#Expand Network

[hussein107]

How can I expand my network effectively on LinkedIn?

Building a strong professional network is the cornerstone of success on LinkedIn. Whether you're looking for new opportunities, industry insights, or valuable collaborations, an expanded network opens doors to endless possibilities. In this guide, we’ll explore practical and proven strategies to grow your LinkedIn connections effectively, helping you unlock the full potential of this powerful platform.

If you want to read more about this topic in medium click here

[sweetreasures]

the hitman’s quandary

rival hitman!jongho x reader

smut, non-idol au, fingering, choking, mention but no use of weapons (guns), degradation, restraints (belt), hate sex adjacent, slight taming, ruined orgasm, dubcon—proceed with caution

minors dni, ageless blogs will be blocked

masterlist

you and jongho had been dating for one year, previously unaware of the other’s affiliation with your respective organizations.

to him, you were nothing but a lowly, hardworking office employee. and he, a delivery driver. as long as you continued coming home in those sexy black kitten heels, he would never question you.

even when you were strangely secretive over the “work” documents you brought home every night. proprietary information, can’t have it falling into the wrong hands.

even when jongho came home one night and you spotted the droplets of blood embedded in his white sneakers. a work accident, some waiter dropped a glass and got blood everywhere while cleaning it up.

even when you and jongho found yourselves passing each other on the street during a night where you told each other you would be too busy with work. and you both pretended not to notice.

then an email reached your inbox. the target was wanted for taking out a high ranking official within your organization. he was a handsome man in his mid 20s, done up beautifully in the photos, an expensive bespoke suit resting on his muscular body. you knew it was him, but it was a far cry from the disheveled, exhausted individual who returned home to you every night.

surprised wasn’t the word for it. though in the eye of your hurricane of emotions lied a tinge of….admiration? you were impressed—he held out for this long, and you may have never known had you two been spared by the dice of fate. you wondered what photos they sent him, whether your boyfriend thought you looked just as enticing.

and you didn’t have to wonder for much longer—not when jongho came barreling into your shared apartment, a look on his face that bordered on determination and lust. he flashed his weapon and tossed it aside, landing perfectly on the entryway table. tonight, in some twisted way, he’s willing to show you mercy.

“on the floor. now.”

you smirk, pushing your chair back from the kitchen table before lowering yourself to the ground. your arms were up in a mocking surrender pose, your eyes daring him to step closer.

and fuck, did he look amazing in that very moment. even face near certain death, you had to admit your boyfriend was incredibly sexy when he was bossy.

jongho pushed your legs apart with his foot, your knees sliding across the linoleum with the help of your black lace stockings.

“you should probably just kill me, jongho.”

he stared down at you, unwavering. his head cocked to one side, his hand removing the belt wrapped around his waist. jongho looked ravenous, and as the night progressed, it became more apparent that his next meal was you.

“i could,” he pushes his foot against your clothed cunt, pressing down on your clit with just enough pressure for you to make out every ridge on the sole of his shoe. “but that wouldn’t be as fun.”

he quickly grasped both of your wrists in his hand, tying them together with his belt before wrapping it once more around a slat on the kitchen chair. you knew as well as he did that this wasn’t enough to restrain you completely, but you weren’t going to resist.

and he just wanted to watch you squirm.

with you secured, jongho joined you on the floor. he hurried to remove your panties—drenched with excitement at your boyfriend’s change in demeanor. he wrapped one hand around your neck before positioning the other between your eager thighs. the heat was practically radiating off of you as he hovered right before your folds. you fought the urge to move your hips closer to him, in search of any kind of friction to relieve you.

“here’s the deal.”

“mhm…”

“you have intel i need. intel you know will also get you killed if i find out.”

you nod. duh. touch me already!

now that he knew you were a hitman like himself, it was immediately obvious what drove you into this line of work. murder was only secondary to the thrill of acting out and not getting caught. you were an adrenaline fiend. if jongho had to guess, the nights where your stamina was at its highest—where the two of you had the freakiest, mustiest sex for what felt like hours—were likely when you were coming home from a successful job.

so naturally, you could only think about getting your juices all over jongho’s well-manicured hand, loaded gun a few hundred feet away be damned.

jongho rolled his eyes; this probably wasn’t a good idea.

“you talk, i leave. you squirt, i shoot. we have fifteen minutes.”

“what happens after fifteen minutes?” your chest movements betrayed your voice—though calm—as it rose and fell rapidly with your quickening heart rate.

jongho pursed his lips. “i shoot.”

wordlessly, you widen your legs for him, hooded eyes never leaving his own. if the moment weren’t so dire, jongho could have laughed.

he hoped you didn’t sense the way he hesitated before slipping one of his fingers inside your heat, his thumb working your already sensitive clit using the slick of your arousal. your eyes fluttered shut and you instantly released a high pitched whine. he applied a bit more pressure to your neck, taking in the way your body temperature rose and your heart beat inside your veins.

jongho knew you understood the serious nature of your current predicament; you both had your lives on the line. you both had people to protect. jongho had committed an egregious offense by taking out one of yours. and worst of all, someone who paid your bills. you should be enraged, or possibly frightened, but jongho couldn’t exactly parse what you were feeling at all. he was getting extremely hard watching you fuck yourself stupid on the fingers of a man sent to kill you.

“mingi knows your guys planted the car bomb. it had that dumbfuck wooyoung written all over it. what else is he planning?”

your legs quivered as you struggled not to lose yourself completely in ecstasy. jongho was up to three fingers, the timer down to seven minutes. he angled his hands to apply more pressure to the more sensitive, spongy areas on your walls. another wave of arousal dripped onto the linoleum.

“answer my fucking question.”

“fuck you.” you spat, cackling as your saliva made impact with his face.

he tightened the hand around your neck, watching your eyes roll to the back of your head as you tensed up.

“god. what a whore. last day on earth and you wanna spend it soaking up my hand, like the dumb slut you are.”

he released you just as the muscles in your began to weaken. you took a deep breath, the elastic around your core wound up with impossible force.

you had something against jongho that he would have never accounted for, at least not consciously. put simply: your body. jongho praised you constantly, saying you were the best fuck of his life. he’d never tasted a pussy as delicious as yours, never fucked a cunt that took him so well and left him wanting more. and more. and more. until you could no longer feel your legs and every subsequent orgasm sent you closer to a coma.

it was no secret that you were quite known for it, using your…assets…to gain intelligence and trust from your targets. jongho could play all he wanted, but you were willing to bet on your award winning pussy. this man would rather abandon his work completely and accompany you on the run for the rest of his life if it meant getting to feel your thighs wrapped around his head as he drowned tongue-first under your sweetness.

fuck it. he isn’t going to kill you. he couldn’t if he tried.

three minutes.

jongho licked his lips instinctively. his movements became robotic, as if following a ritual from muscle memory. he was slipping. his dick fought at his zipper, and he couldn’t ignore it. he watched as your perfect tits bounced with every pump and wanted nothing more than to release them from your shirt and latch his mouth onto your engorged nipple. as much as he didn’t want to take you out, he desperately needed to see you come undone in his grip. he needed to milk himself in your sloppy wet cunt like a fucktoy, listening as you squelched around his girth and took him like the filthy slut you were.

that was how he played, you thought, smiling to yourself. that was your man. he made no further attempt to gain any more attention. instead, he watched as drool slid the length of your tongue and tricked down your chin. he wiped it off, sticking his thumb inside his mouth and sucked it clean.

three minutes would be over any second now, you reasoned. still, you had not cum and grew more frantic by the second. your words were incoherent. a tiny puddle had already formed beneath your curvy ass. jongho’s hand threatened to fall asleep, his hands coming slightly pruned and covered in your tasty secretions.

the phone goes off. jonghp ripped his hand from you cunt. your body burned for orgasm and then…nothing. he ruined it.

“that’s the time.”

“shit. joykill!” you panted, frustrated with your body for not coming fast enough. jongho ignores you completely, untying you from the chair in one moment before flipping you over in the next.

he tightened the belt once more and held on like a leash. you knew the drill—pressing your head to the floor, though that didnt stop jongho from shifting his weight to keep you down.

he worked his furiously red cock from the prison that was his boxers. there was a blatant dark spot in the jeans where the precum wet him up.

“dumb fucking slut. you’re not willing to die for wooyoung, you just wanted to squirt. make a mess of a kitchen we rent.”

your hole quivered tremendously—you could practically feel jongho sliding his majestic member so deep inside your walls you could feel it on your throat. you were about to milk him for all he was worth. jongho stares down your sex, exposed to him from the back.

he knew it then: he couldn’t go through with it. not with you right here, falling apart into avas he slid perfectly into your cunt, ginormous midshaft rubbing against your insides, you leaned to throw one arm around jongho’s shoulder while resting your back against his chest. he began to move, wasting no time before setting off at an unimaginable pace to orgasm.

you gave jongho a soft kiss on the lips. he seizes the opportunity to snake his hands under your shirt and flick at your nipples. a chorus of shushed affirmations joined the symphony of skin on skin that played out on the kitchen floor.

so much for a successful hit job.

(end)

[A/N: if you made it this far, thank you for reading! this was a surprise addition to this weeks lineup bc im a pervert and a liar. please excuse our dust as i renovate my writing space some more. and please apply for my taglist here if you are interested! ill start using at by the end of the week 👍 ]

[vaguely-concerned]

you know it is hard to not feel for caterina a little in my worldstate. she loses sight of lucanis for a couple of months while her other grandson has her in jail for grandmother time-out, and by the time she sees him again he is in full undying devotion mode for the guy she sent to get him back. her grandson finally brought someone home, and it's a fairly low-level elven mortalitasi whose family background is 'idk we found this baby in a crypt and liked their vibes' who will not be giving her any biological grandchildren. not even one of the politically well-connected scheming mortalitasi, which could at least have been useful (nevarra is a bustling market for the crows! twenty contracts on the king alone and still going strong! still a payday baby let the good times roll!), but one of the dutybound earnest little freaks they keep down in the necropolis to wrangle skeletons and write esoteric papers and who frankly don't care that much about murder b/c death comes to us all in its own time anyway trust us on this one. lucanis looks at him like he hung the moon, the sun, every celestial object and glittering star in the sky, like he's the only real thing in the world. and in caterina vision she sees this weird little slip of a goth mage guy wearing too much kohl who cracks jokes at strange times and is so hard to read but also gives her the unmistakable flinty 'I'll try to keep this civil if you do the same. If.' eye contact over lucanis' shoulder sometimes, with the utter grave calm that only someone who's a speaker to the dead (and the dead are savage) and who has killed several gods and wouldn't back down from second deicide if necessary could bring to bear. she sucks and deserves this and more but she also does have a whole Situation on her hands here

(I love that rye's relationship to lucanis' family is basically 'I met some of the most insufferable people. but, they also met me'. he tangoed with the god of lies and betrayal so he could waltz his way through a dellamorte family dinner relatively unscathed)

[serpentface]

What's the Wardi cultural take on Akoshos sleeping with/partnering with/marrying other Akoshos?

It's not highly regulated to a degree that there are overwhelming cultural norms about it. There's a lot of societal focus on akoshos being theoretically suitable sexual partners for both men and women due to being dual-gendered, but not to an extent that relationships with One Another are stigmatized.

They also largely get to escape from the most severe concerns about penetrator/penetrated power dynamics because they're not regarded as Men (they're regarded as dual-gendered, and they're a female social class on every practical level), there's no status of manhood to Lose by receiving sexual penetration. The only real thing you see in that department is people assuming that one acts as 'the man' and one acts as 'the woman', but this is largely due to preoccupation with a notion of sex being Penetration With A Penis (and that Penetration With A Penis means that one person is in a Man's Role and one person is in a Woman's Role). But this will not be regarded as unnatural as in same-gender male relations, akoshos will Have to take up a position in this sexual dichotomy if they want to have Real Sex (Penetration With A Penis) with each other, and this is not unnatural and doesn't involve gaining or losing status since they are simultaneously male and female, not men.

So like you might see individual culture critics finding stuff to nitpick about it as their annoyance of the week or a singular Guy here or there who thinks it's weird, but this isn't a widespread norm. The vast majority of people don't give a shit about akoshos having sex with each other. The worst thing you're likely to experience Solely by virtue of being in an akoshos-akoshos relationship is someone asking you (probably with genuine curiosity) which one does the man stuff and which one does the woman stuff.

Akoshos also don't experience Hard expectations for marriage (though there are societal pressures that make marriage an attractive safety net all the same, ESPECIALLY marriage to a man) so unofficial life-partnerships between akoshos are pretty much the Only same gender partnerships between unwed people that are going to go unquestioned. ((Sworn brotherhood is technically a same gender life partnership for men that is Functionally similar to marriage (in that it's a kin-making practice between unrelated adults), but the tradition is Built upon the assumption that both parties will be married to women and that a primary goal of this kinship is to provide security for both parties' wives and children)). Marriage obligations in general are more lax in the economically secure but not Wealthy lower mercantile classes (as obligations to support and perpetuate one's family are universal, but these obligations can be filled simply by having at least One son who can get hitched, and marriages in the lower classes have no political functions and therefore there's less reason to ensure All your children are wed (there's still incentives like dowry, but this is not desperately needed when a family is economically secure)). So akoshos in this class group tend to have a Lot more freedom in terms of their life arrangements and chosen partners (though still experience the limiting frameworks of structural misogyny in other capacities).

The only thing that is out of the picture is akoshos/akoshos marriage. Marriage in this society has a predominantly reproductive function, the concept of reproductively non-viable marriages is generally considered absurd. This is not JUST this culture's form of homophobia, as marriage is a very practical arrangement at its core - both in a reproductive capacity and as bedrock for the patriarchal blood-kinship family system that forms the core social unit. The idea of same gender marriage isn't just absurd because 'ewwww weird' it's like, that Cannot work within this system, it Cannot fill core functions of what a marriage intends to do here, the ways on which marriage and kinship are BUILT makes same gender marriage practically (rather than just socially) untenable.

The sole exception to the 'marriage = reproductively viable" rule is that akoshos can be married to men (which in practice is almost always as a remarriage after a man has secured At Least an heir). This has a Little bit of internal logic here in that they perform predominantly female social roles (thus are suited to being a wife, even if they can't bear children) (and also on practical levels of them having the same legal status as women) but it's really more of a 'this is just how it's always been' kind of thing. A lot of the older pre-Wardi identity dual-gender roles that got mashed together under the 'akoshos' name would have involved marriage to a man as a second wife/concubine, in addition to his primary wife who would bear his children. Men potentially having multiple spouses has not been retained as a cultural practice, but the notion that an akoshos Can be a wife to a man has survived into modern day legal and doctrinal practices around marriage.

So like this being said, marriage as it is legally defined is only between a man and a woman, a man and an akoshos, or a woman and an akoshos. In practice the latter two are comparatively VERY rare- a man/akoshos marriage cannot provide children (though an akoshos can practically fulfill all other obligations and duties of a wife), a woman/akoshos marriage Can provide children (and while akoshos cannot function as a male heir, these children Will take their akoshos-parent's family name (though the wife retains her father's family name)), but akoshos are legally grouped with women in terms of rights and privileges (including being permanently under legal domain of their father unless they have been legally handed off to a male husband) and Cannot provide hard power patriarchal support that this family system is built upon and therefore depends upon, which makes these marriages socio-economically insecure. They can obviously still be a good partner and parent, but this is not the same as having the Legal hard power of a patriarch.

Akoshos marrying each other would be reproductively and socially nonviable, and is treated as a similarly absurd concept to a man marrying a man or a woman marrying a woman. It's just not a part of the marriage and kinship framework, it's not a thing that you can Do.

[lupismaris]

There is nothing so affirming and life saving as leaving home and being loved at face value by total strangers for who you are

[sweetestflow3rs]

me when i have an idea of how dod!mean lesbian!vanida looks like ( thanks sua from alst ) but i still have no idea what is her catalyst moment

[arotechno]

i absolutely love what konya sukiyaki dayo says about communal living, child-rearing, and the many forms both can take. it's great when aro media takes a step into navigating the way de-centering monogamous romance and leaning on community can benefit all members of the group, not just aromantics. and, really, living right next door to your best friend so you can see each other all the time but have your own place, isn't that kind of the dream?

[nightopianfoxgirl]

MMBN: Blazing Fire's CrossFusion Gutsman

i ain't good at refs but gave it a go 100+ more to go

[androcola]

whoops his name was billy not bobby 😭 anyway GIVE ME THE LORE PRETTY PLEASE!

hello!!! I'm really happy for someone to ask about such a small detail I love that kinda stuff 🙏 while I don't have too much lore on his relationship with them, I will say that they do become friends sometime towards the later 60s. he'd been working the same route a long time so he just Always got them and their mail and in the beginning he thought they were all a little crazy but that's about All he thought of them. but they were super nice to him all the time! sometimes on hot days, they'd send him on his way with a cold coke or lemonade, and on cold days they'd give him some bottled cocoa or even hot soup. they really like Billy :) they take his role as their regular mail man Very seriously .

they become much closer in the 70s and even start hanging out 😁of course Micky is the first one to break the ice. he's always the one to get them in with others. they stay good buddies with each other for a long time 😁

[lettalady]

Word prompt challenge if it sparks anything:

"that look was priceless"

Word prompt challenge: Send me a word or phrase and I'll write a story.

Hmmmm not sure why, nonnie dear, but this line very much makes me think of Boston Boy - the son of the Crime Lord of Massachusetts. Eventually he'll take the reigns from his father, but until then he's sitting pretty in the ranks of the organization.

Did I say sitting pretty? Shhhh don't need to feed that ego of his.

"You're gonna put that back." His warning is low, meant for you alone. If he didn’t have you snared by the wrist you might’ve had a chance of disappearing into the crowd. Can you still manage a quick... The thought dies as soon as you zero in on his face. Those stark blue eyes send a chill down your spine.   You play up the society-girl vibe while fighting to suppress the instinct screaming to RUN from this man with violence in his eyes. "What? I don’t…”  “That look is precious. Hand it over.” Last ditch efforts be damned, you cling to the lie even though he’s called you on it. He claims he’s caught you red handed but at the moment your hands are empty. “You got the wrong girl, guy." There’s a brief shifting to the dead space that is his gaze, but in a blink the cold menace has returned. “Uh-huh. Don't pull that with me. You know exactly what I'm talking about. You’re gonna give my buddy back his wallet, and then you’re gonna march your little Louie knockoffs around the floor and give ‘em back what you took from the rest of them. All. Of. It.”  All of it? Incredulity makes you drop the act and simply stare at him. Codfish, meet shark. If you return all of it you’re dead. Maybe not tonight, or tomorrow, but soon. But… Trust Fund Psycho’s watch could help win just a little leeway. You might not score big again like you thought was happening tonight, but you’ll figure something out. That’s the way the world works. Fuck this night and this Boston boy in particular. Putting on the air of defeat, you make sure to appear expectedly – and legitimately, too – crestfallen, dipping your chin in a nod of acknowledgement that you’ll do as he orders. Praying for perfect timing praying praying and yes the latch of his watch releases just as he loosens his grip to send you on your way.

[betwixtyiff]

Tbh I'm gonna go back to an iPhone

[sgxena16]

I just binged NCIS: Hawai'i and I'm so bitter it got cancelled. This show is so good and deserves at least 8 seasons.

[no1ryomafan]

Battle Network being the only MM series that I didn’t get deeply invested into that I still haven’t played most of the games is so funny despite this year basically being it’s year of relevancy again because I do know facts off handily about it and one of the things that jumpscares me every time I remember it is something that wasn’t even in the games: It’s the fucking fact in the anime they said “let’s make this a Tokusatsu” in like the fourth game arc onward and this will never not throw me off despite being the mf who’s favorite mm series is literally ZX.

[thetruearchmagos]

Y'all wanna know what's the best part of Worldbuilding?

The tangents. God I love tangents-

[t-u-i-t-c]

Final Chapter: Tomorrow's Legends

[1tsjusty0u]

honestly im really glad fics kind of have sissel (the cat) and yomiel getting together at some point post-game as like. a mundane thing that happens. like in some its not the focus at all and just happens and sometimes its important while other times not so much. to be fair i havent read a lot yet so it might not be the standard but its fics like those that make me a lot less sad even if its a little thing like that