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gokinjeespot · 5 years ago

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off the rack #1301

Monday, February 17, 2020

Happy Family Day. I'm grateful for my extended family of fellow comic book aficionados. Sharing the love of our hobby keeps me young and brightens my life. I miss seeing many of you but you are in my thoughts.

Catwoman #20 - Joelle Jones (writer) Fernando Blanco (art) FCO Plascencia (colours) Saida Temofonte (letters). Mrs. Creel poisons her party guests showing us what a nasty woman she is. Catwoman fights through a bunch of zombies to get some Lazarus Water to save a friend. Selina's final obstacle will be Mrs. Creel. I can't wait for this story to end. It's been kind of blasé.

Thor #3 - Donny Cates (writer) Nic Klein (art) Matthew Wilson (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). Lots of KRAKKABOOMS this issue as Thor fights Beta Ray Bill. Horseface doesn't have a chance with All-Father Thor boosted with Galactus given power cosmic. Don't build a funeral pyre for Bill yet. Someone comes to his rescue and that person is a surprise.

The Dollhouse Family #4 - M. R. Carey (writer) Peter Gross (layouts) Vince Locke (finishes) Cris Peter (colours) Todd Klein (letters). Alice and her daughter recover from the horrible explosion from last issue but their survival cost them an arm and a leg. When Alice gets back to the dollhouse, she finds there's a new tenant and she's not nice at all. This horror title isn't horrible. You should come visit.

Hawkeye: Freefall #3 - Matthew Rosenberg (writer) Otto Schmidt (art) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). This issue explains how Clint can be in two places at one time. It's dumb but I don't mind because this story is kind of dumb. I like it for the guest stars. The Black Widow shows up and the hero on the last page is a favourite of mine. If the new Ant-Man mini had been this much fun I'd still be reading it.

The Batman's Grave #5 - Warren Ellis (writer) Bryan Hitch (pencils) Kevin Nowlan & Bryan Hitch (inks) Alex Sinclair (colours) Richard Starkings (letters). I don't know if it's just me, but I find that I lose interest in a Warren Ellis story somewhere and this issue might be it. I've forgotten what the mystery is that put Batman in detective mode even though he's following a lead in Arkham Asylum this issue. I like seeing Batman kick bad guy butt as much as the next fan, but 8 pages of it here seems to be padding the story. Methinks this 12-issue story could've been told in 6.

Savage Avengers #10 - Gerry Duggan (writer) Patch Zircher (art) Java Tartaglia (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). Conan and the two Doctors, Doom and Strange, battle Kulan Gath. Guess who wins? This issue made me laugh out loud.

Jessica Jones: Blind Spot #3 - Kelly Thompson (writer) Mattia De Iulis (art) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Now this is a much more enjoyable murder mystery than Batman's Grave. I know exactly what's happening because Kelly Thompson recaps as the investigation continues. There's even an extended 5-page fight scene where Jessica and Elsa Bloodstone fight creatures from the Black Lagoon but it isn't boring because they're bantering about the case all the while. The rest of this 6-issue mini can't come out fast enough for me.

Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy #6 - Jody Houser (writer) Adriana Melo (pencils) Mark Morales (inks) Hi-Fi (colours) Gabriela Downie (letters). Harley and Ivy's adventure comes to an end with a battle between good and evil Ivy. I liked how they left the fate of Poison Ivy a mystery. Who knows how she'll act the next time she sees Harley?

X-Force #7 - Benjamin Percy (writer) Oscar Bazaldua (art) Guru-eFX (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). This issue features Domino who was rescued from the bad guys recently. The bad guys managed to steal her good luck powers and have transferred them to someone else. This newly empowered individual is an assassin going around killing mutant supporters. Neena's not too happy about that. I wasn't too surprised by the reveal of the assassin's identity on the last page but I'm sure some new fans will be.

X-Men #6 - Jonathan Hickman (writer) Matteo Buffagni (art) Sunny Gho (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). This issue features Mystique. She's my favourite shape-shifter. She's sent on a mission to infiltrate the space station designed to fight against the mutants. I liked how the flashbacks merged with this story to culminate at the ominous last page.

The Immortal Hulk #31 - Al Ewing (writer) Joe Bennett (main story pencils) Ruy Jose, Belardino Brabo & Cam Smith (main story inks) Paul Mounts (main story colours) Javier Rodriguez (McGowan sequence pencils & colours) Alvaro Lopez (McGowan sequence inks) VC's Cory Petit (letters). We get into the heads of Scientist McGowan and the Hulk this issue. Matters of the mind shouldn't surprise fans what with Xemnu being in this story.

The Amazing Spider-Man #39 - Nick Spencer (writer) Iban Coello (art) Brian Reber (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). This issue reminded me of the Odd Couple, Oscar and Felix. Spider-Man agrees to be a guest on Jonah's podcast and sparks fly as the two antagonists butt heads. It's all talk radio until the super villain crashes the party. Next issue should be less talk and more action.

Superman: Heroes #1 - Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction & Greg Rucka (writers) Kevin Maguire, Mike Perkins, Steve Lieber, Mike Norton & Scott Godlewski (art) Paul Mounts, Gabe Eltaeb, Andy Troy & Nathan Fairbairn (colours) Troy Peteri, Clayton Cowles & Simon Bowland (letters). This $5.99 US one-shot is tied-in quite closely with what's been going on in Action Comics & Superman. It looks at the consequences of Superman revealing his secret identity and it's well worth reading.

Doctor Strange #3 - Mark Waid (writer) Kev Walker (art) Java Tartaglia (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). This is a great one issue story if you want to check this new run out. Doctor Strange fights an artistic demon to save lives.

Gwen Stacy #1 - Christos Gage (writer) Todd Nauck (art) Rachelle Rosenberg (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). I liked this better than The Amazing Mary Jane maybe because it deals with a younger high school aged Gwen. This story takes place before Gwen and Peter become friends and lovers and involves her father Captain Stacy and his investigation of New York's mob. There are a trio of bad guys that you'll recognise but the big deal super villains don't show up until the last page. If they don't get you to pick up the next issue, nothing will.

Batman: Pennyworth R.I.P. #1 - James Tynion IV & Peter J. Tomasi (writers) Eddy Barrows & Eber Ferreira, Chris Burnham, Marcio Takara, Diogenes Neves, David Lafuente and Sumit Kumar (art) Adriano Lucas, Rex Lokus & Nathan Fairbairn (colours) Travis Lanham & Thomas Napolitano (letters). This one-shot tribute to Alfred shows us what a dysfunctional family Bruce has created. I would have preferred a more touching send off to this beloved character like the one Brian Michael Bendis wrote for Ultimate Spider-Man/Peter Parker. Damian, Tim, Jason and Barbara reminisce about the butler and then Ric Grayson chimes in with a story about Nightwing. Who the heck is Ric Grayson? I thought Alfred deserved better than this.

Nebula #1 - Vita Ayala (writer) Claire Roe (art) Mike Spicer (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). I'm ambivalent when it comes to this cyborg killer but I wanted to see if that might change by reading this 5-issue mini. She finds a scientist who has built a device that can predict the future and has him implant it so it's integrated into her cybernetic system. The untested tech winds up screwing with her head. I didn't change my opinion of Nebula with this first issue and I can see where the rest of the story is going so I'll leave the rest on the racks.

Superman #20 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Ivan Reis, Joe Prado & Oclair Albert (art) Alex Sinclair & Jeremiah Skipper (colours) Dave Sharpe (letters). There's action: Superman dukes it out with Mongul. There's drama: The Daily Star is trying to discredit Clark, Lois and the Daily Planet. And there's a surprise appearance of an old friend. There's everything a good comic book needs to grab my attention and want to keep reading.

Marvels X #2 - Alex Ross & Jim Krueger (writers) Well-Bee (art) VC's Cory Petit (letters). I was fooled by the truck driver who picked up the kid because of the red beard, sunglasses and No Fear baseball cap. I thought it was Matt Murdock in disguise but I was surprised by who it actually was. Daredevil does turn up later in this issue as he and Spider-Man help to keep David safe. The kid's important because he could help find a cure for what's infecting humanity.

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thegempage · 3 years ago

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i promised sbart planet thoughts so while i wait until my brain is ready to take a shower, here are some of those, under a cut bcus i have a feeling this is gonna turn very rapidly to rambling lmao

(also, note: some of these thoughts were collaborative, and i'll try to note them! but a good chunk of this is just gonna be me spitballing ideas to get my brain to calm down so they're not "official" (as official as a largely community-driven au can be) to any particular sbart au discussion and open to workshopping in the future)

bart, as the page of space, gets the frog planet! and bcus he's Bart, we decided in a vc that he'd have the Land of Paint and Frogs. LoPaF is a bright, colorful planet, with aggressively colorful consorts and frogs that leave splatters of paint wherever they jump. i feel like it'd be almost rainforest like, with lots of nooks and crannies for things to hide in, and everything just seems... slightly off. nothing is quite the right color -- some of the trees are green, some of them aren't, but none of them seem... comfortable. like they're waiting for a fresh coat of paint, to make the obvious pun fjdklasfasd. even the waterways running through everything are all different colors, swirling like paint water left too long and beginning to separate. his quest -- besides the frog breeding -- would probably be something about "fixing" these colors and figuring out what all the plants and waterways and such want to be

i'm not sure what his consorts would be, but honestly them being ambiguous and many-shaped, so it's hard to really nail them down as any particular animal, feels very bart, esp if they're all various different colors

(also while i was researching this i saw that the wiki suggests that if anyone but the time player helps with the frog breeding, shit goes wrong, so while i still think clair hangs out to help, the universe accepts oculus "helping" by ordering around bart and managing to perfectly interrupt/ruin bart's plans in such a way that saves the frog breeding as the time and space player working together, and clair being around is just kind of a fun bonus)

chief, meanwhile, is a knight of doom, and we decided his planet would be the Land of Streetlamps and Deliverance (LoSaD, which is a delightful acronym for him fjkdsalfds). the entire planet feels like an endless, winding detective noir city block, with buildings that tower to always partially block any natural light. all of the streetlamps seem programmed to make everything feel dystopian, constantly flickering, broken, or more dim up close than they seem from far away. you can go inside the buildings, sure, but you probably don't want to unless you're prepared to ask seven different consorts where you're supposed to be going because all of them have very different ideas about how the building is laid out and all of them are partially right. sadness sits in the streets like fog -- easy enough to move through, sure, and easy enough to avoid, but if you sit and rest too long it starts to get to you. The benches for buses that will never come are especially prone to tripping this effect. LoSaD has no interest in making things comfortable for you, but there are plenty of dark corners to hide in if you need them!

(chief uses one of these to try to get christian, i think, but it doesn't quite land the first time, leading to a chase that ends with christian dead on his own quest bed and unfortunately (/j) returning from the dead)

his consorts i think would all be little gray turtles who are quite hesitant to talk to anyone and are suspicious of the world outside of their buildings. i'm not sure what his quest would be, or if he'd have any particular desire to complete it. i also think the entire planet follows a generally canon color scheme, i.e. grayscale and red, with most of the lamps shining white light, but lights inside and outside alike flashing red whenever anyone stands underneath of them and entire blocks flashing dark, doom green whenever chief does anything. smithsprite thinks it's all incredibly depressing

christian i've loosely assigned (with blessing) the Land of Grief and Alleyways (LoGaA). his land i think would be a sort of 50/50 split of cityscapes and large, open cemeteries. some of the cityscapes are centered around churches to the Genesis Frog, others skyscrapers to nonsense companies, and a few odd ones out are large altars centered around something with many, many eyes and no name. it's not unlike LoSaD in that the weather is always kind of dim, but LoGaA always seems on the verge of sunset, and while sometimes clouds roll over it never actually rains, and the whole planet seems to be struggling to breathe. the headstones don't seem to be attached to any particular grave, and digging them up reveals items or plain dirt more than it does skeletons, and even then those skeletons are incomplete. the cities are quiet and relatively empty for how many buildings there are -- where LoSaD has mazes all over its surface and inside its buildings, the buildings on LoGaA are full of open-concept floors and basic living quarters. the whole planet feels like there were supposed to be more people on it, but some of them just... didn't show up. christian manages to dupe all of them into doing and buying whatever he says, of course, but maybe there being less of them helped with that, who knows!

idk about a quest for him either, but i have a very strong feeling that something has happened to his denizen, and ideally he would be fixing it (maybe a coma?) but he is almost certainly not going to do that

i don't have solid ideas for anyone else yet, but i think clair's is the land of something and tunnels, just bcus like. it's clair.

stacy and becky's planets fit together, as if you can't have one without the other, and their quests are probably intertwined

smith's is probably a lot like chief's at first glance, but much brighter, and with yellows instead of green, maybe more open with parks and such? gray parks covered in red flowers fjkdalfds (smithsprite likes this one a lot better)

lucidity... hmm. i think lucidity's planet is split down the middle, but what's on each side i'm not sure? i just think you'd fly up to it and there's literally a canyon for an equator wide and deep enough that you'd need flying powers or a shit ton of grist on hand to get across unless you're prepared for a lot of rock climbing. her house/apartment/whatever it would be is situated in a tower high above the canyon, with drop offs on either side

oculus's planet is always watching, no matter who, what, or where you are, and there's always a tick-tock echoing in any silence that dares try and make itself at home there, a clock always reminding you that you're wasting time by standing around, and you don't want to leave time lying around for a thief, do you?

and these aren't planets, but i feel like the inside of the Prospitian throne room is like, a "man cave," with a balcony that has a grill on it that cooks things it shouldn't be capable of cooking; there are big comfy armchairs and all the drinks you could want in a fridge that's never empty and all of your favorite snacks in the cupboards that seem endless. you always feel safe when you're inside, and you can never seem to find the front door? you got in here somehow and Dad™ teases you about using the front door next time, but you can look out the windows on a golden, shining city while Dad™ makes your favorite burgers!

the Dersian throne room is simultaneously Your Room and a kitchen, depending on what Mom™ needs you for. her kitchen always smells delicious but it's not quite clear whether that's with dinner or dessert, not that it really matters because on Derse it's hard to keep track of time. the barstools are comfortable to sit on while you wait for Mom™ to give you instructions or a plate... until she's upset with you for something, and then you can't seem to get up no matter how much your lower back seems to ache. but that's only if you've done something wrong, sweetie, so why don't you come test out your Mom™'s new recipe? she's made your favorite!

(no one's ever been able to describe the inside of Their Room, their eyes glossing over when they try to remember what it looks like.)

alright i'm gonna go shower now 💙 but i'm very open to more suggestions or thoughts 👀 i can't promise all of this is Strictly Homestuck Approved bcus i'm also bending it quite a bit for the tfr aspect but it's still fun lmao

#little rock.txt #homestuck #tales from riftdale #tfr #sbart au #long post

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haloese · 7 years ago

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jack vc maybe if i close my eyes, they’ll be gone. (opens eyes, sees the bullshit) S I G H S .

📣 hi is it too much to ask for an rp reality show spin-off for supernatural as a way for me to cope with what’s happening for the entire series’ seasons ?? just everyone in a suburban setting with shitload of normal, modern problems. idk maybe like castiel and lucifer out-sassing each other over jack’s custody. jack hating dean and castiel for not driving through mcdonalds and hating this fucking family. what is the secret for sam’s beautiful hair. everyone hates rich uncle gabriel except jack because he has free presents whenever gabe returns from his travels. adam shows up for family dinner while dean and sam chew too loudly. claire goes teenage rebellious phase and castiel is having a headache. dean goes to a therapist because of a bet and chokes the doctor on live television. sam has to bail him out. jack just wants to sleep and eat nougats, but sam said it’s not a job.

you know what, i’ll write an au of this in my verses, give me a minute.

this can be a group rp au for some sort. or it can be closed with individuals as well. just dm me or something if you’re interested !!!

EDIT // like we can also sort of like write something about cameras following them lmao. or have anyone interview another character about anything. for example, hey who do you like or will kill in this family?

jack, without hesitation, looking at the camera with deadpan voice: i’ll kms cas: WHAT jack, softly: i mean Keep Myself Safe.

ALSO !!! for the convenience of the group, it can be discord rp for easy communication and fast responses at real time. then all ideas and conversations can be referenced in tumblr. i’m also new at server rp shit especially when i spearhead the shenanigans, so help me out bros.

#. ( wishlist )#my shitpost turning to an au? more likely than u think #it's like keeping up with the kardashians sort of shit

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itsjusta · 5 years ago

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Dec. 14 (Monday)

Today was an okay day, I attended one class and I finished 1 of khalid’s task and I got so tired na after dat hahah i also cried when i saw vids of u manyahing to me doe cos i super love that side of u but dugay na au ko wala kakita ana nga side :( its so hard gihapon doe when reality hits nga there are things gyd nga last na diay, di na gyd mabalik. ever since we buwag u became so cold na to me huh like a stone!! and i miss u being manya gyd doe i just miss a lot of things gyd from before and its so sakit na i will never experience them again :((

Listened also to Sa Susunod na Habang Buhay doeee and i cried also becos i think that i will still choose to love you even in another life and i hope in that other life, you will also choose me too. You may not have chosen me in this life, but I hope you choose me in the next.

Dec. 15 (Tuesday)

Dugay au ko ka sleep gabii mga 1 hr pako nag piyong2 and sayo dayon ko kamata wala ra nag 8 hrs ako sleep aish not nice ako morning 🤦🏻‍♀️

I had a dream of us doe niadto kuno ta camiguin and grabe imo pananghid sa imo gf but nisugot ra sya 😂 but nakamata nako before pa ta ka adto sato stayhan kay floating house man to hahhah

did u know gisunod mi ug tawag ni irian sa class ni ma’am jam 🤦🏻‍♀️ gi chattan ko ni gicil nag laff daw sila kay sunod gyd mi ahhahaha and nag laff pd sila kyle ug mark huh!!!! hahahah feel nako gina tuyo jd ni sa world

today was another boring, long day doe. i just watched teen wolf again and i dont even have gana to talk even with claire doe hayst i have no gana also to acads 😔 i just realized my days have become extra lonely now cos i just really watch lang netflix, i dont play na with my friends or talk to my friends doe

had short crying sessions today aish i think i cry everyday na gyd cos maka cry gyd ko even at the smallest things nga makaparemind saimo doe or saato past doe and sometimes my thoughts betray me cos it keeps going back to the past i’m like an idiot gyd

Dec. 16 (Wed)

I had a good sleep doeee my morning was nice and naka attend ko class cos nakamata man ko aishhh but my dream was not nice issa it was u telling me not to samok2 u na 🥺

but i had a good day doe and a lot of ganap also i chika na to u dis about the groupings hahha sorry i always rant to u i feel like ure kapoy to listen to me raba :(( huhu but its okay doe i just want to let my emotions out u dont have to listen well na hahah

i’m still anxious na they will not bali2 us na gyd doeee aish imbis now rako naay group of friends na and mawala dayon becos of this :(( it was really hard for me to do esp becos i know they will be hurt but i really dont wanna miss the opportunity also huhu i did it for myself lang gyd doeee

Dec. 17 (Thurs)

I slept in mom’s room gabii cos dugay au ko ka sleep doe but dugay man gyapon ko ka sleep there 🤦🏻‍♀️ but i woke up nicely man gihapon and i had a productive morning. i read module 1 of psy 15 and answered the forum doeee but i cried in the afternoon 🤡

also i shud stop overthinking doe if u not online for a long time doe its so samok cos im worrying and overthinking and ikaw there maybe ga laag2 and happy2 🤦🏻‍♀️ i’m just making myself luoy doe i shud stop caring sooo much cos it just hurts me doe but my mind is an idiot gyd it betrays me

it’s so hard for me to stop my negative thinking patterns doe das why i cry so easily and das why i get so frustrated with myself because i cant even stop my thoughts from hurting myself. i just want to have a life na i dont overthink about you doeee cos its such a torture to me na mag think pa saimo when i know happy naman ka there

i know i’ve been beating up myself a lot these past few months but i know i have no one else to blame but myself. i noticed also i’ve been saying sorry a lot more and i’m so ashamed na to let out my emotions. idk doe its been really hard for me thats why i wish i wont give up on myself gyd bsag sometimes i already want to.

i also chatted in our gc doe the one with aljane, claire, cheyenne, and deanne but they just seen me hahah aishh i wont pugos na doe if they dont wanna be friends na its just 1 year nalang kapin i can survive na this without friends

i decided that i want to try online counseling doe because i’m really struggling and i think i need help but the ones i found kay naay bayad 😔 i tried signing up but its so mahal 😔😔 i also searched for medications to make you happy doe but i think dili ni ma buy over the counter 😔

i cried again becos i was so disappointed in myself doe daddy asked me to order in chowking and he was being wala klaro and i got mad doe i raised my voice again and didn’t bali2 him na dayon and i got so disappoiinted becos i didnt control my emotions again. its the first time we interacted in like a week doe becos for the past week after the dentist one, i’ve been ignoring him and acting like he doesnt exist doe and i think its better that way because if we interact i just get mad. this also why i wanna have a therapy doeee

Dec. 18 (Fri)

thank u for helping me surprise mom doe!! even though i cried like an hour before i slept happy doe cos i got to see u and talk to u sa vc bsag 5 mins lang heheh

also had a nice day cos its mom’s bday maaaan sad lang na wala ikaw doe :( i know u wanted gyd to go but so lisod gyd huhu i just hope u can go to my bday gyd :((

i also turned off na my active status sa messenger doe so i cant see if you’re online or not cos i see na offline ka for a long time it just makes me overthink about what you’re doing and stuff like that hahah so hard to stop my thoughts so its better if i dont know nalang

Dec. 19 (Sat)

went to medina todaaay and laag with my friends doeee it was fun also cos idiot man my friends 🤦🏻‍♀️

Dec. 20 (Sun)

went back na to cdo today doeee just laag with janica and kyla kadjot and then went home and its an uneventful day na dayon doe

alsooo i felt like i was really disturbing u today doe i can feel it in ur replies hehe its okay lang doeee i cant pugos u man to anything and im grateful that u still talk to me but i’m really sorry if i burden you doeee im sorry for everything. i hope youre doing good doeee!!

u always ask me how i am and when i asked u didnt answer me huh but i hope you’re happy and i hope u had a good week 🤗

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perfectirishgifts · 5 years ago

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Five Predictions For Early Stage Startups In 2021

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/five-predictions-for-early-stage-startups-in-2021/

Five Predictions For Early Stage Startups In 2021

2020 has been a year we’ll all remember, for better or worse. As it comes to a close (finally), we’re all wondering, what comes next? Which of the changes that will take place post pandemic will be fleeting, and which ones are here to stay?

Below are my predictions for early stage startups in the year ahead.

My focus is on the trends and changes within early stage startups and venture capital. If the pandemic has taught us anything, technology is not just a future engine of growth, but also a bright spot that has enabled billions of people across the globe to continue working and building for the future.

#1: Pre-seed Will Become The Hottest Stage In Venture

Over the past decade, seed rounds have become bigger and more institutionalized. Many seed funds started out focused on “first check,” but as they have seen success, they have raised bigger funds and are now leading three to five million dollar seed rounds. The seed round today looks a lot like a Series A round a decade ago in terms of both size and traction.

This shift has created a growing gap at pre-seed. And today’s pre-seed round typically isn’t just one fundraise; instead it is often a couple of rounds over the course of one to two years. Not every talented ambitious founder is able to easily pull together hundreds of thousands of dollars from friends, family and angels to get off the ground. For founders who do not come from privileged networks, the pre-seed round can take longer and be much harder to raise.

Over the past few years, seed rounds have gotten more competitive. According to Pitchbook, there were 1,162 venture funds focused on Seed in 2019 and only 126 focused on Pre-seed. More multi stage funds are also dipping down into seed, writing small “option” checks. But this trend has happened less in pre-seed. While seed rounds have gotten incredibly competitive, pre-seed rounds rarely are.

In 2021, I expect more investors to wake up to the pre-seed opportunity. It will become its own distinct stage. We’ll see many more investors focused on it. We’ll see a more institutional approach to pre-seed start to emerge, with consistent terms, valuations and platforms for founders. This will help founders to be more fully capitalized from the start so they are set up to hit venture-style inflection points. Examples of funds focused on institutionalizing pre-seed include Precursor, Hustle Fund, Seven Seven Six, Notation Capital, Unshackled Ventures and my fund January Ventures.

Pre-seed will come into its own in 2021. It will no longer be in Seed’s shadow. We call ourselves January Ventures because of our belief in the opportunity at the earliest stage.

#2: Founders Will Choose Challenger Funds Over Large, Established Funds

Over the past few years, we’ve seen the rise of different venture fund models: micro funds, operator funds, rolling funds, syndicates and scout programs. This trend is positive in that it is giving founders a wider range of options for raising capital. Many founders are placing increased value on adding operators to their cap table who have a diverse range of experiences, from marketing to sales to product. There is growing recognition that this operational expertise can add real value.

These new venture capital models are also giving a broader range of people the ability to invest at the early stage. The New York Times reported that the IPOs in 2019 were making the same group of men rich. An increased variety of fund models can hopefully begin to break this cycle, so that in the future, a more diverse range of people will be able to invest in early stage startups, see returns, and re-invest bigger amounts.

In 2021, I expect challenger funds to become their own established category. Founders will see the benefit of the unique expertise and networks they bring, without the signalling risk of multi stage funds. Challenger funds will win competitive deals against established blue chip funds; the up and comers will become the preference for founders.

#3: Investment Rounds, And Venture Funds, Will Be Closed Without Lawyers

One of the things driving the trend towards the rise in challenger funds is the standardization of early stage investments. One example of this is the YC SAFE: it has become standard at pre-seed (at least in the Bay Area), making the legal and operational work of raising a round fast and simple for both founders and investors. The biggest benefit to founders is their ability to get a round signed, closed and wired within days (instead of weeks or even months).

In a similar vein, AngelList and Carta have automated much of the fund set up, operations and reporting for emerging managers. “More funds are using automation and tooling for the venture value chain: deal sourcing, investment decision making, fund and portfolio management, and continuous operations,” said Philipp Moehring, early stage investor from Berlin and partner for Europe at AngelList. “This is enabling new entrants, as overhead becomes cheaper, and allows existing investors to focus on what they do best: working with entrepreneurs to build the future.”

The automation of round documents, special purpose vehicles, syndicates and venture capital funds means early stage investors see more standard terms. In addition, it has removed barriers to allow more people, especially rising investors and operators, to cost efficiently and quickly set up mico funds and write checks.

In 2021, I expect the standardization of early stage investing to mean that rounds and funds are closed without lawyers. This is a sign that the startup industry is maturing, and the efficiency gains will enable accelerated growth

#4: The Hot Tech Hubs In 2021 Will Be Online Communities, Not Physical Locations

Pre-pandemic, early stage startup ecosystems were hyperlocal. Founders typically raised from local investors, hired local talent and learned best practices from their local networks. People thought early stage investors needed to be on the ground to get their hands dirty and help founders.

In 2020, the perception has been shattered that you have to be in person to hire someone, collaborate, close a sale or raise a round. Doing all of this via Zoom has rapidly become the norm.

This decoupling of geography from financial and human capital is powerful. Going fully virtual means startups can hire the best people regardless of their physical location, close the ideal customers and find the optimal investors, rather than being constrained by who happens to be close by. For early stage investors, this year has proved that location doesn’t matter so much as expertise, empathy and connection with founders.

“In the first weeks of the pandemic, I was in a Clubhouse room where an investor was waxing on about how he didn’t know anyone who had written a check via Zoom and he did not advise it,” said Claire Diaz-Ortiz, Partner at Magma Partners in Buenos Aires, Argentina. “I found this a laughable and highly privileged take. I was used to Zoom checks, and I said so. We need them, I explained, to increase VC funding to female, underestimated founders and founders from non-Tier 1 ecosystems. I invest across LatAm [for Magma] and also angel invest throughout the world.”

The potential for cross pollination of ideas across markets is also powerful. Better flows of information within the investor and tech community more generally about trends, insights and opportunities makes the startup environment more efficient overall.

I predict that the world will never go back to the inefficiency of always needing to meet in person to make a decision, close a sale or write a check. In 2021, I expect to see investors and startups increasingly embrace fully remote or hybrid remote, which enables rising tech hubs to accelerate in growth across the world from Austin to Pittsburgh to Amsterdam to Lisbon.

But more powerful than these physical locations are the online communities within tech: both the established ones like Twitter and new ones springing up like Transact (a community of 90 female General Partners of venture funds), Clubhouse and Elpha. These networks, completely virtual, will be the hottest tech hubs of 2021.

#5: Personal Brand Will Become The Most Sought After New Superpower In Tech

Now that venture capitalists can’t run into startups at conferences, in SoMa or on Sand Hill Road, where do they get their deal flow?

Investors have to rely more on online channels. This means brand, word of mouth and community matter more. Getting in front of founders through content, social media, virtual events is more important than ever. Marketing and community are the new VC superpowers for creating a deal flow engine.

The same is true for early stage founders. When we’re all stuck in our houses, online visibility has never been more important. This trend will continue long after the pandemic ends.

There used to be the perception that brand didn’t matter in tech. But as the industry grows up, many are realizing the power of brand for both scalable customer acquisition and defensibility. With more founders and investors than ever before, the ones with powerful rising brands will be the ones to watch. They will win at attracting talent, capital and opportunities.

“Sharing our story with customers, investors and the public has been a rewarding way to experience the ups and downs of running a startup,” said Kristen Anderson, Co-Founder and CEO of Catch Benefits. “The value of my network made itself very clear this year. We raised about $1.5M from people who first ‘discovered’ me through Twitter. Investors were able to build confidence that they understand my values and how I think — some of the key investment criteria in early stage investment.”

I’m optimistic about the year ahead and expect to see more activity than ever at the early stage. Startups built in 2021 will have the advantage of being built for a post-Covid world from day one, versus the later stage startups and incumbents that have been challenged to quickly pivot this year. The pandemic has accelerated technological adoption, and I believe some of the next decade’s iconic companies will be founded in the year ahead.

Note: Maren Thomas Bannon is a partner at January Ventures, which is an investor in Elpha.

From Venture Capital in Perfectirishgifts

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thcodcre · 8 years ago

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beep beep hey y’all ,, ur local gremlin ‘n dumpster dweller here but u can call me kay !! don’t mind the trash like state of my blog atm i just have attachment issues from old threads when i was previously in this lovely group. but yes !! feel free to yell at me in my it’s if u wanna plot or just *youtuber vc* smash that like button and i’ll slide on over for plots !!

( tom holland / twenty-one / he&him ) is that ( theodore caldwell ) ordering a ( white chocolate mocha ) at mocha? i heard they’re a ( paralegal ) who’s known as the ( polymath ) around here. however, they say ( theo ) is very ( pragmatic ), but ( headstrong ). well, better get their drink before it gets cold!

okie so first things first ,,ya boy’s full name is theodore dashiell caldwell but prefers the nickname of theo to those close to him bc it’s simpler and doesn’t like how proper it sounds ,,given in the public sphere he’s known by his full name but only those who get the Seal of Approval get to call him teddy,,, he was born in brooklyn, new york to virginia caldwell ( the current united states ambassador to the united nations and ex-chief executive officer of greenpeace ) and quentin caldwell ( current new york senator and democratic whip minority leader in congress )

while v democratic and liberal in beliefs, theo was always v uncertain about following a path that strayed away from what his parents expected of him since both are v established in the political world so theo always felt like he had to put forth this perfect appearance of himself so he was worthy to be boasted about by his parents to colleagues and political opponents alike with his academics, accomplishments, etc.

due to him being brought up in the public eye as his parents built their respective careers ( lowkey trash in viewing his parents as frank and claire underwood but with more chill rip ), theo didn’t have many friends so partly as a way to give him a hobby to pursue outside of school and to meet new friends, his parents signed up a 5 year old theo for language lessons and a soccer lessons ,,,u know ,, lil kid things ,,, so it’s here that begins theo’s love for languages bc he’s a nerd and a bit of a polyglot but as of now he’s fluent in italian, spanish, french, german, russian and latin ,, ur boy is currently learning arabic and mandarin

being raised by his parents meant that theo was brought up with the caldwell ambition and hard work ethic, believing in order to succeed you must work hard for what you want and that change can only be made in the world if you fight enough for it. this transferred over to theo’s academic standing who worked to keep up his 4.0 gpa 

for real though,,,theo was the kid in all ap classes and managed to seem effortlessly cool but also was a giant ass nerd ?? ask him about harry potter, star wars or marvel ( bring up dc to him and he will rant off on why marvel is better ) and he’ll sure as hell have a vocal opinion ( don’t get him started on hp,,,snape was a bully and can choke,,,while draco is his fave that he’ll defend forever ) 

on top of him being a raging nerd, he was also a big activist while in high school and was that kid handing out flyers for an upcoming protest to the school board demanding for healthier school lunches and fair prices for such since the unhealthy options were much cheaper, and standing on cafeteria tables for change in school policies 

at the time he was a smol in the local private catholic school so he often got beat up from the sports teams ( i’m just a lil emo picturing tom is the school uniform and internally crying nbd ) for protesting school fundings being unfairly distributed, more often than not benefiting the sports teams rather than the drama department, the art department or even better academic resources 

im gettin emo thinkin of lil theo and lil tom wearing uniform blazers and being a lil politician in the making r…ip me,,but yes so he graduates valedictorian and accepted into princeton as a politics major of which theo had to nearly threaten his dad not to donate money for a new library to sway his acceptance

it’s during theo’s time at princeton that he truly begins to find himself and grows more confident ??? gone are the days of string bean theo and bada bing bada boom enter tom’s spider-man physique bc theo starts taking more care of himself and just v self assured in his place in the world and just wanting to help people and make a change ?? for now he just wants to make a difference as a lawyer and maybe work for the state and maybe down the line turn political ,, but he’s debating whether to go aim toward corporate, constitutional law, or international humanitarian law

since the past few years in college have been super !!! especially throwing in helping out his parents with appearances, stress of keeping up his grades, and generally running off of caffeine and the determination of elle woods ,, theo is taking a year or so off to steady himself but he got an internship position at baker & mckenzie law firm here in chicago as a paralegal to get some experience in the field before going off to harvard law ,, plus his dad has connections that may have tilted the scale in theo’s favor for the job but theo is a bit ,, naive in his optimism

overall though theo is the least bit pretentious person and is a p chill dude,,,understands his privilege and knows that not everyone is born into money like his family is,.,, loves helping people and just wants the world to be a better place ??? v openly liberal in terms of political beliefs and 10/10 would fight donald trump and jeff sessions in a heartbeat do it for the vine 

likes to think he’s kinda cool but don’t let him fool u he is a Nerd ,,,will probably rant off to u about harry potter and why draco malfoy is not only the best character but why he and the slytherin house are done dirty and snape can choke ,..also list an abundance of reasons as to why he will defend tony stark until the end of his days ,,,also probably has a collection of iron man comics and harry potter wands bye

his sense of humor is the worst i swear legit it’s all pop culture references with a mixture of shitty puns and jokes beware ,, he’s extremely level headed though and knows how to make good decisions, pragmatic as shit but can often lead to him being very over-analytical and dwelling on things too much

v charismatic and loves talking to people,,,and this isn’t a personality trait,,,well maybe considering he’s fashionable as shit and loves cardigans and button down shirts and chelsea boots,,,but also loves to be casual in joggers and a light shirt,,,but his fave designers are paul smith, ted baker and givenchy  bc i hate him

#mochahq: intro #did i copy n paste from my old one ... yes #don't @ me #but ily all

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talkingtea · 8 years ago

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Feels like y'all are playing devil's advocate. The idea of GG getting engaged to L to quell rumors of him cheating seems a bit much. Were the rumors rampant? Bc I haven't really heard much about them. But it's clear to me that L has had this thing planned out for a while. I mean she's been following the jeweler since Nov & they've been mutuals for months prior to the "proposal".

Are we playing Devil’s advocate? Because frankly we just think game recognizes game.

Let’s recap shall we?

In January of 2016 GG and LAT meet up in San Fran. Is it the first time? We don’t know, but given the pattern that LAT establishes soon after we’re going to go with no, they hadn’t physically been each other’s presence before then because there is no photographic evidence to prove it.

2 weeks later she’s in VC, how do we know this? Because she posts a sneaky picture of him. A few weeks later they’re together again, once more we know this because LAT decided to post a sneak pic from the same bed Grant had posted a picture from the day before. And so set the pattern for the next six months EVERY. SINGLE. TIME they were together. She did that for six more months, while he liked sexy pictures of half-naked women and flirted with his costar. But we digress…

Finally out the blue one day in August after months and months of posting sneaky pics and photos that were creepily identical to pictures that Hannah took she finally took a full on, not sneaky picture of Grant. A few hours later he followed by finally posting a photo with her in it that his brother wasn’t present for. But if that wasn’t enough Grant felt it necessary to not only ‘introduce’ LAT to the world but let us all know that he was keeping her forever. Aw, how sweet. A week or two before that he barely acknowledged he knew her but hey, who can question true love, right?

So not five minutes later LAT got a wild hair up her ass and she felt the need to explain what she did and give us all some helpful exercise tips that nobody asked for. Guess she couldn’t let all of those potential clients new followers go to waste now could she? Over the next few months GG and LAT were so nauseatingly cute together it was enough to give you a cavity–or ten. At Christmas Grant finally went to see his family and he brought LAT along. There were a few pictures of Hannah they needed to replace while Grant’s grandpa was still around to take them…but again we digress.

A couple days into the new year Grant leaves twitter like a thief in the night with no explanation whatsoever.

A few weeks later Grant and LAT celebrate their year anniversary of…something? The first time they met? Their first hook-up? The time where the hammered out the details of their agreement? Their first date? Whatever the case may be it had us in confused. However, in hindsight it does look better and more legit for a couple that’s been together for a year to get engaged than it does for a couple that’s only been together for 5 or 6 months to get engaged. Just saying.

Somewhere around this time Grant went on a massive purge of his IG and pretty much chopped over half the people (most of them women, a lot of whom he interacted with regularly) off of his list. Again at the time we had no idea what was going on, but in hindsight it’s all making sense.

A few weeks later was Paley and we got an unrestricted, albeit, brief look at GG and LAT out together in public…well, we did when they both managed to be in the same shot which proved to be difficult since Grant takes his F.lash duties very serious when he’s on the clock and power walked his ass away from LAT so fast it had all of our heads spinning. He rectified it later though because he bought her a choker at Claire’s for 5 dollars. And he went on to do beach photoshoot #53 later that day. They both looked miserable in it, but they were together and two bodies in the photo was probably all that was required. Nobody said they had to look happy.

A week or so and some change later Grant made the cardinal mistake of posting a photo with Candice. LAT came on immediately after him and posted a picture of his dogs for Dog Day or something. She managed to miss the photo of GG and CP together because she didn’t like it. However, about two hours later magically she saw it and liked it a few minutes later Grant decided to post a photo of the two of them sitting on his couch in Vancouver fully dressed looking like a pair of twins getting ready to go to an outdoor stadium to watch a football game. Grant came across a little too Captain Obvious with that move and people starting calling him and his girl for being threatened by an innocent G.randice photo.

The next few weeks GG kept it on the D-L when it came to LAT. She wasn’t as obvious as she used to be, but once again she’s incapable of NOT letting it be known that she’s with GG, it’s like a compulsion. So though he was staying mute, we still knew they were together. Fast-forward a few weeks later and it’s Easter weekend. GG and LAT manage to offend all kinds of people with their rapping ‘skills’ but it was still a win of a weekend because GG managed to meet her family. Or at least the ones that manged to get there and see him the one day he was there…

A couple weeks later out of the blue they were engaged. Not only did we get Grant’s announcement but we got a couple of screenshots from GG and LAT facetiming with their friends showing off the ring as she choked him within an inch of his life. To top it off we even got details from their proposal from a close “source” who let us know that Grant went out of his way to create the perfect proposal with flower petals and candelight and romantic music…oh wait, no, that’s not what happened. They were working out on the beach and he proposed in the middle of it–and people say romance is dead. One interesting tidbit shared by the ‘source’ was that LAT moved in with GG the day before. She doesn’t actually live there, and she sees him about much as she always did but we were told but a close, trusted, accurate source that she moved in so it most be true.

A day later a blind that was CLEARLY about him being a giant IG manwhore dropped…

After that, Grant, who never managed to actually call LAT his girlfriend was busting at the seams to call her his fiancée (or fiancé as he sometimes spells it, because she’s that man he’s going to marry) and he couldn’t get enough. Until around the time her sidekick Cass posted a video of her mocking singing RHTY which he seemed thrilled about. Equally thrilling was the way she acted at the fan event he dragged her to. We wonder if he’s as impressed with her ability to look at and promptly dismiss the actors that people paid to come see? It was such a good look, and because he brought her reflected especially well on him.

He’s kept it pretty quiet since then but Grant being Grant couldn’t waste an opportunity to remind people he was engaged just in case some of us forget. Per usual he did the bare minimum with throwing LAT into a post about the Pride jersey, but a reminder is a reminder, right?

So now here we are. We followed the yellow brick road that has been GG and LAT’s whirlwind courtship and we’ve ended here with rumors of him cheating on her with various women. Is it true? More than likely not but a rumor is a rumor is a rumor and it’s still damaging. And for a celebrity if you catch the wrong type of rumor at the wrong time it could be devastating to your career.

Now, is a rumor about Grant being a giant manwhore really that big of a deal? No. But given how calculating his ‘love story’ with LAT has been, it certainly doesn’t help that while he’s gushing about his fiancée and playing the part of the lovestruck fool who can’t bear to be apart from his normal, wholesome around the way girl there are rumors floating around that he likes checking out and/or hooking up with half-naked IG models.

So again, are we really playing Devil’s advocate? Because last we checked calling a spade a spade was just that. Grant has been trying to clean house for months now, but he needs to tighten up on his story-telling skills because his fairy tale romance with LAT isn’t selling like it should.

#tea timeline #masterpost

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imagineclaireandjamie · 8 years ago

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OMG I LOVE THE VIETNAM AU. Finally, the reunion! So wonderfully written. But hold the phone WHAT happened to Jamie and why does he look like that and how is Claire gonna heal him? *sigh*

Vietnam AU

“Stuffed cabbage, Claire?”

Claire turned to her left, meeting the kind brown eyes ofIan Murray – Jamie’s best friend and brother-in-law.

“Sure – is it grown here on the farm as well?”

Ian served her a good-sized helping. Jenny – at her right– poured a bit more wine into the tall glass by her plate.

“Most of the simple vegetables come straight from thekailyard – always have, as long as we can remember. Nothing is as fresh to us. Oras rewarding.”

Claire took a tentative bite, keeping her eyes firmly onthe gorgeous old dinner plate – clearly used only for special occasions – as Jamie’sfoot silently nudged hers beneath the table.

Somewhere around three that afternoon, Ian had hobbleddown to the barn – he had lost his leg in a childhood car accident, Jamie laterexplained – finding a doubly rare sight. Jamie Fraser was idle – and JamieFraser was in the company of a woman.

That he had somehow, sometime told Jenny and Ian who shewas had been clear – but just exactly what they knew about her was not. She hadhelped Jenny and the kind housekeeper Mrs. Crook prepare dinner – over Jenny’s proteststhat a guest should rest – seeking the opportunity to quietly introduce herselfto Jamie’s sister, and needing the time away from him to just reflect on herwhirlwind day. She had had months – years – to prepare. He had had no notice,and yet had taken it all in so gracefully.

Had pledged himself to her, fully. Unequivocally.

Would she do the same for him?

She’d immediately accepted his offer of a place to stayfor the night. Jamie had proudly shown her to one of the beautifullyapportioned rooms on the second floor of the Big House – Lallybroch – sharing incrediblestories of the many Frasers whose blood and sweat had been poured into the verystones and floorboards of the house since before the Revolution.

Light streamed through the windows of the room that wasto be Claire’s – the hand-carved bed covered in a worn but exquisite bluebedspread that had been quilted by Jamie’s grandmother MacKenzie; two plusharmchairs of a 1940s vintage cozily angled before a small fireplace; on the wallabove the bed, a vibrant watercolor of the Big House amid the glowing orangeleaves of autumn.

“There should be some spare clothes in the bureau,” Jamieremarked softly, remaining just inside the doorway as Claire quietly acquaintedherself with the room. “And my Mam painted that when I was small. We have herdrawings and paintings up all over the house.”

From her position at the window, admiring the kitchengarden and small orchard of fruit trees clustered near the old outhouse, Claireturned to smile at him. “Do you paint?”

He shrugged. “I’ve tried. But Jenny has the real talentfor it – some of her pieces are downstairs.” He paused, licking his lips. “Wellthen. I’ll be down in the study with Ian. Have some orders to straighten outfor tomorrow. Will – ”

“I’ll be all right,” she reassured him. “Thank you,Jamie. Truly.”

His smile – small, glowing – was absolutely beautiful. “Thank*you*, Claire.” Then he turned and disappeared down the hall.

“The apples in that pie you helped me with come rightfrom the orchard – great-grandmother Fraser planted them, right after the WarBetween The States,” Jenny continued. Claire snapped back to the present as thetoe of Jamie’s boot curled around the back of her shin.

“I’m normally not much help in the kitchen, but you’ve allbeen so incredibly warm and generous – ”

“Nonsense,” Ian insisted, tearing up a piece of Mrs.Crook’s thick homemade oat bread – a bannock, Jamie had called it – for histhree-year-old son – Jamie’s namesake holding court at the worn but homelykitchen table between his father and uncle. “You’ve made Jamie smile again.Lord knows that’s been a rare sight since he returned from ‘Nam.”

Jamie withdrew his foot – and Claire looked across thehalf-empty portions of roasted pork and Brussel sprouts and corn bread. Meetinghis intense blue gaze. Hoping her eyes could convey everything her voice couldnot.

Apple pie and whisky before the fire in the sitting room –lined floor to ceiling with books dating from the 18th century allthe way up to shiny new editions of Slaughterhouse-Five and In Cold Blood. Comfortablesilence between them when Jenny and Ian departed to tuck the children into bed.And then when Claire had yawned for the fifth time, Jamie rose, banked thefire, and helped her rise from the couch. Then gently led her upstairs to theroom that would be hers for as long as she wished. Holding her hand the entiretime.

They paused in the doorway.

“Will you be warm enough? There are extra blankets in thehallway closet – ”

Claire rested her hands on his solid shoulders. “I’ll bejust fine. I’m not fragile, you know.”

He settled his hands on her hips, eyes creasing with happinessin the dim light of the hallway. The silence of the house buzzed in their ears.

“I know you aren’t,” he breathed.

Then drew her close – holding her. Enveloping her. Feelingher melt against him – her heart thrum in time with his.

After a long while she pushed back, kissed the corner ofhis mouth, and quietly slid out of his arms.

“I’ll be right here, down the hall,” he whispered. Eyesdark.

She blew him a teasing kiss, then quietly swung the heavyoak door shut.

On both sides of the door, Jamie and Claire rested theirforeheads against the wood. And sighed.

Despite her exhaustion, Claire slept fitfully. Tossing andturning on the heavenly soft mattress and under the almost sinfully warm quilt.So many images flashing through her mind – the bullet-scarred palm tree on the helicopterpad at Chu Lai; the faded anchor tattooed on the forearm of her anatomyinstructor; the checked shirt Uncle Lamb loved to wear when presenting hislatest findings to a group of his peers. The graceful, invisible shapes Jamiehad traced with his hands as he shared stories about himself and his Fraserforebears – helping her learn about all the gifts he would give her.

Did she belong here? Could she belong here – the lady ofthis great house? Sharing such a well-respected name? Enjoying dinner everynight in the rustic kitchen built two centuries ago, surrounded by so manyFrasers, alive and dead? Quietly at peace here on the ridge which Frasers hadcalled home for longer than Beauchamps had been in America?

No.

Yes.

Perhaps.

The house groaned and settled around her – easing intosleep.

Except the shuffle of steps in the hallway. Pausingoutside her room, then continuing down the stairs.

At least she wasn’t the only restless person tonight. Jenny,perhaps? Maggie was still nursing – perhaps just another late-night feed?

Claire wrapped the tartan blanket – Fraser colors, Jamiehad told her – from the foot of the bed around her shoulders, draped over the AppState t-shirt and flannel pants that had been neatly folded in the bottomdrawer of the bureau, gently pushed open the door, and stepped downstairs.

Only one room to visit at this time of night – the parlor,where books and the warmth of the fire could lull even the most restless to sleep.

But it wasn’t Jenny who sought solace, deep in the night.

Jamie stood after adding a fresh log to the fire, rubbinghis face with his hands, clad in an olive-green Army-issued t-shirt and wornwhite long johns.

Claire must have made a sound – for his head snapped up,startled.

“Can’t sleep?”

His wide, sweet mouth twisted in a wry smile. “You couldsay that. I haven’t had a full night’s sleep in three years.”

Claire blinked harshly in shock. “You mean – ”

“Yes – since Chu Lai. I – well.” He swallowed, graspingfor words. “I re-live all of it every night.”

She crossed the room to stand in front of him. Rested atentative hand on his elbow. “Tell me?”

He did. Terrible storied of men blown to pieces. Villagesburned. Dead livestock floating face-down in rice paddies. The faces of men he couldn’tsave. Memories of pain, and anguish, and isolation.

“And the worst one –” his voice broke.

At this point they had curled up together at the cornerof the couch, her legs tucked against his, sharing the warmth of the plaid. Shesqueezed his clammy hand. Encouraging.

“The worst one is when the VC attack Chu Lai – and I can’tfind you, Claire. I can’t protect you. And then I’m scrambling down the hallwayand they’re firing at me and I trip over your body.”

He wouldn’t look at her – preferring to stare into thehypnotic flames.

She wiped the tears from his eyes. Stunned.

“Have you ever told this to anyone?” Her fingers twinedin his hair, damp with sweat. Bringing his face to rest in the curve of herneck.

All he could do was shake his head. Breathing hard.Burrowing closer to her.

“Nobody here understands. I’m a war hero. The owner ofthis estate. I’m not supposed to be scared. I’m not supposed to have a backtwisted with scars. I’m not supposed to be terrified of going to sleep everynight.”

Claire eased onto his lap. “Shh,” she soothed. “I’m here.Just let go, Jamie.”

He inhaled deeply. Shakily.

“Let go,” she repeated. “I understand. I’m here. You don’thave to pretend.”

A beat.

Then –

“I love you.”

His awed, red-rimmed eyes lifted to meet hers. Smiling throughthe tears.

Then her lips found his – and they clung to each other indesperation and joy.

#;mod gotham #vietnam au

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ofbrutus-blog · 8 years ago

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if only u all knew about how pumped i am for this ,, i highkey haven’t been in a group in literal months ?? anyway, i’m claire, i’m 18, i’m from australia ( hello gmt +11 ,, hello hell ) & sloane is ... lsiten i love this child ?? a lot ?? & i’m SO EXCITED to be able 2 play him again bc honestly i care abt this fuckin mess so much & i’m lit already in love w everyone else’s muses & i’m just so ..., fuckenin excited ?? anyway ! i’ve got all his details under the cut ,, it got rly long i am so sorry

‹ × landon liboiron × › yo, meet sloane vonnegut, aka brutus, a twenty-seven year old lion mess from texas. he’s been living in hennessy for two months now and was convicted of, believe it or not, corruption. a bisexual scorpio, this bartender is pragmatic & equitable, as well as jaundiced & tempestuous.

B A C K G R O U N D.

born in the heart of texas, sloane was raised to be a perfect southern gentleman from the start. whilst his parents were insistent on teaching him right and wrong, they never inflicted any kind of physical, mental, verbal or emotional harm upon their son if he strayed down the wrong path from time to time. as a result, sloane grew to absolutely adore his parents and to this day, he keeps a photo of them in his wallet to remind him to stay grounded. they ultimately taught him the true value of family, and he can never thank them enough for that.

growing up, sloane’s interest in the police force and, ultimately, the fbi, was absolutely undeniable. ( he had the miranda rights memorised before the time he was ten. ) evidently a passion of his, annabelle and joseph vonnegut encouraged sloane to run for it. he starts his police training at fifteen, and by the time he’s eighteen, he’s recruited into the force. ( to this day, he still says it was the happiest day of his life. )

sloane’s a fucking good police officer. wonderfully charming, yet cunning and sly, crime rates plummet under officer vonnegut’s rule. armed with nothing but a sunny smile and a fast-track mind, he’s ( taylor swift vc ) a nightmare dressed like a daydream. he’s every criminal’s worst nightmare, because he’ll send you off with a smile and a lovely little threat.

he’d planned to accelerate through and move to virginia to try and get a training spot with the fbi ; his plans are ruined when, at twenty-four, his girlfriend announces that she’s pregnant with his child. a year later, as he’s cradling his newborn son, he gets a call from his father that his mother has been diagnosed with stage iii breast cancer. that basically puts everything on a halt, bc little mr. family man can’t just let his mother die while he’s off in virginia.

tbh, he worked his ass off to provide for his then-fiancée, hayley, and their infant son, connor. he was also working to earn enough for his mother’s chemotherapy, and to pay off their mortgage, so ngl he’s working to do a shit ton !!

the pressure gets to him when a killer offers a bribe to look the other way. he knows it’s the wrong thing to do, but he accepts, and he still hasn’t lived it down. sloane fucking hates himself for accepting that bribe, just bc of the consequences.

obviously he gets thrown in hennessy, but hayley breaks off their engagement and tells him it’s best if he doesn’t see connor again which is .. the fuckin final blow bc u know that sloane cares about that baby more than he cares about anything else and the entire concept of not being able to see him fucks him up BEYOND BELIEF

P E R S O N A L I T Y.

once upon a time, sloane was the picture of southern hospitality. sunny smile plastered across his face, he’d lend a helping hand to anyone who needed it. ( bc he’s a good guy that way. )

the police force never really changed that sunny disposition, tbh - he just got a little more suspicious of people, and stopped believing that everyone was good at heart. he realised the nature of humanity to do harm and it fucked him up a lil ngl

at hennessy, he’s got a bit of a reputation as an alcoholic hardass. he’s never quite forgiven himself for taking a bribe and letting a killer walk free, and it’s taken a toll on him. he drinks to deal with the guilt, and as such, he’s a horribly bitter man.

catch him on a good day, and you might get to see a glimpse of a past self - he might throw you a generous smile, make a genuinely funny joke, he might even treat you to that southern hospitality that still lingers somewhere within him. catch him on a bad day, though, and you’ll swear that it’s the devil standing in front of you. he’ll get bitter, and angry, and he might start going off for no apparent reason, and he’ll look gorgeous while he’s doing it but you just know that you shouldn’t go anywhere near him bc jesus fuckin christ that’s an angry man.

A P P E A R A N C E.

standing at a solid six foot, he uses his height as an intimidation tactic sometimes. he’s not even that tall compared to some, but he gotta do what he gotta do tbh.

his hair curls right down, past his jawline now. he’s too lazy to cut it again, so he’s full-on growing it out.

his beard is disgusting and he needs to shave it and everybody should tell him this

his tattoos are ,, actually so pretty ?? i haven’t decided on what they are yet, but they’ll get their own tag and they spiral down both arms, across his back, down his hips and he has a few on his thighs bc why the fuck not. he loves tattoos so much ??

he has ,, really pretty eyes ?? like they’re this piercing green and they can be so warm n inviting but also they can get cold and harsh and bitter so QUICKLY and it’s kinda hot

he’s real pretty and everyone hates it

W A N T E D P L O T S.

honestly give me cute shit bc i’m a baby and i want sloane to like ,, not be sad

confidant: gimme someone who sloane just ,, talks to ?? is actually a decent human being to ?? is actually soft n nice and gentle ??

friends with benefits: drowning their sorrows in sex ?? drowning anything in sex ?? absolutely

sparring partners: whether it be verbal or physical, these two work their aggression out on each other and whilst they don’t openly hate each other, they look like they could tear each other’s heads off whilst they’re going at it.

honestly i have a ton more but just like ,, fuck idk

#╰ ° . ･˙ ☓ ▬ success ! she’s hammered ! ⁞ 𝗼𝗼𝗰.

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gokinjeespot · 6 years ago

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off the rack #1276

Monday, August 26, 2019

Sorry for the lateness. I went fishing this morning with my buddy David and he brought his fly rod that he got recently. He's a novice but he caught two sunfish using it. That made me very happy as they were the first fish that he caught that way. Penny and I went to see a matinee at our local theatre earlier and I had to have words with a teenager who talked and then took out his phone during the screening. The second time he turned on his phone after I had asked him to put it away the first time he showed me no respect so I went and got a staff member to deal with him. By the time we got back to the theatre he had left with his friend but he still abused me verbally while standing at the exit doors. The kid couldn't have been more than 13. The language and disrespect was what upset me the most. I suspected they snuck into the theatre and the fact that they left before staff could deal with him confirmed my suspicions. I didn't care that they snuck in. If this kid had just sat and watched the movie I would not have had a problem with him. I must be an asshole magnet because the kid and his friend were the only other people in the theatre and they sat close to us.

I picked up a copy of Marvel's "Heralds" trade paperback while working at the store last week and while reading the credits I see that it was lettered by Virtual Calligraphy's Clayton Cowles. So that's what the "VC's" stands for.

Batman #77 - Tom King (writer) Mikel Janin & Tony S. Daniel (pencils) Mikel Janin, Norm Rapmund & Tony S. Daniel (inks) Jordie Bellaire & Tomeu Morey (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). A death in the family and this issue is in super high demand because of it. Damian tries to fight Thomas Wayne/Batman while Bruce is recovering under Selina's care. The prospect of the Bat Family gathering has me all excited.

Daredevil #10 - Chip Zdarsky (writer) Jorge Fornes (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). We get a glimpse of real Daredevil action when Detective North is threatened by corrupt cops in his own precinct while Matt is there. Matt gets a visit from an ex that had me chuckling on the last page.

Fearless #2 - This is an excellent anthology for young readers, particularly young female readers.

"Campfire Song" part 2 by Seanan McGuire (writer), Claire Roe (art), Rachelle Rosenberg (colours) & Cardinal Rae (letters) sends Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel to the leadership camp where Captain Marvel, Storm and Susan Storm/the Invisible Woman are going to give keynote speeches. Something nefarious may be afoot.

I liked "Night Nurse: A Cape of Her Own" by Karla Pacheco (writer), Iolanda Zanfardino (art) Rachelle Rosenberg (colours) & Cardinal Rae (letters). It's always a treat to see Night Nurse mending super powered people.

To help get over the end of X-23's book Eve L. Ewing (writer), Alitha Martinez (art), Rosenberg (colours) & Cardinal Rae (letters) show us what Laura and Gabby are up to now.

Ghost-Spider #1 - Seanan McGuire (writer) Takeshi Miyazawa (art) Ian Herring (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). So Spider-Gwen is now Ghost-Spider. She has dual dimensionship between Earth-65 and Earth-616. In her own dimension of Earth-65 everyone knows that she's Ghost-Spider but in Earth-616 where her secret identity is safe, she's just Gwen Stacy, freshman at Empire State University. Peter Parker helps to get her enrolled and now she can go back and forth taking classes and fighting crime. This is a good place to start if you're looking for another female super hero to follow but there wasn't anything really special in here to make me add this title to my every burgeoning pile of comics books that I want to read.

Strayed #1 - Carlos Giffoni (writer) Juan Doe (art) Matt Krotzer (letters). In this new Dark Horse science-fiction book military scientist Kiara Rodriguez invents a device that allows her to talk to her cat Lou. The cat is special because it can astrally travel through space. Kiara's superiors are using her cat to conquer other planets and exploit their resources. They're the bad mans. This sounds familiar to me with Kiara's race being like Galactus and Lou like the Silver Surfer. I'm not much of a cat person so I'll pass on the rest of this story.

Guardians of the Galaxy #8 - Donny Cates (writer) Cory Smith (art) David Curiel (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Rocket's back and we even get a mini origin story for the little furball. This issue also reveals what the Universal Church of Truth's very bad plans are. I loved seeing the cocoon. With the impending battle with Death, I'm wondering if Thanos is going to show up. This would be a cool way to bring the Mad Titan back.

The Avant-Guards #7 - Carly Usdin (writer) Noah Hayes (art) Eleonora Bruni (colours) Ed Dukeshire (letters). The one and only basketball based comic book on the racks and it's a three points shot at the buzzer to win the game. I love the message about team work in this issue.

Powers of X #3 - Jonathan Hickman (writer) R.B. Silva (art) Marte Gracia (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). This issue clears things up for me. Nimrod is the big bad guy and Apocalypse is a good guy in this story. I'm so glad they took last issue to explain Moira's character and her mutant ability because she's crucial to everything going on. If you're not reading this and House of X, you're missing out on a major event in Marvel Mutant History.

Marvel Action Spider-Man #7 - Delilah S. Dawson (writer) Fico Ossio (art) Ronda Pattison (colours) Shawn Lee (letters). Introducing Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat. Her bad luck powers have Peter, Gwen and Miles all tangled up. They're going to have to learn to work together to keep her from stealing again.

The Superior Spider-Man #10 - Christos Gage (writer) Mike Hawthorne (pencils) Wade von Grawbadger (inks) Jordie Bellaire (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Man, Spidergeddon sure did cast a wide net. So the super villain for this story is revealed to be the Norman Osborn of Earth-44145. He wants revenge for being humiliated by the Superior Spider-Man during the debacle with the Inheritors. But first Norman is going to kill everybody that Otto cares about. It's a tried and true basis for many a comic book story but it still works great.

Superman Year One #2 - Frank Miller (writer) John Romita Jr. (pencils) Danny Miki (inks) Alex Sinclair (colours) John Workman (letters). Okay, so Clark trains to be a Navy Seal so that Frank Miller can set it up for him to meet and fall in love with Lori Lemaris and clash with her father Poseidon. It was a slog for me to read through this issue. I think Miller was trying for something epic like The Odyssey by Homer. I found that Clark's time in the navy was contrived, which soured my enjoyment.

Valkyrie #2 - Jason Aaron & Al Ewing (writers) Cafu (art) Jesus Aburtov (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). Why is it that the death in Batman #77 is bigger than the death in this comic book? Bullseye somehow got his hands on Valkyrie's sword Dragonfang and Jane Foster has to take it away from the killer or else a heck of a lot of innocent lives will be forfeit. The last line of this issue made me groan.

Year of the Villain: Sinestro #1 - Mark Russell (writer) Yildiray Cinar (art) Julio Ferreira (inks pages 21 - 26) Hi-Fi (colours) Steve Wands (letters). A solo story of Sinestro doing Lex Luthor's bidding. This story uses sentient nanobots which to me was a silly concept. I thought they did a good job showing how smart and arrogant Sinestro is but unless you're a Green Lantern fan you don't need to read this.

Year of the Villain: Black Mask #1 - Tom Taylor (writer) Cully Hamner (art) Dave Stewart (colours) Wes Abbott (letters). This is a good origin story and sets up the villain for what's coming next. These Year of the Villain one shots are a good way for new fans to learn about these characters which should give them a better understanding of their involvement in the big picture.

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hogwartselementumrp · 8 years ago

Photo

Beth said: the app is great. She has a good grip of the character and the dynamics. I high key want to accept her.

Livia said: she is brazilian, who cares???

Honestly, the app is absolutely incredible! You write Claire beautifully, your description of her was engaging and made me extremely curious about how you will play her!

So! Congratulations Maria! You have been accepted to play Claire Burke!

What could happen sometimes was that she wondered about having another job, for example, but she knew the importance of staying at the Ministry, under eyes that knew better, that could keep her from doing things she would later regret - after all, wasn’t that why she chose to work there?

This line in her para sample was heartbreaking! Claire is already a fully fleshed out character in your application!

serio??? eu estou super animada para ter voce no rp. vai ser incrivel ter outra brasileira. e tipo, vc é uma otima escritora e seu personagem vai ser incrivel!!!

Beth also came back and said later: Lily, this is the longest acceptance message ever. People are going to get jealous and you’re going to scare the new girl off too.

OOC Information

NAME/ALIAS: Maria (Fernanda)

PREFERRED PRONOUN: She/Her

AGE: 16

TIMEZONE: GMT -3

ACTIVITY LEVEL: I have three characters in another RP and my activity level there is high, especially because I’m only a high school student, but I’m not sure how things will be considering this is my second. I want to have only one character so things don’t get messed up and I manage a 6 or 7 out of 10 (level of activity) (and 6 out of 10 it’s more like… worst case scenario). [Also, I was reading the rules and… what sexuality section?]

HOW DID YOU FIND THE RP (NEW MEMBERS): I just started searching “harry potter rp” and varieties on tumblr, wanting to find a HP rp that was different than what I got used to seeing on tumblr, and I stumbled on this one.

Character Information

NAME OF THE CHARACTER: Claire Audrey Burke

DESCRIBE THE CHARACTER IN YOUR OWN WORDS:

Claire Burke isn’t one to complain - that’s probably one of the first things someone might notice about her. But different than people that are bubbly and positive, the reason why she’s ok with where she’s stands has all to do with her naivety and lack of malice. She’s not a fighter, not a rebel and definitely not a warrior - the Burke simply doesn’t have that thing inside of her that makes people want to fight, scream and live life with so much passion (often times, way too much). That’s not to say she couldn’t survive in a battle, of course, she was in Ravenclaw and, despite all the suppression of her nature, Claire is skilled and quick-witted more than enough to be alright in a duel. Only that, she’s that type of person who prefers to be neutral and interfere if things get really out of hand, or if there’s something connecting her emotionally to whatever is going on.

So far in her life she never hated anyone that I know. All reasons were given to her during life - how people always refrained her from using her powers, how they kept telling her everything they did was for her own good, etc. But two things are very important to consider and enough to explain her lack of hate: First, her lack of malice also means she’s way too superficial for anything that involves jealousy, angriness and even frustration. If there’s something bothering her, she’ll either be frank about it or find a way to fix the problem without using much of her feelings. The second thing is, Claire actually believes people are doing what they are doing because it’s right. She has always heard about how dangerous and terrifying her powers are, and she’s more than ok with the perspective of spending her life not bringing problems to people. Sometimes all the effort is tiring, yes, very tiring, but “it’s necessary” is what she tells herself when it happens.

Despite all the pressure everyone who knew about her powers putted on her, Claire never broke - she knew it was her responsibility to cope with Spirit as much as it was her duty to keep the good name of the family. It helped that she turned out to be a smart, quick witted, confident lady - often times spending hours in the library, actually curious about things. As much as she doesn’t want to change stuff, it’s interesting for Claire to gain knowledge - she’s particularly interested on how things work, and secretly hopes one day she’ll get Spirit enough to learn how to actually control it. She’s also very good with keeping information, and it’s unusual for her to forget what she considers important. She’s not really creative, though - all the things she could discover about her powers represent an amount of ‘creativity’ for a life time, really.

In terms of social skill, the ex Ravenclaw actually impresses people - some might think she focused too much on her duties, or broke with all the pressure, or even decided to hide from the world, but none of those things were true. Instead, Claire always has a cheerful enough face - she never minds talking to people and actually likes to meet them, to know their different backgrounds, etc. It’s true she makes an effort not to get too close, for reasons related to all her thoughts led by the brainwashing, but Claire is very skilled socially speaking. She knows how to have good, interesting conversations, the same way she knows how to escape possibly bad subjects. She’s not afraid of joking about herself because Claire doesn’t see herself as a victim - even though she can’t really use the word “monster” -, and she’s usually up for a discussion - good for her that she never gets angry or loses her head, then.

ANY CHANGES YOU WISH TO MAKE?: If I’m not mistaken her age should be 27.

DESIRED SHIPS, IF ANY: -

TITLES: -

RELATIONSHIPS:

Unlikely friend: Someone who has a really different personality from Claire’s, who is constantly challenging her and trying to show her that there’s more than the small bubble the Ravenclaw live in. Could be a person from her past (childhood/Hogwarts), or someone somewhat/entirely new.

Connection by association: Someone she met through her family, the time spent in Ravenclaw, her work on the Ministry, maybe even because of being a spirit. Doesn’t necessarily have to be a friend. Could be someone interested on Claire for a deeper reason, a person she notices (or not), etc… I’m really open for all ideas here.

Co-worker: As she works in the Ministry for almost one decade now (I imagine), Claire probably has a number of friends and acquaintances she met through work. Doesn’t have to be someone on her department, though.

(Former*) best friend: Claire isn’t a very deep person, so it’s difficult to imagine a best friend for her - even so, I’m open for ideas, maybe someone who has known her for the majority of her life, a person who knows secrets of hers that should stay hidden, etc. *I add “former” because could be someone that used to be her best friend but maybe they lost contact, fought, maybe that person had bad intentions and Claire found that out.

People from her past: Basically, if there’s a character who could’ve known her somehow, I really want to know. She’s a Burke - and, even though she’s a spirit, her family always tried to appear normal -, so hello people she might have met because of that. Ten years ago Claire was a Ravenclaw student, so maybe a younger person she tutored, someone her age who decided Claire was competition (even though Claire doesn’t have that “fire” inside her to compete, but hey, could be inside the other person’s mind), ex-roommates, normal friends. Of course, also people from other houses, even teachers because she definitely had to spend time with those (being a spirit).

FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS:

Parents: Despite not having malice inside her heart, Claire has always known her parents think she’s a bomb ready to explode - and she might be, a thought that had always been enough to lead her to a more conservative personality. She knows her parents love her, even though they are cautious, and all of her actions have to do with her own protection, besides the protection of others, so she tries hard to be the closest possible to a perfect daughter. It helps that she’s so passive and obedient, and not seeing reason to rebel or disobey means they have a very pacific dynamic.

Sisters: Truth is, even when Claire was almost an adolescent and Scarlet a little child, the Ravenclaw never really understood her younger sister. She didn’t know how someone so little could have so much life inside of her, but she also couldn’t understand where that life came from - what was the good in trying to move mountains if things were already good enough? Claire saw her as more of an alien than a real person. Within time, though, she grew to be fond of her sister, even if they were never close - if that’s how Scarlet wants to act and perceive things, Claire won’t stay on her way. (But she’s always there, somehow, trying to make sure her little sister doesn’t get hurt - she can only imagine how bad it would be, given all the difficulties Scarlet already faced, if something came close to breaking her completely).

PARA SAMPLE

[Off: I can’t help but think it’s badly written - probably because I’m way too tired to write anything that makes sense right now -, but I promise I’ll do my best to find her tone… and I’ll choose a better time to write next xD]

“Again.” The word almost repeated itself on Claire’s mind, as the thirteen-year-old-girl picked her wand from the floor, looking at her teacher standing just a few meters from her. They had been doing that for almost two hours now, repeating the same exercises until the Ravenclaw knew exactly what to do, how to do and the amount of power she should use. Within time the young girl had grown used to doing things her classmates usually didn’t - receiving special attention of her teachers, for example, not for her potential but because of how dangerous she could be if she didn’t manage to learn how to control her powers. And Claire was afraid - that maybe, one day, she would get angry about something and accidentally hurt a person passing by, or wouldn’t be able to measure whatever she wanted to do and bring bad consequences for her actions. Not that she usually got angry easily, but that’s one of the phrases her parents would repeat (and so would her teachers, healers, etc).

She took a deep breath before making the same movement, this time putting even more focus than the dozens of times before. They had been doing the same thing for almost two weeks now and she wanted to get past it. Of course, the Burke knew impatience would only be her enemy, but even her awareness couldn’t change the fact that she was thirteen. “Again.” And again and again and again. She sighed. And tried… one more time (and dozen others).

(…)

“Again” This time, there was a smile on Claire’s face as she reached out for her wand, making a sign with her empty one so the teacher would wait just a few seconds. She used the time she gained to fix her hair in a ponytail, finally able to concentrate. One thing the Burke hated about having a big hair was that it usually got in the way of her thoughts - so when training, especially for something as important as refraining her powers, she tried as much as she could to stop all things that could take her attention somewhere else. Nowadays, being fifteen, those hours training wouldn’t happen with so much frequency if compared to the other years - she was really growing up now, becoming a mature lady and not just a child anymore, and with that her powers should be growing too. So while she should focus, with the help of her teacher, in her own restrainment, it wasn’t good to really “use” her powers for too long - who knows, maybe something could happen and she could lose control of it (or at least that’s what they would tell her).

Things were good, though, as long as she made an effort - that way, there was no way her powers would develop too much, and she would never be guilty of hurting anyone because of it.

(…)

Ten years later, Claire found herself in a somewhat good position of life. She had a good family, yes, friends enough so she wouldn’t get bored, and her job was ok. It wasn’t the type of life she would think, maybe, if it wasn’t for her Spirit, but that was how things were supposed to be in the end of the day. Claire knew that it wouldn’t do any good to think of how things could have been, to wonder for too long, because the truth was, her fate could never be changed. And she really enjoyed her life, as much as she thought she should - thoughts like “not living up to her full potential” or “completely ignoring and suppressing an important part of her” never appeared on her mind. What could happen sometimes was that she wondered about having another job, for example, but she knew the importance of staying at the Ministry, under eyes that knew better, that could keep her from doing things she would later regret - after all, wasn’t that why she chose to work there? And yes, someone could argue that it wasn’t reeeeally her choosing, but it felt like it. Claire was a happy. As happy as she could be. And safe.

So things were, for her, just as right as they should be.

#accepted

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savetopnow · 7 years ago

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2018-03-16 02 BUSINESS now

BUSINESS

Business Insider

March Madness is underway — here is an updated look at the bracket with live scores

What you need to know on Wall Street today

You're probably not 'totally straight,' according to new research

'Wonder Woman' star Gal Gadot is facing backlash after her tribute to Stephen Hawking mentioned him being 'free of any physical constraints'

Sarah Hyland opened up about why she responds to body shamers: 'Sometimes it gets too much'

Harvard Business Review

Why We Don’t Let Coworkers Help Us, Even When We Need It

How to Use Employee Referrals Without Giving Up Workplace Diversity

Decades Ago, Pilots Learned to “Fly by Instruments.” Doctors Need to Do the Same

To Control Your Life, Control What You Pay Attention To

VC Stereotypes About Men and Women Aren’t Supported by Performance Data

Inc

3 Smarter Ways to Use Microsoft Excel

Why a Co-Founder of UFC Is Launching a New MMA Startup

3 Simple Things You Should Do From Day 1 of Your Startup

What You Can Learn About Investing From Oprah's $110 Million Payday from Weight Watchers Stock

7 Types of Profile Pics You Should Never Post on LinkedIn, According to Recruiters

New York Times Business

Claire Foy, Queen on ‘The Crown,’ Was Paid Less Than Her Onscreen Husband

A Cyberattack in Saudi Arabia Had a Deadly Goal. Experts Fear Another Try.

DealBook Briefing: The Fall of Theranos Is Nearly Complete

Larry Kudlow’s Not-So-on-the-Money Predictions

Harper Lee’s Estate Sues Over Broadway Version of ‘Mockingbird’

Reddit Business

Can someone just give their stock back to a company?

China is ready for a trade war with the US — and it could hurt Americans

IHeartMedia Bankruptcy: Radio Company Enters Chapter 11

Exclusive: Wells Fargo faces sanctions for auto insurance payouts - sources

The Senate just quietly passed the biggest rollback of Wall Street regulations since the financial crisis

Reddit Startup

A survey for a new product I am working on.

Startup Failure Update : 37 days later

What are alternatives for cloud storage for Start-ups that provide api access like AWS a3?

G Suite vs Office365

Anyone had luck identifying a remote/virtual resource/service for admin assistant type work?

The Economist Business and Finance

Online starlets are refashioning Chinese e-commerce

Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi has become the world’s biggest carmaker

Which firms profit most from America’s health-care system

Unilever picks Rotterdam

Germany’s two biggest utilities strike a deal

Wall Street Journal Business

Radio Giant iHeartMedia Files for Bankruptcy

Blue Apron to Sell Meal Kits in Stores to Buttress Sagging Deliveries

Economists Worry a Trade War Could Derail U.S. Growth

Tesla's Make-Or-Break Moment Is Fast Approaching

What to Expect With Kudlow Heading Economic Council

Yahoo Finance

Thousands flee in first mass exodus from Syria's besieged eastern Ghouta

After A Year In Space, NASA Astronaut's Genes Have Changed. Possibly For Good.

Man Who Claimed He Was Accomplice In Natalee Holloway Slaying Is Fatally Stabbed

All-new 2019 Toyota RAV4 to be unveiled in New York

U.S., European Countries Bash Russia As Spy Poisoning Spat Intensifies

#business

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magzoso-tech · 5 years ago

Text

The rise of the winged pink unicorn

New Post has been published on http://rebrand.ly/utuf520

The rise of the winged pink unicorn

Claire Diaz-Ortiz Contributor

Claire Diaz-Ortiz is an angel investor and bestselling author of nine books that have been published in more than a dozen countries. An early employee at Twitter, she was called “The Woman Who Got the Pope on Twitter” by Wired and holds an MBA and other degrees from Stanford and Oxford.

More posts by this contributor

Latin America takes the global lead in VC directed to female co-founders

Like most investors, I am a little too obsessed with unicorns.

But not just the Silicon Valley kind. As the mother of a five-year-old daughter, my interests also veer in a pink, sparkly direction. So it should not be all that surprising that I recently found myself in a dusty corner of the internet where die-hard unicorn fans go to spread their wings.

It was there, deep in the My Little Pony forums, that one question stopped me in my tracks: “is a male alicorn possible in the future?1”

An alicorn, for those uninitiated to the mythological particulars, is the rare winged, female version of a traditional unicorn.

My Little Pony popularized the term, and the fan forum on which user “Green Precision” asked his question back in 2015 had some interesting answers to the particulars of this philosophical dilemma.

Shadow Stallion responded immediately, “I don’t think a male Alicorn will be possible in the future. Not because its [sic] not wanted or because its [sic] not genetically possible…but generally when male characters are introduced to a show where female characters are prominent, things get ugly.”

Malinter posited, “they probably do but given the female-to-male ratio of Equestria2 they are probably exceptionally rare. The real problem for a male alicorn is not that they exist but where is their place in the world? …Our male alicorn has some pretty big hoof prints to fill in while at the same time not make a trainwreck of established lore.”

Wind Chaser went straight from unconscious bias to conscious bias in their response: “aesthetically a male alicorn just wouldn’t look right, because their bodies are already naturally larger than females, thus the wings would cause an imbalance to the design.”

But it wasn’t all bad news.

“Until it’s proven otherwise, it’s safe to say that something like a male alicorn is possible,” responded Geek0zoid. Crysahis agreed. “Overall yes, I believe there could be a male alicorn it may just take a while to actually happen!”

It doesn’t take a PhD in philosophy from Stanford or the one lone female investing partner at Sequoia3 to posit that these same conversations were probably happening all over Sandhill Road in December of 2009, as male VCs discussed whether female unicorns could actually happen4.

As we move into 2020, though, we’re about to see a pink, winged stampede.

Just look at the recent trends. In 2019, more female-funded unicorns were born than ever before.5 And things are only looking up. (I’m looking at you, ClassPass!)

Public opinion agrees. Alongside TruePublic, where I am an advisor and angel investor, I ran a study asking if people believed we would see more female-led unicorns in the 2020s.6 At the time of this article, 68% of the 6,500 respondents said they believed we would see more, with 30% of women responding “many more” (as opposed to only 16% of men). Only 4% of women, but 9% of men, responded “no, not a chance.”7

Kaben Clauson, founder and CEO, says “to represent Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X, TruePublic needs a weighted sample of roughly one thousand Americans to represent that population of the USA.” This particular study already has 6,500 respondents, making it statistically significant.

In fact, female-founded and female co-founded companies are actually over-indexing for unicorn status despite a lack of investment dollars.

Shelby Porges, co-founder of The Billion Dollar Fund for Women, explains: “Recent tracking has shown that female-founded companies represent 4% of all unicorns. That’s astonishing considering that in the past couple of years, they have gotten only slightly more than 2% of all venture funding.” Porges, whose group has mobilized more than 80 venture funds to pledge to invest over a billion dollars into women-founded companies, continues, “It demonstrates why we say, ‘when you invest in women, you’re in good company.’ ”

Here are the three reasons I believe a herd of winged female unicorns (OK, alicorns) is coming down the pipeline in the 2020s:

1. Women invest in women at 3x the rate of men

New data reveals that women invest in women at nearly three times the rate that men do and with the (slow) rise in the number of female investing partners at VCV firms, we are poised to see more and more gender-balanced founding teams getting funding.8 Like one male GP at one of the world’s top VC funds said to me when discussing one of the few female partners at his firm, “she always brings us parenting companies.” It might be cringe-worthy if TechCrunch hadn’t declared 2020 “a big year for online childcare” and that same female partner weren’t about to make a big chunk of cash thanks to all the upcoming parenting alicorns she was smartly funding.

Sophia Bendz, a partner at Atomico who also leads the Atomico Angel Program, said, “I’m confident we’ll see more female unicorns in the next decade because there’s a growing wave of ambitious female founders building incredible products and services. There are also more women in VC now and I’ve seen first-hand the impact having female investment partners can have on increasing the amount of investment into female-led companies. The data shows that women invest in women at three times the rate as male investment partners.”

My study at TruePublic coincided with these findings. When asked if a female investor was more likely to invest in a female entrepreneur, 64% of people responded affirmatively (64% of these individuals were women and 63% were men).9

Jomayra Herrera agrees. An investor at Cowboy Ventures (which thanks to Aileen Lee coined the term “unicorn” in the first place), and a volunteer with AllRaise, a nonprofit promoting women in VC, she says: “As the venture industry continues to diversify, especially as it relates to gender and race/ethnicity, I am optimistic that we will see more female-led and people of color-led unicorns over the next decade. We know that diverse teams not only function better, but they are able to see areas of opportunities that more homogenous teams might miss. I think the next generation of investors are more likely to question conventional wisdom, forms of pattern recognition that may lead to bias, and other structural barriers that have historically left out promising entrepreneurs.”

Camila Farani is a well-known investor in Brazil. As founder of G2 Capital, former president of Gavea Angels and a personality on Brazil’s “Shark Tank,” she says “having diverse points of view at the table makes the decision clearer and more certain. People who think differently than you and have other visions of the market, sometimes can show you what you can’t see by yourself.”

She also reminds us not to forget the impact that angel investors can have. “The investments market is still made up mostly of men, but this landscape is changing gradually. It is interesting to see that angel investing is being the most common choice for women who want to make their first investments.”

This trend of investing more in women isn’t just limited to female investors. Susana Robles has spent two decades leading the charge to invest in women in Latin America and alongside Marta Cruz of NXTP Labs is co-founder of WeXchange, a platform that connects women entrepreneurs from Latin America and the Caribbean with mentors and investors.

As Robles says, “I think the world is finally waking up to the fact that there is serious research proving that startups with women co-founders win in all aspects: profitability, as well as greater social and environmental awareness. Investors should want to have this triple win.” She continues, “women tend to return money to investors faster than men, and at the same time, they obtain higher returns. Women are in charge of 64% of all global purchasing decisions on products and services, so having women on C-level positions increases the chance that a startup [will] be highly attractive to a massive market and become a unicorn.”

It also extends to the LPs in the funds. “I also think many investors in funds (mostly DFIs [development finance institutions] but not exclusively) have become more vocal in stating that they don’t want any more to invest in teams led by an all-white, all-male cast who choose startups with all-white, all-male founders.” Jennifer Neundorfer is the co-founder of Jane VC and an investor in Kinside, a parenting app that just raised a $3 million seed round. When describing her fund’s rationale for focusing on female founders, she drops the mic: “we’re going to invest in an under-looked asset class that is overperforming.” Boom.

2. Female founders are creating new billion-dollar markets

Another reason we’ll see more female-founded “alicorns” in the 2020s has everything to do with the new markets that female founders are creating. Hunter Walk of Homebrew was one of the initial seed investors in Winnie, an online marketplace for childcare that recently raised a $9 million Series A. At the time, he saw something that others investors didn’t. Winnie co-founder Sara Mauskopf explains, “Four years ago when we started Winnie, parenting and especially child care were not hot investment areas. This has been changing. It certainly helps that more investors are women and are in the thick of their child-bearing and rearing years.”

Part of what Walk says he recognized was the clear founder-market fit displayed by Mauskopf and her co-founder Annie Halsall. As Mauskopf says, “With Winnie, we saw an opportunity to solve the child-care crisis that other founders either did not recognize or did not care to solve. While everyone else was starting crypto and scooter companies, we were building the first-ever tech platform for $57 billion child care industry. Lack of access to quality child care disproportionately impacts women, so it shouldn’t be surprising that it took a female led team to capitalize on this opportunity.” Expanding on the concept of founder-market fit, Walk says, “I love to come away thinking, these are the absolute right founders to build this business.”10

Bendz, the Atomico partner who specializes in femtech and is also an avid angel investor, agrees. “Often I meet founders that you can tell are at the right place at the right time with the right mindset and the right team. It’s almost like all of the experiences they have had prior to launching a company have been preparing them to create that business at that time. These are the kind of founders who I know are in it for the long haul, and who are going to weather the ups and downs.” As a woman who uses the products and services she invests in, Bendz is also an example of investor-market fit, which I believe will open new markets in the decades to come.

Something else investors like Walk and Bendz believe in? Outsized opportunities. And the potential for outsized opportunities are especially ripe in untapped markets. The rise of femtech is yet another example of how the intuitive success of the concept of founder-market fit ultimately needed more female founders for certain markets to blossom. As Bendz explains, “Throughout a woman’s life there are many big events that have a big impact on our overall health — from childbirth to menopause. I know all women are tired of poor or non-existent solutions for women surrounding those life events, and that’s why we are seeing so many companies launching to better serve women’s needs. When you think about the fact that women have only had the right to vote and educate themselves for 100 years, it’s mind-blowing how long the world was operating with only 50% of the population in control. That’s reflected in the products and services we as a society have funded.”

Women’s consumer products are another area. Ornella Moraes is one of four female co-founders of Brazilian-led Sousmile, which recently raised a $6 million USD Series A led by Kaszek Ventures. “Our brand is a woman,” Moraes says of her dental beauty startup that retails throughout São Paulo. And so are the leaders of the company. At Sousmile, there are four female co-founders and two male co-founders. “More dentists in the world are women than men, so it’s been critical for our team to have more female founders,” she says. In this way, the rise of female founders and co-founders can completely change markets. “We believe this will fundamentally create a different type of product,” says Walk.

3. Emerging markets will take the lead

Finally, certain emerging markets pose a particular opportunity for female founders by over-indexing for both large IPOs and female founders. 2017 was the first year that more of the largest IPOs in the internet sector globally came from emerging markets. Nazar Yasin, founder of Rise Capital, which invests in emerging markets, says “This trend isn’t going away.” After all, most GDP growth comes from emerging markets, where most global internet users live. As he explains, “the future of market capitalization growth in the internet sector globally belongs to emerging markets.” And yet this type of innovation takes resilience. “If you’re a startup in one of these markets, it’s like trying to grow a plant in the desert.”11 In an environment that demands more daily resilience, there is a different appetite for risk and innovation. (I call this resilience innovation.)

Perhaps the easiest example of emerging market innovation fueled by resilience is fintech. Emerging markets and their often unstable economies boast a much higher number of frustratingly unbanked individuals. This brings about innovation. Hanna Schiuma, the Brazilian-born fintech founder of ElasBank, where I am an angel investor and advisor, explains how ubiquitous such fintech innovation is becoming.

“Soon all finance will be tailor-made and fintech will be common ground because all financial services will be technology-intensive.” She also argues that the nature of such an innovation allows the industry to become more innovative, and thus inclusive, which is exactly what is happening with her own women’s bank, launching in 2020. “That means great opportunities to better serve women’s financial needs to offer dedicated products, and to gather female talent to build those products from a diverse and innovative perspective.” Ultimately, “resilience is key for us to build that pool of talent and open the doors for gender balance and financial inclusion.”

Furthermore, data shows Africa and Latin America both beat global averages for percentages of startup female founders. Laura Stebbing is co-CEO of accelerateHER, a global community of leaders addressing the under-representation of women in tech through action. Raised in Southern Africa, Stebbing is passionate about Africa’s rise as a hub of female entrepreneurship.

“Africa has both the highest proportion of women founders at 26% [Latam comes in second]12 and a $42 billion funding gap. There’s clearly no lack of talent across Africa’s 54 countries, so for the investors, corporate executives, policy makers and established founders that aren’t moved by the moral arguments for gender parity, notice the enormous business opportunity. We will start to see a higher volume of resilient, scalable companies emerge as leaders build more diverse networks and ecosystems that support women to unlock their entrepreneurial potential.” Nathan Lustig, founder of Magma Partners, a VC firm in Latin America which invests in female founders above the regional average, explains, “investing in and empowering resilient women entrepreneurs is just good business, and is one of the biggest investment opportunities, especially in emerging markets.”

I believe Latin American can have an edge. I am a Silicon Valley-born investor now living in “Silicon Aires,” where I have been thrilled to see exciting numbers of female founders in Latin America. Susana Robles agrees, and says the reason is in part due to the nature of a committed ecosystem to support one another. “It’s the sheer need that forces you to collaborate.” An ecosystem like Silicon Valley doesn’t have the same need to do so. Of Latin America, Robles says, “In 10 years, we will have created a much more collaborative market than the developed ones.” And that collaboration is leading to great female founders. 2019, in fact, saw more funding going to female co-founders in Latin America than in Europe or the USA.13

This will lead to future alicorns. Ann Williams, COO of Creditas, a Brazilian fintech currently closing in on its own unicorn status, says “the conversion funnel for unicorns works just like any other selection process. We fill the top with a bunch of great women in supporting roles in emerging market startups, these women take their experiences and found rocking new companies. A percentage of these will convert to scaleups raising Series C and D rounds with valuations at $1 billion or higher. And voila! we get women-led unicorns.” She continues, “the odds are with us and I am sure the talent is too!”

Juliane Butty, startup head at Platzi and former regional manager of Seedstars, one of the leading accelerators and investors fostering female entrepreneurship in emerging markets, joins Williams. “We have definitely seen the rise of female founders and investors in emerging markets in the last decade. One supports the other. And we know that success breeds success.”

Perhaps My Little Pony fan Malinter said it best when he suggested how a male version of the alicorn could finally emerge in such a female-dominated space: “The simplest way they could probably add one in would be to make said alicorn the ruler of a neighboring nation.” In the same way, emerging markets may just hold the key for female unicorns.

No matter the region, Robles says “if we keep opening doors to women entrepreneurs who are as ambitious as men in growing their companies, we’ll begin to see many more unicorns with gender diversified teams.” Hanna Schiuma, the Elasbank founder who just might be building the next female-founded unicorn, agrees. “The alicorns are coming. And we’re ready to fly.”

2Equestria is of course where the My Little Ponies and their assorted unicorns, alicorns and friends all live. 3Go Jess Lee! 4Yes, Aileen Lee of Cowboy VC first invented the term in her 2013 TechCrunch piece, but we’re in a unicorn-fueled time machine, people. 8“Do Female Investors Support Female Entrepreneurs? An Empirical Analysis of Angel Investor Behavior,” Seth C. Oranburg, Duquesne University School of Law, Pittsburgh PA, USA and Mark Geiger, Duquesne University School of Business, Pittsburgh PA, USA 12Forthcoming research from TechCrunch/Crunchbase 13Forthcoming research from TechCrunch/Crunchbase

#Miscellaneous

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disndatradio · 7 years ago

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Nicole Dollanganger’s Honeymoon Phase

Lately, Nicole Dollanganger has been spending a lot of time in abandoned love motels. In March of this year, she released five tracks from her forthcoming album, Heart Shaped Bed — her first full-length record since Natural Born Losers, the 2015 breakout that brought her to the attention of Grimes. Soon after, she departed for the Poconos, ancestral homeland of the honeymoon resort, to film a handful of music video with Grimes’ brother, director Mac Boucher.

“I went there assuming it was still this land of love,” Dollanganger, 27, told me on a scorching summer afternoon in New York, just a few days after she finished the video shoot. But when she arrived, she found the area hollowed-out and in disrepair: “A lot of the abandoned resorts developed weird reputations of being, like, unsavory swingers’ joints, and it developed a seedy reputation so they all shut down,” she explained. The viscera of the motels’ previous tenants still litter the rooms — keys; customer complaint forms; dangling bits of tinsel. She eagerly dove in, collecting these memento mori as if they were evidence or forgotten relics.

“She could probably be Indiana Jones in another universe,” said Boucher.

Though the Poconos were not quite what Dollanganger expected, somehow, what she found in rural Pennsylvania was even better. “It had this weird Sleepy Hollow meets dystopian Las Vegas kind of vibe,” Boucher told me. “Everything is love-based, but it’s broken down and destroyed, which is one of the coolest paradoxes that you can find.”

Heart Shaped Bed was already about the ugly, fucked-up, dark parts of love; standing there, amid the ruins of the honeymoon resorts, Dollanganger thought there was more she could do with the unreleased second half of the album. And then she started working on it again.

“There’s no more obvious metaphor for a bad relationship or a doomed relationship than an abandoned honeymoon resort,” Dollanganger explained. (“It felt like we were walking into the record,” Matthew Tomasi, her frequent collaborator, told me.) A recurring theme on Heart Shaped Bed, she said, is how a person’s sense of individual identity can become blurred inside a relationship. “Some of the songs, though they were still love songs, were almost me trying to reclaim personal identity. After the Poconos, I could still feel that, but it just became a bigger scope.”

Dollanganger was staying in Newark, New Jersey, where she and her keyboard set up shop in a rented apartment to continue writing. Through her publicist, I had asked if there was anything she wanted to do while she was in, or near, New York; her manager had suggested Ellen’s Stardust Diner, in Times Square. Before even looking it up, I said yes: I, like Nicole, really love a diner.

But Ellen’s Stardust Diner is not really a diner. At Ellen’s Stardust, the Broadway-hopeful wait staff belts out show tunes and dances across tables while patrons of varying degrees of patience try to eat their all-day breakfast. (For me, a grilled cheese; for Dollanganger, an egg sandwich.) Occasionally, our conversation was punctuated by such musical interludes: the dramatic finale of “A Wonderful Guy” from South Pacific; the fateful meeting of Anna and Prince Hans during “Love Is An Open Door” from Frozen; and also the song from High School Musical.

Heart Shaped Bed, out today, is Dollanganger’s sixth record. (Despite the fitting title, it’s named not for the literal heart-shaped beds found at honeymoon resorts, but for its association with “one of the most expensive, rare items” on Neopets.) In the art for the album’s lead single “Lemonade,” Dollanganger appears bathed in a blue glow, gazing back over her shoulder. Her eyes are rimmed with black, her hair a long blonde wig.

All year, she’s been posting similar photos, taken from various love motels, to her Instagram, an immaculately curated feed of retro slip dresses and heart-shaped bathtubs that creates a vivid visual world for Heart Shaped Bed. When we met, though, she wore a simple black dress with a sheer kimono, a velvet headband holding back her hair. She texts with flourishes of emojis — the flower bouquet and the deep red heart — and exclamation points. She’s generous and open, frequently turning the conversation back to me.

Dollanganger grew up in Stouffville, Ontario, a small town an hour outside Toronto that she described as half-farmland, half-suburbs, where she started going to hardcore shows in high school. After graduating, she attended film school for a couple years — and adopted the Dollanganger name, borrowed from a series by her favorite writer, VC Andrews — but dropped out when she was diagnosed with an eating disorder in her early twenties. While in recovery, much of which was spent on bed rest, she started furiously writing and recording her own songs. She uploaded a few to her Tumblr and then to Bandcamp, where they found a small but fervent audience.

Dollanganger wrote relentlessly: By the time her music came to the attention of Grimes three years ago, she had already put out four albums. She never returned to film school, but her love of film — especially horror — still girds her work. In the Poconos, she and Boucher tried to capture the violence of a horror film without being exploitative: “How do you do that in a way that’s not going to be triggering or offensive or turn people off, but is an add to the beauty of it, while still being true?” Boucher wondered.

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As the myth goes, Grimes heard “You’re So Cool,” the closing track of Natural Born Losers, and decided to launch Eerie, the label-cum-music collective, in order to put out the album. “It’s a crime against humanity for this music not to be heard,” she said at the time. (Dollanganger remains Eerie’s only musician.) Where Dollanganger’s previous bedroom recordings had been almost diaristic in their intimacy — her voice and a quietly plucked guitar — Natural Born Losers dispensed wholly with the twee edge of her early work, replacing it with the thrum of slide guitars, distorted electric chords, and looped vocals lushly illustrating images of sexual violence and rural poverty.

At the same time, Grimes selected Dollanganger to open for her on the Rhinestone Cowgirls tour in support of 2016’s Art Angels. It was Dollanganger’s first foray into playing live, and she recruited her longtime friends Tomasi and Kevin Jenkins to accompany her. I saw them play at Montreal’s Metropolis in November 2015: Dollanganger stood center stage, dressed in a black three-quarter sleeve dress and fingerless gloves and backed by two big dudes with hair obscuring their faces. (Tomasi pulled double duty as guitarist and drummer; Jenkins played bass.) They covered Type O Negative. The juxtaposition between her delicate voice and the otherwise metal look and feel, as pointed out in reviews at the time, was irresistible.

Shy and withdrawn, Dollanganger didn’t immediately take to being on the road. She battled stage fright, often needing a drink to prevent her hands from shaking as she held the microphone, and strained her voice, naturally breathy and soft, against the backing of a full band. She slept in shady motels with a bunch of men. “Just, like, rough living,” she told me. “It was basically all my fears happening at once.”

It wasn’t without its benefits, though. “Everyone that I’ve toured with, they’ve all been very experienced, so they’ve all had great advice, but especially [Grimes], because she is a powerhouse, she works alone, she’s just doing her thing,” Dollanganger said. “There were a few times when I was just really struggling on the road or whatever and she was just really great with bringing me back to reality that this can’t always be perfect and that’s not what it’s about.” (“Claire respects how hard it is being a solo female artist,” Dollanganger told The Fader in 2015, shortly before the Rhinestone Cowgirls tour.) They’ve stayed in touch, occasionally exchanging music, and Grimes’ brother, whom she met during a show in Toronto, offered to help her shape the visual landscape of Heart Shaped Bed.

After Rhinestone Cowgirls, Dollanganger kept touring, playing with (Sandy) Alex G, Elvis Depressedly, and Teen Suicide, and hardcore outfits Code Orange and Free At Last. And when she wasn’t touring, she was planning for touring. “It consumed everything,” she told me, adding that she found it challenging to write while on the road. She put out the odd single — “Chapel,” “Beautiful & Bad,” “Have You Seen Me?” — but this was practically radio silence compared with the record-a-year pace she had maintained when she started out.

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Eventually, she had to go back home, back to Stouffville — and she had to start writing again. Touring “changed everything,” Dollanganger told me. (We paused for a minute as our waiter stepped on stage to perform “You’ll Be Back” from Hamilton.) “It was almost like I had to relearn how to make music,” she went on. “When I got home, I would be writing songs and I would just be like, ‘I can’t play this live.’ I went from someone who felt very — almost to an extreme degree — I’ll just say whatever. I felt very free. Coming home from touring and that exposure, I suddenly felt like I lost that inhibition.” She found herself critiquing her work before she could even finish getting the song down on paper, trying to forecast how it would be received by a theoretical audience.

Here, a waitress belted out the Phantom Of The Opera theme, briefly pausing our conversation. We decided we had to leave. We paid the bill and packed up what remained of our lunch, high-tailing it down towards Broadway as a waiter singing “Zoot Suit Riot” by the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies — connection to Broadway unclear — bore down behind us, practically chasing us out the door. Outside, it was one of those days where you could practically see the heat rising off the pavement; even midtown Manhattan felt suppressed, quieter, its energy sweated out. We walked a few blocks north, towards Central Park, where we found a shaded patch, the sun unremitting. A pair of dogs frolicked nearby; at one point, a pair of tourists asked Dollanganger to take a photo for them.

After the success of Natural Born Losers, she thought perhaps she could replicate it — “There was a lot of conversation about the creepy-cute, and I felt a lot of pressure to deliver something that would be gross but not,” she said — but it came out contrived. It wasn’t just that she was second-guessing how her music would be received; she was also trying to suppress her impulse to write love songs. Dollanganger simply did not want to write another love record. (The first was Ode To Dawn Wiener: Embarrassing Love Songs, in 2013.) She wrote, and discarded, hundreds of songs, wrote entire records she would never put out. She tried not to write another love record. But, eventually, that’s what came out. “I don’t think we super get to choose these things,” she said, describing Heart Shaped Bed as “the darker side” of the previous record.

There was no one moment where Dollanganger found herself writing freely again — it’s still hard, she said. But a producer friend, Arthur Rizk, who she met in March around the time of an early scouting mission to the Poconos and who helped produce three tracks on Heart Shaped Bed — “Chapel,” “Snake,” and “Lacrymaria Olor” — offered her some particularly valuable advice: “You don’t second-guess yourself; you just keep going with it,” she quoted. “At the end of the day, if the song is finished and you don’t like it, that’s fine.”

Heart Shaped Bed started to come into focus last August. Dollanganger and a handful of other musicians, including Tomasi, set up camp in an abandoned elementary school, where they spent two weeks honing her demos and writing new songs.

“I didn’t fare very well,” she recalled. “For me, music has to be very personal, very self-contained.”

A couple relics from that session made it onto the completed record: the piano parts in “Uncle” and “Lemonade”; some slide guitar and piano in “Lacrymaria Olor.” One night during that period, Dollanganger couldn’t sleep. It was early morning, maybe two or three, and she crept away to write. “It just kind of spilled out of me at this weird hour,” she said. The song was “Tammy Faye,” which she later re-recorded in Tomasi’s studio. “For me, the songs that happen like that,” she said, “They speak to me the most.”

After the elementary school, Dollanganger and Tomasi continued working on the songs they had demoed in his basement studio. “When I got home and I was listening, I was like, ‘OK, I know I feel good about these songs, it’s more like the delivery of them that doesn’t feel right,’” she said. “When we started working on it and I could be fully producing and everything, that was when I was like, this is it.”

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So here’s what this is: Heart Shaped Bed, with its recurring images of ambivalent marriages, incest, and the big and small violences that can be found inside romantic relationships, depicts the ugliness that can accompany such intimacy with another person. But in looking so deeply, so unflinchingly into the ugliness, it peers through to the other side. And over there, it’s beautiful. “Make something gross feel romantic,” Dollanganger instructs on the title track, urging her lover to take her to a love motel where they can enact their own fantasy world. “The sign says, ‘Heaven waits on the other side.’”

If the first five tracks — the sampler songs, “Uncle” through “Heart Shaped Bed” — describe a bleak landscape of broken love (“I will always come to you when I’m weak and empty,” she chants on “Uncle,” named for a lost VC Andrews short story called “I Slept With My Uncle On My Wedding Night.”) Then the second five songs form the album’s sunken underworld. Heart Shaped Bedcloses with “Lacrymaria Olor,” a song named for a bloodthirsty little single-celled organism known colloquially as a “swan’s tear.” The song begins and ends with a piercing, unearthly wail, Dollanganger’s own voice pitch-shifted and warped beyond recognition.

She recorded the track at Rizk’s studio in Philadelphia in the fall, and listening back through it, she recognized as the conclusion to Heart Shaped Bed. “There needs to be something on a record that ties everything together, otherwise it’s just a compilation of songs,” Rizk told me, “and I feel like that is definitely the roof.” Tomasi echoed this: “I was like, this is a genius track,” he said. “This is going to be the record closer.”

At first, Dollanganger thought she’d call the song some variation on “Tears Of A Swan” — “tears just falling into the pond are meaningless,” she explained — but first, she did a quick search to make sure that wasn’t something that already existed. She became strangely captivated by the tiny ciliate that, when decapitated, can grow a new head within moments, and she gave the song its name.

It came into strange alignment with the cover art for Heart Shaped Bed. Dollanganger, decapitated, stands on a heart-shaped mattress, paddling her way down the River Styx. Her head, severed from her shoulders, bobs alongside the raft, and she’s in the process of scooping it up with an oar. She’s Ophelia, plucking her own head from the lake.

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