#using proper capitalization because the topic is pretty serious

[wndfsh]

Auron, Seppuku, and Holding Onto Hope

A mini-analysis of Final Fantasy X’s potential symbolic depiction of ritual suicide and its insights into Auron’s character. Spoilers.

For the purposes of this analysis, I first need to explain the ritual of seppuku, barring any details that are otherwise irrelevant:

In simple terms, a samurai, sitting in a kneeling position, took a blade to his lower abdomen and disemboweled himself with a horizontal slice. Then, a kaishakunin—an attendant of the rite—beheaded the samurai from behind, or performed kaishaku, in the interest of preventing prolonged suffering. (Note that there are a few important details I left out that will be important later.)

It’s no secret that Auron is, for all intents and purposes, a samurai (and a rōnin after death). His design was based heavily on late actor Toshiro Mifune, he wields a katana, one of his overdrives is called Bushido—even Auron’s status as an unsent is symbolic of his status as a samurai. An excerpt from Yamamoto Tsunetomo’s Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai states:

“And every day without fail one should consider himself as dead.”

No more needs to be said. Auron is a samurai, and many of his behaviors and moves are references to either samurai media or real world samurai history.

That said, I believe that the circumstances of Auron’s death and state of un-death as an unsent tie heavily into his status as a samurai, and that one scene in particular mirrors seppuku.

Honor is one of the primary tenets of Bushidō, or the samurai moral code; to dishonor oneself was, for a samurai, worse than death, so much so that samurai often chose ritual suicide as a means to regain it.

It is, again, no secret that Auron feels an incredible amount of self-loathing and shame about his inability to prevent Braska and Jecht from dying. His struggle as a younger man to find another way for them to defeat Sin without the Final Summoning was immense, and upon his failure after Braska’s defeat of Sin, he, with no regard for his own life, crossed the Calm Lands, climbed up and down Mt. Gagazet, and stormed Yunalesca in Zanarkand in an attempt to honor their deaths, and was killed in the process. This alone functions as an indirect form of suicide, living up to the ideals of Bushidō (namely, “death before dishonor”), but there is more to it, I think.

We have reason to believe that Auron saw Braska as his master. I don’t think he refers to Braska as Lord Braska in the English dub by any mistake or whim of the localizers; historically, samurai fought in service to a lord. With that said, consider the following excerpt from (again) Yamamoto Tsunetomo’s Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai.

“Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily. Every day when one’s body and mind are at peace, one should meditate upon (…) committing seppuku at the death of one’s master.”

To be clear, I don’t think he literally commits seppuku. Earlier, I mentioned that I left out a few details regarding seppuku, and now I can finally discuss what all of this has been leading up to.

Before having a kaishakunin in attendance became the standard, samurai would silently endure the pain of bleeding to death, or he would remove the blade from his abdomen, and either slice his throat, or fall onto it from a standing position, piercing himself in the heart.

The scene above is the moment Auron lost. Braska and Jecht just agreed to die, and he had been utterly unable to stop them. This is the moment he became both dishonored and masterless at once.

I believe this shot is a metaphor for the agony and emotional intent of seppuku.

As the ritual evolved and became institutionalized as a form of punishment, in many cases, it became completely unnecessary for the samurai to stab himself; simply reaching for the blade would trigger kaishaku. That said, notice the framing of the last shot; you can see present Auron unsheathing his blade as his past self falls into a kneeling position.

In this shot, Auron lashes out at the vision of his past self, swinging his blade in a swift, lethal motion that would have beheaded him, much like kaishaku.

I believe this shot is a metaphor for the physical aspect of seppuku: the agony of dishonor, and the mercy and swiftness of the beheading that follows.

…But he didn’t.

He couldn’t behead himself. No matter how hard he swung his blade, he could not end his own agony. And, historically, failing to properly carry out kaishaku held consequences as well, according to Tsunetomo:

“From ages past it has been considered an ill-omen by samurai to be requested as kaishaku. (…) Further, if one should blunder, it becomes a lifetime disgrace.”

“And the cycle went on.”

This scene, as a whole, is, in my opinion, symbolic of Auron’s feelings of dishonor, guilt, and suicidality. Indeed, this scene is an abstract depiction of an attempt at seppuku; of Auron’s desire to regain his honor.

…But these urges do not define him. They are merely his darkest.

Despite their intensity, he manages to overcome the urge to die and be free of pain, choosing instead to live and fight his sorrow.

Yunalesca may have given Spira a false hope to cling to, but I believe Auron found real hope. Whether it’s hope in the new generation, hope in the resilience of Spira’s denizens, or hope in the possibility of finding another way to defeat Sin and honor the fallen in ways that don’t involve dying, I don’t know.

Regardless, I believe Auron continued living because he had hope. Real hope.

[ladykissingfish]

Akatsuki texting style hc?

Texting/Talking with the Akatsuki

Kakuzu

Doesn’t really understand modern technology; can barely make phone calls, let alone text. The others have each taken the time to try and teach the old dog this particular trick, but it doesn’t carry much weight with him. The other get annoyed with him because he always insists on calling rather than shooting off a text, which can be very inconvenient when one is trying to save time (and words). When calling isn’t a possibility, he’ll squint angrily at his phone (which is, undoubtedly, a flip phone) and type out a text in painstaking detail. Is the type to type out entire sentences, with proper grammar and punctuation and everything. Thinks things like emojis or gifs are stupid and childish, and refuses to use them.

Hidan

Unless you’re on his priority list, Hidan will take approximately ten thousand years to text somebody back. His most impressive non-text was him responding to “do you like spicy food?” with “not really” … five years later. When he does text, his messages are very short and sweet, using mostly abbreviations or emojis to get his point across … except when he’s angry. When that happens, he’ll type out complete sentences, in all caps, and fill up half a page with question and/or exclamation marks. These texts are rife with spelling errors, as his fingers move at the speed of light when he’s upset, and he’s not the most grammar-conscious to begin with. The most likely of the group to send a “u up?” text but instead of talking about sex, it’s him lecturing the person on why they should convert to his religion.

Deidara

Texting with him is like reading a short story every time you get a message. Or, make that messages. Anytime he has something to say, he’ll send his thoughts in multiple short paragraphs, in rapid succession, until the receiving party has a book’s worth of messages to read through. Also the type to text back ridiculously fast, like two seconds after someone texts him. Never capitalizes anything, not even names. Likes emojis but doesn’t use them often because he has trouble finding things that express exactly how he feels. If he’s close to the person he’s texting, will send them countless pictures all day of himself making goofy faces. Also the type to take pictures of things like the sky or trees, send to someone, then ask which picture looks “more artistic”, even though the pictures are pretty much the same.

Sasori

Is a bit like Kakuzu in that he doesn’t find texting to be in anyway enjoyable, but is significantly better at it than the old man. Most likely to Like or Dislike a message rather than respond with actual words. When he does use words, it’s mostly one or two word responses like “ok” or “yeah” or “sounds good”. Also the type to send links to medical studies or articles that he finds interesting … although the receiver rarely does. Also, if he takes the time out of his day to send someone a message, he expects a speedy response; he doesn’t like to be kept waiting, after all.

Tobi/Obito

As Tobi, this guy is all about emojis, gifs, pictures, links to YouTube videos .. anyone sending a message to him or getting one in response shouldn’t expect conversations to be of a serious nature at all. As Obito, this is the guy who will send deep philosophical questions or thoughts at 3 in the morning, then be genuinely hurt that whoever he sent it to didn’t respond right away … even though they were likely asleep. Obito is also the type to start group chats adding together people that don’t normally get along in person, and his pointed questions usually end up getting him blocked or muted by one or two people. Is also a huge gossip with those that are closest to him, and will very often “spill the tea” with Deidara or Konan about things he’s seen and heard throughout the week.

Konan

Konan is a very tough young woman, and often has difficulties expressing things like sadness or vulnerability around others. Texting is the perfect outlet for her to truly be herself, and she’s able to convey her thoughts and feelings through texts. The type to send lengthy paragraphs rather than short messages, and whatever she sends always hits deep with the person who receives it. Konan is also a great text-buddy for watching movies, as she and a friend can both be in separate places, watching the same thing, and fill up each other’s phones with funny observations about whatever they’re watching. Doesn’t really like selfies (she’s very self conscious about her looks, for some inane reason) but will send one if asked, which will always be breathtakingly gorgeous.

Pein

Prefers texting to any other type of communication. Texting is an easy way for this leader to get out fine-tuned messages to multiple people at once. Rarely sends one on one messages because he’d rather hit up everyone at once in a group chat. Types out full, grammatically correct sentences every single time. Has no clue what stuff like LOL or SMH means, and even though the others sometimes respond with things like this, is too stubborn to ask someone what they mean. Can’t take or send a decent picture to save his life; all of his images are blurry and out of focus. A surprising sentimental type though; the screensaver on his phone is a picture of all the Akatsuki together.

Zetsu

This guy never texts unless he’s sending pictures of some “wonderful” thing he saw in nature. But the problem is, Zetsu thinks literally everything is wonderful. His friends phones will be bombarded with pictures of squirrels and spiderwebs and tree leaves and birds and anything else he thought was worthy of a snap. Yet despite the boring (to some) subject matter, everyone has to admit that Zetsu takes professional-grade pictures of whatever he clicks at, and is always the one asked to take the pictures at formal events. Sends a lot of messages out, but is like Hidan in that it takes him forever to respond to things sent to him.

Itachi

It would be more likely for one to see the moon fall out of the sky and into the ocean than it would be to get a text from Itachi. He’s like Kakuzu in that he prefers calling, although not for a reason of convenience. Itachi often feels that technology has split people further apart than ever, and finds most forms of technological communication to be cold and impersonal. If he has something to say to you, he’d rather say it directly to your face, not through the screen of a phone. When speaking in-person isn’t an option, then he chooses to call — but he warned, no conversation with the brunette is a short one. Someone could ask him about the weather and end up having a three hour long conversation about different cooking styles of the world. But no matter the topic, whoever Itachi calls will have a hard time hanging up, as Itachi’s voice is almost hypnotic in its soothing quality.

Kisame

Kisame gets more texts than anybody because he’s the friendliest and most accessible of the group. 2am and can’t sleep? Text Kisame. Need help thinking of what to make/where to go for dinner? Text Kisame. A breakup? Trouble with classes? Health scares? That’s right, text Kisame. Kisame takes a long time to respond to messages; not because he doesn’t care or is being rude, but because he takes every question or comment he gets very seriously, and wants to give himself adequate time to give the best possible response. Doesn’t use many emojis; he feels offended that the people emojis don’t offer blue skin tones. As he’s the one that most others text to solve problems, it’s very unexpected when he texts someone with a problem of his own. When this happens, that person will break their neck trying to find a solution to appease the gentle giant, which Kisame is very grateful for.

[kingk8art]

hetalia rant

pls ignore how I won't use any proper punctuation or capitalization because my arms and fingers all hurt from volleyball :( Edit: My arm’s are better now so I’m actually using proper capitalization and punctuation (special thanks to my friends for proofreading and also Google autocorrect.) Special thanks to my friend for helping me out with writing this.

so i'm one of those people who joined the hetalia fandom like REALLY late, having first watched the anime in like 2017 or 18. Nevertheless, when I heard about how the anime was coming back in 2021 I was really excited!! I’ve been reading world stars lately but there’s just something in the hetalia anime that made me love it so much. the voice acting and how it’s animated and everything, it really brings the characters to life! out of curiosity I searched up hetalia on twitter. keep in mind that i’m pretty new to the fandom so i never really got to see the shipping wars, or really any toxic part of the fandom, since i wasn’t there when hetalia was at its peak.

What i saw was really different from what i expected to see. I kinda expected twitter threads hyping up the new season, or things like that but most of ones I found in the top section were hate comments about hetalia, and things about why it shouldn’t come back. I was reading these and I was like, wait why? Some of them actually made sense, and the others had flawed logic. Here are my rants on why hetalia ISN’T anti-Semitic or problematic (as of now).

Misconceptions About Hetalia

1. Hetalia is About Nazi Germany or the Holocaust

If you’ve actually watched the show/read the manga, it’s quite obvious that although some of the events take place during WW2, it never mentions Hitler, Nazis, the Holocaust, or anything like that. and there’s a good reason for it. In the first place, hetalia isn’t meant to be a serious comic. The manga only focuses on subjects like funny things that happened to historical figures/occurrences during a war, weird inventions; generally those kinds of things. It focuses on the cultural differences between countries, or wholesome moments in history (such as when two enemies stopped fighting on Christmas day to play soccer.) Hetalia itself is antiwar. Consider the main character himself: he absolutely hates fighting. I don’t see how hetalia can be anti-Semitic or pro-war at all. But what I will say is fucked up are those certain cosplayers that did the Nazi salute, posed in front of a Holocaust memorial, etc. But I can still guarantee that the MAJORITY of the fandom is not like this. Every single fandom has its bad apples, some more than others. It’s not right to generalize the entire fandom as anti-Semitic, racist, disrespectful shits.

Do people realize that Germany’s character in Hetalia isn’t Nazi Germany?  In the first place the Holocaust wouldn’t be Germany’s responsibility — the depictions of these characters are meant to portray the people as a whole, not their systems of law or government. It’s stated in the series that nations MUST obey orders from their “boss” (which probably refers to the country’s ruler, president, prime minister, or other leaders at the time. Nations can’t choose what their superiors do, or what those under that control do. Saying Germany is humanized Nazi Germany is like putting that label on all German people without considering factors like time period or representation. Hetalia characters are a mere representation of each country’s people, nothing else.

How does mentioning WW2 in a comedy make it offensive? There are PLENTY of movies, novels, and other kinds of media that take place in WW2 and yet are in the comedy genre. Ever watched Jojo Rabbit? If you thought Hetalia was offensive, have you ever watched South Park or looked at CountryHumans? I do get why some people dislike Hetalia, but why does it receive so much hate for something that was never in the series (or generally speaking, for the wrong reasons)? It may have flaws, but there’s a strong definition to what those flaws actually are. It doesn’t revolve around antisemitism or Nazism. 

2. Hetalia is Racist and Stereotypes People

Now this is a pretty controversial topic. Being a comedy about personified countries, stereotypes are really something that HAS to be used at some point to make the characters funny. But does that automatically make it racist? No. I saw this on a YouTube video comment section somewhere, but stereotyping (generalizing) that all stereotypes are ‘bad’ (or have negative connotations/associations) is literally stereotyping. Not all of the stereotypes are bad. Like the way Britain acts like a gentleman or likes drinking tea, which in a way, is a British stereotype. That’s not a bad thing, just funny to see in the show — played for comedy purposes, and not necessarily offensive.

Although Hetalia characters are sometimes influenced by stereotypes that revolve around the actual countries and represent the people in general, they DO NOT always represent what those country’s people are actually like. Also, I’m pretty sure the point of comedy about personified countries is to use some of those generalizations. Specifically, stereotypes that the Japanese have about foreigners. France is portrayed as a flirty man because in Japan France is known for being a “romantic country.” But that doesn’t mean that they think all French people are like that — it’s just a lighthearted joke. And now, Hetalia characters have grown to be more of their own character rather than simply a humanized country at its base. Despite being a personification, they’re like their own person, not just used to depict stereotypes. Just because a character has a certain personality trait doesn’t mean Hima believes that everyone from that country has the same trait. It’s not meant to be racist, and isn’t. 

What I Think Was/Is Problematic

As much as I love this show, there were DEFINITELY some problematic things that people tend to ignore.

1. Korea Controversy

As a Korean American, I have to say that I was quite disappointed when I learned about how Hima portrayed Korea in the manga. I won’t go that deep into this one since it’s not that relevant to what I'm talking about now, but it was definitely a HUGE problem and I’m glad that he was removed from the series.

2. Iron Cross on Germany

The iron cross that Germany wears in Hetalia (in every time period) is a military decoration that was used since the King of Prussia until the time period of Nazi Germany in WW2. Today, it’s considered a hate symbol, similar to and alongside the swastika. To be fair, it wasn’t just a decoration used purely for the Nazis, unlike several other examples of Nazi symbols and memorabilia, so I suppose it could be up to each person to judge whether it should pass or not, despite the surrounding circumstances — it isn’t up to me as part of the fanbase. But personally, I think it should have been removed/not used in the first place. I mean, it wasn’t that necessary, seeing all of the military uniforms drawn in Hetalia were simplified anyways. Perhaps it would be much less problematic if Hima didn’t draw the iron cross, and the same goes for the other presented issues.

3. Japanese Imperialism

The way Hima portrays Japanese Imperialism was pretty offensive in my opinion. An instance is the presentation of the Japanese invasion of Korea. It wasn’t just like how the colonies were under Great Britain’s rule. It limited much more of Koreans’ rights and was much more gruesome. I don’t know about anyone else and can’t speak for each individual, but as a Korean, portraying all of this as Japan merely patting Korea on the  head is fucked up. This ties to the controversy of Korea’s character. From what I’ve seen, Hetalia is pretty close to a rightist (in Japan, not the US) series. I won’t dive too deep into that, but rightist — or in Korean, 우익 — animes are animes that glorify their country’s past/country, or  use content to make fun of or criticize other nations. Actually, it’s probably much more complicated than that, but as of now I don’t know much about it. It mostly ties to the tension between Koreans and the Japanese, so if you’re not either, there’s not really much to worry about. But (maybe because I’m Korean) I found it weird that the manga seems to give every single character a bad/negative characteristic except Japan. I guess it’s only natural, since the creator is Japanese. But then again, France was basically drawn as a rapist/pedophile, but I have never seen a French person complain about it. Or maybe they just completely avoid Hetalia? If anyone knows about it, I would be glad to listen. Perhaps it’s just a bias that I have as a Korean. It could also be a cultural difference too, since we tend to be very patriotic.

4. The Title: Axis Powers

Although the main character is Italy, and the story revolved (emphasis on the past tense) around the 3 countries that were part of the Axis, Hima should have been more considerate with the title of the show, thinking about what the Axis Powers actually did during WW2. Just “Hetalia” would have been fine. But it also should be considered that when Hima started drawing the manga, he did not expect it to become a long-term thing or for it to blow up so much. Thankfully, only the first two seasons of the anime were titled as Hetalia: Axis Powers, and later seasons were titled more acceptable things, like World Stars (manga) or The Beautiful World.

5. Seychelles

Personally I don’t find a problem with there not being that many African/South American countries in the show. Africa’s country borders (and all of that related material) were very different from what they are today, and it would be really fucking hard for Hima to keep track of all of those while still writing good characters. And unlike Europe, Africa’s history was not transcribed much, and is a lot less-known. The problem with Seychelles was her skin color, which wasn’t accurate. But that’s since been fixed.

Is Hetalia Really Problematic?

My most straightforward answer for this question would be no, it is not problematic as of now. Something I realized while listing all of the aspects of Hetalia that I personally thought were wrong to put in was that most of them don’t exist anymore. Besides Germany’s iron cross, all of them were removed from the show. Korea was banned from the anime, and he no longer appears in any of the manga strips. The manga strays further and further away from topics like Japanese Imperialism or WW2. Most of the time in the manga, countries do not wear their military uniforms anymore, but stick to more casual clothes. The characters stray further away from stereotypes that Hima used to use as a comedic effect when he first started drawing. My point is: Hima learned his mistakes. Which only makes sense, considering all of the criticism he probably received when the series first started. I think that’s a good thing. Now back to what I was ranting about earlier. I don’t get why people are saying Hetalia shouldn’t come back! The new season is most likely going to be based off the most recent Hetalia manga series, which is Hetalia World Stars. If you’ve ACTUALLY READ THE MANGA AND DIDN’T JUDGE THE ENTIRETY OF HETALIA BASED ON ITS FIRST FEW SEASONS, you would know what World Stars is about. It’s about all sorts of things. My personal favorite strips are the ones about ancient Rome! It’s not just drawn to give readers a laugh but it actually teaches you some history. Other than Rome, the manga is also about the trends of clothes in certain countries/time periods, industrial revolutions, or just the interactions between the characters in general. I really don’t see how animating these would be harmful at all. The subjects don’t revolve around what a lot of opposers say/negatively connotate the series with. If you think bringing Hetalia back is a terrible thing to do because the fandom would return and start doing toxic/weird things, I really don’t know how to respond to that. The fandom already died out around the time the last season was released. Now newer fans will come around, and the former fans would return (hopefully) matured up. It's already been 5 years since the last Hetalia season aired, after all. And like I said earlier, toxic fans never represent the entire fandom. If you really hate the fandom that much, I recommend not getting involved at all.

[thathopelessromantic]

Reckless Good (6/?)

Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia/My Hero Academia Fic Rating: Explicit Chapter Rating: Teen+ Pairing: Todoroki Shouto/Midoriya Izuku Note: Thanks again for your amazing support so far! I really appreciate all of you and your comments have been making my weeks since posting <3 This fic will be going on a short hiatus...I'm not sure how long it will be but July has been shockingly busy this year and has only continued to get crazier so I need a little more time to write more of this fic 

Todoroki Shouto had accepted his fate as a public figure when he became a pro-hero, but there are some parts of his private life he would like to stay private. When he gets invited to be a speaker in a college lecture series, he goes to the meeting with one goal: to give the coordinator a piece of his mind and finally put an end to people hounding him for information about his family.

The last thing he expects is the curious, and quirkless, hero- and quirk-study professor, Midoriya Izuku, who has no interest in his family’s history, and, somehow, even more ties to the hero industry than Shouto. Intrigued by the professor, Shouto tentatively agrees to the lecture series, unknowingly intertwining their futures.

But the more Todoroki sees of Midoriya, the more questions he has. When a villain attack leaves them living together until the culprits are apprehended, maybe he’ll finally get some answers.

AO3: (x) Beginning/Chapter One: (x) Previous Chapter: (X) TDDKBB2021 Companion Art: (X)

It’s been three days since the debriefing, and Shouto hasn’t been able to think about much else besides the weirdness of everything that happened in the meeting. Even now, standing under the scalding spray of his shower, he’s going through the motions, but his mind is in the hallway outside the conference room with Ingenium.

“I’m sorry about lying to you regarding Architect,” Ingenium had said solemnly. They’ve grown and their costumes had both changed since then, but without his helmet on, head bent to discuss something quietly, Shouto was reminded of the in-class exercises they used to do in high school. Off to the side in a hallway, as if creating a strategy. Somehow adult-Ingenium had gotten even more serious than his high school counterpart. “I know it was wrong to mislead you, but I knew he meant no harm. I knew he could help with Kou.”

“How?” Shouto had asked, but even then he had a feeling he knew the answer.

“…I’ve worked with him before,” Ingenium admitted. “I know the law, but he…he just wants to help people. And he does good hero work.”

Ingenium couldn’t say afterwards if he thought Architect would still somehow help the case. He knew he would want to, but with more people involved, and more people who knew he had been there before, it would be harder. Shouto can’t articulate exactly why, but somehow knowing he might be what brings more scrutiny towards Architect makes him feel…guilty? It’s not his fault that he didn’t know, nor is it his fault Architect is technically doing something illegal, but he feels guilty anyways.

Shouto’s phone chimes just as he steps out of the shower. Even before he checks it, he knows it’s a new text from Midoriya. While Shouto has thought of little else but the weirdness that had transpired at the debriefing for the last three days, Midoriya has acted as if it never happened. He had been quiet the rest of the day afterwards, but the next day Midoriya had picked up their text chat where they had left off as if nothing had happened. The few times Shouto tried to broach the topic of Midoriya’s behavior at the debriefing, his contacts with heroes, the vigilante Architect, anything from the debriefing, all he got was an abrupt subject change or radio silence for a few hours. After a day and a half of the back and forth, Shouto gave up pushing the subject. For now.

Shouto slings a towel around his hips and grabs his phone off the counter. There’s a new picture attached to the message. Midoriya’s scarred hand holds a large navy book out in front of the camera. The sidewalk serving as a background and the blurred edges of the image suggests he was walking somewhere as he took the picture.

I found a copy of the book!! The text underneath reads.

Shouto can’t make out any title in the picture, but he knows what book it is anyways. There was only one they had really discussed in-depth that would warrant such an excited text. It was an early study of dual quirks. Apparently, according to Midoriya, some of the information and conclusions they came to is now outdated but it is still considered one of the best introductory texts for understanding how dual quirks come about with inheritance. He had been suggesting it to Shouto practically since they had started their text conversation.

Another text comes in before Shouto can come up with a reply.

I can keep this copy in my office, if you would like to come by for it sometime.

Shouto wouldn’t mind going by the professor’s office again. It wasn’t that far out of his way, and it would be a good excuse to see him and talk to him some more – either about quirks, or whatever the hell was going on at the debriefing in an environment he can’t escape so easily. But as he mentally goes through his schedule thinking of a time he might be able to get there, it would be at least another week, if not two.

Shouto grimaces, running a hand over his face.

between normal wrk nd this new case itll be a while…

Of course I understand you’re busy! Oh unless you wanted to read it sooner

Shouto glances at the time. He still has almost two and a half hours before his next shift starts. It would be enough time. Probably. Depending on how long it takes to get Midoriya to agree. He has an idea but he knows Midoriya isn’t going to like it.

are u in musutafu now?

Yes. Of course! I could drop it off at your agency!

i was thinking just my apartment

Shouto puts his phone down to find something to wear. He doesn’t usually wear normal clothes under his uniform, but he figures he has a little while before he needs to change into it. He expects to get a flurry of messages protesting his suggestion as he finds and pulls on a pair of sweatpants, but a full three minutes pass before his phone chimes with another message. It just reads: what, lacking even Midoriya’s usual proper grammar and capitalization.

Shouto snorts. He knew he wasn’t going to like it.

im at the hospital on guard today and ill be out of the office the next few days. it would be quicker

That does set off the flurry of texts he expected the first time, Midoriya insisting that wasn’t necessary and he didn’t need to read it that quickly and a few that just said no a few times. The texts are still coming in, the notification that he’s typing still lit up on the screen, when Shouto presses the phone icon next to his name and starts a call.

The phone starts to ring. And then continues to ring for so long, Shouto thinks he’s going to go to voicemail, when Midoriya suddenly answers. There’s a shuffle on the other line for a moment.

“Entro-er, Todoro…hello?” Midoriya says.

“Hello, Midoriya,” Shouto replies.

Shouto’s simple greeting seems to knock Midoriya out of his stupor, because he immediately jumps back into his protests, picking right back up where he left off in his texts. Shouto waits until he has to stop to take a breath.

“I figured you would really frown upon me texting you my address, so I thought I’d call. Do you have something to write with?”

Midoriya sputters for a moment before he sighs. “You…yeah, go ahead.”

Shouto blinks in surprise. He really expected more of a protest than that. Still, he rattles off the address before Midoriya comes to his senses and changes his mind. Midoriya has him repeat it once, just to be sure he copied everything down correctly.

“Okay. I guess I will see you in a few minutes,” Midoriya says, sounding resigned.

Shouto almost laughs at the tone. “You don’t actually have to bring it to me if it’s any trouble. I can get it from the office eventually.”

“No, I don’t mind and it’s not that far out of the way actually,” Midoriya admits. “I’m a little concerned by your complete disregard for privacy or self-preservation but otherwise, it’s no trouble.”

“‘A lack of self-preservation and privacy’ is pretty much in my job description.”

Midoriya sighs. There’s some quiet mumbling Shouto can’t make out through the phone before Midoriya seems to give up on arguing the point for the moment and says his goodbye.

Shouto plugs his phone in by the bed to charge until he has to leave. Monarch and Momo still haven’t let go of the last time his phone died while he was on duty and he’s sure even being away from the agency for the next few days won’t save him from their ire if it happens again.

Shouto is still toweling off his hair when there’s a knock on his door. He glances at the clock on his wall, but even without the visual confirmation, he knows it has only been a few minutes since his call with Midoriya had ended. It was unlikely he found his apartment that quickly. He throws the towel over the bar in the bathroom and grabs a t-shirt on his way out of his room.

He opens the front door, expecting to see one of his neighbors in the hall. Instead, it is Midoriya staring at him from the other side of the door. He looks almost the exact same as the first time they had met with his thin, crooked wire frame glasses and oversized leather satchel hanging at his side. Though he had replaced his ill-fitting cardigan with a Froppy sweatshirt and a jean jacket over a button-up. Midoriya’s eyes scan over him quickly, pausing briefly at his middle before jumping back to his face and then to the space next to his head.

“Hello,” Midoriya manages quietly.

Shouto tugs the bottom of his shirt the rest of the way down.

“Hello. I…wasn’t expecting you to find the place so quickly,” he replies simply.

“Um, yes, it was closer than I realized too,” Midoriya finally looks him in the eye again, only to look away a moment later to bow his head. “I’m sorry, I should have announced myself somehow.”

“It’s fine, Midoriya. I’m glad you didn’t have to go too far out of your way.”

They stand in an awkward silence for a moment before they both seem to remember themselves and try to speak again.

Midoriya fumbles with the leather bag at his side, searching for the book. “Right, I’m sure you need to finish getting ready for work-” he starts to say.

At the same time, Shouto steps back, opening his door further. “Would you like to come in?”

Midoriya stares at him in surprise for a moment before his gaze jumps to something behind Shouto, brow furrowing.

“Todoroki, do you live alone?”

“Um, yes?” Shouto glances over his shoulder but doesn’t see whatever it was that Midoriya must have seen.

He turns back around, but Midoriya is still staring hard at something in the distance.

“Midoriya, what did-"

A loud crash of breaking glass cuts off the rest of Shouto’s question. Midoriya reacts a second before him, grabbing Shouto’s arm and throwing them both down the hall, away from his door as flames erupt in the apartment behind him.

They tumble to the ground. Shouto lands hard on his back as they roll for a moment, the floor below him and Midoriya landing heavily on top of him knocking the air from his lungs. One of Midoriya’s hands cushioned his head in the fall, but he pulls it back quickly as if Shouto burned him.

Midoriya quickly lifts himself up, carefully checking Shouto over. “Are you alright?”

Shouto nods, not yet ready to try speaking again. The sound of a vicious fire cracks behind them and the smell of smoke is already starting to fill the hallway. Whatever was thrown has a fast-moving fire and Shouto can feel the heat even from a few feet away.

“Will your fire alarm alert the authorities?”

Shouto pushes himself to a sitting position . “Don’t have a fire alarm,” he chokes out. They really need to move. “They go off too easily.”

Midoriya stares at him for a moment like he’s lost his mind before realization dawns. “Right your quirk would probably make that a pain. Okay, I’ll call for help. But we need to get as many people out as we can before they get here.”

Shouto climbs to his feet, using the wall to hold himself up for the moment. Everything seems to feel okay, so he doesn’t think he’s injured, just winded. Midoriya looks worried but he still scrambles to his feet a moment later.

“I can get my upstairs neighbors out,” Shouto says.

“I’ll help everyone below evacuate,” Midoriya offers before Shouto has barely finished speaking. He takes off for the stairwell, glancing back at the last second. “Be careful, Todoroki.”

Shouto stares after him for a moment, incredulous. ‘I’m the pro in this situation,’ he wants to remind Midoriya. ‘And probably marginally more fire-resistant than you.’ “You too,” is all he manages instead as the stairwell door swings shut behind Midoriya. Faintly, Shouto remembers another time he watched a civilian run head-long into trouble, but he brushes off the otherwise long-forgotten memory. It was so long ago, he’s not sure what dredged up the old memory, but dwelling on it won’t help anyone right now.

Shouto forces himself away from the door and his desire to go after the apparently reckless, mysterious, crazy-overachieving civilian he just let run into danger and heads for his closest neighbor. There are only three apartments on each floor. The one next to him has been empty for months, and usually both of the Fukudas were at work during this time of day, but he pounds on the door just to be safe, calling for them both. Smoke is finally beginning to fill the hallway and he knows it will only be another minute or two before the fire itself begins to crawl its way out of the apartment too.

Shouto breaks through the door, calling for either of the Fukudas to answer as he darts through the handful of rooms laid out in a mirror of his own familiar apartment. Satisfied that it is empty, he goes back to the hall heading for the stairs. He can feel his right side rapidly growing colder as his quirk tries to regulate his body temperature. The overheated air burns his already sore chest as he runs.

Shouto is already shouting as he reaches the next floor, hoping to alert as many of his neighbors as he can. One door opens as he throws himself down the hall, an older woman looking at him suspiciously through the crack in her door. For once he’s thankful for his unique appearance because he sees recognition dawn on her a moment later, even without his hero suit.

“A fire started on the floor below, I’m trying to evacuate everyone on this floor and the next, if you have anyone home with you, get them!”

The woman nods in understanding, throwing her door open and running back into the apartment calling for someone. Shouto goes to the next closest apartment, banging on the door and calling for anyone who might be inside. The door to the apartment next door opens and a man looks out.

“What is all the racket about? They went to their parents for the week, no one is in there.”

“The apartment is empty right now?”

The man glares at him, but Shouto pushes on before he can start an argument with him. The first woman comes out of her apartment with her grandson and a small dog in tow. “Sir, there is a fire on the floor below. We’re evacuating everyone.”

The man still looks like he wants to argue, but a moment later the sound of sirens grows louder as help arrives on the scene and that seems to be enough to convince him to cooperate. The three tenants follow him up the stairs to the last floor. Two of the three doors are already open, the tenants looking out obviously wondering what all the noise is about. The woman and her grandson greet one of the two women, immediately filling them in on what’s going on. Shouto goes to the last door.

“She’s at work,” one of the women calls to him. “She lives alone. Except for a cat.”

Shouto nods his thanks for the information. “I’ll go in to get the cat. Do either of you have a window that faces the front of the building?”

The other woman raises her hand. “I do!”

“Please take everyone into your apartment, clear a space in front of the window if necessary and I’ll be there in just a moment.” Shouto instructs. He waits just a moment to make sure everyone is complying before he forces the last door open. The cat in question makes itself known immediately, rushing to the door crying for attention before it realizes he is not their owner. The cat turns tail and darts deeper into the apartment.

Cursing, Shouto uses ice to create a small blockade in the hall that leads to the bedroom and bathroom, limiting the cat’s escape routes as he darts after it, sliding across the hardwood floor leading into the hallway. He catches himself on the wall just as the cat skids to a halt before the ice, trying to turn quickly but the floor is more slippery than its accustomed to and Shouto manages to grab it as it struggles to find its footing. He gets a few heavy scratches across his arms for his trouble, and the cat does its best to escape his hold, but he manages to get it out of the apartment. He wishes he had his tool belt on him, where he might have something that could contain the cat better, and make it easier to transport, but even if the fire-resistant fabric had lasted this long, it wasn’t worth it to try and get back into his apartment for it.

He rejoins his neighbors in the other apartment. Along with the three from the first floor, there are the two women from this floor, one of whom clutches a still-sleeping baby to her chest. From the window he can see the ambulance and two fire engines that have already arrived. And based on the sounds in the distance, the police and at least one more ambulance would not be far behind. Someone offers to take the disgruntled cat from him as he throws open the window.

Smoke is billowing from a window on a lower floor, obscuring his line of sight for a moment as the winds shift. Shouto swears under his breath, he can feel his neighbors growing anxious behind him, but he knows he needs a clear shot of the ground for this to work. It takes a few minutes for the view to clear enough for him to see a good landing place. By then a few people from the lower floors have started to evacuate, and he can see the first responders meeting them as they come out. He can’t tell from here if Midoriya is with them yet, though he has a feeling the answer is no.

Pushing his concerns aside for the moment, Shouto takes a deep breath to focus. Even after all these years of playing catch up, he still has a much better control of his right side than his left, but the overheated air is already putting a strain on his right side as it keeps his body cool. He creates an ice ramp, or perhaps more accurately a slide, from the window to the ground besides one of the fire engines. It’s as far as he dares to go to keep the slide from being too steep without also becoming too thin. He reinforces the part connected to the building and as much of the underside as he can from where he is to keep the fire from melting it down.

He turns back to his gathered neighbors. The adults gathered look unsure at best, if not down right afraid, but the young boy looks excited.

“It’ll be cold going down, but you should be perfectly safe,” Shouto promises. “Who’s first?”

Shouto helps the first woman up to the window. Once she is down safe, the woman with her baby goes, climbing up by herself first before Shouto hands the infant off to her. The young boy volunteers next before his grandmother can stop him, scrambling up to the window and then asking Shouto to hand the dog up to him. The older woman goes next, clutching the terrified cat tightly to her chest as she disappears down the slide.

Shouto waits until the older man safely reaches the bottom after her before he prepares to go down himself. Taking one last look back before he drops, he sees the smoke begin to curl around the edges of the apartment door.

 The fire chief stops Shouto first once he’s down, thanking him for his help evacuating the civilians and asking about the conditions inside. Shouto gives as much information as he can about the fire and where it started. He ignores the concerned expression the chief gives him as he explains how it began. He knows it seems like an attack, and a targeted attack at that, but he doesn’t want to focus on it just yet. Eventually, the chief figures he’s gotten as much as from Shouto as he’s going to for the moment and sends him off towards the paramedics.

Shouto dodges them for the moment, finding the neighbors he helped down first to make sure everyone actually made it down unharmed. Everyone seems okay, the baby somehow still blissfully asleep and the young boy excitedly asks Shouto if he can go down his ice slide again some other time. One of the first responders found a carrying case for the cat until they could get ahold of its actual owner. He recognizes a few of the other neighbors gathered around from the lower floors. A few have shock blankets on and one person is perched in an ambulance with a paramedic attached to an oxygen machine, but there don’t seem to be any major injuries.

Midoriya is arguing with a paramedic, insisting someone else is in more pressing need of care when Shouto finally approaches one of the ambulances.

“What’s that saying about doctors being the worst patients?” Shouto asks.

Midoriya jumps, startled by his arrival, though he quick recovers from his shock to glare at Shouto.

The paramedic throws his hands up. “Entropy, please try and talk some sense into him. This is the fourth time he’s refused care.” The paramedic turns back to Midoriya and waves a warning finger at him. “I’m running out of other patients to look at.” He warns before storming off.

“Are you alright? What happened?” Shouto asks once they’re alone. Midoriya mostly looks okay, his glasses are missing and he’s a little sooty and disheveled, but Shouto figures everyone probably looks about the same in that regard.

“Nothing,” Midoriya starts to say as someone nearby loudly clears their throat over him. Midoriya scowls. “I think I might have landed on my hand funny earlier, but it’s fine, probably just sore.”

Shouto frowns. “You should at least have someone look at it, just in case.”

Midoriya opens his mouth to argue but a ringing phone cuts him off. He fumbles with his phone for a moment, struggling to pull it out of a pocket with his opposite hand. He winces as he finally pulls it out.

“Shit.”

“What?”

“It’s a video call.” Midoriya doesn’t elaborate anymore. He shifts around before he answers, holding the phone up at an angle that keeps his arm and the ambulance mostly out of the camera. He pastes on a bright smile. “Hi, Eri.”

“Oh Izuku, are you okay? I heard you were involved in a fire. Are you injured? What happened?” Dr. Aizawa asks in a rush, her worried face fills the screen. Red eyes move quickly, obviously taking note of Midoriya’s disheveled apperance.

“I’m fine. Everyone’s fine. We’re not sure exactly how it started yet,” he lies. “But no one was hurt.”

“Where are you? I’ll go-”

“No,” Midoriya cuts her off. “I’m fine and I’ll come by the hospital later so you can check me over yourself if you’re really that worried, but I’m fine. And I want to make sure someone is keeping an eye out for Kou.”

“You think this has to do with her?” Dr. Aizawa asks, surprised.

“I’m not sure yet, I would just feel better if I knew there was extra security around her.”

Dr. Aizawa nods. “Okay, Izuku. I’ll make sure someone has an eye on her at all times. I’ll call you later to check up on you.” She says. “And I’ll know if you don’t let the paramedics check on you so don’t even try it this time.” The call ends before Midoriya can refute her last statement.

“I’m supposed to be taking the next shift on the hospital,” Shouto realizes. “I still had another two hours before my shift began when you arrived, but I should let someone know.”

Midoriya offers Shouto his phone. Before Shouto can step away, the paramedic returns with his arms crossed.

“Ready to cooperate?”

Midoriya looks miserably over his shoulder at Shouto but lets the paramedic force him into a seat.

Shouto calls Momo on her private number.

“This is Creati.” Momo answers stiffly after a single ring.

“Momo, it’s Shouto. My phone is…I don’t have my phone right now. There was just a fire-”

“At your apartment building. I know I just got the alert. Are you okay? You were still home, weren’t you?”

“Yes. I’m fine. No one was injured, but they’re still putting out the fire and I’m pretty sure my apartment is gone. It started there.”

Momo takes a long time to reply. “Your quirk?” She finally asks, but she sounds like she already knows the answer.

“No. I think…It seems crazy, but…” Shouto hesitates. He lives on the third floor, but crazier things have probably happened to him. “I think someone threw something through my window to start it.”

Momo curses under her breath. “I was afraid of that. You haven’t heard from anyone else, yet, have you? There was another attack, across town. Not a fire, but a building came down. A few civilians were hurt, and…”

Shouto tries not to lose his patience with Momo as she hesitates.

Finally she sighs. “The latest report from the police just came over the radio. Mr. Smith was one of the only heroes in the area. He was severely injured while helping trapped civilians. Paramedics rushed him to the hospital a few minutes ago. No one’s sure of his status yet.”

“Fuck.” Midoriya was right. “This is about Kou. The girl from before you have to-”

“I know your schedule, Shouto.” Momo interrupts. “As soon as I got the alert I let them know you might have been targeted. Someone has already been assigned to your guard shift and they’ve added extra security to the hospital.”

Shouto feels himself relax for the first time since the fire began. If there’s one thing he can count on, it’s Momo to be on top of things. “Thank you.”

Momo replies with a quiet hum of acknowledgement. “Is there anything else I can do for you right now? Do you need anyone else at the scene?”

“No, everything seems pretty well in hand for now. But if you could let my mother and sister know, that would help. They’ll see it on the news eventually, but even if my phone survived the fire it will probably be a while before I can get it to contact them myself.”

“Of course, I’ll make sure they know you’re alright. Can I contact you on this number again?”

Shouto glances back at Midoriya. He’s, miraculously, still sitting in the ambulance doors letting the paramedic wrap his hand, but he also managed to call over one of the firefighters to discuss something about the attack. “Yeah, you can use this number again.”

“Let me know when you learn something more.”

“I will.”

“I’m really glad you’re okay, Shouto.” Momo says just before she ends the call.

Me too, Shouto thinks, looking around at all the people gathered in front of the apartment. He and Midoriya had managed to get everyone out, but if Shouto had been alone he might not have been quick enough. Hell, if he hadn’t been answering the door at just the right time, he might not have been able to save anyone at all. He would probably be right beside Mr. Smith in the hospital. I just wish it could be said for everyone.

Shouto returns to the ambulance, passing the cell back to Midoriya. Midoriya takes one look at his face and knows.

“You heard about Mr. Smith too?”

Shouto nods. “Creati already sent word to the hospital for extra security and for someone to cover my shift watching Kou.”

Midoriya cracks a small smile. Other than the one he wore to briefly pacify Dr. Aizawa, it’s the first smile Shouto thinks he’s seen from him all day. And bizarrely, it puts him at ease for a moment, lifting some of the weight of the attack.

“Remind me to send her a huge thank you gift when we finally get out of here,” Midoriya says, and even though Momo is just doing her job in her own efficient, overachiever way, he knows Midoriya is serious.

Midoriya moves over, offering the extra space for Shouto to sit down. Another paramedic almost immediately descends on them, finally checking Shouto over for shock, smoke inhalation, over-extended quirk usage, and other injuries. Other than the handful of cat scratches that they clean and bandage, he comes out with a clean bill of health. Midoriya is comparing their injuries, complaining that his “bruised wrist” didn’t need more bandaging than Shouto’s cuts, but while his tone is light, his eyes keep focusing on something in the distance, his attention obviously not on their conversation. Shouto can practically hear the wheels turning in his head as he thinks.

The fire chief eventually joins them as the fire dies down and more of the firefighters exit the building for the last time. “Thank you again, Entropy, for your help evacuating tenants before we arrived. And…Midoriya, was it?”

“Dr. Midoriya,” Shouto corrects when Midoriya simply nods. Midoriya elbows him in the side, but Shouto ignores the jab.

“Dr. Midoriya, thank you for your help as well. That was very brave of you. A number of the tenants I’ve spoken with were extremely grateful for your assistance.”

Midoriya shrugs a shoulder, as if he had truly done nothing of note. “I’m just glad I was in the right place to help, at the right time.”

“Do we know anything else about the fire yet? Or the building?” Shouto asks.

“The fire is mostly out, we just have a few more people inside checking for any hidden fires or areas that weren’t extinguished completely the first time. As for the building…it will take a little while longer to properly assess all the damage but the third floor where it started, and the second and fourth floors, took the most damage. At the very least it will be a day or two before it’s safe for the tenants to move between the floors to get their things.” The chief explains.

Shouto expected about as much, honestly he was prepared to hear worse, but it doesn’t make it easier. “Thank you for letting us know.”

The chief nods. “Of course.”

Shouto turns back to Midoriya as the chief walks away. “Can I borrow your phone one more time?”

Midoriya politely, but unnecessarily, turns away as Shouto crafts a text to Momo.

the tenants will b displaced for at least a few days. can we do smthing abt accommodations for them?

It only takes Momo a few seconds to reply.

Of course. Send me the number of people and their contact information and I’ll take care of everything.

A second text comes in almost immediately.

Will you need something too? You could always stay with me and Kyouka. Or I’m sure your mother would be happy to have you for a few days.

Shouto stares at the message for a moment. “Shit.” He hadn’t been thinking about himself. Obviously he couldn’t stay in his apartment. But he wouldn’t want to be housed anywhere near his neighbors, in case whoever attacked tried again. But that would put his friends, or family, in the same line of risk.

“What’s wrong?” Midoriya finally turns back, looking over Shouto’s shoulder. “Was there another attack?”

Shouto shakes his head. “No, sorry to worry you. Momo just reminded me I’ll need a place to stay for a while. I don’t want to risk a hotel or some public housing, if they try to attack again…”

Midoriya doesn’t need him to finish his thought before he nods in understanding. “And you don’t want to stay with your friends or family for the same reason. There’s too much of a risk they will try to target you again.”

Shouto groans, running a hand over his face. Maybe Midoriya was onto something with all his concerns about ‘privacy and self-preservation.’

“Stay with me.”

Shouto’s head shoots up. He thinks he had to have misheard, but the serious expression on Midoriya’s face suggests otherwise.

“What?”

“You can stay with me. No, you should stay with me.”

Shouto feels like he was just transported to a parallel universe. He was actually fairly confident his role as the only one to suggest ridiculous things in this newly-started relationship was already established.

“I-No. I couldn’t ask that of you.”

“You’re not asking, I’m insisting.”

Shouto ignores him. “I can stay in the dorms at the agency.”

Midoriya rolls his eyes. “That’s an extremely short term solution, at best. And a huge risk. If these villains have kept close enough tabs on you to find your personal apartment and attack it, it would be child’s play to figure out you were staying in your office, with a publicly available address, and target it too.”

“You would still be at risk,” Shouto says, baffled as to how Midoriya somehow managed to miss that very important fact. “The same way Momo and Kyouka or my family would be, I can’t put you in that position.”

“Todoroki,” Midoriya says, deadly serious. “You are not a very social hero. It is common knowledge who you are close enough with to consider a friend. And your family has been in the spotlight for years. Staying with any of them is an obvious and dangerous choice. I’m a nobody. No one knows me, no one knows you know me. Also my house is…private, secluded. Even if someone does eventually figure out you’re there, it will take much longer than any of the other places. Enough time that we can come up with another plan.”

Midoriya reaches over and takes the cell out of his hands. “Now, unless you have a more convincing argument, I will text…” he looks at the phone for a long moment as he trails off. Shouto has no idea how he can casually insist on Shouto staying with him and in the same breath be visibly uncomfortable texting a different hero. “I will text…Creati and tell her you have a place to stay. You should go collect everyone else’s information for her.”

Shouto stares at Midoriya in disbelief while he pointedly ignores him and struggles to craft a text to Momo. He only finally moves when Midoriya all but shoves him off the ambulance step, claiming to be unable to type while he was being watched.

“I…can’t make sense of you,” Shouto finally admits. Midoriya has baffled him basically since the moment they met and he’s beginning to think he might never fully understand him.

Midoriya looks up from his phone with a curious expression, as if surprised by Shouto’s admission, before it transforms into a smile Shouto has never seen before, but that he wants to pull from him again and again.

“I like to think that’s just a part of my charm.”

[ava-candide]

Here’s your problem. You are in charge of Poldark, one of the UK’s most successful TV series of the past five years. A huge hit in the US, the show made its leads, Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson, stars overnight. Last year’s fourth series was watched by 6m UK viewers at the height of a World Cup summer. (The final series of Game of Thrones, by comparison, reached just 3.39m viewers, and most soaps average 5m.) The series is based on 12 hugely popular books, of which you have adapted just seven. So there are five further novels to plunder. But...

“The first seven books are set in the 18th century and finish at the end of 1799,” explains the writer Debbie Horsfield, whose problem this actually is. “But then Winston Graham stopped writing — and when he came back for book eight, The Stranger from the Sea, he left an 11-year gap in the story and changed almost everything. We leave Ross in series four a frustrated MP. When we meet him in book eight, he’s basically a spy for the British government. Dwight [Enys, the doctor] is helping George III with his madness. Graham doesn’t really explain how any of this happened.”

None of this would matter if the latest TV adaptation of the books, like the 1975 version, simply gave up at the end of the first seven. There is, however, an informal agreement between cast and creative team that — if everyone is still around and available in 10 years — they will reunite to finish the final novels. “There’s nothing on paper, but everybody has said yes,” Horsfield says. “Why wouldn’t we?”

So she set about trying to fill in that 11-year gap for the fifth and perhaps final series, and turned, as the show has often done, to the ferociously radical politics of the time. There she found a real-life Ross Poldark in the shape of a radical war hero who had married one of his servants — Colonel Edward “Ned” Despard. (It’s tempting to say that desperate times call for Despard measures.)

“The parallels between him and Ross are quite astonishing,” Horsfield says. “They were both military men — Despard was a hero of the American Revolutionary War and his wife, Kitty, was originally a Jamaican servant in his kitchen. I asked Andrew Graham whether his father had based Ross on Ned, but he hadn’t heard of him. Despard’s history doesn’t end well, so it seemed that he could become the ‘There but for the grace of God’ figure for Ross.”

Vincent Regan, who knows how to buckle a swash, with roles in the BBC’s The Musketeers, Troy, 300 and Clash of the Titans, brings a rugged determination to the role. He roars his way through the first two episodes like a force of nature, and in this Horsfield has stayed true to the real-life Ned. After the American Revolutionary War, he was made superintendent of what became Belize, until he fell in love with Catherine (Kitty) and set out to give freed slaves the same rights as white settlers. This did not go down well in London — Despard was recalled and jailed. When he was released, he joined the London Corresponding Society, a radical organisation inspired by Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man, and agitated for the end of slavery.

“Ross was clearly an abolitionist, and there has always been a political thread running through Graham’s books,” Horsfield notes. “Period dramas shouldn’t be clean, neat and tidy — they should matter as much as contemporary stories.” To illustrate this, she sketches out what seems at first an improbably modern storyline: Luke Norris’s character, Dwight, the troubled Royal Navy doctor, develops a form of PTSD treatment for the villainous George Warleggan, played with chilling power in this series as a man driven literally mad with grief at the loss of his wife, Elizabeth.

“Graham mentions in passing in book eight that Dwight went to France to study with a Dr Pinel,” Norris says. “He was a real historical figure who pioneered humane ways of dealing with mental health issues, at a time when we locked people in Bedlam, plunged them into icy water, whipped them, beat them, locked them in cages, sedated them and purged them to rid them of demons or animal spirits.”

“It made sense,” Horsfield adds. “By book eight, Dwight has become the go-to expert on mental health, being called in to consult over George III.”

We forget there was a strong possibility of an English revolution at that time. There were serious food shortages and measures to suppress any kind of dissent, including trade unions. “The beauty of the novels is that the dashing Byronic hero makes thrilling drama out of the dullest school history lessons,” Horsfield says. “Ross opposes the greed of bankers and wealthy industrialists, so it made sense for him to have served with Ned, and for Ross and Demelza to be caught up in the story of Ned and Kitty.”

The idea of a radical mixed-race couple cutting a swathe through London at that time is almost certain to incite adverse comment. In fact, there were black Londoners in Roman times, the first settled black community in the capital was in the Elizabethan era, and by the time Despard was recalled to England, about 2% of London’s population was black.

It’s also true that in the early 19th century, the British secret service was headed by William Wickham, a civil servant busy infiltrating radical groups such as the London Corresponding Society. By gradual steps, Horsfield leads Ross and Demelza through the first two years of the missing 11, gradually wrapping Ross in the plots and skulduggery of political espionage.

For Turner, the arrival of Poldark’s old commanding officer provided a couple of welcome changes. “It was nice that Ross finally had a friend,” he says with a grin. “I got on great with Vince — he was an English actor doing an Irish accent, and I’m an Irish actor doing an English accent, so we do good impressions of each other.

“And it felt like there was a lot more action in the series, with Debbie given free rein. There’s much more sword-fighting, that’s for sure. We’ve had pistols, riding and swimming in previous seasons, but you can’t beat fighting with real steel swords. You can’t fool around with them. You just have to commit and go for it, and hope everything will be fine.”

Turner famously does his own stunts, except in the scenes where Poldark gallops along the cliffs. “For insurance reasons,” he points out hastily. “But they put me on a horse on the first day of shooting, back when I was such a young and innocent man. I was pretty nervous, I was on a horse and Debbie says I was quite fierce...” He pauses. “But I think I was a little bit nicer than that.”

He will miss the show, he admits. “We had pretty much the same crew for the entire job, so it was like a proper family, and I’ll miss everyone a lot. You hope to keep in touch — you tend to with the actors, but not so much with the crew.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Turner found his final day of shooting very emotional. “It’s always been amazing working alongside Eleanor, we get on great, and the last day was just the two of us doing some bedroom scenes,” he recalls. “That was quite lovely, and it seemed to make sense that it was just the two of us. It was poignant to leave things there.”

Leave them there? What about the talk of reuniting in 10 years? “I wouldn’t rule it out,” he says, then tacks a little to the left. “I mean, I wouldn’t rule anything out. That’s for other people to decide. It depends if it’s something the audience wants to see.”

Horsfield can’t see why the audience would have changed by then. “When I started this adaptation, people were asking how I was going to make it relevant for now,” she says. “But you don’t need to update it, because the concerns of the time and the concerns of Winston Graham are still the concerns we have now.

“Things actually don’t change. We all want to find a sense of community and not be exploited. That Europe, surveillance, terrorism and immigration are still hot topics may be a shame, but it’s really no surprise.

“If we are to come back in 10 years, dealing with mental health and continental politics — I mean, you’d be crazy to say that they won’t be hot topics in 2030. Constant conflict around the same ideas may be depressing for me as a person, but as a drama writer, it makes my job a whole lot easier.”

[earthabox9886846-blog]

These Four Chords Are At The Heart Of Each Pop Music

Are we alleged to hate the pop songs in ‘A Star Is Born'? However New York is the place the place people was remodeled into pop, and despatched back out into the world to be reclaimed by the people—for a price. Three years after the Grand Scarlet Ball, in 1886, three teen­agers, www.magicaudiotools.com Isidore, Julius, and Jay Witmark, began publishing songs out of a storefront on West 40th. The founding of M. Witmark and Sons has been pin­pointed as the beginning of the trendy common-song business. The Witmarks were innovators. The first track that rolled off their sheet-music presses was a topical one, President Cleveland's Marriage ceremony March," composed in a rush by 17-12 months-outdated Isidore to capitalize on the nuptials of Grover Cleveland. Commercial pluck came naturally to the Witmark brothers: Their parents have been immigrants, but the boys have been Manhattan born and bred. Like New Yorkers earlier than and since, they knew learn how to hustle for a buck.

In 2012, Gangnam Style, by the Korean artist Psy, turned one of many greatest worldwide hit songs of all time. The music video has racked up more than three billion views on YouTube. On the first verse, there's a Christina Aguilera wannabe that ends up shouting each line as opposed to singing well. Then there's this clunky shift into the pre-chorus which is more melodically sung but it surely grates on my ears the same means the yelping does on the verse. The worst a part of the music is the chorus, if it will probably even be called that as a result of it's just pitched up vocals over a regular drop that you simply hear in so many frigging pop songs. Large nodes signify music styles, small ones devices. It is obvious that some instruments occur in nearly each style while others are used by a substantially smaller variety of types. For instance, there are solely two instruments appearing solely in ‘hip hop' amongst these 5 types (for example the flageolet) whereas dozens of devices are solely related to ‘experimental' (similar to countertenor vocals). Vocals, lead guitar, and drums, on the other hand, seem in every of the five styles, whereas bones used as percussion elements solely seem in ‘Black Steel'. After World Conflict II, new styles of electrical blues turned common in cities comparable to Chicago , 87 Memphis , 88 Detroit 89 ninety and St. Louis Electrical blues used electric guitars , double bass (steadily changed by bass guitar ), drums , and harmonica (or "blues harp") played via a microphone and a PA system or an overdriven guitar amplifier Chicago became a middle for electrical blues from 1948 on, when Muddy Waters recorded his first success, "I Cannot Be Satisfied". ninety one Chicago blues is influenced to a big extent by Delta blues , because many performers had migrated from the Mississippi region. They certainly acted like they have been once I requested about it. However then the Kesha stuff went down after I had my time with Dr Luke and there was no comply with up about that. A variety of it is just about cash. The music business just isn't like many different artistic companies in that there are very few commonplace practices or ethical film business, the e-book business, and the TELEVISION enterprise, all have pretty nicely established pointers of find out how to behave when creating a movie, tv challenge, or guide. These issues simply don't exist within the music business - it is all about energy and hustle. The one ethic that exists is: take what you possibly can. The development of recording methods is seen as a serious influence on the sound of pop, distinguishing it from classical music and jazz, in addition to from some forms of well-liked music which may search a more "natural" sound. Pop music performers sometimes make use of state-of-the-artwork technology and recording studios to realize the sound they want, and record producers could have a heavy influence. Pop = "common". The sort of music that's popular varies over time with traits and trend, and is an earlier model of what we now term "viral" : issues gaining floor as a result of they have gained floor. Western-type pop music is a main reference point for the event of monumental pop music markets in Korea and Japan. The performers are indigenous, however the sounds are primarily imported from the U.S. and other countries that assist Western-model music. Okay-Pop, the model that has evolved in South Korea is dominated by girl teams and boy bands. The main form of fashionable music is pop itself. Pop bands often have singers, guitarists, keyboard gamers, and percussists. Rock music has a heavier sound and is guitar-led. Reggae from Jamaica, country from the US, and national people music, comparable to rai from Algeria, are additionally standard world wide. Rockabilly music loved great popularity in the United States during 1956 and 1957, however radio play declined after 1960. Elements contributing to this decline are often cited because the 1959 loss of life of Buddy Holly in an airplane crash (together with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper ), the induction of Elvis Presley into the army in 1958, and a general change in American musical tastes. The model remained well-liked longer in England, where it attracted a fanatical following proper up by the mid-1960s. I despise pop music as effectively.I had to make that clear upfront. However, (god do I hate saying but") the factor that's unhappy is some of these fashionable artists actually have expertise and just seem to have sold out. Like you commented on it appears to be about look instead of the music. And in some cases I have seen much less pores and skin and a strip bar than a number of the methods these feminine petformers are sporting. It boggles the mind. Possibly I do not get and steven99e54487.tumblr.com I hope I never do.Why create a canon of ladies's works in any respect? A scene from Joni Mitchell's days in Laurel Canyon, which would soon motivate her to file Blue, proves illuminating. Mitchell was working with David Crosby on her first, self-titled album, they usually'd often attend parties at the homes of friends like Cass Elliott or the screenwriter Carl Gottlieb. Gottlieb later advised music historian Barney Hoskyns that Crosby would have Joni wait in another room after they arrived. At a lull within the conversation he'd inform the group that he wished to introduce somebody. Mitchell would emerge, play a number of songs and retreat. "She goes back upstairs, and all of us sit round and take a look at one another and say, 'What was that? Did we hallucinate it?" Gottlieb said.

[andremarcusburky]

Thumbs up - A.B

A/N: so here’s to the caps going to finals and burky scoring two goals. 

Plot: Just some sweet fluff with a media intern and burky wanting a date

masterlist

Everything ran smoothly, surprisingly enough. You’d been so nervous when you first came to the capital one arena, the first day of your internship. But everyone had been so sweet, they guided you through everything and the first week flew by.

Of course you watched hockey, that’s why you’d wanted the internship so bad. But you weren’t ever starstruck or anything when you met the players. Perhaps Ovi and Backy, just a little bit. You got to join in when they did some simple interviews for a youtube special, asking the players questions about things like favorite movies and what made them cry. Most of them didn’t even realize you were in the room, but Ovi immediately went up to you to say hi.

One player in particular caught your eye. He wasn’t new to you or anything, and it wasn’t a surprise that he was cute. But watching him on TV in a game isnt the same as seeing him in person. He was tall with the most gorgeous smile. Even though he looked attractive when he’s all sweaty in games, it can’t compare to what he’s like off the ice, in person. Burakovsky was a treat.

He didnt notice you at first, but halfway through the interview you caught his eye and he smiled sweetly. Once they were done he shook your hand and introduced himself, a crooked smile playing on his lips. Andre’s grip was somewhat smooth, but still hard. It was clear he could probably crush your hand if he wanted to, but soft because he wouldn’t.

The next week went by even faster. More players noticed your presence and introduced themselves, everytime you walked by one of them they’d always greet you. Ovi and Kuzy once sat down at your table for lunch, that was probably the best day you’d had yet. You may have also learned a few nasty words in Russian.

Andre didn’t often greet you, yet you always caught his eye. He’d smile at you, everytime. Once when you walked pass Ovi and him, Ovi had stopped you and asked if you’d met yet. You’d both said ‘yes’ and Andre had given you that crooked smile again, teeth showing. Then Nicklas walked by and that’s when Ovi decided to take it further.

“Nicky! Nicky! Don’t you think she be great for andre!” and god Andre blushed so hard. Nicklas laughed and told Ovi to ‘leave the kids alone’, but Ovi had simply winked at you. “Eh? what do you think?”

Not knowing what to do, you laughed and exchanged yet another smile with a very red-faced Burakovsky before walking off to do your job.

Another week and it was time for your first real task. It was time for another video with the players and you were going to ask all the questions, one being the ‘celebrity crush’ one. Most people had no answer, or the same answer. Only one player said Beyonce, much to your surprise (and disappointment).

Then came Andre. He greeted you and sat down, looking calm and relaxed as ever. Meanwhile, your heartbeat was going through the roof. God he looked good.

“So who’s your celebrity crush, Andre?” at first he looked taken back by the question, before a smile spread on his lips. “Do you have a look-a-like celebrity?” he asked you.

Not really knowing where he was going with this, you took a few seconds to think before answering. “No.. I dont think so, why?”

“Well if you find a celebrity that looks like you then that’s my celebrity crush” he said, proudly may I add. A few whistles were heard in the room along with surprised laughs. Andre looked you dead in the eye with a big smile, while you must’ve looked like a tomato. Breaking eye-contact, you looked down at your papers while trying to gather yourself. You laughed lowly and glanced up at the still brightly smiling Burakovsky before speaking.

“Okay, then. I’ll take that as an answer” you, too, were smiling now. Trying to keep it professional, you kept asking your questions. Andre smiled at you the whole time, but gave proper answers. Once done, you said ‘thanks’ and he shook your hand. “My pleasure”

Now, every time you walked by each other he’d say ‘hi’ and you’d do everything you possibly could in order not to blush, each time you’d fail.

The next time you talked was in the break room. You tried to work the vending machine as it wouldn’t give you your bar. Then once you finally got it working, the fucking bar got stuck.

“Need help with that?” the voice startled you. Behind you was a very tall, very handsome Burakovsky. “Uh, yeah. I guess?” you answered.

He grabbed the machine shook it harshly, it only took one try and the bar fell down. A slight giggle left your lips at the lack of struggle he had. Andre smiled at you and gave you your bar. “You know those taste awful, right?”

You let out an exaggerated gasp at his remark. “They do not. These are what makes life worth living”

Andre laughed and turned back to the machine to use himself. “I wouldn’t eat one of those if my life depended on it” he said. He picked a different bar and payed. “I’m not sure if I can be friends with someone who despises my favorite bars that much” you joked.

Andre smiled widely as he took his bar from the machine. He turned back to you with a mischievous glint in his eye. “Good thing i have no intention of being your friend, then” he winked at you and walked away. You were left standing there, trying to decipher what he just said.

The day after you ran into Carlson who immediately stopped you to talk. You were a bit confused by it, he’s always greeted you but you’ve never really held a conversation before. But it didnt take long before you realized the conversation wasn’t just going to be simple small-talk. “So, quick question. What’s your view on burky?” you couldn’t help but smile widely at the unexpected topic and John smirked widely at you. “He’s a real good guy, seriously. I mean he’d get you flowers and everything, I know he would”

“Okay, John. Note taken. Have a good day” you said and walked away. “You, too!” he yelled after you.

The next day you got to join in as the team had practice. Some of the players were mic’d up so you’d catch every interesting conversation that might be fun for the fans. There were headphones to wear so you’d hear the conversations, which were occupied by your supervisor.

Andre was one of the players who were mic’d up. He didnt notice you as you walked into the rink, but once you’d sat down by your crew you’d caught his eye immediately. He smiled to himself and tried to play it cool, but his teammates started teasing the boy. “Hey, Y/N!” you heard Kuzy shout. He gave you a big wave and a few other players joined in, welcoming you.

Andre only smiled at the ice and went to take a few shots, most of them went in. A few minutes later you saw him grab his jersey to bring the mic closer to his mouth. He said something and glanced towards you as your supervisor tapped you on the shoulder. “Y/N, can you take over? I have to go to the restroom”

You nodded slowly and put the headphones on. Andre went to take a few more shots before skating up to the bench. He leaned against the boards, watching you. “You look really pretty today, you know” you heard through your headphones. A blush quickly spread over your cheeks as you realized what he was doing. “I meant what I said. I don’t want to be your friend”

You were sitting on the other side of the ice, making the distance between you far enough for it all to look incredibly innocent. No one else realized he was talking to you.

“I wanna take you out. Like, on a date.” his offer startled you. Sure, he was cute and all, and he had shown interest. But you didn’t think some nhl millionaire was going to ask you out.

“And I mean I proper date, I’m serious about this. We can get dinner, maybe catch a movie if you want? You can pick whatever movie you like” he said, still keeping his eyes on you. You were pretty sure some of his teammates were catching up to his act by now. He grabbed the mic and held it to his mouth, eyes trained on you. Meanwhile, you sat at the other side of the rink with headphones. It wasn’t that hard to figure out.

“I'll be real nice, I promise” his voice was really soft now, he almost sounded nervous.

“Say yes, Y/N!” John shouted. You could see Andre smiling into his mic, the rest of the team now turning to watch you. “Thumbs up if you say yes” Andre said.

You laughed slightly at his stupid behavior before sighing and putting your hand up, signaling a thumbs up. Next thing you knew, you heard a loud groan in your headphones as Andre was tackled by several of his teammates.

Practice ended shortly and you returned the headphones to your supervisor. She smiled knowingly and walked away. When you turned around you were met by a very broad chest, almost making you jump in surprise. “Hey”

“Hey” you answered, smiling brightly. Andre was leaning onto his hockey stick. He was sweaty with his face flushed, but he looked as pretty as ever. “So, is tonight good? I can pick you up at 6?” he grinned widely.

[fanficmoi]

The Fool By The Seaside Chp.4

“And then the mermaid gave the comb to the old man and told him to use it to call on her if he ever needed her again.”

“And then?”

“The old man lived on, using his powers to heal people and to keep them safe. Eventually he died, and the comb was passed on to his children, and so on and on. The End.” Paul finished.

John smiled, he was resting with his head on his arms, half his tail in the water, next to Paul, who was making drawings in the sand as he talked with the Merrow. “Nice story. But, Marrow cannot grant magic to humans.”

Paul laughed, “So there’s no magic down there?”

John surprised him, “Yes, there’s.” He copied Paul’s words. For the last few days Paul had been telling stories to him that he read at the library, and John’s english vocabulary was expanding.

Paul raised himself up on his elbows, “What, really?”

His friend nodded, “Yes.” Seeing that Paul wanted to learn more, he continued, “Healers use magic, entertainers use magic. Other species have magic.”

Paul leaned closer, “Other species? You mean there’s more than just mermaids?”

John smiled at the human’s enthusiasm, “Yes. Marine Men, Hippocampuses, Sea Horses, and other beasts. Not civilized like Marrow.” He smiled, “Friend Stu marine man. Is Marine Man.” He corrected himself. “Then there is sirens. But sirens is Merrow, Merrow not sirens.”

“So not all merfolk are sirens?” Paul asked him.

John shook his head,“No, sirens rare, precious.” He languidly swinged his tail, “King Triton covets Sirens. They his guards, for they strong magic.”

Paul frowned, “Why are they so special?”

John changed positions, he was now facing upwards. “Sirens, they...is half human.”

Paul shrugged, “Aren’t you all?”

John sat upright and thought hard, trying to remember his lessons in history, he’d always been a poor student. “Merrow and Humans, we...have common ancestor.” He said, “But we different species, yes?”

Paul nodded along.

“Siren is when Marrow and Human mate.” John explained.

Paul gaped, “But, how? I mean…”

John tilted his head, “Why wrong?”

“Not wrong,” Paul said, “Or I mean, how can humans and merfolk mate? It’s not very...possible, is it?”

John tilted his head further and raised his tail, he showed the underside of it. He pointed to a previously unseen fin at the back of it. “This anal fin, it releases milt onto partner, fertilizing partner.”

Paul moved his eyes away, that meant it was like looking at John’s dick! Only beautiful. Damn, how queer he sounded. But then John’s hand moved to an opening right above said fin and Paul decided to put a stop to it, “I don’t need to know everything!” He raised a hand.

John tilted his head, “But you asked how mating works. The milt goes into this ope-”

“John!” Paul interrupted, bright red. “Look, man, this is too awkward.” Paul also wondered, did this mean that male merfolk could get pregnant, like birds? How crazy was that?

John’s face fell at Paul’s tone and he lowered his tail back into the water. Good thing too because it was beginning to feel dry and his scales were itching. He didn’t know why but he figured it was best to put it back into its habitat. He moved closer to the water too, suddenly ashamed. “Apologies, Paul.”

Paul sighed and lowered his hand, “No, it’s alright. You’re right, I did ask.” When John didn’t respond, Paul extended a hand, “I’m sorry.”

John smiled at him and put his cold, thin hand in the human’s warm one. “I’m sorry.” He copied.

Paul laid down again, John next to him. “You want to hear another story?” The topic of sirens was forgotten as John excitedly nodded his consent. Little did the two know that it would eventually become an important part of their lives.

John hummed a tune to himself as he washed his tail, a song of his human’s. His. John knew he had a strong connection to Paul, he wondered if this was what other Merrow felt when they met their mate. But of course, Paul wasn’t his mate. Beings could only find their mates with someone their own species. And sadly, the two weren’t.

As he continued rubbing the cleaning slime from his tail, he thought about what he had learned earlier that day. After his talk with Paul he had headed to the stingrays’ library, where the stingrays kept many tablets of knowledge. He had read up on Sirens, his long forgotten curiosity awoken by Paul. He was right when he had said that Triton had them as guards, but he found out that they were also his lovers. He only took sirens as lovers, because their beauty was stronger than a mere mermaid’s. And yes, sirens were reported to be mostly female, but that there had been the occasional male one. Apparently, the were treated to riches and luxury at the palace where they lived, and many normal Merrow had risked going to the surface to try and find a human to mate with. Often resulting in they being hunted by humans, or just plainly refused because humans were afraid to mate with a Merrow.

Sirens were sent by Triton to the surface to seduce humans and bring them down to the deeps, for feasting. John scoffed, only the rich in the capital still ate human, he was disgusted by it. But basically, because Sirens were half-human they were able to better form a link between them and use it to lure them in. Sirens were unnaturally attractive, they made Merrows fall under their spells, so of course simple humans would be easy prey.

John figured it would be a lonely life, never knowing if somebody loved you for you or because you forced them to. He had left the library feeling rather queasy and had decided to give him tail a proper grooming to calm his mind. What he had said earlier was true, he did clean his tail every night, but when he groomed it he treated himself to a fine wash. He would use a slime coat to remove all the little insects and particles that had landed there as he swam and then he would go to get a hot vent shower, then he would shine it. It would look gorgeous, he hoped Paul would compliment him on it.

John decided to also change his hair, it had been hanging loose for too long, Auntin was always telling him that he looked like some homeless walrus. He smiled as he he swan towards the hot air vents, he was sure he would impress Paul, regular marrow as he was, John didn’t need special siren powers.

Paul groaned as laid on the bed, he hadn’t mentioned anything to John but he had been feeling a bit sick for the last couple of days, the cold water could not have been good for him.

He burrowed deep into the covers, closing his eyes. But then there was a knock on his door, “Ugh, who is it?”

“It’s me.” Came the voice of his brother, Mike.

Paul groaned, “What’d you want?”

“I need to talk to you.” Mike responded as he opened the door. Paul didn’t turn to look at him, he was content to stay laying down.

Mike looked at his brother, he looked pretty crap. But then again he had been in the beach the whole week, with that...thing. Creature. “You feeling okay?” He asked, sitting on the bed but far away from his brother’s face, not wanting to get sick.

His older brother just coughed in response.

Michael looked at the ground, “Listen, I need to talk to you.”

“Yeah, you said that already.” His brother answered.

The younger of the two put his chin in his hands, elbows resting on knees. “I was looking for you the other day and I went to the beach.” He didn’t miss the way Paul tensed as he finished speaking, “You know, to your usual spot. And I found you, but well,” he saw Paul slowly turning towards him, “You weren’t alone.”

“Mike-”

“Now, I don’t know what I saw. But I do know that,” Mike swallowed, “That it wasn’t human.”

Paul sighed, “It was just a,a… a sea lion.”

His brother scoffed, “A fucking sea lion? That’s the best you got? That thing was talking to you, hugging you, and at first I thought, hey Paulie finally’s got a girl! But,” He shook his head, “You just got a fish.”

Paul sat up, “John’s not a fish-”

“It’s a He!?”

Paul raised a hand, “I know this is crazy, Mike.” He saw that his brother was going to interrupt so he hurried to keep going, “I don’t really understand it myself, I just know that he found me in the beach and I found him.”

Michael stood up, “What does that even mean!? That thing is not human!”

Paul stood up as well, “Stop calling him that! And keep your voice down, you’ll wake Da.”

Mike scoffed, “As well I should! Paul, you’re hanging out with some sea monster.”

Paul stepped closer to him, “Stop that, Mike. I’m serious.” Paul was possessed, possessed by a strong desire to defend John. He was angry, angry that anyone would call John by such a cruel, dishonest name.

Mike stepped back, “Calm down, man. Christ. I’m just worried about ye.”

Paul relaxed for a moment, as if sensing the threat was contained. “Well, don’t be. John is nice.”

Mike shook his head disbelievingly, “John? You gave it a name?”

Paul glared again, “His name is John. I didn’t give it to him. He’s a Merrow, a merman.”

Michael gaped, “Like a fairytale?”

Paul sighed, “You say you saw him, right? You know I’m not lying, that’s the truth. John is a merman.”

Mike sat down, his brother following his actions. “And, you say he doesn’t wanna hurt you?”

Paul chuckled, “No. If anything I’m the one that keeps screwing up.”

Mike didn’t seem very amused, “But you know the stories that the sailors tell, about how mermaids are killers. How they lure sailors away from their posts and drown them in the night, never to be seen again.”

Paul scoffed, “You listen to too many sailors. John is not like that.”

There was a silence, then: “I want to meet him.”

Paul froze, “What?”

Mike nodded to himself, “Your John, the merman. You say he’s harmless, why can’t I meet him?”

Paul shook his head, “I don’t know, Mike. He’s...shy.”

His younger sibling scoffed, “Are you kidding me? That’s your excuse? You just want the creature for yourself.”

Paul tensed in anger again, “Don’t talk about him like that.” He growled.

Mike winced, “Paul, what the Hell?” He looked at his brother, worried. “I’m just talking, calm down.”

Paul breathed in deeply and shook his head, confused by his strange mood, “Sorry, Mike. Don’t know what’s happening to me, I’m tired.” He sighed and put his head on his hands, “Look, if you want to meet John, I’ll ask him.”

Mike nodded, figuring that was the best deal he was going to get, “Alright then. Thanks, brother.” He stood up and slapped his brother on the back, “I’ll leave ye to rest, then.”

Paul nodded, “Goodnight, Mike.” He laid down and closed his eyes, wondering how he was going to pose the question to John.

[persona-minty]

One way I think the “Hamuko Arisato is Sae Niijima” AU could work.

Hamuko and Minato are twins who both live through the original car accident. A little while before the accident they get a little sister, and their parents name her Makoto.

After the accident Makoto is taken in by another family, a very loving family, while the twins stay together as is customary. Minato and Hamuko grow up together, and they go through the events of Persona 3 together.

At the end, Minato is the one who becomes the Great Seal. Hamuko is left behind.

Hamuko, along with the rest of SEES, mourns Minato’s death heavily until the Answer. They all set out with a lighter and more hopeful outlook after the Answer, but Hamuko, who lived her entire life with Minato by her side, is still obviously affected.

(Spoilers for the Answer) The knowledge that Minato is still technically alive and could be brought back initially makes Hamuko feel hopeful, but soon that knowledge also begins holding her back. She feels like she would be abandoning the brother she loved so much if she forgot about him and moved on with her life, so she begins to fixate on the idea of not abandoning him and pouring all of her effort into helping free him from Erebus, and therefore the Great Seal.

Assuming that Persona 5 takes place in 2016, it’s only a bit of a stretch to place Hamuko in Sae’s age range as she’d  be around 23-24 in 2016 and Sae is probably 25-28. We’ll put Hamuko-as-Sae at 24 years of age. This means hardly anything, but I see it as a good detail because it means if Makoto was born only a little while before the accident than the timelines could match up. It also means that Hamuko would be around 21 when Makoto’s father died.

So Hamuko finishes her third year of high school with love and support from SEES, but university forces them all to go their separate ways. They keep in touch and for the most part things go well. Hamuko tries to share her thoughts and feelings about Minato’s death, but he’s a sensitive topic for all of them and is unintentionally shut down by whoever she tries to bring it up with, making her keep her feelings to herself in a less than healthy way. She blames herself for his death, thinks it should have been her, begins to remember him in the way we remember all dead people dear to us by thinking less and less about his flaws and more about his virtues. She misses him a lot and because of the way he is still technically alive it is hard for her to mourn him healthily because it feels a bit like giving up on him. All of the members of SEES struggle with this, but Hamuko struggles with it the most because while the rest of SEES only knew him for one year, she knew him her entire life.

The Shadow Operatives are established, and Hamuko becomes a card carrying member.

At around 21, her third year of university, she is securely on the path to becoming a prosecutor, though she is still in university. She learns that her by-blood younger sister Makoto just lost her father, the last of her adoptive family, and after a lot of deliberation she leaps through several legal hoops with her knowledge of law and a bit of help from Mitsuru and her influence in oder to become Makoto’s legal guardian.

In the beginning things are great for both of them. Outwardly Hamuko seems very stable due to her confidence in herself, her capacity for self-improvement, her leadership skills, and her ability to make new friends at the drop of a hat (all things gained from her time as one of the leaders of SEES). At this point she is mostly keeping her negative thoughts about Minato’s death at bay, but she is not as over it as she should be considering the time elapsed since his death. This is not obvious from her outward demeanor. 

Makoto, in need of a support system after her father’s death, latches onto Hamuko and Hamuko does her best to support her. She contacts SEES less in order to give more time to Makoto, and any time she’s not dealing with university or studying for university she’s spending with Makoto. She helps her study, she encourages Makoto to reach for the sky (and student council president), and she is a very supportive friend and sister. She draws on Mitsuru a bit in order to support Makoto financially, and Mitsuru is, of course, totally cool with it. Hamuko regrets it a bit and promises to pay her back.

Once she becomes a prosecutor, things begin to turn a little sour, though it’s not immediate. Hamuko sees an opportunity in becoming a prosecutor: one by one, she can convict criminals and begin to make the world a better place. Unbeknownst to her, her subconscious has linked her job as a prosecutor to her unresolved feelings over Minato’s condition. Erebus is a monster formed out of humanity’s collective desire to die, and she sees the people she convicts as a part of that desire. Her subconscious tells her that if only she works hard enough, pours herself into her job enough, then maybe, just maybe, she’ll redeem herself from Minato’s death and perhaps one day get to see him again.

She she pours herself and all of her energy into her job. It’s not immediate—it’s actually a very slow process. But it does happen, and it does lead into the same sort of home situation we see in Persona 5. She has very little time for things like Makoto or her SEES friends, and what she does have she spends irritable and tired. She’s very serious in her job and with none of the brightness and humor she had in her youth. She barely has any contact with her SEES friends now, so they don’t notice, and despite looking up to her Makoto hasn’t known her long enough to know that she’s changed. The change was also pretty slow, and to Makoto it seems normal that Hamuko(/Sae) would be a bit cold because she’s been through a fair amount in life and she works very hard in order to support herself and Makoto.

Makoto views this fact with a bit of guilt, as she is aware that Hamuko did not have to go through so much effort to take Makoto in and support her and yet she did, and she was very nice about it. It’s only natural that she’d be a little stressed, and Makoto feels bad for not being more helpful. Hamuko has also never been cruel to Makoto up until the “useless” comment, which was said in a moment of great stress and anger. Although it does upset Makoto a lot more than Hamuko realizes, Makoto feels upset at the comment but not outright upset at Hamuko.

Now onto Hamuko’s palace. It could remain the casino for the same reasons it was a casino canonically, but I feel it’s more interesting to modify it. In a somewhat cliche move, I’m going to make it Tartarus.

Capitalizing on Hamuko’s unresolved issues with Minato’s death, Hamuko’s palace becomes Tartarus. All of the shadows look like shadows from Tartarus. Shadows like the Mayas wore masks, so I feel like it fits fairly well. Once the masks are removed they become the actual shadows/personas from Sae’s dungeon. The explanation I have for this is that Hamuko sees life as it is now exactly as she saw Tartarus: it’s a tower that she needs to climb or something that she needs to get through in order to get to the top. Her opponents are shadows, or the darker pieces of the human soul and psyche, which she needs to fight and kill in order to reach her goal. Her goal is, of course, the top of the tower, which symbolizes everything she wants. A happy life with her brother back, her friends around her, and her little sister happy and taken care of.

The treasure room is not at the top of the tower. It’s close though. I’d see it as Admah’s (Tartarus’ final block [the white one]) first floor. Hamuko’s palace Tartarus does not have as many floors as the actual Tartarus. It’s taller than the casino, but it’s floors are smaller, and there are floor bosses like in Tartarus. The Phantom Thieves, not knowing the proper name for it, refer to it as “the Tower” like the referred to Kamoshida’s palace as “the Castle”. That is also it’s key word in the Metaverse Navigator.

Hamuko’s Shadow can be seen in her SEES uniform. She looks nearly identical to how she looked back in 1999, except she is visibly older. Meaning she is wearing the Gekkokan uniform + armband, her hair up in her ponytail, her old headphones and MP3 plays, etc. She obviously has yellow eyes just as all the other shadows did.

I view her treasure as either being her or Minato’s MP3 players. Either one fits, but it may be more fitting to make it Minato’s to address her persistent issues with getting over his death. After all is said and done Makoto talks to her in length about her palace and treasure, and that helps Hamuko acknowledge all of her unresolved issues.

She tells the Phantom Thieves, including Makoto, about her past, about Tartarus, and about her brother, and about how he died and how she blames herself for that death. That puts two things in motion. One, Makoto is fully ready to help Hamuko change her heart the hard way and they have a more personal heart to heart in which there are apologies and personal growth. And two, Hamuko gets back in touch with the Shadow Operatives, who are clamoring to figure out What The Fuck happened in Tokyo with the metaverse leaking into the real world. She prepares to become a real member of the Shadow Operatives again in the near future, as she finally acknowledges that she needs support from the friends she accidentally cut off, and she means to become a sort of mediator between the Shadow Operatives and the Phantom Thieves until the groups merge. (This is a difficult issue because while both groups are persona-users, the Shadow Operatives are kind of an authority figure and the Phantom Thieves are a group specifically made to be a fuck you to corrupt authority figures. I also personally see the Shadow Operatives as having contact with the very high up figures in Japan’s authority, such as the Prime Minister, despite being a private organization, which could definitely be a problem.)

As for Hamuko’s appearance and name, she could have easily dyed her hair gray and changed her name, or it could still be red and her name could still be Hamuko since this is an AU. I see her changing her last name as a good way of demonstrating that she was serious about taking care of Makoto, and she could have changed her first name in the process or simply decided to begin going by Sae while her name was still Hamuko.

This was unedited which is why it’s getting a revisit tag slapped on it. I will probably come back to this again, but I don’t feel that it’s too shabby. If you want to talk about it at all or have any questions please (PLEASE!) message me either via ask if you want to be anonymous or with the actual messaging system and I will be so, so, so very happy to talk more about this AU at all. Same policy for any AU dumps I post in the future. Thank you for reading.

[sycriptouk]

The Upcoming Psychedelic Sector Opportunity 🍄 (FDA Phase 2b data readout in November 2021)

Hi Everyone,

November 2021 is a key month for the psychedelic sector because Compass Pathways will be presenting their "COMP360" FDA Phase 2b clinical trail data readout. A positive result next month will be sector-moving as capital (big money) will flow into this sector for the next data readout and to help bring these medicines to market after Phase 3 FDA final approval.

TL;DR = The psychedelics sector will disrupt the $300 billion dollar global market that is currently controlled by big pharma for to help solve for mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, opioid addition, alcoholism ect. In addition, countries such as Canada and UK are now starting to accept psychedelics as a new form of medicine. It is also my expectation that Big Pharma will invest and/or buyout these companies down the road.

I hope all of us APES 🐵 can make a lot of money from this new emerging (and high potential) sector 💸 , while at the same time helping to solve the global mental health crisis 😀 .

P.S. I would also love to hear anyone's personal stories with psychedelics. I've heard many people doing "micro-dosing" which helps immensely with concentration.

https://preview.redd.it/f5tj2vlmnsw71.png?width=1356&format=png&auto=webp&s=be06ddad5e0dcdd7cb35d33967583a3afd7cc76d

Psychedelics Sector Background

There are three topics everyone who wants to understand the Psychedelic Sector needs to know up front:

1) Intent: This sector is fundamentally different from the Cannabis Sector in a large way. The target market is primarily medicinal uses rather than recreational uses. Cannabis has a large recreational movement, where psychedelics have a small one. While this may deter some folks, I find it reassuring: to play in this space a company must be serious and committed.

2) Diversity: There are a number of drugs in the psychedelic space - psilocybin (mushrooms), LSD (acid), MDMA (ecstasy), ketamine (anesthetic), to name a few. Each is in some stage of clinical trials, and each company is attempting to use different ones to treat different mental and behavioral health conditions. These conditions are diverse as well, though the largest target markets include ADHD, anxiety, depression, PTSD, and drug and alcohol addiction.

3) Delivery: Psychedelic research today is not seeking to put high volumes of over-the-counter mushrooms or LSD pills in your local CVS. Psychedelics are being researched in controlled microdoses, and the intended delivery is by trained therapists through guided psychotherapy sessions. Psychedelics on their own may give your mind a period of disconnection and subdued feelings of fear, but with proper guidance from a trained therapist this period also becomes an opportunity for "rewiring" old mental blocks that lead to mental illness. Some people begin to break through chronic mental health barriers in just a few appointments. CNN recently covered the sector in an hour long special under Lisa Ling's "This is Life" series called "Psychedelic Healing" (Season 7, Episode 6). This demonstrates the delivery method well, as well as several early success stories.

What about catalysts?

Trial Results: Trial results can and have acted as a large catalyst before in the biotech space. Overwhelmingly positive trial results could act as a great catalyst for the companies you are invested in. One other interesting consideration is how many of the companies in this space are working with the same/similar compounds. Promising compound-specific results could have a positive impact on related companies working with the same drug as well. 2022 should be a pretty exciting year for hearing about Phase 2 trial results (Compass P2b Psilocybin-TRD and MindMed P2 LSD-GAD). www.clinicaltrials.gov is a great resource for trying to figure out when studies are wrapping up and when you might be able to see trial results readout.

Legislative Changes: Plenty of countries, regions, and municipalities are working to change legislation around psychedelics. Decriminalization is exciting but might not have a material impact on the outlook of the companies that you’re invested in. Legalization or similar de facto changes on the other hand could have a positive impact on many of the companies in the space. Say for example more liberal access to psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is permitted, clinic-focused companies would be well-positioned to benefit.

Partnerships/Mergers: There’s been talk over the last year about how eventually some companies/programs will eventually come together. Mergers, collaborations, and partnerships are all potential catalysts you can look forward to. Although… these sorts of events are not things you can time or be sure of. As drug development programs move further along in the process, the rate of program attrition lowers. In other words, the farther along in the trial process and the drug is, the lower the overall risk of program failure is. Many companies have recognized this reality and use it to their advantage. They let smaller companies put in the time and money to get the drug programs off the ground before coming in a swooping them up. It limits their risk and their time commitment. If you want to get a better feel for this, just got read ATAI’s philosophy for sourcing potential companies to back.

Technology Developments: Technology developments haven’t seemingly gotten a lot of love in this space. This is silly (IMO) considering how rapidly the telehealth/patient monitoring market is growing. I just read a May 2019 report that is predicting the total value telehealth market will reach around $55 billion US in 2023 and will grow consistently beyond that point. Many psychiatric telehealth services are already reimbursed under Medicare in the US which means there are already avenues for profit generation. Substance Abuse and Mental Illness Telemonitoring Services were estimated to account for 21% of that sub-market of Telehealth. Devices made up the vast majority of the telehealth market so any innovations on this front could very well be things to get excited about.

Main stream media outlets are starting to talk about the sector

https://preview.redd.it/gik3da3vnsw71.png?width=1317&format=png&auto=webp&s=8f8c2759df81f7374dc8cad0c4096403d21f05bd

Big Pharma (MERCK) rumored as a Pharma partner on trails

https://preview.redd.it/4i3aubiynsw71.png?width=1380&format=png&auto=webp&s=728d44d40687a8094b4e48adf4f4a85b337a13da

Other countries like Canada and UK decriminalizing (Some States in the USA are already/bringing to decriminalize magic mushrooms for medicine)

https://preview.redd.it/v49j06e0osw71.png?width=1412&format=png&auto=webp&s=01d5e167bbe3d484381f82a6d513315bdeadc113

https://preview.redd.it/e7z69ni3osw71.png?width=1678&format=png&auto=webp&s=3b35dfa916b744e47897edf791e847e0e7602500

Good Luck!

submitted by /u/moneymonster420 [link] [comments]

from wallstreetbets https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/qjqkza/the_upcoming_psychedelic_sector_opportunity_fda/ via IFTTT

[minttexs]

house of memories 3 | namjoon

Genre: mafia au; angst Pairing: Namjoon x Minji Words: 1,629 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |

Months have passed, I haven’t even noticed that almost a year flew by. We would have been 7 years old, this year… No, you can’t think about him. You’ve been doing so good.

My sister Minah got married in December, and in March they found out she was expecting a little baby.

Minjae fell in love with his first girlfriend and he was literal heart eyes all the time.

I was surrounded by people being in love but I didn’t really care. I focused on myself.

I managed to get a small group of friends that were really close to me.

Haerin, Hoseok and Yoongi became my closest friends. We hung out a lot and we talked daily. Thankfully it was rarely about work, and mostly random shit we constantly argued about.

I gained other friends too and my life looked like any normal life. I was at the top of my game. I was successful at work. I decided not to move away from my parents for a while. I wanted to be close to them for a while. And I really enjoyed finally spending more time with my little brother. I studied my ass off so I can go study in the capital, so much I rarely had time for him. But I want to make up for the lost time and spend as much time I could with him.

Haering and Yoongi liked to drink. Not too much but they enjoyed the company of someone else more if they already had a drink to ease their stress. They were stressing over a lot of things so they find something in common when the 4 of us hung out the 1st time.

Going out together so much we already had a usual spot at a bar. We had our own box in the back of the room and were chatting there till midnight or till Yoongi or Haering got too drunk.

Me and Hobi were not much of a drinker so we usually had one beer or none at all. We went there to have fun. and to also take care of those two.

‘Duuude.’ whined Haerin when she arrived. She ran usually late, but this time it was because she went on a date. ‘It was sooo bad.’

We gave her a questioning look, and she explained everything. The guy was a douche and kept being rude to her, and the waitress.

‘I don’t even know why I went on a date with him.’ she sighed. ‘Why is there no normal man in this damn city?’

‘I’ll take it like I haven’t heard that.’ said Yoongi, and we burst out laughing. ‘And you think you’re the only one with this. I haven’t had a date with a decent chick since high school. And that was in Daegu.’ I forgot to mention. Yoongi moved here from Daegu when his parents got a better job on the island, so he went to school here and decided to settle down here as well.

‘I wish I could live in a bigger city with more man to choose from.’ Haerin sighed resting her forehead on the table.

‘Believe me, the city won’t solve much.’ I chuckled. ‘It’s full of creeps.’

‘Oh yeah, you came from Seoul.’ Hoseok noted.

‘Why?’ Yoongi took a sip of his beer. ‘Have you dated a lot of creeps?’

‘No, I had one boyfriend while I was there. But believe me, the boys were really creepy during college. Literally, some would follow you home just so you’ll finally date them. And if you said no they would wait at your place till you came home.’

‘Wait, my brain stopped working when you said you had one boyfriend.’ Haerin looked at me.

‘What?’ they looked at me weirdly.

‘I just simply can’t believe it.’ Yoongi said. ‘A girl like you only dated once during college.’

‘What do you mean girl like you?’ i scoffed.

‘It was a compliment midget.’

‘You are really passionate about things you like. And you’re really funny and caring. Not to mention you look hot as fuck.’ Hoseok continued Yoongi’s thought.

‘12 out of 10, would totally go gay for you.’ Haerin thumbsed up.

‘You didn’t even try dating a colleague or something?’ Yoongs asked still amused.

‘I dated him for almost 6 years what do you want from me?’ I laughed. Their eyes widened.

‘You never told me about this.’ Haerin blinked.

‘It was not really that important.’ I sipped my beer just so I can avoid their gazes.

‘I told you all my stupid relationships and I wasn’t even good to know about your half-decade boyfriend?’

I really didn’t want this conversation to turn to this direction. I’ve avoided my thought about Namjoon daily, I didn’t want the dreams and the anxiety crippling back from the hole I threw them in.

‘We broke up before I came here.’ I said quietly. ‘It was rough. That’s why I didn’t want to talk about it.’

‘Oh boo.’ Haerin whined. ‘Why didn’t start with this?’

And quickly we moved on from the topic.

I was walking home from the bus station. It was quite far away from our house, so you had to take a maybe a 20-minute walk from there.

It was pretty silent that night.

I had a weird feeling. That someone was following me. I peeked back, but I didn’t see anything. I grabbed my phone tightly, and 119 dialled just in case. I tried to close out the sound of my own steps, but I still didn’t hear anything. Maybe I was just paranoid or that one beer is doing things to me.

I should have let one of the boys accompany me on my way back. And now the silence felt scarier.

In Seoul, someone was always on the streets even in the middle of the night. There was a smaller chance someone would kidnap you from the streets. Even in suburb districts like this.

Someone suddenly grabbed me from behind and put his hand over my mouth to muffle my scream. My phone fell to the pavement with a loud thud, making the pre-dialled number visible to the man holding me.

I squirmed, but I just couldn’t seem to get out of his hold.

‘Aw, how cute. You even pre-dialled 119. Sadly they won’t come to your help.’

I collected all my strength, bend my elbows and push towards his ribcage. He let out a loud cry and his hold loosened on me.I pushed my hip towards him and tried to push him to the ground. When I heard his loud thud on the pavement, I grabbed my phone from the ground and ran as fast as I could.

My morning started at the police station. I reported the kidnapper, even though I had no information about him. Maybe they could just send out cars to cruise around the streets for good measure. When I went to work Haerin almost cried she was so shocked.

During lunch break, Hoseok and Yoongi became very concerned too.

‘You really shouldn’t walk alone at night.’ Yoongi said slurping his noodles.

‘But I can’t have someone with me all the time…’ I sighed. I can’t do this to them, they could get hurt too.

‘Maybe you should attend self-defence classes. They have specific ones for women. Like how to escape from capture from different positions, how to escape ropes, how to throw a punch.’ Hoseok advised.

And we did like that. Immediately that afternoon Haerin took me to a class. And I got beat up so bad, that every part of my body was sore.

She was so worried that she took me to work every morning, and took me back home every night after this incident. She didn’t want anything to happen to me. Which I appreciated to the most, but I also didn’t want to bother her with this.

We went to the classes very often, 3 times a week at least. Haerin was really serious about this. And after a couple of weeks when Svetna the Russian bone crusher threw me to the ground it didn’t hurt as much it did in the beginning.

I learnt how to throw a proper punch, which made me feel really great about myself. The teacher praised me that I was a fast learner, and I felt like the nerd I was in school that worked the hardest to get praised. I know I was a weirdo.

Haerin improved too. A lot actually. They would let us together to fight and I hated them. First of all, she would always win and hold me to the ground for minutes. And the was more in shape than I was so, she seemed to be faster.

We were changing after practice to go out and eat together. I was looking in the mirror and realised the bruises seemed to already fade that I got during the first weeks.

‘What?’ Haerin asked looking in the mirror with me.

‘I look like I was beaten up.’ I laughed. She started smiling.

‘The difference is that you could beat up someone else too.’

‘Seriously girl.’ I was cracking my shoulder which was sore when she held my hand down the ground. ‘Go easy on me. I never win.’

‘In real life, they don’t go easy on you.’ her voice became quieter.

‘Hey… Everything okay?’

‘Yeah yeah.’ she became her bubbly self again. She seemed like she had a similar experience as mine…

[techyblogger]

Amazon Affiliate Site from $118/m to $3,103/m in 8 MONTHS (SOLD it for $62,000+) https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/fw8qz4/amazon_affiliate_site_from_118m_to_3103m_in_8/

Hello Everyone, after having so many responses on Amazon Affiliate site CASE STUDY from 0 to $7,786/m in 11 months, I have decided to share another case study which involves growing and SELLING your existing Amazon affiliate site (the site we grew was already making around 118 USD a month).

For this case study, 8 MONTHS OF WORK LED US TO SELL THE SITE for $6X,700 (can't reveal exact price due to contract).

The payment got wired in the client's account on 2nd April 2020. After all the fees and everything, we got $5X,355.88 (can't reveal exact amount due to contract).

I have observed this community for a while now and it never ceases to amaze me how awesome you guys are. So, I will try my best to explain everything in detail (including the exact numbers like # of articles, backlinks, criteria, process and more) and if you have any questions, please do tell.

It's an AMA!

What we did: We created a smart content strategy to get niche relevant, targeted traffic that we knew would convert well. Uploaded, formatted, onsite SEO'd the content really well. Devised a thorough link building strategy and executed it. Outreached to thousands of prospects. Got amazing links, ranked and made money!

It seems pretty simple. Now, let me share an overview of the numbers (you can click the links to check the screenshots):

RESULTS SUMMARY:

Month AMZ Earnings (US) Ezoic Earnings May 2019 $118.57 Not applied June 2019 $144.87 Not applied July 2019 $207.44 Not applied Aug 2019 $381.94 Not applied Sept 2019 $402.52 Not applied Oct 2019 $769.80 $565.40 Nov 2019 $1,213.22 $894.44 Dec 2019 $2,674.63 (Global) $428.41 TOTAL $5,912.99 $1,888.25

TOTAL EARNINGS: AMZ Earnings + Ezoic = $7,801.24

For organic traffic, we lost access to Google analytics so we cannot share month by month. But, here is the screenshot for an idea.

The huge spike of around 10,000 visits a day is because we got an article viral.

Note: For all the months other than Dec, we have mentioned US earnings and NOT global earnings because of Amazon Dashboard settings. Please note that the total earnings were MORE than what we have shared because we had AMZ affiliate programs in Europe and Canada as well. However, due to the dashboard limitations, we are unable to show those here except for December.

ANOTHER IMPORTANT POINT: You usually sell a site for 30x average monthly profits over a period of last 6 months. Our accounting period was Nov., Dec, Jan (3 months). This deviates from the usual evaluation period of 6 months because after thoroughly checking this website, the broker saw consistent growth, high quality, proper SOPs, efficient management and no shady practices. He agreed to consider a period of 3 months.

Now, let's take a look at the quick summary of what we did:

QUICK SUMMARY OF WHAT WE DID:

Created a comprehensive Content Strategy

List of money making keywords (relevant to niche, rankable, enough search volume)

These money making KWs were properly categorised into topically related categories

Content/article topics that will bring in backlinks (Check "Skyscraper technique" for info)

Write content, upload articles, format, onsite SEO:

TOTAL ARTICLES ADDED: 53

Categories: 9 (some categories had more articles than others)

Initial number of articles when we started: Around 150

Total number of articles on site when we finished: Over 200

These articles were properly formatted (over 50% CTR to AMZ) and onsite SEOd (important)

Outreach and Build Niche Relevant Backlinks

TOTAL LINKS BUILT: 88 - 98

Links through outreach: 68

DR 10 - 20 links: 12

DR 21- 30 links: 9

DR 31 - 40 links: 12

DR 41 - 50 links: 12

DR 51 - 60 links: 13

DR 61 - 70 links: 9

DR 71 - 90 links: 1

Organic links built as a result: Around 20 - 30

To get these links we had emailed: 3500 Niche relevant prospects

Criteria for links that we got:

Link building only yields results when it's done right. That's why just like other processes, we paid close attention to this area as well. Here is the criteria for sites that we get backlink from:

Niche relevant- DR > 20

Ahrefs Traffic > 500

DOFOLLOW

Site does NOT have a SUBMIT GUEST POST PAGE (might or might not consider it)

There were other pointers too but subjected to various conditions

More information:

Site ownership: NOT MINE. I provided consultation and services to a client who reached out

Niche: Won't reveal

Project Nature: Content Strategy, Production, Uploading, Formatting, Onsite SEO, Publishing/Scheduling and most importantly LINK BUILDING

We did write a few articles that went viral too. We didn't make a lot of money from those, but it helped us get in good books of Google

CONCLUSION:

I believe this is one of those realistic and very doable Amazon Affiliate content site projects that you can start, grow and sell. It wasn't a 6-figures exit. However, if you consider the investment, the ROI has been super impressive (much better than real estate, venture capital, stocks etc.). Enough for the client to consider reinvesting the proceeds into developing a whole portfolio of passive income generating content sites.

Last year around May, I had 6 sites making around 1000 to 8000 USD each and I was starting 4 more. Right now, I own over a dozen of these sites (all profitable and we are heavily investing to grow the portfolio even further).

The goal is to treat these profitable content sites as a serious investment, grow monthly profits even more and increase the valuation substantially.

Another perspective is that with this horrible Corona Virus situation or the COVID 19 as most people call it, the sales have actually increased as more people are ordering online. The epidemic is a tragedy but these sort of businesses have thrived to their very nature.

Anyway, I wish you all the best in your endeavours as well. And if there are any questions, please feel free to comment or message.

I would be happy to help :)

Regards, stay happy and stay safe :)

PS Special thanks to the site owner who gave permission to share this case study with all of you. :)

submitted by /u/jamesackerman1234 [link] [comments] April 07, 2020 at 04:14AM

[imagitory]

D-Views OFF TOPIC!: The Prince of Egypt

Hello, everyone! Welcome to another installment of D-Views Off-Topic! As stated previously, D-Views is a series primarily focusing on Disney-produced and/or owned films, but from time to time, we go “off topic” to discuss films that are sometimes mistaken for and/or were influenced by Disney projects, and that’s what we’re doing today.

I am super excited about today’s subject – it has been one of my favorite films since I was a child, and it is, in my opinion, the single best non-Disney-produced animated film ever made. This is The Prince of Egypt!

Before we talk about The Prince of Egypt, it is imperative to talk about the studio that created it, DreamWorks SKG. (As a side, get used to me calling it just “Dreamworks” from here on out – I’ve never been much one to capitalize the “W.”) Dreamworks was the baby of three media giants – David Geffen, Stephen Spielberg, and most of all Jeffrey Katzenberg. Katzenberg got his start in the world of animation at the Walt Disney Company during the Disney Renaissance, when he was head of the Disney animation department. Unfortunately Katzenberg was just one of three very big egos at the company in that period, and he butted heads with the other two – CEO Michael Eisner and vice-chairman Roy E. Disney – constantly. For a while Frank Wells, Eisner’s partner, was able to keep the peace and keep these three working toward the same goal, but when Wells tragically passed away in a helicopter crash in 1994, tensions began to rise. Disney and especially Eisner thought that Katzenberg had been promoting himself as the main face of Disney’s new-found success and taking all the credit for it, and so when Wells was to be replaced, Eisner pointedly passed Katzenberg over for promotion. Whatever one thinks about Eisner or Katzenberg as people, I think it is very clear that Eisner felt threatened by Katzenberg…and he had good reason, because when Katzenberg was forced to quit his position at Disney, he immediately turned around and enlisted the support of Stephen Spielberg and David Geffen to create Disney’s main rival in the world of animation in recent history.

Dreamworks Animation found most of its animators among Disney alumni and from Stephen Spielberg’s dead studio Amblimation, which had previously only worked on three films: An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, We’re Back!: A Dinosaur’s Story, and Balto. Despite their lack of experience, they were very talented, as is evident by Dreamworks’ first hand-drawn film. Yep – first hand-drawn film. Dreamworks released two films in 1998; their real first film, Antz, was released in theaters three months before The Prince of Egypt was. To be frank, I wish that The Prince of Egypt had been first – it would’ve made a much stronger first impression for the studio as a whole.

Fortunately The Prince of Egypt made a pretty good impression when it was released to theaters in December 1998. It earned over $218 million worldwide and received rather favorable reviews from critics for its animation and visual effects. It also won an Academy Award for Best Song and was nominated for two Golden Globes, two Grammy Awards, and five Annie Awards, and even tied with Pixar’s rival film to Antz, A Bug’s Life, at the Critics’ Choice Awards for Best Animated Film. Even at the time of its release, however, The Prince of Egypt was compared to Disney’s animated projects. Critic James Berardinelli said this –

“Like Fox (with Anastasia) and Warner Brothers (with the disappointing (sic) Quest for Camelot), Dreamworks intends to challenge Disney's reign as the King of Animation. The Prince of Egypt is a worthy starting point. It ranks alongside the Magic Kingdom's Mulan at the top of the year's traditional-style animated pile. (…)While last year's Anastasia managed to come close to Disney's visual elegance, The Prince of Egypt matches it. This impressive achievement uncovers yet another chink in Disney's once-impregnable animation armor.”

Now that I have effectively “prologued” you to death, let’s go ahead and talk about the film proper.

The very first thing we have to talk about when it comes to this movie is its music, written by film-scoring giant Hans Zimmer and lyrical god Stephen Schwartz. Just like in Beauty and the Beast and Anastasia, this soundtrack in my opinion is just flawless. Every single song hits your heart and stays with you long after they have passed, from the lyrical musical numbers to the instrumental tracks. The first one, “Deliver Us,” introduces us to the setting of the mature, real, passionate, epic story that is about to unravel. We hear the culture in the rhythms and instruments used and in the Hebrew lyrics sung by Ofra Haza, who plays Moses’s mother Yoheved. We feel the hopelessness of the slaves and the fragile hope of a young girl as she sees her baby brother being taken in by the Queen of Egypt. We watch this opening scene with almost no dialogue, being told solely with the images on screen and the wonderful music, and become completely emotionally invested in these characters by the end. With this opening, the film has already done what the best musicals do – introduce our story, conflict, and characters solely through song. And from here, the music only gets better.

After this prologue, we meet our main character again, as well as his adopted brother, the crown prince Rameses. Moses and Rameses are shown, in their youth, to be like two troublemaking college kids, constantly competing with one another and having no awareness of grim reality. They are two princes, born in wealth and affluence, and as of yet do not see their privilege. Once their fun is through, however, we are introduced to their father, Pharaoh Seti. In his first scene, we see Seti as a strict man, focused on his legacy and greatly disappointed in his sons’ misadventures, particularly on Rameses’s part. At this point, we can still understand where Seti is coming from – after all, Rameses and Moses did cause some damage and they should be setting a better example as princes – but that doesn’t make watching Seti viciously snap at Rameses and Rameses struggling to hold in his hurt any easier.

Like Anastasia as well, this film has an all-star cast. Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Michelle Pfieffer, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Goldblum, Patrick Stewart, Steve Martin, Martin Short…although I could argue in some future projects, Dreamworks focused too much on casting big names in a lazy attempt to get more butts in the theater seats (looking at you, Shark Tale), I think in this case, every casting choice made was pretty spot-on. My personal favorite casting is Fiennes as Rameses – Rameses as a character is much more complex than most “antagonists” in other mainstream family films, and I think it would’ve been hard to find someone better than Fiennes to portray that.

Rameses and Moses is my single favorite relationship in this movie, and it makes sense – it is clearly the one the filmmakers put the most focus and effort into. Rameses can be a serious, proud, ambitious cynic, while Moses can be a light-hearted, sympathetic, mischievous peacemaker. Basically it’s a bond between a Slytherin and a Hufflepuff – darkness and light – and the relationship between these two brothers is so well written that it alludes to years of history that justifies the strength of their trust. It’s why Moses tries to make peace between Rameses and Seti once Rameses storms out of the room. It’s why Moses tries so hard to cheer Rameses up afterwards. It’s why Rameses, upon being formally named Prince Regent, names Moses his Royal Chief Architect.

Speaking of which, at the party where Rameses is given that title, we meet the character of Tzipporah, who is given to Rameses as a gift, but who Rameses “re-gifts” to Moses. In this sequence, we see another hint of Moses’s compassion. When the guards try to capture Tzipporah, swords drawn, Moses immediately intercedes and tries to restrain her himself, so that she wouldn’t be hurt or killed by the guards. Admittedly he mischievously lets her fall into a fountain, but it is still an infinitely kinder way to halt her escape than the alternative would’ve been. Nonetheless, we see Moses regretting his action when he sees his mother’s disappointment and Tzipporah’s wrath. Later Tzipporah escapes from the palace, and Moses pursues her. When Moses spots that some guards are about to catch her escaping, however, he once again intercedes. This time he actually misdirects them, sending them up to his chambers and away from Tzipporah, who had been directly behind them. It gives a subtle hint that Moses, even before learning the truth of his heritage, does have something in him that sees the value of freedom. Moses then follows Tzipporah all the way to the border of Egypt, until she escapes off into the desert. It is here that Moses meets Miriam and Aaron – his real siblings.

GOOD GOD THIS SCENE. ALL OF THE FEELS FOR THIS SCENE. I swear, I can’t help but feel so much for Miriam here. The hope in her voice is just heartbreaking when Aaron tries so hard to shut her down and Moses retorts in ignorant outrage. Then Miriam starts singing her mother’s old lullaby, and everything just…stops. The music dies utterly, and the only thing hanging in the air is Miriam’s choked voice. (Fun bit of trivia: one of the film’s directors, Brenda Chapman, provided Miriam’s voice in this scene. You may also know Brenda Chapman as the brain behind Disney/Pixar’s film Brave.)

Miriam’s hushed reprise then dissolves into quiet, horrified orchestration that then slowly builds, until it stumbles back and charges into a run just as Moses does. This orchestration then leads us into my favorite song in the entire film, “All I Ever Wanted.” From the time I was young, this song could always get my heart pounding. I felt all of the fear, all of the longing, all of the denial, all of the pride, and all of the doubt that rippled through Moses’s voice and over his face. When I was in high school and I would listen to this in my headphones on my way to school, I would run down the streets just like Moses did in the film, plodding through all the emotions expressed in each note. Even now I think it is one of the most unique songs sung by a protagonist in a musical that I’ve ever heard. Most “I Want” songs are about wanting more, but this song is about wanting things to stay the same. Rather than seeking adventure, Moses seeks peace and happiness – to stay in this dream world that he’s only just seeing was just a dream. It reminds me of how I felt when the September 11th terrorist attacks happened. When you first see the fragments of your old life shattered around you, you first feel this instinct to grab them and try hopelessly to glue them back together. As time goes by, though, you see how painful such an effort is – it’s like even just clutching those broken shards of your childhood is making your hands bleed – and so you have no choice but to let go of them.

“All I Ever Wanted” dissolves into Moses’s dream sequence, which is entirely drawn in a hieroglyphic-inspired style. This is such a creative sequence – it’s so stylistic, and yet it doesn’t forget to make the stilted movements translate the proper emotions. When Moses wakes up from the nightmare, he also wakes up from his delusion, and decides he must learn the truth. This revelation scene is my favorite part of the entire film. Moses runs down the halls of hieroglyphics, combing wall after wall, until he finally finds what he’s looking for. He sees the image of his father, Seti, ordering his guards to throw babies into the Nile River. The young prince is horrified, heartbroken, at what he sees…and Seti brings a hand down on top of his head, trying to show him some comfort. Moses turns to look at him, pleading with him, “Father, tell me you didn’t do this,” but Seti cannot give Moses that “out.” Instead the old Pharaoh justifies the decision, and even worse, tries to excuse it. “They were only slaves.” Seti’s evil face is truly revealed – the face of callous, wicked ignorance, garbing itself in gold and silk. For more of my thoughts on this scene, you may read this post of mine analyzing it, but to sum it up here, this is the scene that taught me as a kid that evil is not always self-aware…and it even now chills me, just as much as it does Moses. That horrible shrieking of the strings that accompanies Moses’s facial shift from sorrow to horror as he slowly removes himself from Seti’s arms and backs away is a musical representation of everything I feel watching this scene.

After being counseled by his adopted mother Tuya, Moses tries simply to be happy with his fortunate circumstances, but now that he knows the truth of his birth, he can no longer not see the injustices and cruelty around him. He can’t block out the image of his people being worked within an inch of their lives. He can’t block out the furious shouts of an overseer and the horrible, pained cries of an elderly slave being whipped. And it is in this sequence that we get one of the best instrumental tracks in the entire film. The track is called “Goodbye Brother,” and it accompanies Moses accidentally killing an overseer to protect a slave and running away from home. I’ve also discussed this track (and a few others from this film) in another post, but like with Seti, I will restate my core points here. The best piece of this track is the middle, which happens just before Moses kills the overseer. It is a horrific, demented shrieking, one that sounds like what nails being driven into your brain should feel like. The sound is like the accompaniment of a nightmare that you can’t escape. And then just as suddenly, the nightmarish feeling is gone…to be replaced with a different kind of fear and horror, the kind that you feel when you realize it’s not just a horrible dream, the kind that gives way to panic. Moses running away is echoed in the music with every racing, plodding note, until it, like Moses, is brought to a rough halt. From here, a great sorrowful sound takes over – as if the music is mourning what could’ve been just as much as Moses is. Partner this with the tragic verbal exchange between Rameses and Moses, and I think just about everyone’s heart will break by the end of the scene.

So from here, Moses flees into the desert, shedding his identity as a Prince of Egypt, and joining Tzipporah’s tribe of Midianites. While there, we get another amazing song (“Through Heaven’s Eyes”) and see Moses grow from a boy into a man. Even though Moses has grown so much, however, there is still business for him to take care of, and that business becomes clear when he follows a lost sheep into a cave and finds a Bush alight with white, inhuman fire. The instrumental for this sequence, “The Burning Bush,” is in my opinion not only the best instrumental in the film, but also the best non-Disney instrumental I have ever heard. I have never been a particularly religious person – Hell, my parents are a non-practicing Christian and an Atheist. But whenever I encounter a particularly wonderful piece of art, landscape, or music, I think I feel what some people call spirituality. It is a sensation that makes you feel lighter and warmer, like a balloon slowly filling up with air, devoid of fear, worry, and pain. It is a dreamy feeling that makes you feel one with everything, and everything feel like it is as it should be…and once you know that feeling, you can’t imagine losing it. This track is a perfect representation of those feelings – it is enlightenment, in musical form, from its raindrop-like pattering to its slowly rotating tone like a globe spinning on its axel.

Something else interesting about this sequence is how God is depicted. Unlike in The Ten Commandments, which The Prince of Egypt is based upon, this God is depicted more like the New Testament God, being much kinder and gentler than the vengeful God that is more often found in the Old Testament. On top of this, this God is actually voiced by Val Kilmer, who also voiced Moses, making it so Val Kilmer is technically talking to himself in this scene. There are two ways I could read this – one, it speaks of how God is representative of Moses’s inner-voice, so this scene is a metaphor for Moses coming to grips with his own morality; or two, Moses is seeing himself in God, because Man was made in God’s image, and so by the end understands that he has God’s power inside of himself. Either way, Moses realizes that he can’t run away from his responsibility to his people and goes back to Egypt to confront the Pharaoh.

Alas, when Moses arrives, he does not confront Seti, but his brother Rameses. I cannot lie, Rameses and Moses reuniting is a scene that always makes me smile, even if my heart’s breaking at the same time. GODDAMN IT, MOVIE, HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME. After the “Playing with the Big Boys” song number by Hotep and Huy (which I suppose is the weakest of the songs, but is still pretty damn good), Rameses and Moses talk the matter over. Moses tries to explain his position to Rameses, and it is here that Rameses too finds his rose-colored glasses cracking. His idealistic hope that his brother was back and they could live as they had is flickering and dying. There is no going back for Moses. He is choosing the well being of Hebrew slaves over the brother he grew up with. And this betrayal hurts Rameses deeply. The animation on Rameses’s face in this scene – from heartbreak, to anger, to shock, to regret, to grief, to vengeance – is perfectly paced and spot-on. From this scene on, Rameses has officially become the anti-villain of the film – the reluctant rival to our reluctant hero.

On the face of things, Moses has made everything worse with his return. Rameses has turned against him and the slaves bitterly scorn him for his battle against Pharaoh. But one slave is with him from the start – his sister Miriam. She rallies the slaves behind Moses, and Moses stands with new strength. He commands Rameses again to “let his people go,” again, again, again, with multiple plagues, to the accompaniment of “The Plagues.” My favorite part in this song is the inner-monologues from our hero and our anti-villain that unconsciously mirror each other.

Once I called you brother; // You who I called brother,

Once I thought the chance to make you laugh // How could you have come to hate me so?

Was all I ever wanted… // Is this what you wanted?

And of course the ending –

I will not LET your/my PEOPLE…GO!

The Plagues play out one by one, before we reach the Plague of Darkness. Moses goes to find Rameses and tries one last time to convince him to relent before the next Plague arrives. I’ve talked about this scene and Rameses’s son in the past, and you can read that here, but I will just add that I love the parallels this scene makes to earlier scenes of Moses in the palace. Not only do some shots parallel the scene of Moses comforting Rameses at the beginning of the movie, but Moses also passes the pillar and statues that he runs to in the “All I Ever Wanted” sequence. It’s such a bittersweet juxtaposition.

Sadly Moses and Rameses cannot go back to the way things were, however much they wish it. The destinies that have been written for them and the responsibilities therein make it impossible…and this scene proves this once and for all. Rameses, refusing to drop his pride and refusing to bow to the pressure of someone who threatens the security of his empire, crosses the line and threatens the murder of Moses’s people. Moses cannot save him or Egypt from the final Plague now…and so the First Born are slain, with an inhuman light that literally breathes His victims’ last breath.  

The scene centering on the Death of the First Born is a very powerful one. A striking choice is having it mostly done in silence, with no instrumental music at all. The only sounds other than the Angel’s breathing are the blowing wind, some rattling of trees and roofs, crickets chirping, and finally the howls of despair from all of the parents upon discovering their dead children. The scene hits home when we see Rameses holding his dead son in his arms – Moses comes up behind him out of the white light beyond, and for a moment, he is the Angel of Death himself, bearing witness to the grief of the Pharaoh that was once his brother. And as much as I disapprove of Rameses’ sentiments in the last scene and agree that Moses’s people should be freed…I do not blame Rameses in the least for his inconsolable, furious withdrawal from Moses’s comforting hand. I don’t think I could forgive anyone who took someone I love from me…no matter how noble the person’s cause. This still does not make me feel any less for Moses when he walks off by himself, drops his staff, and then slowly falls to his knees, collapsing in on himself as he tries in vain to suppress his sobs.

At long last, the Hebrews have their freedom, and with it, we get our final lyrical number – the Academy-Award-winning song “When You Believe.” This song is a good example of how, even though this film can get so serious, those darker elements are mitigated perfectly with a lot of sincerity and heart. This song is like a beautiful sunrise after a night of thunderstorms. The mist is still clinging to the air and remnants of the rain are still falling from the shingles of roofs, but sunlight is bouncing off the droplets, sparkling like tiny diamonds, and the clouds are touched with pink. Then the children start their verses in Hebrew, and a new, youthful life is infused into the piece, ringing with the hopes and dreams of a new beginning. Where something has ended, something has now begun, and after the darkest of nights, the sun has returned.

Just when it seems the Hebrews have succeeded, Rameses does try one last time to circumvent them, by charging after them with his army. Moses parts the Red Sea, the Hebrews make it across, and the Sea comes back together just as Rameses and his army are charging through it. It is only after this that we come full circle – the music at last returns to the theme from the very beginning, “Deliver Us.” Moses has answered that prayer. He has delivered his people to freedom. And so as Moses comes down Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments in hand, I frankly don’t care about what happens next in the actual Biblical story – the ending is more than enough to fulfill me.

The Prince of Egypt is very special to me. As you can tell from all of the links in this post, it is a movie I love talking about and I think I will never stop talking about. It saddens me that this film is not more recognized by the world at large, like so many other great animated films are. Its soundtrack is in my opinion one of the best animated musical soundtracks ever recorded. Its animation is stunning, evocative, and detailed. Its characters are multi-faceted and real. Its story is epic, timeless, and emotional. Recently there was an attempt to bring it to Broadway, but that attempt was scrapped because of the backlash in response to its all-white cast (gee, I can’t imagine why *oh hai there sarcasm*). I sincerely hope that the project will be attempted again, however – maybe The Prince of Egypt can be brought back to the public consciousness again by going to the Broadway stage, as Anastasia has. In the meantime, though, we do have the original masterpiece, and I will always view it as the best film ever produced by Dreamworks.  

[thedanny522]

Hello Everyone, after having so many responses on Amazon Affiliate site CASE STUDY from 0 to $7,786/m in 11 months, I have decided to share another case study which involves growing and SELLING your existing Amazon affiliate site (the site we grew was already making around 118 USD a month).For this case study, 8 MONTHS OF WORK LED US TO SELL THE SITE for $6X,700 (can't reveal exact price due to contract). Check the screenshot here.The payment got wired in the client's account on 2nd April 2020. After all the fees and everything, we got $5X,355.88 (can't reveal exact amount due to contract). Check screenshot here.I have observed this community for a while now and it never ceases to amaze me how awesome you guys are. So, I will try my best to explain everything in detail (including the exact numbers like # of articles, backlinks, criteria, process and more) and if you have any questions, please do tell.It's an AMA!What we did: We created a smart content strategy to get niche relevant, targeted traffic that we knew would convert well. Uploaded, formatted, onsite SEO'd the content really well. Devised a thorough link building strategy and executed it. Outreached to thousands of prospects. Got amazing links, ranked and made money!It seems pretty simple. Now, let me share an overview of the numbers (you can click the links to check the screenshots):RESULTS SUMMARY:​MonthAMZ Earnings (US)Ezoic EarningsMay 2019$118.57Not appliedJune 2019$144.87Not appliedJuly 2019$207.44Not appliedAug 2019$381.94Not appliedSept 2019$402.52Not appliedOct 2019$769.80$565.40Nov 2019$1,213.22$894.44Dec 2019$2,674.63 (Global)$1,888.25Total$5,912.99$1,888.25​TOTAL EARNINGS: AMZ Earnings + Ezoic = $7,801.24For organic traffic, we lost access to Google analytics so we cannot share month by month. But, here is the screenshot for an idea.The huge spike of around 10,000 visits a day is because we got an article viral.Note: For all the months other than Dec, we have mentioned US earnings and NOT global earnings because of Amazon Dashboard settings. Please note that the total earnings were MORE than what we have shared because we had AMZ affiliate programs in Europe and Canada as well. However, due to the dashboard limitations, we are unable to show those here except for December.ANOTHER IMPORTANT POINT: You usually sell a site for 30x average monthly profits over a period of last 6 months. Our accounting period was Nov., Dec, Jan (3 months). This deviates from the usual evaluation period of 6 months because after thoroughly checking this website, the broker saw consistent growth, high quality, proper SOPs, efficient management and no shady practices. He agreed to consider a period of 3 months.Now, let's take a look at the quick summary of what we did:QUICK SUMMARY OF WHAT WE DID:Created a comprehensive Content StrategyList of money making keywords (relevant to niche, rankable, enough search volume)These money making KWs were properly categorised into topically related categoriesContent/article topics that will bring in backlinks (Check "Skyscraper technique" for info)Write content, upload articles, format, onsite SEO:TOTAL ARTICLES ADDED: 53Categories: 9 (some categories had more articles than others)Initial number of articles when we started: Around 150Total number of articles on site when we finished: Over 200These articles were properly formatted (over 50% CTR to AMZ) and onsite SEOd (important)Outreach and Build Niche Relevant BacklinksTOTAL LINKS BUILT: 88 - 98Links through outreach: 68DR 10 - 20 links: 12DR 21- 30 links: 9DR 31 - 40 links: 12DR 41 - 50 links: 12DR 51 - 60 links: 13DR 61 - 70 links: 9DR 71 - 90 links: 1Organic links built as a result: Around 20 - 30To get these links we had emailed: 3500 Niche relevant prospectsCriteria for links that we got:Link building only yields results when it's done right. That's why just like other processes, we paid close attention to this area as well. Here is the criteria for sites that we get backlink from:Niche relevant- DR > 20Ahrefs Traffic > 500DOFOLLOWSite does NOT have a SUBMIT GUEST POST PAGE (might or might not consider it)There were other pointers too but subjected to various conditionsMore information:Site ownership: NOT MINE. I provided consultation and services to a client who reached outNiche: Won't revealProject Nature: Content Strategy, Production, Uploading, Formatting, Onsite SEO, Publishing/Scheduling and most importantly LINK BUILDINGWe did write a few articles that went viral too. We didn't make a lot of money from those, but it helped us get in good books of GoogleCONCLUSION:I believe this is one of those realistic and very doable Amazon Affiliate content site projects that you can start, grow and sell. It wasn't a 6-figures exit. However, if you consider the investment, the ROI has been super impressive (much better than real estate, venture capital, stocks etc.). Enough for the client to consider reinvesting the proceeds into developing a whole portfolio of passive income generating content sites.Last year around May, I had 6 sites making around 1000 to 8000 USD each and I was starting 4 more. Right now, I own over a dozen of these sites (all profitable and we are heavily investing to grow the portfolio even further).The goal is to treat these profitable content sites as a serious investment, grow monthly profits even more and increase the valuation substantially.Another perspective is that with this horrible Corona Virus situation or the COVID 19 as most people call it, the sales have actually increased as more people are ordering online. The epidemic is a tragedy but these sort of businesses have thrived to their very nature.Anyway, I wish you all the best in your endeavours as well. And if there are any questions, please feel free to comment or message.I would be happy to help :)Regards, stay happy and stay safe :)PS Special thanks to the site owner who gave permission to share this case study with all of you. :) via /r/Affiliatemarketing

[ronnykblair]

“Bad Blood” Book Review: Fooling Most of the People for a Long, Long Time

While I read Bad Blood, John Carreyrou’s detailed account of the rise and fall of Theranos, two thoughts immediately came to mind.

First, if North Korea ever launched a startup, Theranos would be it.

The company operated the same way Kim Jong Un does: non-functional products, “launches” that backfire, massive fraud, dead employees, and a creepy old guy who monitored employee email and Internet usage.

Second, this story is amazing. They need to make it into a movie.

Then I realized that they are making it into a movie starring Jennifer Lawrence, with Adam McKay from The Big Short set to direct.

After extensive research, I’ve determined that North Korea did not officially back the company, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the Kim family invested via Rupert Murdoch or Betsy DeVos.

Bad Blood is my favorite non-fiction book of the past decade.

It’s so good that it almost seems like fiction – a John Grisham thriller, maybe.

It takes the best parts of history’s most famous downfall stories and injects even more intrigue by adding the one element those stories lacked: human life.

This book isn’t directly related to recruiting or working in the finance industry.

But there are so many valuable takeaways that are indirectly related that I decided to write this review anyway:

What is This Book About, and Why Should You Care?

In case you’ve been living in a cave in Antarctica for the past ~3 years, Theranos was a massively hyped “unicorn” healthcare startup that aimed to perform hundreds of blood tests from a single drop of blood pricked from your finger.

No more needles! No more vials of blood!

Just one small problem: it is impossible to do this.

Blood from your finger is different from the blood in your veins because it is partially oxygenated, it’s contaminated by interstitial fluid, and the volume is very low.

In plain English, there’s not enough data, so you can’t solve the problem with a medical device.

You can do a few simple tests, such as the one for glucose levels, with finger-pricked blood, but not the hundreds of complex tests out there.

Despite that, Theranos still managed to raise $900 million over the years at a peak valuation of $9 billion.

But after more than a decade of lying to investors, threatening employees, and using non-functional devices to diagnose patients, Theranos finally began to implode in 2015.

That’s when WSJ investigative reporter John Carreyrou received a tip about the company, began his deep dive into it, and finally published the article that sparked a firestorm.

After that, the company’s trajectory resembled that of a spaceship being sucked into a black hole.

Regulatory agencies banned Theranos from running a lab, Walgreens ended its partnership, the COO was forced out, investors and partners started suing the company, and the SEC charged the CEO and COO (Elizabeth Holmes and Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani) with massive fraud.

A criminal investigation is underway, and indictments are likely. Most likely, Theranos will soon be liquidated, and both the top executives will be in jail.

This story is a textbook example of how to do everything wrong at a startup.

And it’s a cautionary tale of what to avoid and how to detect deception if you’re an investor.

So… How Did a North Korean Startup Survive for Over a Decade?

Even if you’ve followed all the WSJ’s reporting on Theranos, you probably have one big question: How could such a fraudulent company last for so long?

Didn’t anyone notice that the Empress had no clothes before a reporter came along?

Bad Blood makes it clear that plenty of people were skeptical from the start.

The company never published peer-reviewed literature, its Board of Directors consisted of fossilized former diplomats who knew nothing about medicine, and it never attracted serious life science VC investors.

The original Ph.D. student who founded the company with Elizabeth Holmes thought her first idea was “science fiction,” and dozens of disgruntled employees quit along the way, convinced that the entire operation was a Potemkin village.

I can’t explain the company’s survival in one sentence, but here’s my summary:

Business Partners: Walgreens was paranoid that CVS would get the technology first, so they entered the partnership without proper due diligence. One skeptical consultant kept warning them, but he was silenced. This one goes in the FOMO (“fear of missing out”) bucket.

Investors: The company raised money mostly from family offices and VCs with no healthcare experience. And they pointed to early investors, such as Tim Draper and Larry Ellison, as evidence that “the smart money” was on board.

VCs with a track record in life sciences, such as Google Ventures and MedVenture Associates, passed when they realized the company couldn’t answer basic technical questions.

Employees: Pretty much all the employees figured out that the company was a fraud, which is why turnover was extremely high.

However, Theranos was super-secretive and used expensive lawyers and private investigators to threaten ex-employees who could have become whistleblowers.

Regulators: Theranos operated in “regulatory no man’s land” by labeling its diagnostics “lab-developed tests,” which are not regulated by the FDA.

Eventually, the regulators caught up to them and started conducting surprise lab inspections because of tips from anonymous ex-employees.

Patients: The company used its broken device(s) to test patients in Arizona and California, which later resulted in ~1 million voided tests.

Amazingly, they threatened doctors and patients who left bad Yelp reviews, but nothing could hide fraud on this scale.

These live deployments finally pushed it over the edge and alerted the broader population to the scam.

What I Loved

I’ve followed the Theranos story closely, but Bad Blood was great because it put together all the pieces in a logical order and gave them more emotional resonance.

The book conveys superbly the human tragedy, ranging from patients who received the wrong diagnoses to employee Ian Gibbons, the chief scientist who “committed suicide” under suspicious circumstances.

But what I loved most were the vividly drawn characters.

In particular, “Sunny” Balwani, the #2 at Theranos, seems like an amalgamation of every single horrible VP in investment banking.

Not only did he micromanage employees while knowing nothing about the product, but he also had the social skills of an autistic monkey.

When an employee quit and refused to sign a confidentiality agreement, Sunny sent a security guard after him, called the police, and then told the police the employee stole property.

When they asked what property was stolen, Sunny replied that the employee “stole property in his mind.”

Oh, and the whole time Sunny was at the company, he was also in a romantic relationship with CEO Elizabeth Holmes, who was ~20 years younger.

Award-winning corporate governance!

Areas for Improvement

That said, the book isn’t perfect.

There are a lot of characters to remember, and sometimes I lost track of who was doing what at which time.

The book moves in rough chronological order, but chapters tend to be thematic or character-based rather than time-based.

So, similar to TV shows like Westworld, the exact timeline can be a bit confusing (though the lack of robots makes it far less convoluted than Westworld).

Finally, the transition where John Carreyrou enters the story toward the end is a bit jarring, since the preceding chapters are written in the third person from the perspective of others.

Takeaways for the Finance Industry

Here’s what you can learn from this story even if you have no interest in startups, venture capital, or medical devices:

1) Story, Story, Story

Your story is everything. That’s why we focus on it heavily in the Interview Guide and the articles on this site.

A great story can sell anything, whether it’s a product or yourself in a job interview.

Elizabeth Holmes was a great storyteller who idolized Steve Jobs, and like Jobs, she could also sell anything.

But if the claims in your story can be disproven easily, your story will fall apart.

It’s not unusual for an early-stage biotech startup to make aggressive claims about its future products.

But what was unusual – and fraudulent – was to claim that the product was ready for real-life usage, when it clearly was not, and then to use it on patients.

This is why it’s a terrible idea to lie or even “spin” facts that can be easily disproven in interviews, such as your abilities in other languages, graduation dates, grades, employment dates, and job titles.

So many readers have gone too far with spinning that I’m going to rewrite the article on the topic later this year.

2) Healthcare != Technology

Many technology companies that launch apps, software, and even hardware adopt a “fake it ‘til you make it” attitude.

That’s fine for technology because no one dies if a smartphone app crashes.

And many students have famously dropped out of university and then started world-class technology companies… because you don’t need that much experience to get started.

Healthcare, though, is a different ball game.

Your product can’t “kind of work” unless you want to kill people.

And it’s almost impossible for 19-year-old university dropouts with no medical experience to start important healthcare companies.

If you’re trying to move into finance, you can use these industry differences to your advantage.

For example, if you have significant medical/biotech experience, you’re much stronger as a career changer candidate if you target healthcare groups at banks and VC firms.

They want people like you because no university graduate could understand those sectors as well as a Ph.D. or industry executive.

But if you want to get into the industry at the last minute, or you don’t have real work experience, it’s better to target sectors such as technology or consumer/retail where you can get up to speed quickly.

3) The Fallacy of Expertise Transferability

Many students at top universities believe that since they got into a top school, they are experts at everything – or at least, they could quickly become experts at anything.

The Board members and early investors of Theranos embraced similar logic:

“I’m the former Secretary of State/Defense or the founder of a multi-billion-dollar tech company. Therefore, I can also be a successful healthcare investor!”

Except… they’re completely different fields.

Facing down the Soviets in the Cold War is impressive, but it doesn’t make a 90-something former diplomat qualified to judge the merits of medical devices.

I outlined in a previous article how you can outwit and out-hustle Ivy League students to win job offers, and this point goes along with the advice there.

Yes, other candidates might have better credentials or higher GPAs…

…but will they take the time to learn the in’s and out’s of stock pitches, find contact information for hundreds of industry professionals, and then contact them in a socially calibrated way?

I’m not sure, but most “experts” would say it’s beneath them.

4) Focus on the Right Things for Your Development Stage – Not the Trappings of Power

As Theranos raised $900 million, Elizabeth Holmes spent much of the money on lawyers, new offices, a contingent of bodyguards, and yes, even bulletproof glass for her office (!).

She also put a ton of time and effort into distribution partnerships and sales.

For an early-stage technology company, it’s not necessarily wrong to focus on sales before your product is fully functional.

But for an early-stage healthcare company, nothing matters except for developing a working solution, passing clinical trials, and winning approval from regulators.

If your new device or vaccination or surgical method doesn’t work, partnerships won’t save you.

Consistently, companies focus on the wrong things and ignore the stage they’re at.

I even did the same thing back when I made the mistake of creating a $5,000 product for a $500 market.

In a way, I made the opposite mistake of Theranos: I had products that worked, and I wanted to make them even better to the point where no one noticed or cared.

But it was motivated by the same mistake: not understanding the stage I was at.

5) If “The End Goal” is Your Focus, Rethink Your Life!

When Holmes was young, a family member asked what she wanted to be when she grew up.

“A billionaire!” she replied.

That answer demonstrates why the fraud reached this level before collapsing: rather than trying different skills, becoming good at one, and then pursuing it, Holmes started with the end goal in mind.

And she stopped at nothing to pursue it, even if it meant lying to investors, threatening employees, and putting patients’ lives at risk.

Most entrepreneurs start working in a specific industry, get to know people, learn the key problems, and then launch new products/services.

Otherwise, it’s impossible to know what people will pay for and which solutions are feasible vs. science fiction.

Idolizing Steve Jobs and aiming to become a billionaire aren’t real goals; they’re aspirations of teenagers who do not yet know themselves.

As far as applicability to the finance industry, well, take a look at the comments thread on this article about finance as a long-term career.

Final Thoughts and Reality Distortion Fields

Both Steve Jobs and Elizabeth Holmes possessed “reality distortion fields” that let them recruit subordinates and convince investors, Board members, and the public of almost anything.

But Jobs also had a firm grasp on his own reality, and despite some exaggerations and problems, delivered products that worked.

By contrast, Holmes forgot to apply self-shielding, which let her reality distortion field twist her own perception of reality.

Aside from the upcoming indictment and trial, I don’t think we’ll be hearing much from her.

But if you want to find out more, the rumor is that she might head to North Korea.

Apparently, she’s an excellent fit.

The post “Bad Blood” Book Review: Fooling Most of the People for a Long, Long Time appeared first on Mergers & Inquisitions.

from ronnykblair digest https://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/bad-blood-book-review/

[armorroofing]

Wow! Armor Roofing - Nashua MO New Roof Installations

The article Wow! Armor Roofing - Nashua MO New Roof Installations originally appeared on Armor Roofing Kansas City.

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The post Wow! Armor Roofing - Nashua MO New Roof Installations appeared first on Armor Roofing Kansas City.