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roswellnmsource · 3 years

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Michael Trevino Talks The CW’s ‘Roswell, New Mexico’

So first off, what was your reaction to finding out you’d be doing that time jump this season? Michael Trevino: For Kyle, I think jumping — I mean yeah, time has passed, right? And I think whenever you start a new season, we always ask that. We’re like, “Well, how much time has passed? Where are we starting from? Has as my character been here, been there?” So this is one of those seasons where yes, time has passed, kind of a restart, reboot and it’s fresh. I think our first episodes were showing people in their different dynamics and kind of briefly alluded to what they’ve been up to, and that’s always nice.

I had the chance to see episode nine early and really enjoyed it. What can you preview for the fans about what this episode has in store for them? I feel that episode nine is a turning point for Kyle. Kyle, as we all know, is there for everybody, whenever he can be. He seems to be the one that they go to. He’s always putting out fires, I keep saying that but it’s true. Whenever there’s a problem, Kyle’s there for you. And I think this episode is kind of where — not that he’s reached a limit, but it’s taken a toll on him and we get a very frustrated, little angsty Kyle for good reason, I feel. I think that that frustration is a bit earned after everything, but we are going to find out in 3×09, as we’ve been finding out, a bit more about who Jim Valenti was, who was Kyle’s father, who is Eduardo, what is Deep Sky about, and it’s going to kind of jumpstart Kyle for the rest of the season. It’s a big episode for him because he finally makes a decision on, “Okay, enough is enough. This is how I feel about this and this is what we’re doing next.”

How was it for you to play with that sort of stroyline as an actor? As you said, it is such an important point for him. Well, I gotta be honest, I just saw the episode and I’m coming in hot! I’m coming in real hot and in the moment I didn’t think it was that hot, but damn, we’re there. And so I think it’s fine because I get a lot of feedback, which is great, that Kyle is such a good guy and “I like his character, he’s there for everybody.” That’s nice, right? So I feel like after three seasons of that, to see Kyle a bit over it with what’s going on and everything that he’s being told, new information, more new information, I think it works. For me, you try to find those moments of like, “Okay, can I keep being there for everybody,” or at some point I’m going to be like, “Okay, I’m done,” right? Or “I can only do this much.” He’s never going to turn his back on people, but in this episode we see him a little frustrated.

Fans love the show, what does it mean to you when you go on social media or meet fans in person and hear their response to your work? It’s great. It’s a beautiful feeling because we’re currently filming season four and that’s rare for a series to really last that long, to build these characters, and to still have these interesting storylines. So, to know that people are still engaged in these characters and the story that we’re telling, they’re still tuning in, it’s nice. What makes it even more special this season is because we’re watching season three right now, but we’re currently at the same time filming season four. Through the scheduling it just worked out that way, but it’s almost instant feedback and it’s also an instant reminder of “Okay, where have we been? What have we done?” So we feel closer to the story, which is great for us as actors, but sometimes it’s not that way. You’ll see something and be like, “Oh yeah, we shot that a year ago. Where am I coming from? Where are we headed,” and you want to track these stories but right now I’m just thankful for everybody that’s continuing to watch and who’s invested in these characters.

The show was picked up for a season four ahead of season three even premiering, which was so amazing to see. What was your reaction when you heard the news? I was genuinely surprised because usually you don’t get a pickup until at least the season has aired or the season is four or five episodes in, but I guess because in the year COVID and the delay, the network was able to see all these episodes and see the ones that we’ve done already. It’s great feedback. I think that we have something special happening here in Santa Fe, New Mexico with this crew, this cast, and our writers back in LA, who are back to visiting us on set per their episode. Everybody’s still invested. It’s a great feeling because we’re all here, we’re happy to be here, grateful to be telling these stories and working, and we’d like to continue.

What has been your favorite storyline of the season so far that fans have already seen? I think — okay, well, to answer that on what we’ve already seen, I did like and enjoy the scenes with Kyle and Michael. Those were fun to shoot. I get along great with Mr. Michael Vlamis and it’s always fun to be in scenes with him because, as we know, Michael Guerin is a bit of a wild card. With that, Mr. Michael Vlamis on the day is able to be a little bit unpredictable and I like that. I like performing with him and feeding off of what he’s bringing. He always keeps it fresh and new in each take. So, I like those scenes with him

I know you can’t tell me too much, but what can you tease about the rest of season three? The rest of season three, I feel now that Jones is really flexing on us, we have this bit of the Avengers assembling right in Roswell, like everybody having to come together, everybody has a job, and it’s to really take care of Jones and get him out of here. So I think that’s really what the rest of these episodes are going to be about.

I love that metaphor you did. It’s perfect. It really is because it’s like from season one to season three, we’re all separate. Now, it’s like, “Okay, we have to join forces to handle this guy.” And that’s what we’re gonna see.

You filmed season three with the COVID pandemic and now you’re filming season four with those safety precautions since the pandemic is still going on. What did it feel like for you to wrap season three with those circumstances, but then also come back for season four? Well, I have to give it to our producers, really, because everybody in the world had to pivot. We all had to make changes in our lives and I think the changes that have been made to keep everybody — crew, catering, casting, post production, accounting, whoever — safe on set, there’s been some different rules and it’s kept everybody safe. I’m proud to say we didn’t have to shut down once in season three. Unfortunately, there’s other productions that had to, but up here in Santa Fe, no. We were just lucky or we followed the rules, I don’t know but we were great and we were able to keep to our schedule, not have to shut down, and now we’re back for season four and we know what to expect. So things are running smoothly and there hasn’t been any problem. I’m just happy, glad, and grateful that we’re able to still tell the stories.

What is your personal favorite dynamic (friendship or relationship) when it comes to Kyle? I’m going to say that I want to see more Kyle and Isobel. I think that Isobel brings out a different side of Kyle whenever they’re in scenes or have interactions with one another. I’d like to lean more into that storyline for whatever it may be, I just want them to have more interaction because I think Kyle acts a different way around her. She’s just such a big ball of energy, so I think that would be fantastic and I would want to see more of that.

I know you’re probably not going to be able to give me too much on this, but I have to ask you, what was your reaction when you read the scripts for season four? Well, my reaction is a kind of going off of my last answer, Kyle ends up having more storyline with Isobel and it’s nice to see that play out. And so far, it’s been refreshing to see them in scenes together. I will tease this: so far in season four, the scenes that are with Kyle and Isobel have a comedic feeling to them. I feel like their scenes are fun and funny to shoot, but there’s a comedic element to it.

Is there any other show that you are personally a fan of and would like to see Roswell, New Mexico do a crossover with? Oh damn, that’s a great question. Off the top of my head, we’re gonna have a Roswell, New Mexico and The X-Files crossover event. This episode is going to air right after the Super Bowl and millions of people are going to watch it. It’s going to be Scully and Mulder pulling up to Roswell, New Mexico and Kyle will be there to greet them.

Is there a memory that sticks out to you as a memorable moment from filming season three? Oh gosh, it’s our season finale, it has to be our season finale. I can’t give away too much, but like I said about as far as Avengers assembling, it’s those scenes when we’re all on set together. It’s the season finale, we’re in Santa Fe in the middle of February and March, it’s freezing, it’s like 10 degrees outside, we’re getting the exterior night shoots that we need, and we’re all in. It’s not even just the cast, it’s the crew, it’s everybody. We’re just trying to get the final shot done of the season and we are working against all the elements. It’s a bit chaotic but it’s organized — organized chaos, that’s what it is. Those feelings are you got to get the job done and that’s what we do. I mean, we all know Jones is the big bad and everybody’s gonna have to get involved to take care of him and we see that in our last episode. Those scenes are really fun to shoot. They were challenging but I think it’s gonna come together well and it’ll be a strong finish for us.

If you could create a tagline or a phrase of your own to describe Kyle as a character, what would you pick? Kyle Valenti: I’m there if you need me.

#michael trevino #kyle valenti #roswell new mexico #press #3x09 #rnm spoilers

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bangtanbetchfics · 3 years

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friction | ii - knj (m)

genre: office au, romance, smut rating: explicit // 18+ pairing: kim namjoon x reader word count: 4.0k suggested listening: monster - irene & seulgi | million - moon ft. dok2 | red moon - kim woo seok | step? - bibi | playlist warnings: m/f, m/m, explicit language, explicit/casual sex, masturbation, enemies to lovers, light bondage, light dom/sub, sex toys summary: your pesky and overworked assistants meddle in your relationship with your sexy rival -- kim namjoon -- and find themselves caught in the crosshairs of love and all-out war. notes: enjoy chapter 2! :) navigation: ch. i | ch. ii | ch. iii | finale | m.list | ao3

You look down at your phone, pulling up Namjoon’s number.

[10:57a] YOU: Hey, can you swing back for a sec? Dire situation.

[11:01a] JOON: Sure, you OK? Be right there.

You look in the mirror, tilting your head to the side to view the aftermath on your skin from last night. You see that the hickey on your neck bloomed into an inky red hue, and you gnaw at your bottom lip.

A deep sigh leaves your lips, and you pull concealer and powder from your makeup bag. You start to dab at the love bite with a makeup brush until it blends in with the rest of your skin.

Just as your hand lifts to seal it with powder, Namjoon appears in the mirror behind you.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

Namjoon looks concerned, but you breathe out -- a little embarrassed. You point to the back of your dress for the day, and he understands that you need help with the zip again.

“O-Ah, oh, okay-” He lets out a shy chuckle to himself, moving closer to grab the zip. He pulls the zipper up and you can feel his warm breaths blowing at the small hairs at the nape of your neck.

“You look beautiful, by the way,” He whispers as he reaches the top of the dress, and his eyes slowly meet yours in the mirror.

You look at him for a second, but then quickly peel your eyes away and smooth down your dress. You find your heart thumping in your throat -- your hands collecting sweat. Next on your mind is to tell him to leave, to stay away from you -- that you’re already in this thing too deep, but only nervous air is able to leave your mouth in the place of words.

Namjoon puts it all together: he notices the marriage between you, the concealer and the powder and he lowers his eyes in return.

“I’ll...leave you to it. See you down there.” He gently offers, giving you a nod before he leaves.

You sigh under your breath before you start to press powder into your neck.

✹✹✹

Namjoon peeks his head from behind a curtain on the stage, watching as the seats of the massive conference start to fill. You approach the curtain to peek out just the same, and you advance toward him from behind. You rest your hand on his shoulder before your fingers give him a firm squeeze. He turns his head slightly toward you as he bends down, and your lips press to his ear.

“Can we forget about last night?” You whisper to him, awaiting a response. He knits his brows as he turns around to look at you. “Totally. If that’s what you want from me?” He looks down at you, the expression in his eyes slightly forlorn.

“I just want to stay focused on why we’re here in the first place,” Your voice is cold, knowing it’ll hurt him. “And that’s for work.” He nods, and he combs a hand through his hair before he blows out air.

“And now, for the part you’ve all been waiting for. The reason why you’re all here, at TechX…”

You hear your cue and you walk out, always managing to turn around and look back at Namjoon one more time. Namjoon looks out at you on stage, smiling at the way the crowd is taking you in.

As you show the product he’s been working on, the audience lets out exclamations of shock and excitement. Namjoon had to admit to himself that your charisma and know-how was selling his product, and that he was falling in love with it -- and you -- faster than he’d like.

On the one hand, he now knew you didn’t want that -- and it was really no use for him to continue musing over you. On the other hand, your chemistry from the night before was infallible. For the first time in a long time he felt alive, present, wanted, sexy -- and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to let any of those feelings go.

A roaring applause follows you, and you quickly glance at Namjoon once you arrive backstage.

“They’re all yours,” You hand him the mic, and your hands accidentally brush against each other.

You both feel a jolt -- a spark -- as indicated by both of your eyes going wide, but you try to ignore it and swiftly walk away. He sighs as he watches you off before he waves and enters the stage.

✹✹✹

As you sit in your green room, you watch Namjoon’s speech from the screen fastened to the wall.

Somehow, you couldn’t help but blush at how damn good he is. His charisma, his calm amongst the immense pressure -- his intricate way with words. For some reason it starts to turn you on, and you start to massage the edge of your brow in frustration before moving to your temple.

You cross your legs to relieve yourself of the ache below because you really didn’t need to be thinking about Namjoon in that way right now -- especially after you just decided to let him go and focus on work.

“Thank you.” He wraps up, and the audience provides a standing ovation causing Namjoon to blush.

“Thank you all for coming. Enjoy the rest of the conference.”

✹✹✹

Just a few moments after he wraps, you hear a soft knock on your door.

“Yes?” You ask before you stand up to jog to the door and open it.

It’s Namjoon.

You both search each other's eyes, subtle waves of electricity transmitting through your gazes. You feel your cheeks growing hot and your heart pulsing in your chest as he looks at you.

Right as he steps forward, you try to push the door to a close before he can step in. He stops you with one of his feet in the frame -- entering the room and quietly closing the door.

“There’s still something there, isn’t there?”

“No,” You respond, crossing your arms. “I made the biggest mistake -- possibly of my career -- by kissing you.” You note, leaning against a wall. "There’s no denying we crossed the line. Only one position’s available, and one of us is going to get hurt along the way because of it. I just don't want it to be me." You explain, forcing yourself to look down at the floor.

Namjoon approaches you, and he feels his heart pang in his chest as he looks down at you. You allow him to trace his index finger up your throat, and he tilts your chin up to look up at him.

"All I know right now is that I want you," He says, tilting his head. "And that I'd never hurt you." You let him take your jaw in his hand, and he moves to thread his fingers through your hair.

“Namjoon, I-” A surprised gasp leaves your mouth, and this time Namjoon closes his eyes and presses his lips to yours. After a few soft, exploratory kisses, you push in to kiss his lips hungrily, his hands tangled in your hair. His tongue is entangled with yours as you’re pressed against the wall, his body heat and weight deliciously enveloping you.

Suddenly, you feel a familiar sensation stirring in your stomach -- a mix of passion and fear -- and you pull your lips from his. His lids hang low as he pulls away and looks at you, and you’re still intoxicated enough by him to allow him to steal a few more kisses.

You pop your lips from his, catching up with your breaths.

“I need time.” You sigh out, ghosting your lips over his as you smooth your hand up his abdomen -- following the path to his chest. Your expression is serious as you look into his eyes, and his forehead collapses to meet yours. He takes your hand -- interlacing his fingers through it, and you revel in the atmosphere for a few seconds before you unravel your fingers from his.

Both of your heads turn once you hear another knock on your door, and you place your hand on the small of Namjoon’s back to push him closer to the exit.

As Namjoon pulls the door open, you look upward and see a man in a black baseball cap. His thin black trench coat coat drapes to his ankles, and a turtleneck wraps at his broad frame. Despite his dark clothing, he looks at you with big, shiny doe eyes as he pulls down his face mask. He’s quite young, and you cover your mouth as you realize who he is before you look at Namjoon, who’s also in awe.

“I’m Jeon Jungkook. CEO of Muscle Bunny games?”

You’re at a loss for words as you look up at him, and he looks back at you -- blinking.

Oh, you already know who Jungkook is. In fact, more than know. He was number one on the 30 Under 30 In Technology list at 18 years old -- a few years even before Yoongi. You even had a copy of his other magazine cover framed at your desk: Top 10 Most Influential Billionaires In the World.

“I-I loved your presentation, and I’d love to talk to you about investing in the product.”

Jungkook then moves to give you both a deep bow, and you both try to bow deeper. You cover your mouth, blushing at how polite he comes off. You try to wave him off from bowing, but he defeats the both of you in this particular battle of respect.

“Between your marketing of the product, and the engineering of the product itself -- I was highly impressed. You both work really well together.” He states, taking a sip of his iced coffee as he looks at you and Namjoon.

Namjoon looks over at you and you see him admiring you from your peripheral, causing you to blush. You put your hand to your mouth in embarrassment before you give a bow of gratitude to Jungkook.

“I’d love to chat with the both of you tonight,” Jungkook continues. “I’m hosting a tech mixer in the garden of the hotel, and then we’re gonna press our luck at some casino games. Can I count on you?” His eyes widen in expectation, and you nod furiously. “This mixer’s not your average stuffy work party, so wear your best Vegas outfits.” He finishes, slurping the last bits of his drink.

“Of course. We will, Mr. Jeon.” You reply, bowing to him again as you smile, and he smiles in return.

“Oh, and just call me Jungkook.” He states, pulling his face mask up and exiting the room. “Hate that stuffy corporate speak.” You nod.

You watch him leave, and you clutch your chest -- smiling to yourself in relief.

✹✹✹

“This way, ma’am.” A server says, pointing you in the direction of the garden.

The garden is surrounded by the tall buildings of the hotel, and a marble fountain sits in the middle of the space. The party is packed to the brim with attendees, and each of them have either a fizzy drink or small hor d'oeuvres pinched in between their fingers.

Namjoon stops speaking to Jungkook mid-sentence as you enter -- taking a long sip of his champagne and drinking it down.

The moonlight seems to hit your face at just the right angle, and all Namjoon can manage to do is gawk at you.

The glitter on your dress is twinkling from head to toe, and the slit that your leg runs through ends at the crevice where your thigh meets your hip. Your hair is slicked completely back in a wet look with a sharp red lip, and a piece of faux fur adorns your shoulder.

Your eyes seem to meet Namjoon’s to the same effect, and your eyes widen. His eyes are dark and smoky with lust, a tuft of hair hanging over one of his eyes in a comma shape. You can tell his suit is freshly tailored for the night, and his ringed fingers clench around his glass of champagne.

You see Jungkook whisper something to him, and Namjoon closes his jaw to gulp.

You rapidly cut your eyes away from his gaze, and stop a woman walking by with a tray. You grab a glass of champagne and you down it as she starts to walk off. You grab her again, and pull another glass from the tray.

Your thoughts are spinning: Namjoon? Your sexy rival that you almost-kinda-did-hook-up-with last night? And maybe almost again a few hours ago? Oh, and Jungkook? No big deal, you just have to talk to one of the richest men in the world?

Oh. Yes. No big deal. You figure that you’ll need all of the liquid courage you can get.

You mingle with a few guests, pretending to care what they’re saying, laughing a little too loud -- but Namjoon’s racing through your mind. You stuff a fig wrapped in bacon in your mouth, and Namjoon catches your eyes again from across the room as he places a hand in his pocket.

You excuse yourself from your chat with a woman, and you down the rest of your champagne. You slowly work your way through the crowd and over to the two.

“Hello again, Jungkook,” You say as you approach the two, bowing to Jungkook. You acknowledge Namjoon with a bow, and he finishes off his drink -- his eyes still looking intently down at you.

"Let's discuss business over a game?" Jungkook asks, and you confirm with a nod.

✹✹✹

Soon after, the three of you find yourselves slipping into a blackjack table at a High Rollers lounge, and you slowly sip at your third drink once you pick a seat.

“I’m so ready for your product to launch. The platform is perfect for the initiative I’m starting,” Jungkook starts, pushing chips toward the dealer. “I want to host some pretty heavy VR assets on the cloud for some of my best-selling games, and then display them on the frontend of our website for consumers. The compression and cloud storage your product provides is impressive, and I’d love to invest money and resources into it if you’ll let me.”

“That’s awesome to hear,” Namjoon chuckles, feeling flattered by Jungkook’s words.

“One thousand.” Namjoon confirms to the dealer, and he nods. You push your chips in to match theirs, and the dealer starts placing cards on the table.

“Our boss would love that, and we can definitely get something going,” You state, watching Jungkook wave his hand across his cards. 19. The dealer moves on, and Namjoon taps his finger on the felt table. 18. You tap your finger on the table just the same. 20.

The dealer reveals his cards -- 17 -- and you win the round.

“We can have the paper on your desk by Monday.” You say, and Jungkook nods in acknowledgement.

“Ten thousand,” You wager, and both Jungkook and Namjoon look over at you.

“Ah, a risk taker. I see.” Jungkook pushes his chips in, finding himself impressed with you.

“Feeling like Lady Luck is on my side tonight,” You chuckle, sliding the chips over the table.

“After all, we got you to think we’re actually cool or something?” You grin, your voice ending the sentence in a question mark.

“Fair, fair,” Jungkook lets out a boisterous laugh, sliding his own chips in.

“Make it twenty,” Namjoon says nonchalantly, pushing additional chips in and both you and Jungkook look in his direction.

Your eyes push into his like daggers, and he licks his lips. He rests his face in his hand, and his eyes darken as he awaits your next move. You gasp to yourself as arousal crawls up your throat, and you push your chips in. Jungkook follows, pushing additional chips toward the dealer.

Jungkook's hand is dealt and he taps the felt table -- 17. He suddenly giggles, bubbly drunk.

Namjoon’s dealt a hand, and he ponders for a moment but waves his hand and settles on 19.

The dealer pulls an ace and a ten-value card for you, and you smirk at the both of them.

21.

“You win, miss.” The dealer says, sliding you all of the colored chips.

"I like you. I'm telling Min about you. If you're going to win, you've got to take risks." Jungkook knocks a chip on the table, looking at you. "Can't wait to start investing in the company." You giggle at him until your eyes meet Namjoon's.

Namjoon looks at you with his dusky gaze, and you eye him as the last of your drink flows down your throat.

A glare develops in your eyes -- and you realize for him, his M.O. is larger than winning.

He got off on the competition of it all.

✹✹✹

“So, were you gonna take a picture?”

You ask Namjoon, pressing your floor on the elevator panel.

“Of what?”

“Me. I saw you eyeing me all night. A picture would’ve lasted longer,” You state matter-of-factly as you look at your nails, and Namjoon scoffs.

Namjoon feels a bottled frustration boiling in his chest when he looks across the elevator at you. He sees you looking at him through another mirror on the wall, and your gaze sharpens before he grabs your wrist to pull you flush against his body.

Both of your mouths are a breath away from meeting, and you bite your lip.

“Yeah? Well, you didn’t seem so opposed to it,” He says breathily into your mouth. He pinches your chin between his thumb and index finger to look at your lips. You lean in a fraction closer and all you can do is glare at him in response, your hands clasping the rail behind him.

“Cat got your tongue now?” Namjoon growls, remembering when you had the upper hand in the banter before he takes your lips in his. The two of you fight through forceful kisses -- the throes of hate rising in your bellies.

The elevator dings to open at another floor, and Namjoon flings you away from him and into a nearby wall. Your chest heaves as you rest your head on the glass, wiping the smudged lipstick from your chin while you glare at Namjoon.

“I thought you needed more time?” He questions, rubbing the remnants of red lipstick in his fingers.

You don’t answer him as you know he’s right, but you refuse to give in.

The woman who enters the elevator looks at the two of you, glancing over ever so often to see you both consistently shooting daggers at each other with your eyes. Even a clearing of her throat doesn't phase the two of you, and she lowers her eyes before she gets off at the next floor.

As soon as she leaves, Namjoon takes the first opportunity to press his lips firmly back into yours.

As he kisses you, your bodies circle around the elevator until you forcefully land on the button panel. The elevator’s alarm suddenly buzzes, jolting you both from your relentless heat -- and you manage to snort into each other’s lips.

The two of you move to make out in the elevator bank, and you finally come up for air to speak.

“I want you, but our room’s at the end of the hall,” You breathe out, your fingers raking through his hair. You look up at him, twisting his tie tightly around your wrist.

“What do you have in mind?” He bites his lip, looking at you.

You get an idea and start to pull him by the tie, yanking him down the hall.

✹✹✹

The both of you bust through the door of a nearby ice room, quickly shutting the door behind you.

You still kiss him feverishly, your fingers massaging his scalp. Namjoon’s hands run down your curves a few times before you hook your arms around his neck.

“Fuck, what were you thinking wearing this?” He groans into your lips, looking down and taking you in. His hand smooths over your exposed thigh, and he hooks it into his arm.

“You just wanted to drive me crazy -- knowing I couldn't have you, hmm?”

A delighted moan leaves your throat in response, satisfied with his stiff bulge being flush against your body. He kisses your neck again and it feels like every neuron in your body is on fire with lust.

Namjoon eagerly moves to pull a strap of your dress down, and your breast spills out. He flicks over the nipple with his finger, reveling in your breathy reaction.

“Ah, so you like that?” He quickly clamps his mouth to the exposed nipple, rolling his tongue around it as your chest heaves. He pulls his lips from your nipple and presses them back into your mouth, the pads of his fingers digging into your thigh.

You let out a small yelp as he lifts you up in one fell swoop. You hold his jaw and kiss him until you walk through the door of your hotel room, and he drops you down to your feet.

Your eyes are ablaze as you tug your lips from his, your hands scrambling at his belt below. You manage to slip your hands in his pants and across his bulge before he pins your wrists to the wall.

Your chest heaves at how turned on you are from his command of you -- and you can’t recall a time you ever hooked up with anyone who could match you like this. You were always the one in control, but here you were -- a hot, wet mess, and trembling under Namjoon’s control of you.

Namjoon starts undressing himself -- ripping off his blazer, unfastening his shirt, and loosening his tie as he stares you down -- already devouring you with his eyes. He moves to flip you around to face the wall, pulling the zip of your dress down in one fell swoop.

Namjoon rips the dress down your frame and lifts you into his arms before carrying you to the bed. He tosses you down, and you prop yourself up using your elbows. He’s undeniably hard as you look from his pants up to his eyes, and he fully removes his shirt. He then drops to his knees, pulling you closer to the edge of the bed to remove your underwear. His lips move to place kisses from your ankles -- moving with intent until he reaches your inner thighs. He scratches at your inner thighs with his finger, feeling the skin tremble underneath and transferring a moan up to your lips.

Your breaths pick up in anticipation as he reaches your core, the warm breaths from his mouth making you shiver as he prepares to dive into you. Instead, he kisses and nibbles at your inner thighs, placing love bites across your skin. His sharp gaze looks up at you as he does so -- and that’s enough to make you tremble further. Without warning, he dives into licking your drenched lips -- moaning as the liquid coats his mouth. His tongue immediately dips into you and starts drawing the alphabet and you groan through your teeth -- grabbing the roots of his hair. He pulls lightly at your lips with his teeth before licking you again, and your grip loosens as your head falls back in pleasure.

✹✹✹

Jimin runs his lips up Taehyung’s neck before snuggling into the crook between his ear and jaw. His hand roams around Taehyung’s chest before the two interlace their fingers together on top of his abdomen.

Taehyung looks out of the window and sees a slight orange hue starting to overtake the night sky. He looks at his watch and squints at the bright light from the device in the dark room: 2:47 A.M.

That made it about eleven at night in Vegas.

“Taehyungie, what are you doing…” Jimin groans into Taehyung’s neck. “Go back to sleep...”

“My boss asked me to remind her about her flight, and her interview with Yoongi on Monday,” He presses his watch, and scrolls to find your number. “Should only take a few minutes.”

Jimin caresses Taehyung’s hair as the two listen to the line trill.

“Mmm-m, yes, Tae-h-hyung?” Your voice sounds breathy, and Jimin looks up at Taehyung.

“Yes, I’m calling to inform you about your flight. It’s at four-fifteen AM, tomorrow, October twenty-fifth,” Taehyung states, and a small squeal leaves your mouth.

Jimin’s eyebrows come together, and he mouths “Are they...fucking?” as he looks at Taehyung.

Taehyung bites his lip as his eyes go wide in shock; his shoulders coming up into a shrug.

“Is that understood?” Taehyung asks. “Yes, yes, yes. I mean, yeah. Yes, Taehyung, thank you. Anything else?”

“Oh shit,” Jimin mouths before his eyes scrunch into crescents, a laugh creeping up his chest.

Taehyung’s hand moves to cover Jimin’s mouth to stop the other man from giggling.

“Yes. Your interview with Mr. Min is on Monday at nine AM. Please report to his office directly at that time.” You don’t respond, and the two look at each other -- eyes wide -- as there’s only shuffling on the line.

“Ma’am?” Taehyung asks again. “Yes, yes, got it. Thanks, Tae,” You respond breathily, and the shuffling continues on the line.

Jimin’s eyes widen as the call continues, and he hears kissing noises.

You forgot to shut off the call.

“Ah, fuck! Namjoon…” All the two can hear is skin slapping against skin on the other side of the line.

Shuffling, quiet. A slap on skin. Then another well timed, hard slap before you drag out a moan.

“Fuck, just ride it. Yeah, like that…” Namjoon says breathily, satisfied grunts leaving his throat.

Taehyung laughs into his fist pressing against his lips, tears sprouting at the edge of his eyes from laughter. Jimin slaps his chest, letting out a silent laugh with his mouth wide open.

“Get on your knees and suck my cock.”

Jimin hangs up the call as he can’t contain his laughs anymore, and he looks at Taehyung who’s crying with laughter.

“Fuck, I didn’t know she was a sub.”

The two cackle to each other and Taehyung initiates linking their pinkies together.

✹✹✹

“See you back in the office.”

Namjoon places a peck on your cheek, and one side of your face comes up in a smirk.

Somehow, he turned you into some lovesick schoolgirl, and you feel a pang in your heart as you watch him hop into a cab. You wave, watching the car pull off.

“Hey! He-ey!” You hear a voice shout, and you see a man waving at you in the distance.

“Coming!” You yell, waving back and running toward the man.

As you arrive, he takes your luggage and you look him over. He’s tall, warm and handsome.

“Love this coat, Jin.” You tug at his long leather coat that’s adorned with white fur, and he pulls you in for a bear hug. His eyes sparkle at you for a second as he looks at you before his eyes narrow -- suspicious of you. You start to blush under his gaze, and he removes the scarf from your neck.

Jin gasps as he discovers hickeys of various hues all over your neck. His mouth widens to a full O-shape in a delighted shock, and you get into a tug of war with him for your scarf.

“Jin! Stop! Give it back!” You grit through your teeth, giggling at him. He lets it go as you think you’ve got leverage, and you fall to the ground. “Ow!” You pout, and he runs to lift you up.

“And who was that, exactly?” Jin asks, his hands on his hips.

A few cars honk repeatedly, as Jin’s truck is blocking the flow of airport traffic.

“Ah, shutup already!” He waves them off, and they only honk harder.

“Can we get in the car?” You cringe and Jin chuckles as you escape him and run to the passenger seat door.

✹✹✹

“So...you’re telling me my best friend’s dick whipped?”

Jin says casually, pulling your luggage up the stairs to your brownstone.

“No!” You whine, beating your fists at his back as he walks through the door.

You take Jin’s coat and hang it on a rack, quickly following it with your own.

You walk into the kitchen, and Jin follows you until he reaches the couch. He plops down and sits back, looking up at the ceiling to recall his thoughts.

“Mmm, so to sum it up -- you let your direct competition fuck you every which way in Vegas?” Jin confirms with you as you bring tea over for the two of you. “And on the plane on the way here?”

“Yes, but when you put it like that-”

“Like it or not, you’re dick whipped.”

You look down sadly into your tea and pout, swirling a small teaspoon in your cup.

Jin lets out a squeaky laugh and then rubs your back.

“It’s a good thing. I’ve never seen you this happy,” He smiles, trying to cheer you up. You can’t deny the smile that’s forming on your lips, and Jin pokes his finger into your cheek.

“There she is,” He laughs, and you giggle in return. He embraces you in a warm hug, and you rest your head on his shoulder.

“I’m afraid, Jin,” You confess in his ear, and he rests his chin on your shoulder. “That he’ll break my heart.”

“If he does, I’ll kick him in the balls.” Jin shakes you as he looks at you, holding your shoulders. You chuckle, looking at him warmly.

“One thing you have to understand is that you might have to choose,” Jin looks at you firmly, pursing his lips. “You might not be able to have it both ways. Being the first woman CEO of your company, or having a possible great love of your life.” He states, and you take a deep inhale at the thought.

“Someone’s feelings are ultimately going to get hurt.”

✹✹✹

“You what?”

Hoseok laughs at the highest volume he can, clapping his hands together in delight.

“She was so fucking hot, Hobi. I couldn’t resist her. We fucked nearly everywhere. I’m getting hard just thinking about it.” Namjoon shakes his head to free himself of his lustful stupor, and Hoseok laughs again, smacking Namjoon’s back.

Namjoon’s putty around Hoseok, and he lets out a bubbly giggle.

“Man, you’re glowing. You used to be such a stone cold hardass before this,” He chuckles, rubbing Namjoon’s back as he sits next to him.

“But seriously, though. Is this a tactic to get the job over her?”

Namjoon punches Hoseok in the arm and shakes his head.

“Nah, man. I think I’m really a goner this time.”

Namjoon seems to lament, and Hoseok pouts at Namjoon before he ruffles the man’s hair.

✹✹✹

“Welcome back,” Taehyung takes a deep bow at you. He looks you over as you nod and pass him. He’s not sure if it’s your tan -- or the sex -- but you’re glowing.

“You look radiant today, ma’am,” Taehyung comments, and you stop before you walk into your office. “Did everything go as planned?” He asks, looking at you.

You smirk and pull down your sunglasses, looking at him.

“If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you.” You wink, and Taehyung’s taken by surprise at how casual you are with him. He bows again as you shut the door to your office and settle in.

Taehyung’s phone rings, and he runs to pick it up.

“Is she on the phone, too?” Jimin whispers over the line.

“Yes.” Taehyung subtly looks over, and then turns his head back.

“Namjoon asked me to send all of his calls directly to his line.” Jimin chuckles.

“And you know what that means.” Jimin watches Namjoon lean back in his chair and bite his lip, and you twirl your finger around the phone cord as you bite yours.

“Oh god, are they just gonna have phone sex all day?” Taehyung nearly gags, shaking his head.

“Mhmm.” Jimin hums in agreement. “Anyway, Joon gave me a bunch of other stuff to do outside of administrative work. For the time being, at least.”

Taehyung hums, clicking around in his inbox. He finds a few emails from you as well -- indicating a new workload.

✹✹✹

“How did TechX go?” An older woman asks Namjoon. Her face is beautiful and full of character, but it’s worn with age.

Pearls adorn her neck, and she wears a cream silk blouse that’s tucked into her tailored slacks.

“It went pretty well, Mom,” He responds, sipping green tea from the china in his hand.

“Pretty well?” She asks, her voice pointed.

“Yeah, we got to speak to Jeon Jungkook-”

“You secured him?” She cuts him off and her eyes widen.

“No, my coworker did but-”

“Your coworker?” His mother slams her cup down on the table with a clink, and a few drops of liquid hit the table. She rakes her fingers through her wavy hair, and her eyes concentrate on Namjoon.

“Yeah, I was able to get a few smaller investors but she-” He continues, and his voice lowers as he looks at her expression -- which starts to grow dark. "She sealed the deal..."

“She? Namjoon...do you understand that your father is literally dead and in his grave because of how hard he worked for us? Do you have no respect for him?” She pleads as her voice trembles, and he drops his head into his hands.

"I seriously need you in control of everything. I need you getting those recommendations. No one else." She quietly sips her tea before moving on.

“Just think. How do you expect to maintain this lifestyle? Make him proud? This was his only wish for you. You must focus.” She reaches across the table and squeezes Namjoon’s arm and he sighs before he nods in agreement.

✹✹✹

The next morning, you find your limbs tangled with Namjoon’s on his couch as you kiss him. The kiss grows more heated with every minute that passes, and you squeeze your legs harder around his torso. His hands slip under your hips and he picks you up -- carrying you to his bedroom.

The wood floor squeaks as he bends down to kiss you, and you pull him back onto the bed.

“I think I want to try something different,” He whispers in your ear. You nod in confirmation, and he seals his lips to yours. You pull your lips from the kiss, your hands roaming through his hair.

“W-Wait,” You plead as Namjoon starts to get back up, and he looks down at you. Your eyes are different; not fiery with lust, but warm and flickering with specks of love instead.

You close your eyes and purse your lips before a deep sigh falls from your lips. He knits his brows together, caressing your cheek with his thumb.

“Baby? What is it?” He whispers, studying your expression. You caress his hair again, looking up at him intently.

"Uhm, t-this is hard for me. But I think...I-I think I'm really starting to like you." You gasp out and shut your eyes, but after a moment he meets your lips.

“You think?” He chuckles, his dimples appearing in his cheeks, and you laugh. You get too lost in the kiss he places on your lips to notice that he doesn't say it back.

"I have to get to work...my interview with Yoongi is today..." You giggle, as he pecks at your neck, snickering into your skin.

"Fine a few more minutes." You give in, watching him stand up.

He opens the drawer of a side table -- and he pulls out a small, egg-shaped vibrator, followed by a blindfold and two silk ties.

“Ooh, kinky.” You giggle as he bends down to laugh and kiss you again.

You draw your hands back over your head, and he ties your arms to the bedposts. He slips the blindfold over your eyes, carefully fastening it around the back of your head.

You hear the vibrator turn on, and you laugh as you wriggle around the bed. You jolt as you feel the vibrator floating across your skin, never quite knowing where it’s going to land.

It lands to circle around your nipple, then traces down your abdomen, and the buzzing settles just below your belly button.

Namjoon licks your wet inner thighs, sliding the vibrator over your core and lips. He moans into your core, and then you let out a harsh moan and jerk your arms as he slides the vibrator into your underwear.

You twitch and moan at the varying sensations, trying to yank your arms free.

Namjoon places a kiss on your lips, and the heat of his body disappears from yours.

“Mm-mph, you just like torturing me like this, don’t you?” You whine, still tugging at your restraints.

You gasp as you near an orgasm, and you hear shuffling as the floor creaks a few times.

You listen carefully through your breaths, and notice that the room is completely silent before you hear a door shut.

“Namjoon?”

#kim namjoon smut #bts fanfiction #btssmutclub #btsbookclub #bangtanidx #bts smut #namjoon imagine

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lastbluetardis · 3 years

Text

And Baby Makes Seven (10/?)

Things don’t always go as planned. Faced with an unexpected pregnancy, James and Rose have to work quickly to get everything prepared for their fifth child, and to prepare their eldest children for a new addition to the family. Ten x Rose AU, Soulmates AU. Tagging @doctorroseprompts

This chapter: teen, 5200 words

Ages of the Tyler-McCrimmons at the start of the chapter: James: 39, Rose: 34, Ainsley: 9, Sianin: 6, Twins: 7.5 months

If you like reading my stories, consider leaving me a tip? Or leave a reply on this post to tell me what you thought? And as always, reblogs are very much appreciated so more people can see this.

AO3 | Perfectly Matched Series

Ch1 | Ch2 | Ch3 | Ch4 | Ch5 | Ch6 | Ch7 | Ch8 | Ch9 |

Now that Ainsley had been let in on the secret of the new baby, Rose and James didn’t need to work as hard to uphold the facade. Sianin, bless her little heart, had no idea what was going on, but was glad that her mum wanted to laze around the house, which translated into Sianin getting plenty of snuggles on the sofa as they watched cartoons.

James seemed to be taking “over-protective” to a whole new level. He jumped at the chance to care for their children, either taking over or joining Rose in all bedtime routines. If a twin awoke in the middle of the night, he sprang out of bed before her groggy brain could even realize Hannah or Maddie had made a sound.

But when she brought it up to him, he flashed her a charming grin that never failed to melt her, and simply asked, “You’re upset that I want to care for my children?”

And really, when he put it like that, her irritation with him evaporated. She had to keep reminding him to let her help, though, lest the twins forget they had a mother.

James and Rose also used the opportunity to place more responsibilities on Sianin’s shoulders, to the girl’s displeasure. Since Rose wasn’t supposed to do most of the normal household chores, James taught Sianin how to vacuum, wash the floors, and a host of other minor but daily tasks.

Rose, though guilty that she was lounging around the house all day when she ought to be cleaning, was glad that Sianin was at least performing the tasks James assigned to her with minimal complaining.

Ainsley, meanwhile, took it upon herself to help her dad with anything he was doing and to check in with her mum to see if Rose needed anything.

“How long d’you have to rest for?” Ainsley asked as she settled in with Rose and Maddie on the couch for her nightly reading. Hannah was already in her crib for the night, but Maddie was stubbornly refusing to fall asleep in favor of getting snuggles and kisses from her mother.

“A few weeks,” Rose replied, blotting at the drool dripping down her baby’s chin with her jumper sleeve. Maddie scrunched her nose and turned her face away. “We’ve got a follow-up appointment next week to check the status of the bleed.”

Ainsley tilted her head to the side. “Why do you always do that? Make it plural? You said we’ve got an appointment, not I’ve got an appointment.”

Rose snorted. “You’re right. But your dad is joining me at the appointment. Plus, it’s an appointment to check on the baby, who is both his and mine. It feels wrong to claim sole ownership.”

“That’s actually really cute,” Ainsley admitted. She sighed dreamily. “Dad takes such good care of you when you’re unwell.”

A flood of adoration overtook Rose, squeezing her chest until inexplicable tears burned her eyes. She listened to her husband, who was in the kitchen assembling the girls’ lunches for tomorrow. He was humming to himself as he worked, the notes slightly flat and offkey.

“Yeah, he does,” Rose croaked.

“I hope I find someone just like him one day,” Ainsley said with a wistful sigh.

“I hope that for you, too.” Rose kissed Ainsley’s temple. “I hope that for all of my children.”

“How do you think it’ll work with Sianin and her soulmates?”

“What do you mean?”

Ainsley shrugged. “It’s hard to imagine having two soulmates. How can she love two people as equally and intensely as you love Dad?”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, eh? Who knows whether Sianin’s relationship with Elena and Juliette will evolve into a romantic one.”

“I suppose,” Ainsley allowed. “But for argument’s sake, how would it work if they decided to let it be romantic? It seems so strange to be involved in a relationship with two people.”

“Strange as it might be to you, it’s normal for others. Love in all its forms is a beautiful thing, remember that.”

“It feels like it would be hard to make sure you aren’t showing favoritism to one versus another,” Ainsley said.

“Well, your dad and I have four children—we love you all with equal intensity and try not to show favoritism. I imagine it’s something similar.”

“Hmm. I don’t think I would want to be in a relationship with more than one person,” Ainsley admitted. “I want one person who is mine, and mine alone.”

“That’s perfectly reasonable,” Rose said. “You need to decide what works for you, just as Sianin will decide what works for her.”

Ainsley was quiet for several long seconds, but Rose could practically hear her daughter’s mind churning. While she let Ainsley think, she used the time to give kisses to the baby in her arms. The baby was finally getting drowsy; she had her cheek planted above Rose’s left breast, and her head rose and fell with her mother’s breaths. Any time Maddie’s eyes began to droop shut, she wrenched them open and gazed up at her mother.

Being the singular focus of her baby’s attention always made her heart squeeze with love and gratitude. She was the whole world to this tiny, perfect little human, and for a moment, as Rose got lost in her baby’s blue eyes, Maddie was her whole world, too.

“Do you think her eyes will stay blue?” Ainsley asked.

“I think so,” Rose said. “Usually if they change, they would’ve changed by now. All of my babies’ eyes started out blue. In Sianin’s case, they turned brown after a couple months. Yours stayed more or less the same color. And the twins’ appear to be brightening… they kind of look like Gran’s, don’t they?”

Ainsley peered down at Maddie. The baby shifted her sleepy eyes to her big sister, and offered a smile that widened into a yawn. Ainsley snorted and rubbed Maddie’s back. The baby grunted and wiggled around before face-planting into the crevice between Rose’s breasts.

“Silly girl,” Ainsley murmured. “Yeah, they do look like Gran’s. How does that work? I mean, I sort of know how it works. But her DNA is half you, half Dad, and yet she has Gran’s eyes. And apparently I look like Dad’s mum.”

“My DNA is half my mum and dad, and your dad’s DNA is half his mum and dad,” Rose said. “There are bits of all of our past family swirling inside of us, and it’s a lottery draw as to which traits get passed on to a baby.”

“That’s kind of neat,” Ainsley said. “It’s so fascinating that so many things have to happen perfectly to create a baby.” She paused, then continued in a rush, “We had the talk at school today. Y’know, how the girls and boys should be starting puberty soon, if they haven’t started already. One girl in my class had her first period months ago, which is mad. She’s nine! They also explained how in a couple years we’ll all be sexually mature and be able to make babies and so we all have to be very, very careful to prevent unwanted pregnancies as we’re exploring our bodies.

“They went over how a baby is made. Just the basics. Y’know, penis in vagina, sperm meets egg equals baby. I didn’t know that men released millions and millions of sperm when they had sex. That seems like overkill, doesn’t it?”

“What seems like overkill?”

Rose jumped at the sound of James’s voice right behind her. Her mind whirred, trying to wrap itself around the sudden turn their conversation had taken, as well as the fact that her baby was old enough to be learning the basics of human reproduction in school already.

“Did you know you made and released millions of sperm at a time when you have sex?” Ainsley asked, her eyes bright.

James was silent for a beat, cheeks pinkening and mouth going slack. He cleared his throat. “Er… yeah. Yeah, I did know that. But where did you learn that?”

“They gave us the talk in school.”

“Ah,” he said, wincing.

“Why do you make millions of sperm when only one will actually fertilize the egg?” Ainsley asked, cocking her head to the side. She then glanced down at Maddie, who was drooling into Rose’s shirt. “Er, or I guess two?”

“Actually, it was just one sperm,” Rose corrected.

Ainsley frowned. “But… there are two babies.”

“But they’re identical,” James said. “Genetically, they’re the same. Basically, one of my sperm met your mum’s egg, then that egg divided somewhat incorrectly to begin producing two separate babies with the same exact genetic code.”

“Oh. So your egg accidentally made a clone of itself?”

Rose snorted. “Something like that.”

Ainsley looked impressed. Then she said, “But still. Why make millions of sperm? That’s a bit wasteful, isn’t it?”

“It’s all about statistics,” James answered, scrubbing at the back of his neck. “Would you rather try to hit a target with one arrow or many? What if that one arrow is defective somehow? Or your aim is slightly off? By releasing tens of millions of sperm in one go, you increase the odds of fertilization; and the egg can be a bit choosier by only allowing the strongest of the bunch to fertilize it and begin making a baby.”

“Oh. That makes a lot of sense, actually,” Ainsley said. “What stops all of the sperm from penetrating the egg and creating a million babies?”

“Once a sperm meets the egg, it basically walls itself off from getting fertilized again,” James explained. “When sperm meets egg, a biological cascade effect begins. The woman’s egg recognizes it’s been fertilized, so it begins producing chemicals and hormones that tell the rest of the body to prepare for the oncoming baby. And it shuts down egg production so there’s no chance of multiple fertilized eggs trying to grow a baby after one is already growing. Imagine how cramped it would get in there. And imagine how hard it would be on the woman to have multiple babies all at different stages of development in her uterus. Evolution has figured out how to control everything so that doesn’t happen.”

“That’s so cool,” Ainsley said.

“It is a bit cool,” James said, smiling.

“It’s weird that women are born with all the eggs they’ll ever have, but men keep making more and more sperm ‘til they die. That’s way more efficient. What if something happens to the woman and her egg supply is damaged? At least with men, they can regenerate their sperm.” Ainsley cocked her head at her father. “In theory, you could help make a baby when you’re a hundred, right?”

James choked. “I… well… yes, technically. But my baby-making partner would also be a hundred—well, ninety-five—and since she would no longer be fertile, I wouldn’t be helping to make any more babies. Besides, the… ehm… the quality of sperm deteriorates over time. It’s not usually a good idea to procreate after a certain age. And, ehm… the act of making a baby gets… ehm… more difficult in old age. So… ehm… I’m not sure we’d… that we’d… Although I would truly love to be with your mother in that way in our old age, statistically it’s not all that probable so I’m not really expecting to… not that I wouldn’t want to… but…”

Rose kneaded the heel of her hand into her eyes as James’s gob ran without stop and without filter. She eventually reached over and pinched him. He squeaked, but snapped his mouth shut. Ainsley, meanwhile, was in stitches on the sofa, cackling madly as both her parents’ cheeks blazed.

oOoOo

Two weeks and two days after learning she had subchorionic hemorrhage, Rose walked into her OB-GYN, this time with her husband at her side. Despite the fact that her bleeding and cramping had stopped nearly a week ago, she was a little nervous to see what Elizabeth would have to say.

James must have sensed her anxiety, because he threaded their fingers together and rubbed at the back of her thumb while they waited for Rose’s name to be called. He talked to her about nothing in particular, filling the silence between them. Rose let the soothing rhythm of his voice calm her until Elizabeth appeared in the waiting room and called name, gesturing for her to follow.

“How are you feeling?” the midwife asked as she took Rose’s height and weight. “You’ve lost some weight since I saw you two weeks ago. Nothing worrying, but something to keep an eye on. Especially since you ought to be putting on weight as your pregnancy progresses.”

“My appetite is still finicky,” Rose admitted. “Nausea is mostly gone though. I’m hoping that will help. But otherwise, I feel fine.”

“Any bleeding? Cramping? Dizziness?”

Rose shook her head and stepped off the scale, following Elizabeth down the corridor to an exam room. James followed silently and settled into the chair beside the exam table. An ultrasound machine already sat in the corner of the room, and, familiar with the routine, Rose reclined on the table and exposed her belly.

Déjà vu settled over her as she remembered the utter terror of two weeks ago, certain her midwife was about to confirm her worst fear. Her pulse thundered in her ears and she began to tremble as her mind warred with itself, half of it trying to calm her, and the other half spinning out of control. James scooted his chair closer to her and leaned his elbow onto the table above her head. His warmth and scent surrounded her.

“You’re okay, love,” he whispered, kissing her forehead softly. “You’re okay. I’m here.”

“What a cute little bump,” Elizabeth cooed, squirting cool gel onto said bump between Rose’s hips. “Let’s see the cute little baby inside it, eh?”

Rose reached over and grabbed James’s free hand, linking their fingers together and squeezing tightly. He bent down to kiss her forehead again, then he brought their joined hands to his mouth to kiss her knuckles one at a time.

“Here we are,” Elizabeth said, tapping a few buttons into her keyboard.

Rose looked at the monitor and her heart clenched at the sight of her baby. They seemed to be about the same size as before, but Elizabeth was pleased with the baby’s appearance.

“They’re rather active,” the midwife noted, readjusting the probe when the shifting baby went out of focus. “Are you able to feel them, Rose?”

“Not yet,” she croaked. She desperately wanted to, though. She wanted that little flutter of life between her hips. She wanted the undeniable proof that her baby was alive and healthy and growing, because what if the scan was somehow wrong? Rose squeezed her eyes shut and focused deep within herself, trying to sense any ripple of movement in her uterus.

Her eyes shot open when the midwife tapped a few buttons and the heartbeat echoed around the room.

James let out a soft, “Oh,” his grip on her hand turning vice-like.

Rose glanced up at her husband, but his gaze was locked on the monitor, his eyes glassy with unshed tears. The sight of them made her own eyes prickle. She would never tire of seeing the awe on his face as he beheld their children. He treated each day with their kids as though it was the most precious gift he’d been given; this baby was no exception, and Rose could already see how in love her husband was with the tiny fetus inside her. She could plainly see him, seven months from now, weeping as he held their newborn for the first time, curling his body around theirs as though he could physically shield their baby from any harm the world might bring to them. She could see him sitting with the baby in the dead of night, half asleep himself, yet holding their small child to his chest as he rocked them.

God, she wanted that, was impatient for these visions to come true. Even though she regularly saw him holding and snuggling the children they already had, Rose was desperate to give him his fifth child and bring completion to their not-so-little-anymore family.

“Our baby looks healthy,” James said, his voice hoarse. Rose blinked away the visions in her mind’s eye and was brought back to the present, where her husband was no longer looking at the baby on the screen, but rather down at Rose. She flashed him a small smile that he returned before he focused on the midwife, his gaze intense. “But how is Rose? How is the hemorrhage? Is she healthy and safe?”

“Let’s take a look at that next.” Elizabeth zoomed out away from the baby, and instead shifted the focus of the ultrasound probe to the gray masses surrounding the baby. “Here we go.”

After taking a few seconds to orient James and Rose to what she was talking about, Elizabeth pointed to a black blob along the edge of the placenta. “Here’s the clot. And yes, it is just a clot now. It appears to no longer be actively bleeding, which is excellent news. The placenta is intact, which is also great news. Sometimes a concern is that the bleeding will cause the placenta to pull away from the uterine wall, but that is not the case here. I am very, very happy with what I’m seeing.”

Rose let out a deep breath. James, too, relaxed a fraction.

“Can I go back to business as usual?” Rose asked.

“Let’s not be hasty,” James answered instead.

“I wasn’t asking you,” Rose drawled, reaching up to pat his cheek.

Elizabeth pursed her lips around a grin. She wiped the expression off her face and said, “I see no reason why not. Obviously you are limited as any other pregnant woman is, and I would try to take it easy for the next couple weeks as the clot dissolves, but yes, you should be able to resume all activities as normal.”

Rose was fairly certain she’d read between the lines correctly, yet she asked, “Sex too?”

James let out a little squeak that had Rose rolling her eyes. Elizabeth’s entire profession revolved around people having had biologically-successful sex. They themselves were here because they’d had successful sex. Nutter.

“Yes, you may resume your sexual activities,” the midwife answered.

Rose nodded. She hadn’t been in the mood for sex lately, too concerned was she with the baby and will following the instructions to rest. She knew that James’s sex drive had mirrored her own in his double concern for her and the baby. While she still didn’t have the desire to drag James straight into bed when they got home, Rose was glad it was at least an option, if the mood struck. She’d find other ways to satisfy James if or when his sex drive returned while hers remained elusive.

“Is Rose okay to travel?” James asked. “We were planning to take the kids up to Scotland for half-term break next week. Probably travelling by train.”

“I’ve been cleared to shag your brains out, but no, the movement of a train will be far too vigorous for my delicate condition,” Rose muttered out of the corner of her mouth.

James flicked her nose but didn’t reply.

“Yes, she should be fine,” Elizabeth said, pretending not to have heard their exchange. “Just listen to your body, Rose. It will do a good job of telling you what it needs. Try not to overexert. Rest when you’re tired. Make sure you’re getting enough vitamins and nutrients. Things like that.”

“Thanks,” Rose said. “And while we’re talking about it, do you happen to have any connections with midwives in Scotland? Near Glasgow? James and I are going to be relocating our family. The move isn’t happening next week or anything; we’re getting the kids used to the area and the house we’ll be moving into.”

“And you say I’m chatty,” James teased.

Rose rolled her eyes.

“Funnily enough, I do,” Elizabeth said. “One of my very close friends. We went to school together. I can send you her contact information, as I don’t have it on hand right now. I can also reach out to her to see if she can see you next week, if you’d like? A consultation visit, mostly, assuming she is taking new patients and is near enough to where you’ll be living.”

“That’d be brilliant,” Rose said, accepting the moist towels the midwife handed to her and cleaning off her belly.

Elizabeth made a few notes on her computer, then printed out another scan of the baby for them, despite them having one from two weeks ago. She also scheduled Rose’s twenty-week appointment, which would be shortly after the holidays. Rose was already impatient for January sixth to be here; it would be the appointment when she and James would learn the sex of their baby, something Rose always loved learning. But this time was the added game of being able to tease James for his apparent inability to produce a Y-chromosomed sperm. As though that was something he could control. (A fact he liked to remind her of often.)

“As always, you can call us if there are any questions or concerns,” Elizabeth said as she walked them to the front lobby. “But I’m very pleased with everything I’ve seen today.”

After thanking her, James slipped his fingers between Rose’s and guided her out to their car.

oOoOo

The following week, James and Rose willed themselves to have endless reserves of patience as they readied their children for the trip to Scotland. It felt like they had to pack up their entire house to ensure they had enough supplies for all the kids, including toys and games in addition to the endless articles of clothing.

Robert, bless him, was accompanying them, to help with child care and to give his opinion on the work they might want done to the manor house. James had reached out to half a dozen different remodeling companies to have them come out and take a look at the work he and Rose wanted done; they were due to arrive at the end of the week, since James and Rose wanted the first few days to walk around the house and make lists of repairs and upgrades that could be done, both internally and externally to the grounds.

The train ride went as well as could be expected when travelling with four children. Ainsley was content to read for the entire journey, but Sianin loudly proclaimed she was bored barely an hour into the trip. The twins were awake and wanting to crawl around, but there was only so much space in the compartment car. James, Rose, and Robert took turns walking a fussing baby up and down the length of the train, introducing the infant to cooing passengers who fawned over how beautiful she was. The passengers were extra delighted to realize they were identical twins.

Finally, the train docked in Glasgow, where the Tyler-McCrimmons picked up a rental vehicle and made the half-hour drive out of the city proper to the manor house.

The excitement at the prospect of permanently living in the “castle” evaporated Ainsley and Sianin’s travel exhaustion. As soon as James unlocked the front door, they bolted inside and began chattering to each other about where their playroom should be and calling dibs on the bedrooms.

“I want this one,” Sianin announced, gesturing to the master suite.

“That one is off-limits,” James said lightly, tweaking the end of her braid. “Available to mummies and daddies only. Same with the guest suite on the other side. That’s for when Gran or Grandad stay to visit.”

Sianin deflated a bit, but perked back up when James reminded her that there were plenty of other bedrooms to choose from.

Rose, meanwhile, immediately began to visualize how she would decorate. The current color scheme of the manor was dark, but not gloomily so. Even still, Rose thought that brightening the wall colors from burgundy to a rich cream or ivory would help open up the space and blend the rooms together. It would also make the house feel cleaner, and with five children tearing it apart, Rose knew she and James could use all the help they could get in that department.

The floors were in excellent shape, having been replaced shortly after Ainsley was born. Robert had come to her and James when he was having the work performed so they could help pick out the color and style of the various hardwood, tile, and carpeted floors in all of the rooms. Belatedly, Rose realized that Robert had done so because he knew this home would belong to them in the near future.

From the foyer, which was lit from the warm glow of the chandelier hanging from the high ceiling, Rose stared straight ahead into the formal dining room that used to be a ballroom; the kitchen extended beyond that through a set of wide oak doors that were currently closed. She already knew that the kitchen was huge and open, thanks to James’s grandmother having remodeled it to use up more of the defunct ballroom space. The kitchen housed a long table that would easily fit their large family; therefore, the formal dining room wouldn’t be necessary until they hosted holidays or had friends over. Otherwise, that could easily be a place for the children to do their homework.

To her right was what used to be a receiving room, but had evolved over the last century to be the living room. It was already furnished with a couch, a love seat, and a few reclining chairs placed strategically around a television. A fireplace sat along the far wall, and Rose could already see herself sitting in the rocking reclining chair and nursing her new baby, or snuggling with one of her other four children or husband as the fire crackled merrily beside them. Goosebumps prickled along Rose’s skin at the thought of her and James making love by the fireplace, a vision straight out of a Victorian romance novel.

Blinking away that fantasy for the time being, Rose continued her mental mapping of the manor. Behind the living room was another room that had been a different receiving room—most likely, she presumed, a space for the gentlemen when the ladies had overtaken the first receiving room. Because God forbid men enjoy their wives’ presence.

James’s parents had converted that into a study area for James; Rose thought it would make a nice playroom for their family. It had plenty of room to store the kids’ endless number of toys, and it had a closet where they could keep their games. The flooring in there was currently hardwood; Rose made a mental note to chat with James about replacing it with something softer.

Extending beyond the living room was a narrow hallway that opened up to what had once been servants’ quarters. Rose knew that James’s grandmother had remodeled it and created a larger footprint, converting the area into a spacious a guest suite; it was where Robert always slept when he visited, unable to stomach being in the master bedroom ever since he’d lost his wife.

To the left of the foyer was a long, wide corridor with several rooms branching off of it. One of those rooms was a library that Rose already knew Ainsley would practically make her second bedroom. Rose planned to outfit the room with a variety of comfortable furniture and a desk. Directly beside the library and connected with a door was a formal study; she figured James would like to make that his space, filling it with textbooks and knickknacks and turning it into a place he could mark papers and exams on the weekends or weeknights.

Directly beside the study and again connected through a set of doors was a secondary study. This one was at the end of the manor, and therefore had windows on the two external walls. It was filled with plenty of natural lighting and Rose thought it would make a perfect place for her to set up her art studio.

On the opposite side of the corridor from the library and studies were a series of small rooms. There was a half bath that was mostly just a closet with a toilet and a sink, and two small rooms that Rose genuinely didn’t know the purpose of. They were far too big to be closets, but a tad too small to be bedrooms. Rose didn’t care what they used to be; instead, she planned to make the rooms a nursery: one for the twins, until they were big enough for proper beds, and the other for the new baby. It would be perfect, since the last room at the end of the corridor was the master suite.

Rose already knew the suite was enormous, yet it took her breath away to behold it. The room would easily fit their king-sized bed and all of their bedroom furniture, and still have room for more. Perhaps they could put a cushy rocking chair in this room as well as the nurseries; there could never be enough cozy furniture to cuddle her children, Rose thought.

There was a giant walk-in closet connected to the bedroom, as well as a double-vanity ensuite. The bathroom, too, was huge, outfitted with a tub and a walk-in shower stall; both the tub and shower had plenty of room for her and James to share, which would be perfect for intimate date nights.

Moving from room to room, Rose catalogued how she would arrange furniture and paint colors that would look good in each room and blend the entire ground floor of the house together. She took note of the flooring, and which rooms should be outfitted with carpets rather than hardwood floors or tile, or vice versa. When she and James helped Robert pick out the floors, they’d only had Ainsley; at the time, she hadn’t been able to imagine having five children. Now, she couldn’t imagine anything differently.

“I can see that beautiful mind of yours at work already.” James came up behind her as she weighed whether the library ought to be carpeted or left as it was with hardwood floor. He wrapped his arms around her waist and casually splayed a palm on her lower belly, kissing the side of her neck and sending pleasant tingles across her skin. “What are you thinking?”

Rose leaned into him, tilting her head back to catch his gaze. His eyes were bright with joy and soft with love; she found herself falling in love with him all over again. She turned in his arms, draping her forearms over his shoulders.

“I’m thinking,” she murmured, pushing up onto her toes so that her mouth hovered mere inches from his, “that this already feels like home.”

And though she planted a kiss to his lips as she finished speaking, his answering smile was dazzling.

#ficandchips #doctorroseprompts #dwfic #doctor who #ten x rose #ten x rose au #james x rose #soulmates #soulmates au #family fic #kid fic #baby fic #pregnancy #fluff #romance #my fic #and baby makes seven #soulmates verse #perfectly matched series

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definitelyseven · 4 years

Text

liability | two

summary: reporter meets mafia boss, Park Jinyoung

“Take your clothes off.” He said.

You were taken back at his words. As much as you wanted your first story, you were not about to trade it with your body. You cleared your throat and moved away from him.

“Anything but that.” He snickered and reached for his belt, unbuckling it. “Stop!” He did and so did the car. “I don’t know who you think I am, but I’m not those girls at the club!” He smirked.

“I told you, you can’t give me what I want.” You rolled your eyes and got out of the car. “When you can give me what I want, I’ll think about that interview.” You slammed the car door and it drives off. You quickly pulled out your phone and AirPods. You put a listening device in his car. After everything you went through today, you weren’t about to give up on that story.

—

11am - You woke up and went straight to check your phone. It’s been 5 hours since you last listened in on his conversation.

“What time are we meeting them?” You hear Jinyoung ask.

“7pm. They’re hiding out in the abandon house further down by the lake.” This is it, you thought. This was going to be your story.

“Okay, let’s meet the investors from England first.”

You quickly got up and went straight to Park Business. There were still protestors and reporters waiting outside. The security guards were busy controlling the crowd so it was easy for you to sneak into the parking garage. You put the tracking device on the bottom of the car and left - all you had to do was wait.

Four hours later, there was finally movement.

“Those bastards want an additional 10% for interest.”

“Do you want us to make a move?” His bodyguard said.

“No-no. Get the hacker to dig around. Get some dirt on them for leverage. I’ll make them sign without the additional 10%.” You drove closely behind them so you won’t lose them. Where was he going? “I want the deal tonight to go smoothly. They’re sneaky and will try to pull something off. Make sure our men are ready. I don’t want any accidents.” What kind of deal was it?

His car dropped him off at the same club as last night. You watched Jinyoung and his body guard go in and quickly parked your car and followed. The place looked different with lights on. It actually looked decent.

“Mark, bring her inside!”

“Fuck” You said softly. How could he possibly know you were here? You quickly turned to leave, but his body guard was waiting behind you. He led you inside to where Jinyoung was sitting - facing the entrance as if he was waiting for your arrival. You sat down across from him. “How did you know I was here?”

“You’re not very good at spying on people. You were driving ridiculously close for me not to notice or was that the goal? For me to notice you?” Jinyoung teased making you roll your eyes. “No wonder you can’t get your first story.”

“Okay, fine! You caught me! Can I go now?” He shook his head. Mark placed the tracking device on the table. “If you’re looking for an apology...-“

“No, that’s not what I want.” You looked at him confused. Not this fucking game again.

“I said anything but -”

“Leave me alone or you’ll regret it.” He said coldly.

“Are you threatening me?”

He shook his head. “Tsk tsk...of course not. Just a warning. You wouldn’t want anything to happen to that pretty face.” He said reaching to stroke your face, but you pushed his hand away. He grabbed the bottle of tequila that was on the table and slammed it against your tracking device, breaking it to pieces. His aggressiveness made you flinch. “You can go now.”

You left the club, thankful that he didn’t find the listening device. Since you had no luck following him, you decided to look for the abandon house he mentioned earlier; maybe wait there to see what would happen at 7pm.

—

The abandon house by the lake wasn’t easy to find. You found a decent sized bush near the house for you to hide behind, watch and listen at the same time.

“That son of a bitch won’t know what’s coming for him!” Who were they talking about? “I want the product and the heir. Once we get the money, we’ll flee to Thailand, hide for a couple of months and split the money.” The heir? Could they be talking about Jinyoung? You thought they were business partners.

“It’s almost 7pm. We should send our men out and hide. We will attack when they least expect it. Take down the body guard first, then tie the heir up. I’m sure he’s worth at least $500 million. His dad won’t let his only son die.” You gasped, quickly covering your mouth to prevent yourself from making any noise. They wanted to kidnap Jinyoung. You quickly grabbed your phone from your bag. With your hands shaking, you struggled to type his phone number in.

“Pick up....pick up.” No answer “Damn it!” You murmured and tried again. It rang two times and he picks up. “Jinyoung!” You said in a low voice. “Whatever you do, don’t come to the abandon house - “ Before you could finish what you were saying, you felt someone grabbed your shoulder. You screamed, dropping your phone to the ground.

“Who are you? Who were you calling?” You heart was racing. The man in front of you looked scary and dirty like he hadn’t showered in days. Panicking, you quickly stepped on your phone shattering the screen. You didn’t want him to know you called Jinyoung. “You bitch!” The man said slapping you and then pointing his knife towards you. “Get inside.”

“I’m not looking for trouble. I was just leaving.” You said trying to move past him. The man grabbed your hair from behind and aligned the knife to your neck. You yelped in pain reaching for your head.

“I said get inside.” His grip on your hair didn’t loosen and the knife never left your neck. You were sure the knife had wounded your neck. “Look who I found outside.” The man said pushing you to the floor once you got inside. The house was dirty with newspaper and empty food containers and bottles everywhere. “I caught her making a phone call. When I asked her about it she broke her phone.”

“Let me go.” You whimpered. Inside the house, there were three other men; equally as scary and dirty. You crawled away from them, but that only made them move towards you.

“What are you doing here, pretty girl? Tell daddy.” You felt gross. He was gross.

“I-I was just taking a walk and I found this house.”

“Who did you call?” Another one asked.

“M-my boyfriend.” You tried to calm yourself down. “You see, I was mad at him so I decided to go on a walk and he called. Then your friend here scared me. I guess I was so scared I stepped on my phone.” You said innocently.

“Don’t fucking lie to me!” The man who dragged you inside said as he grabbed the collar of your shirt exposing your chest. You screamed earning yourself another slap.

“Hey, hey, hey! Don’t be so rough on the pretty lady.” Another man leaned down and tried to stroke your cheek - you moved away. “Tell daddy the truth and you won’t get hurt.”

“I am telling the truth!”

“It’s been so long since I touched a pretty lady. I wonder how you taste, how it would feel to be inside you.” He said holding you down and climbing on top of you. You squirmed underneath him and he slapped you again. “Come on baby girl, daddy will be gentle.” You spat on him and he slapped you again. This time harder than before. Tears form in your eyes from the pain. Your cheeks were still tender from the night before. The additional slaps ruptured the skin inside of your mouth, causing it to bleed. You could taste it. The man got off you and kicked your stomach. You winced in pain. “You stupid little bitch!” He kicked you again.

“Stop...please stop” You begged. He spat on you. You watched as he told the men to wait outside. You gulped knowing what was about to happen. You managed to help yourself up, attempting to run away, but he caught you. He grabbed your hair and yanked you to the floor. You cried out in pain.

“You think you’re better than me? You’re too good for me?” He said angrily, getting on top of you. You were sobbing now. This can’t be happening. You tried your best to fight him off, pushing him with your hands to get him away from you, but he was much stronger. He takes a knife out of his pocket and lays it gently on your skin. “Keep moving and I’ll make a big fat cut right here.” You stopped moving, but he doesn’t keep his word. He slices your arm making a superficial wound and you squirm again. He continues to run the knife on your exposed skin and you cursed yourself for wearing shorts and a tank top. “Shhh..be quiet. It’ll be over soon.” That was the last thing you hear before everything went blank.

Images of the man on top of you, slapping you, and cutting you popped into your mind. You screamed.

“Hey, I’ll call you later.” You turned to the noise - it was Jinyoung. Your body ached with every movement, but you were no longer in the abandon house. You had been moved to someone’s house, onto a bed, with clean clothes. “You’re awake.” He said as he sat down beside you on the bed.

“Where am I?” You said slightly sitting up and resting on the headboard.

“You’re safe now, in my house.” You looked around. You wrapped your arms around your body as you recalled what had happened; tears formed in your eyes. You felt dirty.

“I-I tried to call you...to warn you.” You couldn’t hold back the tears. “And they...” You grabbed his arm. “Did they?” You sobbed.

“Hey, hey...” He wrapped his arms around you, pulling you in for a hug. “Shhh baby...” He strokes your head, comforting you. “We got there in time. They didn’t touch you.” You hugged him back tightly, thankful that nothing had happened. “I won’t let them hurt you again.” He said comforting you.

“Did you kill them?” You asked slightly pulling away to look at him. It was comfortable being in his arms. He made you feel safe.

“They got what they deserved.” He said stroking your hair.

“Jinyoung, answer me. Did you?” He looked at you and his eyes softened.

“No, baby.” He wiped the tears off your cheeks. You flinched at his touch. Your cheeks were still burning from all the slaps you endured. He leaned in and softly kissed your cheek. “Thank you for warning me.” He whispered leaning his forehead onto yours. “Does it hurt?” You nodded. “Where?”

“Everywhere” He traced his fingers on your wounds and brought your arm close to his lips, pecking it gently. He pushed your hair away from your neck and ran his fingers on the wound. His eyebrows scrunched together as if he was the one in pain. He hesitated but leaned in and pecked it gently. He then made his way back to your cheeks; one hand stroking the right cheek and pecking the left. Your heart fluttered at his touches.

He leaned his forehead onto yours again; this time pulling your body closer to his. His finger gently grazed over your lip. His lips were so close to yours. You could almost taste him.

221 notes · View notes

blazerina · 4 years

Text

Show You (Ethan x MC)

Show You – Ethan x MC

A/N – I do not feel confident in this…fluff is not my thing lately so there’s a little undercurrent of angst at some moments throughout this one. I may continue it if I have more ideas come to me – we’ll see! Hope you enjoy, for all my soft-Ethan fans.

@parkerattano this is to make up for not ending that other story the way you wanted me to & also for @justanotherrookie who has totally inspired all the Ethan content I’ve had lately. She’s amazing and everyone should read her stuff.

Thanks to you both!

“You’re late.” Ethan called out to Allie as she walked in the door, harried and frazzled.

“I know, I know. I’m sorry…” She fumbled with her heels trying to get them off as fast a she could.They had a strict rule about not wearing shoes inside their home.

Ethan was in the kitchen. The aroma alone was enough to make Allie’s stomach grumble. She hadn’t had a thing to eat all day except for a granola bar and a fun-size pack of peanut M&M’s.

“Did they have questions?” Ethan turned around to meet Allie in the kitchen with a kiss on the cheek and a glass of wine.

“Ugh, thank you.” She took a quick sip and nodded her head.

“They always do this. I give them an exam and then they loiter around afterwards expecting their questions to somehow translate into me believing they are brilliant, thus resulting in a better final grade.”

“Sounds about right.” Ethan chuckled, wiping his hands on a towel. “They’re helpless. Competitive. Desperate. Using any means necessary to one up each other.”

Ethan trailed off as he absentmindedly sipped his own wine, gazing out the window. Allie studied him, wondering why he didn’t seem one hundred percent himself.

“Was your day okay?” She asked, suddenly concerned. “I knew you were coming home early, but you’re already working on dessert. You must have been home a while.”

She always got nervous when Ramsey was in the kitchen. He was an adequate cook, but actually a truly amazing baker. It was a secret, but he loved it. He told her once that on days when he felt out of control it helped him regain some kind power of a situation. Adding ingredients together and following a recipe precisely, would always equate to the finished product of his choice. It helped him cope in a world and a profession that was sometimes so unpredictable.

“I left early. Needed to clear my head.” He wandered back to the stand mixer on the counter and Allie followed.

Wrapping her arms around him from behind, she stood on her tiptoes and rested her head on his shoulder. Looking into the bowl, she realized what he was making.

“Is that angel food cake?!” She got excited.

Ethan nodded. “Very observant of you.”

“Let me help.”

She wanted to get his mind off whatever it was that was bothering him. In their years together she knew by now not to prod and that he’d share with her when he was ready.

It had been a while since they’d been able to enjoy a night in and a home-cooked meal together. Allie had taken on a more permanent teaching role in the medical school associated with Edenbrook. Even though she thought it would mean a more regular schedule, the students had proven to be quite demanding and she missed focusing on the diagnostics team, her own intern and other cases with Ethan.

“I’m not sure you really know what you’re doing so, best leave this to the expert.” He told her, getting back to the mixing.

“Excuse me! I am actually a pretty good cook in my own right, thank you very much.”

Feigning offense, Allie grabbed an apron from the pantry and put it on over her professional dress. She quickly used the hair tie that had been around her wrist to throw her long, auburn locks up on top of her head.

“What’s next?” She quirked an eyebrow at him, mixing spoon in hand.

“I just whipped the egg whites. It’s time to fold in the flour. You know how to do that?” Ethan challenged.

Allie swallowed hard. She was kind of teasing him and wanting to make the evening fun, but she also knew he was serious about this. She couldn’t say no to a challenge, but didn’t want to risk ruining the evening by ruining his dessert. It sounded funny in her mind as her brain reasoned out the logic, but she knew to tread lightly with this one.

Instead of actually doing it, and afraid she really would mess it up, she turned around and faced him with a question.

“Folding. Hmm…” her brow crinkled. “That’s like, stirring slowly and lifting your hand up like this?”

Allie mimicked what she believed the correct folding motion to be.

“Not even close. Let me show you.” Ethan resumed his position in front of the mixing bowl and expertly folded the flour into the egg white mixture.

“You try.” He moved out of the way and let Allie stand in front of the bowl.

He leaned in next to her while she concentrated, trying to reproduce his exact motion.

“I usually do about ½ a cup at a time. Makes it easier.”

As Allie finished, she triumphantly smiled. “Okay, you’ve proven you’re superior in yet another area…can I be excused?” She laughed, giving him a quick kiss. “I’m going to go change.”

Ethan rolled his eyes and continued working on the cake.

“Go. Dinner will be ready in 10.” He lightly swatted her behind as she trotted off to put on something more comfortable.

The two of them made general conversation over dinner. They talked about plans they had coming up to join friends and other professional colleagues at a fundraiser across town the next weekend. Ethan told her about some new pieces the local symphony was putting together. He wanted to attend some concerts later in the month as well. Allie reminded him that his father’s birthday was coming up soon and they needed to decide what to get him.

Evenings like this were rare for both of them. Being home together; having time to relax and actually connect over a meal and have meaningful conversation; not discussing work – it was the glue that held them together when their lives felt overrun and they each felt pulled in a million directions at once.

After dinner, Allie cleaned up the kitchen as was their custom. If he cooked, she cleaned. Ethan had settled into his home office, catching up on journal articles relating to some of his current cases.

Pouring another glass of wine for them both, Allie went to find him. She stood in the doorway, watching him for a few minutes before joining him at his computer. She put the wine down on the edge of the desk and then slid into his lap, sitting sideways, with her arms around his neck. His glasses were falling down his nose a little when he smiled at her, kissing her shoulder as he inhaled her scent.

She silently pushed them up on his face and then held his face in her hands while giving him a long, slow kiss.

“Thank you for tonight.” Allie smiled, looking intently into his eyes.

He seemed so tired to her. So worn down. Something was definitely eating at him, but she wasn’t sure what it was. Her hope was that he’d come to bed soon and not stay up all night doing research. That tenacity was something she admired and loved him for butb getting him to take a break sometimes was difficult.

Ethan leaned his forehead against hers and shut his eyes for a second. Allie could feel the tension in his body release for a brief moment.

“I wish we had more time.” He whispered.

“Me too.” Allie hugged him, pulling him closer to her, absorbing the quiet around them for a few more seconds.

“What have we got tonight, doc?” She smiled, looking back at the computer screen. “How can I help?”

Ethan sat up a little more straight and went into explanation mode.

“I’m looking into syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone. Otherwise known as SIAH. I honestly don’t know a lot about it and our patient is presenting symptoms but I’m not sure that’s the diagnosis we will land on.” He reached around Allie to move the cursor on the page in front of her.

“Hey! What happened with Mr. Lorenzo…I know you weren’t supposed to tell me his name and no I haven’t said anything to anyone…” She scoffed. “Was I right?”

“As much as it pains me to say it, yes. You helped a great deal on that case, and we were able to release him yesterday or the day before I believe.” Ethan pushed his glasses up on his nose once more as he leaned in closer to the screen to continue reading.

“Woo hoo! I get another point.” Allie gingerly got off Ethan’s lap and went to a bulletin board hanging on the wall of the office. Two pieces of scratch paper, one labeled “E” and one labeled “A” had tally marks on them. Ethan had about 20 and Allie had maybe 7, now 8. It was their way of keeping score on tough cases and diagnoses.

“Still a long way from that vacation in the Bahamas.” Ethan added, watching her victoriously document her new point.

“What was it I said I wanted if I got to 25 first?”

“Something dumb, like a new leather recliner…” Allie sighed. “My prize is way better and something BOTH of us can use!”

Allie realized Ethan was no longer listening. He had found something. She saw the look in his eyes as he beckoned her over.

“Honey, look…” he explained to her what he had found.

“Antidepressants. Our patient has been struggling with mental health related issues but we haven’t been able to get her to admit exactly what those are…however, she’s been on and off antidepressants for several years now, contributing to her SIAH…that has to be it…or part of it…it’s right there and I didn’t’ see it before…”

“Nuh uh, Ramsey. No way. I’m not counting this one. We need to make a new deal that only one point can be awarded per day. Whoever gets it first gets to keep it.” Allie argued.

Ethan smiled a little and gave in. “As you wish.”

“With that, I bid you goodnight. I better get out of here before I lose all 8 points I’ve worked so hard for.”

Allie took a deep dramatic bow, thanked him and excused herself as she realized it was getting late and she had no idea how much longer he’d be researching.

A few minutes later, Allie was getting out of the shower when she heard Ethan call from the bedroom.

“Coming to bed soon?” He asked.

She was surprised to hear his voice and that he was already in bed. Was he feeling alright? She asked herself. This was just not the norm for him.

“Be right there.” She responded.

“I’m exhausted. Lights are going off.” He told her while stifling a yawn and rolling over onto his side.

In the dark, seconds later, Allie was gently rolling Ethan onto his back while she straddled him. Wearing one of his button-down shirts and nothing else, her long damp hair slicked back, away from her face, she leaned over him, smiling.

Ethan was not one to ever decline Allie’s advances. He grinned looking up at her, surprised a little by her forwardness but not upset by it.

She leaned in and kissed him slowly and passionately.

“I love you.” She whispered, looking into his gray blue eyes.

“I love you too.” He trailed his hands up and down her arms, taking in the sight of her.

“What are you doing, Mrs. Ramsey?” Ethan inquired.

They had been married for a few years now, but she still went by Dr. Valentine professionally. Ethan was the only person in the world who ever referred to her that way.

“You’ve shown me a few things this evening…” She explained, sitting up a little straighter, but maintaining eye contact with him.

“How to fold in flour…” She started to kiss up and down his neck, lingering just below his earlobe.

“…and about that other syndrome thing…” she kissed him again this time slightly biting his bottom lip, eliciting a groan from Ethan as he inhaled sharply.

He pulled her into him, returning her kiss fervently his tongue finding hers, their passion and desire for one another mounting.

Ethan smiled as Allie moved in closer to him again. He pulled her onto him and held her close, chest to chest, before she added in a husky, sultry voice:

“So naturally, I thought it was my turn to show you a thing or two…”

#blazerina babbles #ethan x mc #mc x ethan #ethan x allie #ethan ramsey #dr. ethan ramsey #dr ethan ramsey #ethan jonah ramsey #should i do a follow up #do you want to know or care what's bugging him

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carsontheleft · 4 years

Text

Hot Mess

Summary: Hot Space is a hot mess and John does not want to not talk to Roger anymore. Things get more emotional than any of them bargained for.

Pairing: JohnxRoger (platonic), RogerxDominique (mentioned), JohnxVeronica (mentioned)

Comment: Hey, look, I’m still alive! I started this a while ago and then I spontaneously finished it yesterday and THEN I thought about posting it immediately and then I DIDN’T and now it’s John’s birthday it just fits quite nicely. Happy Birthday, John! Have fun with this, y’all.

John has to forcibly hold himself back from slamming the coffee pot back into its place. No coffee would only worsen the already disastrous day. Week. Month, almost. For the first time, Munich doesn’t seem to be their lucky place.

But maybe it’s him. Maybe it’s because John finally lets himself push for things he wants, that he likes and doesn’t let himself give in just because Brian is pushing for his way.

Brian. The mere thought of the guitarist turns John’s stomach into knots and pushes up his blood pressure. How can a single person be so fucking obnoxious, bull-headed, old-fashioned-

Okay, stop.

John takes a deep breath of stale basement air and decides he needs to breathe real, fresh, cold air without a huge grey, looming building pressing down on him.

Arriving on ground level, he takes one of the back doors leading to a narrow alleyway to escape. The air here smells a bit sweetly of the rotting food in trash cans, but it’s cold and sharp and already saturated with bluish smoke of cigarettes.

Roger is crouching beside John’s feet, leaning against the grey stone, with a pack of Marlboro Reds at his feet. It’s half empty and it’s not even noon.

“It’s not really the right weather for being outside without a jacket, is it?”

It isn’t. November in Munich doesn’t provide conditions to do anything outside. Where Montreux may have gotten the last golden sunrays of the year or the winter’s first snow, Munich is just grey, dreary and dark.

“I don’t see you wearing one”, Roger squints upwards at John having forgotten his sunglasses downstairs.

“Fair enough.”

Neither of them talks when John lights his cigarette.

Normally, that would be unusual. There has hardly ever been a time where John and Roger didn’t talk to each other, may it be because of an argument or because they didn’t have anything to talk about.

But not-talking is the safer choice of interaction nowadays. Not-talking doesn’t pose such a high risk for arguments.

But they’re friends and John wants to talk to Roger, he wants to explain his ideas and visions just like he’s always done it, but he’s not sure Roger would listen. And he just doesn’t understand why, doesn’t get why Roger and Brian are so afraid of some change, when that’s what’s Queen been about all along, a band not succumbing to trends and expectations, a band that always knew to surprise.

“John, I don’t wanna fight anymore.”

John nearly drops his cigarette when Roger’s voice rips him out of his thoughts.

He’s looking at him, and John is suddenly hit by how young Roger appears with his tousled blonde hair and wide blue eyes, that, admittedly, are blood-shot, but that doesn’t take the child-like innocence out of them.

Despite that, John scoffs.

“It’s hardly me who’s at fault here.”

Roger visibly flinches at that, recoils and turns his eyes back to the dirty pavement in front of him.

John’s worked hard to build up the defenses he’s calling his own now, so thick and impenetrable that not even Brian with his jabs and sniping remarks can get through them.

But now Roger’s ripped through them, just like that.

“Rog…”

“No, no, it’s fine, you’ve made your point”, his voice is a little husky, only barely betraying his hurt, “I’m going back inside, see you there.”

And it’s actually this eerie calm, which is so unlike Roger, that John wakes from the stupor he’s worked himself into and makes him realize they really should stop fighting and get to talking instead.

Roger’s quiet for the remainder of day, too. And John’s not the only one who notices, Freddie asks if Rog is alright and earns himself a grumbled “Just want to get out of this shithole”; Brian only grants him an irritated look when Roger doesn’t jump to his defense. Mack, Crystal and the other roadies opt for not saying anything at all, they know better but to get into arguments that cannot be stopped anyway.

It’s when Roger practically flees from the studio after they collectively decide they won’t get much more done and doesn’t stay back to joke around with the others that John decides he has to do something immediately.

He gets some beer, the German stuff isn’t really his taste, but Roger seems to have taken a liking to it, grabs two pizzas from the Italian place Mack did recommend and walks over to Roger’s apartment.

It takes the drummer some time to answer his door, two rounds of insistent knocking and a raised hand to start a third one, only then there’s some shuffling, the clicking of locks and Roger opens the door a fraction.

“Why’re you here?”, his blond hair is sticking up in every direction and he’s wearing a dark fluffy bathrobe. There is a flush to Roger’s cheeks that tells John he either pulled his friend from a bath or was just lucky to catch him coming out of the shower.

“To talk. Not to fight”, John holds up the pizza boxes with the beer stacked on top, “Please, Rog.”

Roger stares at him for a moment and for once John absolutely can’t read the usually so emotional face. Then he heaves out a sigh and opens the door to let John in.

The place is cluttered in a typical Roger-fashion. An overflowing ashtray, papers with what could be lyrics or shopping lists, a part of a drumstick for some reason and a colorful array of take out packaging. John winces, maybe he should’ve brought stuff to cook a fresh meal instead of gifting Roger yet another pre-made supper.

“How’s Dom?”

“She’s good. Took Felix and went to visit her parents, escaping the rain and stuff. You know how she hates it”, he does his best to declutter the couch table, mindlessly stacking pieces of paper on top of each other without looking at them or at John, for that matter.

“How are Ronnie and the kids?”

“They’re good, Ron wants to come down next week, but we’ll have to see if it works with Robert and the school. I miss them.”

Now Roger looks at him, but it’s not the look of disdain and almost disgust he wore when John presented them the lyrics of ‘You’re My Best Friend’ and he threw a fit over ‘I’m happy at home’. This one is one of understanding and compassion.

“Yeah, me too. Let’s have a taste of that beer you brought, yeah?”

They mostly eat in silence, only interrupted by the quiet murmuring of the TV and one of them occasionally commenting on the food or the beer. When John’s done with his food Roger is intently watching the 10 pm news. He’s not sure the drummer understands much of it, but John is willing to indulge him a while longer. It’s not like he’s looking forward to this heart-to-heart, but he knows it’s necessary and they’ll feel better once they’re done. John only wishes he could fast forward everything in between now and then.

“We need to talk about this”, John starts eventually when the pretty blonde woman on the TV is done with telling them that the next days will be just as dreary as today.

“And what exactly does ‘this’ entail?”

Roger is already in full on confrontation mood, and John has to force himself to stay calm. It’s Roger, he tells himself, no matter that it was actually him who put up the white flag this morning, he still doesn’t like to be cornered.

“Us not working like we used to. The constant fighting and discussions and nothing coming out of it. You constantly siding with Brian without listening to a word I say!”

Oh shit, he really could’ve worded that better.

“Me not listening? I AM listening, other than Brian and you! I’m listening to both your opinions and then I decide!”

“And it’s always in favor of Brian!”

“Well, if we share an opinion, then yes!”

“But why? Why are you so intent on keeping everything as it is?”, they’ve gotten louder and John really, really doesn’t want this to evolve into another shouting match, but he might not be strong enough to reign himself in.

But, much to John’s surprise, Roger sighs and slumps back against the couch rubbing his eyes.

“Because it works! We’re doing this how long now? 10 years? People know us, they expect our product to meet a certain standard, an expectation.”

“Our- our product? A certain standard? Roger, what are you talking about? Isn’t our music about how we feel? What we think? It’s not supposed to be some commercial bullshit”, John is seriously flabbergasted. Not in a million years he would have thought Roger would start to view their work as a ‘job’ only consisting of deadlines and expectations and goal fulfilment.

He scoots over to the other end of the couch where Roger is sitting and bumps their knees together.

“What brought this on, Rog? What’s going on?”

“It’s just…”, the drummer shrugs, rubs his eyes again and then starts to knead the shoulder muscles that John knows are always a bit tense, always a bit sore.

“We’ve been doing this 10 years, John, ten years! How many bands have made it farther than that? Who says it won’t just all fall apart next month? We can’t just start making different music now!”

“We’ve been always aware of that possibility. There was always the chance we wouldn’t make it, but now we’ve got number one hits in America! We’re an established name!”

It feels a bit weird to take on the motivational part, the part of convincing the others that they have actually made it. Usually, it’s Roger who does that.

“Yeah, but…”, Roger blows out a breath, “Don’t you feel like- like you were 27 just yesterday, snorting all the coke in New Orleans without a care in the world and now, now there’s a child and- and a-“

“A woman you might as well just marry”, John tightly presses his lips together to not let the laughter escape. So, that’s what all this is about, Roger just realized he’s actually a grown-up now and he doesn’t feel too comfortable about it.

“It’s not that!”, Roger argues, “What difference does a bloody certificate make?! I have a family now; I have to provide!”

John sucks in his cheeks to keep himself from grinning. He gets it, he does, Roger’s worries are understandable, and he doesn’t want to ridicule his friend, but from John’s position his worries are a bit ridiculous, when they’re in far better position now than when John first became a father.

“Dom has a job, too, you know?”, John teases, fully intending to lighten up the mood. Unfortunately, it has the opposite effect.

“That’s- Stop making fun of me!”, Roger jumps up from the sofa and hovers over John, fists clenching at his side as if he has to keep them from either punching something or someone or from thrashing his apartment.

“You know, sometimes I feel like that’s the only thing I’m good for! The dumb blonde, that crazy drummer guy, let’s make fun of him, he deserves it! He’s no good for anything anyway, can’t manage to write a good song, and we don’t even need him for drumming anymore!”

Oh. Oh.

So that’s where all this moodiness is coming from.

Roger rarely shares his feeling so honestly, usually none of them does if there are not copious amounts of alcohol and or other substances involved, but Roger especially likes to keep everything bottled up, until it implodes. And that leaves either a destroyed room or drumkit, or Roger in front of a toilet puking his guts out and avoiding just about everyone for a few days after until he’s okay with himself again.

So, to say the least, this emotional outbreak with feelings actually being articulated is uncharted territory for John. And for Roger too, who’s staring at John like a deer caught in the headlights.

“Rog-“

“Forget it!”

He stalks away, fluffy bathrobe and naked feet, and slams his bedroom door shut.

John sighs and settles back into the sofa. He came to talk and he’ll get his talk, even if he has to stay the night. With Roger, that might just be the case.

Well. At least the apartment has a second bathroom.

John wakes a couple of hours later, around 3 am. It’s a weird feeling, usually they’d still be out and drinking, but it’s probably not the worst thing to get a whole 8 hours of sleep at what is actually night.

A sharp gust of icy cold air wafts through the room and John finds that it was that what woke him in the first place with the flimsy throw he used as a blanket not providing adequate cover.

The apartment is mostly dark save for the lights of the city streaming in through the window and John can see through the door gap into the hall and that Roger’s bedroom door is open again.

He finds him in the kitchen, standing in front of the open window smoking.

“You’re still here”, he notes when John steps up beside him.

“I wanted a talk, an honest conversation. I won’t leave until I get one.”

“Took a note out of Freddie’s book then, huh?”

“Freddie?”, John scoffs, “Try your own.”

Roger turns to him, mouth open and already gesturing with the softly glowing cigarette. “I’m not-“

“Ridge Farm?”

That takes his drive. He turns back to the view, deeply inhaling the burning smoke. John takes one out of Roger’s packet. He doesn’t really like the brand, but it’s better than nothing.

“You taped my drums, John”, Roger eventually says.

“Are you still mad about this? I’m sorry and I promise not to touch the kit again without you knowing.”

“It’s not that- well, that too, but-“, Roger takes a deep breath, steeling himself, “You tape my drums and there’s nothing I can do that a drum machine isn’t able to. Hell, I’m not even the best drummer without them taped, my technique is weird, if you can even call it that, there are guys who are a lot better than me and understand this disco thing you’re prattling on about.”

“It’s not like Brian-“

“He’s trying, okay? He’s trying to get into that kind of music, he’s not sprinkling guitar solos all over the songs like you’d do it with coke on a hooker because he wants to annoy you! Well, not primarily anyway, but he’s trying to make his contribution to what you’re doing! He wants to have part in this and I, I just don’t see it, I’m sorry.”

Roger flips the butt of his smoke out of the window and rubs his eyes.

“But we can’t just stop! We can’t just stop at The Game and that’s it! We need something new, start fresh like we’ve done it with each album.”

John finishes his cigarette as well but makes a show of putting it out in the ashtray.

“I know that, Deaks, I do! I really don’t want to become the guy that needs to be dragged off stage because the people got tired of him playing the same things over and over and over again! But I just can’t do this disco thing.”

John understands this. You can’t force yourself to produce music you just don’t feel. This is like Fred and his love for opera and musical theater, something John will never get the hang of, no matter how often he’ll take Ronnie to the ballet. And while Roger does like a more electric style of music, he’s not really known for setting the dancefloor on fire. Maybe the women on it but not the dancefloor itself.

“I know you and Freddie don’t need me to realize your vision, this album but I- I can’t lose Queen, John, I can’t. It’s everything.”

Roger’s almost too quiet for John to understand resting against the kitchen counter in the dark, half of his face illuminated by Munich’s night life in a loose shirt and a pair of boxers.

And John thinks, this is it. This is what all this is about.

Because John started to play with those guys he now calls his brothers as a hobby, as a distraction and creative outlet opposite his studies. He had never envisioned to become a famous musician; this never had been a goal for him. So he had sat back and let Freddie, Brian and Roger work on the music, on the band, had let them work on their dream.

And then he had turned 30 and for the first time John had thought that this might be what he’d do the rest of his life. And he decided to give it his everything all, to make a monument for himself, to really give his very best.

And for Roger it had always been like that. There never had been a second option, a plan B, go big or go home. John’s pretty sure even if they hadn’t made it, Roger still would still be a musician. If not in Genesis then in some local band or a studio musician, but he never, ever would have gone to work in some lab or, even worse, in a dentist’s office.

“What are you talking about? You won’t lose Queen! Never! We’d lose all our female fans if we kicked you out!”

“Great to hear that that’d be the greatest loss”, Roger grumbles and turns away but John catches his wrist.

“You won’t lose us. We need you. Who’d be there to back up Fred when his voice is shot? Who’d argue with Brian just to draw him out of his funks? And heaven knows, not Brian nor me can keep up with Freddie.”

“Like I can these days.”

And there’s the other worry hanging in the air around them, Freddie leaving them behind more often than not, being more elusive than he’s ever been. But that’s a worry for another night, right now this is about the two of them, the Sonic fucking Volcano.

“Come on”, John tugs on Roger’s wrist, “Get over here.”

“Deaks, no, I don’t-“

John tugs a little harder and then Roger’s body is pressed flush against his.

“Like you ever say no to a good hug.”

“I hate you”, the drummer mumbles against John’s shoulder and heaves out a mighty sigh relaxing into the embrace.

“I’m sure you do.”

They rest like that for a few minutes, which is not really a thing they’d normally do, but they’re both tired and miss their partners. It’s okay.

“Y’know”, Roger says as he detangles himself, “I’m not sure Queen would lose all its lady fans if I left. Not with you looking like some kind of… Greek God.”

He wrinkles his nose and pokes John into his right pec.

“It’s called exercise, Rog, you could try it.”

“Yeah, ‘cause I don’t exercise daily on those bloody drums. Also, Dom likes it. She calls me soft and cuddly.”

He sticks out his chest.

“Wow, look at that, Roger Taylor is proud of being called soft, what a turn of events!”

“Well, at least I don’t look like handlebar with an exploded mop on top.”

“Handlebar? I seem to recall you calling me a Greek god not 30 seconds ago!”

“Yeah, and I regret it already. Just wait until I throw you out of the band!”

#dealor #roger taylor #john deacon #queen #fic #hot space #hurt/comfort #banter

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hamanuelton · 4 years

Text

my favorite parts of hamilton:

- “I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory.”

- every time Leslie Odom Jr. as aaron burr begins another part with “how did a bastard, orphan-“ or like in that same way ‘cause he doesn’t always start it that way but you know what I mean

- the way Leslie Odom Jr. as My Boi Burr™️ says “well, the world got around, they said, ‘this kid is insane, man!’”

- also when Leslie Odom Jr. as A. Burr says

“WHAT’S YOUR NAME, MAN?!”

- “our man saw his future drip-dripping down the drain, a pencil to his temple, connected it to his brain”

- “Alexander Hamilton. My name is Alexander Hamilton. And there’s a million things I haven’t done, but just you wait, just you wait...”

- background “just you wait, just you wait”’s as hammy’s putting on a new jacket and ensemble is praising nyc

- “and me? i’m the damn fool that shot him.”

- “Burr, sir” + the continuation of this all throughout

- “If you talk you’re gonna get shot” / FORESHADOWING WOOOEEEEWOOOOO

- “i’m John Laurens in the place to be”

- Lafayette’s fuckinf accent

- “BRRRAH! BRRAAAH! HERCULES MULLIGAN UP IN IT LOVIN IT”

- “if you stand for nothing, Burr, what’ll you fall for”

- “‘Onarchy?”

- hey, yo, i’m just like my country, i’m young, scrappy, and hungry—

- the way Odom Leslie Jr. as The Hamburrglar™️ says ‘shot’ and they all take a shot

- this ⤵️

- Hammy getting //flustered// about friendship

- WHEN ARE THESE COLONIES GONNA RISE UP

- Angelica’s face when Burr is tryna tell her bout herself and she shows him up and ships him out

- Act 1: 6. Farmer Refuted

- honorable mention: “my dog speaks more eloquently than thee!" "but strangely, your mange is the same." "is he in jersey?”

- King George pouting

- Jonathan Groff’s overarticulation of each syllable as King George is a work of art

- “♪ Da-da-da-dat-da-dat-da-da-da-dai-ah-da! ♪ Da-da-da-da-dai-ah-da! ♪

- “Everybody! —“

- “We keep meeting.”

- “i imagine death so much it feels more like a memory. when’s it gonna get me? in my sleep? seven feet ahead of me?”

- “See, I never thought I’d live past twenty.”

- “this is not a moment, it’s the movement”

- “I’m laughin’ in the face of casualties and sorrow, for the first time, I’m thinkin’ past tomorrow!”

- “dying is easy, young man, living is harder!”

- “i’m being honest. i’m working with a third of what our Congress promised.”

- “you need all the help you can get. i have some friends. Laurens, Mulligan, Marquis de Lafayette, okay, what else?” — “we’ll need some spies on the inside, some king’s men who might let some things slide.”

- “watch this obnoxious, arrogant, loudmouth bother be seated at the right hand of the father.”

- “Martha Washington named her feral tomcat after him” — “That’s true.”

- “Yo, if your marry a sister, you’re rich, son!” — “Is it a question of ‘if’, Burr, or which one?” and then the little ‘hey’ ‘hey’ thing they do gets me every time

- literally the use of yo throughout the production fucking gets me every single fucking time

- “i’m writin’ a letter nightly. now my life gets better, every letter that you write me. — THE PURE UNBRIDLED SENSE OF FORESHADOWING IN “laughin’ at my sister, cuz she wants to form a harem” — ft. “i’m just sayin’, if you really loved me, you would share him!”

- the irony in “Eliza, i don’t have a dollar to my name”, you’ll be on the $10 bill, my man

- top-notch brain

- Angelica TRIED TO TAKE A BITE OF ME

- the way Anthony Ramos as John Laurens says “alright, alright. that’s what i’m talkin’ about!” and also the face that he makes

- hunger-pang frame

- “You strike me as a woman who has never been satisfied.” — “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean. You forget yourself.” — “You’re like me. I’m never satisfied.” — “Is that right?” — “I have never been satisfied.” — “My name is Angelica Schuyler.” — “Alexander Hamilton.” — “Where’s your fam’ly from?” — “Unimportant. There’s a million things I haven’t done but just you wait, just you wait...”

- tbh the way ‘Schuyler’ is spelled is oddly satisfying to me

- honestly just the way LMM says Alexander Hamilton+/ my name is Alexander Hamilton, and there’s a million things i haven’t done, ‘just you wait, just you wait...’ throughout the production

- “i’m the oldest and the wittiest and the gossip in new york city is insidious”

- “You are the worst, Burr.”

- Act 1: 12. The Story of Tonight (Reprise)

- “love doesn’t discriminate, between the sinners and the saints, it takes and it takes and it takes”

- “love doesn’t discriminate, between the sinners and the saints, it takes and it takes and it takes and we keep living anyway. we rise and we fall and we break and we make our mistakes. and if there’s a reason i’m still alive when everyone who loves me has died—“

- “Chick-a-plao!”

- the way they say ‘raise a glass’ is both elegant and (appropriately) reverent

- “i go back to new york and my apprenticeship” — i shouted MY BOI HERCULES MULLIGAN UP IN IT LOVIN IT DID NOT JUST SAY THAT, IF HE ACTUALLY LEFT AND ISN’T JUST UNDERCOVER OR SOME SHIT IMMA WRITE LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA A STRONGLY WORDED LETTER

- the minute General Charles Les came into the picture i hated him so hard, even though his literal first word was ‘Whee!!!!’, though i can appreciate the sentiment and what LMM was tryna do there

- “Washington cannot be left to his devices indescisive, from crisis to crisis” — sweet baby jesus that alliteration, and jon rua totally pulled it off (i hate General Charles Lee not the person who played him, i can also appreciate the fact that as an actor it takes a lot of talent to be able to make you hate a character so easily, also shoutout to Jonathan Groff as King Georgey-Boy™️, Sydney James Harcourt as james reynolds, and the general way LMM somehow made me fed up/turn on Alexander with the whole scene with him and Maria Reynolds — and not only that but somehow redeemed himself to me which is easier said than done for characters and people alike.. i’ve been hurt too much to play like that.

- Act 1: 15. Ten Duel Commandments

- honorable mention: “if you don’t reach peace, that’s alright. time to get some pistols and a doctor on site. you pay him in advance, you treat him with civility. you have him turn around so he can have deniability.”

- Act 1: 17. That Would Be Enough

- honorable mention: the melody that LMM went with for that turn of phraseis a truly beautiful thing

- “Immigrants:” — “We get the job done.”

- THE FACT THAT MY MAIN MAN HERCULE MULLIGAN WAS ON THE INSIDE NOT ONLY DID I CALL IT BUT DAMN HE REALLY GOT THAT GOOD HOT TRIBUTE HE DESERVED

- “To my brother’s a revolutionary covenant! I’m runnin’ with the sons of liberty and I am lovin’ it! See, that’s what happens when you up against the ruffians. We’re in the shit now, somebody gotta shovel it! Hercules Mulligan, I need no introduction, when you knock me down I get the fuck back up again!”

- Act 1: 21. What Comes Next

- honorable mention: “i’m so blue” — the little squat that Groffsauce does as the light turns blue really got to me

- Act 1: 22. Dear Theodosia

- Leslie Odom Jr.’s voice is so ding dang delightfully airy

- honorable mention: “You have my eyes. You have your mother’s name. When you came into the world, you cried and it broke my heart.”

- Act 1: 23. Non-Stop

- as someone with siblings i can appreciate that they’re bickering like that’s just what they are

- “I was chosen for the constitutional convention! *squeal*”

- “Burr, we studied and we fought and we killed for the notion of a nation we now get to build. For once in your life, take a stand with pride. I don’t understand how you stand to the side.”

- Act 2: 1. What’d I Miss?

- honorable mention: “But the sun comes up and the world still spins.”

- Act 2: 2. Cabinet Battle #1

- honorable mention: “DOIN’ WHATEVER THE HELL IT IS YOU DO IN MONTICELLO!”

- tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

- “Daddy, daddy, look.... My name is Philip. I am a poet. I wrote this poem just to show it. And I just turned nine. You can write rhymes but you can’t write mine.” - “What!” - “I practice French and play piano with my mother.” — “Uh-huh!” — “I have a sister but I want a little brother.” — “Okay!” — “My daddy’s trying to start America’s bank. Un deux trois quatre cinq!” — “Bravo!” — “Hey, our kid is pretty great.”

- as much as i hate Act 2: 4. Say No To This (because for some reason i though Alexander Hamilton was better than that) Jasmine Cephas Jones sings in it is like a hot knife through butter — namely; “My husband’s doin’ me wrong beatin’ me, cheatin’ me, mistreatin’ me...”... I guess maybe I understand it ‘cause damn Jasmine Cephas Jones is so ding dang pretty and ding dang talented and wow what a remarkable person

- the way that Lin says “And her body’s saying, ‘hell, yes’ is um.. 😓

- “You see, that was my wife you decided to” — “Fuuuu—“

- Act 2: 5. The Room Where It Happens

- honorable mention: “Bros.”

- “Talk less. Smile more.” LMM being a dramatic bastard

- Act 2: 6. Schuyler Defeated

- Act 2: 7. Cabinet Battle #2

- “revolution is messy but now is the time to stand."

- honorable mention: “Ooh!!”

- “We signed a treaty with a King whose head is now in a basket. Would you like to take it out and ask it? ‘Should we honor our treaty, King Louis’ head?’ ‘Uh... do whatever you want, I’m super dead.’”

- Thomas Jefferson all like “but sir do we not fight for freedom” MY BAD SIR YOU ARE A SLAVE-OWNER HOW ABOUT YOU NOT

- mentioning Lafayette because apparently LMM has no problem with breaking the fourth wall

- “Daddy’s calling.”

- “I’m in the cabinet. I am complicit in watching him grabbin’ at power and kiss it. If Washington isn’t gon’ listen to disciplined dissidents, this is the difference. This kid is out!”

- “Southern motherfuckin’ Democratic-Republicans!”

- “The emperor has no clothes.”

- “Sir, I don’t know what you heard but whatever it is Jefferson started it.” — “Thomas Jefferson resigned this morning.” — “You’re kidding.” — “I need a favor.” — “Whatever you say, sir, Jefferson will pay for his behavior.” — “I’ll use the press. I’ll write under a pseudonym, you’ll see what I can do to him—“ — “Yes! He resigned you can finally speak your mind!” — “Ha. Good luck defeating you, sir.” - “I’m sorry, what?”

- Act 2: 10. I Know Him

- “—Vice President.” — “— No more Mr. Nice President.”

- “Sit down, John, you fat motherf—“

- Act 2: 12. We Know

- honorable mention: “You see that was my wife you decided to—“ — “WHAT—“

- Act 2: 13. Hurricane

- Act 2: 14. The Reynolds Pamphlet

- honorable mention: *DEEP VOICE* “DAMN”

- Act 2: 15. Burn

- i’ll be the first to say i wasn’t a huge fan of Eliza at first aside from Phillipa Soo’s killer voice

- this gave me a lot of respect for her

- honorable mention: “You have married an Icarus. He has flown too close to the sun.”

- Act 2: 16. Blow Us All Away

- i would like to point out that tweet where someone @‘s LMM about not mentioning Philip’s hot and he responds “I’M FAIRLY F**CKING SURE I DID”, y’know ⤵️

- “The ladies say my brain’s not where the resemblance stops.”

- “God, you’re a fox.”

- Act 2: 17. Stay Alive (Reprise)

- The ‘I know, I know. Shh.’ and the full circle back to his mom teaching him french on the piano really got to me for the beautiful artistry in it but also damn them feels

- Act 2: 18. It’s Quiet Uptown

- “I spend hours in the garden. I walk alone to the store and it’s quiet uptown. I never liked the quiet before. I take the children to church on Sunday, a sign of the cross at the door, and I pray. That never used to happen before.”

- “Philip, you would like it uptown. It’s quiet uptown.”

- “You knock me out, I fall apart.”

- “Eliza, do you like it uptown? It’s quiet uptown.”

- “There are moments that the words don’t reach. There is suffering too terrible to name. You hold your child as tight as you can and push away the unimaginable. The moments when you’re in so deep it feels easier to just swim down.”

- “There are moments that the words don’t reach. There is a grace too powerful to name. We push away what we can never understand. We push away the unimaginable.”

- “Can you imagine?”

- Act 2: 19. The Election of 1800

- honorable mention: “And they say I’m a Francophile: at least they know I know where France is!”

- “You used to work on the same staff” — “Whaaaat.”

- “Honestly, it’s kind of draining.” — “Burr...” — “Sir!” — “Is there anything you wouldn’t do?” — “No. I’m chasing what I want. And you know what?” — “What?” — “I learned that from you.” / this moment made the blow that he voted for Jefferson like a damn hole in my chest and i actually really felt for Burr. i get Hammy’s reluctance, i think if anything he was hoping voting for Jefferson would give Burr the chance to have experience as VP and then the next election he might vote for him then depending

- Act 2: 20. Your Obedient Servant

- A. Burr

- A. Ham

- “I just need to write something down.” / really resonated as one of the last things they showed him doing before going off to the duel, his life really was writing and that was the perfect way to say that in a very subtle sort of way. i really appreciate it artistically, whether it was intentionally so or not.

- Act 2: 22. The World Was Wide Enough

- okay but first of all i would like to comment on the fact that Ariana DeBose PLAYS THE GODDAMN BULLET, I JUST

- THE FACT THAT THE BULLET HAS A PART

- “This man will not make an orphan of my daughter.” / this made me really sympathize with Burr, as well as when he tries to go towards Hamilton (at least in the play but I sincerely hope that was historically accurate) / but also that fact that Theodosia Burr was lost at sea at 29 makes me sad because Hamilton’s life was taken to give her one and then she just up and disappears in a freak accident

- Act 2: 23. Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story

- the orphanage got to me

- i loved that he (LMM) didn’t end it with himself or anything

- he let Phillipa Soo tear my heart out

- it killed me but i died quite happily

- and really what more could you ask for.

#okay so #i know thw subheaders are probably grossly uneven #but like #i had to space manually #and this already took a lot of time to do #so i couldn’t give two fucks #lin manuel miranda #hamilton #hamilton film #daveed diggs #jonathan groff #anthony ramos #christopher jackson #jasmine cephas jones #leslie odom jr #leslie odom junior #ariana debose #jon rua #hamilfilm #shit i lost steam to tag cast members #you know and if you don’t look it up so you do #that’s how you learn shit like that the bullet had its own fucking role #the orphanage part also hurt because i was disowned by my father and then disowned by my mother (again) and then my father just decided he #wanted back in on my life #my shit family life has cast me out of my family #i feel like an orphan except i can’t be adopted #even though i want more than anything to have parents or parental figures #sadly my dad just isn’t #he kind of ruined that for me when he screamed me into a panic attack that almost killed me and then left the front door open to tell me to #get out

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urlology · 4 years

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How Netflix Reinvented HR

https://hbr.org/2014/01/how-netflix-reinvented-hr

Patty McCord

From the January–February 2014 Issue

Sheryl Sandberg has called it one of the most important documents ever to come out of Silicon Valley. It’s been viewed more than 5 million times on the web. But when Reed Hastings and I (along with some colleagues) wrote a PowerPoint deck explaining how we shaped the culture and motivated performance at Netflix, where Hastings is CEO and I was chief talent officer from 1998 to 2012, we had no idea it would go viral. We realized that some of the talent management ideas we’d pioneered, such as the concept that workers should be allowed to take whatever vacation time they feel is appropriate, had been seen as a little crazy (at least until other companies started adopting them). But we were surprised that an unadorned set of 127 slides—no music, no animation—would become so influential.

Netflix culture slide deck

People find the Netflix approach to talent and culture compelling for a few reasons. The most obvious one is that Netflix has been really successful: During 2013 alone its stock more than tripled, it won three Emmy awards, and its U.S. subscriber base grew to nearly 29 million. All that aside, the approach is compelling because it derives from common sense. In this article I’ll go beyond the bullet points to describe five ideas that have defined the way Netflix attracts, retains, and manages talent. But first I’ll share two conversations I had with early employees, both of which helped shape our overall philosophy.

Crafting a Culture of Excellence

The first took place in late 2001. Netflix had been growing quickly: We’d reached about 120 employees and had been planning an IPO. But after the dot-com bubble burst and the 9/11 attacks occurred, things changed. It became clear that we needed to put the IPO on hold and lay off a third of our employees. It was brutal. Then, a bit unexpectedly, DVD players became the hot gift that Christmas. By early 2002 our DVD-by-mail subscription business was growing like crazy. Suddenly we had far more work to do, with 30% fewer employees.

One day I was talking with one of our best engineers, an employee I’ll call John. Before the layoffs, he’d managed three engineers, but now he was a one-man department working very long hours. I told John I hoped to hire some help for him soon. His response surprised me. “There’s no rush—I’m happier now,” he said. It turned out that the engineers we’d laid off weren’t spectacular—they were merely adequate. John realized that he’d spent too much time riding herd on them and fixing their mistakes. “I’ve learned that I’d rather work by myself than with subpar performers,” he said. His words echo in my mind whenever I describe the most basic element of Netflix’s talent philosophy: The best thing you can do for employees—a perk better than foosball or free sushi—is hire only “A” players to work alongside them. Excellent colleagues trump everything else.

The second conversation took place in 2002, a few months after our IPO. Laura, our bookkeeper, was bright, hardworking, and creative. She’d been very important to our early growth, having devised a system for accurately tracking movie rentals so that we could pay the correct royalties. But now, as a public company, we needed CPAs and other fully credentialed, deeply experienced accounting professionals—and Laura had only an associate’s degree from a community college. Despite her work ethic, her track record, and the fact that we all really liked her, her skills were no longer adequate. Some of us talked about jury-rigging a new role for her, but we decided that wouldn’t be right.

So I sat down with Laura and explained the situation—and said that in light of her spectacular service, we would give her a spectacular severance package. I’d braced myself for tears or histrionics, but Laura reacted well: She was sad to be leaving but recognized that the generous severance would let her regroup, retrain, and find a new career path. This incident helped us create the other vital element of our talent management philosophy: If we wanted only “A” players on our team, we had to be willing to let go of people whose skills no longer fit, no matter how valuable their contributions had once been. Out of fairness to such people—and, frankly, to help us overcome our discomfort with discharging them—we learned to offer rich severance packages.

With these two overarching principles in mind, we shaped our approach to talent using the five tenets below.

Hire, Reward, and Tolerate Only Fully Formed Adults

Over the years we learned that if we asked people to rely on logic and common sense instead of on formal policies, most of the time we would get better results, and at lower cost. If you’re careful to hire people who will put the company’s interests first, who understand and support the desire for a high-performance workplace, 97% of your employees will do the right thing. Most companies spend endless time and money writing and enforcing HR policies to deal with problems the other 3% might cause. Instead, we tried really hard to not hire those people, and we let them go if it turned out we’d made a hiring mistake.

Adultlike behavior means talking openly about issues with your boss, your colleagues, and your subordinates. It means recognizing that even in companies with reams of HR policies, those policies are frequently skirted as managers and their reports work out what makes sense on a case-by-case basis.

Let me offer two examples.

When Netflix launched, we had a standard paid-time-off policy: People got 10 vacation days, 10 holidays, and a few sick days. We used an honor system—employees kept track of the days they took off and let their managers know when they’d be out. After we went public, our auditors freaked. They said Sarbanes-Oxley mandated that we account for time off. We considered instituting a formal tracking system. But then Reed asked, “Are companies required to give time off? If not, can’t we just handle it informally and skip the accounting rigmarole?” I did some research and found that, indeed, no California law governed vacation time.

So instead of shifting to a formal system, we went in the opposite direction: Salaried employees were told to take whatever time they felt was appropriate. Bosses and employees were asked to work it out with one another. (Hourly workers in call centers and warehouses were given a more structured policy.) We did provide some guidance. If you worked in accounting or finance, you shouldn’t plan to be out during the beginning or the end of a quarter, because those were busy times. If you wanted 30 days off in a row, you needed to meet with HR. Senior leaders were urged to take vacations and to let people know about them—they were role models for the policy. (Most were happy to comply.) Some people worried about whether the system would be inconsistent—whether some bosses would allow tons of time off while others would be stingy. In general, I worried more about fairness than consistency, because the reality is that in any organization, the highest-performing and most valuable employees get more leeway.

The company’s expense policy is five words long: “Act in Netflix’s best interests.”

We also departed from a formal travel and expense policy and decided to simply require adultlike behavior there, too. The company’s expense policy is five words long: “Act in Netflix’s best interests.” In talking that through with employees, we said we expected them to spend company money frugally, as if it were their own. Eliminating a formal policy and forgoing expense account police shifted responsibility to frontline managers, where it belongs. It also reduced costs: Many large companies still use travel agents (and pay their fees) to book trips, as a way to enforce travel policies. They could save money by letting employees book their own trips online. Like most Netflix managers, I had to have conversations periodically with employees who ate at lavish restaurants (meals that would have been fine for sales or recruiting, but not for eating alone or with a Netflix colleague). We kept an eye on our IT guys, who were prone to buying a lot of gadgets. But overall we found that expense accounts are another area where if you create a clear expectation of responsible behavior, most employees will comply.

Tell the Truth About Performance

Many years ago we eliminated formal reviews. We had held them for a while but came to realize they didn’t make sense—they were too ritualistic and too infrequent. So we asked managers and employees to have conversations about performance as an organic part of their work. In many functions—sales, engineering, product development—it’s fairly obvious how well people are doing. (As companies develop better analytics to measure performance, this becomes even truer.) Building a bureaucracy and elaborate rituals around measuring performance usually doesn’t improve it.

Traditional corporate performance reviews are driven largely by fear of litigation. The theory is that if you want to get rid of someone, you need a paper trail documenting a history of poor achievement. At many companies, low performers are placed on “Performance Improvement Plans.” I detest PIPs. I think they’re fundamentally dishonest: They never accomplish what their name implies.

One Netflix manager requested a PIP for a quality assurance engineer named Maria, who had been hired to help develop our streaming service. The technology was new, and it was evolving very quickly. Maria’s job was to find bugs. She was fast, intuitive, and hardworking. But in time we figured out how to automate the QA tests. Maria didn’t like automation and wasn’t particularly good at it. Her new boss (brought in to create a world-class automation tools team) told me he wanted to start a PIP with her.

I replied, “Why bother? We know how this will play out. You’ll write up objectives and deliverables for her to achieve, which she can’t, because she lacks the skills. Every Wednesday you’ll take time away from your real work to discuss (and document) her shortcomings. You won’t sleep on Tuesday nights, because you’ll know it will be an awful meeting, and the same will be true for her. After a few weeks there will be tears. This will go on for three months. The entire team will know. And at the end you’ll fire her. None of this will make any sense to her, because for five years she’s been consistently rewarded for being great at her job—a job that basically doesn’t exist anymore. Tell me again how Netflix benefits?

“Instead, let’s just tell the truth: Technology has changed, the company has changed, and Maria’s skills no longer apply. This won’t be a surprise to her: She’s been in the trenches, watching the work around her shift. Give her a great severance package—which, when she signs the documents, will dramatically reduce (if not eliminate) the chance of a lawsuit.” In my experience, people can handle anything as long as they’re told the truth—and this proved to be the case with Maria.

When we stopped doing formal performance reviews, we instituted informal 360-degree reviews. We kept them fairly simple: People were asked to identify things that colleagues should stop, start, or continue. In the beginning we used an anonymous software system, but over time we shifted to signed feedback, and many teams held their 360s face-to-face.

HR people can’t believe that a company the size of Netflix doesn’t hold annual reviews. “Are you making this up just to upset us?” they ask. I’m not. If you talk simply and honestly about performance on a regular basis, you can get good results—probably better ones than a company that grades everyone on a five-point scale.

Managers Own the Job of Creating Great Teams

Discussing the military’s performance during the Iraq War, Donald Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, once famously said, “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.” When I talk to managers about creating great teams, I tell them to approach the process in exactly the opposite way.

In my consulting work, I ask managers to imagine a documentary about what their team is accomplishing six months from now. What specific results do they see? How is the work different from what the team is doing today? Next I ask them to think about the skills needed to make the images in the movie become reality. Nowhere in the early stages of the process do I advise them to think about the team they actually have. Only after they’ve done the work of envisioning the ideal outcome and the skill set necessary to achieve it should they analyze how well their existing team matches what they need.

If you’re in a fast-changing business environment, you’re probably looking at a lot of mismatches. In that case, you need to have honest conversations about letting some team members find a place where their skills are a better fit. You also need to recruit people with the right skills.

We faced the latter challenge at Netflix in a fairly dramatic way as we began to shift from DVDs by mail to a streaming service. We had to store massive volumes of files in the cloud and figure out how huge numbers of people could reliably access them. (By some estimates, up to a third of peak residential internet traffic in the U.S. comes from customers streaming Netflix movies.) So we needed to find people deeply experienced with cloud services who worked for companies that operate on a giant scale—companies like Amazon, eBay, Google, and Facebook, which aren’t the easiest places to hire someone away from.

Our compensation philosophy helped a lot. Most of its principles stem from ideals described earlier: Be honest, and treat people like adults. For instance, during my tenure Netflix didn’t pay performance bonuses, because we believed that they’re unnecessary if you hire the right people. If your employees are fully formed adults who put the company first, an annual bonus won’t make them work harder or smarter. We also believed in market-based pay and would tell employees that it was smart to interview with competitors when they had the chance, in order to get a good sense of the market rate for their talent. Many HR people dislike it when employees talk to recruiters, but I always told employees to take the call, ask how much, and send me the number—it’s valuable information.

In addition, we used equity compensation much differently from the way most companies do. Instead of larding stock options on top of a competitive salary, we let employees choose how much (if any) of their compensation would be in the form of equity. If employees wanted stock options, we reduced their salaries accordingly. We believed that they were sophisticated enough to understand the trade-offs, judge their personal tolerance for risk, and decide what was best for them and their families. We distributed options every month, at a slight discount from the market price. We had no vesting period—the options could be cashed in immediately. Most tech companies have a four-year vesting schedule and try to use options as “golden handcuffs” to aid retention, but we never thought that made sense. If you see a better opportunity elsewhere, you should be allowed to take what you’ve earned and leave. If you no longer want to work with us, we don’t want to hold you hostage.

We continually told managers that building a great team was their most important task. We didn’t measure them on whether they were excellent coaches or mentors or got their paperwork done on time. Great teams accomplish great work, and recruiting the right team was the top priority.

Leaders Own the Job of Creating the Company Culture

After I left Netflix and began consulting, I visited a hot start-up in San Francisco. It had 60 employees in an open loft-style office with a foosball table, two pool tables, and a kitchen, where a chef cooked lunch for the entire staff. As the CEO showed me around, he talked about creating a fun atmosphere. At one point I asked him what the most important value for his company was. He replied, “Efficiency.”

“OK,” I said. “Imagine that I work here, and it’s 2:58 PM. I’m playing an intense game of pool, and I’m winning. I estimate that I can finish the game in five minutes. We have a meeting at 3:00. Should I stay and win the game or cut it short for the meeting?”

“You should finish the game,” he insisted. I wasn’t surprised; like many tech start-ups, this was a casual place, where employees wore hoodies and brought pets to work, and that kind of casualness often extends to punctuality. “Wait a second,” I said. “You told me that efficiency is your most important cultural value. It’s not efficient to delay a meeting and keep coworkers waiting because of a pool game. Isn’t there a mismatch between the values you’re talking up and the behaviors you’re modeling and encouraging?”

When I advise leaders about molding a corporate culture, I tend to see three issues that need attention. This type of mismatch is one. It’s a particular problem at start-ups, where there’s a premium on casualness that can run counter to the high-performance ethos leaders want to create. I often sit in on company meetings to get a sense of how people operate. I frequently see CEOs who are clearly winging it. They lack a real agenda. They’re working from slides that were obviously put together an hour before or were recycled from the previous round of VC meetings. Workers notice these things, and if they see a leader who’s not fully prepared and who relies on charm, IQ, and improvisation, it affects how they perform, too. It’s a waste of time to articulate ideas about values and culture if you don’t model and reward behavior that aligns with those goals.

The second issue has to do with making sure employees understand the levers that drive the business. I recently visited a Texas start-up whose employees were mostly engineers in their twenties. “I bet half the people in this room have never read a P&L,” I said to the CFO. He replied, “It’s true—they’re not financially savvy or business savvy, and our biggest challenge is teaching them how the business works.” Even if you’ve hired people who want to perform well, you need to clearly communicate how the company makes money and what behaviors will drive its success. At Netflix, for instance, employees used to focus too heavily on subscriber growth, without much awareness that our expenses often ran ahead of it: We were spending huge amounts buying DVDs, setting up distribution centers, and ordering original programming, all before we’d collected a cent from our new subscribers. Our employees needed to learn that even though revenue was growing, managing expenses really mattered.

The third issue is something I call the split personality start-up. At tech companies this usually manifests itself as a schism between the engineers and the sales team, but it can take other forms. At Netflix, for instance, I sometimes had to remind people that there were big differences between the salaried professional staff at headquarters and the hourly workers in the call centers. At one point our finance team wanted to shift the whole company to direct-deposit paychecks, and I had to point out that some of our hourly workers didn’t have bank accounts. That’s a small example, but it speaks to a larger point: As leaders build a company culture, they need to be aware of subcultures that might require different management.

Good Talent Managers Think Like Businesspeople and Innovators First, and Like HR People Last

Throughout most of my career I’ve belonged to professional associations of human resources executives. Although I like the people in these groups personally, I often find myself disagreeing with them. Too many devote time to morale improvement initiatives. At some places entire teams focus on getting their firm onto lists of “Best Places to Work” (which, when you dig into the methodologies, are really based just on perks and benefits). At a recent conference I met someone from a company that had appointed a “chief happiness officer”—a concept that makes me slightly sick.

During 30 years in business I’ve never seen an HR initiative that improved morale. HR departments might throw parties and hand out T-shirts, but if the stock price is falling or the company’s products aren’t perceived as successful, the people at those parties will quietly complain—and they’ll use the T-shirts to wash their cars.

Instead of cheerleading, people in my profession should think of themselves as businesspeople. What’s good for the company? How do we communicate that to employees? How can we help every worker understand what we mean by high performance?

Here’s a simple test: If your company has a performance bonus plan, go up to a random employee and ask, “Do you know specifically what you should be doing right now to increase your bonus?” If he or she can’t answer, the HR team isn’t making things as clear as they need to be.

At Netflix I worked with colleagues who were changing the way people consume filmed entertainment, which is an incredibly innovative pursuit—yet when I started there, the expectation was that I would default to mimicking other companies’ best practices (many of them antiquated), which is how almost everyone seems to approach HR. I rejected those constraints. There’s no reason the HR team can’t be innovative too.

A version of this article appeared in the

January–February 2014

issue of Harvard Business Review.

#Business #work

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sumayyahwrites · 4 years

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Fashion in the time of COVID

WILL THE PANDEMIC LEAD TO A MORE ETHICAL, SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRY?

"We went way too far. Our reckless actions have burned the house we live in. We conceived of ourselves as separated from nature, we felt cunning and almighty. We usurped nature, we dominated and wounded it."

Alessandro Michele, Creative Director of Gucci

Gucci's creative director Alessandro Michele posted 1,200 words of poetic, impassioned diary excerpts on Instagram, making one thing abundantly clear, Gucci, and possibly the fashion industry as a whole would never be the same again.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit the fashion world hard, gravely impacting all of its global capitals. Even before the virus struck, the industry was ailing. What happens now that no one's compelled to dress up from the waist down? And with our precarious place in the world coming into sharp relief, shopping for season “must-haves” seemed not only frivolous but immoral.

In March, Vogue partnered with the Council of Fashion Designers of America to set up A Common Thread, a pandemic-relief initiative that has raised $4.9 million to date. By May, more than 1,000 companies applied for aid, with even the biggest names on the precipice of an uncertain future.

In the interest of damage control, there has been industry talk of pushing the unreleased 2020 collections to 2021. It's curious that this requires we literally disavow the concept of fashion itself; that amorphous behemoth that tells us whether midi skirts are in or out this season.

With no end in sight to this state of flux, could this be an opportunity for the industry to ask itself some serious existential questions?

THE PROBLEM WITH FASHION

"We didn't respect the planet until now and in a way this [pandemic] is a message and unfortunately it's a very, very heavy message. Change had to be done. Everyone thought that the change would happen gradually, but that's not the case. Change has to be done now, and done quickly."

Sara Maino, Deputy Editor in Chief of Vogue Italia

Before the fashion world spiralled out of control, you had four seasons in the four major fashion capitals - London, Paris, New York and Milan. But the emergence of fast fashion accelerated the situation to a dizzying degree. Brands were sucked into the vortex of insatiable consumer demand. The pressure on luxury and high-street alike to drop new trends at higher speeds and lower costs had designers in a hamster wheel trying to outpace the copycats. "We were out of breath", admits Gucci’s Alessandro Michele, referring to fashion's unrelenting schedule of up to eight collections per year.

In her book, 'Fashionopolis: The Price Of Fast Fashion And The Future Of Clothes', Dana Thomas takes an unflinching look at the catastrophic environmental and human cost of this obsession with newness. Fast fashion refers to the production of masses of cheap, trendy clothes at breakneck speeds. Thomas refers to this as "a dirty, unscrupulous business that exploited humans and Earth alike".

Fashion is one of our biggest global polluters, "responsible for nearly 20 per cent of all industrial pollution annually" and "10 per cent of the carbon emissions in our air". Deep down, we knew our clothes often were made by desperate people in unthinkably dire situations; how could we forget the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh that took the lives of more than a thousand factory workers? Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic has made the human cost of fast fashion devastatingly clear. Crowded, unhygienic environments coupled with exploitative employment and a shady supply chain left brands with no accountability and employees with no pay.

According to Thomas, we buy five times more clothes than the previous generation, with the average garment being worn only seven times before being thrown on the scrap heap. There's no escaping the pangs of guilt that many of us experience with these suspiciously cheap garments. However, there is also no denying that slow fashion can be prohibitively expensive.

Should caring about the environment be a privilege afforded only to the haves, with the blame being placed squarely on the have-nots? And should the onus fall on the consumer to fix the deep-seated problems in the fashion industry or should corporations take responsibility for their exploitative behaviour?

THE SEASON OF DISCONTENT

"At a certain level, most of us were forced to make what the industry told us to make, but it's already proven that the industry is broken. We will now concentrate more on making what we want to make and how we want to make it."

Sonia Carrasco, Fashion Designer and Brand Owner

There are calls for reform, with designer Dries Van Noten urging leading industry figures to sign an open letter setting out some demands. Van Noten wants to reduce the number of runway shows, and the preposterous volume of clothing produced, and sell collections in real-time. That is: bikinis in S/S and coats in A/W. Have you ever been shopping for summer staples, only to find all the season's rejects already relegated to the sales rack? Fashion moves at its own pace darling, a pace at odds with customers' needs. Van Noten says this is about making collections "more environmentally and socially sustainable" with a move towards sustainability throughout the supply chain with less product, less waste and less travel.

Not that Chanel is paying attention, taking customers and press to Capri for its Cruise 2021 pre-collection in June, in the midst of the COVID pandemic. The French fashion house is resolutely old guard, announcing it will stick to six shows: two ready-to-wear, two couture, as well as cruise and Métiers d'Art. Chanel is not alone, with Dior also showcasing its cruise collection physically in Southern Italy.

In response to COVID-19, the British Fashion Council and the Council of Fashion Designers of America released a joint statement, echoing many of Van Noten's concerns. It urges brands, designers and retailers to slow down, with appeals for changes that will benefit customers, improve the wellbeing of the industry and have a positive effect on the environment.

FASHION IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC

"I try to ask myself what is the meaning of my actions. It's a vital and urgent questioning for me, which demands a careful pause and a delicate listening."

Alessandro Michele, Creative Director of Gucci

The big players in luxury fashion produce between six and eight collections per year, spending an eye-watering amount of money on each show. But is fashion week, with all its excesses and spectacles, gone for good?

The pandemic has led to a cascade of reflection and introspection, and fashion's big players were not unaffected. Saint Laurent announced plans to '"take control of its pace and reshape its schedule". Alessandro Michele has reduced the number of Gucci shows from five to two, nixing both seasons and gender. He writes: "I will abandon the worn-out ritual of seasonalities and shows to regain a new cadence, closer to my expressive call. We will meet just twice a year, to share the chapters of a new story".

After the cancelling of June's men's fashion week in Paris, Louis Vuitton disregarded both the industry's European home-base and its calendar, taking its latest men's show to Shanghai, a big change that signals a significant move towards a consumer-first approach. Which makes perfect sense with shoppers from Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America accounting for the bulk of luxury sales. Is it time to admit that Eurocentric fashion shows are so last season?

Many brands have gone "phygital", which is the somewhat awkward portmanteau describing the hybrid of physical space and digital technologies. With Shanghai and Moscow both fully embracing digital for their fashion weeks in March and April, and Helsinki adopting a purely digital format with innovations such as 3D shows. If more fashion houses go off-piste with localised, digitally amplified events, this could be the death knell for fashion week as we know it.

Another big IRL fashion event on the calendar is the Met Gala, an annual fundraising gala for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in New York City, and the most-watched fashion/society event of the year. It's usually an occasion for a (very) select few to dress-up in response to the year's theme, in a grand display of fashion as art, with the results ranging from the sublime to the ludicrous. This year it was postponed.

The show must go on, as they say, and it was a group of Gen-Z internet kids known as High Fashion Twitter (or 'hf twitter', because they're too cool for CAPS) hosting the biggest fashion party of the year. On May 4th, instead of the exclusive, highly branded, extremely profitable, marketing opportunity the Met Gala has become, hf twitter brought us an inclusive online celebration of self-expression and diversity. Whether dressing themselves, collaging or using other visual means, the guests shared their 'looks' on Twitter with the hashtag #HFMetGala2020, taking fashion out of the hands of the establishment, if only for a day.

High Fashion Twitter is a loosely structured mix of fashion fans and aficionados, who share inspiration and knowledge while being vocal about industry issues such as representation, sustainability and accountability. And for the event, they purposefully excluded any brands they deemed problematic, such as those known for cultural appropriation.

FASHION AND SOCIETY

"I understand that, for many, the purpose of a fashion magazine is about escapism, about providing beautiful images of beautiful people in beautiful clothes […] But there are moments when this feels weird. And this is one of those moments."

Emanuele Farneti, editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia

The effects of a global disaster of this magnitude amplified many social justice issues, notably resulting in the backlash over tone-deaf comments from fashion brands about the Black Lives Matter Movement, or their conspicuous, deafening silence. There was nowhere for the industry to hide.

While taking any political stance wasn't de rigueur for most major fashion houses, it's now not only accepted but expected to be in touch with issues facing the wider community. In fact, for some, this out-of-touchness is seen as impossibly callous in a world confronted by human tragedy and economic devastation.

There have been attempts to meet the moment, with efforts such as Vogue's new web series "Good Morning Vogue", fashion's self-proclaimed "wake up call". If the last decade has shifted the discourse around issues such as racism and climate change, then the global pandemic has accelerated it.

FASHION GOING FORWARD

"Through the creation of less product, with higher levels of creativity and quality, products will be valued and their shelf life will increase. The focus on creativity and quality of products, reduction in travel and focus on sustainability […] will increase the consumer's respect and ultimately their greater enjoyment in the products that we create."

The British Fashion Council

Driven by a new generation of socially and environmentally conscious consumers who care where the things they buy come from and where they'll end up, brands have upped their sustainability game. And with the threat of this pandemic acting as a call to action for the fashion industry to slow down and scale down before we find our selves facing a much bigger existential threat.

COVID-19 has caused a significant shift in the mindsets of both brand and consumer, teaching us all to slow down and reset. And should this pass, the things we learnt to value, such as our health, our freedom and hopefully our planet, may eclipse our desire for any conveyor belt of trends.

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douchebagbrainwaves · 4 years

Text

WHAT NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ABOUT FORCE

So let me tell you a little about Jessica. But maybe if we were investing millions we would think differently. By accepting the term sheet, the startup agrees to turn away other VCs for some set amount of time while this firm does the due diligence required for the deal. A typical startup goes through several rounds of funding, regardless of whatever obstacles are in the way. Overall only about 10% of startups succeed, but if I had to add a new application to my list of known time sinks: Firefox. Ten years ago VCs used to insist that founders step down as CEO and hand the job over to a business guy they supplied. Bush seemed old and tired. To get a complete picture, just add in every possible disaster. I stopped watching it. Odds are it will be a junior person; they scour the web looking for startups their bosses could invest in. What are we going to do if one of the founders in a startup can stay in grad school, but at YC culture wasn't just how we behaved when we built the product.

Indeed, food is an excellent metaphor to explain what's wrong with the usual sort of job is a consulting project in which you can move into a big one or from which you can move into a big one or from which you can build whatever software you wanted to sell as a startup. We could hire employees, but we want to be able to convince; they just won't be able to brag that he was an investor. I didn't enjoy the short stories we had to read in English classes; I didn't use expert systems myself. But most founders, because it takes most of the ideas in an essay to happen after you start writing it, they had some new ideas. Television, for example, about how to approach VCs. So on demo day I told the assembled angels and VCs in that they're actual companies, but they pay more attention to deals recommended by someone they respect. In a startup, managing them is one of the most difficult problems for startup founders is deciding when to approach VCs, which VCs obviously don't need to write it again. They may if they are, we have a remarkable coincidence to explain. They also spend a little money on a freelance graphic designer. Y Combinator doesn't require vesting, because a they ask who else you've talked to and when and b they talk among themselves.

As for how to write well than most people realize, because they know it's true. You can't just sit there. And what's especially dangerous is that many happen at your computer. I'm not saying that issues don't matter to voters. And microcomputers turned out to vary a great deal of profanity. Fear of failure is an extraordinarily powerful force. Some we helped with strategy questions, like what to patent, and what to charge for and what to charge for and what to give away. Needless to say, you should be nice to and who you can get. I think of it, we were surprised how frightened most of them were of competitors. If someone pays $20,000 for 10% of a company, the company is still just an idea.

That might be worth exploring. Many investors explicitly use that as a test, reasoning correctly that if you let people in their early twenties get into debt, because their expenses grow even faster than the salary that seemed so high when they left school. Is anyone able to develop software faster than you? People this age are commonly seen as lazy. So just do what you'd do in any complex, unfamiliar situation: proceed deliberately, and question anything that seems odd. Control of a company is only two months old, every day you wait gives you 1. There are millions of small businesses in America, but only for a small one, and if not, they say they want to be forced to figure out what you like is to look at what you enjoy as guilty pleasures. Microcomputers turned out to be very disciplined if you take the latter route that the lawyer is representing you rather than merely advising you, or his only duty is to the investor. There was an authenticity that everyone who walked in could sense. And you can't approach some and save others for later, because a we invest such small amounts, and b it means that Y Combinator, and it seems to me the increasing cheapness of web startups. If the Democrats had been running a candidate as charismatic as Clinton in the 2004 election, he'd have won. If people have to choose between something that's cheap, heavily marketed, and appealing in the short term, and something that's expensive, obscure, and appealing in the long term the right answer for dealing with Internet distractions will be software that watches and controls them.

Both now compete directly with VCs. I decided one night to start it, and 50% of those you start with to be wrong; be confident enough to cut; have friends you trust read your stuff and tell you which bits are boring the paragraphs you dread reading; try to tell the reader something new and useful; work in fairly big quanta of time; when you restart, begin by rereading what you have so far; when you finish, leave yourself something easy to start with; accumulate notes for topics you plan to write about, then write down what you said; expect 80% of the ideas writing would have generated. I was a kid, computers were big, expensive machines built one at a time. There are few large, private technology companies. Inexperienced founders make the same mistake when trying to convince investors to let you do it. To convince yourself that your startup is worth investing in, and then only in a vague sense of malaise. The company may do additional funding rounds, presumably at higher valuations.

In a startup you have lots of worries, but you don't have this protection, as we found to our dismay in our own startup. Bush seemed old and tired. And since success in a startup: to be a time when one failed to do something they'd promised to, even by being late for an appointment. If you walk around a museum trying this experiment, you'll find you get some truly startling results. Something that used to be safe, using the Internet. In fact, nice is not the brand name or perhaps even the classes so much as the people you meet. A group of 10 managers is not merely a group of 10 people working together in the usual way. So if you hear someone saying we don't need to write it again. That's a known danger sign, like drinking alone. We often tell startups to release a minimal version one quickly, then let the needs of the users determine what to do next. And that required very different skills from actually doing the startup. Startups often pay investors who will help the company in restricted stock, vesting over four years, and the terms end up being whatever the lawyer considers vanilla.

You get to work on juicy kinds of work, like designing software. This way, they were going to be hearing in the press about what Jessica has achieved. Financially, vesting has little effect, but in startups the curve is startlingly steep. This essay is derived from a keynote at FOWA in October 2007. Sales people make much the same way that living in the future big companies will have both a VP of Engineering responsible for technology developed in-house, and a CAO responsible for bringing technology in from outside. VCs will own a third of the company 2/4 2. Of course the odds of any given startup doing an IPO are small. A quarter of their life. The fact that seed firms are companies also means the investment process is more standardized.

Excite did, for example, because no one said anything definite enough to refute. If Jessica was so important to YC, why don't more people realize it? The traditional series A board consisted of two founders, two VCs, and we make a point of exerting less. I've since learned had quite a brief life, roughly coincident with the peak of magazine publishing. So working for yourself makes your brain more powerful in the same portfolio-optimizing way as investors. And getting rejected will put you in a slightly awkward position, because as you'll see when you start fundraising, the most common question you'll get from investors will be who else is investing? So if some friends want you to come work for their startup. Procrastination feeds on distractions. I now leave wifi turned off on my main computer except when I need to transfer a file or edit a web page, and I can't think of one.

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dat-fandom-losertown · 4 years

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Happy NHPC Day!

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

Chapter 2

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

Spideypool / Peter Parker + Wade Wilson

Warnings: None, unless you click the first link in this chapter. It’s just a flower, but it’s mildly NSFW?

Word Count: 4,862

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

Previous <~

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

A/N: Heyy... 😅 It's way past Feb. 15th now, but the 15th was my brother's 15th birthday, and I got roped into the activities (for the literal first time in 10 years lmao), then later that evening there was a power outage due to a huge wind storm. As for the rest of the days, I kinda just... didn't post the finished product for some reason? Like, I rewrote this thing, like, four times (and I still hate this but it's whatever at this point I guess), then I thought I posted it on the 16th but didn't?? So I was checking my other work and saw this was uncompleted?? So here! Take the late chapter! Better late than never I guess? 😅😂

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

{ Yellow } [ White ]

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

The first and only thing Wade notices when he wakes up is that Peter is still in his arms. He rubs his face along Peter’s bare back and neck, enjoying the warmth and softness of his skin.

[ That’s strange. He’s usually up early. ]

{ Yea. One of those nasty “Early to bed, Early to rise” people. Honestly, don’t they see the appeal of nighttime? }

The second thing Wade notices when he wakes up are those fucking boxes, and the blissful “I just woke up and can’t remember much” feeling is gone instantly.

{ Uh, rude! }

[ No, that’s fair. You’re an idiot ]

{ Again, rude! And hypocritical! }

He ignores them both in favor of hugging his boyfriend tighter. Once he does, Peter exits out of whatever app he had on his phone and rolls over in his arms so their noses almost touch.

“Good morning.” he says lowly, looking like he just woke up but sounding like he’s been up for a while. He must have just never gotten out of bed.

“Mmm… Mornin’ hot stuff.” Wade can’t resist kissing him sweetly. “What has you in bed still? Hm?”

Peter smiles, and it lights up his beautiful brown eyes. Whoever says that brown eyes aren’t beautiful can go fuck themselves. Peter is living proof that eyes like that may as well be the most delicious chocolate, they’re so alluring.

[ I don’t think you’d describe chocolate as alluring… ]

{ Speak for yourself. My problem is that now I can’t stop thinking about that trend where couples would lick each other’s eyeballs. Please don’t tell me you’re going to do that to Petey, are you? }

[ Even I know to have more confidence in him than that. Maybe. ]

“Didn’t people die from that? Or go blind?” Wade murmurs out loud, knowing Peter doesn’t care when he does.

“What did?” he asks back.

“People licking other people’s eyeballs.”

Peter gets that look on his face that he denies having. The one that says “I really wanna question where that came from because that was completely random and unrelated to our conversation, but I also don’t want to know the answer because I’m scared of the rabbit trail that lead you to it.” He rarely asks how he got to whatever topic he randomly brought up, but he always humors Wade and answers him as if he was talking to him and not the voices in his head.

His expression turns to one of hesitant acceptance. “What are you talking about?”

“When people were licking each other’s eyeballs for that one trend.”

Peter just nods. “I think people went blind, but I don’t think anyone died. It was a risk, but wasn’t that back in, like, 2013 or something?”

Wade shrugs and kisses Peter again. “Dunno. Yellow mentioned it cause your eyes look like chocolate. No worries, though, licking eyes is nasty.” he adds at Peter’s concerned and disgusted look.

“Good, cause I’d never allow it.”

“Same here.”

There’s a minute of peaceful, comfortable silence before Peter breaks it.

“Why the hell do all of our morning conversations end up like this?”

[ Because you have even less of a filter than you normally do, which shouldn’t even be possible, but it is. Honestly, it’s terrifying. ]

“White says it’s because we have less of a head to mouth filter than normal when we’re first waking up.” Wade paraphrases.

Peter nods again, “Yeah… It’s probably a good thing you rarely see me when I first get up.”

{ He probably says some really cute things! Or maybe it would be much dirtier ;) }

[ I can’t tell if you said “colon end parenthesis” out loud or just implanted a picture of a winky face in our heads and it’s making me uncomfortable. ]

{ Well technically you don’t have a head to implant that to. And I’ll do whatever the hell I want, so the readers won’t even get to know the answer to your inquiry. }

[ Ooo, big word for you. ]

{ Yeah, bigger than your tiny– }

“Wade, are the voices bothering you?” Peter interrupts, causing Wade to smile.

“Nah, honey, they’re bothering each other more than me.”

He affectionately bumps his forehead on his Peter’s and leaves it there, basking in the warmth.

{ You should ask Peter! }

“Ask him what?” Wade almost groans.

{ If he says cute or dirty thing, of course! }

“No. Later. ‘M warm.”

{ Pansy. }

[ Right now he looks more like an Orchis italica than a Pansy, really. ]

“Do I wanna know what those look like?”

“What?” Peter pulls back.

{ Yesss! Nirlan left the links there for a reason! }

[ Who the fuck is Nirlan? ]

{ Gasp! How dare you not know the name of the author of this fanfic! }

[ There’s so many authors and artists out there, how are we supposed to ever keep up with them? ]

“Can we not? It’s too early to be breaking this many walls…” Wade complains because hot damn the boxes are getting annoying, and, quite frankly, they’re taking over the fic at this point.

The boxes don’t even get to respond before Peter is on Wade, kissing him in a way that is neither soft nor chaste.

“Need a distraction?” he asks with that sexy smirk of his.

“Always.”

{ I guess it’s dirty things, heheh ;) }

[ I swear to god– ]

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

“And you’re sure that two hours is enough time for you to browse around? And you won’t get something absurdly expensive, even though we can afford it?” Peter asks for the third time right before they split up. Wade doesn’t even blame him for asking. They both know how he can get sometimes when shopping without a list.

“I promise I won’t get distracted and show up three hours late with nothing or too much to show for it.” He hesitates, “Well, I can’t promise on the late part, but if I am late, I’ll have a really good present to make up for it!” He says it in his usual joking manner, but they both know that he’ll be on time unless something super-vigilante-y (‘cause he may be super, but he ain’t no hero) happens.

Peter smiles in a way he can only describe as fond. Wade remembers when he was shocked every time he saw it on the other’s face, back when their relationship was newer and Wade’s self-esteem at an almost all-time low. Now, though, it only brings a rush of warmth. This person, this beautiful, humble, kind, strong man loves him– Him! A mess of a barely-if-at-all-human being that used to kill a shit ton of people for money and fun (even though they were all baddies, it still goes against the “Spidey Code”)– enough to smile all dopily at seemingly random times. Like, how did he ever get so lucky? What did he do in his past life do deserve such a sweet reward for going through the horrors he has?

[ Maybe it’s less about previous lives and more about karma. You used to be an asshole and killed almost indiscriminately, so karma punished you. But then you started killing only people who had no right being alive, and here we are. ]

{ White! Did you just call Wade a good person! I thought you didn’t care! }

[ Shut the hell up. The only thing I did was say that maybe karma realized that it went a little too far. I mean– ]

“Wade, you alright?” Peter voices, holding Wade’s wrist and looking far more concerned than he should.

“Yeah.” He shakes his head. “Yeah, actually. I think White just indirectly called me a good person.”

[ I did fucking not! ]

“Or, well, that I’m a good enough person now that karma decided I deserved one last good thing after all the shit it’s been giving me all my life. But close enough, right?”

And there goes Peter, smiling that same fond smile as before, even if it has a touch more worry in it than it did before. Wade practically melts.

“Of course you’re a good person. I don’t date just anyone, you know.” Peter kisses him quickly before letting go of his wrist. “Now we really should go get those presents. Meet back at the apartment in two hours, or sooner if we find something before then?”

“You know it.” Wade blows him a large kiss with a wink.

Peter catches it in a fist, which he then kisses and puts in his pocket before turning around. Wade follows his lead and turns to jog across the street while the crosswalk sign is still green. The bounce in his step doesn’t leave even as he slows to a casual stroll, or as casual as it can be in the middle of fucking New York City.

God, never in a million years did he think he’d be a part of that couple. The couples who shamelessly blow kisses and make goo-goo eyes at each other in public. At least, not when it’s no longer the obnoxious honeymoon phase with someone he doesn’t really care for and he’s trying to subtly drive them away. He and Peter certainly aren’t in the honeymoon phase anymore, and Wade is actually trying his best to keep his boyfriend around for as long as possible this time before he inevitably ups and leaves.

[ At least you’re self aware in that aspect. Nothing lasts forever. Even if you and him did, you realize that chances of you outliving him just because he ages is extremely likely, if not certain? ]

{ So you should get him a present now! A really, really good one! Not like your prank anniversary gift. }

“Hell no, nothing like that. I was cleaning slime and glitter for weeks.”

[ It was only four days. ]

“Yeah. Like I said, weeks.”

{ So what should we get Peter? }

[ We? ]

{ Yes we! I want to get him one too this time! He’s the only person besides Wade who tries to talk to us! }

[I suppose that’s true… ]

Wade can practically feel White thinking this over, but he already knows that there’s no swaying Yellow about this. He doubts (hopes) that Peter doesn’t mind that they got him stuff too. He already has plenty of reminders that Wade is insane as it is.

{ A blanket won’t do! And he doesn’t like stuffed animals like we do! }

[ And he doesn’t like shoes or socks around the house because he falls off the ceiling easier. Mittens and gloves are out of the picture for the same reason. ]

Huh, so White is planning to get Peter something, then.

[ If I’m forced to, then a new camera. It’s functional and he’s been wanting that new Canon one. ]

That is very true. Back when he and Peter were first moving into their current apartment (which is way nicer than either of them had before, Wade because he had no self-respect, and Peter because he had no money) found his old camera and eventually got back into the hobby. When he bought a more professional upgrade so he could dabble in selling some of his stuff, it ended up having a built in flash that turned on whenever it was darker than “in direct sunlight” unless he put it on the shitty “No Flash” setting. He returned it pretty quickly, but he still hasn’t bought a new one yet.

Fuck, that would have actually been a really cool gift idea, and if White’s taking it–

[ We’ll share it. ]

Wade stumbles in the middle of the sidewalk.. Did he just hear that right?

{ Holy shit, I think you did! }

[ Fuck off. You guys are hopeless. This is an offer of pity. ]

{ And that sounded very tsundere of you. }

[ And I’m not going to grace that with a response. ]

{ Let it be known that White actually cares! }

[ Do you never listen? ]

Wade tunes the boxes out while they argue. As much as the camera is such a good idea– and he will be getting that; he’s on his way to a store he vaguely knows of to check for the one he thinks he remembers Peter wanting– he doesn’t like the idea of getting Peter something that White thought of before he did. It doesn’t exactly shout “I’m a good boyfriend” to buy something someone else suggested, even if he’s positive he would have thought of it eventually, if given some time.

By the time he reaches the store, interrogates a knowledgeable employee and the internet for what the best Canon camera for Peter might be, buys a camera, extra lenses, a small, foldable camera stand, a reflector of the same variety, and a large, red and grey camera bag, and walks out of the store with several bags, the boxes have moved on from arguing and are strangely into the whole gift-giving thing. It was actually Yellow’s idea to get the stand and backpack, and White’s idea to get the extra lenses.

He finds an empty alleyway to dump all of this stuff out and organize the goods into the backpack. He’s not stupid, he knows that alleys are usually where various crimes happen, but he’s also not so stupid as to let someone sneak up on him, either. This alley is completely empty, and it will stay that way either because no one comes around, or he returns it to its empty state. No one’s stealing his baby boy’s Half-Priced Candy Day present on his watch.

It doesn’t take nearly as long to organize everything into and on the bag as Wade thought. Just put the default lense on the body of the camera and stuff that and the charger into the biggest hole in the bag, the other lenses get caps on both ends and they get put in the smaller ones. The reflector get is put on top of those and the bag still closes just fine, and the collapsible stand can be strapped to the side of this particular bag. He tosses all the boxes and bags into the nearby dumpster after pulling the camera bag on like a backpack and he’s ready to go.

He casually heads out and starts making his way towards Target. That place usually has unique games that he and Peter sometimes play with a couple of other friends. That, and they usually have sinfully soft pillows, blankets, and sheets. He would get an indoor hammock chair, but they don’t own their current apartment and he doesn’t want to risk ruining the ceiling in order to hang it up. Besides, he doesn’t feel like carrying something like that back from Target by foot.

[ So by process of elimination, you’re getting yet another soft blanket or pillow? ]

“Listen, I don’t need your sass. There is no such thing as too many soft things, and Peter completely agrees.” he responds out loud. He is far beyond not giving a fuck about what other people (who aren’t Peter, of course) think about him.

{ That may be so, but, like, this is your chance to buy matching onesies? }

“Peter doesn’t like onesies. They get too hot for him too fast, and they usually fall under the ‘no shoes or socks’ thing.” Wade gasps, “Gloves! He doesn’t like gloves because they cover his fingertips!”

[ Yes, we all knew this Wade– ]

“So finger-less gloves should be fine, right? I could buy a pair or two or seven for him!”

{ All different colors and patterns! And they’re still soft! }

Wade hums happily as he skips into Target. He walks in with the resolve to buy at least five pairs of finger-less gloves, but probably more. After a while of looking around and mild complaining and raving, though, he ends up walking out with two pairs of finger-less gloves (one black and one mitten-convertible pair that are navy blue), an expansion pack for Exploding Kittens, some discount candy, a case of Peter’s favorite soda, and a grey teddy bear that is soft soft he couldn’t not get it (he made sure to get the one with the wonky face, though, because he and Peter always grab the ones with “personality”).

A glance at his watch tells him that he’s already 15 minutes late, and he still has to walk home.

“Shit!”

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

Wade bursts through the apartment door, panting. Sprinting up the stairs instead of waiting a minute for the elevator probably wasn’t the best call.

“Peter?” he calls out before he even gets inside.

“I’ll be right out!” he hears from their bedroom.

He heaves a sigh, closing the door behind him.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I took so long.” he says at a normal, indoor volume, knowing Peter can still hear him clear as day, “I really didn’t mean to be late this time, but when I finally got out of Target I was already ten minutes late and I didn’t want to run and accidentally drop something, y’know?”

Peter walks out of the bedroom, and Wade notes how he carefully kept the door closed just enough to where he can’t see inside.

{ Ooo!! I wonder what it is! Maybe a new comforter? }

[ God, there’s no more fucking room in the closet for this shit. ]

“Hi, honey.” Wade greets softly. His face feels warm and soft, so he knows he’s making heart-eyes at Peter, but he just can’t help it!

“Hey, love.” Peter greets back, stepping forward and taking Wade’s face in his hands.

They meet in the middle in a soft kiss, then lean each other’s foreheads against one another. It makes Wade suddenly aware of how much he missed Peter. Like, he normally isn’t this clingy, but NHPC day is meant for sleeping and cuddles and all Petey time.

“As much as I liked trying to find surprises for you, I don’t think I want to do this again.”

Peter hums, getting Wade’s unspoken message. “I agree. I missed you, too.”

They stand there for a while, swaying slightly together with Peter cupping his cheeks and Wade pressing as close to his other as he can without the bags becoming awkward to hold. Peter kisses his nose, then both of his cheekbones, then his cheeks, then his mouth and lingers there. When they pull away, Peter takes a step back.

“So, what’s all this?”

He wrings his hands together as he tries to inspect the bags. He’s nervous or anxious about something, and, honestly, Wade doesn’t blame him for being worried about what’s in the numerous bags. Not after their last anniversary and April Fools, anyway.

“Nothing bad, I promise. Should we move this to the bed?–”

“Couch is fine!” Peter says a tad too enthusiastically and spins to go sit on the couch.

Well, that just means there's something in the bedroom, but he can be patient if it’s for his Petey.

He settles everything onto the floor before sliding the bag off of his back and handing it to Peter. The vigilante stares at it with wide eyes, and takes it extremely carefully, as if the bag will fall apart if he so much as moves it too fast.

“So, normally, people open the biggest thing last so they aren’t disappointed with everything else, but…”

Peter takes the hint and sets it on the ground so he can unzip it and open the flap. He removes the round reflector and suddenly freezes. Wade can’t tell if it’s a good freeze or a bad one, and that in itself is decidedly not good.

“I don’t know if this camera is too advanced or too shitty for you so...” Wade trails off again, not sure what to say.

Peter picks up the camera and inspects it. He tries to turn it on, but it still needs to be charged, so he assumes the screen remains black. He flips it around to look at it and uncap the lense, flips it back to hold it and maybe find the buttons. He looks through the camera and manually adjusts the focus. After that, he adjusts the focus back to where it was, puts the camera safely back into the bag.

A split second later, Wade has a lap and armful of Peter.

“Woah! Okay, I take it you like it?” Wade curls his arms around Peter’s middle while his abdomen, in return, is squeezed.

“Thank you.” Peter whispers into his neck.

Wade squeezes him tighter. “You’re welcome, love.”

Upon hearing the seldom-used name, Peter kisses Wade one more time. It quickly becomes much less than innocent, and as much as Wade is loving this, he still has a few other gifts to give, and at least one thing to get in return.Therefore, he reluctantly pulls away, softly stopping Peter from following his lips.

“You still have a couple gifts from me.”

Peter does not move. “Describe them.”

Damn if Wade doesn’t like it when Peter gets like this. Any other time he would have given in to that sinful look on the other’s face, but not this time. He’ll prove he has at least some self control.

“As much as I would love to– and I really would– I wanna see your reaction to two of the other things I got.”

Peter huffs and sits back with a slight pout. “Fine.”

He quickly eyes the Target bags and gathers his presents. He politely thanks Wade for buying the candy and soda because he didn’t have time to for a reason he didn’t state. He finds the expansion pack and smiles at it, and challenges Wade to a game as soon as they’re done with gifts and snuggles. Then he finds the bear with the wonky face.

“I actually got you something similar to this.”

He seems nervous again, almost more so than before. It has Wade becoming concerned.

“Hey, you know it’s alright if all you got me was a stuffie, right?” He reaches over and grabs Peter’s hand. “It isn’t a competition.”

He smiles fondly in return. “I know.” He gets up and offers Wade a hand. “Time for my presents.”

Wade accepts his hand, but barely uses it to get up. Peter doesn’t let go once he’s standing on his own and the ex-merc finds himself being led to the bedroom.

{ What do you think it’s going to be! I vote for the room being covered in petals and Peter offering himself as a gift! }

[ Peter has stated many times that he has more dignity than that, so no. ]

{ Aww, you’re such a party pooper… I can still dream, you know! }

[ That’s what I worry about the most. ]

{ Hey! }

Peter opens their bedroom door and what Wade finally sees inside almost makes his jaw drop.

There are colored fairy lights strung up simply around the room, just like he’s always wanted, but either forgot the lights or lacked the motivation to try setting it up. The bed is made with a new bed set that is predominantly apple red with accents of maroon, and when Wade strokes his hand across it, it is extremely soft, but doesn’t feel like it’ll overheat them and irritate his scars. On the center of the bed are a little Spiderman and Deadpool tsum tsum-looking plushies laying right next to each other. It’s perfect.

“How did you even have time to do all of this?” Wade asks as he takes in the lights while stroking the comforter.

“I was banking on you being a bit late, actually.” Peter clears his throat– another obvious show of nerves. “Do you like it?”

“I love it.” Wade doesn’t hesitate, “This is beautiful. Where did you even find all this?”

“Uh, you know, at the store.” Peter sounds more anxious than before, so Wade turns around to ensure that everything is perfect–

This can’t be happening. Wade feels his eyes widen and his jaw properly drop. This can’t be real. There’s no way.

{ This isn’t another hallucination, is it? }

[ I don’t think so. No one is trying to kill us. ]

Peter is on one knee right in front of him. Those stupidly handsome eyes flicker around his face, and his shoulders are tense in a way that broadcasts he’s nervous. They’re standing in their gorgeous room that’s in their shared apartment, they’re both in the comfiest clothes that are still appropriate to go out in public in, and Peter is kneeling in front of him while holding out a ring that’s made of rose gold with a large, deep-red center gem with tiny black ones swirling around it.

This can’t be fucking real. This is way too good to be–

“Judging by your face, this is completely unexpected, but this is something I just realized recently that I’ve been wanting for a while. And I know it doesn’t make any sense, but I think you know what I’m talking about anyway.”

Peter didn’t ask for a response or acknowledgement, but Wade nods anyway. He understands the feeling. Peter’s gaze moves to the walls and the floor, purposefully avoiding Wade now. That isn’t a great sign.

��Like, everyone else I dated I kinda new from the start wouldn’t last? But with you, everything feels natural, and we work really well together, in suits and out of them, and I just– I was thinking about something or other, and I imagined trying to live a life that didn’t have you in it, and I couldn’t do it. As disgustingly cheesy as this is going to sound, I don’t think I can live without you anymore, at least without it being torturous, ‘cause you’re the one who literally knows the most about me and you help me stay away from especially bad habits but don’t treat me like a child when I do something stupid. And, like, the only way you can leave my life permanently is if we broke up– well I guess we could still technically get a divorce, or you could just say ‘no’ right now and break up with me eventually–”

“Yes.” Wade hears himself say, quietly. Peter doesn’t register it, so Wade doesn’t try to use words again. He’s too caught up in his head. He kneels down to Peter’s height and reaches around Peter’s outstretched hands to cup his cheeks. Peter blinks, looks into Wade’s eyes, and lowers the ring closer to their chests, but never stops speaking.

“–but anyway. You’re actually the best thing that’s happened to me since Spiderman and it would really mean the world and more to me if you say–”

Wade cuts him off with a slow, soft kiss. He slowly pulls away when his own smiling makes it too hard to continue, but keeps their faces close.

“Yes.”

Peter blinks hopefully. “Yes?”

Wade yanks him into a tight hug. “Of course! Why would I ever say no?– Actually, don’t answer that. But god, yes! Fuck, I love you so much!” Wade suddenly pulls back. “Lemme see the ring! How did you even get something this nice on such short notice?”

Peter takes his left hand– and oh, if that doesn’t send a pleasant thrill up his spine then he doesn’t know what will– and gently slides the ring on– actually, that right there would– and then doesn’t let go of his hand.

The ring looks more feminine on his finger than it did in the little, velvet box, but if anyone knows Wade, it’s that he doesn’t give a flying fuck. He actually really loves it. It’s rather unique, especially compared to the classic “white diamond(s) on a silver band” engagement rings. And while Wade would have loved a ring like that if Peter got him one, he probably would have only liked it for what it symbolized, rather than actually liking the ring itself like he does this one.

“I did some research during the late night patrols yesterday, and found this one online this morning before you were up. I just went to pick it up after it got sized.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“I was worried it wasn’t flashy enough–”

“Nonsense, Peter!” he exaggerates an accent.

“–then I was worried it was too flashy for just in case you wanted to wear it under your Deadpool suit–”

“Of course I will!”

“–and I didn’t want it to irritate your scars, but, again, I didn’t want to be super simple or flat. That just isn’t the Spiderman and Deadpool way, after all.”

“No, it really isn’t.” he confirms fondly.

Wade looks back down at the ring. It hasn’t quite hit him yet that they’re officially engaged.

“So…” Wade starts seductively, “How about we try out these new sheets?”

Peter perks up. “Snuggle day time?”

Wade’s smile turns into a large grin. “You go get the candy and soda, I’ll rearrange the pillows.”

“Maximum effort!” Peter says as he jumps up to sprint out of the room.

Wade gets up too. “Hey! That’s my thing! And this is mediocre effort at best!”

As Peter’s laugh rings pleasantly through the apartment, all Wade can think is that this is hopefully going to be the rest of his life. He’ll get to have moments like these for years and years to come, snuggles and candy with someone he loves and someone who loves him back for years and years to come. And since the boxes aren’t arguing anything, that must mean it’s true on some level, at least.

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

Previous <~

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

A/N: Heyo! I still hate this chapter but I've given up trying to make it better, so here we are. I hope y'all didn't totally hate it though! I had an idea for a beginning and an end, but not the middle, so it's all kinds of bleh XD Anyway, I hope you all have a pleasant day/night, and thank you for checking this fic out! <3

#spideypool #peter parker x wade wilson #spideypool valentines fanfic #spideypool fic #spideypool fanfic #spideypool fanfiction #spideypool scenario #nirlan's spideypool fanfics #nirlan's marvel fanfics

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sciencespies · 4 years

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Saving Our Planet Starts With the Soil

https://sciencespies.com/nature/saving-our-planet-starts-with-the-soil/

Saving Our Planet Starts With the Soil

Smithsonian Voices Conservation Commons

Saving our Planet Starts in the Soil

May 14th, 2020, 3:27PM / BY

Cat Kutz

Peter Byck is a Professor of Practice at Arizona State University, in both the School of Sustainability and the Cronkite School of Journalism. He is the director, producer and writer of carbon nation. He is currently helping to lead a $6.3 million research project focused on Adaptive Multi-Paddock (AMP) grazing; collaborating with 20 scientists and 10 farmers, focused on soil health and soil carbon storage; microbial, bug and bird biodiversity; water cycling and much more. Byck has currently completed carbon cowboys, a feature-length documentary (in ten parts) focused on regenerative grazing: www.carboncowboys.org and is in production on a long-form documentary on the AMP grazing research project.

The trailer for carbon cowboys premiered during the 2020 Earth Optimism Digital Summit during which Byck also shared a bit more about the film as a speaker for a ‘Telling the Story’ session. Ahead of the premiere of carbon cowboys, Earth Optimism Communications lead Cat Kutz chatted with him to learn more about the regenerative farming the film highlights and how it can shift the way we think about food, climate and the future of farming.

The first question that I had for you is hopefully an interesting one. If you were to tell us about the film in just a tweet, How would you describe it? So that’s less than 280 characters…

I would say meet the American farmers who are regenerating their soils and discovering solutions to climate, food security and water security. While finally making money growing us healthy food.

That’s perfect. It’s engaging and it definitely sets people up for something that they’d want to learn more about. I like that. Now, can you explain soil carbon storage and how this impacts agriculture?

Sure. Organic matter, the things that were once alive and have now died in the soil, are built of carbon – old microbes, old roots. And when you have a system that has a lot of microbes and a lot of roots and those things die, they actually create the structure for the soil, besides all the mineral material. And that structure actually has air in it and it’s squishy like a sponge. The carbon within those dead microbes and in those dead roots is very durable and lasts for decades or centuries.

And so that carbon was taken out of the atmosphere through photosynthesis from the leaves of the plant. The plant then burps out oxygen, keeps the carbon, mixes the carbon with water and creates these sugars that then go down through the plant’s roots and feeds the microbes. And so when you have a system that has a lot of different plants, it ends up having a lot of different microbes in the soil. Biodiversity above ground equals biodiversity below ground, and all of that material as it dies off, becomes actual soil structure and then that soil then becomes the home for the next round of life.

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The dead stuff is still food for the plants and that structure actually is like a sponge, so healthy soil is not compacted, it’s absorbent. So if you have a system with great plant cover and great healthy soil structure, when you get eight inches of rain in a day it all soaks into that farm, but across the fence, they are in flood conditions. Where the next day that farmer can be out in the field working, across the fence they’re out for two weeks with that eight-inch unusual rainfall that we’re getting more and more of.

But what’s also amazing about that spongy quality of the soil that’s made up of so much former life and full of carbon, is that it’s got so much surface area that it actually holds water longer so the water doesn’t evaporate as quickly. So in drought conditions, again, because the plants are covering the soil, the soil doesn’t overheat and the overheating doesn’t cause evapotranspiration beyond what normally happens to the plants. You’ve got the soil that’s holding onto water longer, so on the side of the fence where the farmers focused on soil health, they’re growing forage for their animals, a month or months longer than their neighbor in the drought. The neighbor has to go buy hay or sell their animals, while this farmer is still growing food. And so there is a huge economic benefit to having healthy soil.

The more carbon in the soil, the more plants and more photosynthesis and more drawing down of the CO2 from the atmosphere. The more you’re putting that carbon into that soil system, it’s still going to cycle. It’s still going to get back out into the atmosphere. But it’s going to take decades and centuries, rather than when you plow it – that’s the immediate release of carbon from the soil that binds with the oxygen, you’ve got CO2 building up, leading to climate change. So right now, there’s just a heck of a lot of CO2 in the atmosphere and that carbon – they think like a fifth or more of the carbon that’s up in the atmosphere right now – came from the soil systems.

And so let’s get that carbon back in a place where it’s part of a very healthy cycle as opposed to where it is right now, in the atmosphere – where it’s part of a cycle, but it’s a warming cycle beyond what we have grown accustomed to. We have coastal cities, we’d like to keep them.

So we’re talking about farmer resiliency and right now in the current global crisis, we’re seeing a huge effect on them because of the food waste and other issues that are rising from the pandemic. Does regenerative farming help protect them from these effects?

I think you’re seeing a lot of that food waste in really bad situations. It’s happening in the meatpacking industry, but I don’t think you’re seeing that from the regenerative farming community. I think you’re seeing that from the industrial farming community.

The farmers that I know of that sell directly to customers and some farmers in our films their sales are up between 300 and 1,000% They’re selling out.

There are places that I ordered from online that are sold out of meats where they were never sold out of these things. And so, so they’re actually much stronger right now – the ones who are either already selling to customers or pivoted to selling to customers. And so I think this is a pretty amazing sign that focusing on soil health is actually a great business plan.

I have one farmer who has a farm store and he said he’s never seen lines out the door before — he’s had lines out the door. And I’m sure he’s keeping everyone six feet away from each other.

But you know, people had to pivot… One of the farmers in our film, Allen Williams, he has a company called Joyce farms. He’s part of that company, and overnight, they lost 75% of the business selling meat produced in a regenerative way to Disney. So all those cruises, Disney World, all that stuff just went away overnight and they pivoted and they started having these parking lots. Sales selling out all over the southeast.

Wow. It’s almost as if people are kind of relearning how to get good quality food as a result of the pandemic. A lot of the public is gaining this awareness by seeing firsthand how important farming is… so do you think that this is a climate solution and these kinds of initiatives are going to become more bipartisan as time goes on?

I would hope so. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want soil health. But there’s a whole lot of farming going on in the country right now that doesn’t lead to soil health. And so how do you change that and how do you change that quickly? That’s, that’s the stuff that I think about and collaborate with people about and plan. Try to come up with more game plans and pilot programs. That’s, that’s sort of where my focus is right now. But I think people trust nature. I know people trust nature. And when you get into a stressful situation, you want to, you want to go to what you know works. And these farmers are working with nature and their customers are coming to them.

When I was on the road with carbon nation, I mean, one guy said, because he heard I was making a film about solutions to climate change, he said to me, ‘You and I are going to disagree about everything.’ And then we dug into it, and we agreed on about 70% of how we’d run the country. That blew us both away. We realized that there’s a lot more common ground than any newscast will tell you. Back then I was looking at solar and geothermal and energy efficiency and the reasons that the Department of Defense should be concerned about climate change and national security and all those things.

But then when I started working specifically on soil and healthy soil and rejuvenating soil and seeing what was happening with me and the farmers that I was meeting; we were getting along, in total agreement about soil heath. And we definitely have different politics. Then I realized that the common ground… is the ground. I’ve always been hunting for where people already are in agreement. It’s just they haven’t had the opportunity or taken the time or broken through the noise to find out that there is an agreement, and people agree about healthy soils.

We’re working on helping more and more people rejuvenate their soils. It’s so important, it touches so many issues. It’s what the Smithsonian always talks about – it’s what Earth Optimism is all about.

Yes! And definitely sharing the solutions… We like to think that the more you share solutions, the more solutions then come from that. It’s like the greatest aggregator of positive change is being able to share your story.

Exactly, and farmers will learn from our films. That would be a home run for us if it’s already happened. Some of the parts of our documentary, called paddocks, have been in festivals as standalone short films and farmers have called us to ask how they can do this and can we hook them up.

So we’re hoping this big film will inspire more of that, and wouldn’t it be amazing if a lot of farmers wanted to learn about this because they saw it’s just good business?

Are there any barriers that you have to overcome to get farmers to watch your films particularly because of the climate change element?

Our films aren’t climate-focused, they’re farmer-focused. Yeah, the climate piece is my driver, but it’s not all over the films at all. Partly because we wanted to communicate with farmers, and we know it makes sense – a farmer wants to listen to a farmer.

And so we wanted to make films that would highlight those conversations so that farmers could learn from farmers, but we also wanted these films to speak to a consumer and remind them to know where they’re getting food – go meet your farmer.

People are now spending so much time in their area now. Maybe they’ll understand meeting their farmers is a part of being in your local area and that farmers can produce food that they know is going to be eaten by the people in their local area, kind of like it was 60-70 years ago.

It’s like what Will Harris says in 100,000 Beating Hearts: He doesn’t have to feed the world; he just has to feed his community. This idea that every farm is supposed to be some big monolithic industrial complex because they have to feed the world – that’s a construct. That’s not a truth.

There are some farmers that are going to produce enough food so that we could export it to Canada and Japan and England and elsewhere… Great. That’s fantastic. But if every farmer really focused on feeding their community, the world would get fed. Something like 85% of farmers are smallholder farmers with an acre, or two acres, or half an acre. So the idea that you have to feed the world with any method that hurts our soils doesn’t make sense to me.

Farming to regenerate soils, farming so that next year the soils are in better shape than they were last year. That makes sense to me. To me, the scale is not the goal, but profit per acre – that would be a great metric for farmers. How much profit did you make per acre? Not how many bushels did you produce per acre? And when farmers do well, they feed us.

Well, since you bring that up, it’s interesting to think about it from the consumer side too. Do you think that this film is a good way of explaining to consumers that this is a way that they as an individual can help mitigate climate change by supporting our community soils?

Absolutely. There’s a lot of consumers who have stopped eating meat because they didn’t like the way they saw the larger meat industry going. But then when they find out how these animals are treated in all of our films by these farmers – there are a lot more regenerative farmers than what we filmed, obviously, and it’s growing – I’ve seen and heard of a lot of people who’ve come back to eating meat because they know where the meats being produced, and they can meet the farmer and they could see it’s a different situation.

So at the end of this farm is medicine (one of our paddocks), the farmer tells a story where these people come to his farm and they hadn’t eaten meat in years and years. But they looked at how he was treating the animals and how his operation looked and they bought some meat from him and he was surprised. So that’s the end of one of our films

But then a buddy of mine, who wrote the music for 100,000 Beating Hearts, was vegan, his wife’s vegan, and they are raising three incredibly cool kids that are all vegan. And so when I called him and said, ‘Hey, I want you to work on the music for this section of the film. Are you up for it? It’s about meat.’ He looked at a rough cut and goes, ‘Wow, these animals are really well treated. Of course, I’ll work on this.’ And then a couple of years after he did the music, he told me that he had started eating meat again. And it was because he’d met a farmer after the experience he had working on this film. And he saw a system that was working, that was making things better. And he was happy to participate in that.

I’ve got plenty of friends who don’t eat meat and I wouldn’t ever have suggested to my composer friend that he should eat meat – never in a million years. Everyone should eat what they want to eat. But I can say that if you’re going to be eating vegetables, your vegetable nutrient density will be a lot higher if they’re grown in soil that’s really, really rich with soil microbes and all the biodiversity of all the little critters in the soil that feed the plants and make sure the nutrients get to the plants.

And one of the quickest ways to get those soils healthy is adaptive grazing and so even if you don’t eat meat, you sure do want your row crop production combined with your animal production – in a very old fashioned way – to get those soils as healthy as possible because that makes healthy food. Makes sense?

Yes definitely! It’s interesting that as more people try to eat a diet with the planet in mind how often and how easy it is to forget the best way to do that is just to go find a farmer.

Yeah, and it’s the processed foods that will get you as far from a farmer as possible. I haven’t really seen a highly processed food that’s good for the planet, although some folks might say they are.

Yeah, maybe better in some cases than some of the alternatives, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good. Perhaps it’s the lesser of two evils in some cases, and so it’s just an interesting way to look at it…

According to a buddy of mine, a scientist at Michigan State, if you add up the three major crops we grow the United States – corn, soy, hay – you put that on one side of a scale and then you put on the other side of the scale the soil we lose every year to erosion… the soil will weigh more. Our top export from our major farming industries in this country is soil, that can never be used again. That can’t last, and so there’s a lot of concern and worry about our soils becoming less and less robust, less full of carbon, less able to produce food… and then even the food that’s produced is less nutrient-dense.

This type of grazing is a phenomenal way to read rejuvenate and regenerate soils. It’s getting attention now – we’re seeing it. And there are people who have been working for decades on this. I’ve been working for seven or eight years on this from my perch. But things are changing. I really do think things are changing.

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tdmaileposts · 4 years

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15 LinkedIn Marketing Hacks to Grow Your Business

LinkedIn isn't just for professionals and job seekers. Sure, millions of professionals use LinkedIn every day to grow their networks and their careers, but did you know you can use LinkedIn to grow your business, too? From making connections to generating leads, establishing partnerships and creating better brand awareness, LinkedIn makes an invaluable addition to your digital marketing strategy.

At its core, LinkedIn is a professional social network. It's all about career development, professional connections, industry discussions and other types of business-related activities. It's not like other social media marketing platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram; there, businesses have direct access to consumers that they can easily market to with status updates, images and other casual posts.

Moreover, unlike LinkedIn, brand followers on these other social networks already expect or are at least aware that companies use the platforms to sell their products and services. This is definitely not the case on LinkedIn, where blatantly pushing your business, spamming and obvious hard selling is highly frowned upon. Because the network consists of a totally different audience, LinkedIn marketing requires a different type of approach to get the results you want. [https://www.businessnewsdaily.com]

To help you navigate LinkedIn as a marketing platform, here are 15 LinkedIn marketing hacks you can use to find new customers, create new contacts and ultimately grow your business.

1. Find highly targeted customers and connections

The targeting on LinkedIn is unparalleled in the realm of digital advertising. Small businesses can zero in on the exact industry, company size and job role [of the people] that they know typically would buy their product or service. For example, if you are selling customer support software to small businesses in the United States, you can set your advertising campaigns to only be showing to businesses [that are] under 100 employees, based in America — and within that grouping, only to executives at those companies with a customer-support title. — Tim Peters, director of marketing, IntelliResponse

2. Stay on customers' radars

My company helps small businesses generate leads on LinkedIn. Clients tell us what kind of people make high-quality customers for them. We search on LinkedIn for people who fit their criteria, and then introduce them. (We do it so it looks like the client is introducing themselves, but we do all the work for them.) Then we stay in touch with the people who have expressed interest, again using LinkedIn. We do daily status updates and weekly LinkedIn blog posts to keep the client's name in front of their network. We also send monthly emails that share information about the kinds of problems our clients can solve for their customers, and share the results they have achieved for other customers. We also make offers, such as inviting people to a webinar or offering a white paper. The result is a simple, inexpensive, systematic process for doing lead generation, with all the work done through LinkedIn. —Judy Schramm, CEO, ProResource, Inc.

3. Grow your email marketing list

I highly recommend everyone on Linked write a crafted letter, saying thank you for being connected on LinkedIn, and that you invite them to be part of your email marketing list. Do apologize for the lack of personalization in the email. LinkedIn lets you message 50 people at a time this way. I added about 300 people to my email list with this method. Include in your email a direct link for the email signup. It is imperative that you have reciprocity in the message: 1. Tell them what they will receive by signing up for the email list, and 2. offer to look at something of theirs, which is a fairly noncommittal method to garner goodwill. — Bradford Hines, founder, YumDomains.com and HungryKids.org

[For a side-by-side comparison of the best email marketing services, visit our sister site Business.com.]

4. Use Sponsored Updates

With Sponsored Updates, businesses pay to push their post onto an individual's LinkedIn feed. This "pay-per-click" or "pay-per-1,000" impression feature offers demographics similar to other social platforms (location, gender and age), but one key differentiation is the ability to customize based on company name, job title, job function, skills, schools and groups. Users can target interested industries, without competing against the noise of other irrelevant companies and messages. A sponsored update can be an excellent way to promote thought-leadership content useful primarily to the targeted audience with a strong call to action. People don't want to see pure advertising anymore and want something useful for free. By promoting a firm's content (white paper, guide, etc.) through a LinkedIn Sponsored Update, a firm can target a niche audience, increase website visitors and, if the content is compelling enough, generate sales leads. — Jeremy Durant business principal, Bop Design

5. Post high-quality content

Good content can be highly targeted and should accomplish two goals. First, it should teach others how to solve a problem or how to do their job better. And it then establishes you as a thought leader in that space. Each aspect naturally leads to more business, if you offer them real value. It's basic psychology, and it gets real results. — Michael Riley, co-founder, Boxter

6. …and go viral

Posting directly on LinkedIn is the most powerful tool available on LinkedIn today. If a post begins to gain some momentum, LinkedIn will put a spotlight behind it in one of their categories, and it can get tens of thousands of readers (or more). This is a great way to improve your visibility while reaching readers in a way that would not have been possible on your own website/blog or even posting an article link on LinkedIn. — Lavie Margolin, author, "The LinkedIn Butterfly Effect" (H. Delilah Business & Career Press, 2013)

7. Give a face to your employees

Get as many of your employees as possible to create and complete their profiles on LinkedIn. These should include appropriate photos, relevant job history that includes a description of how they help your business, and professional connections. My current company is putting together a LinkedIn Day when we'll have a photographer available to take profile photos, and we'll help employees set up their accounts. — Tam Frager, marketing and communications manager, Front Range Internet, Inc.

8. Join groups — and stay active

One tip I always share for small business owners is to join LinkedIn groups that are relevant to their target demographic. Not only is this a great way to "listen in" on what your audience is talking about, there may [also] be times for small business owners to interact or offer their advice. More importantly, you can message the members of groups you are in, even if you aren't connected. LinkedIn InMail adds up quickly, so this is a great way to save money when building relationships with potential clients. — Lauren Covello, content marketing strategist, Ripen eCommerce

9. …and create your own LinkedIn group, too

Here's a secret sauce to find your ideal, ready-to-buy prospects right away on LinkedIn: Create your own LinkedIn group to start with. After you have your LinkedIn group set up, go out and join as many groups (LinkedIn allows you to be in 50 total) where your prospects are hanging out. The next step is to pick one of those new groups you've joined and start working the Members page to find prospects. Once you're inside the group and approved as a member, click on Members, then filter the list of members further by searching for certain job titles or something else to winnow down the list to your ideal prospects, and then invite them to join your group (tip: send personalized invitations). Once these invitees join your LinkedIn group, you have all your proverbial fish in the same barrel — all your best prospects in one place! You can control this LinkedIn group so that no competitors get in, and you can share great/valuable content within the group that your prospects will love. You also get to demonstrate your value/expertise for them while avoiding overt sales pitches or spam. Plus, you also have a built-in email list, focus group of your core prospects/clients and so on. This is a great tactic to build your brand and generate leads to boost your small business. — Ali Liaquat, head of marketing, IT-Serve.com

10. Make your Company page matter

It's also important to have an updated and consistent presence for your brand with its own Company profile page. Imagery, colors and content on this page should be consistent with your website and any other social media profiles the business has. The page should be updated regularly, so the brand is active and appears to be a current business. We've all had the experience of stumbling upon a company social media profile that's updated once a month, or worse, hasn't been updated in months. Creating a LinkedIn presence then not maintaining it will be worse than not having one at all. — Carrie Booher, chief marketing officer, Online Optimism

11. …and don't forget to claim your custom URL

Everyone should claim their custom URL to ensure it includes their name (e.g., http://linkedin.com/in/davideerickson). This is especially important for people who have a lot of contact with potential clients — especially for those who [are in] professional services and the B2B sector — because when meeting with someone they have not yet met, many people will search Google for the name of the person with whom they're meeting in order to learn more about them. Claiming your custom URL makes it more likely your LinkedIn profile will rank in the top of those search results. — David Erickson, vice president of online marketing, Karwoski & Courage

12. Complete the Summary section on your own profile

The summary section is the most overlooked section. You have 2,000 characters to speak to your target audience, directly and persuasively. Use complete sentences, write in first person, and address their pain points clearly and succinctly. Many people prefer to go to LinkedIn than a website. Most of the time, people want to connect with the person before the product or service, and this is your opportunity to introduce yourself to prospective clients and customers. Also, include your contact information at the end of the summary section. Even though it's elsewhere on your profile, make it easy for people to reach you. — Susan Tabor-Kleiman, Esq., owner, Your Professional Writer

13. Think of it as a numbers game

I have learned that LinkedIn marketing is more science, less art. In other words, it's a numbers game. I know that each Wednesday, I'll touch at least 2,000 C-level executives. These touches will lead to about six responses, and two of those six will become clients. Instead of attending trade conferences, exhibiting and speaking at a cost of approximately $10,000 per conference, I have built my own practice for less than $1,000 a year for marketing, $250 of which goes to LinkedIn for a Premium account. I can afford a few hours each week of my time more than I want to swallow the $40,000-per-year pill that I know most of my colleagues spend, attending an average of four conferences each year. — Greg Taylor, owner, Telecom Law Attorney

14. Avoid hard selling

Treat LinkedIn like any other form of marketing that you do, and get clued up on the latest trends. People don't want to be interrupted, so try your best to be "discovered" on LinkedIn. Read up on Content Marketing and Inbound Marketing, and apply these strategies to this network. There are plenty of people acting like hard-sell 1980s sales reps on LinkedIn, so be wise and don't become one of them. — Nikki Hammett, digital marketing manager, blur Group

15. Start with connections, then build relationships

Understand that LinkedIn is a social network for professionals to connect with other professionals. A business owner can, and should, connect with prospects, strategic partners, referral partners and other business owners. And once those connections are made, the business owner can decide how to nurture specific connections to grow the relationship. — Charlene Burke, CEO, Search by Burke, LLC

Source:linkedin-marketing-business

#linkedin #business #marketing

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itsanerdlife · 5 years

Text

Chasing The Dream 7/10

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader (High School/College AU)

Warning: Angst. Underage drinking. Jealousy. Language. Heartbreak and arguing.

A/N: This is the series, the prequel of Chasing Dreams One Shot. They do overlap so if you need to read it I can link it when time comes.

Your father always warned you about musicians. They’re never good news, but Peter Parker is everything you could want. The other half to your groupie, rocker baby soul. Peter and the guys have big dreams to be rock stars, you couldn’t be a bigger fan of theirs. But your dad’s got a different path for your future, one that doesn’t include Peter and his band. But can Fame and dreams coming true really keep the two of you apart? Is this just a high school love? Or will you make it through the struggle of chasing your dreams?

Tag List Is Open!!

High School –

Y/N (Cold, Sweet Reality)

You shove the books into the open locker, when someone calls your name. You look up Peter and Steve are running at you, dodging students.

“Guess?!” Peter is waving something. You laugh, shutting the locker. Senior year had started, and the band had started to take off. Peter and Steve reach you, both talking at once, you wave your hands laughing.

“One at a time boys.” You laugh.

“They want us to come in a do a demo!” They shout together.

“What?” You blink at them.

“Stark Productions wants to meet with us!” Peter waves the paper at you. You take it scanning it over, you press your lips together, at the bottom of the page you knew the name, the signature. You grin up at them happy for them.

“You’re going to blow them away.” You throw your arms around Peter’s neck, he scoops you up crushing you to his chest.

-----

You storm through the front door of the house, you throw your school bag down, before you burst into the living room where your parents are sitting.

“How could you?!” You shout.

“Punk.” Your father sighs.

“You brought Uncle Tony into this?! Are you trying to rip their dream out from under them!?” You yell. “Why are you so cruel daddy?!” Your voice filling the living room.

“Your uncle actually liked the songs, saw a few videos on your social media. I just passed along their names.” Your father sighs.

“Bullshit daddy! You want him gone. You know Uncle Tony won’t wait till they graduate! He’ll be gone, and you’ll get your precious little girl back!” You shake your head, knowing his hand in this was for his own gain.

“You knew if the boys got an opportunity they would be gone. You can’t have it both ways.” He stares at you.

“I can if I go with.” You challenge him.

“You go with and their chance goes out the window. That’s the deal I made Tony.” The truth comes to light.

“Phil.” Your mom looks surprised.

“I hate you.” You shake your head, the tears streaming down your face.

“Y/N!” Your father yells after you as you leave the room.

“It was okay for mom to be a groupie, but not for me?” You turn on your father who followed you. “She didn’t go to college, but I have too? What if I don’t want more, daddy?! What if I just want what you and mom have?” You shake your head.

“You’re going to go to school.” He replies slowly and calm.

“Leave and don’t come back daddy. I will never speak to you again.” You turn walking out of the house again.

--------

Peter (Signing a Deal with the Devil)

She cried till she fell asleep after yelling and cursing her father, her uncle, the demo deal. The deal her father made with her uncle Tony including keeping her from going with them. He texted the guys in their band group chat, while she slept silently on his chest, buried under all the blankets he had on his bed. The guys took the news about how he did, shocked, floored, and most of all pissed off. They agreed on a band meeting, if he could slip out without waking Y/N.

“What the hell does this mean?” Buck paces the garage they practice in.

“Means her dad wants us as far apart as he can get us.” Peter drops his head into his hands, sitting on the crate.

“We could get in with another producing company.” Sam tries.

“Stark would have us ruined for turning down a deal from him.” Steve points out. “Besides you don’t think her dad has ties to other producers?” Steve drops back into the couch, with a groan.

“Isn’t her mom a groupie? Is that how they met?” Buck stops moving looking over at him.

“Yeah, met in some hole in the wall before the band took off.” He shrugs, sighing.

“So why the fuck is it so bad she’s with a guy in a band when they were the exact same way?” Sam asks.

“Because of the scandal.” Her voice is soft and she’s standing in the door of the garage in his sweatpants and sweatshirt. “Everything is media now days, social, news. Back in the day it was just word of mouth, so my dad never had to worry about my mom getting hurt. Now the reason she tours with them is because of the scandal, another woman claiming to be pregnant by my dad.” She shrugs, shuffling into the garage.

“Holy shit.” Steve blinks at her.

“It was everywhere, my mom didn’t leave the house for weeks.” She sits down on the couch. “My dad doesn’t want the same thing for me. Specially now days, one tweet and a little white lie can be the front page of the news and all anyone is talking about. A misleading photo and my embarrassment would be everyone’s excitement.” She chews her bottom lip.

“You never told me that.” Peter gets up and moves to sit with her.

“Cause I knew it would put a gap between us. You’d want to protect me, and I didn’t want anymore hanging over us. Reality was enough waiting for us at the end of senior year.” She curls up to him, her head on his chest.

“We still have the rest of senior year.” He kisses the top of her head.

“Tony will have you tested out or get your GED’s. You’ll be on the road and creating an album before winter break.” She replies in a small voice.

“Fuck.” Buck looks like he might be sick.

“Alright boys.” Sam looks around. “Let’s duke it out.” He nods.

“Steve could do it!” Peter yells, pointing at Steve. Wanda and Nat sat on the couch with Y/N, each one looking as miserable as the next.

“I don’t write this shit Parker!” Steve yells back. “We wouldn’t have music if you didn’t write it!” He points at Peter.

“Cause everyone writes their own music?!” Peter yells back.

“This was your fucking dream!” Buck jumps in.

“Oh yeah I twisted all your fucking arms into this shit!” Peter scuffs.

“You had to go and fall for the girl with the famous fucking dad!” Steve yells. “We wouldn’t be fighting like this if you just kept your dick to yourself!” Steve points his finger at Peter.

“Don’t fucking put this on her!” Peter steps forward yelling back.

“Yoko!” Steve yells.

“WHOA!” Buck turns on his friend, everyone looks at Steve shocked.

“Too far man.” Sam shakes his head.

“Y/N!” Nat calls. The four of them turn just in time to see her running down the drive into the night.

“Good fucking job.” Buck shakes his head.

“You’re a fuck.” Peter points at Steve, before running after Nat and Wanda who are running after Y/N.

--------

Three days and he was starting to lose his mind. He sat through the demo meeting, thinking about her. Checking his phone in hopes she might have replied to the millions of texts he sent her. Nothing. Tony gave them a week to decide, to take the deal or go off to college and live normal lives. He sat on her front steps when she pulled up he jumped up.

“Peter.” She blinks surprised eyes at him.

“You’re killing me avoiding me.” He admits.

“I thought we needed space.” She shrugs.

“Why? There’s a deadline hanging over us and you want to step back?” He could feel the pain tightening in his chest.

“I just didn’t want to influence your choices.” She sighs.

“They want to take the deal. Buck and Sam are a wreck about it.” He sighs, pulling her into his arms.

“Nat and Wanda are too.” She admits into his chest.

“Stay with me tonight?” He looks down, she nods.

“I need to show you something first.” She grabs his hand pulling him into the house with her. “Don’t laugh, no comments.” She looks at him as they stand in her bedroom.

“I would never.” He smiles.

“The comment my father made to you about writing our break up song. Well you don’t get to write it, I did. But you’re going to sing it.” She nods. “Well part of it.” She swallows.

“You wrote another song?” He reaches over grabbing her hand.

“I wrote our break up song. And I sing part of it.” She nods. She hands him a few pieces of paper, lyrics and sheet music. “You should have a band practice tonight. We’ll order pizza and we can work on this, together.” She nods.

“We’re not breaking up.” He looks at her.

“Not right now. But we will.” She reaches up kissing him.

Everything Peaches 2/6/19: @xmtd5 @mo320 @courtmr @all1e23 @izzy--lee @irepeldirt @dumblani @crist1216 @alyssaj23 @allyp1023 @joannie95 @kolakube9 @rileyloves5 @sarahp879 @sea040561 @sexyvixen7 @pcterpvrker @pigwidgexn @doctoranon @abschaffer2 @nickimarie94 @teller258316 @wandressfox @amandab-ftw @henrietteoaks @nea90sweetie @circusofchaos @itsagalaxystar @bettercallsabs @miraclesoflove @lucifersnipnips @queenkrissy11 @sadyoungadult @destiel-artemis @paintballkid711 @iwillbeinmynest @sweet-honey15 @chanelmadrid13 @mellxander1993 @spookygrantaire @geeksareunique @supernatural508 @sammysgirl1997 @itzmegaaaaaaan @booksbeforebois @mariekoukie6661 @pure-princess-97 @capsheadquaters @samanthasmileys @youclickedthislink @futuremrsb-r-main @lovemarvelousfics @petersunderoos96 @loving-life-my-way @booktvmoviefangirl @supernatural-girl97 @fanfictionjunkie1112 @abbypalmer14-blog @meganlikesfandoms @awkwardfangirl2014 @supernaturaldean67 @xqueenofthecraziesx @queenoftheunderdark @writingaworldofmyown @supernaturallover2002 @daughterofthenight117 @sprinklesandsugarcubes @whothehellisbucky-1930 @verymuchclosetedfangirl @for-the-love-of-the-fandom @ocaptain-mycaptainmorgan @wonderlandfandomkingdom @crazy-little-thing-called-buck @letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked @stupendoussciencenaturepanda @jamesbarnesappreciationsociety

Peter Parker: @ml7010 @ariminiria @dkpink123 @little-smurf @boltsgirl919 @quokkatrash @everthenerd @ms-rogers06 @crayonwriting @baebeepeach @bellamouse16 @honey-bee-holly @kiss-the-stars-goodbye

Chasing The Dream: @del-rcys @gabile18 @robin-writes @raven-black102

#Marvel #Peter Parker x Reader #Avengers #Peter x Reader #Chasing The Dream #Marvel Fanfiction #Peter Parker AU Series #Avengers Fanfiction #Peter AU Series

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sunsetbeachsoap · 5 years

Text

Hollywood: Daytime Goes to the Beach Aaron Spelling will bring sunshine and sand to set-bound soap operas with his new ‘Sunset Beach’

Nov 4, 1996 By Betsy Sharke Except for a nasty cold, Aaron Spelling couldn’t be in much better spirits. He’s spent most of the day with his office crammed full of wardrobe racks and cast members from Sunset Beach, the first daytime drama that Spelling Entertainment has ever done and the first daytime drama to be introduced on network TV in eight years (1989’s Generations was the last — and it didn’t).

‘We brought in 12 racks of clothes,’ says Spelling. ‘I think fashion is as important to a serial as anything else.’ Fashion sets the tone. It defines the palette. The length of a skirt, the style of jeans, can tell the viewer volumes about a character before the first word of dialogue is spoken. Spelling already loves the Sunset Beach cast — their names have been added to his annual Christmas party list — and on this day he is doling out advice to them on everything from buying a new car to renting apartments to how to handle fame, should it be lucky enough to come. He has issued his no-hair-changes dictum — Sunset cast members had better be happy with the style and color they start the show with, because Spelling isn’t about to let them confuse a new audience with a makeover any time soon. It is a long-standing rule for a Spelling show, and his staff knows that he’s deadly serious about it even if some of the awestruck actors don’t — yet. On Jan. 6, Sunset Beach will hit the air. ‘The series is a critical component of NBC West Coast president Don Ohlmeyer’s plan to make the network’s daytime schedule as potent as its prime time. NBC is in third place in daytime, though the net is up 20 percent this season and is closing in on second-place ABC. Ohlmeyer has his sights set on first, which CBS now owns. ‘With Sunset, we have something new and hot and exciting,’ Ohlmeyer says. ‘(In) the ‘80s, NBC daytime basically disintegrated. We are in the process of rebuilding, but we have to deliver the goods. That’s how we’ve built prime time, with distinctive programming. ‘There hasn’t been a successful soap launched in 10 years. It’s very difficult to do, but with Aaron’s touch and looking at the cast we have, we think it’s worth the effort. Some of our affiliates are very receptive (to the show) some, we’re in the process of kidnapping their children.’ On Stage 11 at NBC Studios in Burbank, carpenters and set designers are working late into the night to complete the sets that will form the primary backdrop for the show. The small community of Seal Beach, roughly a 90-minute drive south of Los Angeles, has been scouted nearly grain by grain of sand. It will be the exterior home for Sunset, and unlike most daytime soaps, the location will be a frequent player. Last week, readings and the first of three weeks of shooting exteriors began. The Santa Anas — California’s devil winds — stirred up the sand, making it sting on the skin. The water, which is never warm at Seal Beach, was even colder than usual. But no one was complaining. The 22 actors who will give shape and form to Sunset Beach are a beautiful bunch indeed, a canvas of racial diversity plucked from the talent pool in New York, Los Angeles and other cities including Philadelphia, the hometown of Spelling Entertainment president Jonathan Levin, who went back for that casting session. They are also young faces, part of the strategy to make Sunset a daytime soap for younger viewers, to do for daytime drama what Ricki Lake did for talk, at least in terms of attracting a new audience. Spelling is considered a master at casting, instinctively knowing which faces will work together as a couple, which actors will have that all-important element of chemistry. Now the virtually unknown Sunsetters are all in front of him, many meeting for the first time, and the air is electric. ‘One of my favorite sports is finding new people and combining them with other people, and I had used so many people from daytime on our soaps,’ says Spelling, whose legacy includes such prime-time legends as Loveboat and Dynasty. The company is currently on prime time with an unprecedented four dramas: Melrose Place; Beverly Hills, 90210; Savannah; and Seventh Heaven. Sunset has been 18 months in the making, and Spelling is like a proud papa, surrounded by actors whose future he has just secured. The series, which is co-owned by Spelling and NBC, has a one-year commitment from the network. That’s 51 weeks of shows, 255 hour-long episodes guaranteed. ‘I wouldn’t tell Candy, my wife, for a week after the show was sold, but my daughter Tori is a daytime addict, and she kept saying, ‘Do it,” says Spelling. With four shows already on the air, he has little time. Launching a daytime soap would siphon off even more of it. ‘I don’t think it hit me for a while. OnMelrose, we wrap on the 22nd of November and don’t come back until January 5th. The actors and writers get a chance to rest. This is never-ending. But it’s been a strange, great experience.’ Worldvision, which sells Spelling’s shows internationally, already has 10 countries signed on for Sunsetwithout one scene shot, based on a four-minute video that outlined the premise of the show and included Spelling talking about it. The foreign sales are important, as is NBC’s share in the financing. Mounting a daytime drama from scratch is a massive undertaking. ‘It requires the logistics of mounting a military campaign,’ says Levin. ‘There’s huge construction, there’s an enormous amount of lighting, tremendous casting, wardrobe problems. It’s not like prime time, when you see life in a kind of episodic way. Daytime is an endless stream of programming that, once it’s begun, can’t be stopped.’ Ohlmeyer puts the production investment alone at about $50 million. ‘Then there’s the cost of launch, advertising and promotion — it’s a major commitment on our part,’ he says. ‘With daytime, you’re not really going to know anything concretely for 18 months. I feel we’re very much on track. We’ve done this in a really organized way in terms of laying out target dates, scripts in by here, cast in place by here, task force working on clearances to this point we’re right on schedule. That still doesn’t change the pucker factor.’ NBC was initially looking at four ideas, Spelling’s idea among them, for a daytime soap. Spelling’s concept originally was loosely defined as ‘Melrose Place at the beach.’ When they began to look seriously for a title for the new show, Spelling ran a title contest in-house. The winner would get $200. There were dozens of suggestions, but the most serious contender, Never Say Goodbye, came from an unlikely source: Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone, who suggested it during a dinner with Spelling. ‘I loved the name — it says romance, which this show is all about,’ says Spelling, whose company is part of Viacom. But in testing, viewers were drawn to the ‘beach’ motif more than anything else, Spelling says. Executive producer Gary Tomlin (Santa Barbara) and Robert Guza Jr. are the people on the front line of the creative side of Sunset Beach. The initial groundwork on the series was done by Chuck Pratt, who was an executive producer on Melrose Place, and Guza, whose work everyone knew from Spelling’sModels Inc. Together they wrote a nearly 400-page bible outlining Sunset’s premise, characters and storyline. Spelling remembers the bible for Melrose Place being closer to 40 pages. Unlike most daytime dramas, which tend to build their storylines around families and family rivalries,Sunset Beach is about young singles and couples who have been drawn to the town, and the relationships that emerge as the action unfolds. The producers also created an underlying mythology about the town as a place where one can find true love. ‘We loved the idea of creating a town and making the town a character,’ says Guza, who is cocreator and head writer. ‘(With) Sunset Beach, you get to create this world and these characters, and then you get to screw up their lives.’ Sunset Beach is being written at a faster pace than traditional daytime dramas. It’s a delicate balancing act to move action through each episode without losing the audience. ‘We would love it if people watched five days a week, but they don’t,’ says Tomlin. Three days is more typical. ‘We have to make certain they’re able to pick up where the story left off and that it hasn’t moved so rapidly that they can’t figure it out.’ The show is also being designed to allow room for cameos by big-name prime-time stars. Spelling wants to give viewers as compelling a reason as possible to tune in to Sunset. ‘On top of needing to have a terrific show, you are fighting against viewer habits that are long, long ingrained,’ says Levin. ‘It is very difficult to change the loyalty of the daytime viewer, and we’re talking about shows that have been on for 30 years. That’s one of the reasons we’re targeting young viewers — they’re the most available and the most flexible in their viewing habits.’ Then there is the station lineup. Affiliates exert their independence far more in daytime than prime time. NBC says that Sunset is cleared on 85 percent of its affiliates; the network expects to reach 90 percent by the premiere. With the cast now in place and the first rolls of tapes being produced, the network knows that stations that are wavering at least will have something concrete to see. ‘Will we get sufficient coverage — that’s a constant battle,’ says Levin. ‘Will the local affiliates elect to air the show in desirable time slots that will afford us the best opportunity to be sampled? These are things we are lobbying for but ultimately we don’t control.’ Spelling and NBC executives hope that Sunset Beach will be scheduled to follow Days of Our Lives, which has made a dramatic turnaround. ‘Over the last 18 months with that show, it’s been unbelievable, going from being in the middle to the top,’ Ohlmeyer says. ‘If we can get that kind of performance from Another World — and we think we’re finally on the right track there — with Sunset Beach we could have a solid three-hour block.’ Copyright ASM Communications, Inc. (1996) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/esearch/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=510703

#article

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