the body part in question, “amazing things to your ass.”
The jostle he gets for that is probably fair, to be honest, even if he can tell Jason is still being careful of his knee. And then he’s being put down on the exam chair for the robo-doc to take a look at his knee and he can look at the full sight as Jason punches in the instructions to the wall unit and some dull spark of memory flairs to life.
“Wait, are you — are you seriously a Star Sapphire?” Roy asks, incredulous, not because he doesn’t think Jason is one of the most loving people he knows — if hidden behind an epic amount of surly attitude and ammunition most of the time — but because shouldn’t he have…
Vaguely the memory of a drinking game when they first teamed up comes back to him and —
Jason shoots him an amused look before clicking the last button on the wall and Roy falls back with a groan as the med-robot blocks his view.
“It’s unfair that you’ve been hiding this suit from us! You’ve been holding out and I, for one, am deeply offended!” Roy shouts out the open door after Jason, because yes, okay he thought he was dying and hallucinating but he refuses to be ashamed of what really was a natural reaction to Jason Todd in a skin tight Star-Sapphire uniform with heels and a cleavage window.
#jayroy#royjay#jason todd#roy harper#star sapphire jason todd#this one also will be posted to ao3 at some point#but probably cleaned up#maybe with some things added#idk maybe it's not shippy enough?#i should make it shippier#but right now i need to get this posted and go to sleep#also note that originally i wasn't going to post another dc fic for the twelve days of halloween#but ya'll were so lovely about day five you get this#so i hope you enjoy
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The Dick Grayson Program to Jailbreak
read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/49379566
by sarriathmg
Perhaps Bruce longed for the days of working with a partner, but Dick never expected to come home to the new short blond kid android wearing his former uniform, doing acrobatics, and saying things like “Holy moly, Batman! That was a darn swell thing!”
Dick never expected he’d be replaced by an AI.
What was more, Dick found something else about Jason Todd that made him different.
“Can you say ‘fuck,’ Jason?”
“Fudge.”
“No. FUCK.”
“FUDGE.”
…So this was going to be interesting.
BINGO Fills: Mentor/Protégé | Secrecy | Artificial Intelligence
Bottom Jason Todd Week 2023 Day 3 - Free Day
Words: 3581, Chapters: 1/4, Language: English
Fandoms: Batman (Comics)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Categories: M/M
Characters: Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Roy Harper
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Jason Todd
Additional Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Non-Consensual Somnophilia, Sex Education, Training, Mildly Dubious Consent, Batman: A Death in the Family, Eventual Happy Ending, Humor, Robot Sex, Dildos, Dirty Talk, Bad Dirty Talk, Virginity Kink, Loss of Virginity, First Time Blow Jobs, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Jason Todd Does Not Swear, His Maker Put a Filter on Him, Jason Todd is a Robot, Jason Todd is Robin, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Banter, Minor Joyfire Later
read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/49379566
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Equal to the amount of times Jason jokingly called Roy the possessive girlfriend, they were out of each other's hair for days, even weeks. Pauses in their bromance were primarily instigated by Jason, but the archer had his moment of much needed solace. Mostly when demons were bagging around in his head or when Ollie brought him back into the fold of Team Arrow. It was mutual this time around, more or less. Both men had their own lives, but Roy's certainly felt more dour without his partner in crime by his side. The front door was locked... Of course it was; between them only Jason would smartly take the precaution.
Key was in one pocket of a duffle or another, and frankly the archer couldn't be bothered to rummage through his messy belongings. Naturally the redhead took the rooftop of their headquarters, lithely climbed down the exterior wall, and snuck inside his own unlocked bedroom window. Christ. The place smelled of stale laundry and old pizza crust. Bags were deposited onto his bed lazily before he kicked off his boots and exited his room. The entire loft was flooded in darkness. Had he not padded around the place a hundred times before in the middle of the night, Roy would've tripped over the scattered shoes, mechanical pieces, and xbox games which littered the shared space.
One quick glance inside the fridge revealed nothing but condiments and an old bottle of orange juice. Cabinets, too, were riffled through, and at least he came out of it with a box of Captain Crunch. No clean bowls though. Using what little light filtered in from streetlights and the moon, Roy looked high and low for clean... anything. Green eyes jerked to the side. The thinnest line of light emanated from beneath the door of Jason's room. Was Jay around, or was it just the light from outside? Eh, why not. He knew how much Jason hated it when Roy entered his room when he wasn't there, but couldn't the man keep the place tidy? Ironic coming from the biggest slob of them all. He didn't give the matter two thoughts as he turned the door knob with his unoccupied hand and boldly walked inside.
Light had been shinning inside of Jay's room; the light from a laptop screen. Roy didn't see what was on the screen. He couldn't and wouldn't even if the screen was facing him. Like under a spotlight, Jason was naked from the hips down and hand was pumping fast against his slick erection. The light from the laptop made the pre-cum and lubricant on Jason's dick all the more shiny. Thick, wet cock. Roy was too shocked and too in awe to rush away with comical embarrassment. The archer stared for way too long because sense kicked him in the head. Box of cereal dropped from his hand as he stepped back and slammed the door shut. Holy Christ! It was honestly a wonder it had never happened before considering how close the two of them were. "Sorry! I.... I... I'll get out of here!" /@knightlier
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Boost Your E-commerce Success with a Top-notch WooCommerce SEO Agency
Introduction
In the fast-paced world of online business, having a well-optimized website is crucial for attracting organic traffic and achieving a competitive edge. If you're running an e-commerce store built on WooCommerce, you might be wondering how to improve your search engine rankings and increase visibility. Look no further! In this blog, we will explore the benefits of hiring a specialized WooCommerce SEO agency and how it can take your online store to new heights.
Understanding WooCommerce SEO
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#Woocommerce Seo Services#woocommerce seo agency#woocommerce seo company#woocommerce seo consultant#SEO Services company#top seo company
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A (poorly filtered) J with dabs on the side, sprinkled generously with keif. Party favorite
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FTWD 6x12 - In Dreams
Wow! This episode was Amazing! As I told my fellow theorists, this is one of those episodes, much like TWD 10x18, Find Me, that’s kinda gonna be a holy grail of TD symbolism. So buckle up! There’s a lot here to unpack.
***As always, spoilers for FTWD 6x12 abound below. Don’t read until you’ve watched!***
This episode really was amazing, but also super-sad. While obviously it’s extremely tragic the baby didn’t make it, I will say that I’m glad Grace isn’t leaving the show just yet. It was amazing for the symbolism but also for the masterful storytelling. I got to a point at the end where I was trying to decide which ending they were going for (whether Grace would live or die) but the truth was actually a third outcome I totally didn’t see coming. I write fiction myself and so it’s really hard to take me by surprise, but this episode did it.
First and foremost, this episode is really great evidence that Leah is a hallucination and/or dream. I know I’ve posted about how we think the bright and somewhat fuzzy colors show that. But let me illustrate. Here’s is a pic from 10x17 of Daryl and Maggie in the woods. Just take note of the greens and browns. This is the filter they generally use in TWD and it’s not hugely saturated with color. That’s on purpose because it’s a post-apocalyptic world and they want it to feel bleak.
Compare that pic to the one below it from Find Me. See the difference?
Well, same thing in this episode about Grace. Here, they tell us flat out and pretty early that it’s not real. So they aren’t trying to trick us like they did in 10x18. So, this is evidence (if not proof in my book) because if the colors look like this and it’s a dream/hallucination for Grace, then it must be for Daryl, too, right?
Okay, but let’s get to specifics. First off, Roy Orbison. We’ve seen/heard references to him SO often, and usually in conjunction with Beth symbolism. Pretty much this entire episode centers around his song, In Dreams.
Not only is there the saturation of the colors, but there is tons of PINK. (Pink Theory).
So Grace wakes up in the middle of the woods, and already, things feel ethereal.
I didn’t even realize it at first, but she’s lying on her back and sees birds flying in circles above her. Just like Beth and Daryl in Inmates.
A walker attacks her, and both it’s arms end up breaking. We saw that very recently in the Aaron/Father Gabriel episode (10x19). We’re not entirely sure what it means yet, but forearms symbolism has been a thing, in different iterations, for a while. So, that’s one we’re working on understanding.
She meets a young woman named Athena (who we’ve looked into before for various reasons; for one thing, the owl a symbol of Athena, and that’s definitely been a TD symbol in the past).
Athena asks her if she can remember her name, and Grace can’t. This is reminiscent of Dawn asking Beth at Grady if she can remember her name.
When Grace stands up, she pulls her sweater up over her shoulder. Even though this isn’t a romantic situation, it reminded me SO much of when Beth did it in 4x01 after hugging Daryl. And given the bright yellowness of the sweater? Yeah, she’s definitely a Beth proxy.
In the opening credits, we see Grace, but just for a moment, there’s an overlay of Athena over top of her. We see her walking stick clearly, but then she disappears. I noticed that when I first watched it, and rewound, trying to understand what it was, but of course I didn’t until I watched the episode.
Speaking of Athena’s stick, @wdway did some research because she thought it looked similar to sticks the blind use to guide them. Check this out.
So, clearly Athena isn’t using it that way, but the theme of being blind is there. I’ll talk more about this later, but we see several walkers get stabbed through one eye, which both suggests blindness and is part of the Sirius/one eye symbolism. The “blind” walking stick is just another way to show this same theme.
Athena takes her back to Morgan’s community, and we quickly learn that it’s been 16 years since the last episode, and Athena is actually Grace’s unborn child. So clearly, this is a dream or vision of some kind.
She had to convince Morgan of who she is, which she eventually does.
So, here’s the thing. I, for one, am very focused on what foreshadows Beth, right? And there is TONS of dialogue in this episode that could potentially be applied to her.
For example, in this scene, Morgan says, “You can’t be here.” Grace: “Why?” And then it just shows her grave stone. Morgan says, “I buried you myself.”
Now, we don’t think Daryl actually buried Beth, but he tried at a white church. (X). However, the idea of Daryl saying something like this, (You can’t be here. You’re dead.) works very well.
Later in the same scene, Grace says, “people don’t get what they wish for.” To which Morgan replies, “Sometimes things happen that you just can’t explain.” It reminded me of something Dwight said back in S4/S5 when he was still looking for Sherry. He says, “impossible shit happens.” He was referring to him finding Sherry again, which he did. This was referring to Morgan seeing Grace again after he thought she’d died. Which he also did (even if it was just in her dream). Although, it definitely gave the impression that maybe she did die for a few minutes in the barn before he resuscitated her. So, you could argue that that aspect of her dream came true.
I had to chuckle when June showed up to check her out. She literally checks her eyes and says she sees no sign of brain injury. Um, yeah. Brain injury CAN show up in the eyes, but just because it doesn’t, doesn’t mean she doesn’t have one. Clearly, they didn’t want to use screen time to show June do an entire, thorough check of Grace, but there was a little bit of medical unreality here. Of course, you could argue that this is Grace’s dream and she’s not a doctor, so she wouldn’t have known better.
But more to the point, they mention a concussion (which Edwards said Beth had), traumatic brain injury (which Beth sustained in Coda) and then combine it with Grace not remembering her name at the beginning, and the unrealities of Carol’s recovery at Grady in S5, and I’d say this is a very on-the-nose replay of Grady.
We see a really sweet future where Strand and Daniel are friends and Sherry and Dwight are not only back together, but have two kids. A baby girl named Tina (Sherry’s sister who died in TWD S6 and, might I add, was a Beth proxy) and a little boy named John after John Dorie. Very sweet.
But I was thinking while watching it that chances are, none of that will actually happen. And I was thinking about it from an outside-the-story aspect. They’re already talking about people from Fear crossing back over to main TWD. And I don’t necessarily think we’ll see it in S11, but probably in the spinoff. So, I feel like this community Morgan is building will go down at some point.
And that doesn’t mean Dwight and Sherry won’t get back together. I actually think they will. I’m just saying it won’t happen exactly as Grace saw it in her dream. Compare it to Carl’s dream of the future during S8, before he died. Certain aspects of that have or will come true, but he won’t live to see it. So not all of it will. See what I mean?
And then the showrunner kind of confirmed this during the “inside the episode.” He said what Grace saw was just a dream and none of it was actually going to come to pass. ☹
Grace then asks Morgan how he managed to build the community and bring everyone together. He answers that it was Athena. Because they lost Grace, everyone rallied around her child and that’s what kept everyone together.
I actually think we saw this theme somewhat in 5b. After they lost Beth (and Tyreese) everyone sort of rallied around Judith, who was still a baby. I had an idea while watching the beginning of the episode that Grace = Beth and Athena = Judith. Now, Athena doesn’t survive, so I’m not sure how far I can push that. But it’s still interesting to think about.
This walker is an interesting one. We could really go down a rabbit hole iwth it. First off, there’s the shirt that says, “don’t mess with Texas.” As I’ve been talking about Eugene lately, I’m sure you’ll recognize the Texas/New Mexico/western theme.
The missing eye is sirius symbolism. But the glasses make me think of two specific walkers we saw in the past. The woman in the food bank that father Gabriel had a relationship with,
and also this one that Glenn and Nicholas saw. You know, right before Glenn’s death fake out.
I won’t go into what they both mean in detail. I’m sure it’s enough to say that both walkers, in both situations, are Beth proxies of one sort or another.
And I’m sure we should be reading into the fact that it comes on a loop. They see/kill it over and over again as Grace becomes “awake” in her dream.
Of course, Athena has a Walkman and listens to music all the time. I’m sure I don’t have to explain that one. But what really caught my ear was the part where Morgan turned it off in the real world and in the dream, Athena said, “You broke it.” Very similar to the music box being broken in 5x10.
And then Grace says she didn’t break it. Morgan just turned it off. I’m seeing that as a hint that Beth was never dead. Just sleeping. When she finally starts connecting all the dots, Grace has lots of interesting lines that could apply to Beth, or could also apply to the Daryl/Leah situation.
“I’m unconscious.” (Beth)
“It’s just fragments of different memories. Things I’ve thought about. My brain is trying to make sense of it all.” (Daryl/Leah).
At one point, Grace tells Athena she is strong (Beth’s “I am strong,”) and that she’ll bring everyone together. Bring everyone hope.
Seriously, EVERY line of dialogue in this episode jumped out at me in some way.
Let me back up a minute. When we see the car with the “end is the beginning” graffiti on it, the trunk is open, which is significant.
Grace also talks about how she was on the highway with Morgan, and they saw this car, and there was an explosion.
Now, we’ve never talked much about anything like this with Beth because we don’t have tons of evidence for it. But I do remember that spoilers (the same ones that reported seeing her at the white cabin during S5 filming) mentioned a car chase near Terminus, and we never saw that, either. So, I think it’s possible something like this might happen during the missing 17 days. Just speculation on my part, though.
Also a major “wake up” theme here. I mentioned this about a week ago HERE when I did a bunch of mini rewatches. The symbolism of what’s real vs what’s a dream has actually been very prevalent throughout the entire series. I just don’t think TD homed in on it until the Leah episode just recently.
We heard it clear back in ep 1 with Rick. We saw it with Denise just before she died. And we saw Beth’s eyes flutter open at Grady when she “woke up,” so it’s safe to say this can be applied to Beth.
Morgan says repeatedly to Grace that she needs to wake up. Once she realizes she’s unconscious, she repeats it many times as well. “I need to wake up.”
In terms of how this might speak to Leah being a hallucination for Daryl, consider this. Grace is inside her hallucination, and she says things like this:
“I’m unconscious.” “This isn’t real.” “It’s in my head. Fragments of different memories…” Yeah, that’s what we’ve been saying about 10x18 for weeks.
Grace’s hallucination represents the future she hopes will come to pass, but what she actually sees is an amalgamation of people she knows and memories she has. Her brain just fills in the blanks.
By the same token, Leah represents something Daryl wants (not to be alone anymore) but she’s an amalgamation of past experiences and people he knows in real life. (Rick, Carol, and especially Beth.)
Then we have the white horse symbol. This is something we’ve known for a long time. It’s the black/white theme, but we saw a white horse and a “you’re still alive” sign near Morgan in 6x16. Rick also rode a white horse in 9x05, just before he didn’t actually die. So the white horse represents someone living.
Interestingly, the first time she sees the white horse, it’s a picture hanging in the air, apparently from nothing. But it reminds me a lot of the plate glass windows we see hanging from the trees during S8/AOW.
Grace and Athena rode one to the barn where Grace lived and sort of reunited with Morgan. And yes, it’s a little bit sneaky, because both Athena and Grace were on the horse, and Athena didn’t make it. It was hard to tell which one it would apply to. But that’s exactly how the writers keep us guessing. It’s why we don’t usually know things for sure until we can see them in hind sight.
But in this case, we could have guessed Grace would live because of that horse. More on that in minute.
When Riley shows up in the hallucination, Grace kills him and realizes Athena represents her real baby and can feel the contractions too. She has an interesting line. “I was wrong. You are real. It’s the only thing that makes sense. We’re connected.”
This is the kind of line that jumps out at me as a foreshadow of Beth. For years, we’ve wondered if Daryl will see Beth and think he’s hallucinating. In the wake of the Leah episode, I suspect this more than ever. Especially if at some point, he realizes Leah isn’t real, when he sees Beth, he won’t trust his own eyes and his own mind. So this line could apply to some future storyline.
Of course Grace says things like, “I need to wake up so you can be born.” “I need to wake up so you’re all right.” I was writing so fast, my hand was cramping, lol.
While riding the white horse, they cross a small bridge, which is clearly symbolic. But I also noticed that Grace passed the truck we saw her driving around last season. In the cab is a walker in a radiation suit and a radiation detector (I’m sure there’s a more official name for that, lol).
It gave me a new perspective on the cars. While I’m sure they represent many things, they represent things that have happened in the characters’ pasts. And that works well for everything we’ve always said, because it means when Daryl sees a blond walker in a car, it’s all about his past. And Beth.
There’s a moment when Grace actually seems to die. She stops breathing and appears to be dead, even in the dream.
Couple of things here. 1) I’ve said for years that Beth may have truly, medically died for a short time period. As in, her heart stopped before restarting. That would be a sneaky way to fulfill all the “death” symbolism around her but have her still live/resurrect. This may be evidence of that. 2) Did you see everything run backward? It’s at this part when Grace stops breathing, we see everything run in backward motion for about 30 seconds. Almost as though they need to rewind or reset to get the story back on the right track.
The key. I guess we should talk about the key. Very interesting stuff. As per this episode, the key represents the cost of peace. And they talked about it being the future.
Remember back in S8, there was an episode called “The Key to the Future.” So this is a repeated theme. But we’ve seen keys around Beth for a long time, especially at Grady. It kept showing keys being used to open doors in order to get Rick and Daryl in to do the prisoner exchange.
So, here’s what I’m thinking for this. I think the cost of peace was Beth being shot. We’ve thought for a long time that Beth will save TF in some way. Probably during the CRM war or maybe in some way that has nothing to do with war (i.e. famine or lack of water).
We don’t know how that will play out, yet. But if key = cost of peace, then seeing keys at Grady probably shows that the cost of saving TF down the road is Beth getting shot. It went the way it had to. The way it was always going to. So she could save them.
@frangipanilove likes to say that Fear functions as our key (like the kind you find on a map) to understanding TD symbolism. And this is a good example. They told us what the key symbol stands for and it makes other things we’ve seen and theorized make sense.
In a more literal, plot-related sense, Riley also said, “That key is going to change everything.”
And, I don’t actually think it’s a good thing that they gave it away. I think Grace’s logic in the moment was absolutely sound. The baby was going to be the Savior. And the baby’s strength would supplant whatever advantage that key gave whoever has it.
But the baby, tragically, died. So…they probably need to get that key back.
Also interesting to note that back in S8, the book “A Key to a Future” was about building windmills and water aqueducts. Major water symbols, and once again, water = Beth.
Speaking of the baby as savior, that’s definitely a theme, as I described above. The people rallied around her in Grace’s dream and she kind of saved everyone just by living.
@wdway pointed out that Grace giving birth in a barn on top of hay gives it a manger feel, which is probably what they were going for.
So, Athena, in the dream, is also something of a proxy for Beth.
When they enter the barn, we see something super interesting. There’s a walker point up at a cage with a dove in it. The walker doesn’t even try to get them when they enter, but that’s because it’s Grace’s dream. But this is SUCH a potent TD symbol. A bird in a cage = imprisonment. And there was an empty bird cage in Beth’s cell in 4x01, as well as near Connie just before she disappeared.
We also think it was probably a dove (you can hear it cooing). So with the manger motif as she gives birth, from a biblical symbolism standpoint, a dove makes sense. The dove generally represents the Holy Spirit branchy of the Trinity.
Just a super interesting symbol and, to me, it shows that this is all tied up in Beth symbolism, and that the person they’re foreshadowing here is the person who’s been imprisoned for a long time. The person who had the bird cage in her cell.
I also think we need to appreciate that Grace had a dream that made her believe one thing was true (that she would die and the baby would live). But in reality, the opposite was true. We’ve come up with considerable evidence that Beth lived. But Daryl believes that she died. And the exact opposite will end up being true. They also tried really hard to convince us in this episode that Grace would die. We saw her accepting it and acting accordingly. Similarly, they’ve tried really hard to convince us that Beth really died. We’ve seen all the characters accept it and act accordingly.
So, I said above that we saw several walkers get it in the eye, right? One of the sequences I noticed the second or third time through that I watched it, was when, in the dream, Walker Riley has Athena pinned against the wall. He was the first one to say, “I know you thought this would be different, but that was just a dream.”
So, what I noticed is that he said this, at the exact same time that Grace stopped breathing or “died” and then suddenly revived. And directly after Riley said this, he got a stake through the eye when Morgan showed up.
So we have this “dream” symbolism, Grace dying and then resurrecting and the eye/Sirius symbolism all within a few seconds of each other. It’s a very compelling and powerful scene. Maybe my favorite of the episode. I’ve watched it like a thousand times, lol.
And of course there’s that heartbreaking, repeated line, “I [know you] thought this would end differently. But that was just a dream.” First, walker-Riley (super cool walker effect, btw) said it to Athena in the Grace’s dream. Then she said it while holding her deceased baby.
More lines that jumped out at me near the end, and could possibly apply to Beth and Daryl:
“You found us.” (Athena says this to Morgan when he shows up to kill Riley in the dream.)
“He’s here for me.” Grace says this when Morgan shows up and takes her hand.
Grace: “I don’t want to say goodbye, but I have to.” Beth hating goodbyes and not wanting to say them.
When Morgan is trying to revive Grace, he says, “Stay with me. Come back.” (Geez, if Daryl says anything like this during those missing 17 days, it’s gonna be freaking heartbreaking.)
When she wakes up, he says, “Good morning. You’re awake. You’re awake.” So there’s that awake/wake up theme again. But the “good morning” is interesting, too. It may be morning time as this scene is playing out, but we didn’t actually see them go from night to morning.
We’ve said for years that the sunrise represents Beth and a new beginning, so that “good morning” line is highly symbolic of a new era in which Beth lives.
He also says, “I thought I lost you.” *coughs Daryl*
Grace replies, “I had to come back so Athena could be born.” And again, I really don’t think Beth will be pregnant when she shows up, but baby Athena represents the way in which she’ll save TF. Because Athena was supposed to be the Savior here.
“We don’t have much time,” is repeated two or three times. So that’s a time mention, but also probably foreshadows a future storyline where they’re up against a countdown clock in some way.
“I had to come back.” Tell me you aren’t thinking of Beth when listening to that line.
“The key is not the future. She is.” Okay, my fellow theorists and I have discussed that the child who will save the future may well be Judith. In that sense, Judith may be Athena, but that still leaves Grace = Beth. And hearing this line, I just can’t help but replace “she” with Beth.
When Morgan asks Riley what the key opens, Riley says, “it doesn’t matter.” Also a Beth theme from Grady.
And finally, after Riley takes it, he says, “Good luck.” Luck Theory.
Phew. Quite a few of those, right?
Side note: one of the reasons I really didn’t know if Grace would live or die, as I mentioned above, is that they were really trying to convince us she would, but a lot of what was said could be seen as dialogue foreshadow.
That could be a problem for some of our theories. But here’s the thing. Going back through it again, the writers were super-sneaky. Most of it could be quantified differently than it came across. For example, Grace says to Morgan, “I don’t THINK I’m going to survive this.” Not that she absolutely won’t. See what they did there? I’m just pointing out.
Finally, I want to mention a few more things the show runner said in his interview at the end.
First, in talking about Athena, he said they wanted to make her a very strong, together girl, so it was obvious she came from Grace and was trained and raised by Morgan. It just reminded me a lot of what they said about Beth after Still. The whole, “raised by Hershel, trained by Daryl, meet the new Beth Greene.” Athena gave off that vibe for sure, but the showrunner used almost the exact same words to describe her. Definitely side-eyeing that.
He also talked about how they purposely crafted the “dream” so that it wasn’t only a dream that Grace was a passive participant in. Parts of it had to be real and have real world implications so she was driven by a ticking time bomb. For her, in this episode, it was because her baby was coming and she needed to wake up to give birth.
I just mention it because I can’t help but wonder what implications this will have for the Daryl/Leah situation.
I think that’s what I have for this episode. But man, what a crazy, tragic, epic, awesome episode! Loved it. (And hey, they owed us a big one after killing off John a few weeks ago. ;D)
#beth greene#beth greene lives#beth is alive#beth is coming#td theory#td theories#team delusional#team defiance#beth is almost here#bethyl
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The Broadcast
I’ve been sitting on this one for a while, holding onto a couple of conversations that I loved here while also wanting to set some things up for the next fic in the series, which is looking to be a long one, but as I joked on AO3, I have to be honest here. I really wanted to tackle more flirting conversations between certain individuals here, while also giving John some time to do what he does best.
Also, any excerpts from the lovely BoJ I do not take ownership of at all! Just a quick disclaimer, because it is referenced here.
Pairing: F!Dep x Sharky Boshaw (I’d claim pre-ship, but this is getting a little ridiculous)
Rating: T
Word Count: 5.6K whoops
Link to AO3!
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A moment of peace never lasts as long as it should.
______________
The news was improving. Honest to God improving as it came in, and Hana almost didn’t know what to do with it.
With the chatter a mix of updates on the outposts taken, shots taken at John – which she took point on, just in case the asshole was tuning in somehow – and more voices joining in on the line by the day, things were looking up. It actually seemed like they were pushing the Peggies back in a way that counted, and she didn’t want to let up for a second.
John hadn’t retaliated yet. Not like before when he’d first sent people to run her down, and had taken more than a little pride in letting her know just what was going to happen next, but he’d taken measures in other areas to compensate for it.
The patrols hadn’t stopped. The road blocks were still operating further south and west of here, in spite of her and Sharky’s best efforts to firebomb every last one, and the line of Peggies that kept on stepping right into Grace’s line of sight only seemed to be getting longer, and longer.
It was starting to feel like they would never leave the valley. After weeks of watching silos disappear, and outposts fall, it felt strange to even consider being anywhere else, but they couldn’t stay here. Not with news coming in every day from the north, and the need to head back to the jail picking at her more and more by the day.
Sure, she wasn’t the only one fighting. God, she’d watched these people tear the cult a new one with a determination she envied, but she’d never wished harder that she could be in more than one place at once.
Just for the chance to see what Jess was facing up north, with Eli coming in over the radios. To hear Whitehorse’s calm rundown, how to size up a situation so you know for sure it’s a bad one, Rook, before she ran in a little too half-cocked anyway. Hell, to hear Hurk’s stories again, and to see the giant grin he’d put on Sharky’s face whenever the two were left to their own devices.
She wanted to do better. Be better for them, but some days it still felt like she was grasping at straws. Doing all right, but never enough, and she’d keep on trying every damn day as long as she was able to. Pushing, fighting, and hoping that what she was doing was helping, and not fucking things up further.
It was the very least she could do, and that kept her moving forward.
“Golden Valley? GVG? You there, over?”
Static came through, bits and pieces as Hana waited for the message to go through, and tapped her fingers along the steering wheel as they all waited. She heard Grace shift from the backseat, and noticed her leaning forward in the rearview mirror to better see the road ahead.
“Yo, GVG? Everything okay? Taking a while to get back to us there.” She frowned when a few scattered words filtered through, and thumped the radio with the side of her hand. “This is the Deputy. Just giving a quick heads up to say you’ll be getting a few visitors shortly, and I’d hate to stop by anywhere I’m not wanted.”
Located on the edge of Fall’s End, the gas station had become the place to spot any strange trucks trying to roll in, while also giving them one of a handful of safe places to fuel up. But that usefulness went both ways, and the Resistance and the cult had practically traded this spot back and forth until they had finally been able to give them the boot.
“-ep? Drop on by-“
But the broken message wasn’t reassuring her in the slightest right now. Not as long as they kept the beaten-up Peggie van as their ride of choice, and not until they’d pulled up and had a chance to speak to them all face-to-face.
Speeding down the road, the turn to the gas station nearly blindsided her. She’d known it was a sharp one, and Sharky and Grace had both tried reminding her in the hopes that she’d catch it, but it nearly flew right on by her without thinking. The tires screeched as she hit the brakes and turned, making Sharky’s arm fly up to grab the handle hanging above his head, and thought for a moment she’d flip the thing. The minute the van rocked back into place on its wheels, however, she flashed Grace a look of apology in the rearview mirror, and maneuvered them into a spot by the pumps.
Letting out one last screech of defiance, the van came to a stop, and her head nearly bounced off of the seat. “Sound off, everyone all right?”
Sharky let out a breath and flashed her a thumbs up. “Still got it, Dep.”
“Grace?”
“…Yeah, I hear you.”
In the distance, she saw hints of movement. Just enough to remind her that as deserted as the place seemed, thinking that was a mistake, and rolled down her window to let out a whistle.
Giving it a minute, she watched as Grace steadied her rifle from the back, and felt for the revolver she’d recently picked up. Snapping off shots with it still made her feel like she was fighting with the thing, but it worked in a pinch, and she’d make it work here if she had to.
Sharky started shifting in his seat. Kept his shotgun up even as Hana angled her head towards him with her finger pressed to her lips, but when he waggled his eyebrows at her, she couldn’t help the smile that slipped out.
“Quit it,” she murmured, turning her attention back to the store.
“Huh? Quit what?” He hadn’t even bothered whispering, and she could just imagine the kind of grin that came with that tone of voice.
Just being your lovely, ridiculous self. “This’s still clear, right Grace?”
“Far as I know,” she replied from the back. “Mary May hasn’t mentioned any changes, but they’re taking their time getting back to us. Better be ready just in case that means what we’re thinking it does.”
Shifting her eyes between the roof of the gas station and the front, there was a flicker of light up top. One that could’ve been a signal, or with Hana’s luck, the last thing she’d see before a sniper’s lucky shot. But soon enough another whistle rang out, imitating hers. It might’ve even been done with relish as they stretched the sound out, ending with a flourish.
She reached for the radio and tried again. “Hey, GVG. You got some friendlies outside. We got some friendlies inside?”
This time the voice on the other end picked up instantly. “Roger, and I’m on my way out to you!”
“…Grace?”
Looking towards the mirror again, she caught her nod. “On it.”
Sharky, however, was already opening the door to get out with her, not even giving her a chance to stop him if she wanted to, and Hana unbuckled her seatbelt fast to make sure she’d beat him.
That’s when the door to the front swung open. A woman jogged out towards her, smiling wide as she did so, and it wasn’t until she came to a stop in front of her that she realized they’d met before. She wasn’t entirely sure where or specifically when, but she’d always been decent at remembering faces, and a great smile stuck with her no matter what.
“Deputy! Let me tell you, you’ve got to pick a better way to get around. Some of us are twitchy to begin with, but you stop by with Peggie colors, and not all of us are going to be careful about it.” She held out her hand, and Hana gave it a solid shake. “Dunno if you remember me any, but uh, name’s Gloria.”
“Wait a sec,” Hana said, snapping her fingers, “from the Woodson’s?”
Her eyes lit up instantly. “Holy shit, you do! I make that kind of an impression?”
“Hey, anyone that manages to take control after someone yells at them to grab the wheel and jumps out’s pretty damn cool in my book. And you? You totally took that in stride.”
That made her grin all the more, and this time Hana couldn’t help but join her. “For a long time we thought you were…hell, either dead or on a one-way ticket straight to the bunker. But even after hearing you on the radio, it’s good to have a chance to see that ourselves.”
Gloria waved towards the roof, and the red flashing light - which had been a sniper’s sight after all - danced briefly across Hana’s chest before disappearing. It never failed to make her heart skip a beat, and she turned to give Grace a quick signal to stand down as well.
“Sorry about that. Greg’s up top, and with Roy inside, there’s only three of us holding this down at the moment. It’s not much, but you make do, and lucky for us we’ve been fine so far. Short of the radio bugging out every now and then, but it’s a work in progress. So…”
Adjusting her ballcap, Gloria glanced between her and Sharky, and gave them both an expectant look.
“What can we do for you?”
As it turned out, quite a bit.
The gas station itself was mostly operational, with a small amount left in reserve. They had some canisters stashed nearby, which was fine in the short term, but the town needed fuel bad, a fact that Mary May had touched on over the radio the last time Hana had called in.
John had drained the valley dry, but there were still tankers on the road. One by one, they drove in from the east, flanked by heavy enough escorts to tell anyone that taking one was going to be ugly at best, but the Henbane kept sending them. Faith kept sending them, and there was no telling how much longer that other fuel source was going to last.
So, they needed a plan. Taking any of them was a start, but if they wanted more than a scattered handful, they needed something solid. Something to start working towards, and much as she leaned on it heavily, sheer dumb luck wasn’t anywhere near that.
“Now, I know you ain’t talking about taking any of that shit without me, right?”
“Let’s see if I’ve got it right here,” she said, handing the gas can to Sharky. “I’m talking running down a rig filled to the brim with fuel, dodging trees left and right with the wind whipping around me, bullets flying everywhere, heart beating a mile a minute, when all it would take is a single shot to either end myself or set that entire thing off.”
Hana blew out a breath, and grinned wide when she caught him doing the same.
“Sounds pretty great, huh? And any of that’s leaning more than a little towards F and F, and what kind of a friend would I be to deny you a chance to get a piece of that?”
“F and F?”
Grace had been scanning their map, holding it down over the hood of the van as a breeze kicked up, and Hana hadn’t even known she was listening in. Her eyes were glued right to their marked routes, tracing them up and around the valley, and remained there even when Hana turned to look at her.
“You know, the Fast and Furious movies. We’d practically be borrowing a page out of their script taking down one of the cult’s trucks like that. Or would that be more Mad Max?”
“Dep, just so you’d know, getting in on any of that would bring a tear to my eye.” And judging from the small swipe Sharky gave them, he was most of the way there. “But Mad Max straight-up, and we’d need to go and grab Hurkie before doing any of that. I promised him if we ever got to that point in the middle of this, I’d be the first to roll up, flamethrower in hand, and we’d just go to town. Light all of the Peggies’ shit up bright enough to fucking blind people, which we’re still doing now, just without the assless chaps ‘cause it’s still kinda early for it. Leather also needs baby powder and shit so you ain’t suffering when it rides up your ass, and John’s probably hoarding it all.”
Grace’s pained look almost made her lose it on the spot. “I did not need that visual.”
“John, or the assless chaps?” Hana asked, biting her lip to keep from laughing. “Though I’m having a real hard time imagining you in the full getup there, Shark. Baby powder or not.”
“What? I’m serious. Helps with the chafing and the sweating, and I know my balls would be swimming laps after a day of that. I’d just need to give ‘em a little light dusting beforehand, and everything would be right as rain. But going back to Hurk, if he heard he’d missed out on any of that? Well it’d just break his heart.”
“Just as long as you remember that we need to hold onto all of this.” She leaned back against the van, watching him as he unscrewed the cap and set the can down by his feet. “Fuel’s at too much at a premium right now to mess around with it. So try to save the fireballs for things that we’d all love to see go up, like John’s silos and signs. Or hell, that plane of his.”
“Done and done, my compadre, but just saying if it did?” He took out a cigarette and started lighting it, “Man, that would be one big, beautiful thing to see.”
Rolling her eyes, Hana plucked the cigarette out of Sharky’s hand only for him to whip his head towards her.
“Geez, Dep, are you serious? I’m down to one!”
“I’m thinking of your safety, bud,” she said, pointing at the setup in front of him. “Cigs and gas don’t mix. I don’t even need to mention the number of movies that have a little too much fun with that.”
“Uh, yeah, but that shit only goes down if you’re rough with it. Like making big ol’ sparks, holding the lighter to the pump, or dousing yourself in it, but knocking or hitting any of this while puffing away?“ He rapped at the side of the van with the side of his fist, and leaned against it. “About as safe as you can get.”
Pinching the cigarette between her fingers, she traded a skeptical look with Grace before giving him a long glance. “You know I’m still keeping this, right? After the last three I let you bum off of me, it’s only fair.”
That got a pout. “Aw, come on.”
“I’ll make sure to steal you a pack. Promise.”
His grumbling told her he didn’t agree one bit, but she still batted her eyes at him before turning on her heel to head inside. And as she started in on Sharky’s cigarette, might’ve made a mental pledge to go for at least three packs, minimum.
Rapping lightly on the door, Hana pulled it open only to be greeted by Roy. The older man dressed from head to toe in full hunter gear gave her a quick salute before resuming his perch by the boarded-up window. He seemed set on watching the front - a smart move considering their people were still out there and fueling up - and Hana hooked a thumb through the beltloops of her jeans before taking a look around.
She’d been here a few times before. Actually had a chance to fill up the old junker she’d bought from someone working at US Auto here, and remembered being annoyed she couldn’t find a single motorcycle. How she’d groused over it to the point she’d missed the cut off for the fifteen dollars she’d meant to gas up to, and swore loud enough that the other person at the pumps avoided making eye contact with her.
God, she wondered if that car was even there still. Her newly acquired, but mildly crunched white sedan, abandoned back at the station with her half-drunk coffee still sitting in the cup holder. Ditched in favor of rushing in through the front, half-awake up until she’d joined the others and Burke, and everything had just-
Hana sighed. Rubbed at her eyes, as she stood there and finished off the rest of the cigarette.
Probably not, but it was a thought, and as she stepped further into the station as a whole, she shifted her focus to checking out the rest of it.
Broken glass crunched under her boots as she moved down the aisles. Most were empty, the supplies either hastily cleared by John’s men, taken by people crossing through, or by the group currently stationed here. Walking by the empty freezers, she took one look at the baseball resting on a nearby shelf, and gave it a small push. It wobbled as it rolled, passing by the abandoned cans of tuna fish and spam as it went, and she held out a gloved hand to catch it when it reached the end and fell over the edge.
It plopped down right into her palm right as she noticed the book on the second shelf. Shoved towards the back and hidden behind an empty box, it had been overlooked completely, but she’d know the white leather cover of it anywhere.
The Book of Joseph, or rather one of many.
Just because she’d burned the one at the top of Joseph’s statue didn’t mean there weren’t others of these littered all over the county, and she tucked the baseball under her arm as she picked it up.
It wasn’t heavily damaged, and flipping through it she couldn’t find any torn or removed pages. Just Joseph’s words flying past as she sped right to the end, reaching the last couple of pages.
The light is now shining on you, in you; it radiates out from you. You are strong, much stronger than they are. You are just and pure. You are the chosen ones. I beseech you to join me, to join the family - to join your family.
Jesus. She’d never taken the time to read any of it before, but the message here bombarded her and right.
You do not belong in this world. You belong in the next world, the new world.
The old one will disappear. Along with everyone who ever doubted both you and I. I know not the details of the divine plan to annihilate this abhorrent, pestilent society. I cannot tell you-
She paused, and read over that sentence again.
I know not.
But she’d felt the fire with him. Stood right alongside him as the heat set in. Burned with him.
Her fingers traced the words. Ran over each one as they started to shake.
-there may be times of suffering. But the light that lives in us will protect us against doubt. For doubt is a serpent whose venom seeps into-
Throwing the book back onto the shelf, she drew in a breath. Held it, then let it out slowly through her nose as she stared it down. Willed it to catch fire, tear itself up, do anything other than what it had already accomplished.
But it stayed in place, gathering dust.
“Doubt’s a serpent, huh?” Hana muttered darkly, nearly spitting at the floor. “Sounds about right.”
The door to the front swung open, and she started. The flash of green quickly told her exactly who it was, however, and she put as much distance between herself and the book as possible, tossing the baseball back and forth between her hands. Poured as much of that anxious energy into it as possible, just so it wouldn’t keep on making her hair stand on end.
“Hey,” she said, catching Sharky’s eye once he wandered into the aisle with her. “Everything okay outside?”
“Yeah, gas’s in, Grace’s out front going over how to keep this place as Peggie-proof as possible, and all you gotta do is say the word and we’re gone. But I figured I’d head inside first. Wanted to check this place out, ‘cause it’s been way too long since I’ve been here.”
“Fond memories?”
“Hell yeah,” he said, flicking both eyebrows up. “I used to score some porn mags here.”
Hana nearly dropped the baseball. “Wait, what?”
“Yeah, they’d be on that back wall, some of ‘em wrapped, the other half hidden behind the fishing and trapping ones.” He stepped past her, heading right up to the empty shelves as he glanced back towards her. “Just waited until they were busy up front to slip one or two out, just right up and under like so-” he pulled up his hoodie, and proceeded to pretend to hide his hand under it, tucking it along his midsection, “along with a pack of smokes.”
“Seriously? Porn mags?”
“Yeah, best part is that if you headed out to the toilet over yonder, you’d find a couple waiting there too. Now they never made that shit public knowledge, but if you’d check off to the side right by the trash can, you’d find last month’s lady looking right up at you. And yeah, some of the pages stuck together and others were torn out, but that shit was on the house. No guy in need’s ever gonna turn his nose up at that.”
A thoughtful look settled over him for a moment, along with a lazy grin before he perked up.
“Shit, you think it’s still there? Like I’m cool with the nostalgia boner I’ve got going on right now ‘cause it’s pretty solid, but if I found one in semi-mint condition? That’d get me fifty off of Hurk, easy.”
Hana wrinkled her nose at it herself, and started trying to juggle the baseball again. “You er, you do you, bud. Think I’d take a hard pass on that one.”
“Yo, it’s not like it’s woods porn, or nothing. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, it’s just a little far to go to find anything worth look looking at, and I know all of that shit’s either been moved or taken, and this’s right next door, and-.”
“Look, I don’t even know what woods porn is,” she said, cutting in before he could dive right into telling her, “but tell you what. It’s not quite fifty, but I bet you twenty I could catch another one of these if you tossed it to me.”
Bouncing the baseball between her hands, Sharky’s eyes were locked on her as she threw it above her head, and moved her hand behind her back just in time to catch it. “While juggling that one?”
“While juggling this one.”
His smile grew, and it took him no time at all to find something else to pitch at her. Sliding back into the mini-rhythm she’d found, he tossed her the second ball and brought it into the same pattern, doing pretty well for someone that took it up just to make an old classmate eat their words.
Sharky’s delight made it all worth it, though, earning her one hell of a smile when she started juggling in earnest. “Shit, you’re a regular wizard with your hands, Dep. Thought you’d toss it right back at me.”
Given that the compliment was on her juggling random shit without smacking herself, she had no reason to do so, but she might’ve blushed. Just a little.
“Yeah, I know I’m awesome,” she said, giving him a wink. “Just full of hidden unknown talents, but I’d still watch your head if I were you. …Might still end up throwing it your way if I slip up.”
“Well, you won’t have to worry much about me. I’ve got a set myself.”
“Of magic hands?” She waggled her eyebrows at him. “Just how magical are we talking here?”
“I could get a few testimonials. I might be well known for things other than the ol’ Boshaw Special.“
Boshaw Spec-? Oh. That.
Her attention locked right onto his mouth before darting back to his hands, and she kicked herself for it. “Is that right?”
“Trick of the wrist, and, uh…” He made a motion with a few of his fingers, and she didn’t need to think hard to get the visual. “Well, you do that, you’ll get more than a few calls back.”
“Uh huh,” Hana replied, biting at the corner of her lip. Then nearly missed her catch when she failed to shake the mental image he’d conjured up. “So, definitely good with them then. But are you quick?”
“Quick?”
“Think fast!”
He yelped when the ball flew right past his head, his own face going red, and she might’ve felt a little bad for surprising him like that. But it was his fault for starting this conversation to begin with, and also for giving her way too much to think about when it came to-
“..puty? Hey, kid, you there?”
Grabbing for her radio, Sharky shot her a curious look as she pulled it up to her ear. If Dutch was calling, something was up, and she braced herself accordingly. “Hey, Dutch. Dep here. What’s going on?”
“Thought you might want to know before you get blindsided by it, but there’s a new broadcast out. One where John’s got something to say about your work so far. And here I’d say, ‘good’, because that still stands. But if he’s going to the airwaves to say something about it, he’s got to be feeling the pressure. You might still want to hear what he has to say.”
“Oh, fuck,” she muttered, scanning the old store for a television. If John was pissed off enough to put on a show and not call her, this could be a problem. “Shark, we need a TV, stat.”
He went for the other end of the store. “On it!”
“Thanks for the heads up,” she said, through the radio, “and don’t worry. Heads are on swivels, over.”
“Keep it spinning, kid.”
It didn’t take long, but after checking with Roy, the two closed in on the television stashed in the employee’s room in the back. It was still working, somehow, and after plugging it back in, Sharky started messing with the antenna.
“Eh, back this way. No, wait, back the other?”
She reached over to pull at one, and Sharky aimed it towards her. “Maybe if I jiggle it a bit.”
“No, what’s jiggling going to do to-“
“-will you be willing to pay it?”
John’s voice rang through the room, and she quickly stepped away to get a better look at the screen. The broadcast looped back, and once again he started to speak.
“My brothers and sisters, today’s message is not for you. Your dedication remains strong to our cause, and to the Father.”
“Motherfucker,” Hana breathed, taking in the stage John set for himself.
He wasn’t outside this time around. Not surrounded by his loving flock, with Joey not even ten feet away from him. This time he was alone. Sitting behind a large desk, he kept his hands folded in front of him. Everything neat and in place, as a solemn look entered his eyes.
This was restrained; stripped down, lacking the flashiness of the previous broadcast, and that had her worrying at her lip as he continued to speak.
“And for that dedication you will continue to be enriched and rewarded. Knowing full well that what you’ve done up until this point in time has raised us up in turn. Made us greater for all that you’ve sacrificed.”
Sharky rolled his eyes, pretending to jerk off as John leveled another profound glance towards his audience, and she gave him a small punch to the arm before turning back to the broadcast.
“No, this is for the Deputy’s ears, and for any that continue to follow her, I ask you to heed my words, and my message.”
By this point John had leaned forward, his blue eyes set on the screen. Focused on a single point, miles away, and with the flick of a switch, she’d helped him find his target.
“Because the path that you walk is one rife with conflict, and while you claim this is some form of justice, it will ultimately do more harm than good. For this petty need for destruction consumes all, taking everything with it, and with so much at stake, I ask of you, why? Why would you let it? Why would take away these tools, the lives of these precious souls right when they had finally found what they had longed for most?”
He dropped his eyes. Kept them focused on his clasped hands for a beat, then looked right back at her.
“Perhaps I was at fault for failing to notice it sooner. For failing to understand the depths of your anger, your rage, but I promise this will change. When my people find you, when they guide you to me, I will not falter. I will give you everything you need, every moment that you could ever ask for, just to find what festers in you so.”
Her fingers curled into a fist, her nails biting right into her gloves.
“Perhaps then it will be easier to accept. To see it for what it truly is, and you will not be alone in this, Deputy. Not for a second. But until then, understand what we have to do in turn-”
“Come on, H, you don’t wanna keep on listening to this, do you?” Sharky set a hand on her shoulder, snapping her right out of it. “Just more of his shit, over and over?”
After a few seconds – and more of John’s words, since he wasn’t done at all – she took in a deep breath and let it out. Leaned into Sharky’s touch as he shifted his hand so he could rub at her upper back instead, and tried like hell not to sigh at any of it.
“Don’t you know I’m in need of help, Shark?” she asked, glancing up at him. “Desperate for it?”
“Well, I’m desperate for a round or five with Casey’s all you can eat Ribs n’ Nibs, and probably a few other things John’d be fine with carving into me. Seeing as I am not about any of that, that’s a big fat no, but…” He inclined his head as he looked her over, and wet his lips. “I think you’re fine, Dep.”
There was nothing subtle about that, not at all, and she might’ve lost her footing for a bit. Let his statement really sink in as a blush came with it, and grinned.
“Fine?”
“More than fine,” Sharky blurted out, “just-um, you know what you wanna do. You go out and you do it. Just ‘cause John don’t agree with it, or it doesn’t help him pull any of the shit he and the others want – and seriously, fuck that – don’t make it wrong, or you. You’re just kicking ass and taking names. Doing a full day’s worth of that all before most can get in a shit, shower, and shave, and maybe some kind of breakfast, and that’s pretty fucking cool. Just doing that, like you do.”
That got a laugh out of her, and she couldn’t help the fond look that followed. “Like I do, apparently.”
He was smiling back at her now. Leaning more in her space than he was a few seconds ago, all while his hand stayed warm at her back. The height difference between them had never been extreme, just a half-foot at most, but from here she could easily gauge it. Note just how much she’d need to tilt her head back as she stood up on her toes to match him, and liked it.
“And if John’s got a problem with that, fuck him too. Though not, you know-“
“Literally?”
Sharky shuddered. “Yeah, no. Don’t do any of that. Earlier I was just saying shit out loud as I was thinking it, and uh…”
He let the words trail off, looking right at her as Hana leaned forward a hair. Not enough to touch him, but enough for him to notice. To look at her with the kind of awe he’d always try and stammer his way out of before, but hadn’t found a way to do so yet.
“And I uh…” He swallowed hard. “I don’t think doing any of that’s desperate.”
“You being desperate, or me?”
Sharky blew out a breath. “Shit, both?”
She was closer now, and didn’t wait to see what he’d do before giving up another inch. Just darted in, and planted a kiss right on his cheek. Felt the slightest scratch of his stubble against her lips after he’d failed to shave for two days and counting, and didn’t draw back as far as she should’ve.
Just lingered by him as he shut his mouth, and stayed put. Didn’t move, or sweep in to kiss her like he easily could’ve at this distance.
And the disappointment that followed shouldn’t have stung at all, but it did.
“Think it might just be me, though,” Hana murmured, and let her eyes drift back to the television.
To John as he looped back through his message, over, and over, hoping this would be the time it’d take.
“-will be judged, and your actions large and small laid bare before you. At that point, given the cost and those that fell to make it possible, will you be willing to pay it? Think on this. Because when we meet again-“
Jabbing at the power switch, she shut it off, and didn't linger this time around. Just gave Sharky a wan smile before heading back out front.
#far cry 5#sharky boshaw#grace armstrong#john seed#deputy hana#female deputy/sharky boshaw#fanfiction#FC5 fanfiction#fic series: you'll be okay I promise#now to start tackling that outline!#and I'll agonize over the errors I might've missed in this one tomorrow#I've poked at it enough
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FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST 2003 LIVE REACT: EPISODES 1-5
So i am gonna watch fullmetal alchemist 03 and react to it for my own fun. i did see 03 first wayyyy before brotherhood, but it was only like 3 episodes with my older sister back in like 2007, so it’s been a really long time and thats like 48 unwatched episodes. i’ve just been kinda curious because i hear people hate it and i hear people love it. so yeah lets gooooo
episode 1: those who challenge the sun
ok here we go
what the FUCK HAT is mustang wearing why is he outside in the rain st the elrics’ house during the transmutation
ed is anakin skywalker confirmed
is it just me or do maxey whitehead and aaron dismuke sound almost the exact same...
i have just been informed by google that whitehead used the same bowl dismuke did to record the lines veerrry interesting
a wine fountain i see i see
oh hey lust you here baby girl what is upppp
the pink hair works for rose the original born again christian e girl
for the most part so far this liore episode is pretty close to the brotherhood liore episode
“push your total cynicism on someone else” you tell him alphonse!!!!
the people from liore in brotherhood are a lot paler than the 03 counterparts i just noticed
the giant bird um ok
this kid’s goT AUTOMAIL WHAT??? /j
he still does the dramatic coat rip glad to see it very glad to see it
episode 2: body of the sanctioned
I FORGOT ABOUT THE OP IT SLAPS I LOVED IT WHEN I WAS TWELVE.
“WRONG HOLY MAN” im gonna start saying this to evangelicals
AL’S DEEP VOICE ALL OF A SUDDEN “PLZ GIVE US THE STONE”
wait a damn minute rose’s bf????? um SIR MR HOLY MAN SIR
IS IT THE BIRD? HE MADE THE BIRD INTO THE “BOYFRIEND”?????
gluttony’s tummy noises same baby same
walking statues?? ok professor mcgonagall
that wasnt in the book
the watch being the reason ed can do alchemy without a transmutation circle??? hahaha yeah ok think again bitch
the bell lmaooooooo
again thats not what happened in the book
lustttttttyyyy BABBBEEEEEEEE
ROSE TEHRE IS A BIRD BACK THERE
ITS GOTTA BE THE BIRD
IT. WAS. THE. BIRD.
rose baby its ok
oh multiple birds into one big birdy
im gonna make a meme out of that
this is kinda scary
rose askin about trisha maam mind ur business
i like the original broadcast better with ed in cornello’s office not in a dungeon
cornello’s running breathing sounds like me
ok quite a bit of this episode went off the source material but why??? like just to add stuff for the sake of adding stuff/drawing out the story to give the manga more time? i’d be interested to know
shut up rose plz i get it but stop
ope hey envy wassup
episode 3: mother
BABY DEN MY HEART
what are they makin
oh creepy....damn winry i wouldve been freaked too
damn this is a never skip opening im boPPING
DAMN YURIY AND SARA!!!!!!
“when your dad gets back thank him” trisha maam are you just super optimistic or what??? maybe its just that i KNOW
WHY ARE YOU SO ANGRY AT DADDY LMAOOOOOO
oh fuck yuriy and sara were just here a second ago
EDWARD YOU ARE NOT GONNA MAKE YURIY AND SARA INTO HOMUNCULI GET A FILTER
9 and 10 years old?? didnt trisha die way earlier than that...hold up
yeah i googled it they were like 4 and 5
HOHENHEIM SENT LETTERS???????????????
bitch nah
“aunt pinako” AUNT??? AUNT NO NO NO SHE IS GRANNY PINAKO
RAINCOAT MUSTANG WHAT ARE YOU DOINGGGGG WHY ARE YOU HEREEEEEE WHAT ARE YOU WEARINGGGGG
ok but if raincoat mustang was RIGHT OUTSIDE how did ed and al make it to the rockbells’ house without him stopping them??
oh there he is how’d he get in the house
ohhhh so he was tracking hohenheim....still WHAT
roy doesnt live in central sir what u talkin about
“AL YOU’RE ON” WINRY HE ISNT A LAMP
wait was he sleeping? he cant do that
al offering to become the state alchemist? hmm
“you’re no good without me. you just turn into a jerk.” ALPHONSE ELRIC I-he’s right though
ope dont forget 3 oct 11
happy bday elric family house fire
episode 4: a forger’s love
finally an episode with original content/an episode i didn’t watch in 2007!
ok but travis willingham sounds SO YOUNG??
hohenheim’s so called letters are fucking me up i will say
this episode is giving me atla vibes but why
ED WHY R U EATING LIKE A HYENA
majhal ur SUS for some reason
ed my boy why are you drawing circles?
when is this taking place exactly? is this a flashback?
DON’T CALL AL A TRASH CAN
in a graveyard....not a good look
ghoST LADY
what is majhal’s alchemy bracelet???
Lust were YOU the ghost lady?? damn
OH FUCK MAJHAL
OK I GOT IT its the puppetmaster episode of atla vibes im getting from this im YELLIN my brain is unparalleled
OBVIOUSLY WITH THE MANNEQUINS HOLY HELL
BELOVED??????? FALLEN LOVE????
CREEP I KNEWWWWWWW YOU WERE SUS
THAT LADY???? WAS HIS GIRLFRIEND???? THIS WHOLE TIME?????
broooooooooo
ED DID YOU JUST STAB THIS GUY??? EDWARD
damn this is messed up his dying breath he still thought his girl was dead too poor karin...
seriously is this a flashback
im confused when does this take place
episode 5: the man with the mechanical arm
ed on the phone im dead
ed just called him roy im shitting
WAIT TRAIN HEIST ARC??? TRAIN HEIST ARC YESSSSSS
ok so this episode and last episode is all PRE ed getting his state alchemist’s certification???
why...
does ed not get it until he’s like 15 in 03?
FALMAN??????
HUGHES??????????
MIRACLE OF HORMONES?????
falman is so snappy WHAT
i like how ed always takes the short comments way further than the original comment lmaoooo
stupid roy ilysm
anyways this train heist arc is a lil different idk
FALMAN IS KILLIN ME who even is he
hahahh aa the guy shot himself lmao
oh no not again what the hell
ED U STUPID
ok but why is hughes dressed like an absolute fucking pirate
i refuse to believe hughes is a good “train walker”
hughes is not a smooth man
that being said he is a boss bitch
“something crazy up there” oh yes that’s my feral son edward
TURBULENCE???? ED THIS IS A TRAIN
i feel like i need to reread the train heist
im gonna reread it
WAIT WHAT ROY WHAT DID U DO
i need riza to shine baby girl do somethin
ooh flame alchemy
did roy just kill that guy
“remember the pain” roy stfu
HOW OLD ARE ED AND AL RIGHT NOW
roy mustang is one shady bastard
thoughts so far: im actually enjoying it lol and im gonna continue reacting cause it was fun!!! im excited to see where they take it because the studio was definitely already adding their own stuff this early in the game for sure.
#carol watches fma03#fullmetal alchemist#carol's remaining brain cells#no one cares about this but me
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Saving Mr. Mustang
ROYAI Week 2019
Day 4: Pinned (And picture prompt?)
Rating: General Audience
He’d been gone quite a while. That was the first clue. The young apprentice that her father had taken in was not normally late. Considering that he was the only one to make it past a month of her father’s mood swings and compulsions, she expected more from him. Her brown eyes looked at the heavy grandfather clock. He’d taken the shortcut. She knew because she watched him scurry into the woods with his knapsack and list. Maybe he got lost coming back? She heard her father grumbling from the hallway, so she got up and moved into the kitchen, trying to avoid his wrath. He had been in a particularly sour mood lately, and it was best for anyone to avoid him.
But Riza had grown fond of the young boy. He was older than her but was much gentler than the past boys that had come and gone. He paid attention to her, bringing her a flower, or maybe a candy from the store when he was sent out for whatever her father requested. It was nothing anything significantly special. At first, she thought of it more as a bribe for her positive outlook on him. But she didn’t care for that. She looked past his gifts and onto his habits. ONe significant habit was that the kid was always punctual. Riza’s little fingers scratched her arm nervously as she wondered where he was. She certainly didn’t want another punk to replace him because of a simple mistake. The way her father had been the past few days, she was sure that it would come to that. She’d have to go find him before her father noticed he was late.
Riza wasn’t allowed out of the house without a good reason. Even at 10, she was kept inside with her own studies. Her tutor wasn’t going to come for a few hours, and that left her with a small window to save Mr. Mustang if she could find him. The scrawny boy had probably tripped and sprained his ankle, she thought, annoyed that it’d have to be her to find him. She certainly couldn’t plainly tell her father she was going to rescue the kid that he favored over herself. That’d end well for both of them. She could hear it now. “That failure of an apprentice is worthless.” Her father would exclaim. “When will I ever have a competent person around here?” Riza sighed.
“I might as well try,” she grumbled. “At least we both shall fail together.” She grabbed her jacket and her small rifle. “Father, I’m going out. I’m going to try to get a game bird for dinner.”
She heard a loud mumble from the hallway.
Riza silently mocked his mumbled back at him and turned to leave. She stomped down the trail, glaring at the woods she trekked towards. Her fist tightened around the sling that held the gun over her shoulder. “You better be okay,” she grumbled.
The trail was even, worn from the travels of her and other children through the woods. Game trails, deer, rabbits, and hogs, created side trails like spider webs intertwining between the thick brush and trees. Riza did not consider Mr. Mustang was stupid enough to think a game trail would lead him to the Mercantile and quicker, however, he was rather book smart and not… life smart. He seemed naive at times; like things would eventually get better under her father’s apprenticeship. It wouldn’t. It was only going to get harder.
Coming to a fork in the trail, she stopped to listen, quieting her agitated thoughts. Somewhere in the deep dark parts of herself, she hoped that she’d find him crying. Then she could finally be the one telling him to grow up instead of vice versa. The wind swayed the trees while they moaned. The leaves chattered around her from the bushes. A woodpecker tapped away in his short spurts into a dead hollow tree, and a squirrel chattered madly on the other end of the trail. Riza closed her eyes, listening for any irregularities in the woodland song. Nothing. “I bet he’s still at the store flirting it up with Mr. Culpepper’s daughter,” she muttered angrily. “If he is, I’m leaving him there.”
Her steps were soft, nearly silent as she walked down the trail. There were a couple open areas that she passed, hoping to find him sleeping. He wasn’t there. He was going to make her look more like a fool when he beat her home and asked her why she’d ever go looking for him. “I’ll shoot him in the foot,” she snorted. Just as she puffed out her cheeks, imagining him teasing her, she heard a dog barking. There were a few dogs in the area. Most of the ranchers and farmers had a dog or two. Every so often, she’d come across one that had wandered into the forest, probably chasing a rabbit, but they always returned home. She was about to ignore it and continue when she heard another sound.
“Stupid mutt!”
“Yup,” she sighed. That was him. His scratchy high pitched voice was recognizable in her sleep. She looked down to see little paw prints in the soft dirt, smudged shoe tracks from Mr. Mustang running. “What did you do now?” She followed a game trail over a little knoll which he had shimmied up a tree for safety. The dog stood at the base of the tree, jumping up, lifting its front paws just an inch or two from the ground as it barked. The dog did look a bit angry, but not rabid. If she would guess, it was probably that new dog that the Murphy Ranch took in. It always did seem odd. It chased cars which was the stupidest thing she’d ever seen. However, it looked pretty harmless to her. Mr. Mustang, on the other hand, the alchemic prodigy, was pinned up in a tree, calling the dog names. She didn’t even feel she needed to save him, he could just carve a fancy circle into the tree and save himself.
“Riza,” he called out as he saw her. “Run! The dog is trying to get me!”
Riza raised her eyebrows. Run? It was a barking dog. It wasn’t even worth dropping the rifle from her shoulder. She sighed as she started walking towards the tree.
“No!” He continued. “It’s going to hurt you!” He waved his hand at her, urging her to save herself. Of course, he would. As much as her father made her life difficult, Mr. Mustang would not make it out of her home alive it anything was to happen to her.
The dog turned to see its new target, growling at her, barking a few times. Riza would have none of it. She stomped right up to the dog. “No!” She yelled pointing her finger at it.
The dog barked louder at her, lunging at her in a false charge.
Riza didn’t move. She stood her ground, staring the dog down. “No!” The 10-year-old girl stepped forward. “Go home!”
The dog stopped barking and tilted its head to the side.
“I mean it now! Go on!”
The dog growled a bit more before Riza extended her arm and gave the dog’s nose a good whack.
“Holy shit,” she heard Mr. Mustang exclaim.
The dog shook its head before turning tail and heading home rather quickly.
She turned to see the young man jump from a lower branch, looking at her with complete amazement. “How… How did you do that?” He stuttered as he brushed his shirt off absentmindedly.
“You just have to tell the dog who’s boss,” she replied simply in her cold and even voice as if it was nothing and common knowledge.
“I…I…” He blinked at her, still surprised that she had just sent the dog away like that. “But you didn’t say anything to the dog!”
“I told him I was boss.” She turned and started walking away as if her actions meant nothing. “Come on before Father finds out you’re gone too long. You know how impatient he is.”
Roy shook his head, still in disbelief of his rescuer. “You came to find me?”
“I won’t make it a habit either.”
He caught up to her and they followed the same well-defined path back home.
“What did you do anyway?”
Roy tilted his head.
“To anger the dog,” she continued, becoming more annoyed.
“Nothing,” he quickly replied. “Well…”
They both stopped. The sun filtered through the branches, and the cool hair played with her bangs.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of jerky. “I remembered that when we went shopping last week, you wanted one, but Master told you no. So I picked you up one.”
She blinked. He’d brought her back suckers and little candies. However, a slice of jerky was a bit more expensive. It was still a kind gesture; kind and generous. “It wanted the jerky?”
He shrugged. “And I swatted at it. When it nipped at my leg, I threw a rock at it.” He sighed, handing the dried meat to her. “It obviously didn’t like that.”
She looked at the dark brown dried slice of beef. She started to tear off a piece and gave it to him. “You probably need some after running so far.”
He blushed as he took it, sticking it in his mouth to chew on it. “Thank you,” he mumbled.
“Why didn’t you just draw a circle into the tree?”
“I…uh…” He lifted his hand behind his head with a sheepish grin. “I lost my knife in the run,” he admitted.
“You’re going to be in trouble,” Riza rolled her eyes. “This will be a sight to see. No fancy chalk, no knife… Looks like you are pretty useless without your magic tricks.”
He laughed as he started walking down the trail. “Ah, I don’t need any magic when I have you watching my back.” His strides were long, stiff-legged, as he puffed out his chest in a physical boast. The jerky between his teeth with a wide grin as he looked back at her.
“Mr. Mustang, you are going to need a whole army watching your back when you get older.” She pulled the rifle up on her shoulder more comfortably, and followed behind him
#royai week 2019#royai fic#Roy Mustang#Riza Hawkeye#Kids#pinned#she saves him#cuteness#tell the dog you're the boss#she is the boss#fanfic#day 4#FMAB#royaiweek19#royai fanfiction#day 4 2019
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cry out what you need to: chapter 4
“Okay, so, you know my partner, Amy Rohrbach? She died, on Sunday. And she had a daughter. She’s five years old and she had no other family and they were going to put her in the system and I just felt so--”
“Dick, did you adopt the kid?”
“I adopted the kid.”
Or, the one where Dick adopts a child, learns to balance parenting and superheroing, and falls in love, not necessarily in that order.
Chapter Four: so i’ll beat the drums and scream at the sun
[on ao3]
Steph stays for dinner Monday night, and drives off on Dick’s motorcycle when they’re done. He gets Rona showered and put to bed, quickly as he can, and retreats to his own room, sitting on the edge of his bed with his head in his hands. It’s the first moment he’s had, his mind not addled by exhaustion and concern for Rona, to sit and truly process the past week.
Amy’s dead. She’s gone, and when Dick goes back to work next week, he’ll be assigned a new partner, and life will move forward, even though Dick doesn’t want to. Rona has no mother now, no real parent, and as much as he can be there for her, and as much as he knows Steph, Cass and Babs will provide strong role models for her, Dick doesn’t know how to pick up the rest of the slack. He just started packing away his partner’s life, his closest friend outside of the superhero life, and in another day or two, it’ll be like she never existed at all, nothing left but a memory and a house for sale.
Dick does the only thing he can think to do.
He calls Wally, and he cries.
He cries out what he needs to and tells Wally every concern he has about his sudden parenthood and how worried he is about Rona and his lack of ability to take care of her properly and how he doesn’t know what he’s doing and how he feels like he’s unprepared to go back to work without Amy by his side because she was his friend goddammit. She was more than just a coworker, more than just his partner.
He takes a deep breath when he’s done unloading everything, and lets it out very shakily.
“Sorry. That was a lot.”
“Holy shit, Dick.”
“Sorry.”
“No, shut up, don’t say sorry to me! You’ve been packing that all away ever since Amy died? God, I’m surprised you’ve-- you Bats and your fucking-- Dick. Dude, you’ve got to talk about these things. If you have a kid to worry about, you can’t be worrying about falling apart yourself. God, you worry me sometimes. Just. You gave me the okay to tell the group chat what’s going on with you, and I did. Roy’s obviously no stranger to unusual parenting situations, and the rest of us are more than happy to listen to whatever you’ve got to say. Just talk to us, Dick. You’re not alone. You’ve got us, you’ve got your family, and Babs and Steph. Don’t think you have to be Mr. Strong and Silent. You’re not Bruce.”
It’s kind of like a smack in the face, but it’s just what Dick needs, really. He can always count on Wally for that. Something warm blooms in his chest and he has to actively fight to stamp that far down and way back. Now is not the time for this quasi-crush to be rearing its ugly head.
“I just hate bothering everyone,” Dick tries, but he knows it’s a thin excuse and he knows Wally will call him on it.
“Shut up. Talk to your friend like a normal person. I’m gonna hang up now, and you’re going to text the group chat. If there’s nothing from you in the next ten minutes, I’m going to drop everything and run to Gotham, got it?”
It’s just the right amount of guilt to get Dick to agree. He can imagine the smug look on Wally’s face as he mutters out his assent. Wally hangs up with a laugh after Dick calls him something very unkind, and Dick takes a deep breath. He doesn’t know if he can really handle the full force of all of his friends right now, but he trusts Wally, so he’ll go along with it.
He double checks that Rona is soundly sleeping in her room, steps in and smooths the wrinkle in her forehead with his thumb, and just as his ten minutes is up, he sends a text to the group chat he’s had on mute for the past week.
[from bird boi, 9:32 PM]
hey guys
[from wallington, 9:32 PM]
nice to see you listened to me
[from dad bod, 9:33 PM]
nice of you to let us know youre alive dick
[from mom, 9:33 PM]
I can’t tell if you’re saying his name or insulting him but either way.
Doesn’t matter.
Nice to see you’re not dead.
How’s the little one?
[from bird boi, 9:35 PM]
thanks donna.
she’s asleep right now. sorry i’ve been absent lately, it’s just been kind of a crazy week
[from mom, 9:36 PM]
You’re welcome.
And don’t worry about it. We understand. Just let us know what’s going on with you. Kind of sucks to have to learn you’ve become a father from Wally instead of from you.
Dick winces to himself, where he’s tucked himself into the corner of the couch, wrapped in a blanket. He let Steph tell Tim about Rona, and he let Alfred and Bruce tell Damian, and while it was necessary because he’s been so busy, he feels bad that he couldn’t sit down and have a conversation with either of them, especially Damian. He really kind of wishes that he had waited, let the ten minutes pass so that Wally would have come to Gotham, so that he could just have someone there with him, because feeling bad on his own makes it even worse.
[from bird boi, 9:40 PM]
i’m really sorry.
i’ve been kinda freaking out about all of this and the kid and i had to make funeral plans for amy.
sorry, not an excuse
being a parent is hard
[from dad bod, 9:42 PM]
be less hard on yourself dick, surprise parenthood is rough
just dont be stupid you asshole, tell us whats going on with you every once in a while
also, lians pissed off that she hasnt gotten to meet her favorite uncles kid so you have to deal with that now
[from bird boi, 9:43 PM]
that’s the scariest thing that’s come out of this week
side note: wheres garth in all of this?
[from mom, 9:44 PM]
Garth’s got Atlantis business most of this week, he’s going to be in and out.
But unlike you, Boy Blunder, Garth told us what he was doing so we’d know he was okay.
[from wallington, 9:45 PM]
okay, okay, ease up on dick, hes had a bad week.
[from bird boi, 9:45 PM]
thanks walls.
[from mom, 9:46 PM]
I’m done now.
I’m sorry about your friend Dick. And I’m sorry we haven’t been able to be there for you. Soon as that little girl settles in, you’ve got to let us come visit her. I didn’t think we’d be getting a new niece so soon. I can’t wait to meet her.
[from dad bod, 9:47 PM]
seconded. lian thinks she’s got a new built in best friend
and i’m sorry about your partner too
Dick smiles to himself, clutching the blanket wrapped around his shoulders closer to his chest. There is a deep, aching sadness still weighing heavy in his chest, making his ribs throb with it. Now that he’s thinking about it, that’s likely the month old rib injury he’s just beginning to really get over. But, he’s wallowing for a moment. So he’s going to be dramatic about it.
Sue him.
[from bird boi, 9:49 PM]
thanks guys
i’m going to try to finish clearing out as much of amy’s house tomorrow as i can before rona gets out of school. i did a lot with steph today but it’s harder than i thought it would be
[from dad bod, 9:50 PM]
jesus dick, that’s brutal. i wish i could lend a hand but i promised i’d help ollie with something tomorrow
[from mom, 9:51 PM]
I’m sorry I can’t help either. I’ve got meetings all day tomorrow.
[from bird boi, 9:51 PM]
no guys, don’t worry about it!
[from wallington, 9:52 PM]
shut up and let us worry about you.
youre our friend and we care about you and youre having a really shitty week.
[from dad bod, 9:53 PM]
yeah shut up jackass
[from mom, 9:53 PM]
Hey now.
[from dad bod, 9:54 PM]
sorry mom
point tho: youre not b, dont act like it
[from bird boi, 9:55 PM]
you know, wally told me the same thing.
[from wallington, 9:56 PM]
its the red hair, we all share a brain cell
[from dad bod, 9:59 PM]
i was gnona get mad but jesusnfuck walls i just lost it at that
[from mom, 10:00 PM]
Good lord you lot are like children.
[from wallington, 10:01 PM]
you know it and you love it wonder chick
[from mom, 10:03 PM]
You’re all insufferable and Garth’s my favorite now by default.
[from bird boi, 10:04 PM]
HEY! i haven’t even done anything!
[from mom, 10:05 PM]
Nope, you’re guilty by association because you’re here for all of this, you’re a part of this. Now I’m going to get a good night’s rest for once in my life, no one disturb me unless the world is ending, I have early meetings tomorrow morning, good night, heathens.
Dick turns his phone off with a grin and wraps it in his hands, close against his chest. The profound sadness that Dick had felt crushing through his chest feels a little less crushing now that he’s talked to his friends. They never fail to lift his spirits.
His phone buzzes again and he glances down at it to see a single message from Wally.
[from Walls, 10:10 PM]
good luck tomorrow, dick. we love you buddy. let us know when you think the kiddo can handle some new people and we’ll all come over with lian for dinner. you’ve got this daddy-o.
Dick almost cringes at the terrible nickname, half a wince and half a hysterical grin, and texts back a smiley face. He turns off his phone, and, checking in on Rona one last time, he heads to bed. He’s out like a light as soon as his head hits the pillow.
Unfortunately, he only gets a couple hours of sleep before he’s woken up by a tiny body kneeling on the edge of his bed. There’s a moment where he instinctively grabs for a weapon, for something to defend himself, before he pauses, thinking about what might actually be happening. The thought takes a moment to make its way through his sleep addled mind, but it does, and in the span of a few seconds, he goes from searching for some defense to his hand coming to rest on a tiny, trembling wrist.
He looks up, and Rona is kneeling on the edge of the mattress, her eyes shining in the low light filtering in from the small night light in the hallway outside the half open door.
She doesn’t say anything, just sits there, clutching Zitka the stuffed elephant in her other hand, and Dick sits up, gathering her up in his arms immediately.
“Hey, sweetheart, what happened?” he says, the concern evident in his voice. “Did you have a bad dream again, honey?”
She nods miserably, hugging Zitka close to her chest, and burrowing into his arms.
When she doesn’t say anything further, Dick settles down into bed a little further, holding her close. “Come on, you can stay in here with me tonight.” She nods again, her hair tickling the underside of his chin, little flyaways catching in the few days’ old stubble there. “Do you want me to tell you a story?” Another nod. Dick situates himself, half sitting, half lying against the headboard, getting Rona nestled into his side, partially draped across his chest. Her tiny hand curls into the thin material of Dick’s shirt, her face pressing into his side as she tries to stifle a sniffle.
“I miss my mommy,” she says, almost inaudibly.
Dick’s heart cracks.
“Well, let me tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a little boy, and he could fly. He and his family could soar through the air just like birds, and people came from far and wide to watch them put on shows. But then one day, while they were performing at a fair for a prince, the little boy’s parents had an accident. While they were flying around for the show, their wings stopped working, and they fell to the ground.”
“This story is too sad,” Rona sniffs miserably, and Dick holds up a finger, poking her on the nose.
“But it’s going to get happier, just you wait. The little boy didn’t have his parents anymore, and that was terribly, terribly sad, and he thought he would never be happy again, because he missed his mommy and daddy very much. He was all by himself for a little while, until one day, the prince who they had been performing for found the little boy. The prince went up to the little boy, and offered to give him a home. Now, the little boy was worried about going to live with the prince, because the prince couldn’t fly, you see, and the little boy thought that the prince would try to make him live on the ground all the time. He thought the prince would take away his magic, and take away everything that reminded the boy of his parents. So the boy was very afraid. But he didn’t like being alone, even more than he was afraid, so he went to live with the prince. And when he got to the prince’s castle, the prince was very formal, and had a butler and it was nothing at all like what the boy was used to. But after he was there for a while, the prince did not take the boy’s magic away, so the boy took a chance, and he started flying around the castle, because he missed it so much. He was flying around the castle one day, and the prince caught him, and the boy was afraid the prince would be mad, but he wasn’t mad at all. In fact, the very next day, the prince had set up an arena in the castle, so that the boy could practice his flying and get better at it, and get to be stronger, so that the boy would never have his wings stop working like his parents’ had. And the boy said to the prince, ‘I thought you were going to take away my magic, so that I’d be more like you. I thought you’d take it, so that you’d be my new dad.’ And the prince told the boy, ‘I’d never take your magic from you. You’re special to me because you’re different from me. I am going to take care of you as best as I can, and I will love you like my own, and you will be my family, but I will never try to replace your parents. We’ll be family in a different way. And it will be just as good, but it won’t replace what you had with them.’ And the boy kept his magic, and later on, when the boy got brothers, and a sister, he taught them his magic too, and the prince even tried to learn the boy’s magic too. And they all became a family, and they were much different from the boy’s parents, but he loved them very much nonetheless.”
When Dick looks down, Rona is drifting off, no longer looking so upset. He presses a kiss to the top of her head, and settles a little deeper into the bed.
“I’ll never take your magic from you, little one,” Dick mutters, and before he knows it, he’s drifting off too, cradling Rona close to his side.
#dickwally#dick grayson#wally west#donna troy#roy harper#titans#dc#dc comics#original character#fic#mine#cowynt au
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All Anon Asks as of 10/29/2018 in my in box.
1. One thing to point out about these “leaks” as opposed to the two real leaks in the past, the new leaks are on purpose and posted with the intent to cause drama and hype. And as for DW not making a statement, why would they? They are getting free marketing and with such a huge gap between the last press event and the last season why not let it fester and create that hype, they know people will still watch. People are gonna want to tune in to find out the truth, DW knows that.
You know the saying about “No news is good news” well in regard to management in a lot of cases to draw in hype, and also to pretty much not have to deal with the legal nightmare of finding all the images and getting the fakes taken down they go with the idea of “Any publicity is good” because that means that they’re getting hype as you pointed out.
As you said Anon, the point of these leaks is to cause drama and create issues between fans and then sit back and laugh at all the shocked kids that are freaking out. They probably are already planning round two or three of this.
2. Voltron is set in the super fancy future why would anything ever be sepia tone? Especially something that’s happening in a flash forward.
So the basics here is that it’s supposed to feel “Nostalgic”. Like “Oh look at that memory we shared together of a wonderful time.”
Again typically sepia is used to make things look or feel aged. Old photos, memories, etc. Sepia is not a color you use willy nilly because it doesn’t always look good on screen in large dosages in filter. The color brown in general is typically used, or at least that color, for sunset like moments to make the viewer feel melancholy that time is ending. You never use that color when you’re showing something triumphant. Also if you do use it for a happy occasion you tend to use it for a photo in a memory book.
Look at Coco, and the photos on the alter, you have several that are black and white and a few that are a brown color because they’re supposed to invoke a certain feeling in you. You want to feel warm and welcome and like everything is in the past and nostalgic. And the leakers got people to feel that way with the colors.
And Flash forwards tend to be brighter and blurred in some cases with frosted edges. Or something to depict that it’s not in the present. And if it is just a time skip, there would be no need for the color change.
3. I think it’s weird that in the second wedding photo Shiro is leaning away from Roy as he leans in. Odd???
It’s something that normally happens in some anime. The less, shall we say dominating person leans back embarrassed by the attention and more aggressive actions by the more dominate person who is initiating the kiss. By the body language this means that Roy here is the more aggressive figure in their relationship going in for a kiss though still acting a bit shy about it, while Shiro is less aggressive and is being more shy and then decides to go with it.
This sort of action usually happens with a girl in Shiro’s place, as in Japan the girl is seen as less aggressive a figure and why certain female characters over the years have been seen as very different than most of their counter parts.
4. Don’t know if it’s been pointed out yet but in the kiss pic Roy’s arm just randomly disappears through Shiros chest. That’s not how it works.
Correct Anon. The arm should be either around his waist or on his shoulder or chest. As per the kiss with Hikaru (Rick Hunter) and Misa (Lisa) from Macross. Roy’s arm is blending into Shiro’s side and that’s not a good thing. I know Mir makes some small mistakes here and there, but man this would have the art being sent right back to the studio if it was blurring that badly. Unlike Hasbro in the 1980s this sort of thing isn’t tolerated as much anymore because digital means it’s a quick fix rather than hours of reanimating the scene.
5. so, since you're the go to person regarding the legitimacy of the Voltron leaks, I just saw the [SPOILER] photo of the paladins grown up projected on a screen with people in front smiling [/SPOILER] the person that shared this with me said this is a photo of the french VA team finishing dubbing. Thoughts? Comments? Tumblr doesn't let me link the image, but if you're interested I can share it with you some other way.
Holy hell, um. Not sure what to think of that. But okay. XD
Yeah I discuss that in the main blog post about it.
http://darkspellmaster.tumblr.com/post/179532344635/update-and-edit-and-master-post-to-the-fokker
So as I said before I think the photo of the cast is real, and more than likely taken on another date. The thing that jumps out to me about the photo after examining it more is where they are looking. Everyone is staring off to the center of the screen, but the camera that took the photo is off to the right. This means that this was probably a photo being taken because of the man in the center, who I’m betting is a famous and well known voice actor.
These sorts of pictures happen from time to time, even here in the states, when a cast gets someone that is famous and they want to take a photo with them. Remember actors are fan boys and girl’s too.
When I went to Anime Midwest a few years ago Sonny Straight (Lupin the 3rd, Krillen, a number of characters in anime) mentioned how he was sitting next to the late VA of Speed Racer, Peter Fernandez, who was signing small cars of the Mach 5. He was talking to him, while geeking out in his mind, and Mr. Fernandez gave him a car with his autograph on it. Sonny basically was playing with the car when Mr. Fernandez wasn’t looking making the noise of the Mach 5.
Nolan North just recently confessed to chasing down Sir. Anthony Hopkins on to an elevator and talking to him for a while, because he didn’t want to miss a shot to meet the famous actor who was recording lines on Retro Replay. (Also watch the show it’s funny.)
So more than likely the picture was being taken with a well-known French VA and that it was for posterity sake for the studio and the actors. Studios will sometimes do this if they have a named actor in the cast doing a voice.
6. I've gone back through Bexs likes and I don't see any of the leaks. What's the source on that claim?
I’ve only been told about this, I haven’t seen anything of it either. I do not have an Instagram so I can’t tell you about that stuff.
Either Bex liked something that was similar, or someone thought that they liked it, or something. I really can’t say for sure. But regardless, unless it’s in their contracts and the NDA states they can’t like fan art, actors typically do like art.
7. Watching your post about the whole studio thing I thought about something, I didn’t know about Ezor’s va leak but maybe when she did it she simply didn’t think the fandom would immediately jump on it and spread it, then is it possible that the french studio ‘leak’ is real too and that the same thing happened?
Most actor’s don’t think that what they say is important. I think in Kimiko’s case she really wanted to just give the fans the okay that Shiro was going to show up again because of all the freaking out on Social Media about it and trying to be a good person. Lionel (I think that’s how you spell his name) the French VA seems like he was thinking of just showing that they were recording the show again. Maybe getting people excited, since, most people that follow Voltron aren’t following the dub actors save for those that are following in France right now. And I don’t know how many know of the actor due to the fact that he’s more a live action actor like Steve is so this is his first dubbing job for a cartoon.
The thing is that the second picture was a personal one that was taken at some other point in time, because of the change that Lionel’s hair has gone through it seems. Also, as I said before this was taken from the side meaning that they’re looking at another camera, so it’s not a case of them taking a “Last hurray” photo, and more likely that they were taking a picture with a well-known actor that had visited the studio to do a voice.
The “leak” is real in that it is a legit photo of the cast, what’s fake is the stuff behind them.
8. I reported the violations to the French company but they haven’t got back to me :/ surely over something this serious they would?
I wouldn’t expect them to be getting back to you regarding this. The photo that was taken wasn’t their property in this case, it’s owned by whoever took it from the side of the editing booth. If it was a professional photo, then yeah they would want to know info. It could be that too, much like DW here in the state’s the legal department isn’t seeing anything huge to go after and would rather people just ignore it.
After all they have only a month and a few days here states side for it to come out, also in France too, so more than likely they are more worried about the promotional stuff they need to do after She-ra comes out.
You’re right, if it was serious we would see things about it all over the place, not just on Tumblr but on other sites that cover this sort of news. Like with the Mir incident. This is not serious to them and probably isn’t even registering yet for them.
9. One of the most glaring things for me is that Roy isn't even on the poster. Even the most minor characters are in it and yet you're going to tell me Shiro's future husband isn't? Yeah, no way. Also in your post debunking the leaks you forgot to mention how the background characters are weirdly static (especially Pidge) in the wedding edits, but Shiro and Roy are moving.
Yeah having Roy on the poster would be a legal nightmare waiting to happen, as rsasai said in one of their other posts, since the show is airing in Japan and Japan worships Roy and Macross, you would have to deal with Studio Nue, Tatsunoko and Big West for any rights to be used. Not to mention that fans of Macross would want to know what the hell was going on since Roy is a big deal.
As I said above reminds me way to much of a Newtype magazine static illustration that was traced over.
10. I commend you on your impeccable taste in TV shows, my good comrade. Also, whomst else misses the 80s & 90s where people would just watch and enjoy the shows they watched, and didn’t ruin them or the experience for other fans? Ahhh the good old days!
Maybe I’ll list all my favorite shows. XD And thank you, I like to think I have good taste in shows. At least I hope I do.
Well it depened on who you watched the show with, but over all, for the most part, people genuinely weren’t as worked up over shows. Or at least I never noticed save for a Lisa is better, Lynn is better fight I once saw between two girls on the playground about Robotech, but other than that…it was mostly quiet. Not sure about at offices in the day though over shows like Dallas or Dynasty.
11. To the people who say “The staff having not said anything about the leaks yet means they are true!”. I am almost sure they didn’t say anything about the “Klance voiceline leaks” either, and it was fake.
O.O What? Wait…is that like a dialogue line that was said? OR are we talking about those old telephone call lines where you paid like 9.95 and a dollar or something every minute after a few minutes to talk to your favorite character?
Because if it’s the latter, hell yes it would be fake since no one does that anymore. Well save Cdawg who does it for Black butler calls but those are free.
12. An anon sent to you said "maybe DW just doesn't care anymore since the show is almost over" but it's really not about VLD anymore. Like I said before in a previous ask, this sets a very bad precedent. DW is a business, which means they have to look to the future. By not taking this seriously, they're implying they won't take any of their other licensed shows/IPs seriously either. No company would want to damage their reputation so badly just because a contract is almost over.
But see, the thing is, it’s not that they don’t care it’s a question of how the legal wants them to handle it. If you kick up too much of a fuss, then it’s “Well they are real” if you don’t then you have people saying you’re not doing enough. Ultimately it’s not up to DW to chase things down since they are not the main license holder, that is WEP, and the other studios are not owned by DW or WEP they are only licensing the series to dub via Netflix.
Then throw NBC Universal on this, and you have that factor in play here…you’d have a lot of people involved. Does it look bad, kinda. But most studios have the same response. It’s easier to let things die on their own than interviene as it becomes making a mountain out of a mole hill.
Or to put it in a better way. Let’s take a real case that recently happened. There’s a famous artist that likes to take images and do a little change then say they are his own works of art. He’s been doing this for years and artists hate him because he’s taking their copyrighted works and screwing with them only a little and calling them his own.
Recently, like a year or so ago, he went on Instagram, found cosplay and other pictures of female celebs and non celebs, commented on it. Took the photo and the comment, put it together as a larger picture and called it his own. This is considered art appropriation and can be seen as a legal way of doing art. Richard Prince, the artist in question, has been getting away with it for years. And someone who’s cagey enough probably could use that as a defense in a lawsuit.
https://www.theverge.com/2015/5/30/8691257/richard-prince-instagram-photos-copyright-law-fair-use
13. in the french va video, who is the guy in the middle? the director?
That guy in the middle may be Patrick Borg. Reason the cast may be taking the picture with him is he’s the voice of Son Goku in Dragon Ball and has been since the start of Dragon ball Z, and is a well-known in VA in France. Or It’s Jerome Wiggins who does a main character on Zagtoonz Zak Storm. My guess though, it’s probably Patrick, and since the crew is pretty much younger actors who grew up around the hype of Dragon ball Z, wouldn’t surprise me if they were taking a picture with him because he was doing a voice for them.
14. No, it's the opposite now. All the evidence in the Universe prooves that the leaks are real but you all choose not to believe in it. And I'm okay with it and I'm more than okay If I'm wrong but if the leaks are real almost everyone who believes that the are fake would be greatly dissapointed and will feel betrayed
As I said before Anon, if you want to believe it, fine. That’s up to you. I have no horse in this race, I’m only presenting facts as I find them and having two graphic designers and other people look over the images and such, to them they seem doctored or created.
I’d rather people make the call themselves, but as other’s have said well before me, it seems insane that two studios decided to risk their careers to leak this stuff. You do realize that in doing so they will have cost the trust of several other clients they have and it would probably put them out of business with Netflix, and cause BTI Studios to lose the deal with Altor and Shamrock that they recently made this past year, and for Netflix to pull out of it’s vendorship with VSI and probably make other networks, like CN, and Nick, pull out of the deal.
No one, in their right mind, would put themselves or their careers in danger over a cartoon show. No one. It would cause them to be blacklisted and not have work in the VA community ever again. The sheer level of WTF that would have to run through someone’s minds to do this if they were a professional in this field would be astonishing.
Honestly, no I wouldn’t feel betrayed or disappointed. I would be more worried for the studios and wonder if they would be able to continue to run as they are, or have to close due to the fact that most of their clients would bolt knowing their intellectual property wasn’t safe. Then there would be the lawsuits from WEP, NBC Universal and probably Mir for putting out copyrighted material that they don’t own.
Would I be upset about the show, no, honestly I wouldn’t. Allura dying would be a mirror and parallel to Ryou dying and taking Lotor with him from Go lion, something Voltron the original didn’t do. Shiro being married, awesome. Roy Fokker getting his name out there and getting people to watch Macross to know who the hell this hottie is, okay in my book. The crew taking a picture together, nothing wrong there.
The only thing that could disappoint me is no ending or a cliff hanger, since, well I got that with Force from DiC and this would be the first show to have a real ending outside of the original.
I don’t get why people are worried about me or others feeling disappointed when there are four other variants of the show that exist that we can watch. That’s just silly. I’m more surprised that people don’t care about the well-being and lively hood and careers of the VAs internationally being wrecked by all of this. That’s where my concern lies. Shipping and all the other things, I don’t care about. My care was that the characters were happy and got along, and that the robot fights were cool.
15. You list Roy's arm/hand as vanishing on 13 but they're both still visible, I've redlined it for you: i(.)imgur(.)com/2UHctWY(.)png
Side note. you can’t send pictures that way.
And if you mean where the arm seems to blend down around the waist area. I can’t tell for sure if that’s his right arm or his left. Also that would be a weird way to hold someone if you’re going to kiss them like that in genera.
#ask darkspellmaster#anon questions#voltron#vld#voltron legendary defender#voltron leaks#fake voltron leaks#fake leaks#false leakes#Chinkel studio cast#patrick borg#i've learned about some cool new vas#thanks leakers#roy fokker
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8 Experts Weigh in on the Past, Present, and Future Evolution of Link Building
For over 20 years, SEOs and content marketers have built links across the web to get their content in front of their target audience.
As Google grows smarter, so do these link-building SEOs – gone are the days of spammy link schemes and black hat SEO. Enter modern link builders who are focused on placing high quality, relevant links on sites guaranteed to drive the most important metrics: conversions and revenue.
But how far have we really come, and are there any lessons we can take from the past to inform where we go from here? We asked eight link building experts their thoughts on this very question, as well as what our readers can do to stay ahead of the link building curve!
For more link building tips, be sure to check out our recent update to The Beginner’s Guide to Link Building:
Read the Guide!
How important are links, really?
Historically, links have been a sure-fire way to build authority and visibility for your business. However, as Google begins to focus on other tactics such as user experience, will that change how links factor into search visibility?
Russ Jones, Search Consultant at Moz, says that the value of a well-placed link isn’t going anywhere: “Google will find more and more ways to extract value from the link graph and click stream data. The link remains king.”
Britney Muller adds that “If Google disappeared tomorrow, would you still get qualified traffic to your website (via your link profile)? That’s exactly how I believe we should be thinking about link building today.”
Backlinko founder, Brian Dean, has a different perspective:
“I think links will be less important as time goes on,” he says, but agrees that they'll always be a major part of the algorithm. “Links are actually a really good signal! Especially today with Google more focused on E-A-T, links are a great way to size up whether a site is credible or not. Without links, they'd have no real way of knowing if the content on a page is legit.”
Has the definition of a “high quality link” changed?
The short answer is yes, and (surprise!) it depends on your goals.
In the early days, SEOs tested Google with sketchy link schemes. These low quality links offered a quick fix of link juice, and a boost in rankings. Today, link builders have ditched the black hat tactics in favor of a more relevant and consumer-focused approach, and quality over quantity.
Carrie Rose, CEO at Rise at Seven, has this to say: “The definition of a high-quality link has massively changed over the years. Relevancy is a huge topic online right now — but what does a relevant link actually mean? Ultimately, we track that based on is it a link that is driving traffic to your website, of whom are your audience? Too many link building strategies focus too much on ‘link juice’ and SEO metrics such as DA — but care less about link engagement metrics. SEOs, link builders, and digital PRs should care more about understanding where their audience is, high traffic websites, and gaining links from there instead.”
Russ Jones agrees: “I believe that Google has dramatically increased the degree to which the relevancy of a link matters,” he says, adding, “Google has placed greater influence on links that come from topical authorities as they combat issues like fake news and link spam. If this is the case, it means that link builders need to narrow their focus and fight for links from industry peers.”
As relevancy becomes more important, our experts encourage other link builders to focus on the audience rather than the outlet.
Tamara Sykes, Public Relations Specialist at Postali, believes that “It’s obviously great to get a backlink in a recognizable outlet like the Wall Street Journal. However, if your audience isn’t there, it only serves half of its purpose. You’ll get a ‘vote’ from a high DA site to prove that yours is more trustworthy, but it may generate little to no traffic because the audience isn’t as invested in what content you have to offer.”
Domenica D'Ottavio, Marketing Manager at Fractl, prefers to diversify her link portfolios, noting that high quality links can mean different things in different campaigns.
“The definition of a high-quality link can change depending on your goals,” she says. “Not all links are created equally for every business. In my opinion, the ideal portfolio has a 1) high volume of 2) relevant and 3) high-quality backlinks. If you're a business in the personal finance space, for example, you might want a mix of links from sites like The Motley Fool, CNN Money, and smaller finance blogs like The Penny Hoarder, Budgets are Sexy, or I Will Teach You To Be Rich.”
Lastly, as with most things in marketing and SEO, Andy Crestodina of OrbitMedia reminds us that there are also a half dozen other factors to consider including DA, follow vs. nofollow, outgoing links and much more! So be sure to take these factors into consideration as you develop your link building strategy.
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The role of link building in SEO is stronger than ever
Developing high quality content and distributing that content to respected sites in your target market can be an extremely scalable and cost-effective way to build and maintain authority in your niche. So, it’s not surprising that link building and digital PR is rapidly becoming a core strategy for many brands.
Carrie Rose highlights the fact that link building and digital PR industries have grown rapidly:
“The responsibility to create good quality content and improve trust to a site no longer purely sits within SEO. Having a good link building strategy which is performing well can improve trust, authority, and therefore rankings for a site. High quality links and high traffic can also increase traffic in the masses… It also has a huge impact on branded search (the holy grail).”
Brian Dean agrees, saying “Content and links have always had significant overlap (after all, people generally link to a page based on the content on that page). But the tie between the two is stronger than ever. That's because many other tried-and-true link building strategies (like large-scale guest posting) no longer work. Which means your link building efforts largely rely on the content that you're putting out.”
Surena Chande believes that, overall, the quality of link building campaigns has improved since Google’s E-A-T update: “We’re producing more topic-relevant campaigns for our clients rather than thinking solely about ideas that would land coverage,” she says, adding that SEOs and link builders are now working together to “reevaluate their concepts and ensure they are true to a brand.”
Getting buy-in is easier — if you focus on the metrics that matter
Because of the extra visibility in recent years, our experts agree that it’s easier than ever to get the buy-in from higher-ups. “I don't need to tell an executive that a link is like a vote. They know that now,” says Russ Jones. “I don't have to say ‘80% of purchases online begin with a search’. They know that now, too.”
“Link building has a way of showing direct results for executives and stakeholders and therefore becomes easier to get the buy-in,” Carrie Rose says. “Traditional PR, creative, or offline marketing strategies are receiving less and less budget and attention because of its inability to prove ROI and we see that budget reallocated to link building and digital PR efforts.”
Andy Crestodina agrees: “Just show an executive the Moz Link Explorer ‘Compare Link Profiles’ report and they’ll get excited ...or upset. Once a stakeholder sees the data, they usually want to take action. The key is to guide the ideas away from the spammy actions and toward high-quality content marketing and influencer outreach.”
With less internal education and campaigning at the executive level, marketers are now faced with tougher questions around how their specific strategies impact ROI. To do so, our experts recommend keeping things simple and taking it slow.
“It’s important to explain that Domain Authority moves very slowly. It takes patience,” Andy says, adding, “it’s a proxy metric for PageRank. It’s not Google. Focus on the actions, not the reports.”
If you need some help breaking down metrics, check out Andy’s Whiteboard Friday:
Russ Jones breaks things down even further: “Report simple campaign statistics such as: ‘referring domains and referring traffic are increasing’. Coupled with a generic metric like DA or PA, this gives stakeholders the most important answers about the quality of the link building campaign. Second, we report the increased traffic and rankings relative to competitors based on the work. It is important, though, to provide context wherever possible. If a competitor has been out-spending you and acquiring more links because of it, we shouldn't let that go unreported.”
Tamara Sykes finds that it’s helpful to provide some background on sites that link to her content. “I go as far as to share what that website’s purpose is, who its audience is and the website’s SEO stats,” she says. “This helps me paint a picture of why this link is relevant to a brand, rather than sharing a number that only shows ‘Hey, we got 12 backlinks’.”
Where should link builders focus?
Google is getting better and better at recognizing high quality, relevant links. “They're super good at identifying links that don't fit with a natural pattern. And it's not just obvious black hat spam,” Brian Dean says. “Google can also filter out many grey hat approaches (like mass guest posting), which basically only leaves a handful of link building approaches: digital PR, targeted outreach, and content designed to get links.”
So when it comes to link building strategy, where should link builders and digital PRs focus their efforts?
Get creative
Test out new content mediums to stand out from the pack!
Carrie Rose notes that, even though we’re seeing more automation in marketing, “Robots can’t manufacture creativity. That's where the best links come from — where content is more creative than their competitors and brands are getting links others can't replicate.”
Andy Crestodina recommends creating new tools and original research that features bite-size, shareable nuggets such as stats, graphs, and infographics. “These are 100-times more link-worthy than anything else on your domain,” he says.
Build relationships
As the market becomes more saturated, it will be especially important for link builders and digital PRs to deepen relationships with respected publishers and authors in their industry. But you don’t need to overthink it.
Andy believes that a little personalization goes a long way: “Link building has a bad reputation for a good reason: spam. Spammers send cold emails to website owners, clogging our inboxes with the same messages.”
But how do you build those connections in the first place?
Warm up the conversation by engaging with that author or editor on social media! Domenica D’Ottavia uses Twitter to connect. “Twitter is an excellent tool for building those relationships with journalists,” she says. "Reach out to them, like their stuff, respond and retweet, show them you're a real person… When you finally outreach them with your link building project, they'll recognize your name from your interactions on Twitter and will be much more likely to respond positively to your PR pitch.”
Others agree that the ROI of mass outreach continues to decline, remembering the days of in-person link building. “Believe it or not, I used to CALL people, introduce myself, explain how interesting I thought their ‘X’ business was,” says Britney Muller. “I’d ask some questions and then weave in a thoughtful proposition of us linking to each other's websites.”
“People are becoming numb to any non-targeted outreach,” Brian Dean adds. “If you are good at personalization, there could still be a chance of securing links but the bar of what qualifies as ‘personalized’ is higher than ever. Now you almost need to mention their dog's name to get a response.” (Note to all the link builders out there: my dog's name is Ginger.)
Learn more about great outreach from Britney's Whiteboard Friday on the subject!
Tap into influencer networks
Influencer marketing is a growing field and, no, it isn’t just for consumer brands and Instagram. Leveraging experts to elevate your content can capture the attention of your target publishers and audience.
Surena Chande says that “utilizing expert commentary is one of the strongest and most overlooked techniques in link building. If you have clients who are experts in their field or have access to the CEO, you can utilize them to build links with minimal effort for both you and your client.”
“Link building is influencer marketing,” says Andy Crestodina. “You’re pitching an influencer (usually blogger or editor) with a request, usually some kind of collaboration. When you combine influencer marketing with original research, you have the ingredients in place. Your content supports their content. Links begin to appear spontaneously. You’re attracting them. Do it right and high DA sites will link to you every few days. Magic.”
Image Source
Capitalize on trending topics
In a news cycle that is constantly changing, hot topics can rise and fall in the blink of an eye. But if you have your timing right, you can ride the trend wave to secure extra eyeballs from editors and readers.
“I believe that the pandemic, particularly the early stages in 2020, taught the industry a very harsh lesson in the form of reactive outreach and campaigns forming one of the best methods of outreach,” Surena Chande says. “I was so used to conceiving campaign ideas for large-scale interactive pieces, and the unpredictability of the situation taught us that we had to quickly change our approach to link building.”
“Jumping on a trending topic and creating a project or link building campaign around something that's already earned the attention of journalists” says Domenica D’Ottavio, but notes to proceed with caution. “While newsjacking is a clever way to earn a ton of links very fast, it's also pretty risky. You have to work around the clock to get your idea created before the topic has lost relevance, and it might flop if you're too late to respond, wasting your investment.”
Our experts also advise to stay on top of the news across the web, read articles from a variety of publications weekly, study what journalists are asking for when they put out #journorequests, and analyze what angles they take on topics as they go viral. This will ensure that you are well positioned when it comes time to pitch your content.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, link building has undergone some major changes in the last 15 years (likely for the better!), but what’s old is new, and many of the same rules continue to apply:
Relevant content will always perform so long as you target the right audience
Links remain a major part of how Google determined the expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of a site.
Creativity and timeliness in link building will be rewarded
Big thank you to our expert contributors:
Andy Crestodina
Britney Muller
Brian Dean
Carrie Rose
Domenica D'Ottavio
Russ Jones
Surena Chande
Tamara Sykes
0 notes
Text
8 Experts Weigh in on the Past, Present, and Future Evolution of Link Building
For over 20 years, SEOs and content marketers have built links across the web to get their content in front of their target audience.
As Google grows smarter, so do these link-building SEOs – gone are the days of spammy link schemes and black hat SEO. Enter modern link builders who are focused on placing high quality, relevant links on sites guaranteed to drive the most important metrics: conversions and revenue.
But how far have we really come, and are there any lessons we can take from the past to inform where we go from here? We asked eight link building experts their thoughts on this very question, as well as what our readers can do to stay ahead of the link building curve!
For more link building tips, be sure to check out our recent update to The Beginner’s Guide to Link Building:
Read the Guide!
How important are links, really?
Historically, links have been a sure-fire way to build authority and visibility for your business. However, as Google begins to focus on other tactics such as user experience, will that change how links factor into search visibility?
Russ Jones, Search Consultant at Moz, says that the value of a well-placed link isn’t going anywhere: “Google will find more and more ways to extract value from the link graph and click stream data. The link remains king.”
Britney Muller adds that “If Google disappeared tomorrow, would you still get qualified traffic to your website (via your link profile)? That’s exactly how I believe we should be thinking about link building today.”
Backlinko founder, Brian Dean, has a different perspective:
“I think links will be less important as time goes on,” he says, but agrees that they'll always be a major part of the algorithm. “Links are actually a really good signal! Especially today with Google more focused on E-A-T, links are a great way to size up whether a site is credible or not. Without links, they'd have no real way of knowing if the content on a page is legit.”
Has the definition of a “high quality link” changed?
The short answer is yes, and (surprise!) it depends on your goals.
In the early days, SEOs tested Google with sketchy link schemes. These low quality links offered a quick fix of link juice, and a boost in rankings. Today, link builders have ditched the black hat tactics in favor of a more relevant and consumer-focused approach, and quality over quantity.
Carrie Rose, CEO at Rise at Seven, has this to say: “The definition of a high-quality link has massively changed over the years. Relevancy is a huge topic online right now — but what does a relevant link actually mean? Ultimately, we track that based on is it a link that is driving traffic to your website, of whom are your audience? Too many link building strategies focus too much on ‘link juice’ and SEO metrics such as DA — but care less about link engagement metrics. SEOs, link builders, and digital PRs should care more about understanding where their audience is, high traffic websites, and gaining links from there instead.”
Russ Jones agrees: “I believe that Google has dramatically increased the degree to which the relevancy of a link matters,” he says, adding, “Google has placed greater influence on links that come from topical authorities as they combat issues like fake news and link spam. If this is the case, it means that link builders need to narrow their focus and fight for links from industry peers.”
As relevancy becomes more important, our experts encourage other link builders to focus on the audience rather than the outlet.
Tamara Sykes, Public Relations Specialist at Postali, believes that “It’s obviously great to get a backlink in a recognizable outlet like the Wall Street Journal. However, if your audience isn’t there, it only serves half of its purpose. You’ll get a ‘vote’ from a high DA site to prove that yours is more trustworthy, but it may generate little to no traffic because the audience isn’t as invested in what content you have to offer.”
Domenica D'Ottavio, Marketing Manager at Fractl, prefers to diversify her link portfolios, noting that high quality links can mean different things in different campaigns.
“The definition of a high-quality link can change depending on your goals,” she says. “Not all links are created equally for every business. In my opinion, the ideal portfolio has a 1) high volume of 2) relevant and 3) high-quality backlinks. If you're a business in the personal finance space, for example, you might want a mix of links from sites like The Motley Fool, CNN Money, and smaller finance blogs like The Penny Hoarder, Budgets are Sexy, or I Will Teach You To Be Rich.”
Lastly, as with most things in marketing and SEO, Andy Crestodina of OrbitMedia reminds us that there are also a half dozen other factors to consider including DA, follow vs. nofollow, outgoing links and much more! So be sure to take these factors into consideration as you develop your link building strategy.
Image Source
The role of link building in SEO is stronger than ever
Developing high quality content and distributing that content to respected sites in your target market can be an extremely scalable and cost-effective way to build and maintain authority in your niche. So, it’s not surprising that link building and digital PR is rapidly becoming a core strategy for many brands.
Carrie Rose highlights the fact that link building and digital PR industries have grown rapidly:
“The responsibility to create good quality content and improve trust to a site no longer purely sits within SEO. Having a good link building strategy which is performing well can improve trust, authority, and therefore rankings for a site. High quality links and high traffic can also increase traffic in the masses… It also has a huge impact on branded search (the holy grail).”
Brian Dean agrees, saying “Content and links have always had significant overlap (after all, people generally link to a page based on the content on that page). But the tie between the two is stronger than ever. That's because many other tried-and-true link building strategies (like large-scale guest posting) no longer work. Which means your link building efforts largely rely on the content that you're putting out.”
Surena Chande believes that, overall, the quality of link building campaigns has improved since Google’s E-A-T update: “We’re producing more topic-relevant campaigns for our clients rather than thinking solely about ideas that would land coverage,” she says, adding that SEOs and link builders are now working together to “reevaluate their concepts and ensure they are true to a brand.”
Getting buy-in is easier — if you focus on the metrics that matter
Because of the extra visibility in recent years, our experts agree that it’s easier than ever to get the buy-in from higher-ups. “I don't need to tell an executive that a link is like a vote. They know that now,” says Russ Jones. “I don't have to say ‘80% of purchases online begin with a search’. They know that now, too.”
“Link building has a way of showing direct results for executives and stakeholders and therefore becomes easier to get the buy-in,” Carrie Rose says. “Traditional PR, creative, or offline marketing strategies are receiving less and less budget and attention because of its inability to prove ROI and we see that budget reallocated to link building and digital PR efforts.”
Andy Crestodina agrees: “Just show an executive the Moz Link Explorer ‘Compare Link Profiles’ report and they’ll get excited ...or upset. Once a stakeholder sees the data, they usually want to take action. The key is to guide the ideas away from the spammy actions and toward high-quality content marketing and influencer outreach.”
With less internal education and campaigning at the executive level, marketers are now faced with tougher questions around how their specific strategies impact ROI. To do so, our experts recommend keeping things simple and taking it slow.
“It’s important to explain that Domain Authority moves very slowly. It takes patience,” Andy says, adding, “it’s a proxy metric for PageRank. It’s not Google. Focus on the actions, not the reports.”
If you need some help breaking down metrics, check out Andy’s Whiteboard Friday:
Russ Jones breaks things down even further: “Report simple campaign statistics such as: ‘referring domains and referring traffic are increasing’. Coupled with a generic metric like DA or PA, this gives stakeholders the most important answers about the quality of the link building campaign. Second, we report the increased traffic and rankings relative to competitors based on the work. It is important, though, to provide context wherever possible. If a competitor has been out-spending you and acquiring more links because of it, we shouldn't let that go unreported.”
Tamara Sykes finds that it’s helpful to provide some background on sites that link to her content. “I go as far as to share what that website’s purpose is, who its audience is and the website’s SEO stats,” she says. “This helps me paint a picture of why this link is relevant to a brand, rather than sharing a number that only shows ‘Hey, we got 12 backlinks’.”
Where should link builders focus?
Google is getting better and better at recognizing high quality, relevant links. “They're super good at identifying links that don't fit with a natural pattern. And it's not just obvious black hat spam,” Brian Dean says. “Google can also filter out many grey hat approaches (like mass guest posting), which basically only leaves a handful of link building approaches: digital PR, targeted outreach, and content designed to get links.”
So when it comes to link building strategy, where should link builders and digital PRs focus their efforts?
Get creative
Test out new content mediums to stand out from the pack!
Carrie Rose notes that, even though we’re seeing more automation in marketing, “Robots can’t manufacture creativity. That's where the best links come from — where content is more creative than their competitors and brands are getting links others can't replicate.”
Andy Crestodina recommends creating new tools and original research that features bite-size, shareable nuggets such as stats, graphs, and infographics. “These are 100-times more link-worthy than anything else on your domain,” he says.
Build relationships
As the market becomes more saturated, it will be especially important for link builders and digital PRs to deepen relationships with respected publishers and authors in their industry. But you don’t need to overthink it.
Andy believes that a little personalization goes a long way: “Link building has a bad reputation for a good reason: spam. Spammers send cold emails to website owners, clogging our inboxes with the same messages.”
But how do you build those connections in the first place?
Warm up the conversation by engaging with that author or editor on social media! Domenica D’Ottavia uses Twitter to connect. “Twitter is an excellent tool for building those relationships with journalists,” she says. "Reach out to them, like their stuff, respond and retweet, show them you're a real person… When you finally outreach them with your link building project, they'll recognize your name from your interactions on Twitter and will be much more likely to respond positively to your PR pitch.”
Others agree that the ROI of mass outreach continues to decline, remembering the days of in-person link building. “Believe it or not, I used to CALL people, introduce myself, explain how interesting I thought their ‘X’ business was,” says Britney Muller. “I’d ask some questions and then weave in a thoughtful proposition of us linking to each other's websites.”
“People are becoming numb to any non-targeted outreach,” Brian Dean adds. “If you are good at personalization, there could still be a chance of securing links but the bar of what qualifies as ‘personalized’ is higher than ever. Now you almost need to mention their dog's name to get a response.” (Note to all the link builders out there: my dog's name is Ginger.)
Learn more about great outreach from Britney's Whiteboard Friday on the subject!
Tap into influencer networks
Influencer marketing is a growing field and, no, it isn’t just for consumer brands and Instagram. Leveraging experts to elevate your content can capture the attention of your target publishers and audience.
Surena Chande says that “utilizing expert commentary is one of the strongest and most overlooked techniques in link building. If you have clients who are experts in their field or have access to the CEO, you can utilize them to build links with minimal effort for both you and your client.”
“Link building is influencer marketing,” says Andy Crestodina. “You’re pitching an influencer (usually blogger or editor) with a request, usually some kind of collaboration. When you combine influencer marketing with original research, you have the ingredients in place. Your content supports their content. Links begin to appear spontaneously. You’re attracting them. Do it right and high DA sites will link to you every few days. Magic.”
Image Source
Capitalize on trending topics
In a news cycle that is constantly changing, hot topics can rise and fall in the blink of an eye. But if you have your timing right, you can ride the trend wave to secure extra eyeballs from editors and readers.
“I believe that the pandemic, particularly the early stages in 2020, taught the industry a very harsh lesson in the form of reactive outreach and campaigns forming one of the best methods of outreach,” Surena Chande says. “I was so used to conceiving campaign ideas for large-scale interactive pieces, and the unpredictability of the situation taught us that we had to quickly change our approach to link building.”
“Jumping on a trending topic and creating a project or link building campaign around something that's already earned the attention of journalists” says Domenica D’Ottavio, but notes to proceed with caution. “While newsjacking is a clever way to earn a ton of links very fast, it's also pretty risky. You have to work around the clock to get your idea created before the topic has lost relevance, and it might flop if you're too late to respond, wasting your investment.”
Our experts also advise to stay on top of the news across the web, read articles from a variety of publications weekly, study what journalists are asking for when they put out #journorequests, and analyze what angles they take on topics as they go viral. This will ensure that you are well positioned when it comes time to pitch your content.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, link building has undergone some major changes in the last 15 years (likely for the better!), but what’s old is new, and many of the same rules continue to apply:
Relevant content will always perform so long as you target the right audience
Links remain a major part of how Google determined the expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of a site.
Creativity and timeliness in link building will be rewarded
Big thank you to our expert contributors:
Andy Crestodina
Britney Muller
Brian Dean
Carrie Rose
Domenica D'Ottavio
Russ Jones
Surena Chande
Tamara Sykes
0 notes
Text
8 Experts Weigh in on the Past, Present, and Future Evolution of Link Building
For over 20 years, SEOs and content marketers have built links across the web to get their content in front of their target audience.
As Google grows smarter, so do these link-building SEOs – gone are the days of spammy link schemes and black hat SEO. Enter modern link builders who are focused on placing high quality, relevant links on sites guaranteed to drive the most important metrics: conversions and revenue.
But how far have we really come, and are there any lessons we can take from the past to inform where we go from here? We asked eight link building experts their thoughts on this very question, as well as what our readers can do to stay ahead of the link building curve!
For more link building tips, be sure to check out our recent update to The Beginner’s Guide to Link Building:
Read the Guide!
How important are links, really?
Historically, links have been a sure-fire way to build authority and visibility for your business. However, as Google begins to focus on other tactics such as user experience, will that change how links factor into search visibility?
Russ Jones, Search Consultant at Moz, says that the value of a well-placed link isn’t going anywhere: “Google will find more and more ways to extract value from the link graph and click stream data. The link remains king.”
Britney Muller adds that “If Google disappeared tomorrow, would you still get qualified traffic to your website (via your link profile)? That’s exactly how I believe we should be thinking about link building today.”
Backlinko founder, Brian Dean, has a different perspective:
“I think links will be less important as time goes on,” he says, but agrees that they'll always be a major part of the algorithm. “Links are actually a really good signal! Especially today with Google more focused on E-A-T, links are a great way to size up whether a site is credible or not. Without links, they'd have no real way of knowing if the content on a page is legit.”
Has the definition of a “high quality link” changed?
The short answer is yes, and (surprise!) it depends on your goals.
In the early days, SEOs tested Google with sketchy link schemes. These low quality links offered a quick fix of link juice, and a boost in rankings. Today, link builders have ditched the black hat tactics in favor of a more relevant and consumer-focused approach, and quality over quantity.
Carrie Rose, CEO at Rise at Seven, has this to say: “The definition of a high-quality link has massively changed over the years. Relevancy is a huge topic online right now — but what does a relevant link actually mean? Ultimately, we track that based on is it a link that is driving traffic to your website, of whom are your audience? Too many link building strategies focus too much on ‘link juice’ and SEO metrics such as DA — but care less about link engagement metrics. SEOs, link builders, and digital PRs should care more about understanding where their audience is, high traffic websites, and gaining links from there instead.”
Russ Jones agrees: “I believe that Google has dramatically increased the degree to which the relevancy of a link matters,” he says, adding, “Google has placed greater influence on links that come from topical authorities as they combat issues like fake news and link spam. If this is the case, it means that link builders need to narrow their focus and fight for links from industry peers.”
As relevancy becomes more important, our experts encourage other link builders to focus on the audience rather than the outlet.
Tamara Sykes, Public Relations Specialist at Postali, believes that “It’s obviously great to get a backlink in a recognizable outlet like the Wall Street Journal. However, if your audience isn’t there, it only serves half of its purpose. You’ll get a ‘vote’ from a high DA site to prove that yours is more trustworthy, but it may generate little to no traffic because the audience isn’t as invested in what content you have to offer.”
Domenica D'Ottavio, Marketing Manager at Fractl, prefers to diversify her link portfolios, noting that high quality links can mean different things in different campaigns.
“The definition of a high-quality link can change depending on your goals,” she says. “Not all links are created equally for every business. In my opinion, the ideal portfolio has a 1) high volume of 2) relevant and 3) high-quality backlinks. If you're a business in the personal finance space, for example, you might want a mix of links from sites like The Motley Fool, CNN Money, and smaller finance blogs like The Penny Hoarder, Budgets are Sexy, or I Will Teach You To Be Rich.”
Lastly, as with most things in marketing and SEO, Andy Crestodina of OrbitMedia reminds us that there are also a half dozen other factors to consider including DA, follow vs. nofollow, outgoing links and much more! So be sure to take these factors into consideration as you develop your link building strategy.
Image Source
The role of link building in SEO is stronger than ever
Developing high quality content and distributing that content to respected sites in your target market can be an extremely scalable and cost-effective way to build and maintain authority in your niche. So, it’s not surprising that link building and digital PR is rapidly becoming a core strategy for many brands.
Carrie Rose highlights the fact that link building and digital PR industries have grown rapidly:
“The responsibility to create good quality content and improve trust to a site no longer purely sits within SEO. Having a good link building strategy which is performing well can improve trust, authority, and therefore rankings for a site. High quality links and high traffic can also increase traffic in the masses… It also has a huge impact on branded search (the holy grail).”
Brian Dean agrees, saying “Content and links have always had significant overlap (after all, people generally link to a page based on the content on that page). But the tie between the two is stronger than ever. That's because many other tried-and-true link building strategies (like large-scale guest posting) no longer work. Which means your link building efforts largely rely on the content that you're putting out.”
Surena Chande believes that, overall, the quality of link building campaigns has improved since Google’s E-A-T update: “We’re producing more topic-relevant campaigns for our clients rather than thinking solely about ideas that would land coverage,” she says, adding that SEOs and link builders are now working together to “reevaluate their concepts and ensure they are true to a brand.”
Getting buy-in is easier — if you focus on the metrics that matter
Because of the extra visibility in recent years, our experts agree that it’s easier than ever to get the buy-in from higher-ups. “I don't need to tell an executive that a link is like a vote. They know that now,” says Russ Jones. “I don't have to say ‘80% of purchases online begin with a search’. They know that now, too.”
“Link building has a way of showing direct results for executives and stakeholders and therefore becomes easier to get the buy-in,” Carrie Rose says. “Traditional PR, creative, or offline marketing strategies are receiving less and less budget and attention because of its inability to prove ROI and we see that budget reallocated to link building and digital PR efforts.”
Andy Crestodina agrees: “Just show an executive the Moz Link Explorer ‘Compare Link Profiles’ report and they’ll get excited ...or upset. Once a stakeholder sees the data, they usually want to take action. The key is to guide the ideas away from the spammy actions and toward high-quality content marketing and influencer outreach.”
With less internal education and campaigning at the executive level, marketers are now faced with tougher questions around how their specific strategies impact ROI. To do so, our experts recommend keeping things simple and taking it slow.
“It’s important to explain that Domain Authority moves very slowly. It takes patience,” Andy says, adding, “it’s a proxy metric for PageRank. It’s not Google. Focus on the actions, not the reports.”
If you need some help breaking down metrics, check out Andy’s Whiteboard Friday:
Russ Jones breaks things down even further: “Report simple campaign statistics such as: ‘referring domains and referring traffic are increasing’. Coupled with a generic metric like DA or PA, this gives stakeholders the most important answers about the quality of the link building campaign. Second, we report the increased traffic and rankings relative to competitors based on the work. It is important, though, to provide context wherever possible. If a competitor has been out-spending you and acquiring more links because of it, we shouldn't let that go unreported.”
Tamara Sykes finds that it’s helpful to provide some background on sites that link to her content. “I go as far as to share what that website’s purpose is, who its audience is and the website’s SEO stats,” she says. “This helps me paint a picture of why this link is relevant to a brand, rather than sharing a number that only shows ‘Hey, we got 12 backlinks’.”
Where should link builders focus?
Google is getting better and better at recognizing high quality, relevant links. “They're super good at identifying links that don't fit with a natural pattern. And it's not just obvious black hat spam,” Brian Dean says. “Google can also filter out many grey hat approaches (like mass guest posting), which basically only leaves a handful of link building approaches: digital PR, targeted outreach, and content designed to get links.”
So when it comes to link building strategy, where should link builders and digital PRs focus their efforts?
Get creative
Test out new content mediums to stand out from the pack!
Carrie Rose notes that, even though we’re seeing more automation in marketing, “Robots can’t manufacture creativity. That's where the best links come from — where content is more creative than their competitors and brands are getting links others can't replicate.”
Andy Crestodina recommends creating new tools and original research that features bite-size, shareable nuggets such as stats, graphs, and infographics. “These are 100-times more link-worthy than anything else on your domain,” he says.
Build relationships
As the market becomes more saturated, it will be especially important for link builders and digital PRs to deepen relationships with respected publishers and authors in their industry. But you don’t need to overthink it.
Andy believes that a little personalization goes a long way: “Link building has a bad reputation for a good reason: spam. Spammers send cold emails to website owners, clogging our inboxes with the same messages.”
But how do you build those connections in the first place?
Warm up the conversation by engaging with that author or editor on social media! Domenica D’Ottavia uses Twitter to connect. “Twitter is an excellent tool for building those relationships with journalists,” she says. "Reach out to them, like their stuff, respond and retweet, show them you're a real person… When you finally outreach them with your link building project, they'll recognize your name from your interactions on Twitter and will be much more likely to respond positively to your PR pitch.”
Others agree that the ROI of mass outreach continues to decline, remembering the days of in-person link building. “Believe it or not, I used to CALL people, introduce myself, explain how interesting I thought their ‘X’ business was,” says Britney Muller. “I’d ask some questions and then weave in a thoughtful proposition of us linking to each other's websites.”
“People are becoming numb to any non-targeted outreach,” Brian Dean adds. “If you are good at personalization, there could still be a chance of securing links but the bar of what qualifies as ‘personalized’ is higher than ever. Now you almost need to mention their dog's name to get a response.” (Note to all the link builders out there: my dog's name is Ginger.)
Learn more about great outreach from Britney's Whiteboard Friday on the subject!
Tap into influencer networks
Influencer marketing is a growing field and, no, it isn’t just for consumer brands and Instagram. Leveraging experts to elevate your content can capture the attention of your target publishers and audience.
Surena Chande says that “utilizing expert commentary is one of the strongest and most overlooked techniques in link building. If you have clients who are experts in their field or have access to the CEO, you can utilize them to build links with minimal effort for both you and your client.”
“Link building is influencer marketing,” says Andy Crestodina. “You’re pitching an influencer (usually blogger or editor) with a request, usually some kind of collaboration. When you combine influencer marketing with original research, you have the ingredients in place. Your content supports their content. Links begin to appear spontaneously. You’re attracting them. Do it right and high DA sites will link to you every few days. Magic.”
Image Source
Capitalize on trending topics
In a news cycle that is constantly changing, hot topics can rise and fall in the blink of an eye. But if you have your timing right, you can ride the trend wave to secure extra eyeballs from editors and readers.
“I believe that the pandemic, particularly the early stages in 2020, taught the industry a very harsh lesson in the form of reactive outreach and campaigns forming one of the best methods of outreach,” Surena Chande says. “I was so used to conceiving campaign ideas for large-scale interactive pieces, and the unpredictability of the situation taught us that we had to quickly change our approach to link building.”
“Jumping on a trending topic and creating a project or link building campaign around something that's already earned the attention of journalists” says Domenica D’Ottavio, but notes to proceed with caution. “While newsjacking is a clever way to earn a ton of links very fast, it's also pretty risky. You have to work around the clock to get your idea created before the topic has lost relevance, and it might flop if you're too late to respond, wasting your investment.”
Our experts also advise to stay on top of the news across the web, read articles from a variety of publications weekly, study what journalists are asking for when they put out #journorequests, and analyze what angles they take on topics as they go viral. This will ensure that you are well positioned when it comes time to pitch your content.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, link building has undergone some major changes in the last 15 years (likely for the better!), but what’s old is new, and many of the same rules continue to apply:
Relevant content will always perform so long as you target the right audience
Links remain a major part of how Google determined the expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of a site.
Creativity and timeliness in link building will be rewarded
Big thank you to our expert contributors:
Andy Crestodina
Britney Muller
Brian Dean
Carrie Rose
Domenica D'Ottavio
Russ Jones
Surena Chande
Tamara Sykes
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Skook News Obituaries: October third, 2020 – Skook News
Featured Post in Water Filter India dot com - Water Filter India
Skook News Obituaries: October third, 2020
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George E. Flanagan, Jr., 75, of Minersville, handed away on Thursday at Lehigh Valley Hospital, Schuylkill – East.
Born on February 12, 1945 in Pottsville, he was the son of the late George E. Flanagan, Sr. and the late Viola Reed Flanagan. He attended Pottsville colleges; and was employed for 39 years by D. G. Yuengling & Son, Pottsville till his retirement in 2007.
He was a member of Holy Family Parish, Minersville. He was additionally a member of the Mountaineer Hose Company, Minersville, and the American Hose Company No. 2, Pottsville.
He was predeceased by two sisters, Helen Flanagan, in her youth, and Mary Smyser, in 2009.
He is survived by his spouse, Mary Sabol Flanagan, Providence Place, Pottsville; two kids, Cathleen Stone (partner, Michael), Cass Township, and George E. Flanagan III (partner, Jaclyn), Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; 4 grandchildren, Gavin and Lydia Stone, and Colin and Brady Flanagan; his beloved canine companion, Panda; two sisters, Edie Nocket, Port Carbon, and Barbara Woodford, Hamburg; nieces and nephews.
The household will settle for guests at Dutcavich Funeral Home, 200 Sunbury Street, Minersville, on Tuesday from 6:00 P.M. and on Wednesday from 6:00 A.M. Visitation will finish promptly at eight:45 A.M. when procession will type. Mass of Christian Burial can be celebrated at 9:30 A.M. in St. Matthew the Evangelist Church, 139 Spruce Street, Minersville. Visitors and attendees are anticipated to comply with CDC pointers. Interment can be in Schuylkill Memorial Park, North Manheim Township. In lieu of flowers, the household prefers donations to the American Hose Company, 323 W Norwegian St, Pottsville, or the Mountaineer Hose Company, 297 South St, Minersville.
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Catherine H. (Burns) Kubeika, 84, previously of St. Clair, handed away on Friday, Oct. 2, 2020 at Schuylkill Center in Pottsville, PA.
Catherine was born in Pottsville, PA to the late Thomas and Anna Burns. Cathy was preceded in demise by her husband, John “Jack” Kubeika, VII in 2006, her daughter, Diane Kubeika Coppens in 2007, and
by her sister, JoAnna Clark in 2011.Cathy’s ardour was cooking and baking for her household, particularly her grandchildren. Her halupki, meatloaf, macaroni salad and vacation cookies had been extraordinary. She cherished God, her household, polka music, sports activities, West Point, and Schuylkill county.She was a 1957 graduate of Cass Twp. High School, and a proud cheerleader for the one identified PA H.S. soccer group that may lay declare to being unbeaten, untied, and unscored upon after a 10 recreation season. She was an avid fan of scholastic sports activities, the Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs, and Philadelphia Phillies.She is survived by her sons John Kubeika, VIII and spouse Colleen of Enola, PA, and William Kubeika of Shenandoah, PA; two grandchildren, Candice Bruner and husband Adam of Enola, PA and John Kubeika, IX and spouse Julie of Winchester, VA; 5 grandchildren, Emerson, Madison, Eleni, John, X and Audrey; and by a brother, Thomas Burns, Downingtown, PA.The household needs to thank the employees of Schuylkill Center for his or her kindness, compassion, and care whereas Catherine resided there.Due to pandemic restrictions, a personal service can be held on the comfort of the household.
Family and associates are invited to share reminiscences or condolences at www.robertaevansjrfh.com
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Roy S Reiner, age 67, of Camp Hill, handed away Saturday, October three, 2020 at his residence, surrounded by his household.
He was born on Monday, August 31, 1953, in Danville, a son of the late Henry G Reiner and the late Anna C Clark Reiner.
He was a 1971 graduate of Tri-Valley High School and a graduate of Penn State University.
He retired from Cleveland Brothers, Harrisburg, as a service supervisor.
In his free time, Roy cherished spending time along with his household, engaged on and accumulating tractors, farming, biking, and indulging in ice cream sundaes.
He was preceded in demise by his mother and father and by a sister, Darlene Daubert.
He is survived by his spouse Cynthia A Schwartz Reiner, to whom he was married for 45 years.
He can be survived by son, Kirsten S Reiner and his spouse Dara of Mechanicsburg; two daughters, Carissa G Summers of Camp Hill and Janel N Reinfried and her husband Jason of New Cumberland; seven grandchildren; 4 brothers, Henry Reiner of Klingerstown, Mark Reiner of Dillsburg, Gene Reiner of Klingerstown, and Clark Reiner of Pitman; 4 sisters, Mae Kahler of Pitman, Katie Schwartz of Hegins, Leah Thomas of Cape Coral, FL, and Eileen Brewer of Ohio; and lots of nieces and nephews.
Memorial providers can be held on the Valley View Park, 524 Gap Street, Valley View, on Saturday, October 10, 2020 at 2 p.m., with Chaplain Alan Echard officiating.
Buffington-Reed Funeral Home, Valley View, is accountable for preparations.
Condolences might be left for the household at www.buffingtonreed.com.
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Leona Lech Hochgertel, 97 of Pottsville, died Thursday morning at Providence Place Retirement Community, Pottsville.
She was born on June 15, 1923 in Shenandoah, a daughter of the late Anthony J. and Victoria Kacelowicz Lech.
She was a 1941 graduate of Cressona High School.
She was employed by the previous Reading Hosiery, City of Pottsville Tax Office, Schuylkill County Prothonotary’s Office, and she or he was the Liaison for the Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives for the State of Pennsylvania. She ended her profession retiring as the top of the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue within the Pottsville workplace.
Leona was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church, Pottsville, Stanley Dengler American Legion Post 286 Auxiliary, Cressona, Schuylkill County Republican Committee the place she had served as Vice Chairwoman, Pottsville Republican Committee the place she was previous-president, Pottsville Lionettes the place she was previous-president, VFW Post 129 Auxiliary the place she was previous-president, previous-president of the Cressona High School Alumni, Pottsville American Legion Auxiliary, Order of the Eastern Stars, Tall Cedars of Lebanon Auxiliary, Pottsville Elks Auxiliary, YWCA, Eastside Republican Club, The Central Republican Club. She was the founding father of the group Schuylkill Travelers, the place she traveled all through all 50 states, in addition to different international locations overseas.
Leona was preceded in demise by a son, Daniel John Hochgertel in 1947, and her husband, John W. “Jack” Hochgertel, Sr. on December 7, 2003. She was the final surviving member of her instant household.
She leaves behind her son, John W. Hochgertel, Jr.; her granddaughter, Holly Hochgertel Lubinsky and her husband Albert J. Lubinsky, Jr.; and her two nice grandchildren, Tyler John and Jordyn Victoria Lubinsky, all of Pottsville.
In honoring Leona’s requests, there can be no viewing. Relatives and associates are invited to attend her graveside service which can be held on Wednesday, October seventh at 1 p.m. from Schuylkill Memorial Park, Schuylkill Haven, with Rev. Chris Rothharpt officiating. The Family would like remembrances within the type of contributions be made to Trinity Lutheran Church, 300 W. Arch St. Pottsville, PA 17901.
Arrangements are beneath the care of James B. Humphrey, Funeral Director, James E. Humphrey Funeral Home, Pottsville.
Please share your reminiscences and condolences with Leona’s household by signing the visitor e book at www.jehumphreyfuneralhome.com
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Arrow?
favorite male character: Roy Harper, I guess. I really wish we’d see more of him
favorite female character: FELICITY SMOAK
least favorite character: Uhm. Mmmh… I really hate Mom Of Oliver’s Son for a) hiding Ollie’s kid from him for years, b) making him lie to Felicity and thus c) leading to the Olicity breakup
prettiest character: Holy shit Nyssa al Ghul. That woman is fucking flawless
funniest character: Felicity when she has no brain to mouth filter *snickers*
favorite season: Season 4. We got Olicity, we got the return of Roy, we got the threeway-crossover, we got Vixen, we got John Constantine. Holy shit, I had not realized all the good stuff was piled into one season like that. Yeah. Definitely my favorite.
favorite episode: Maybe “The Scientist” for the introduction of Barry Allen before he started sucking last season of his own show
favorite romantic ship: OLICITY FOR LIFE. Like seriously, I ship the hell out of those two and I rarely squeal more in front of the TV than when they have an overly cute moment. Damn, I’m so gone on that ship
favorite family ship: Oliver and Roy. I wiiish he would have stayed and we could have had more of the potential not just mentorship but big brother ship there
favorite friend ship: Oliver-Diggle-Felicity, the core trio. Diggle just always knows when he has to intervene with which one of his thick-headed friends but in return, they are also always there for him
worst ship: Oliver and Laurel Lance. Like. I really fucking hate that ship in general? Even in the cartoons. But here even more. Holy shit, he cheated on you Laurel, how were you still hung up on him in season one he cheated on you with your sister, fuck if he changed, he is not the right guy for you. Also, disliking it for Olicity reasons, obviously
#arrowverse#green arrow#olicity#honestly the ship is the main thing i love about this show#send me fandoms#send me asks#mycasualobsessions#DC Comics#Arrow TV
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