#sketches to retain my sanity

[kuppakohee]

sketches bcuz busy

[tootditoot]

There ought to be at least one cat designated as a reading companion in a museum library

[vgriffindor]

aMusketeer Fanfic Master Post

Calling all Musketeers! We’re all in need of a serious dose of our favourites, amirite? I’ve seen a few queries floating around lately asking for some great Muskie fanfic recommendations. I thought I’d do 20 weekly posts, each with a different theme, and ask for your help! There are a ton of great Muskie fics out there, let’s help each other discover them.

How this works: For each theme, please give me your TOP recommendation. It can be a one-shot or multiple chapters, complete or still a WIP, your own or some one else’s, just shout about that one fic that fits the theme and you want people to READ! Reblog to spread the word, with your recommendation and tag me @vgriffindor, or DM your recommendation so that I can post it! I’ll keep each theme as a pinned post up/keep adding to it for the entire week.

Week #2: AUs

It sure is fun to place these four in a different world, and see how they react! Whether it’s the quiet heaven of a bookstore, the flirty, caffeinated vibes of a coffee shop, the perfume of a flower shop, the hard-bitten reality of a detective bureau, or just about anything else you can think of, the boys seem to handle whatever universe we throw at them with their trademark personalities and humour intact.

Midsomer Musketeers by Suzie_Shooter: Exactly what you think and want this to be, when you combine the Musketeers and Midsomer Murders. 

Fraternité et Égalité by BazinMousqueton: Clever, funny, sexy and gorgeously written modern AU in an architectural firm’s office. Slash, but not explicit, almost everyone is bi, and the whole thing is perfection.

(Below is all due to the hard work and enthusiastic response from @animanightmate! Thank you, you are awesome!)

E: yeah, you got me by cherryfeather - modern au graduation party oone-shot with a game of spin the bottle that gets angsty with forthcoming farewells and then very fulfilling indeed.

T: Chapter 10 of the collection of unrelated shorts (very short) His Smile Me Draws, His Frown Drives Me Away by akathecentimetre is entitled  In Goodly Colors Gloriously Arrayed and is a modern au where the lads are working for the Sûreté in Paris (though it’s never confirmed precisely as what) and it’s basically a series of three (the original Inseparables) character studies as they get used to being Responsible Adults. No filth... well, apart from Aramis’s feet...

G: Fancy is a very short modern au short by AnathemaDevice about the cats owned by (or owning) the various season three characters. Includes one of the most beautiful word-sketches of Sylvie I’ve yet read.

E: Mis Adventures by Doom Canary is an utterly filthy, modern British police au short featuring a trans male character that blew my mind in the best ways. If there’s a plot, I blinked and missed it.

T: born like a vapor by mellyflori is - and I can’t believe I’m typing this - a modern au where two of the Four are genies (yep, you read that correctly). It is utterly, unforgettably gorgeous, and just works. Angsty and charming, and has one of the most elegant solutions I’ve seen for “what happens with Constance?” The world-building is done so well it’s almost seamless, and I’m weak for that kind of thing.

T: Brand New Start is a short modern office au by potentiality_26 from Constance’s perspective and is melancholy, sweet, and vivid. OT3 but nothing graphic.

E: One in Ten Thousand by breathtaken is a novel-length modern soul bonds au that, as usual with her, subverts the trope and delves deep into the psyche of an intensely depressed Athos who was in no way prepared to meet his soulmate. It’s hard going at times, but utterly beautiful and very hot.

M: my heart upon my sleeve by cherryfeather is a novel-length modern Shakespearean actors au and I avoided it for ages because the synopsis was written in a deliberately tabloid style and I assumed the whole thing was like that. It is not - it is the most elegant, eloquent, literally tear-tugging bit of angst and mutual pining I’ve ever encountered, and takes in: hurt/comfort, Only One Bed, and friends-to-lovers tropes along the way. Basically, if they were a character in the first two seasons of the original, she finds a place for them in this gorgeous work.

E: The Humbling River (author unknown) is the only A/B/O fic that I will ever recommend, ever. This short is canon era, but I guess it still counts as au? I fell into it accidentally, but it was written so well that I didn’t care about the premise.

E: Une histoire de bleu by ceeturnalia is long. A 100k word modern day au where the lads are security specialists for a private firm in Paris. It is vividly stark and lushly compassionate in one go, and also explores a developing D/s relationship in great detail, so if that’s not your bag, that’s the main core of the story. And it’s handled so well that I have zero hesitation in recommending it, even though that in itself is not really my thing. It’s just so very, very good and, even at that length, still manages to be very tightly written.

M: Death in Waiting by Suzie_shooter is your actual 1920s country house murder mystery with all our favs (seasons 1 and 2 anyway) in a short-novel-length interbellum piece of Upstairs-Downstairs only of course there’s lots of forbidden sex all over the place, and a genuinely gasp-inducing (at least in me) set of reveals.

M: Still Waters by evilmaniclaugh is a modern office au with a twist. It’s porn with a plot (and a great deal of angst), and is startlingly hilarious in places (for good reasons, I promise).

M: Gentlemen of the Road by Suzie_shooter is a highwayman au set, from my vague enough understanding of the descriptions, about 100 years or so after the canon era. As usual for S_s, it’s Athos/Porthos pairing, from the perspective of Porthos, and I keep coming back to it, for the humour, the story, and the sex. Bonus points for Ninon and Rochefort showing up, and our brief glimpses of d’Artagnan being an utter little shit.

M: Mise en place by breathtaken is a short series featuring season 3 characters as chefs. And it’s stunningly beautiful, intimately told from a conflicted Constance’s perspective (something I’m utterly weak for) and I want there to be more because dammit - food and polyamory and found family and so many of my favourite things and I wish she was going to write more and aaaaah. Anyway, everyone is bi and kinky and I am so there for that...

I have so many of these, but I’m going to leave it here while I retain any shred of sanity or dignity, and finish by telling you about my own only (so far) modern au, entitled Summoned (rated M), set in modern-day Cambridge, UK, complete with references to Brexit and climate change, and a detailed depiction of the Fitzwilliam Museum. The MacGuffin is a museum anti-heist. Or is it reincarnation? Or music? Or synaesthesia? WHO KNOWS?! Anyway, it’s 75k+ words of conversations, misunderstandings, music, musings, museum architecture, poetry, stolen kisses, awkward flirting, and confusing flashbacks. There is one extended explicit sex scene and the rest is more along the lines of innuendo and a great deal of heated kissing. And I wrote it in about fives weeks and am rather proud of it, actually.

[lethendralis-paints]

Artist Meme

Was tagged to answer this set of interesting questions by @kourvo​

(original post is here: https://kourvo.tumblr.com/post/621355098110640128/artist-meme

Thank you so much for that!

Let’s see....

1) What is the character you've drawn the most (Can be original or fanart)

This precious boy. I can never get enough of him. One of the most compelling characters I have ever come across. Love everything about Fenris and can relate to him on so many levels!

2. What colour do you often use? 

Gray and brown are my faves. And all other colours have the same chance of appearing in my artwork :D

3. Any colour you are bad at using?

I don’t think so...I love them all, even the pinks and yellows people usually find hard to incorporate into a colour palette. Tell me in the comments if I’m wrong :)

4. When drawing people, where do you start? 

Funnily enough - either with the front of the hairline or with the left eyebrow. Don’t ask me, why - I don’t know myself.

5. What is a character only your eraser will love?

Hmmmm...any sort of villainous character. I can’t draw evil people convincingly. I’m a huge softy at heart.

6. Which of your works took the longest time? 

Big scale commission I did for @pikapeppa​, featuring all the Inquisition companions, along with Fenris, Rynne and Carver Hawke. That one took almost 3 weeks, due to its sheer scope and my relative lack of experience in such large works. Pika was extremely patient with me though, for that I am eternally thankful!

7. What techniques do you use when you want to improve in drawing? 

Classical art studies. Varying my technique, themes I choose and software I use. I try to experiment and go outside my comfort zone often.

8. What do you think of the art of the person who gave you this ask meme? 

I adore Lillymon’s technical skill, refined style and limited colours! She is a huge inspiration for me!

9. What art tools/media are you good with? 

DrawPile, Photoshop, graphite pencils and liners. That’s about it :)

10. Art tools/media you are bad at? 

Traditional paints. I have no formal artistic education and my lack of knowledge comes to the forefront whenever I have to paint on a real canvas. It’s so much trial and error, you can’t even imagine....

11. What do you think about your own art? 

Lately it’s one of the last few things that were bringing me joy. I hope I won’t lose the passion for it. Because at this point I’m not sure I’ll be able to find some occupation I will be genuinely interested in and good at it. I don’t know if me gravitating towards moody fantasy art speaks about my fear of facing reality. If so, idk what to do with that. I do hope to develop my skills and being able to support myself financially as an artist.

12. Do you consult references for your drawings? 

Yes. A lot of them. Anatomical atlases, schemes for both academic and manga art, photographs found online and taken on my own, copying colour palettes from classical art - anything goes. I think it’s essential to develop your technical skill.

13. What do you like about your art? 

Lately - consistency, both in terms of produced results and in sticking to the timelines I set to myself. I hope this lasts. I would also like to branch out to other themes and not confine myself to quirky fantasy characters, so I’m working on developing my own story behind the scenes (spoilers) :P

14. What habits do you have while drawing?

Only the bad ones, lol. Hunching forward in front of the screen, forgetting to eat, drink and letting my eyes rest. Tilting my head to the side instead of rotating the canvas....I’m an idiot XD

15. Are you good at drawing faces facing right? 

I think that’s the thing I’m good at!

16. How frequently do you draw? 

For the last 1,5 years - almost every day without fail, for good or ill.

17. What do you do when you have artist's block? 

Change occupation and work myself into a depressed state. I changed work places in the last few years a lot, working as an interior designer, draftsman, textile designer, a cook, a bartender to name a few.

18. What must you have when you draw? 

No commotion around me and a cup of some hot beverage.

19. Do you have a lot of stray lines (messy lineart)? 

In the starting stage of my work process - yes, like you wouldn’t believe! If it’s a personal doodle, I sometimes just leave in as am under layer and draw clean lines on top of that mess. It looks cool in a way.

20. What is drawing to you?

An essential part of what helped me to retain my sanity in the last year and a half. Hopefully a lasting profession that will help me pay bills and survive on my own, if my life falls apart entirely later.

21. Your art goal from now on? 

Broaden the themes I depict, improve my technical skill, work on personal creative project and not only fan arts. And most of all - not giving up on it this time.

22. Artists you've had influence from? 

To name a few: @kallielef​ @kourvo​ @shayafury​ @fairsparrow​ who I met here on Tumblr, and many others who I follow and zealously study their works for clues on how to improve my own work.

23. Artists you like? 

I am following them all either here or on Instagram, I also do my best to share their works on my side blog!

24. Which is easier to draw, humans or animals? 

It was animals earlier. But now that I started to diligently study human anatomy, I would say it evened out! I’m quite confident drawing humans/humanoids now!

25. Show us an old drawing 

My first digital drawing from 2010 when I first bought my tablet!

26. What is the charm-point of your art?

I ummm....I don’t really get the question? Is that like the the strongest suit of me as an artist? Intense expressions maybe? Idk. Let me know in the comments :D

27. What is the first thing you would draw if we're talking about fantasy? 

Broody warriors, he-he

28. Please draw your most beloved character:

Here’s a sneak-peek of me drawing him right now! :D

29. When thinking of characters is it mostly female? male? or androgynous/no sex? 

I usually gravitate towards depicting strong-willed, caring, passionate, brave, honest men and women.

30. What did you draw yesterday? 

Started cleaning up that sketch from the last question, actually!

31. What is the funnest part to draw? 

A circle. Mostly because you’d die laughing seeing my struggle to draw a believable one XD

32. What part of other people's drawings do you notice first? 

colours, mood, eyes, hands.

33. Regarding backgrounds, what is your method of making it easier to draw? 

pick your favourite textured brush, find a good reference for mood and colour scheme, zoom out, squint your eyes and start slapping colours like mad. You’d be amazed at how much you’ll be able to achieve in 30 minutes with this approach. Bare white background is the enemy - destroy it! >:)

34. What colour coordinations do you like? 

Gray or brown as a main colour and then deep, earthy, saturated colours to complement the main one. Pink and orange is the combination I strangely enjoy using lately too.

35. What character did you last draw? Fenris and Eris :)

36. Does your style change easily? 

I don’t think so. More like it’s evolving slowly into something more serious and deliberate.

37. What part of drawing do you pay most attention to? 

Facial expression, body movement, mood and light effects. Not so much the composition and framing, he he.

38. How do you feel about drawing adult art? 

Tbh, I don’t consider straight up porn to be ‘adult’ exactly. To me adult art means aiming towards serious topics, exploring complex emotions and ideas, being honest with your viewer. I did doodle a few more steamy sketches of my OTP just to see if I could, but it was definitely a tongue-in-cheek kind of a artwork that I don’t take seriously.

39. Do you like criticism from others? 

If it’s friendly and in done in private - I welcome it always.

40. How many people do you normally draw per artwork? 

1 or 2. Rarely more. Crowded battle scenes are definitely not my thing :D

This was fun! Tagging forward to @shayafury​ @schoute​ @stella-minerva​ @nug-juggler​ @kallielef​ and anyone else wishing to go through such a long questionnaire!

[watercolourferns]

Ramblings because it’s too early for me to be awake...

I was thinking the other day, while drawing Julian’s sketch, about why we are so much into fantasy, why we get lost in this Arcana world and other worlds of our own creation or of others’... and then I realised it’s because the real world SUCKS.  For example me: I’m chronically ill with lumbar scoliosis, and have mental disorders. These things make me unable to have a stable job, and in Mexico there’s no real welfare support, you need to have a “real” disability in order to get support and it’s usually not money but just medical assistance, which is good but I need to pay other bills and put food on our table you know? So because of this I can’t pay a decent rent or help my fiancee with bills and what not, and by herself she can’t really pay a decent rent either. This city is not userfriendly, ironically: people think that 3k with no services included is a decent amount to pay for a studio apartment that only fits you, a bed, and a grill; there’s almost no places that accept pets, nor whole families (for some reason there’s more “no children or families” places than otherwise... this isn’t a profesional haven, this is a very family oriented city...), and the price of electricity is steadily increasing with each year... So we resorted to living with my parents. My parents’ house is a big house, I have my own room and my own bathroom, being an only child has those advantages. But we don’t have our own freedom. And that SUCKS. My parents can be extremely overbearing, overprotective, borderline controlling; I don’t blame them, I’m an only child, no half-siblings either, and Mexico is a dangerous place for an only child with few friends and mental illnesses. Yet I’m not a child anymore and they haven’t grown out of it, regardless of how much I’ve shown them I don’t need to be babied. Because there’s a difference between taking care of and being babied... Anyways, my life, not counting my fiancee and my cats and my really really really close friends, SUCKS at the moment. I can’t move stuff around, I need to hear my mother chew me out whenever we have to clean, my dad is constantly knocking out door, and what little work I have as a freelance illustrator gets constantly interrupted. That makes it harder for me t walk forward because it triggers my depression and anxiety and I can’t function even a little bit. And it might sound so mild compared to other stuff people go through, but being penniless, in constant pain, having hallucinations at night and strong anxieties by day, and living with gender dysphoria and a general sense of self loathing and uselessness isn’t exactly the healthiest environment to be in... Queue the enter of fantasy and obsession with it: If your life sucks what are you supposed to do to retain what little sanity you might have left from all the bad stuff happening? YOU FALL INTO FANTASY. In your own world you can be whoever you want, you can be with whomever you want, you can do whatever you want. So it’s easy to fall into that, to just jump into the rabbit hole and fall away. I’m polyamorous, but have had really really horrible relationships with men. I was abused, used, cheated on, lied to, etc. So yeah, sucky male lovelife all around. So when I saw Julian, and I started to play the game, and read more and more about him... I was like “This man... this is the man I want in my life...” and I was doomed. But I know he’s fictional, no man like him exists, the whole package doesn’t exist. I was lucky to find my fiancee, she’s the whole package, and I’m sure there’s nobody like her out there. I was truly really lucky, but with men? I never have been, and I’m sure I never will be. It’s just my curse, and I’m ok with it, because I have Julian... it’s pathetic, and stupid, and really sad, but that’s mostly the reason we all fall into this fantasies: because we know that’s the only way we’ll get them, because life outside of them sucks, because we just want to be happy...

[autumnalhalcyon]

Full Commission Prices!

Are you a fan with a need to see art of your favorite character, or art of your OC doing awesome shit? If the answer is yes, I’ve got news for you!

I’m now posting prices for full commissions!

Like with my icon commission prices, I have varying degrees of what you can buy from me for different prices!

However, for the sake of my sanity, I will be keeping it to 5 Slots at a time, and open them back up once I finish every one of them!

Sketches - $20

> Great for dynamic action w/o the wait of a full-body > Easiest for me to push out fast while retaining quality

Half-Body/Busts - $30

> Fairly easy for me to put out, I can usually get these out the fastest. > Good for blog icons or profile pictures

Full Body - $50

> Really good for dynamic situations or OC references > Also good for banners or promos

Add a Character in a Full Body for $10 extra

> Good for the self-indulgent shippers that want more content > Will also probably take me the longest

I WILL draw:

OCs

Canon Characters

Furries (quite adept at them, actually)

Self-Ships (yourself with an oc or canon character, lewd or otherwise)

Smut

I WILL NOT draw:

NSFW of minors

Ships of IRL people (NSFW or otherwise)

Adult/Child ships (here we call that ped*philia, and im not about that)

Mechas (no idea where to even start with those, sorry ^u^”’)

Excessive Gore or torture

If you’re interested in purchasing, feel free to contact me here on @winglesshopeful!

Please provide a reference for OCs you want drawn!

I take payment via paypal at emphraxinus@gmail.com. Thank you so much!

[drinkupthesunrise]

Hi! Wedge has a notebook with rather good pen sketches of everything (he makes them seldom in minutes between battles and duties). Luke occasionally finds it (sorry for mistakes and grammar, it's not my native language). And thank you for your so beautiful fics!

Hello!! This is a delightful prompt and should have been a lovely happy fic to write; it instead delved into drawing-as-a-coping-mechanism for mental health issues. and Luke being supportive. So, I hope you like that? (Also, not kidding about the mental health issues, please tread carefully) (also on ao3)

Wedgeisn’tsure quite where he picked up the habit. He was always known forscribbling in things, over things, doing anything he could to keephis hands busy. When he’d decided that he wanted to be anarchitect, it had turned into a useful study, observing people fromlife, places, things.

Sohe keeps a notebook of flimsi and a real ink-pen in the pocket of hisflightsuit at all times, and he doodles in it when he can. It keepshis hands busy in meetings, at least, when he finds it difficult tostay concentrating and listen no matter how hard he tries. Beforelong, he’sbuilt up a book of sketches of the upper brass, everyone who comes tobrief them. He knows the way their ships are built from observingthem, putting pen to paper and marking out lines and shadows wherethe seams of metal fit, finding a way to represent them cleanly.

.

“How’dyou get away with it?” Hobbie Klivian whispers sharply, when Wedgepulls the notebook out during a briefing and balances it on his kneeto try and capture Jan Dodonna’s serious face.

They’dtold him to stop once, and Wedge had spent a week in briefings beinga constant figit, leg bouncing up and down restlessly, the sound ofhis boot hitting the floor echoing through the briefing room. He’dnot taken in a single word they’d said. A near-miss with twofighters later, and everyone had agreed to rescind the restriction.

LetWedge keep his coping mechanisms, because when they work, they makehim one of the finest pilots the Rebellion has seen yet.

“I’mjust that good,” Wedge replies, like if he says it it will be afact.

.

There’sa boy in this briefing with the most radiant golden hair and stunningvibrant blue eyes, and Wedge’s fingers are itching to draw him. Butthe black ink in his pen would never do this boy justice, and themood in the briefing room is electric enough that Wedge is pulled toattention.

Everyoneknows this is the big one. This is where the Rebellion with stand orfall, and the weight is born on the shoulders of starfighter pilots,on single-man craft. They are the underdogs, and apparently thesolution to beating the Empire’sgreatest weapon is to put a proton torpedo down an exhaust port.

Wedgemanages to get the gist of the briefing, but the boy besides him isdistracting. Wedge finds himself using his eyes to trace the boy’sfeatures, wondering if he can commit them to memory well enough toget the boy down later. It’s never the same as drawing from life,but Wedge isn’t sure he’ll ever be able to capture this boyanyway.

Hesparkles with something more.

.

Inhis grief, Wedge tries to draw everyone who flew that day. He pullsthe pictures from his mind, desperately trying to get it down beforehe forgets how Biggs’mouth used to curve as he smiled, how Piggy’s cheeks wobbled, howDreis’s eyes were strong and worn after years of service. He tearsholes in the paper of his notebook where he tries to get the ink downtoo quick, drawing too fast to try and get these things out of hishead, the faces of the twenty-one pilots who went to their deathsthat fateful day.

Hedoesn’tdraw in meetings any more. The distraction doesn’t work like itused to; now, when he draws, he gets lost in it, lost in his grief.Instead, he dedicates himself to using every ounce of his brain powerto keep his concentration on what’s in front of him, to keep theghosts from bleeding in at the edges of his memory. Luke takes tositting as close to Wedge as he can manage, his entire body lined upby Wedge’s side, giving Wedge something to focus on. He’ll stilltap his hands over anything he can get – he starts making sure hebrings caf to the meetings just so he can play with the mug, drum hisfingers over the sides of it.

Narradrags him aside one day, having noticed Wedge’snervous habits. He asks Wedge if he’s fit to fly. Wedge says he is,without hesitation. Narra gives him a look of complete disbelief,hauls him into the sims for three hours until Wedge vapes him fourtimes in a row.

Heunderstands Narra’sconcern, but flying is the only thing he’s ever done where thereisn’t something eating at the back of his brain. It’sinstinctive. His ship feels like an extension of himself, and hismind is clear, and he can see what he needs to do with a clarity heisn’t blessed with anywhere else in his life.

Hefeels free, up there amongst the stars.

Hisbrain is definitely wired a little differently, he knows that now. Hehas to have a full medical work-up every three months, and see acounsellor every one to retain his flight clearance. He’sconstantly on the edge of having it revoked, of being told that hecan’t fly anymore. If there wasn’t a war on, Wedge doubts he’dbe allowed to fly. He doesn’t tell anyone about it. It’s just whohe is.

Whenthey give Skywalker a squadron, he asks Wedge to be his second.Immediately, the panic starts eating away at Wedge’sbones, but he chokes out a yes. Because he can do this. He standsalongside Luke and Narra in that first briefing that they give, handsbehind his back, a thumb stroking the palm of the other, and suddenlyknows that he can.

.

It’sa lot easier to give a briefing than to listen to one.

Lukeis a brilliant CO who hasn’tthe first clue how to do all the behind the scenes work a squadronrequires; Wedge can do it all but only when he’s reminded andpresented with a list of exactly what needs doing. They findthemselves without the requisite parts, supplies and weapons a coupleof times in those first few months, before they work it out betweenthem.

Wedgepicks up drawing again, though now it’soften as he files datawork, allowing himself five minutes every timehe completes a new task to put a few more lines down. Luke becomeshis favourite subject, often because he’s the only person in theroom when Wedge gets out his pen these days. If he notices Wedgescribbling away, he doesn’t say anything. Luke’s good at that, atknowing when to intervene and when to keep his head out of otherpeople’s business. He’s inexhaustible sunshine, but he knows thatnot everyone wants that all the time.

Wedgelearns Luke, in that time, learns the curl of his hair, the curve ofhis nose, the dimple on his chin. The hollows of his cheeks as theycome into sharp lines as he grows a little older. He’sa pleasure to draw, in every way.

Wedgecatches himself staring. No one else does; Wedge has a reputation fora focused gaze, for holding his eyes on something too long, andeveryone lets it pass on him where they wouldn’tnecessary let it on anyone else. But he’s drawn to Luke, the softsmile he always has on his face, specially for Wedge at the end of along day.

Wedgeprobably shouldn’tbe surprised that one day he can’t quite clamp his impulsivenessdown quickly enough. Kissing Luke is like clear skies after rain,cleansing and beautiful and oh so right.

Lukekisses back.

.

Everythingis fine until it isn’t.

.

Eventually,something always breaks. That’sthe reality of life. Wedge can count the fractures in his life,retrospectively, awareness of them only coming after the fact.

Thisone creeps up on him. He stops sleeping properly, waking up in fitsand starts during the night and then wide awake before his alarm goesoff. That goes unnoticed because everyone else is doing it too. Hedevelops a fit of short temper, but again, half the Rebellion isrunning on a hair trigger, and Wedge is fineas long as he only talks to his squadron and certain members of HighCommand. He’sback to fidgeting, and his pen strokes never land quite the way hewants them too, and the shots he fires don’t either, and his X-Wingfeels clunky in his hands, directionless and aimless.

Thewar isn’tgoing well. It’s turned everything upside down, every person thisway and that. Any semblance of a routine has been thrown out oforder.

Andwith it goes the rest of Wedge’ssanity.

Notthat anyone realises that until they find him, tearing apart hisX-Wing, shredding wires with his bare hands as he tries to dig deeperinto it to fix a single switch that won’tlight up properly. In his frustration, he’s torn away half thecabling that makes his dashboard work in the process, smashed a pieceof glass, and bent several tools out of shape.

He’scursing up a storm and he’s practically vibrating with excessenergy as he tears things apart, pulling out to look for a tool,finding one, smashing it repeatedly into the box before deciding it’ssatisfactory, and returning with it. Luke, Hobbie and Tycho watch,wondering who spirited their friend away in the night and replacedhim with the half-version of himself. “Wedge, are you alright?”Luke asks.

“I’mfine,” Wedge forces out, in perfectly level tones, almost soundinglike himself only he clearly isn’t.

“Wedge,do you want to come out of there? Whatever’s going on one of themechanics can fix it,” Hobbie says. Concern spreads all over hisface; he knows that there’s history with Wedge, something thatmeans commanding officers have a tendency to watch him like a hawk,but he’s never been sure what. But Wedge is clearly not alright. Hedoesn’t respond to Hobbie at all. Hobbie draws back, letting Lukeapproach Wedge, and tells Tycho to go for medical help. This isbeyond them.

“Wedge.”Luke crouches besides him. “Come on. Lets go get breakfast – haveyou had breakfast?”

“Idon’t want breakfast, I want this to work—”Abroken sob enters Wedge’svoice, and Luke puts an arm around Wedge, wanting to help soothe hisfriend, a man he cares for more than that. Wedge throws Luke off,violently, not caring about what hurt he does. Luke furrows his brow.“It doesn’t, and I need it to, cause I can’t fly without it—”Luke doesn’t mention the fact that Wedge’s X-Wing was fit forservice the last time he saw it, and very much is not now. “Whywon’t it work?”

Wedgecollapses into violent, heaving sobs. Luke, wary of how his touch hadbeen taken earlier, is cautious in how he moves, but this time whenhe wraps an arm around Wedge, Wedge falls into the embrace. Luke justholds him, and then slowly removes the tools from his hand, fingersgrazing over all the little cuts Wedge has given himself in his pathto destruction.

Hemanages to help Wedge up. A tall women in her forties with a medicalinsignia on her uniform is standing beside Tycho, her arms crossed.When Wedge looks up at her, he sighs. “Iknow,” he says, before she can say anything. He’s two days offhis standing appointment with her, when all this would have come outeventually.

Sheshakes her head. “Myoffice, now. Skywalker, which of you is Skywalker?” Luke raises hishand, and she nods, like she’s not at all surprised. “You too.”

.

Wedge’scounsellor, who’s name is Dr Elan Monri, has a two-one-bee droidwaiting in her office to clean up all the damage that he’s managedto do to himself. It cleans the cuts on his hands, and bandages theworst ones. Luke sits close to him, still not really understandingwhat’s going on, whilst Dr Monri hauls a reasonably thick flimsifile out of a locked cabinet.

“Wedge,are you back with us?” Dr Monri asks, her voice perfectly calm andlevel. Her chair is pulled out in front of her desk. Luke and Wedgeshare a sofa that runs along one wall of her office. Wedge nods.“First things first; I’m revoking your flight clearance.”

“Ifigured.” Wedge is surprisingly accepting of that fact; given whatLuke saw, he thought for sure his friend would rail against it. “AmI off active duty as well?”

“Notyet. A repeat of an incident like this morning’s, and it will beconsidered.”

“Excuseme—” Luke butts in. He thinks he probably shouldn’t, but he’sconfused about this entire situation. “Look, Wedge, sorry, this isawkward, but as your CO I have to know – when can he have hisflight clearance back?”

“Whenhe’s gone four weeks incident-free, and not a moment before,” DrMonri replies. “And I’ve signed off on it. I suspect we arelooking at six-to-eight weeks. Wedge?”

“Thatsounds about right.” He sighs. “Sorry Luke. It’s for everyone’ssafety.” Wedge is fidgeting with his hands again, picking at hisnails, and Elan picks a piece of flimsi and a stylus off her desk andhands it to him, and then gives him a book to lean on. He glances atLuke and then starts putting marks to paper.

It’sabundantly clear that he’s drawing Luke, and Luke just looks onmystified. “Actually, Luke – I do need to speak to you, but wouldit be possible for you to swing by later? I think Wedge and I need totalk first.”

“Yeah,sure.” Luke stands up. He clasps a hand on Wedge’s shoulder.“Stay safe, okay. I’ll see you later.”

Wedgedraws on, barely cognisant of Luke’spresence. As Luke leaves, door falling closed behind him, he hears DrMonri say, “Are you sure you don’t want to take that medicaldischarge?”

.

Wedgemight not be able to fly, but that doesn’tstop him from being an active participant in every other part ofsquadron life. Dr Monri had explained to Luke that the most importantthing he can do is to keep a routine for Wedge, make sure he sleepsand eats properly, so Luke attempts to keep the squadron on schedulefor the first time in its life.

It’ssurprisingly hard, but easier after the first week, when everyone’sgetting on board and used to it; drills at oh-eight-hundred hours,patrol from twelve-hundred to eighteen-hundred. It won’t lastforever; the life of a fighter pilot is unpredictable at best. ButLuke watches Wedge closely these days, and he seems better for it.

Wedgeis still not the best at taking care of himself, so Luke findshimself dragging his friend out of their shared office when he findsWedge still in there working, long past the time they’dagreed everyone should stop.

“Haveyou eaten?” Luke asks, well aware he’s sounding like a mother henbut not trusting for a second that Wedge has. A shake of the headconfirms Luke’s suspicions. “To the mess hall with you, then.”

“No,”Wedge says, and Luke stops. “Urgh. Sorry. No, food is okay, but Ican’t face the place.” He scrubs a hand over his face. “Fuck.I’m sorry Luke.”

“Hey.”Luke leans over to take Wedge’s hand, pull it away from where he’sdangerously close to tearing his own hair out. “I’ll go getsomething for you. And you can eat in our quarters. How about that?Sound manageable?”

Wedgeconsiders it for a moment. “Yeah.I can do that. If you would do that for me.”

Lukereally doesn’tmind; he hates seeing Wedge like this, and will happily do anythinghe can to help Wedge out. Dr Monri had made it quite clear that therewas no miracle cure, no amount of therapy or medication that wouldever make Wedge ‘normal’, that he’d always be managing thisthing, but there was a lot they could all do to help mitigate hissymptoms.

Sohe fetches some food, and returns to find Wedge sitting on his bed,cross-legged, a notebook on his knee and a pen in hand. Wedge flickshis eyes up when the door opens, and drops the pen and moves thenotebook to take the tray off Luke. Luke settles down beside hisfriend. He picks up the discarded notebook. “Mindif I have a look?” he asks.

“Goahead.”

Lukeopens the book. He’sseen Wedge drawing a lot, it’s something he does – a copingmechanism, Luke now understands. But he had no idea that Wedge wasactually any good. Luke’s own likeness stares back at him,bright-eyed and intense; on another page, Hobbie, Wes and Tycho jumpout at him. There’s technical drawings of X-Wings and Y-Wings andA-Wings, helmet designs that Luke recognises. A page of just hands inmotion. And Luke. More of Luke. From every angle, in about everyoutfit Luke owns. “You’re good,” Luke gasps. “Really good. DoI really look like that?” He finds himself resting on a portrait ofhim, with a soft smile, that Wedge seems to have taken a little moretime over than some of the other sketches in this book.

“Tome, you do.” Wedge uses his fork to gesture at his footlocker.“There’s more in there, if you want to look. This is just themost recent.”

Lukefinds half a dozen notebooks stashed there. He lifts them out andcarefully flicks through them. It’spossible to date them just from the faces that appear in them, peoplewho are long dead. He has to stifle a sob when Biggs turns up; ittakes Wedge a few tries, but he manages to capture Biggs’s wrysmile with a deftness that makes Luke ache for the loss of Biggs. Andthen Luke shows up again, again and again and again, Wedge clearlydetermined to work out his face, how to try and capture his spirit.

“Youdraw me a lot,” Luke comments.

WhenWedge doesn’treply, Luke lifts his eyes and finds Wedge blushing.

“Ilike it,” Luke says. “Though I still think you might have takenliberties with how pretty I am.”

“Notat all.”

Lukeleans across and kisses Wedge. It’shardly the first time he’s done that. But this time it’s backedup with quiet desire, and a want for more,because this beautiful man is battling so much and still, stilldoesn’tknow how wonderful he is.

.

Wedgegets his flight clearance back seven weeks and two days after hisincident in the hangar.

Luketakes him out, just the pair of them in their X-Wings, to check thatWedge’sflying skills are up to scratch; it’s pretty clear that they are,but Luke has them stay out for the full length of their allottedtime, playing around and having fun under the guise of testing everypart of Wedge’s flying skill.

He’smindful of how Wedge said that flying helps, that it clears his brainand for those moments, it feels like he’s normal.

Whenthey return, Wedge is exuberant with joy and twirls Luke around in anembrace, whilst the rest of the squadron converge and envelop themboth in a group hug, glad to have Wedge back.

.

They’reall better about managing Wedge, these days. It’s a collectiveeffort, one that Luke spearheads but is backed up by the rest ofRogue Flight. Wedge’s bad days are spotted and dealt with beforethey blow up to become issues. He’s still antsy sometimes, butTycho will tug him off to the gym to run laps, or Wes will take himfor target practice. When his brain won’t stop replaying hismistakes, Hobbie will sit with him and talk about the good old times,when they were just kids trying to do what they could for theRebellion.

AndLuke? Luke is besides Wedge in all things, these days.

Thatmeans giving him space sometimes, and picking him up and refusing tolet him wallow at others. Luke learns Wedge’shiding places, and how to tuck in there with him and just hold himwhilst Wedge watches the world go by. He’ll drag Wedge away fromhis work and back to bed, redirect Wedge’s intensity onto pleasingLuke and then echoing it back up at him.

Itturns out that sex is a good way to break Wedge out of his worstmoments, and that works for both of them.

Lukeholds Wedge as they fall asleep, comforted by each other. Wedgeusually wakes first, and Luke becomes accustomed to waking to thescratching of Wedge’spen, Wedge finding a new angle to draw Luke from, another piece ofhim that he hasn’t studied in detail.

(There’san entire separate notebook that isn’t fit for public consumptionthese days.)

Hestill has bad days; he’llalways have bad days. But he works through them. He’s got people toturn too, knows how to fight, and when he needs to just step awayfrom it all.

Whenthe war is over, maybe he’llhave a chance to live a normal life. The cost of freedom for thegalaxy, though, is a price Wedge thinks is worth paying. He’llsoldier on through the bad times. One day, it’ll be worth it.

[prodigialis-blog1]

a meta on hange’s personality, anger, and conscious use of personas.

     note: as you see in the title, i’m going to use the word “personas” in this meta to refer to the different aspects of hange’s personality and how they consciously emphasis some aspects over others to the point where sets of traits can be given their own names. note that this is not similar to alters and does not imply any kind of dissociative disorder. hange is not dissociative, and they don’t have “alternate personalities” -- instead, they consciously choose to act a certain way in some situations over others, and will switch between different dominant personality traits as suits them. so yeah, just know that when i use the term “persona,” i’m not implying any kind of dissociation or other related pathologies.

okay, so. the purpose of this meta isn’t so much to explore hange’s personality itself (though that will happen by necessity), but rather to discuss how, why, and to what extent they manipulate their personality, both as a leading strategy and as a personal coping mechanism.

the first thing i want to make clear is that hange is not oblivious. now, this isn’t a universal statement -- they can be oblivious to many things, especially if they’re in what i’ll call full-on “science mode”; when they get carried away, they somewhat lose their ability to empathize with others, and they don’t fully process other people’s reactions. their tunnel vision when it comes to experimentation and discovery does make them oblivious to more than it should. but. what i mean here, for the purpose of this discussion, is that hange is self-aware. they know exactly what kind of personality they present to the world, and they know how others perceive it. their enthusiastic, eccentric personality isn’t the result of an absent mind that doesn’t comprehend the effect it has on others. they are fully aware of most of their different personality traits, and of the capacity for those traits to shift or overwhelm one another.

that’s an important preface to this conversation, because i don’t want people assuming that hange doesn’t understand how they affect others or to what extent their mood swings take them. they do. in fact, for this headcanon to have any traction, they have to.

so here’s the thing.

hange is an angry person. we know this. they admit to eren that they used to be fueled by hatred and resentment. and that anger still comes out, sometimes dangerously so -- threatening pastor nick, torturing sannes, yelling at roy. the anger isn’t gone. it will never be gone. they will always be an angry person. 

but they’ve decided that anger and hatred and resentment isn’t the right way to live.

it was a conscious choice. they were fueled by hatred for a long time. then, when they kicked the titan’s head, when they began thinking about how it didn’t make sense for titans to be so lightweight, when they remembered how little anyone knew about the titans, and how little anyone cared to find out, they realized that hatred wouldn’t teach them anything. hatred just led to death. doing nothing but killing titans would never help them learn, and hange became increasingly certain that they could never defeat the titans until they understood them. 

if anger and hatred didn’t work, what would?

curiosity. fascination. energy. excitement.

and the thing is, hange had and has the capacity for all of those things. their enthusiasm is not an act. they genuinely are a friendly and energetic person -- or, at least, they have the strong capacity to be, and they choose to act on that capacity. none of their personality traits are faked. none of their personas are false. that’s a really important thing to understand. hange is never faking their personality. but they are choosing to portray certain aspects of who they are above others, and choosing to keep other thoughts and emotions to themself. 

they work hard to be curious, fascinated, energetic, excited. they make an effort to hold on to that portion of their personality, and to let it take the reins, above the anger, above the hatred, above the coldness.

i’m going to posit four “base personalities” for hange here -- and what i mean by that is, four combinations of personality traits that can be expressed by them, and have been to varying degrees throughout their life. (we all have these, by the way -- to you guys, i might be “friendly writer who likes to analyze characters,” to my professors i might be “intellectual who speaks up in class,” to someone else i might be “awkward quiet one who keeps to themself with their nose in a book,” you get the idea. i’m referring to the different sides of your personality that others might pick up on in different situations -- all genuine, but all distinct.)

the four are these: angry soldier, collected leader, enthusiastic eccentric, and ruthless scientist.

angry soldier and ruthless scientist are what they try the hardest not to be, though those parts of their personality always come through to certain degrees in some situation or another. collected leader is the level, focused hange the corps tends to see during crises and battles. enthusiastic eccentric is the persona they project most commonly, the personality they determinedly cling to to avoid falling into anger or ruthlessness.

angry soldier is what they were once, killing titans without remorse or objective beyond revenge and hatred. this anger is what tends to come through whenever someone stands in their way, whenever someone blatantly destroys or obstructs knowledge, whenever someone hurts someone they care about, whenever someone refuses to fight for what is right. this anger is never quite gone from them, and they know this. sometimes they allow themself to express it behind closed doors. sometimes they actively allow themself to use it -- as with pastor nick, before they controlled themself and threw him back onto the wall. but they try to be careful with it, because they know how all-encompassing anger can be, and they’ve lost themself to it before.

collected leader is much less of an act than enthusiastic eccentric is; it’s the businesslike personality they fall into when they need to focus on something serious. granted, sometimes they have to work to maintain this mindset -- when they become commander, for example, commander becomes something of a persona in itself, because they actively restrain their scientific tendencies in order to focus on leading. but this seriousness, this calm ability to assess and respond to situations, is an intrinsic part of their personality, and often what you’d find if you stripped away their bubbly enthusiasm.

enthusiastic eccentric is also a natural part of their personality, but it’s also a part they’ve chosen to emphasize and magnify in order to block out their tendency for anger. they think it’s important for their sanity to be cheerful whenever they can (and also good for their subordinates to have a superior who can remain optimistic). they want to be friendly and energetic. and most of all they want to hold onto and cultivate their curiosity, their fascination, their drive for knowledge. allowing themself to fully embrace this part of their personality keeps them from sinking into resentment and melancholy, keeps them thinking, helps them retain their ability to make connections with other people, and, perhaps most importantly, keeps them open-minded.

a small digression here, while we’re talking about this persona: hange hates titans. they will always hate titans for the friends titans have killed, the lives titans have destroyed, the way titans keep them trapped and stagnant. but they try not to. hating titans got them nowhere. they need to try something else. understanding titans, pitying titans, being fascinated by titans, even trying to see if titans can learn or be befriended. they make themself view titans with as open a mind as they can, and because of this they’re often branded a “titan lover,” a “titan-loving freak,” what have you, by other soldiers and civilians alike. they’re okay with this. it’s worth it if it means they can learn from the titans. it’s all part of this persona. but underneath it all, they still hate titans. never think that they don’t.

ruthless scientist is, perhaps, the part of hange that they fear the most, especially when coupled with angry soldier. it is also, unfortunately, the one that blends most easily with enthusiastic eccentric -- the persona that hange uses the most. sometimes it’s hard for them to notice when they’re slipping from one to the other. sometimes they don’t realize until it’s too late. this is where they’re willing to do anything, hurt anyone, go to any lengths to gain knowledge. this is where they lose their empathy, lose their ability to see anything but their end goal. at its most extreme, this hange would let someone die just to record information about the manner of their death. this hange would torture a person into insanity to get the knowledge they need. this hange is dangerous.

this hange obviously plays a part in the torturing sannes and dangling pastor nick over the wall scenes, though in those it’s heavily mixed with their anger. that’s the thing: ruthless scientist hange can be prompted by and mingle with angry hange, but they aren’t inherently related. ruthless scientist hange acts not because they’re angry, but because they’re fascinated. ruthless scientist hange is the hange who wanted to let eren fuse completely with his titan just so they could see if he’d be able to come back. ruthless scientist hange had moblit sketch a picture of eren’s gruesome, skeletal face, completely caught up in scientific interest, with no thought to either eren’s own suffering or to mikasa’s horror. 

notice that, above, i said that hange fears this persona. i’m going to talk more about that in another meta, where i analyze the whole sannes scene, but just be aware that, yes, hange is frightened of their capacity for cruelty, and part of the reason they project their enthusiastic eccentric persona so adamantly is because they’re always wary of what they could become if they lose their capacity for joy, friendliness, excitement.

 we can see moments in the manga where hange makes conscious efforts to redirect their personality. isayama tends to indicate it by having hange raise and lower their goggles: raised goggles indicates that hange’s unleashing their anger, generally. my favorite example of this is when eren comes upon them after they’ve just kicked over a table after the sannes ordeal, and there’s a pause where they freeze, collect themself, very deliberately lower their goggles, and then quite clearly put on their eccentric persona for eren’s benefit, to hide the fact that they’ve just given over to their anger for a moment. it’s such a deliberate moment, and it really shows how much thought and effort goes into hange’s moderation of their personality:

anyway. i could certainly write more, but i’m going to cut it sort for now, and just offer this last thought: this isn’t always going to come up in the way i portray hange. sometimes they will show a deliberate change or reining in of their personality in posts -- but often they won’t. often they’ll be their general, cheerful, eccentric self, and the narrative won’t question that, because that’s just who they are at the moment -- but even if it doesn’t appear explicitly, this habit of theirs, of moderating their own personality and how they allow themselves to be perceived by others, always exists.

[mikawa-province]

One Blade, Two Halves

Title: One Blade, Two Halves Fandom: Samurai Love Ballad: Party/Tenka Touitsu Koi no Ran: Love Ballad Pairing: Tokugawa Ieyasu x MC Rating: PG-13 Word Count (MS Word): 3,466

一刀両断（いっとうりょうだん） 1. To cut in two with a single blow 2. To take drastic measures

He was going to strangle her to death when he finds her.

It had to be at least half an hour already after he left the castle in search of his wayward female retainer who, he just recently discovered, was lacking a sense of direction, and probably common sense as well.

It still boggled his mind how it would take her over two hours to look for an herb that he had sketched with as much details as possible so that she would have an easier time looking for it; in the end, there had been no point in him drawing the herb to the best of his abilities, as she had failed to return within the deadline he had set.

Or rather, the deadline that Tadatsugu has set; if it were up to him, he'd leave the wench to her own devices, as she was responsible for her own safety. However, the meddling old man just had to tell her that she had to get back before the sun was down, and that if she wasn't back, Lord Ieyasu would find her, much to his displeasure. Now that it was dark and snowing heavily, he had been forced to get dressed in warmer clothes and trudge through the pathway leading to the forest.

He hated to admit it, but she was still his responsibility, and he had no choice but to bring her back himself. Tadatsugu wouldn't shut up until she was back, and inwardly, he wondered how could someone like her, a servant at that, was able to turn the old man into a nervous wreck.

There was nothing special about her at all; she was simply a wench of unknown origins whose family owned a restaurant in the capital and, by some twist of fate, had initially been assigned as his poison taster in place of her younger brother. Until now, it still boggled his mind that she was willing to take the place of her younger sibling when it could have lived a quiet, unassuming life as a commoner. She would be out of constant danger, and she would be in the capital instead of Hamamatsu.

Curiously, that scenario did not sit well with him; for her to be anywhere other than Hamamatsu, or even Okazaki, it seemed... wrong.

Shaking his head, he scolded himself for getting distracted; the sooner he would find her, the sooner he could pluck the hair on Sakai's thinning head for forcing to go out in the elements and—

"L-Lord Ieyasu...?!"

He glared at the source of the voice, not missing the fact that she had actually taken a step back upon seeing him.

“And just where have you been?” he growled.

“I-I… I was… I had to do some… some… p-picking.” Her voice was shaking as he made his way to where she stood.

“Oh? Was the herb that I asked you to look for not enough?” without thinking, he found himself pinching her left cheek, making her yelp. “Maybe I should’ve asked you to harvest every damn vegetable in my lands.”

“P-please s-stop pinching my cheek…!”

Any woman would’ve looked hideous if their cheeks got pulled apart and played with, but the kitchen wench was, surprisingly, still attractive… and rather cute.

He pushed the thought away immediately, and by doing so, he pulled on her cheek harder. “Doing things without my permission again—”

“I-I… w-we had to, Lord Ieyasu!” before he could even tell her to stop making excuses, she interrupted him. “I-if we didn’t, there would be no food on the table tonight!”

He let her go, and automatically, she rubbed her sore cheek. “Explain.” He ordered.

She began by telling him that there was a food shortage in the castle, as well as the castle town, because of the snowy conditions for the past few days. Merchants were hardly stopping at Mikawa, it seemed, because of the weather, and that had been the reason why the wench, along with the other maids, had been picking root crops and produce, aside from the herb that he had asked her to find.

“Are you sure you’re not trying to escape your responsibilities?” again, he reached out for her other cheek, making her wince. “For all I know, you’re trying to make yourself seem busy just so you’ll have an excuse to be out here longer.”

“You actually think I would prefer freezing to death than be all warm and cozy in the castle?!” he nearly raised an eyebrow at the way she talked back to him, but decided against his better judgment to call her out on it. Any other person who actually dare tell him off would immediately get punished, but the wench amused him to no end on better days like these, which was why he would hold off the punish for the meantime until she really got on his nerves.

“Who knows? You’re rather unpredictable.” This time around, he had used his other hand to pull her other cheek apart, chuckling out loud as he was not able to see how hideous she looked when she would make faces. “Or maybe you’re actually crazy enough to prefer the cold.”

“M-milord, please! N-n-now is not the time to—” once he pulled her cheeks apart, a rather… throaty moan escaped her lips; his immediate response was to let go and act as if everything was normal when, in fact, his heart was pounding rather hard against his chest while his mind had kept repeating her moan of pain over and over again.

Was this his punishment for tormenting her?

If so, he wanted nothing to do with it anymore; he had to regain his sanity, or else he—

Quickly, he turned away from her as he felt his face flame and was just about to march back to the castle when he realized that what little of daylight was left earlier was gone in an instant, and the snow was not letting up. The path that he had walked on had also disappeared, and the pile was slowly reaching the middle of his calves.

Inwardly, he cursed at how the situation went from bad to worse.

He awaited the part where everything would go downhill with open arms.

If this was how he was going to die, so be it.

"... Milord?" Her gentle voice had snapped him from his reverie. He must have given her a blank look, for she aimed her gaze at the snow that was slowly piling up. "I was wondering if you would like to seek shelter from this snow storm."

"Obviously." He couldn't help but roll his eyes at her.

"I-I asked you earlier, but you didn't respond so..."

Were her cheeks red from embarrassment or because of the cold? He didn't know.

All it did was muddle his thoughts further and distracted him, which was why he stopped himself from grabbing her face again. No doubt, he might do something other than pinch it... or even use it as an excuse to touch her.

Ieyasu blinked, unable to process the thought that someone like him was having rather disturbing thoughts over the kitchen wench, and had actually thought of touching her face because he wanted to.

The blizzard was making him crazy, he was sure of it.

"Then let's get going." The sooner he was out of the blizzard, the sooner he would regain back his sanity, and the sooner he could lock himself up in his room and bar that wench from making yet another unwanted intrusion into his space. He began to walk where he guessed was north and made it a point to stomp on the ground every time a pile of snow tried to block his way.

"M-milord, y-you know the way...?" Behind him, he could sense that the wench was trying to keep up with him, something that made him snort.

"What kind of lord am I if I cannot even navigate around my own lands?" He felt his eyes narrow upon hearing something akin to a snort but ignored it. "Don't underestimate me."

In hindsight, Ieyasu realized that he should have at least kept his mouth shut at that point in time. While he believed that certain actions warranted swift and just consequences, he had no idea that the consequences of his own actions would immediately take effect, and in the form of a snow storm that was getting stronger by the minute. Despite his best effort to look for anything that resembled a structure that would be strong enough to hold up all the snow and to shield them from the cold, he could not find one, much to his private horror.

Why was there no shelter in sight?!

"L-Lord Ieyasu--"

"Shut up, not now." He snapped at the wench, annoyed that she was distracting him with her small talk.

"B-but I—"

"Didn't I tell you to shut—"

Why did he bother looking back at her just to glare at her?

In his opinion, losing one's dignity in front of someone was worse than running away without a fight... and lose his dignity in front of that kitchen wench, he did. The Lord of Mikawa had been too preoccupied in both walking and wanting to show the wench that he was displeased with her right now that he had failed to notice a tree root hidden under the pile of snow. He stumbled on it, making him yelp in a rather undignified matter that was unfit for a man like him, and immediately fell flat on his face. To make matters worse, the tree's branches shook violently when he fell to the ground, resulting in him getting buried under the snow.

"L-Lord Ieyasu...!" He heard her scream in panic.

If it was possible to bury himself under the snow until spring melted it away, he would do exactly that. For him to fall on his face, and in front of the kitchen wench at that, it was enough to make him want to hide off from the world in shame.

She was a nobody, yet he wondered why he was so affected at the thought of making himself look uncool in her eyes, which annoyed him even more.

She was a nobody.

The kitchen wench was a nobody, he kept repeating to himself as he tried to forget the embarrassment he endured earlier. He could still feel his cheeks flaming and the need to be buried under all this snow until spring seemed to be the best option and—

"Lord Ieyasu!" She screamed, this time, louder than ever, and before he knew it, he felt himself getting partially lifted up from the snowy pile, and was flipped on his back. "M-milord, are you..."

"... You're so noisy." After trying to rest his eyes for several seconds, he found himself glaring at her, who, curiously, looked like she was about to burst to tears. "What's with that face? Sad that I have yet to meet my demise?"

"N-no!"

He couldn't help but roll his eyes at her vehement denial. "Oh please. You don't have to deny it. We all know everyone wants me dead."

"Not me." He had to give her credit for sounding so convincing that he actually felt touched for a second or two. "I... I wouldn't--"

"That's enough." He hissed, not wanting to hear lies from her mouth. "We're running out of time, and we need to seek shelter fast."

"... I know where the cabin is, milord." She spoke softly.

"Then why didn't you lead me there in the first place?!" Immediately, he was on his feet, and had managed to stop himself from angrily grabbing on to the collar of her kimono.

"... I thought you knew the way, so I didn't stop you..." she had at least managed to look sorry for not telling him, but it did not change the fact that the earlier they could have sought shelter, the higher his chances of not having to lose his dignity in front of the kitchen maid by tripping on his face and getting buried under the snow. "My apologies, Lord Ieyasu."

"If the kitchen wench has time to bow down in apology, she has the time to navigate her way around this blizzard." He said harshly. "Go, before we freeze to death."

The cabin turned out to be a long-abandoned tea house that was, surprisingly, still clean, despite its shabby appearance.

He have had Hamamatsu under his control for some time, and yet, he never knew the existence of this place that was located in a rather far-flung area from the castle grounds. It had taken a bit of walking, but as soon as they stepped inside and had shut the sliding doors, he felt a bit better. While they were still in danger of freezing to death, the structure had given them the sanctuary that they needed. After a single candle was lit to give them just a bit of light in the dark room, Ieyasu took in the sight of the small room they were in, he realized that it was a tea house used to conduct tea ceremonies, though this one lacked the necessary low tables and cushions; instead, bolts of cloth that he recognized as gifts from the Fool of Owari were stored here, as well as sets of clothing that were out of fashion.

No wonder the wench knew this place; she had probably been here countless of times when he asked her to store items for him, though he wondered how she had managed to do it on her own when this place was far away from the castle. He knew how heavy fabric could be, and commoner or not, the wench was no farmhand who could carry things with ease.

Toramatsu had probably helped her; knowing his page, he'd go out of his way to help a damsel-in-distress, commoner or otherwise, just to do some storage work that was so out of the way.

Vaguely, he wondered if anyone had attempt a romantic tryst in this place; it wouldn't be surprising, but it was possible and—

Before he realized it, an image of his page and the kitchen wench in a rather compromising position made its way into his mind.

He expected himself to be amused at the imagery. After all, his page was smitten with the girl; they would suit, would breed like rabbits, and would have at least a dozen children together, no doubt.

Instead, he found himself clenching his fists, furious at the possibility that they were seeing one another in secret. It was none of his business if they spent time together, nor should he be affected over the choices of his servants and retainers, and yet, here he was, wishing that the scenario that his mind conjured turned out to be untrue.

"Lord Ieyasu." Her voice had snapped him out of his thoughts, and he looked up at her, noting that she was carrying a huge amount of fabric on her arms. "I... I have not been able to locate a blanket, but this may be able to keep us warm for tonight."

"And that is?"

"A junihitoe, milord. I remember Lord Tadatsugu asking me to store it 'until the time comes'."

Trust the old man to be prepared for the stupidest things; while he himself had a set of robes for court, he suspected that the female robes were commissioned for whoever his bride would be. Tadatsugu was getting ahead of himself, as always; there was no female alive who had caught his eyes, and if someone did, the female would, no doubt, run as far away as possible as soon as he would open his mouth. He knew the women found him pleasing to the eyes, but not his wit, nor his sharp tongue.

Except this one, his mind reminded him.

"That so? For a female junihitoe to be here... that old man is up to no good." He tsked. "And you, is that longing I see on your face? Perhaps you'd want to see how it looks on you?"

"I—"

"A peasant like you could never wear something like that in your lifetime, so you might as well take this opportunity to play dress-up." He said mockingly.

Despite his rather stinging tone, her face still remained calm. Wordlessly, she began dividing the layered robes between them, making sure to fold his pile neatly, while hers pooled by her feet. He was just about to say something, anything to ease the tension in the air after his harsh delivery of words earlier when, to his shock, she began removing the obi that held her kimono together, and had shrugged the kimono itself off her shoulders.

He felt his cheeks burn all of a sudden. "W-w-what the hell are you doing?!"

"My kimono is wet, milord." She informed him. "I do not wish to die tonight, so I am removing my wet clothing. You should do the same; you got buried under the snow earlier, after all."

That would mean he would be stripping down until his loin cloth remained around his hips. While it would amuse him to see her look so embarrassed over seeing a man in his undergarments, the grim look on her face told him that her mind was elsewhere, and would probably not care if he got naked in front of her.

Still, it was worth a try to get a reaction from her.

It was only now that he felt the effect of his wet clothes, and in no time at all, he had managed to divest himself of his clothing despite his shaky fingers, and stood in his underwear. Upon seeing his drenched robes on the floor, all she did was retrieve the set of robes that he would use tonight from the tatami and wordlessly handed it to him, much to his... disappointment?

What the hell was happening to him?

Why did he seem so eager to show off?

It was madness, and yet...

"Milord, please, rest up and keep warm." She told him as soon as he was done putting it on. "This place may have not much space because of the fabrics but... but we need to get through this blizzard until tomorrow morning."

Unlike him, she was clad in a white inner kimono, and with the six layers of junihitoe on her, it looked like she had no problems handling the freezing weather. It was not surprising when she herself had not been buried under the snow like him, but for her to not even flinch nor shake from the cold, he had to hand it to her for enduring.

"Where will you be sleeping?" He found himself asking her.

"The floor is yours to use, milord. I will sleep beside the fabrics." Without waiting for his response, she sat on the tatami, tucked her legs in, and leaned against a bolt of fabric. Within minutes  she was fast asleep, snoring softly while he had even yet to lie down on the tatami.

When he did, right after he blew out the candle, he found it hard to sleep; the tatami was cold, and despite the lengthy robes he was wearing that covered his whole body, he was shivering. As much as he wanted to unroll the fabrics stored in this place to drape more fabric over his body, there was no guarantee that those would keep him warm.

The shaking did not stop, no matter how much he forced himself to sleep, and he was desperate for anything to keep him warm. The fact that the tea house had no proper place to light a fire had irritated him, but now, he was downright angry. He was probably sick right now with a slight fever, and if he didn't warm himself up, he would probably get worse, and possibly even die.

There was absolutely no way he would allow that.

Not until he has decimated Imagawa, Takeda, and anyone else who would stand in his way of unifying the country.

Desperate times called for desperate measures, and for him, he would rather swallow his pride than die because he did not warm himself up enough.

As soon as he had managed to sit up, he crawled over to where she was, placed a hand on her shoulder, and shook the wench awake. "Wake up."

She stirred after a few minutes. "Lord Ieyasu?" Her eyes were focused on him in an instant.

With that, Tokugawa Ieyasu uttered three words that he'd never thought he would say until he faced a situation that had no recourse but for him to lower his pride and, to his disgust, rely on someone.

"Sleep with me."

Note:

1. junihitoe - Heian-period style of clothing. More info here.

Thank you so much for reading all the way! Chapter 2 will be written soon, and I hope to finish it as soon as I can.

Till next time!

[webbygraphic001]

5 Ways to Boost Local SEO

Let’s not beat around the bush, local SEO is hard.

If you represent a business in a large city and you’re aiming for a top 3 maps business listing (the Snack Pack), then it’s even harder.

You can spend many stressful hours tailoring every little aspect of your site, trying to achieve this and lose sanity along the way wondering where you’ve gone wrong.

It can be a very lonely place.

An important thing to do to retain your sanity is to be realistic and confront a few honest truths.

no one knows with full certainty…who will make it into the coveted snack pack

One of those truths is that no one knows with full certainty, how, or who will make it into the coveted snack pack for any given search query. Not the best SEO specialists, not the people working at Google—I’m not even convinced Google itself has any idea before the results page is generated.

Why is this?

Whilst there are lots of things you can do to influence your chances of ranking in the map snack pack, those results are influenced by things completely beyond your control.

One of the primary ranking factors is the location of the individual making the search as well as the user preferences based on previous experiences.

results are influenced by things completely beyond your control

For instance, an individual could run a search for ‘best cafes near me’ in one location, and one block away that same query could return completely different results. Using the same example, if the individual has been to other cafes in the area and rated them highly (without having visited yours) then theirs again could favored.

With the element of the unknown and uncontrollable working against you, you need to project manage the situation to ensure you don’t spend a disproportionate amount of time on something that might not be attainable in the first place.

With that in mind, we’ve put together a list of five of the top things that you can do that will help compete on the local front without your focus being purely on the map results (although implementing these five tactics will go a long way towards helping you rank in the map space).

1. Establishing a Reputation Through Reviews

The modern-day consumer is a savvy, well-researched individual who more often than not, will look through customer reviews/feedback on any product/service/experience they are considering.

Establishing a solid reputation through websites and platforms that are important and relevant to your business is therefore critical.

Relevant platforms might include TripAdvisor, Yelp, Bookings.com, FourSquare etc but whatever the main platforms are for your industry are, you want to be on there. You should also focus on getting reviews through your Google My Business Listing as this is often the first port of call for people who are searching for your business.

This not only means a job well done of course, but being proactive in encouraging your customers to submit their positive experiences. This might be as simple as having a small sign near your point of sale letting people know you are present on the platforms. It might be getting staff to remind customers of the same. You may even want to use your email marketing as the means to encourage engagement.

The only thing to avoid is inappropriately incentivizing customers to review (by offering them a discount or some payoff for doing so). This is universally seen by the platforms as bad practice and will often result in your business being penalized for doing so. In any case, if you’re doing a good job with satisfied customers, they shouldn’t require too much encouragement.

2. Engage in Social Media

Social media is a great way to engage with current, new and prospective customers for your business and these days, is a standard expectation as a way of representing your business.

Not only is it a great way to connect with your local customers, it’s a great way to get broad exposure and acquire new fans, followers and connections. You can do this organically or via targeted paid campaigns with great specificity.

With your new-found followers, you’ll find social media as a great platform to share a lot of information about your business that might otherwise be challenging via a website or through organic search results. Your new products, new discounts, upcoming events will instantly appear on their social media feeds without them having to seek it out.

3. Don’t Dismiss Online Directories

Another way many people find out about businesses in their local area is via online directories.

It’s easy to think that everyone uses Google and nothing but. The actual situation isn’t quite so clear-cut.

Whilst Google does dominate, it has the onerous responsibility of crawling the entire internet and sometimes returns results that aren’t precisely relevant and/or misses some that are if the sites have been poorly optimised.

An online directory therefore, becomes more targeted and specific, and the good ones are very easy to navigate which is why people turn to them.

Much like review sights and social media platforms, it’s important to be placed in whichever ones are relevant to your business. It’s also important that your name, address and phone numbers (NAP) are consistent across all the directories you submit too. It takes a bit of effort and research but you’ll find it is time well spent, and in the end, will also help your chance of ranking in the local map snack pack.

4. Connect with the Community

It’s very easy to get a form of online tunnel vision when it comes to thinking about ways to promote your business but you should always remember that people don’t live their entire lives on the internet… well, not yet anyway.

Nothing beats connecting with someone on a personal level than with a face-to-face interaction so it’s absolutely in your best interests to involve yourself in the community and be seen.

Some ways in which to do this is to attend local markets or trade fairs (if appropriate to your business). You’ll create hundreds of different personal engagements in doing so which will in many cases lead to more at your usual location.

Another thing to consider is sponsoring a local event or charitable cause. If you can show your business cares, then the community will be more likely to care and support you. These types of events also get great engagement on social media giving you great content to post and share and will generally make you feel pretty good too!

5. Create Some Local Content for Your Website

If you’re wanting to establish yourself in a local sense than the easiest place to a stake a claim for this is on your own website with some focused content. Tell your own story and explain why your neighborhood and community are an integral part of your business. Is it part of the origin of your business and if so, how? Has your locality influenced or is represented in your products in some way? Are you using local products or suppliers?

If these things feature it should be very apparent on your website. It may even be worth having a blog section where you can elaborate on these aspects in greater detail with standalone pieces. Once again, you’ll also be able to share this content on social media and show everyone just how important your location is to your business.

Conclusion

As stated in the intro, getting snack pack results can be an uphill and uncertain battle on many fronts but by being proactive you can still have a presence on the local front. An additional bonus is that by doing most of these things you’ll only increase your chances of getting into that sought-after Snack Pack.

Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!

Source from Webdesigner Depot https://ift.tt/2MK4J9r from Blogger https://ift.tt/2LjMwuz

[iyarpage]

5 Ways to Boost Local SEO

Let’s not beat around the bush, local SEO is hard.

If you represent a business in a large city and you’re aiming for a top 3 maps business listing (the Snack Pack), then it’s even harder.

You can spend many stressful hours tailoring every little aspect of your site, trying to achieve this and lose sanity along the way wondering where you’ve gone wrong.

It can be a very lonely place.

An important thing to do to retain your sanity is to be realistic and confront a few honest truths.

no one knows with full certainty…who will make it into the coveted snack pack

One of those truths is that no one knows with full certainty, how, or who will make it into the coveted snack pack for any given search query. Not the best SEO specialists, not the people working at Google—I’m not even convinced Google itself has any idea before the results page is generated.

Why is this?

Whilst there are lots of things you can do to influence your chances of ranking in the map snack pack, those results are influenced by things completely beyond your control.

One of the primary ranking factors is the location of the individual making the search as well as the user preferences based on previous experiences.

results are influenced by things completely beyond your control

For instance, an individual could run a search for ‘best cafes near me’ in one location, and one block away that same query could return completely different results. Using the same example, if the individual has been to other cafes in the area and rated them highly (without having visited yours) then theirs again could favored.

With the element of the unknown and uncontrollable working against you, you need to project manage the situation to ensure you don’t spend a disproportionate amount of time on something that might not be attainable in the first place.

With that in mind, we’ve put together a list of five of the top things that you can do that will help compete on the local front without your focus being purely on the map results (although implementing these five tactics will go a long way towards helping you rank in the map space).

1. Establishing a Reputation Through Reviews

The modern-day consumer is a savvy, well-researched individual who more often than not, will look through customer reviews/feedback on any product/service/experience they are considering.

Establishing a solid reputation through websites and platforms that are important and relevant to your business is therefore critical.

Relevant platforms might include TripAdvisor, Yelp, Bookings.com, FourSquare etc but whatever the main platforms are for your industry are, you want to be on there. You should also focus on getting reviews through your Google My Business Listing as this is often the first port of call for people who are searching for your business.

This not only means a job well done of course, but being proactive in encouraging your customers to submit their positive experiences. This might be as simple as having a small sign near your point of sale letting people know you are present on the platforms. It might be getting staff to remind customers of the same. You may even want to use your email marketing as the means to encourage engagement.

The only thing to avoid is inappropriately incentivizing customers to review (by offering them a discount or some payoff for doing so). This is universally seen by the platforms as bad practice and will often result in your business being penalized for doing so. In any case, if you’re doing a good job with satisfied customers, they shouldn’t require too much encouragement.

2. Engage in Social Media

Social media is a great way to engage with current, new and prospective customers for your business and these days, is a standard expectation as a way of representing your business.

Not only is it a great way to connect with your local customers, it’s a great way to get broad exposure and acquire new fans, followers and connections. You can do this organically or via targeted paid campaigns with great specificity.

With your new-found followers, you’ll find social media as a great platform to share a lot of information about your business that might otherwise be challenging via a website or through organic search results. Your new products, new discounts, upcoming events will instantly appear on their social media feeds without them having to seek it out.

3. Don’t Dismiss Online Directories

Another way many people find out about businesses in their local area is via online directories.

It’s easy to think that everyone uses Google and nothing but. The actual situation isn’t quite so clear-cut.

Whilst Google does dominate, it has the onerous responsibility of crawling the entire internet and sometimes returns results that aren’t precisely relevant and/or misses some that are if the sites have been poorly optimised.

An online directory therefore, becomes more targeted and specific, and the good ones are very easy to navigate which is why people turn to them.

Much like review sights and social media platforms, it’s important to be placed in whichever ones are relevant to your business. It’s also important that your name, address and phone numbers (NAP) are consistent across all the directories you submit too. It takes a bit of effort and research but you’ll find it is time well spent, and in the end, will also help your chance of ranking in the local map snack pack.

4. Connect with the Community

It’s very easy to get a form of online tunnel vision when it comes to thinking about ways to promote your business but you should always remember that people don’t live their entire lives on the internet… well, not yet anyway.

Nothing beats connecting with someone on a personal level than with a face-to-face interaction so it’s absolutely in your best interests to involve yourself in the community and be seen.

Some ways in which to do this is to attend local markets or trade fairs (if appropriate to your business). You’ll create hundreds of different personal engagements in doing so which will in many cases lead to more at your usual location.

Another thing to consider is sponsoring a local event or charitable cause. If you can show your business cares, then the community will be more likely to care and support you. These types of events also get great engagement on social media giving you great content to post and share and will generally make you feel pretty good too!

5. Create Some Local Content for Your Website

If you’re wanting to establish yourself in a local sense than the easiest place to a stake a claim for this is on your own website with some focused content. Tell your own story and explain why your neighborhood and community are an integral part of your business. Is it part of the origin of your business and if so, how? Has your locality influenced or is represented in your products in some way? Are you using local products or suppliers?

If these things feature it should be very apparent on your website. It may even be worth having a blog section where you can elaborate on these aspects in greater detail with standalone pieces. Once again, you’ll also be able to share this content on social media and show everyone just how important your location is to your business.

Conclusion

As stated in the intro, getting snack pack results can be an uphill and uncertain battle on many fronts but by being proactive you can still have a presence on the local front. An additional bonus is that by doing most of these things you’ll only increase your chances of getting into that sought-after Snack Pack.

Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!

Source p img {display:inline-block; margin-right:10px;} .alignleft {float:left;} p.showcase {clear:both;} body#browserfriendly p, body#podcast p, div#emailbody p{margin:0;} 5 Ways to Boost Local SEO published first on https://medium.com/@koresol

[unixcommerce]

5 Ways to Boost Local SEO

Let’s not beat around the bush, local SEO is hard.

If you represent a business in a large city and you’re aiming for a top 3 maps business listing (the Snack Pack), then it’s even harder.

You can spend many stressful hours tailoring every little aspect of your site, trying to achieve this and lose sanity along the way wondering where you’ve gone wrong.

It can be a very lonely place.

An important thing to do to retain your sanity is to be realistic and confront a few honest truths.

no one knows with full certainty…who will make it into the coveted snack pack

One of those truths is that no one knows with full certainty, how, or who will make it into the coveted snack pack for any given search query. Not the best SEO specialists, not the people working at Google—I’m not even convinced Google itself has any idea before the results page is generated.

Why is this?

Whilst there are lots of things you can do to influence your chances of ranking in the map snack pack, those results are influenced by things completely beyond your control.

One of the primary ranking factors is the location of the individual making the search as well as the user preferences based on previous experiences.

results are influenced by things completely beyond your control

For instance, an individual could run a search for ‘best cafes near me’ in one location, and one block away that same query could return completely different results. Using the same example, if the individual has been to other cafes in the area and rated them highly (without having visited yours) then theirs again could favored.

With the element of the unknown and uncontrollable working against you, you need to project manage the situation to ensure you don’t spend a disproportionate amount of time on something that might not be attainable in the first place.

With that in mind, we’ve put together a list of five of the top things that you can do that will help compete on the local front without your focus being purely on the map results (although implementing these five tactics will go a long way towards helping you rank in the map space).

1. Establishing a Reputation Through Reviews

The modern-day consumer is a savvy, well-researched individual who more often than not, will look through customer reviews/feedback on any product/service/experience they are considering.

Establishing a solid reputation through websites and platforms that are important and relevant to your business is therefore critical.

Relevant platforms might include TripAdvisor, Yelp, Bookings.com, FourSquare etc but whatever the main platforms are for your industry are, you want to be on there. You should also focus on getting reviews through your Google My Business Listing as this is often the first port of call for people who are searching for your business.

This not only means a job well done of course, but being proactive in encouraging your customers to submit their positive experiences. This might be as simple as having a small sign near your point of sale letting people know you are present on the platforms. It might be getting staff to remind customers of the same. You may even want to use your email marketing as the means to encourage engagement.

The only thing to avoid is inappropriately incentivizing customers to review (by offering them a discount or some payoff for doing so). This is universally seen by the platforms as bad practice and will often result in your business being penalized for doing so. In any case, if you’re doing a good job with satisfied customers, they shouldn’t require too much encouragement.

2. Engage in Social Media

Social media is a great way to engage with current, new and prospective customers for your business and these days, is a standard expectation as a way of representing your business.

Not only is it a great way to connect with your local customers, it’s a great way to get broad exposure and acquire new fans, followers and connections. You can do this organically or via targeted paid campaigns with great specificity.

With your new-found followers, you’ll find social media as a great platform to share a lot of information about your business that might otherwise be challenging via a website or through organic search results. Your new products, new discounts, upcoming events will instantly appear on their social media feeds without them having to seek it out.

3. Don’t Dismiss Online Directories

Another way many people find out about businesses in their local area is via online directories.

It’s easy to think that everyone uses Google and nothing but. The actual situation isn’t quite so clear-cut.

Whilst Google does dominate, it has the onerous responsibility of crawling the entire internet and sometimes returns results that aren’t precisely relevant and/or misses some that are if the sites have been poorly optimised.

An online directory therefore, becomes more targeted and specific, and the good ones are very easy to navigate which is why people turn to them.

Much like review sights and social media platforms, it’s important to be placed in whichever ones are relevant to your business. It’s also important that your name, address and phone numbers (NAP) are consistent across all the directories you submit too. It takes a bit of effort and research but you’ll find it is time well spent, and in the end, will also help your chance of ranking in the local map snack pack.

4. Connect with the Community

It’s very easy to get a form of online tunnel vision when it comes to thinking about ways to promote your business but you should always remember that people don’t live their entire lives on the internet… well, not yet anyway.

Nothing beats connecting with someone on a personal level than with a face-to-face interaction so it’s absolutely in your best interests to involve yourself in the community and be seen.

Some ways in which to do this is to attend local markets or trade fairs (if appropriate to your business). You’ll create hundreds of different personal engagements in doing so which will in many cases lead to more at your usual location.

Another thing to consider is sponsoring a local event or charitable cause. If you can show your business cares, then the community will be more likely to care and support you. These types of events also get great engagement on social media giving you great content to post and share and will generally make you feel pretty good too!

5. Create Some Local Content for Your Website

If you’re wanting to establish yourself in a local sense than the easiest place to a stake a claim for this is on your own website with some focused content. Tell your own story and explain why your neighborhood and community are an integral part of your business. Is it part of the origin of your business and if so, how? Has your locality influenced or is represented in your products in some way? Are you using local products or suppliers?

If these things feature it should be very apparent on your website. It may even be worth having a blog section where you can elaborate on these aspects in greater detail with standalone pieces. Once again, you’ll also be able to share this content on social media and show everyone just how important your location is to your business.

Conclusion

As stated in the intro, getting snack pack results can be an uphill and uncertain battle on many fronts but by being proactive you can still have a presence on the local front. An additional bonus is that by doing most of these things you’ll only increase your chances of getting into that sought-after Snack Pack.

Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!

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