#Posting this here because my actual comms page is followed by people who give a fuck about that guy

[theglizzardwizard]

Love when that happens

[thephantomessoftheopera]

Hi

Several months back you commented on a post I made after I finished reading Phantom of the Opera for the first time. As I recall, you recommended the Lowell Bair edition and said that you Ribiere and Coward had some mistranslations.

Could you elaborate more on your problems with Coward? I've had it recommended to me by several other people who claim it's the most faithful complete translation (since I'm also told that Bair is based on a minorly abridged text and not complete.)

Thank you for the ask, @night-unfurls-its-splendour!

First off, there is unfortunately, no flawless translation of Phantom. I know that Coward is widely recommended as the most complete translation since it is based on the first edition of the novel (as is Ribière). Bair, on the other hand, is based on a later edition, which is missing some phrases from the first edition, but the differences are fairly minor - absolutely not comparable to the huge chunks of text missing from de Mattos. On the plus side, this later edition had some of the errors from the first edition corrected - such as the „fatal rocher“, which in Leroux says:

Il avait bien l‘air alors du fatal rocher, avec ses yeux d‘or en plus.

„Rocher“ here is a typo though, and is actually supposed to be „nocher“. Coward translates it as such:

He loomed with the menace of a wrecking rock, except that rocks don‘t have yellow eyes.

In Bair, it sounds like this:

Except for his golden eyes, he looked like the grim ferryman of the Styx.

It is a minor detail here, but in Leroux and Bair, Erik‘s eyes are „golden“, while Coward calls them „yellow“. There are many little instances where I find Coward‘s Erik to be a little less sympathetic that Leroux‘s and Bair‘s. When reminded of the „rosy hours“, Coward Erik is just „sobered“, while Leroux Erik is „triste“ and Bair Erik „sad“. Overall, my reason for recommending Bair is that I feel he is more faithful to Leroux‘s exact words, while Coward takes more liberties with the text (although less than Ribière). I also find Coward‘s style to be less pleasing to read, but that is a personal preference.

Another example from „Apollo‘s Lyre“:

Leroux:

Apprenez alors que chacun de mes voyages auprès d‘Érik a augmenté mon horreur pour lui, car chacun de ces voyages, au lieu de l‘apaiser comme je l‘espérais, l‘a rendu fou d‘amour!

Bair gives the following rendition of the phrase:

Let me tell you that each of my visits to Erik increased my horror of him, because each of them, instead of calming him as I hoped, made him even more madly in love with me.

While Coward writes:

Each time I go back to Erik I hate him more… Each visit, instead of calming him down as I hoped, makes him even more obsessed with me!

Christine doesn‘t say anywhere that she „hates him more“ in the original text. In fact, „hate“ is an especially bad choice here because a few pages before, Christine explicitely explains that Erik fills her with horror, and yet she does not hate him. She even asks „How could I hate him?“ This is again a detail, but it is quite an important one in how the relationship between them in conveyed to the reader.

I could list more examples, but I hope this has given you an idea of why I prefer Bair over Coward.

[angryschnauzer]

Distraction

Summary: As a junior CIA agent you are added to a mission to help with scientific analysis, but when half the team are hospitalised you have to suddenly become a hands on field agent, alongside August Walker and Will Shaw. When the final part of the mission at a tropical plant glass house has an unexpected side affect, you have to work as a team to survive the night.

Pairing: August Walker x Female Reader x Will Shaw Fandoms: Mission Impossible: Fallout (Movie), The Cold Light of Day (Movie), Henry Cavill - Actor.

Warnings: NSFW, 18+, Sex Pollen, Threesome, Oral Sex, Unprotected Sex, Vaginal Sex, Blowjob, Cum Play, Double Penetration, Anal Sex.

A/N: This is my first time writing the Sex Pollen trope, so i hope you like it. Fic is unbeta’d; only the finest free range organic typos for me. I do not run a tag list, but if you follow @angryschnauzerwrites​ and put that blog onto notifications, you will then get an alert when i post something new.

Back catalogue can be found on AO3 Link Here, or you can follow my facebook page HERE.

 Distraction

 If there had been someone narrating a movie of this mission, the first line would have been ‘it was a simple mission’. However, they would have been lying. The mission was far from simple, it was convoluted, complicated, and the team fucking hated each other.

 The team were scheduled to arrive via two flights, from opposite directions of the globe as not to arouse suspicions that a large team would do if anyone was picked up on facial recognition. You had been brought on board because of your scientific and tech background, and as the team were tasked with retrieving the formula for the most dangerous biological weapon in the world, you were the one that would check they had the right thumb drive before the mission was able to be called a success. There would be multiple extraction points, numerous undercover assignments that would all lead to the final extraction at the gala dinner.

 That was the plan. What actually happened was the half of the team coming in from Dallas ended up with severe food poisoning and were currently being hospitalised in a local treatment facility. That left just your half of the team, and the senior agent now in charge was none too happy about it;

 “I’ve got a fucking chemistry nerd and a number cruncher for a hands on mission that requires multiple scenes where infiltration and distraction are needed, and neither of you have any fucking field work!”

 August Walker hated everyone and made sure he did everything he could so that everyone hated him in return. The other member of the team quietly ground his teeth, Walker never once let him forget that he came into this agency completely by accident following a rogue faction and a situation that started with the death of his CIA Agent father, and resulted in smashing up half of Madrid’s traffic in a 24 hour long series of car chases;

 “I was a stockbroker, and i didn’t hear anyone complaining when i discovered the currency discrepancies that found us the targets insider trading”

 Will Shaw was so similar yet so different to Walker it was startling, you even thought they looked similar enough to be long lost brothers, but never dared to mention it.

 The hotel suite had all the facilities you needed to set up a small command post, with enough counter space to set up the laptops and work-stations, whilst not getting under each other's feet. However it was still small enough for the two men to continually bicker and make snide remarks at each other, and you had to push the earpiece of your surveillance equipment closer to your ear to hear, finally you heard what you needed to, holding your hand up and clicking your fingers at the two men who immediately silenced and crossed the room;

 “They’re going to be at the MMA Gym in thirty minutes”

 “Okay” Walker huffed; “We need to extract the codes from his device that will give us access for the holding location. You and Shaw take the gym and cause the distraction, i’ll get the codes”

 Will shook his head;

 “Not gonna work”

 “It's not?” you were surprised

 “The gym is men only, the only women are administration and janitorial”

 “That’s fucking antiquated” August spat out in disgust.

 You had to hide the smirk that tugged at the corner of your mouth, that August Walker of all people would be an advocate for equal rights, but nonetheless started to prepare for the first distraction.

 -

 Walker and Shaw had entered the building separately but within 5 minutes of each other, signing in under false names and keeping it simple and silent as they started training on the weights and cardio machines in the gym. You had already entered through the basement deliveries door which you’d been able to pick the lock of, finding a staff uniform t-shirt in the storeroom and pulling it on over your top. You could hear both men through their hidden comms, and within a couple of minutes pretending to sort out a cleaning kart that you knew the morning crew had finished with, you heard the code word that the target had entered the weights room.

 Seconds later you were tentatively pushing the door to the locker room open, calling out;

 “Housekeeping!”

 You had no idea if they called themselves housekeeping or janitorial staff or whatever, but when you didn’t get a reply you quickly entered the room and did what needed to be done. 

 Through your ear piece you could hear the first stage of the distraction starting, with your two fellow agents starting to challenge the other to out lift each other, and from the muffled background noise you could tell that they were drawing a crowd of onlookers.

 Tapping your comms you alerted Walker and Shaw that you’d been successful, and that it was time for them to leave. But as you got no response you quickly made your way out of the locker room through the other exit, only to find yourself in a glass walled corridor, the gym on the other side of the glass. What surprised you however was that there was now a huge crowd of spectators as they watched your two agents try to pull out more reps on the bicep curl machine. Scowling you grabbed a cloth and bottle of spray cleaner and squirted the glass, glaring at the two of them before they finally saw you;

 “Its time to go, dumbasses. Finish the contest. I’ll be in the car in the street behind the building”

 -

 Pushing through the door of the hotel suite you scrunched your nose as Will pushed past you, August not far behind;

 “You two need a shower… did you really need to get that sweaty?”

 “Well… you wanted the distraction to look convincing, didn’t you?” Will shot back, stripping his t-shirt off, already halfway to the bathroom.

 A quiet cough behind you drew your attention away from Will’s sculpted back muscles;

 “When you’re done staring at Shaw…”

 “I...I wasn’t stare…”

 “Whatever sweetheart, either way; you two need to change”

 Looking down at your outfit you pulled at the gym t-shirt;

 “Yeah, i can just find a utility shirt or something…”

 “No, you’re front of house with me. Will’s taking the extraction of the thumb drive”

 “But...I didn’t bring an outfit…”

 August nodded to a pile of bags in the corner of the room from the agents that hadn’t made it to the mission but their luggage had;

 “So check Marianne’s, she is about the same size as you. Either way its you and me sweetheart, now get dolled up, you can’t go to a gala looking like that”

 -

 Twenty minutes later you took a deep breath; you’d found Marianne’s bag and had found that although she was a similar size to you, it was one size smaller. She also had a completely different taste and style to makeup and you were now way out of your comfort zone. The red lipstick however seemed to work, a touch of gold bronzing powder across your shoulders and chest made the red silk dress really work for you. Adjusting the straps so they sat over the top of your bra, the pretty floral pattern hopefully not too noticeably jarring against the sultry silk. Taking a deep breath you stepped out of the small dressing room and came face to face with Will;

 “Oh hey” he looked you up and down before clearing his throat; “Looks good”

 “Yeah?” you smoothed the dress down over your stomach

 “I mean… the bra kinda takes away from the look… but yeah, it looks really good”

 “I...I didn’t have anything suitable for a gala, this is Marianne’s… from her bag…”

 Will stood in front of you, reaching his hand around your back and with a quick snap of his fingers he’d unfastened your bra;

 “It really will look better without the bra… trust me…”

 Without another word he turned and crossed the room, pulling his tie from his bag, fastening it as August emerged from the other room;

 “Agent. Bra off, now”

 Shimmying the offending garment down your arms you pulled it out of your dress as he crossed the room;

 “I don’t see why…”

 “Because the people at this gala have got so much money they flaunt what they’ve got. You’ve got to fit in” He held his finger out and you hooked it over the protruding digit.

 “We’d better get going… the gala is about to start”

 With a nod August grabbed the keys to the BMW you’d been assigned and tossed them to Will; he was taking on the role of Driver and Bodyguard to your’s and August’s ‘couple’, the three of you filed out of the room and into the elevator.

 The ride down the highrise hotel was slow, and you could feel both men’s eyes on you as they stood behind you, before the doors finally opened to the basement parking. You struggled to keep up with them as they strode out with their long legs, the heels of your stiletto sandals clicking on the cement. Finally as you reached the car you were surprised as August opened the door for you, not uttering a word as he watched you climb in before he rounded the car and slid into the back seat beside you.

 You’d barely had time to fasten your seatbelt before Will was peeling out of the hotel parking with a squeal of tyres and you were heading to your destination.

 “Panties, off” August’s words surprised you

 “W-WHAT?!”

 “Panties. Take them off”

 “Agent Walker…”

 “They dig into the meat of your hips and take the attention away from the sexiness of the dress. You need to fit in tonight”

 “B-b-but…” you attempted to stall, but without another word August pulled your knees towards him and slid his hands beneath your dress. He grasped the thin elastic straps that ran over your hips and pulled hard, snapping the fragile pieces of fabric and pulling the now ruined undergarments. Glancing at Will he had a brief smirk on his face but quickly looked away, concentrating on the road ahead. 

 -

 The gala was amazing, and it was hard not to get absorbed into the evening as if you were a real guest. You could hear everything through the hidden comms units in your ears, and apart from the occasional grunt as Will silently passed the guards as he made his way further into the underground chambers that ran below the massive glasshouse the gala was in, it seemed to all be going exactly to plan. The host had announced for everyone to celebrate, and you had found yourselves being swept onto the dancefloor, and suddenly you were in August’s arms as he held you close, the music thankfully loud enough to drown out your conversation from the ears of others;

 “Do you think he’s getting on ok?”

 “He’d say if he wasn’t” August assured you as he moved in time to the music, his hand on your lower back pulling you closer to his body. At that very moment you both heard a guttural cry through the comms, your eyes wide in panic as he grabbed your hand and you quickly made your way through the crowd;

 “Shaw, come in… are you ok?”

 You heard gurgling on the comms and watched as August pulled out his phone and activated the trackers that you all wore, the two of you coming up together on screen, but the third - Will’s - showing as on the level below and not moving.

 -

 The stairs had been hell in your heels, eventually you’d kicked them off and had run barefoot behind August, chasing him around corners and along corridors, before he’d finally come to a halt in front of a sealed door, his phone showing that Will was in the room behind it.

 “Stand back”

 You took a couple of steps back and watched as August kicked the door, the deafening bang as it broke from its hinges and splintered in was immediately forgotten as a sudden rush of air came out of the room, covering him in a dusting of strange grey-pinkish powder. He fell to the floor coughing and you rushed to his side;

 “Check on Shaw! I’m fine!”

 Quickly entering the room you looked around, finally seeing Will laying on the floor, he too was covered in the powder. Kneeling at his side you checked his pulse, relieved to find one as he opened his eyes and groaned.

 “What happened? Are you ok?”

 “Stop fussing, i’m fine… we gotta get out of here. Security will be on their way…”

 At that moment August appeared at your side;

 “Did you get it?”

 “Yeah, i got it”

 Will held out the thumb drive and pushed it into your hand as August pulled him to his feet, and they attempted to dust themselves off as the three of you staggered down the hallway and out of the fire exit.

 -

 Pushing into the hotel room, both Will and August had already shed the majority of their clothing, now dressed in just their smart dress pants and under shirts, still coughing from the dust cloud that lingered in their airways. You’d run the briefest of tests with the tiny blood monitor that you’d kept in the car to ensure it wasn’t a known nerve agent or poison before you’d even left the extraction point, thankfully the results being negative, but both men needed to wash off whatever it was as soon as possible. But first, you needed a proper sample;

 “Agent Shaw, i need to take some blood, hair and saliva, run it through the test software, to see if whatever it was has synthesised into your bloodstream” you nodded to the small scientific station you’d set up at the end of the table, the case having contained tiny gadgets that amounted to a microscope, a mass spectrometer, and other testing equipment… the whole point of why you in particular had been placed on this mission.

 A minute later you’d collected the samples, trying hard not to get flustered as Will had stood in front of you bare chested and in just his underwear, heat radiating from his body;

 “So what do you think it is?”

 “I have no idea”

 “Well i’m burning up, i need to take a shower”

 Quickly loading the samples into the rapid mass spectrometer you turned to Agent Walker to check his vitals and let out a tiny squeak of surprise when you saw him sitting on the edge of the bed in just his underwear. His chest was flushed and he had a sheen of sweat over his entire body;

 “I guess i’m next?”

 Pressing your hand to his forehead you could feel he was burning up;

 “I’m going to check your temperature first”

 Quickly using the thermal reader you could see that his core temp was heading towards fever;

 “I’m going to take the samples then as soon as Will is out of the shower you need to get in there”

 “Yes Ma’am” he chuckled, closing his eyes as you pushed your fingers through his hair to pluck a sample strand. The powder had caught in the strands and it was only as you combed your fingers through the dark locks did you realise he had soft curls. As you tried to separate them he let out a groan as you stroked his scalp. He swayed a little even though he was sitting down, and before you could do anything his hands were on your hips to steady himself, the heat almost searing through the silk of your dress. 

 Finally having got all the samples you needed you reluctantly pulled away, not saying a word as he simply flopped back onto the bed with a smirk on his face. You busied yourself preparing the test samples from Agent Walker, the machine finishing with Shaw’s. You were vaguely aware of the shower being turned off and the men moving around the room, before the shower was on again and you presumed it was August in there.

 Peering at the saliva samples through the microscope you frowned, the particles present completely organic and very familiar.

 “So what is the diagnosis Doc?”

 Will’s voice surprised you, and as you jumped and turned your eyes went wide when you saw he was in just a towel, tied low on his waist as he drank from a bottle of water.

 “Y-You don’t want to put some clothes on?”

 He looked down at himself, almost surprised to find he was only wearing a towel and shrugged;

 “No point, the way i’m burning up i’ll be naked soon” he nodded to the screen; “So?”

 Turning your attention back to the screen you swallowed hard, your throat suddenly dry;

 “Well… it seems organic, spores of some kind. Its hard to tell what they are from, but their chemical make-up is unique. The only time i’ve seen anything similar is in isolated microclimates that are cut off from the rest of nature… there was this one… in a volcano… a pollen from a plant that grew in tropical climates…” you trailed off as you sensed another presence now flanking your other side, glancing away from the microscope, taking in the sight of August in an identical outfit to Will, his broad expanse of chest at eye level as he bent down to look into the microscope.

 “Hmmn… so, how’s it gonna affect us? The gala was in a fucking giant greenhouse; you saw the plants they were growing there, some of them were 20ft tall and looked like they’d come from another planet. Do we need to pop an antihistamine or something, what’s it gonna do?”

 Standing you quickly slid out from between the two barely dressed men, checking the mass spectrometer and frowning;

 “It seems to be elevating your testosterone levels…” you peered at the saliva results; “...and pheromones… your bodies are heating up where your body is fighting against the pollen, its affecting all your hormones...”

 “Pheromones…” Will mused; “... that’s the sex hormones, right?”

 “Urrr…” you faltered, looking up at the two men who were now looking at you like hungry wolves.

 August stepped closer;

 “Sweetheart, i think you’d better get yourself tested too…” he paused, his finger hooking beneath the thin strap of your dress, making you acutely aware you were completely naked beneath it; “... cos’ i could smell you from across the room… and you smell so sweet right now…”

 You went to take a step back, only to bump into the hard expanse of Will’s naked chest, his hand curling around your arm;

 “C’mon, lets get you tested…”

 You were suddenly putty in their hands, your head swimming and it was only then that you realised you were burning up. It felt like you had a core of lava within you, and the only thing you could liken it to was a hot flash, your body flushed with heat. You recalled the time you’d overheard a much older agent talking to her friends, unaware you had been in the room and she’d spilled the beans on how she would recover from an episode and calm her hormones down... with the help of her husband.

 As your head had been swirling, Will had taken your blood sample and had loaded it into the mass spectrometer, having watched as you’d shown him before the mission. But you could barely concentrate;

 “I...I know how to counteract the affects of the pollen…” you panted out, unsteady on your feet as you swayed and August caught you in his arms

 “Oh yes?”

 “En… Endorphins… they counteract… they burn off the pheromones…”

 You felt hot breath on the back of your neck as Will pressed against you;

 “I’m not a scientist, but i know how to create endorphins…” 

 His lips made contact with your neck and you turned to jelly, your head resting against his shoulder and your eyelids drooping, barely open, yet you had enough of your senses to be aware of August in front of you, pulling the straps of your dress down your arms, you pliable in his hands as he stripped you of your only remaining garment, pressing his lips to your over heated skin as went as the silk pooled at your feet;

 “So beautiful…”

 “Absolutely” Will agreed from behind, his lips grazing over your jawline as his arms reached around you and cupped your tender breasts; “We need to work as a team to get through this… what are the hazards of hot flashes then Doc?”

 “Y-Y-You can over heat your brain… your heart could give out…”

 “Uh-huh… and endorphins will help stop this?” August enquired, his breath hot on your naked chest

 “Y-yeah…”

 That was the last word spoken for a very long time. From that point on the only sounds in the room were hums of pleasure combined with the carnal soundtrack of three bodies moving towards the inevitable. By the time you got to the bed both men had lost their towels, hard naked bodies pressed against your soft curves, sculpted hard muscle available everywhere you touched, and oh did you touch… and caress and stroke, the second you’d reciprocated their affections they had softened to your touch, sighs of pleasure as your fingertips gave them just the slightest relief.

 You found yourself sandwiched between the two men on the soft covers of the king-size bed, each taking turns to capture your lips for searing kisses, each having their own unique talent and style with their tongues. When you were deep in August’s embrace you felt Will move down the bed, his hands pulling your legs apart before he pressed kisses up your inner thighs and his mouth made contact with your soaked folds. The cry of pleasure that erupted from your mouth broke the kiss, yet August didn’t seem to mind as your hand had found its way to being wrapped around his weeping shaft, tugging him sloppily as you struggled to concentrate;

 “That’s it Sweetheart, you don’t need to be gentle… i like it rough…”

 You tried to answer, but Will’s tongue had found your soaked entrance as his hand curled around your thigh and sought out your clit, the pleasure he was giving you was too intense to allow you to form coherent words. August claimed your lips again for another searing kiss, humming his appreciation as you worked your hand over his heated flesh.

 Before you knew it you were coming hard, your orgasm tearing through your body as you ground your core against Will’s face, his eyes sparkling from between your thighs, and as you were floating on the high of the afterglow you could feel the two men moving you, adjusting you to suit their needs.

 On all fours on the bed you were faced with August’s dick, opening your mouth instinctively to take him deep, the heavy weight on your tongue a welcome feeling. Saliva spilled from the corners of your mouth as you struggled to stretch around his girth. At the same time you felt Will’s powerful thighs pressing against the back of your own, the velvet touch of his bulbous crown pressing to your still trembling hole before with a grunt he thrust into your soft body.

 There were only grunts and gasps of pleasure, the two men rocking your body between them as they defiled you in the basest of ways, but that you were eager to participate in, the mixing of pheromones in the room removing your inhibitions, knowing that it was an act of survival. You could feel your body climbing again, your orgasm imminent. You felt the first salty tang of August’s seed on your tongue, the tensing of his muscles as his body prepared to release into the welcome warmth of your mouth. His massive hand cupped your chin and pulled your head up to look him in the eye as he finally reached his peak, grunting curses as he pumped thick ropes over your tongue, raining praise upon you as you swallowed everything he gave you. 

 August fell back onto the pillows, but before you could let gravity take hold of you too Will wrapped his arms around your torso, pulling you upright until you were pressed against his chest, his hips thrusting as he filled you so deliciously from behind. Through lust soaked gaze you watched August watching the pair of you as you fucked in front of him, his eyes travelling down your heated body until he was watching where your bodies were joined, how Will’s thick cock stretched you out so well.

 “Get your finger on her clit Shaw, i wanna watch you make her come undone”

 Doing as the senior agent instructed, Will snaked a hand down your stomach, rubbing tight firm circles against your sensitive bud as he continued to fill you, until you were shaking, hanging onto the precipice of pleasure and that final flick of his finger was enough to set off another orgasm. 

 The vice-like grip of your velvet walls was the final trigger for Will, and with a sin filled groan he pushed in one last time and you could feel him spilling deep inside you.

 Finally he pulled out, carefully setting you down onto the soft bedcovers. Your eyelids felt heavy, but the burning deep in your body seemed to be sated. You felt the men moving around the bed, a large hand cupping the back of your neck before lifting you from the bed a little;

 “Drink…”

 Opening your eyes, you watched as August lifted a water bottle to your lips, making sure you gulped down the chilled water before pulling away;

 “How… how are you guys feeling?”

 He turned and sat on the bed beside you, his finger trailing down your neck and between your breasts, and only then could you see the sheen as his skin glistened with sweat, a droplet running down his abdomen to where his cock stood hard and proud from a thatch of dark curls;

 “Not… not quite done yet…”

 Gently pushing you back down onto the bed he tossed the empty bottle aside before crawling atop of you, capturing your mouth with his as you felt the nudge of his hardened dick breach your body, his wide expanse of chest pressing you to the bed. He didn’t start out gentle and it only got rougher, ploughing into your body as he sought to relieve the effects of the pollen coursing through his veins like fire, burning within him until all that was left was red hot embers of passion. Your body writhed beneath him, begging for more, eagerly taking whatever he could give.

 He hit spots you didn’t know existed, your back arching with pleasure as he filled you, your hardened nipples almost too sensitive from his chest hair roughly rubbing against them, the stimulation almost too much until the levy broke and you came hard, your fingers digging into his back to leave dark welts, the pain his trigger for the final thrust as he pumped you full of his seed. 

 Finally he rolled off you, laying at your side as your chests heaved, struggling to catch your breath when you felt another hand grasp at your wrist;

 “Babe… please… i need you…”

 Looking to Will you saw a pained look on his face as he sat partially propped up against the pillows, his chest soaked and his dick standing hard and proud;

 “Please…” he begged.

 Somehow you found the energy to move, your body still shaking but yet you straddled his lap, pushing his sweat soaked curls from his face;

 “It’s going to be ok Will, i’ll take care of you… its ok…”

 You sank down onto his waiting body, taking him where August had been only a minute before, the comingled seed lubricating you as this new angle found yet more pleasure points that had remained undiscovered until then. Wills hands moved to your hips, his grip tight as he gritted his teeth and moved you on his lap, rocking you to ride him like a rodeo stallion. Sweat dripped down your body, rivulets running between your breasts as you threw your head back and basked in the flood of pleasure chemicals soaking your brain. The haze of lust clouding time and space as you came to another orgasm, Will filling you with another load of his thick cum, your cries of pleasure finally ebbing away as you collapsed on his heaving chest, his hands stroking your back whilst your bodies stayed joined.

 A pair of strong arms lifted you off of Will and set you down on the mattress, August’s dark smile haunting over you as he parted your legs and kissed down your thigh, before with a smirk he bit the soft flesh. It wasn’t enough to break the skin but the pleasure pain receptors in your mind were immediately set off again, and you knew that even if you couldn’t see the mark you’d feel it for days to come. He lifted your legs and parted them, his face at your centre, yet where his tongue ended up you let out a squeak of surprise as he circled your back entrance. 

 “Oh, OH… August…”

 “Mmmnnfff” was all that could be heard as he pushed his tongue at your asshole, his thumb pressing against your clit as he worked you open, your body deceiving you as a fierce orgasm washed over you almost immediately. When he pulled away he had a smug look on his face;

 “Thought as much… hold tight…”

 He quickly disappeared to the bathroom, before returning with a small bottle in his hand. Pouring some of the liquid contained within on his fingers, he worked the oil over your skin before pushing his thick finger into your ass, eagerly praising you as he worked your body until you were ready.

 “Walker… hurry up and fuck her… i’m burning up here, i need another round…” Will gasped out as August moved you.

 “C’mere then Shaw, we’re never gonna get this out of our systems if we have to wait to take turns…”

 Even through the haze of the pollen Will immediately got what August was saying, the pair of them pulling you from the bed before Will took you into his arms;

 “Jump…”

 With a surprising amount of strength Will pulled you up, your legs hooked over his forearms as he angled his hips to push his dick back into your cum soaked cunt, letting gravity help as he sank deep. Just as you thought you were about to overbalance a hard chest pressed against your back, August stooping behind you as he took his iron hard dick in hand and sought out purchase on your ass;

 “Gonna take this as slow as i can Sweetheart…”

 Slow didn’t seem slow enough, and you cursed Newton and the laws of physics as the same forces that had pulled you down onto Will did the same with August, leaving you gasping for air as you were filled in both holes. The boys held you up, in place and still whilst they resisted ravaging your body, fighting against the pollen until they could no longer hold back and they unleashed their raw power upon your body. Fucking you in tandem with the thinnest of walls separating themselves inside you, they defiled your body as you begged for more; harder, deeper, faster. It was never enough.

 -

 The night ebbed away into the mists of time, each sex act more depraved than the last, the three of you driving the deadly force of the pollen from your bodies in an endless battle of lust.

The last thing you recalled was the sun rising as the two men stood before your kneeling body, spraying your face and breasts with a final load before sleep finally claimed your sated body.

 -

 Bright light streamed in the window and you winced as your head pounded. A deep voice could be heard but you weren’t listening. A warm body beside you shifted and a large warm hand pressed to your aching abdomen, soothing the overworked muscles. A soft pair of lips pressed a kiss to your shoulder, and the lack of moustache told you it was Will that was spooning you.

 “C’mon Agents, rise and shine” August barked from the bathroom doorway, packing his things; “Got a flight to catch in two hours, debriefing in twelve”

 -

 Closing the file you nodded at your superiors, their approval of a good job done ringing praises in your ears as the debriefing ended, people pushing their chairs out and making small talk as they were dismissed for the weekend and a well deserved rest.

 Walking to the elevator you didn’t make eye contact, trying hard not to wince as your thighs rubbed together and you felt the bite that August had given you, wanting to avoid any probing questions. You’d skimmed over a lot in your report, mainly the sex-pollen induced orgy that had taken place, but as the thumb drive with the vital data on had been recovered no-one was concentrating on the part between the retrieval and the debriefing.

 The elevator dinged as the doors opened, and absentmindedly you stepped in, looking out of the glass windows as you were only partially aware of just a few other passengers. It was only when you realised you were flanked on both sides did you look up and see that August and Will were either side of you. 

 With a smirk August handed you a file;

 “This wasn’t needed for the debriefing”

 You flicked it open and saw that it was the mobile test data from the hotel room;

 “Yes, probably for the best” you agreed, your throat dry.

 As you held the pages Will pointed to a trio of lines towards the bottom. For a moment you stared at the numbers before you recognised what they meant;

 “That’s our results…”

 You felt August’s breath hot on your ear as he whispered;

 “Look at yours…”

 You saw the readings of Will and August’s blood count, of the pheromone saturation… then you saw yours;

 “But… but that can’t be right…”

 “You know that equipment better than anyone else… when has it ever been wrong?”

 The elevator reached the Lobby and everyone filed out, August and Will stopping and nodding to the bar across the street;

 “We’ll be catching a drink or two… you’re welcome to join us once you’ve taken in the test data…”

 You nodded, speechless, staring at the data in black and white. It couldn’t be wrong; it was never wrong. It was clear as day.

 You hadn’t been infected by the pollen.

[crystaljins]

Sea.

Characters: Namjoon x Reader

Word count: 2.1k

Synopsis:   It takes a lot to follow your dreams. Idol!reader x manager!Namjoon

Notes: @tuserendipia​ requested Namjoon + dreams. And all I could think about is how BTS have achieved their dreams. And actually, this week I achieved MY dream. So this is what you guys get. LOL. It’s pretty shoddily written but who cares? It’s all for fun.

Warnings: Nothing except mentions of dodgy record label companies? Also atrocious plotholes because i know nothing about music contracts. If that bothers you please read something else.

Few people are fortunate enough to experience the adrenaline rush that comes with finally achieving their dreams. You are though, and you’re practically glowing from the high. Namjoon can only stare in awe as he captures your fingers before you can step onto the platform that will raise you onto the stage above.

“Hey.” He calls, adjusting the headsets he has on and slipping them off so that they rest on his neck. He very intentionally reaches down and switches off the battery pack it attaches to. No one will hear the words he says next and he will not have panicked staff members contacting him through the comms system. These words are just for you. “I’m proud of you.”

You’re all dolled up in stage makeup to highlight your best features. The dress has been designed carefully so that the stage lights will be caught by the tiny diamontes and dance across your body like starlight. He almost misses what you look like bare-faced and relaxed, with the hood of your jumper pulled up over unwashed hair, but there is no denying that you are in your element like this. The person he is looking at now is the pop princess who captured the heart of the entire nation with her amazing voice and beautiful face, about to perform on her dream stage.

You don’t smile in response. Instead you frown at him and he knows what you’re thinking. Really you should be buzzing with the nerves and excitement that comes with achieving your dreams, but you clearly have something on your mind.

“Joon.” You say in response. “Thank you.” The words are whispered, barely audible over the music that starts up, building up to your grand entrance. Already outside, the crowd is screaming. “But you should be up there with me.”

He offers you a smile because even now, in the moment that you are about to achieve your dreams, you are thinking about him. He didn’t always appreciate that about you- when he first met you, he had thought you were spoiled and single-minded. You wanted to have it all and had none of the motivation or determination to take it. And yet things still seemed to fall into your lap- you’d open your mouth and sing a few notes and entertainment companies would trip over themselves to have you sign with them.

He had been working as in intern then, trying to break into the industry and form connections and his run-ins with you had left him jealous and frustrated. Jealous that you had everything he wanted and frustrated that you didn’t even seem to recognise how easily things came to you. And that had only become exacerbated when someone had decided he’d be a good manager to you. Suddenly it went from having to see you in the hallways of the company or sitting in on meetings discussing your schedule to having to spend every waking minute worrying about you and where you were and what you were doing. He should have refused the promotion, really, but the pay was better, and it meant he was meeting far more influential people than he was as a mere intern.

You, of course, had been baffled by Namjoon’s initial dislike of you. You seemed like the kind of person who was used to people handing their hearts to you on a silver platter without much effort on your part of all. But you had somehow met him everything with a smile and a cheerfulness that none could match, and he soon learned the reason why.

No one follows their dreams with ease. To achieve the goal your heart is longing for comes with blood, sweat and tears and you had never forgotten your humble roots. Even though Namjoon had only seen you from the point where people on social media sites had started to see and recognise your talent, he didn’t see the financial difficulties, or the days you busked on the side of the road for hours to even be able to pay for your dinner. He didn’t see the people who had scammed you and taken everything in your blind and desperate attempts to share your voice. He wasn’t there when you’d had to give up the performing academy you’d always dreamed of because your father had gotten sick and your mother couldn’t afford both your schooling fees and his hospital fees. And so, while he had seen you and been jealous that things looked easy for you, you had seen him and known that Namjoon too was working hard for his dreams- that no dream comes easy or naturally. That’s why you were able to treat him with such kindness and warmth- because he was your fellow dreamchaser.

When he realised that, he started to see the other things that made you great. Your big heart, your genuine and sincere nature, the way your voice captured hearts… you had inspired him. And he’d done something really dumb and embarrassing- he had written a song about you. No, a song for you. Written for your vocals and your style. And to be honest, it was never meant for anyone but him to hear. And then of course you had come across it entirely by accident when you were searching through his phone for a video he had taken for you.

But then something funny had happened. Namjoon has been searching, ever since he began his internship, for the person who would take a chance on him and his music. Who would hear it and love it enough to make it big, and never, in a million years, did he think that person would be you. Of course, your record label had refused, saying that it didn’t fit your image or your sound, but you had fallen in love with the song and you were determined to sing it. You’d recorded the song with him and released it on soundcloud, and of course, your vocals combined with his music… it had blown up.

Your record company had been angry. They had wanted to seize the rights to the song and in an oversight on your part, a tiny clause in your 75-page contract stated that any and all music released by you automatically belonged to them. And thus, Namjoon had lost his first ever song to a big corporate that hadn’t even wanted to give him a chance in the first place. And he’d learned how painful the journey to realising your dreams could be. But that had been nothing compared to you- you were inconsolable, especially when his song only took your career to new heights. The very heights that are allowing you to perform here, at the biggest stadium in your country. The place only the biggest stars even hope to perform in and you were to take the stage as the top female solo act. You had begged him to take legal action, but he couldn’t do it- couldn’t take his song back without harming you. Perhaps that is the most painful part- that he had had to choose between you and his song. And ultimately, you had been what won.

“I’m just happy to see you up there.” He tells you warmly, because it’s true. Gone are the days when he was jealous and angry at the world, for choosing you and not him. Now… after seeing you in every facet of your life, from the angel on stage to the grumpy young woman in stained, unwashed tshirts… He only wants to see you achieve. To climb higher and higher and keep moving and capturing heart the way you have wholly captured his. Once upon a time, it was just him, his music and his dreams, but somewhere along the way you wiggled into his heart and there’s now something more important than his music: You. As much as it hurts to lose his dreams… You are more important to him.

Something flashes in your eyes, an unfamiliar mischief and challenge.

“You’ll be even happier in a moment.” You warn, and he doesn’t even have a chance to ask you what you mean when you step away from him, releasing his fingers and climbing up onto the stage. The next moment you vanish as the platform raises you onto the stage.

Above ground, the cheers grow in intensity. No doubt the screams and cries rumble through the whole city- there is surely not a soul that does not know that tonight, you are taking centre stage. Namjoon smiles as he steps backwards and goes to find the ideal spot backstage to watch the rest of your concert. He’s comfortably waiting at the side of the stage where he can see and hear everything that is happening. He’s about to switch his headpiece back on, when it happens.

The music that booms onto the stage is not your usual opening music. Instead, it’s a familiar tune. A song he had written in private, in some of his darker days when his dreams had seemed far away and unattainable. He doesn’t know how you found it, or how deep you delved into his secret soundcloud account to get the backing track, but it’s playing as the opening song to your concert, for the entire nation who is watching and listening to hear.

“This song was written by a very special friend of mine.” He hears your voice boom through the microphone. “And I need you all to do me a favour- help me get his music out there. Spread the word. Post the videos online. And tell everyone you know whose song this is: Kim Namjoon!”

And then you burst into song, his words, his tune, but better. It’s a song that captures all the hardship of following your dreams, the pain and hopelessness that comes with it, and a song that resides specially in his heart.

“Where there is hope, there is always hardship.” You sing. Due to the controversy of Namjoon’s song for you, it never made it to the live stage- this is the first time one of his songs will be performed live, and it’s on the biggest stage in the country with his name at the forefront. And not a song written for you, but a song carrying a piece of him. This song is unashamedly his and you have just helped him release it into the public.

Namjoon shakes his head in disbelief, hardly believing your audacity, or the way you’ve just shot down your record company. This is a big move for you and with so many people hearing you declare the owner of the song out in the open, it will be much harder for the company to quietly assume the rights. You’ve made a daring move, and risked your career. And for him. The song finishes and Namjoon is not ashamed there are tears pouring down his face. But then what happens next is unbelievable.

“Guys!” You cry. “Do you want to meet him? The man who wrote that song?” The ensounding chorus of “Yes!” rumbles through Namjoon’s heart like a stampede. You turn your head to where he’s hidden in the side of the stage and the smile that you give him is dazzling. You run up to him, and grab his hand. You switch off your mic for just a moment.

“They won’t steal this one from you.” You promise and then you’re stepping onto stage with him.

For a moment, all he feels is a rush of adrenaline as he gaze out onto the huge crowd. He can’t hear anything past the roaring in his ears. But then the buzzing fades and then he hears what the crowd is chanting.

“Kim Namjoon! Kim Namjoon!” They scream wildly. That’s his name they’re cheering. His song they’re going wild to. They’re chanting his name in the biggest stadium in the country and it’s so beyond his wildest dreams that he’s speechless.

And then he glances at you. The stage light catches on your dress and your eyes are filled with a dazzling light that takes his breath away. And he realises something.

Dreams are arbitrary. They can change in a heartbeat. Some will go unfulfilled for all eternity and the second one is filled it’s time to make a new one. It’s in human nature to always be running for more, to be chasing a moving goalpost, but he’s found something better than a dream. Something that he doesn’t have to chase desperately after and never meet. Something that he can stop and stare in wonder. Somewhere he can stay, in warmth and happiness.

And that is you. You’re more than a dream to him. You’re his love.

And he’s yours.

[afewmarvelousthoughts]

Stay Ch. 19

Master: @afewmarvelousthoughtsadmin

Pairing: Natasha X Reader (Female)

Summary: You have a gift, the ability to see other people’s innermost secrets. For years you used it to gather intel for the highest bidder when you take on The Widow. After she becomes more than a mark the two of you spend years stealing moments. Post snap you wait in your designated meeting place, look back on the sordid past you share with the woman you love and hope against everything that she’s still alive.

Warnings: A little violence (kinda) and a lot of feelings

A/N:  HOLY SHIT I AM SO SORRY! I had no intention for this to take over a fucking month. But Endgame fucked me up so hard (in the best way, I think I earned those hurts with the shit I write here lol) and just life, in general, has been NUTS (also in a really good way).

I honestly cannot thank you all enough for being so goddamn patient and supportive while you waited for this chapter. Some folks have to deal with really demanding and dickish followers but I’m over here getting asks and DMs of y’all wishing me well and shit. HOW AM I THIS LUCKY?!

I hope y’all like this one.

Tags are open!

Post Snap: Wakanda

Shock settles cold and heavy over Natasha’s shoulders.

Her gaze has been on the blank screen of her phone for an unknown amount of time. She’d tried to call… but all communication had been cut off, Wakanda locking itself away… A knock from the door behind her causes her to jump, sending the phone clattering to the floor.

“Sorry,” Bruce’s tone is cautious. “The jets almost ready.” They needed to get home… She knows people need them but…

“I can’t.”

“Nat… we have to-”

“No. I have to find her Bruce…”

There’s pity in his eyes, “Natasha… the odds…”

“Go,” Steve’s voice comes from the hall, rough and low. She steps out holding his haunted expression. A set of keys sail in her direction, “There’s a bike you can take outside…” Steve pauses, taking a shaky breath before continuing, “Outside Bucky’s place.”

A touch of warmth fills her chest. He already knew what she’d need to do. Her fingers curl around the keys. “Thank you.”

The moment she’s outside of Wakanda’s protective barrier she tries to check for the message… still, she can’t get through…

A scream threatens to rip her apart. She may be able to make it through the end of the goddamn world… through watching members of her small family fall to ash… But she would not survive losing you… not again.

October 2009

“Fuck!” Natasha bellows slamming her fist against the wall.

Months of searching… this had been their last lead. It came up empty. She was supposed to be the best and yet she couldn’t find and save the one person she cared the most for… not even with the resources and blessing of S.H.I.E.L.D…

They’d given her everything she could need. Everyone from Secretary Pierce to Fury throwing their weight behind this, pulling strings no one would even fathom pulling with governments and low lives alike and still not a sign of you. It was as if you’d simply disappeared.

“I’m sorry, Nat…” Clint lays a comforting hand on her shoulder, she shrugs him off.

“We missed something. There’s gotta be… something…” her voice cracks as he takes her by the shoulders.

His sad eyes break something in her, “There’s not, Natasha. She’s… she’s gone.”

“No,” her voice is thick with restrained tears. “She wouldn’t-”

He shakes his head, “I don’t… I don’t think it was a choice… But someone…” Nat shakes her head like a child denying a very obvious truth.

“Clint-” A sob slips out before she can catch it.

He tugs her into his arms, crushing her against his chest. “I’m so sorry.”

That’s it. A guttural sob rips from the deepest parts of her being and her knees give way sending them both to the floor. All she can think is how you’d feel this emotion with her, how you’d understand everything without her having to speak a word…

Slowly her sorrow is replaced with a cold rage. Someone took you from her. They likely caught wind that you’d turned your services over to S.H.I.E.L.D. and thinking you’d give something away… They couldn’t even leave her a body, couldn’t even give you dignity in death.

“We’ll figure out who did this, Natasha.” Clint may not be you but he knew her well enough to read her. “We will.”

Of that, she had no doubt.

-

They never did though…

Fury assigned her to Stark because she was best suited but also because he felt the distraction of deep cover would help. It may have but… Being Natalie Rushman reminded her of your night in Tokyo… There was nothing she could do to escape your memory.

Thankfully it hadn’t lasted long. In less than a year she was back to just being Natasha, back to the Widow, working every job she could. The more exhausted she was the less she felt how hollow she was. The more her body ached the less she missed your touch.

When she stared down a horde of alien invaders she thought that just maybe this was it. She’d go out fighting and save some people in the process. If there was another side well, she hoped you’d be there waiting.

But it wasn’t the end. Somehow they’d pulled off the impossible.

By that point, almost five years had passed. Natasha still missed you on a level that felt impossible to truly convey. But there were days that the ache was less than it had ever been. It wasn’t moving on per-say but it was something like healing.

At the very least now she had the distraction of Steve. She could make him a project. She’d never have the life or happiness she wanted but maybe she could help him find his footing. Maybe one of them could have a chance at happiness, at a life.

There was something she related to in his detachment. She supposed the loss of just about everyone and everything a person knew could be similar to the void you left. So many times she thought of telling him about you, hoping that he’d feel less alone in his pain but… He was a man from the ’40s… She wasn’t willing to risk losing a friend over dated prejudices.

Turned out she should have given Steve Rogers more credit.

When she heard the ballistics on the bullet that killed Fury her blood ran cold. It was him…

So many things had crossed her mind then. Not a single one of them had been that somehow she’d find you because of this.

She’d been so wrapped up in the aftermath of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s demise that she didn’t have time to look at the files she’d released. Thankfully Clint had her back and had been scanning them the moment they’d hit the web.

Just after she’d settled into the tower he showed up looking like he’d seen a ghost.

Fear gripped her. Had she exposed Laura and the kids in her haste to topple Hydra… had she sacrificed everything-

“I found her.”

For a minute the words rang hollow and meaningless.

“Found who?” Steve asked from his spot on her couch.

Clint said nothing, just held her gaze until his shot inevitably hit its target. “I think she’s alive, Nat.” He hands you a file.

With trembling hands, she turns the pages. Scarcely breathing. Steve says something but Clint hushes him.

As the words on the pages soak in she thinks she may vomit. Experiments, tests, torture… kill missions… Riots you’d incited at their command, dignitaries dropping from what appeared to be brain aneurisms. Little subtle things she should have looked for and then the last report… February 2014… nine months prior.

Natasha’s knees give out and she hits the hardwood with a thud. They’d had you for five years…  Her breath stills.

No.

“Natasha!” Clint kneels in front of her, Steve stands at the ready behind him.

Pieces rapidly click into place. All the subtle ties to Hydra since the very moment the two of you met and they meant one thing. My fault. All my fault. They wouldn’t have gotten to you if it weren’t for her. You wouldn’t have let your guard down. You wouldn’t have trusted S.H.I.E.L.D. You’d had a feeling about them from the start but she’d been convinced you were just being overly cautious.

“Nat…”

A raspy breath sucks into her lungs so fast it almost hurts. “I did this.” She breathes out.

“No. No, you fucking did not.” Clint grabs her shoulders, shaking her.

“I did. She wouldn’t-”

“If you don’t shut the fuck up with that I’ll slap you,” she sees Steve shift in the background. “You didn’t do this. They did this and we will get Y/N back.” She says nothing, just stares at a hair on Clint’s shirt, numb. “Do you hear me, Natasha?!”

Slowly her eyes meet his. “Do you hear me?” His tone level now.

“Yeah,” weakly she nods.

-

This was the last base that could possibly be hiding you. The last little flickering ember of hope. With cell after cell empty or filled with rotting bodies, that ember was fading quickly.

Natasha thought when the inevitable realization that you were gone hit her she’d go mad. Screaming, tearing her hair, the full Linda Blair. Instead, she feels… nothing. Not the calm detachment she’s used to but a nothingness so deep she wonders if it’s actually what death feels like.

“Natasha,” Sam’s voice crackles in her comm, “one floor down from you, south side. We think we got her.”

Tingles creep up her spine, feeling electric against her scalp. She won’t believe it. Won’t hope. All Sam and Steve had to go off of were old photos… Who knew what they’d done to you… Natasha ran faster than she ever had in her entire life. The slightest chance that you could be alive was all it took to drive her forward.

Honey. That’s all she wanted to hear in your rich accent. “Please,” she breathes out to anything that would hear her as she sprints down the hall toward where the guys waited. “Please give me her.”

“Where!?” They’re standing before a glass wall and part as if on cue.

The figure slumped on the floor beyond the glass isn’t the woman she remembers. There are bones where once ample curves had been, supple skin replaced with dull bruised flesh, thick hair traded for thin scraggly locks, pink lips for cracked grey things. Honestly, she couldn’t even tell if the person in there was alive.

A small sound ekes from Natasha’s mouth before her hand can fly to cover it. Why had she dared to hope?

Clint’s warm hand settles on her back. She doesn’t know when he arrived or how long she’s been staring. “That’s her, Nat…” He says it like she really doesn’t know like you aren’t a part of her very soul. She’d know you… she’d always know you. But were you-

Your head rolls on your shoulders, a groan sounding through unseen speakers. Natasha’s breath stops. -Alive.

“Hey,” your voice is cracked, low, and hoarse but still… it really is you. Clint grabs her hand tight. “How about you pieces of shit bring me some water?”

Still very you. Unable to wait a second longer she rushes to the door. Desperately she tugs at the handle, clearly locked.

“Rogers, a little help?!”

“Are you sure Nat? We don’t know if-”

“If. I know that if you don’t help me open this door I will break your super-powered body in ways you can’t even imagine.” Every word drips with conviction.

Steve holds up his hands in surrender. With a swift tug and a touch of effort, he pries the door open.

Your head rolls in the direction of the door, “About fuckin’ time. Was beginning to think y’all were just gonna-”

Eyes Natasha has missed for far too long fly wide open. Instead of the joy and love, she was hoping to see, terror floods your features.

“No,” your voice is barely a whisper. “God no please, no.” You bury your face in your knees, covering your ears with your hands, “I’ll do anything you want… don’t make me do this, not again, please. No.” Your body trembles, rocking back and forth.

Natasha doesn’t even hear Steve and Clint warn her to hold back as she kneels before you, tugging your hands from your head. Caution a long forgotten skill. This is you. You need her.

“Baby, it’s me. It’s ok. Look at me, feel-”

“Don’t, please don’t.” Your head shakes back and forth, “They lied, whatever they promised you is a lie. You won’t win, just go. Go. I can’t… I-”

“Y/N,” she tilts your chin up. Red rimmed, fearful eyes, gaze at her. “It’s me.”

“No. Leave, they’re gonna make me… just go. Go now. Tell ‘em I’ll do whatever it is, just leave… please… don’t make me do this…”

She shakes her head, “Do what? Baby, I-”

“Go!” You roar. Behind the word is something else. A force so strong it knocks the wind from Natasha’s chest. “Get out!”

She can’t breathe, her heart begins to trip over itself. Panic, terror, pain, all combine making her brain misfire in every direction. A low keening rises from you, with the sound the emotions become more and more pronounced. Natasha can’t even reach her concern for you anymore, there’s only this, this inescapable feeling of pure fear. Curling into a ball she tries to focus.

Slowly you rise, looking down at her. When her eyes meet yours she’s struck by how black they are, the pupils so huge they seem to take up more space than your irises ever did. They look… inhuman. For a second it quells the suffocating fear.

“Please…” Desperately Natasha reaches up for you, silently begging you to know her, all of her, in that way only you can. Instead, your hand slowly lowers, aimed for her head.

This is fine, Nat thinks, eyes closing. Strangely, she’s at peace with the thought that if she died here, by your hand, at least then you’d feel her, know she came for you even if she was too late.

The distinct crackling of electricity followed by a thud beside her meets her ears. Breath begins to fill her chest as her heart slows. Something happened to you… A new sense of panic breaks her from the stupor she’d fallen into.

You’re unconscious, one of Clint’s shock arrows stuck to your back. Vaguely, Natasha is aware of the shuffling feet near the door. Someone grabs her shoulders. Logically, she knows they’re helping her up but she isn’t operating on logic. Without thought, she blindly lunges at this faceless person. Flesh contacting flesh with an effective smack.  

Ignoring everything and everyone else she crawls to you ripping the arrow off your limp body tugging you into her arms. With every ounce of strength, she has she clutches your back to her chest. Your head lolls on her shoulder as she presses a kiss to your forehead.

“I’ve got you,” Natasha whispers against your skin. “I’ve got you. It’s ok. It’s gonna be ok. You’re gonna be ok, baby.” Tears burn the backs of her eyes, pricking like a thousand needles. She refuses to allow them to fall. Tears won’t help you.

“Nat?” Clint’s voice is level like he’s speaking to one of the kids. “Nat, we need to get her some help. Will you let us do that?”

Clarity dawns. Her eyes scan the room to find Steve rubbing his neck. It was Steve who she’d lashed out at. “St… Steve?”

“I’m ok,” his smile is weak but he’s sincere. “Will you let me carry her?”

The thought of letting you go… but Clint was right. Your skin feels clammy, your breath shallow… scarily so… Natasha nods and he cautiously approaches, not wanting another fist to the throat.

Steve lifts you from her arms like you weigh nothing. Despite his bulk, he’s so gentle, ensuring you’re supported properly. Clint and Sam flank her, making sure she’s steady on her feet before trekking to the jet.

Immediately Sam begins hooking you up to oxygen and a saline drip. He says something about your oxygen levels and heart rate that doesn’t sink in. All Natasha can do is stare at you, horrified and amazed in equal measure that somehow you’re back with her. Somehow after all these years, she has you again.

-

“This isn’t fucking necessary, Tony!” Natasha shakes with rage.

“I think all present parties would disagree.”

Her eyes desperately scan the room for backup but even Clint averts his gaze.

“I don’t know if you blacked out back there but all of us damn near flipped shit when your girl in there did. She’s a bomb and we have no idea what the trip wire is. Until we know exactly what’s going on we need to control the environment she’s in.” Tony collapses in a chair, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“I don’t like it either, Nat but he’s right. We have to play it safe. For her sake as much as ours.” Clint looks so tired…

She shakes her head, “She… she won’t know she’s safe… that-” I’m here… Natasha can’t finish the statement though because she knows that’s part of the point. Seeing her had set you off.

“We’re gonna have to keep her partially sedated for at least a few days anyway, Nat.” Sam offers a half smile when she glares at him. “The withdraws from whatever they had her on will be rough, it’d be cruel to keep her fully conscious while she goes through the first part of them. She’ll come to slowly so the change doesn’t shock her.”

She knows Sam’s right. They’d had you on some sick mix of heroin and other chemicals for longer than they knew. It was the perfect combination to keep you desperate and pliable without harming your mind, leaving you an effective weapon for them.

But when she looks at your unconscious form through the view screen she just wants to hold you. Truly it feels as though her whole body is aching to wrap around yours. She wants to be the first thing you see when you wake up but… they took that from you both.

Sam wraps an arm around her shoulders, “I’ll make sure she knows she’s safe, Natasha. Promise.”

-

Post Snap

The rain had slowed but that only meant that cold could settle in. That kind of cold that makes your insides ache.

You can’t bring yourself to move, all you can do is focus on the pain and what it reminded you of…

November 2014

Your whole body throbbed with pain. A deep, aching, hungry kind of pain. It was familiar but you weren’t certain of it until your stomach clenched.

Without ceremony, you lean over the side of the bed and heave, nothing but bile burning up your dry throat.

After you refused to kill the woman they sent you should have known they’d do this. It never took very long for withdrawal to set in and the last time it had been enough to break you… They’d send her in soon enough… And Natasha’s face or not you were fairly certain you’d end her life if it meant stopping the pain.

Anyway, it wasn’t Natasha… Hell, sometimes you wondered if there ever was a Natasha. Maybe your brain, in hopes of surviving, crafted some fantasy to comfort you…

You heave again, abdominal muscles screaming from the effort. “Fuck,” you groan, wiping your cracked lips on your arm.

It’s not until you collapse back into the bed that you realize you’re in a different cell, and this bed… well, it’s possibly the most comfortable thing you’ve felt in years. Interesting tactic for them to take.

The door opens cautiously. A dry laugh tumbles from you. Even if you wanted to attack whoever was on the other side you don’t have it in you. It’s strange though, caution isn’t usually their style.

Slowly a man with a kind smile comes into focus, a tray in his hands. He’s not in uniform, just plain street clothes. Your head cocks to the side, trying to put these pieces in place.

“Hey, thought you may want something on your stomach. Better than heaving up nothing.”

You say nothing, eyes narrowing. Focus, Y/N. Read him, come on. But your brain isn’t in the mood to obey you.

As he approaches, instinctively you curl into yourself. Thoughts of other men, other cells, flash rapidly through your mind setting your heart to thundering. The familiar feeling of your chest splitting open begins but you fight to maintain control. If they thought you attacked him…

The man clears his throat shaking his head a bit as if to fend off a fly. “I’m not going to hurt you.” Slowly he sets the tray of food at the end of the bed. “You can tell if I’m lying right?”

He extends a hand just close enough for you to reach. For a long moment, you just stare at it, confused, trying to work out what the trap here is. It’s always something there’s always something. But maybe if you played along they’d give you want you needed to make the aching stop. Fuck, you just want it to stop.

Hesitantly you let your fingers graze the back of his hand.

Quick as though you touched a hot stove you withdraw. Bad idea. You couldn’t control it. So many images tumble in your mind. Faces, names, voices. A small sound comes from you as your hands grasp your head, trying to keep it from flying apart.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Are you ok? Can you open your eyes?” Sam, his name was Sam, is kneeling beside the bed looking up at you with earnest eyes.

Slowly things come back into focus and you know one thing for certain. He’s not lying to you. This Sam, whoever he may be, does want to help you. You don’t trust him, he could be being used, but it’s been a long time since someone was near you that didn’t mean you harm.

“I… it was too much at once…” Your body relaxes a touch, “Thank you, Sam.”

There’s that familiar flash of surprise before he responds, “Wanna tell me your name?”

“Y/N.”

“Good to meet you,” his smile is true. “Think you can eat something?” Blankly you stare at the trey, the thought of eating making your abdomen clench. “If you can eat a bit I can give you something that’ll help with the pain.”

Saltine crackers had never looked so appealing and horrifying all at once. Taking a deep breath you scoot down the bed and pick one up with a shaky hand.

The salt explodes on your tongue as though it’s the best thing you’ve ever tasted. Your stomach growls demanding more. In an instant you’re reaching for another cracker.

“Take it slow,” Sam smiles brightly as he pulls up a chair close enough to be personable but not uncomfortable. “If you’re feeling hungry that’s a good sign. Means your system is getting closer to being clear.”

“What’d they have me on?” You ask before taking a deep drink of water.

A muscle in his jaw ticks, “It was a cocktail. An addictive one.”

You didn’t really need the details, nor did you want them in all honesty. Knowing wouldn’t change anything. One thing you did want to know…

“Where am I?”

Sam holds your gaze, clearly weighing his response carefully. “Somewhere safe.”

“That’s a shit answer.” Your hands shake as you sip the oversized mug of broth. It’s hot and stings your chapped lips a bit but you nearly groan from the taste.

“True.” He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “You’re in New York. With people who want to help you. Can that be enough for now?” His sincerity hits you, a warm wave of emotion, unlike anything you’ve felt in so long.

You’re too tired to fight, “For now.” The half-empty mug clatters to the trey as it slips from your hands. Mindlessly you itch at your arms, every nerve feels like it’s tingling, almost enough to drive you crazy.

Sam stands, crossing the room. Your eyes follow him as he places his thumb on a pad causing a small door to open. “This will help that.” He holds up a vile and syringe.

Fear chills your over-warm body instantly. However, your eyes light on your arms, scratch marks red and irritated, and despite the food, everything still hurts… badly. Plus, who gave a fuck what you wanted. He may be kind but you were still in a cell, still a prisoner.

Habitually you hold your arms out. With a gentle touch, he grips your wrist, locating a non-ruined vein and injects whatever new concoction these helpful people have for you.

As it works its way through your blood the aching does quiet some, your nerves stop their incessant tingling. A deep sigh escapes you. Whatever it was it felt good. You’re not sure if it’s the drugs, the food, or just soul-deep exhaustion but your eyes flutter and you sway.

“Here,” Sam grips your shoulders, guiding you to the plush pillows. Suddenly you see a flash from him.

“I’m sorry,” you whisper.

“For what?” Through your half-lidded eyes, you see his confused expression and feel just a touch of fear.

“Your friend. Riley. I’m sorry.”

He looks away, clearing his throat. “Thanks.” When he looks back his eyes are glassy, “Get some rest, Y/N. I’ll check back in on you soon.”

-

It had been six… no seven days… They blurred together into one purgatorial haze.

Natasha hadn’t left the observation room off your cell the entire time. Sleeping on a cot next to the viewscreen just to feel closer to you… when she slept that was. But after Sam had assured her that his exchange with you earlier was an excellent sign she couldn’t seem to keep her eyes open. That little touch of relief better than any sleeping pill.

She wasn’t sure how long she’d been out but a sudden cry instantly pulls her from sleep.

You’re still in the bed, very much unconscious, but… You’re thrashing, so much so it’s hard to tell if you’re not seizing. The only thing convincing her that you’re in the grips of a terrible dream is the cries of terror filling her ears. Then…

“Natasha!” Your desperation and pain feel like a bullet straight through her heart. A red light flashes in the observation room, the others are coming, she has to get in there now before anyone can stop her.

“Natasha! Don’t!”Clint’s voice barely hits her ears as the door to your cell slams shut behind her.

For a moment she can’t breathe or move. The air of your cell is thick, swamp-like with your emotions. Taking a deep breath she gathers herself.

With effort, she focuses on every good memory she has of you, every happy moment, every safe tender night and… love. She pulls that core emotion around her like a cloak hoping it will somehow reach you.

“Get out of there, Natasha!” Tony’s voice is harsh through the speaker. She ignores him, almost to you.

A scream accompanied with a wave of abject terror and images of a lab almost send her to her knees. She doesn’t falter though, tears stream down her cheeks, her body shakes but still, she moves toward your thrashing form.

Slowly she lowers herself onto the edge of the bed, laying on her side. Her arms wrap around you, pinning your arms. Her legs do the same around yours holding you steady.

“No!” You screech as your head flings back. She barely avoids the hit.

She’s not feeling the fear you’re pumping out though, not anymore. All she feels is relief. It springs from some part of her she had forgotten about. You’re in her arms, the ache she’s felt for years quieting.

“Y/N, you’re dreaming baby.”

“Natasha, no!” You sob as an image of her own bloody body slams into her. She just holds you tighter.

“That’s not me. I’m right here. I’ve got you, Y/N.” She feels a shift in your body. “Do you hear me? Focus on my voice baby… Come back to me, Y/N… please.”

You gasp, “N… Natasha…”

“That’s right.” You’re no longer thrashing so she slides her hands to grasp yours. “It’s me.” Natasha keeps her mind focused on all those good memories that got her from the door to the bed. Focused on the love she feels for you.

A thick sob bubbles from you causing your torso to shake. You try to turn in her arms and panic grips her, remembering your reaction in the base.

“Keep your eyes closed ok? Can you do that for me?”

You nod and she helps you turn to face her. You’re so gaunt, so clearly battered, but somehow still so fucking beautiful to her.

A trembling hand releases hers rising to find her face. Natasha hears the speaker click, but her free hand shoots up, signaling them to shut up. Your fingers lay gently on her cheekbone, from there they slowly trace her features stopping on her lips.

In a movement as natural to the both of you as breathing you pull one another even closer, your lips fitting together perfectly.

Natasha nearly cries out with joy at that long forgotten warm feeling of love that always flowed form you when your lips met hers. It was thick and golden like-

“Honey.”

@mywinterwolf @disagreetoagree​ @breezy1415 @peachthatdrinkslemonade​ @5aftermidnight @jeromethepsycho @marvel-randomness @daniellajocelyn @katecolleen​ @yanginginthere​ @wonderlandmind4 @piensa-bonito @for-the-love-of-the-fandom @lesbian-girls-wayhaught @siriuslycloudy2 @alphalesbianwolf @sxph-t @marvelb00kwolf​ @itsqueenofchains @demonlover87​ @firegoblet01​

[gothamdetected-a]

TBH MEME ›› accepting! INCOMING COMMS: // anon​​  ››  1, 5, 6, 16

what would prevent you from following someone?

the most common reason is actually that i can’t find a rules and about page, because i don’t like to follow people without knowing what they expect from me as a partner and/or i don’t know the character/canon-divergences well enough to follow without an about section. second up is people not cutting their posts. sometimes it’s because i can’t see a way to make our muses mesh well / think of a way to rp together. very very rarely it’s because i see something on the blog that makes me go ruh roh, but that’s suuuuper rare. 

do you prefer interacting with male muses or female more? why?

i really don’t mind and have 0 preference. honestly i’ll write with anyone and like to think im fairly unbiased when it comes to interacting with muses.

do you prefer writing male muses or female more? why?

i don’t necessarily prefer writing male muses, but i have a history of writing them. most of my favourite characters are male. i have a complex relationship with femininity for various reasons, and slap on top of that me being an AFAB non-binary person and i struggle at writing female muses. i never feel like im doing them justice. i find it a lot easier to write them outside of rp, but in here i worry that i would be accused of giving them “manly” traits or trying to play to strong woman who dont need no man tropes. so i write them far more rarely than males.

if you could change one thing about rp on tumblr, what would it be? why?

it’s absolutely wishful thinking but i honestly want everyone to get on better and for there to be less drama. obviously that’s not always possible and some individuals are extremely problematic, but in my happy go lucky fantasy world we all get along. even if we’re not necessarily friends with someone on here, we still respect them and treat them kindly. if i could wave a magic wand and make everyone worry less and be happier, to promote a more positive community, i absolutely would. 

[incarnateirony]

For those still floundering a bit on pillowfort,

I’ll post this here since not everyone has navigation there down yet and/or some people are still waiting for keys.

So I got an ask, like, where to find people on pillowfort. Somebody made this list of content creators abroad, which, as we’re not supposed to edit it beyond adding our info, I made a draft copy to sort the pillowfort contacts out so you don’t miss following anybody. Mine is set to view-only, because please don’t abandon editing the main form and split it over this. If you want to add your contact info, go to the main form, but here’s about 70 contacts to start with, give or take.

That, however, is mostly people from the PB server. The Destiel group has nearly 200 people in it. The SPN group has about 300 people in it. And then there’s an infinite amount of smaller communities.

So while I’m here, let me link you to a few communities that are topical. You can’t see the lists perse but you can see who posts in them and follow/engage. Also, once you follow a community, posts posted TO the community show up in your feed.

Supernatural: show, cast, and ship positive - 310 members currently. 

Destiel: Take a wild guess what the comm is for - 195 members currently.

OhSam has 76 members. It uh... it’s modded by people I don’t get along with due to their behavior elsewhere but it is decently sized. It’s mostly hurt/comfort fics for Sam. Take of that what you will.

ProfoundNet: The PB/Destiel server related, I dunno how much they upkeep it at a glance but everybody seems to stay in touch.There’s like 60-odd people in it right now.

SupernaturalArtsAndFics - 69 members. All ships, all cast, don’t be a dick is the rule there.

DeanWinchesterIsBisexual has 55 members.

And lo, though I hate promoting it I will be fair, there’s The_Wincest_Community with 48 members and just “Wincest” with 49.

There’s an SPN NSFW Art group too - 43 members.

Castiel fangroup - 41 members.

SPN Multishippers group - 38 members

SPN Reverse bang - 37 members

SPN Fanart, 36 members

Destiel Fan Favorites Survey Community - 33 members. It’s sort of a Destiel fic rec group.

After here, groups keep getting smaller and are all like... 20 people or less, I’m stopping centralized listing at the 30-mark. And right now, small groups still have a chance to boom once more people migrate across. But this is where you can start to find MOST of your people at.

Disclaimer: I’m just going with the biggest groups I’ve seen. I have not personally investigated all of these. I avoid Wincest with a 30 foot pole, I don’t do fics or fanart generally, and so on. So I can’t say I’m necessarily endorsing all of these as awesome places or whatever, but it’s a place to START on a new platform. And before I get a concern troll asking why I linked a Wincest group, whether we like it or not, Wincest is here. It’s not the biggest ship, it’s not the cleanest ship, it’s not the - whatever. I don’t agree with it, most of my followers don’t agree with it, but lots of fans are multishippers, are scattered abroad, and frankly... now is not the time to be separated bitching over our differences.

You can search the community feature for smaller, related communities. Hell, there’s a Drowley community with 7 members right now. A Sabriel with 19, a Sastiel with 13. Etc.Of the RPFs I’ve seen, Cockles seems to have the biggest following right now at 26. There’s a bunch of fractal J2 hat groups that have like 3-10 people, one has like 20. Any time I try to search J2M I’m getting a nightmare deluge of unrelated results and freeze when I click to page 2 to find something relevant. The Team Free Will group looks young with 10.

Actor based groups seem... smaller. There’s a J2 Fanart group, but not one for them independently. 17 members. There’s a misha group called Mishapocalypse with 19. So that’s still needing to get built up over there all-around.

For what it’s worth, I tried to paste a few together:

Right now, Supernatural Meta only has 4 members. Given I just made my groups before my life exploded and haven’t done much with it. But I figured it’d be useful to have a place everyone could pile in together to be found/browsed before we start bickering over petty differences. I mean, meta is its own kind of content, and there’s fic and art ones everywhere. I haven’t pounded out fine rules yet, I wanted everyone to get settled before actually talking out rules that everyone can agree with because I’m not looking for just one kind of meta.

Annnnd I just put together a “The Brothers - Sam and Dean” place to enjoy non-shippy talk, content and conversation about the brothers. That means no Wincest, and frankly, it does mean no Destiel. If you check the rules in the post, it’s obviously not that I hate Destiel, it’s just that DeanCas have a certain power to them that take over conversations. I will allow lesser rarepairs that find it impossible to get a home to discuss their stuff, to be mentioned there, if topical to a central Sam and Dean theme. If Dean & Cas comes up, the bar is to not tilt heavily into ship-ended conversation. It’s supposed to focus on the brothers first, without completely negating their external relationships. As the rules say “Keep it an &, not a /”. You can post about both, or either brother in there. Given, it has 2 members right now, because... again, my life exploded right when I was making it. So. If that appeals to you, feel free to give a follow to that comm. I’m also considering adding a section of the rules that allows J2 content to be posted even if not show-canon type, so people know there’s a safe place to post J2 stuff out of that didn’t come from tinhat land, with a note that if the content is found crossposted to those types of blogs by the creator/OP, it will be removed from the comm.

Also, don’t be shy about following me on Pillowfort, I reblog a lot of helpful how-tos on how to maximize your PF experience.

[beyondconfessor]

Visceral

[7/20]

Rating: Mature

Warnings: N/A

Pairing: Sara Lance/Alex Danvers

Summary: Maybe, this could be enough

N.B.: Also posted on AO3

J’onn had come to a decision about the CIA chatter after thinking over it for the next few days: extra precautions. Alex and Winn were going to go up and act as backup recon to the crew. They were going to go ahead of time and neither the CIA nor the DEO agents were to be made aware (not including J’onn and Agent Merkel, who were both some of the highest ranking superiors Alex had in the DEO, anyway, so it made sense). 

Alex had been anxious about the idea. Though she loved a good field mission, the idea that it was away from her recruits and Supergirl made her feel antsy about it. Still, when J’onn brought her in for the briefing with Merkel, she realised it wasn’t because J’onn had asked her to be there. It was because of Merkel.

“You and I don’t do missions often. But you have a good head, you take and give orders well and you don’t lose it when the mission goes sideways. If I want anyone on my back, it’s you.”

“Thank you, Ma’am.”

Merkel didn’t offer any smile. Her face was perpetually frown, eyes crinkled as if she was always critically evaluation what was in front of her. “Don’t let it go to your head,” was all she said, before leaving. Alex didn’t have a clue what she meant by that. From a compliment? 

Going away, and given only a few days notice, meant she had to handover her lesson plans to Vasquez, who would be taking over for the two weeks. Vasquez had met her recruits a few times, as representative of the Comms crew, but she had also once been Alex’s right hand and it felt right to give it to her. After-all, they’d both been field agents together before Vasquez separated to communications. 

Before Vasquez took over entirely, she did the one thing she’d put off and met Nilo face-to-face. At this stage, it was obvious she’d singled him out. It took time to go over the meaning of Sara’s words and place that in the frame of her own work. On one hand, she could mark his records, on the other, that would tarnish his ability if she was able to change that. She couldn’t unmark his records once it was there.

Eventually, she came to a decision as she sat in the small training room, facing Nilo across a table as the others worked on a few exercises she left them with. 

“So,” she began, looking over the notes she drafted for the one-on-one. “What do you think I should be saying?”

Nilo’s mouth parted, before he shook his head and shrugged, his arms folding in front of him. “You tell me.”

Alex raised her eyebrow and waited.

“Ma’am,” he added, though it came out strained. She waited a few more moments and then watched as facade crumbled. “Look, I thought I did well, but then you act as if I kicked your dog on that day. And then you avoid me for a day, couldn’t even meet my eyes! You even spoke to Saunders days ago and she abandoned us to go on and do her own thing. I expected that you were going to kick her out. We all did after that stunt, but you kept her and now I get shafted with this shit.”

Alex drew in a breath, abandoning her notes. “Do you know what the point of the mission was?” she asked. Nilo shrugged. “The point was that I gave you a mission to get a dossier with overwhelming numbers. If you chose to go in on level two, everyone from level three would have come at your back. The same was meant to happen when you skipped two to go to three. If you hadn’t done level one correctly, it would have been more numbers on your six. Do you want to know what happened instead?”

Nilo blinked, surprised. “So, it was a suicide mission. That’s why the information was wrong.”

“Yes,” Alex said. “For two reasons. One, to teach you that you’re going to go in blind more often than not, and two, to teach you to retreat. But you didn’t retreat, you risked your team for out-dated intel.”

“That was just a prop though, eh?”

“I said to treat the entire mission as if it was real, that included what was in the dossier. You think that I couldn’t have spent the five needed minutes to typed up some pseudo current intel instead of manually printing pages of intel, that I had to get signed off on by people way above your authority, to place in?” A lot of the information wasn’t really meant for the general public, but neither was it hidden from them anymore. 

“You…” he trailed off, the words sticking in his throat. “How was I supposed to know that?”

“Tell me this, then,” Alex said. “Say it was real intel. Say it was intel that was important. Would you ask your team to risk their lives, knowing that if they get caught, you won’t go back for them?” 

“Maybe!” he said, “is that why we’re here. National security from the unknown.”

“Okay,” she shrugged, “What if I lead you. If told you that if you go in there with me, and you fall down, I will leave you there to be handed over to the enemy. Would you follow me through hell?”

An argument rose and died on his face as his shoulders slackened. “Maybe,” he tried, “I mean, if it’s worth it.”

“Then you’re not doing it for me, are you?” She leant forward across the table. “Look at me. Nilo, you and all those recruits. If I take you in, I will get you out if there’s even the single chance you’ll make it, I do that because I need you to know that I would never ask anything more of you or my team that I would not ask of myself.”

“I didn’t see her,” he said. “I mean, maybe, but not really.”

That dishonestly gave way to a rage inside of Alex. “You want to know what I saw? Because I must have been over that footage at least ten time, and I don’t see how you could have missed Warren. She’d be shot in the leg and you left her there so you could run out with the dossier. You left Saunders behind, by herself to die because she disobeyed an order. If that simulation had been real, Saunders probably was the difference between a slaughter and most of your team getting out alive. She was twice the person you were in that simulation, that’s why she’s still here.”

Nilo’s face crumbled before he turned away as a flush of red struck through him. Although the expression was slowly shifting to fury, Alex knew him well enough to know that there was more to it. Rather than poke at him for a response, she looked away from him, so she could just see his expression from the corner of her eyes, and waited.

After a few moments, he cleared his voice and said, “So…I failed the mission.” And then, as he drew in a breath, he incredulously added, “But…I got what you asked for. I did what you said to do.”

“You didn’t check the information, you didn’t verify that it was the correct one, you left your team behind and you risked all their lives,” she began before softening her voice. “You began so well and then I think you got carried away with trying to win. Look, Nilo, I want you to become a leader. I think you’d be great, but if you are to become a C.O. you need to start thinking about your team, they will live and die for you because they need to believe that you’ll get them out, if you can’t do that, they will turn on you so fast that you’ll either die, or worse, become one of the people we keep in the DEO basement locked up. That’s the big take-away from this.”

Nilo nodded, though he’d lost the swagger and pride he’d walked in with. “I don’t think I can,” he said as he lifted his head to meet her eyes. “I’m not cut out ––“

“Yes you are,” Alex affirmed. “This is your first year in training, you have years before being a C.O. will even be on the table and you have a lot of work to do. But if you listen to your team, if you work with them, if you actually meet them as their equal and lead, then you’ll be great. Stop looking out for just yourself. You’re not alone any more.”

Nilo drew in a deep breath and nodded, holding eye contact this time, and Alex, for the first time, gave him a smile as she rose to her feet. “You’ve got this.”

“Okay.” He said, and then offered her a small smile in return. “Alright,” he said again, standing. “Thanks Agent Danvers. You’re all right.”

“Hell yeah I am.”

Alex made sure that he went back into the training room, before leaving her class in the hands of Vasquez to run over finer points of the mission with J’onn and Winn. She was confident in Agent Vasquez training technique. She’d be softer than herself, but not so much that the class forgot that she was their commanding officer.

Heading up another floor, she headed to the labs where J’onn and Winn were going over what gear to take for the mission.

“There you are,” Winn said as she came to stand beside him, just as he closed one of the larger surveillance gear packs. Alex gave a short, don’t even try it expressions before looking to J’onn.

“What do the others think we’re up to?” 

“Recon mission in Florida, half-forced holiday,” J’onn explained. “Merkel’s aware that you’ll be up with them, but the less that people know, the better. When’s the soonest that you’re able to leave?”

“Tonight,” Alex said. She could leave sooner, but night gave Winn enough time to get things ready, as well as allow her inform Kara that she’ll be out of town for a bit. Though she knew her sister could handle herself, it was comforting to know that while she was going through a volatile tile, J’onn and James would keep an eye on her.

“I can…also do tonight,” Winn said. “I’ll need to run by and make J- some friends aware. Feed my fish and all that. How long will we be gone?” 

“As long as it takes,” J’onn said. “The auction is expected to happen in six days, but Merkel runs the shots. She’ll keep you both up to date.” Alex nodded, she expected it to take a week, probably even two, which meant little contact back home while she sorted that out.

“So….are we flying up?” Winn asked.

“Not unless you can get weapons and surveillance gear on a domestic flight,” J’onn said, his voice laced with just enough irony to drive the point.

“No, I just thought…” and Winn trailed off, probably realising that if they took one of the DEO planes then they wouldn’t be “undercover” for very long. “Right, got it. We’re taking one of the SUV’s, aren’t we?”

“The silver one, so you will both blend in.”

Winn frowned, looking between J’onn and Alex. “Seriously?” he asked. Alex nodded, the SUV blended right in with traffic. There was always a dozen on the road at any given time and They’ll look like a couple going on holidays up north. No one would be one the wiser. 

“Good, you two get sorted and meet back by six tonight to head out.”

Alex nodded, a quick, “Yes sir,” as response, just as Win opened his mouth, looking as though there was a dozen questions at the tip of his tongue. Alex shared a brief look with J’onn before heading out, leaving him to handle Winn. There were time when Alex was vividly aware that Winn hadn’t gone through the same rigorous training program that the other agents had. Though he was just as much a part of the team than anyone else, and she wouldn’t have it any other way, Winn’s ease at talking back and questioning C.O.’s direct orders was often something that rubbed at her.

Probably because Alex had been in trouble more than a few times for talking back or disobeying. She’d learnt when and where to hold her tongue, whereas Winn didn’t have to learn the necessity of that self discipline.

Leaving the lab, Alex tied off a few loose threads at work, before checking out weapons and a science kit from the labs. She also took one of the kevlar vests, moving them all to the silver SUV they’d be taking on mission. 

It was early afternoon when she went home and packed her bags, taking clothes that were less Alex Danvers, and more Kara. Pastels and cardigans, no one would look at her and think that she was anyone on a mission to prevent a black market auction from happening. Bag packed with most necessities, Alex changed out of her work clothes and into jeans and a t-shirt so she didn’t appear to conspicuous as she went to visit her sister.

Before she dropped in on CatCo Media, she picked up a bag of cinnamon doughnuts and coffees to take to her sister, feeling guilty at the idea of leaving her. She wasn’t Kara’s keeper, and technically she probably needed more protected than Supergirl, given the lack of bulletproof-ness, but it still felt like her responsibility. 

One day they would both be ninety, sitting in rocking chairs on a porch and Alex would still feel the need to be Kara’s protector. 

Down in the CatCo lobby, she spoke the receptionist staff who lead her into the elevator, advising her of what floor Kara’s office was on. It wasn’t the first time she’d been at CatCo, but she wasn’t sure that she’d been there under good terms before.

She ran into James on her way to Kara’s desk, who shot her a confused look. “Day off?” he asked.

“Sort of,” she answered. “I’m sure Winn will get you up to speed,” she explained briefly. At Kara’s desk, she found her sister furiously talking to Lena Luthor –– a woman, who despite Alex’s original beliefs, had proven to be worthy of Kara’s friendship. As Kara spoke, Lena appeared utterly involved in the conversation, though she said little, allowing Kara to babble on, her hands move in conversation, adjusting her glasses at the end of her point before Lena said something that begun Kara off a new tangent again.

“–– said that statistics of human weapon violence far outweighs Alien. I mean, if you look at Australia, Japan, even Canada, there’s this…” and Kara trailed off, catching sight of Alex. “What are you doing here?” she asked, before seemingly to realise how rude that sounded. “Not that it’s not good to see you, just that I didn’t expect to see you here. Is Mum okay?”

“Mum’s fine. I just came to say that I’m going away for a few days and if you could collect mail for me for a for that time?”

Kara’s mouth parted to say something, before remembering that talking openly about Alex’s work wasn’t something she should be doing in a public space, not that Lena nor James weren’t aware of her work.

“Ms Danvers,” Lena said warmly. “It’s good to see you.”

“You too,” Alex returned before turning to her sister. “I brought doughnuts and coffee,” she said in way of offering, handing the bag over. Her sister leapt on the doughnuts, scoffing one in her face before delightedly announcing that they were still warm.

“How long will you be gone for?”

“Two weeks, probably.”

“Probably,” Kara repeated. “Alex…”

“Two weeks, maybe even less,” she said again, filling her voice with optimism. “Winn’s coming with me, but you’ll still have James, Lena and J’onn,” she said, giving Kara a smile.

“And Sam,” Lena added.

“Yes, and Sam,” she agreed. 

“I know, I just…can’t I come?”

“No, this is a work thing,” Alex said. If Supergirl started appearing up in the North, saving kittens from trees, it wouldn’t take long before anyone from the DEO began to realise that Alex was trailing around as back-up to her nearly everywhere. No, she had to do it with just her and Winn. Old school. “You’ll hardly notice that I’m gone.”

“What about our pizza and pot-sticker night?” Kara asked.

“I’m sure Lena would be an appropriate substitute. Right?” she asked, looking at the woman, whose smile blossomed at the mention of it.

“Of course. We can make a night of it, or keep it as relaxed as you would like,” she said, the hint of an Irish accent seeping through as it always seemed to when she grew excited around Kara. Alex was someone who probably didn’t count herself as having the greatest “gay-dar”, but both her and Maggie had come to same conclusion that Lena was crushing hard on Kara. Whether romantically or out of awestruck admiration was another thing entirely, but there was certainly something starstruck in the way that Lena looked at her.

“Thanks Lena,” Kara said, and there was a warmth in her voice that eased a worry Alex didn’t realise she had until then. Whatever Kara was working on had certainly eased her soul. That was something, at least.

“Do you have my keys?” she asked.

“Yep. I’ll grab your mail, and use up anything in your fridge that’ll expire.”

“And leave my clothes on my hangers after what you did to my last dress,” she warned, remembering all to well at finding the broken zipper in her closet as Kara pretended it didn’t happen before immediately admitting to it the moment Alex had spoken to her about it.

“I’ll do my best,” Kara said. “But I got the zipper fixed, at least.”

Alex kept her mouth shit, biting back a comment about how the new zipper had never been the same since. She had to get someone else to zip it up, or struggle with a mixture of tools and yoga positions to zip it up. For all that effort, she just bought a new dress instead.

And then promptly had ripped that at Barry and Iris’ wedding. 

God, she didn’t want to think about that. She didn’t have time to think about that or anyone related to that wedding party.

“Alright,” she said, giving her sister a quick hug. “Thank you. I will see you in two weeks.  J’onn will keep you up to date.”

“Wait, you’re going on radio silence?” Kara asked.

Alex pulled back and pressed her lips shut, even though Lena was doing a very good job at pretending to be interested in talking to James about the upcoming launch. “It’s important,” was all she said. “I’ll explain it to you when I get back.”

“Okay,” Kara agreed, the double syllable coming out tight with a scrunch of Kara’s brow. “But the moment you get back, you come and visit me.”

“Sure thing Mum,” Alex teased, giving her sister another hug. She gave James and Lena a briefer goodbye, before heading back over to Winn’s apartment.

His apartment was two suburbs over, in a good area, nicer than the one Alex was in. There, Winn was ready with his big, navy blue suitcase as if they were planning a holiday. 

“Got enough things?” she asked.

“Yep, everything I’ll need,” he nodded, perhaps unaware of the sarcasm in her voice. “Is that all you’re taking?” he asked, looking at her bag. It was a decent size bag that she had slung over her shoulder. Inside of it were the clothes and toiletries she’d need for a mission that she wouldn’t be able to get upstate. All of her weapons and the few other things she might need were all packed away in the car that J’onn was bringing over. She reiterated as much to Winn who then asked if she’d brought any materials like books or magazine to read while they’d be driving, as he had brought an audiobook for the car.

Alex gave him a strange look, but before she could explain that there was no way she would be listening to his audiobook, J’onn arrived.

“Here,” he said, handing over the keys to Alex with two burner phones, and two sets of wallets that contained enough cash, as well as an emergency-only credit card, to keep them out of trouble. It was a small mission and yet Winn was still amazed at the effort that had to be taken to get them ready.

If Alex was being honest, undercover missions always amazed her.

“Merkel will be calling you around seven o’clock each night with any updates you might need to know. Given the nature of the situation, I would advice against contacting her unless you need to.” Alex nodded. 

“Man, I can’t believe we’re going on a mission together. Crazy right?” Winn asked.

Alex gave him a look, finding herself only partially annoyed and somewhat endeared by Winn’s enthusiasm for the situation.

“Look after him,” J’onn said and Alex smiled as Winn began to protest that he would be fine, before slowly admitting that given previous circumstances, he wasn’t entirely against having Alex there.

With no more than a single nod and a short goodbye, Alex and Winn went to the SUV and placed their bags away before getting into the car, Alex moved behind the wheel, with Winn calling ‘DJ’ as they headed out of National City, towards the North. It was to be a long trip –– two-day trip, not including stops –– to get to where they needed to be. 

“We should get a motel in Haven’s Point,” Winn said as he looked through the paper map, despite the car’s GPS system that Alex use to key in the destination. 

“We’ll just sleep in the car,” Alex said. “It’ll be faster.”

“That’s a lot of driving, Alex. Don’t you want to stop and shower, sleep in a bed to just break it up.”

“We’ll do that when we arrive. We need to get there before the CIA and DEO get into position.”

“We already know when and where there going to be, and J’onn already told us everything he knew.”

Alex kept quiet, her mouth a thin line. She had a gut instinct that this mission was going to go south for the DEO. It wasn’t a kept secret that the only reason the CIA had decided to work with them this time was because they knew that the DEO’s field agents had a more intricate understanding of alien languages than they could.  With Kara often being the modern-day rosetta stone, they were able to be leagues beyond the CIA in terms of code breaking extraterrestrial information. It left the department, who had previously considered themselves the leading experts in xenology, appearing partially incompetent. 

Not to mention that the DEO was the reason that they knew where the auction was happening in the first place. It would make sense that the CIA may be resentful for needing to work with them. Still, it seemed ridiculous to risk the partnership because of their pride. 

“Can you go over exactly what you heard on the chatter?”

“Again?” Winn asked. “Haven’t you heard it a hundred times?”

“Again,” she said. 

With a sigh, Winn repeated the conversation again, verbatim, if with an unnecessary pizzaz in the voice. It was the same thing, over and over. Alex had listened to the recorded conversation herself, and had drawn the same conclusion that Winn had. The CIA were planning to double cross them and, that there was something unsaid. Something important that they were missing, though there seemed to be no additional clues in the speech that she could decipher. 

As they travelled deep into the night, Alex mind wound over and over the conversation, trying to remember the exact words and tone used by the agents. There had to be something there to uncover. Some puzzle piece that would bring it all together.

She knew the mechanics of how Winn had caught the chatter, but were the CIA that easy to slip up. One wrong conversation held over one wrong radio chatter? It seemed far too simple — and yet, Alex of all people knew that agencies had been caught over less.

Drawing out an exhale, she drummed her fingers across the steering wheel and found her mind replaying the conversation again, anyway, Beside her, Winn had fallen asleep. When Alex had refused to listen to his audiobook, he’d placed his headphones on and drifted on to sleep listening to some podcast. This had of course been after he had first nattered about car games and then nagged her about finding a motel, but eventually had given up on both points. Maybe, in a few hundred more miles, Alex would think about pulling the car over and folding the backseats down. Maybe.

They could still get plenty of sleep by taking turns driving.

The first switch happened after they stopped to fill up the car. They were seven hours closer to the destination and over halfway through the night. As she paid for gas, she bought Winn an energy drink and a packet of chips. They’d be a good way away from a decent meal for a while and she didn’t trust roadside hot food after the time she got food poisoning when she’d been sixteen.

“Do you mind if I…?” he asked, pointing to the auxiliary chord.

Alex nodded, allowing him to finally, plug in his device and continue his audiobook. With her own pillow, Alex curled up in the seat and closed her eyes as the cottonwool of her thoughts  became nothing more than a soft buzz.

She opened her eyes to the Waverider, but it wasn’t within Sara’s room. Rather, she found herself in the strange circular room that looked to have been stolen from a museum exhibition. Bits and pieces scattered among cabinets and walls. Knick-knacks were placed randomly over a large table that laid in the middle of the room, on display but in no sensical order. Behind the table, in a tall, cushioned chair,  Sara’s head lifted, eyes pulling open before she began to push out of the chair with no apparent strained muscles or awkwardness. 

“Doesn’t look like a comfortable place to sleep,” Alex said.

‘I’m only napping,” Sara shrugged. “Things to see, people to do and all that.”

Alex nodded, looking around the space at all the objects taken from time, the maps and paintings that spoke of another era. It didn’t feel like a space created by Sara, but rather one that had been collected and held by someone who had been trying to hold onto mementoes from their travels.

“Alex,” Sara’s voice pulled. “Look, about the other night.”

Alex froze at the very mention of the previous embarrassment. She’d been doing a very good job over the last day in pretending it hadn’t happened. “It’s okay,” she said, looking to face Sara. “I made a mistake. I misread ––“

“You didn’t misread anything.”

Alex paused, waiting then for what was probably going to be a it’s not you, it’s me conversation that she’d rather not have at all.

“It’s because I’m seeing someone,” Sara said, laying it out. “I know that this might just be some dumb dream, but at the same time, I think we both know that there’s something more to it than just that, no matter what Gideon says.”

Alex swallowed in the pause while Sara waited for her response. The woman looked somewhere between defensive and struggling to be open. Her lips were pursed and there was tension around her eyes, but Alex could see in her posture that she was trying to be fair to her.

“So you’re seeing someone else,” Alex prompted, “and…” That would mean you were cheating on them, she omitted. “How recent is it?”

“After the cabin, but before the other night.” Sara explained, looking away. “It’s recent-recent, and we haven’t spoken about… but I don’t want to screw it up. And…” she trailed off and met Alex’s eyes. “I mean, it wasn’t fair to you either. You deserved to know about Ava.” 

“Ava,” Alex echoed aloud, before adding, “Well, she-she sounds nice. I mean, she must be…special, to…” and then Alex trailed off, feeling the hand she used to emphasis special with fall flat by her side. “I’m glad you found someone,” she finished off.

“Thank…you?” Sara questioned with a strange look and a laugh. 

It was a laughable thing, and Alex knew that Sara was teasing her but all she could manage in return was a weak smile. Her heart gave a squeeze. It didn’t feel like a standard rejection, not really, it felt…like when she was in college and she found out her study group had a regular Thursday night at the bar that she’d never been invited to. A part of her felt angry and wanted to immediately dislike whoever Ava was, but Alex was old enough to know that that wasn’t fair to whomever the woman was, and Sara was only trying to reduce the amount of hurt and pain between them all. But the anger didn’t hush inside of her, no matter the reason in her thoughts.

“Did you tell her about me?” Alex asked.

“Yes and no,” Sara said. “Not about the dreams.”

“But about the wedding,” Alex nodded, feeling the anger creep into her voice, before she pushed it down. It wasn’t like she’d been telling anyone about her dreams. “What did you mean before, when you said ‘despite what Gideon says’?” 

Sara blinked, before folding her arms against her chest. “Gideon can monitor our dreams. She’s a bit of a voyeur sometimes. Anyway, after the first two nights I asked if she could monitor my dreams, but, of course, I was stranded in time for a few days, so that didn’t work out. When I finally did come back, Gideon said that she couldn’t see any evidence of the dreams I spoke of. The dreams with you.”

“The ones where you came to my apartment?”

Sara nodded. “Don’t exist, apparently. Which makes me think I’m crazy, however, Gideon pointed out that I’ve been having some other dreams that make more sense than this, whatever this is but I don’t recall having them. So, unless…”

“Something else is going on. Such as you’re brain is still showing signs of activity, but a part of you is…here.”

“Bingo.”

“Otherwise, this doesn’t exist.” Alex paused, chewing over the idea to work out what could cause that. For the body to still be there, while the mind wandered. It made little sense. “Do you really think that…in some way you’re still dreaming, but a part of you is astral projecting across another universe?”

Sara shrugged. “It’s not a completely crazy idea.”

“None of that makes sense,” Alex pointed out. “None of this makes sense anyway.”

“Look, astral projection is honestly the least of my worries at this point,” Sara shrugged, tossing her a quick smile. There were a hundred different points in science that Alex wanted to pull out as examples in how astral projection couldn’t be an option, but Sara’s eased smile, the way she looked as if none of that really mattered, was a seductive way of thought.

Alex frowned. “This is real, isn’t it? In some way, it has to be…real.”

“I guess it depends on your definition of real.” Sara tried, and then shook her head. “I don’t know, I don’t know if you are real and I have no way of proving it if I want to so I’ll just take it at face value at this point until we can work out a reason why it isn’t.”

“We could always…visit each other. Somewhere?” Alex suggested.

“You come to my universe and I drag my team to meet you?” Sara asked. “Look, I want this to be real, it’ll make things a lot less complicated if it is,” before she added, “or more complicated. But I can’t drag my team away from what we’re doing at the moment, it’s too big.”

Sara hadn’t intended to be rude, Alex knew that, but the blunt way she said it still stung against her pride. 

“I wasn’t suggesting that for now,” she said, hearing the defence in her words as loudly as if she had crossed her arms against her chest. “I wouldn’t be able to do anything for the next few weeks anyway. I’m nowhere near Kara or the cross-universe device. I just…look, I’m a scientist first. Something strange happens, apart of me will always want to rationalise it.”

“And if it’s magic?”

“There’s no such thing,” Alex said. 

Sara looked taken aback, as if she couldn’t quite read her before she laughed. “You’re kidding right. All this crap and you draw the line at magic?”

“There’s no such thing,” she affirmed. “Look if I take my gun back to ancient civilisation, they’ll think it’s magic for shooting down something from afar, but that’s just because they don’t understand it. Magic is just a word for the unknown, to simply it rather than search for answer.”

“Well, I can’t say much to that,” Sara responded and a quiet fell between them, before she turned away, going over to the corner to pour two glasses of scotch into what looked like a very nice set of crystal glasses. 

As the sound of pouring liquid filled the empty space in their conversation became almost unbearable, Sara asked, “so…you’re out of the office, I take it?”

“Recon,” Alex nodded. “So, nothing too exciting yet. Just back-up.”

“Huh. Aliens?”

“Sort of, more…CIA.”

“Oh…kay,” Sara turned around, handing one of the glasses over, before she leant against a table filled with an assortment of maps and star-charts. “Aren’t you guys branched off from the CIA…or Homeland or whatever?”

Alex shoulders eased as the conversation moved to somewhere more comfortable. Emotionally speaking. “No, we’re branched off from the military, directly.”

“I thought you guys were like a CIA, FBI crossover team for outer space.”

Alex gave a short laugh. “It’d be so much easier if we were. The DEO was originally constructed as a secret defence subsection against extraterrestrial life. Our funding was structured around the dependency to prevent alien attacks once the government realised they were taking an interest in Earth. But since the President’s an alien, now, we can focus less on being a military defence force, and more for being sort of like a government agency, protecting Earth and minimising threats before they become bigger problems, solving alien murders. Neutralising terrorist attacks with the use of Alien weapons. All that fun.”

“Like ARGUS.” Sara nodded, though there was a look in her eye as she took a sip of whiskey. “Did I hear you say that the American president is an alien?” She questioned. “People must love that.”

“They don’t know. She’s an American citizen, been here since she was young, it gets iffy around her birth but I liked her more than the other guy, and she does a lot of good.”

She watched Sara nod, it wasn’t quite flabbergasted, but the look was certainly one that had a stunned element to it as she drew the drink to her lips. “Strange,” she whispered against the glass.

“It’s not that strange. J’onn’s an alien too, after-all.”

“He’s your boss, right? Isn’t that like some conflict of interest?”

Yes, definitely, Alex thought. But she shrugged instead. After all, J’onn was the best man for the job, capable of just as much, if not more empathic than Kara with his telepathic ability. And yet, his history of war and the lessons learnt of the cost of complacent in the face of evil made him the most pragmatic choice of Alien Defence. 

“So, where are you now, then? On a plane?”

“No, driving. Well, Winn’s driving, I’m clearly not at this moment, otherwise there would be much, much bigger problems at hand.” Despite the terrible attempt at humour, Sara smiled at her. It lit up her whole face and Alex could see as plainly as the freckles on her skin, that Sara Lance thought she was a dork.

“Well, at least you’re getting sleep,” she said.

“For the moment. What about you, this can’t be a good place to sleep.”

Sara shook her head, a small laugh at something. In response Alex took a sip of her own whiskey and looked around the room again, eyeing the memorabilia to find a new start to the suddenly dropped conversation. It definitely wasn’t at all awkward as it happened for the second time in what seemed to be as many minutes. And Alex definitely wasn’t tossing between if she should she wake up or if should she say something about the previously mentioned partner –– Ava –– or was that weird? 

It was probably weird. Maybe she should…

“Have you ever met anyone else here, in this…plane of existence?” Sara asked.

“No, have you?” 

“Not here. These dreams seemed to be centred entirely on meeting you,” Sara said, using her index finger to point at Alex, flirtation lilting her voice. “But who knows. You could be Mallus all along. Which would have been…weird considering the other night. But what isn’t weird in my life at the moment.”

“Who’s Mallus?”

Sara scrunched up her nose. “Just some big bad,” she said. “Don’t worry about it. Legends are on it.” Alex found herself letting out short exhale as she came face-to-face with a classic trademarked Sara smile. “Then maybe we can find some moment to meet up.”

Unrelenting, she thought to herself, and yet she felt that Sara knew how to speak without some sardonic charm or flirt. It was almost like a brittle facade from something else it wasn’t an insecurity but a defence, nonetheless. 

“Are you analysing me?”

“Always.”

“Well…don’t.”

“Well don’t you do it either,” Alex retorted with as much maturity as Sara had.

“Fine, I’ll just take my psychoanalysing back to the nap I was happening.”

Alex blinked, and then without a beat asked, “Is Mallus the reason you’re sleeping in a chair and not in the comfort of your bed?”

Sara sobered as she answered, “Partially. Didn’t really mean to be sleeping. I was working,” Sara said, gesturing to what Alex had been taken as general clutter, to be an assortment of books and highlighted notes. Bending over the table to flick through the information Alex noted the different groups of handwritings, probably from the research-orientated members of the team. There was scrawled handwriting in black ink, a tidy block writing in blue and red, and one she took to be, due to the violet pen being used to make coded shorthand, to be Sara’s. The shorthand had probably been out of habit, the code its self was intentional.

“You should get sleep, in a real bed while it’s nearby,” she said, looking up from the notes.

“Thanks Mum, but I’ve slept rough before. And not just because I slept in a mountain,” Sara pointed out before Alex could say it. 

“No, you used to go camping,” she drolly responded.

Sara’s jaw dropped with a soft gasp as she shook her head. Despite the scowl on her lips, Alex could see Sara’s eyes sparkling as she said, “Wow. I won’t share anything with you if you keep saying it back to me in that tone.”

“What tone?” Alex asked with mock-surprise. “I’m just stating facts as they were laid out to me before.”

“Mmhmm, sure. I am a former assassin I’ll have you know. One who doesn’t like to be mocked by cross-universe travellers.”

“And I’m an agent of the DEO,” Alex responded. “Trained in interrogation as well as defensive manoeuvres against would-be assassins.”

Sara’s mouth was attempting to remain a straight line but quirked in amusement giving a soft flicker to Alex’s belly before that twisted like a sudden knife had struck her. 

The flirtation and joking was fun, fun enough that Alex found her heart beating hard as she looked at Sara and remembered that she had a girlfriend. That she wasn’t available. That Sara and her now had to share dreamscape and pretend that it wasn’t at least a little bit awkward that they had been an almost, a once-was. 

She also had to remember that Sara wasn’t real.

Something must have visibly shown across her face as the amusement in Sara’s face died away, giving to a soft frown as she began fiddling with her drink whilst leaning against the table in the centre of the room that had a mess of maps, her eyes moving to look anyway but at Alex. Perhaps she realised too.

“So recon?” Sara asked to shuffle the conversation along.

“Mhmm,” Alex responded. “Got the big guns.”

“Is that so? Bet they couldn’t beat Cisco’s brain-child weapons.”

Alex gave a false head nod. “I don’t know, it is Alien technology. Cisco’s good, but he’s not a thousand years ahead of us in science, Alien-tech good. Even Winn is impressed.”

“I don’t know Winn well enough to know what that means, but I feel like alien technology is definitely cheating.”

“Well, I’ve always cheated at cards, so…”

“Now that is evil. The very sanctity of cards…” and then Sara smiled at her and Alex though, maybe…maybe this could be real, and they could be friends. She could forget about the other night, forget about the kisses and the wedding night and the way Sara’s hands ran over her skin and how Alex hadn’t thought about Maggie in so long.

She could forget all of that, and just smile and enjoy this moment. 

Because it was enough. 

Maybe, it could be enough. 

[paulbogaards]

I’m looking to hire a Publicist

ACTUAL JOB DESCRIPTION (not the one you will find posted on PRH):

The Executive Vice President, Director of Publicity and Media Relations for the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group (@paulbogaards) is seeking a Publicist to dazzle the industry and world with their work and brio and warm good humor providing day-to-day support and counseling for authors (a lot of counseling) in a blistering-paced, internal and external facing (internal = editors = suspicious, external = agents = sometimes mean though they will describe their behavior as outcome directed), detail-oriented (seat 2A not 12A), data-driven (blah blah blah) environment working with dying legacy media professionals, social media pioneers, brand ambassadors (FML), booksellers (❤️), and other half-crazed publishing desperados.

The ideal candidate for this position will have had previous experience working as a magician. There is no finer point to make. As a publicist, you need to make magic happen. Magic. Every fucking day. Come equipped with a rabbit and a top hat and a goddamn wand and get ready to wave it every Wednesday afternoon at approximately 4:00 PM. You will be given books to work on that have no possibility whatsoever of becoming bestsellers, and yet, the operating expectation is that all of them will list. Authors expect that outcome. Agents expect that outcome. Editors expect that outcome. Publishers expect that outcome. It’s as if they’re all smoking the same green-blonde hallucinogenic.

The job is a grind. No one is capable of doing it for very long. The hours, the demands, the pressure, the weight of expectation, the dissonance between acquisitions and the marketplace, all of these things cause enormous stress on publicists. Think about this: the executive director has been doing it for thirty plus years. He has become a hollow shell of the man he once was as a result.

“Every day is a beat down.”

“I know.”

“Editors. Agents. Authors. Journalists. All of them are a fucking menace.”

“Tell me about it.”

“They look at us like we are, I don’t know what.”

“They look at us like we are fucking waterboys. That’s how they look at us.”

“That’s exactly right. We’re the fucking waterboys.”

You could be that person -- one of the waterboys (or gals). You are young and full of magic and convinced that book publishing is not decline but instead enjoying a renaissance. You look at Amazon with wide-eyed awe and innocence. You will step into the job thinking of the difference you are able to exact on behalf of writers everywhere. You, my friend, are a naif.

This is what will actually happen: You will be staring at your mobile in a crosswalk, answering a complaint from an author about their seat assignment on a United flight, and then be hit by an Uber. That is the most succinct description of book publishing in the 21st century that the director can think of.

All candidates for the position will undergo Anna’s box test. This is a test where you are invited in for an interview with the director, and there is a box on the seat you are supposed to sit in. If you just stare at the box, waiting for the director to move it, you are summarily dismissed and immediately disqualified as a candidate. If you pick up the box and place it somewhere else, you have passed the first test.

You will hear whispers about publishing projects where the company is rumored to have paid considerable sums of money for a book and then a call will come in from a reporter asking questions about said project and you will immediately route it to the director. The director has experience answering questions about the amount of money the company overpaid (5 million, 10 million, 20 million) and why the book is worth that much (it’s not) and how many copies will it take to earn out (it won’t) in what will become an infinite loop of inquiry and denial and the reporter, determined, will end up substantiating the figure through a disgruntled publisher who was knocked out on the last best bid (Karp) and then come back to you and ask you to confirm the figure and you will again deny it and they will wind up reporting the number anyway (though reporters these days don’t press in the same rough way that, say, Streitfeld and Kirkpatrick used to, and that is OK with the director, he is accepting of the new school press corps, though he generally prefers old school guys, and will always answer the phone when Keith Kelly calls, because he is the embodiment of OLD FUCKING SCHOOL, a guy who will tease out any story he can about Jann Wenner).

As a publicist, editors will complain to you about the New York Times (what the fuck are they doing over there?) and then become agitated and disgruntled and dismayed and threatening when one of their books is overlooked by that outlet (they reviewed a fucking book from New Directions instead of my book?) suggesting to you that action is essential (we need to do something) and you will reassure them, say of course, of course, I’ll get right on it, but really, what are you going to do? You will come to understand, very quickly, that happiness is elusive in our industry and joy is fleeting. Mostly, everyone suspects each other of book espionage.

Generally, the Publicist can expect career advancement provided they do their job without committing actionable offenses on social media or installing a joy button under the desk in their office or threatening to kill someone because they wrote a bad review (editors do this all the time. First, they threaten you. Then they threaten the BRE. Then they write a drunken email to the reviewer). Do not be led by their bad example.

This is a good position to learn about the business, as good as any, the director basically runs a farm team for the industry, his first hire now runs comms for one of the Big Five and he will smile when he sees a story in the paper with her Chairman touting the benefits of open floor plans (“there was just this energy and buzz and sense of excitement of collaborative human endeavor that really was kind of exhilarating”) and he is proud for a moment recognizing that his first hire has mastered the PR skill of ventriloquism (she has also mastered adapting the infinite loop of denial into the infinite loop of positivity.) Others have gone on to assume posts of similar stature at The New Yorker (where Remnick still won’t give anyone a credit line including Tommy Orange whose book THERE THERE was just excerpted in the magazine and everyone is supposed to be thrilled about that and the mention of said work on the contributor page but I’m like FUCK THAT who looks at the contributor page give me a book shot in the well of the magazine but of course there is no justice in much of this work, people want what they want when they want it and for selfish ends, the labors of the writer remain forgotten, the working men and women who are the backbone of our industry are frequently an afterthought, and THAT SEEMS TO ME A GREAT PUBLISHING INJUSTICE), and the Brooklyn Cyclones (that was Dave, he was a very handsome, I went to his wedding in New Jersey, there was a Venetian dessert table with fountains, it was like something out of the Sopranos), and Jennifer, who married someone rich and Jewish (that is kind of like going to work for The New Yorker) and gave birth to four children and will sometimes send me emails asking what the fuck happened to her life:

“What the fuck happened to my life?”

“Husband. Money. Kids.”

“FUCK.” Jennifer had (has) a foul mouth. I loved (love) that about her.

“Is there still work for me in publishing?”

“No. Business is dying. Stick with your plan. Keep the husband.”

Occasionally, you will find the director weeping at his desk and you will wonder if he is suffering from some kind of nervous breakdown and then you will observe an open email on his computer and see that it is simply a note of gratitude from a colleague - warmly written and sincere - and you will come to understand that they appear so infrequently that when they do the only way he knows how to respond is by weeping and you will feel a little sad for him. As a publicist, you will live a life of sadness and defeat. And you will learn to cry.

The director is looking for someone to step into his role because he is tired of weeping. The job has exacted a toll. He has become impatient.  His responses to queries are no longer soft and nuanced. This week, for example, an editor from T Magazine sent him an email asking if Cormac McCarthy would cooperate for a cover profile and he responded “Not possible” and the editor wrote back asking “As in not possible for October because the book is so far out, or...unlikely to be possible at any time?” and the director wrote back “EVER” in all caps and then he sat back is his chair and thought “who are these fucking dragoons and when will they ever learn?”

Another reporter suggested to the director that he was giving him incorrect guidance, when, in fact, the director answered the reporter’s question with the information at hand. The director is fifty-seven and has made a living being honest with reporters and went back and forth with the reporter about his track.

“He kept asking me the same fucking question.”

“That’s how they work.”

“I said to him, ‘We’re in the weeds here. You’re suggesting the football moved. I’m telling you it was a completion. End of story.’”

You will attend meetings where nothing happens. That is another succinct description of book publishing in the 21st century.

You will be working with seasoned publishing veterans who spend most of their day worrying about Amazon and Barnes & Noble and the death of media.

You will read books before they become books and often find yourself thinking about transitioning out of the industry.

One page proposals will arrive with breathy notes from editors. An auction will follow. The director will be asked to create a marketing and publicity summary in advance of the auction.

“Based on what?”

“The proposal.”

“The proposal is one page.”

“Just make something up.”

So the director will make something up. You will help him. This will happen simultaneously across the industry. The people who make up the best things often acquire the book. So if you are good at making things up, possibly this is a job for you.

You will send emails, respond to emails, and stuff books in jiffy bags. If you are good at stuffing things in jiffy bags, possibly this is a job for you.

People will ask you questions. People from inside and outside the company. The desk you occupy is a kind of information station and you will need to learn the answers to so many questions (the director knows the answers to these questions but doesn’t have the patience to respond anymore and indeed it has become dangerous to let any questions through to him because he will often say something wrong on purpose, or say something inappropriate, there was even an instance when a reader called inquiring about Carl Hiaasen’s book tour and he asked her out on a date and Who the fuck does that?)

Candidates for this position need to be confident and made of steel and in possession of magic. Possibly you are that person. Please apply by clicking on the link here.

Thank you.

PS: “I’ll need a spacious south facing hotel room in a 4 star property, and OMG it cannot be The Muse, I mean how could you book anyone in that hotel?, it’s full of escorts and German tourists, the rooms are tiny, mine felt like a cell, and given my crippling anxiety about touring I’m lucky to be alive after that stay, you need to respect the work I’m doing on the road, and that was not a respectful hotel booking, and being in United boarding group two on my flight to New York, well, that was not respectful either, but I don’t want to get too far afield here, I just need you to listen to me and hew to my requests, do that and we will have a successful tour, my comfort and safety remain a priority, take it seriously, double pane windows on a high floor are essential, but not too high, away from the elevators and adjacent to a fire stairway, and quiet, the room has to be quiet, with fine linens and towels and four down pillows (one for between my legs, two for my head, and one to snuggle with), a king bed, a duvet, fresh flowers, white peonies if they are in season, a tub and a shower and 24-hour room service, these are the basics, the last tour almost killed me and that simply cannot happen this time out…”

#publishing #books #publicrelations

[daynamartinez22]

Weekly SEO Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 313

Click on the video above to watch Episode 312 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://semanticmastery.com/humpday.

Announcement

We’re live. Hello, Adam. We’re live. See if I can make my speakers work. Can somebody say something? Hello? Hello, hello? Know You started Hump Day hangout with broken headphones apparently. All right, well, Hey everybody, welcome to Hump Day Hangouts. We’re gonna get into the questions after we have a couple of quick announcements. And I pull up the page I’m looking for Anyways, I’m gonna defer for a minute introduce everyone, and then we will have those announcements. So Chris, hopefully, your headphones are working today. How are you doing? Yeah. Working excellent. Here’s two good complaints. Nice to hear. So yeah, yeah. Sounds good. Marco. How about you, the man looks like, you know, pretty good weather, I guess, man.

It’s as if I lived in the tropics. And I don’t know why. Who knew? Right. But yeah.

Last Wednesday, we had six straight days of rain man. And it was like on NBC on Sunday.

I can’t, we just had so much rain. But then Sunday. It was a beautiful Monday, the last couple of days back to rainy season weather. Beautiful morning, kind of overcast and rainy afternoons. But I won’t complain. And I’m living the life I want to live because I’m a powerful. One thing.

I was told yesterday that my biggest fan is Jennifer. She’s been listening to me for like three and a half years. She’s 12 years old. So she’s been listening to me since she was eight. Oh, man. So I don’t know I feel about that. I’m thinking, do I want my son listening to me? anyway?

Anyway, it’s awesome, too. She’s the one I think I mentioned her. She’s the one who wants to charge 1500 an hour. She doesn’t know what she’s gonna charge it for. But she’s gonna charge 1500 bucks an hour. She’s awesome. You just keep doing the do you do? And you’re gonna get there. So that’s awesome. Shout out to Jennifer man.

Outstanding. Well, I was going to move on. But real quick before we do that, you know, I realized we introduce ourselves and say how things are going but for those of you who are watching today, how are things going for you? If you feel like it, you can join the weather talk and let us know how the weather is but just say hi, let us know you’re watching, and say hello I know we have some people who are watching you know absorb and that’s great. But also just drop a note and say hello. So Hernan How about you, man? How are you doing? Doing great man. I’ve been in back to back calls for the past couple of days for some reason. So when I’m back to back calls, nothing gets done. So what I’m trying to do is to block out Mondays and Thursdays with no calls, no meetings, nothing so you know, I can actually get some stuff done. And you know, there has been that’s been helping quite a lot. So because you know, otherwise. Tuesday I had something like 14 calls or something like that. And then today was kind of similar. So anyway, trying to do that. We’ll see how that goes. Yeah, man. Good on you. I know you’re more outgoing. In that sense than I am. I hit my limit around four or five. I think on Tuesdays I have five and like diam tapped out man at the end of that day. Like I fell asleep on the couch at like eight o'clock at night just exhausted from talking to people so good. Anya Bradley, how about you, man?

Good, super busy. Uh, give me a little teaser as to what I’ve been doing. Were you in the process, we’ve talked about this updating syndication Academy. We’re gonna relaunch that with all brand new updates and everything. And so you know, IFTTT has the like for free accounts to only be able to create three apps Well, we have a pro account, which allows us to create an unlimited amount of apps and you can actually publish them as a pro account to and but it’s been so long since I’ve had to go in and set up all those apps or the applets. Because, you know, we’ve had builders doing it for us now for years. And I have to go in and recreate all of the applets. And to be honest, there, it’s slight like the interface is a little bit different when you create applets to publish as a on a pro account. It’s like a different format and everything else. And so I’ve had to go through and I’ve spent the entire day like trial and error during applets. And now I remember why I trained virtual assistants to do it for me because I fucking hate is so tedious. But it’s really cool because now we have share URLs that we’ll be able to, you know, provide for syndication Academy as well as to our builders to where they can just go in and set up the applets very easily by just swapping out their RSS feed URLs for example. So they don’t have to do any coding at all. It’s it’s really, really cool and I’m glad that this is getting done. Hopefully, I’ll have it done by this evening. And syndication Academy will be updating and

And relaunching that shortly, can’t give me an exact date on that. But we’ve got some updates and surprises prior to the launch of that, that we’re going to be bringing to you guys in the coming weeks. So definitely, and to jump on the upcoming but can’t say too much train, we definitely got some good stuff cooked up for Black Friday weekend, which is coming up after Thanksgiving in the US if you’re familiar with that, if you’re not, that’s going to be on November 27, we’re going to have some great stuff going around the 26, maybe 27th for the few days. So if you’re not on the Semantic Mastery email list, and you’re watching this head over to semantic mastery sign up right there. If you’re on the watch page, right now you just scroll down and hop on over there. By the way, sorry, sorry to interrupt you, but as usual, which we try to over-deliver as much as possible. So Black Friday is not gonna be it’s not going to be different, both for Semantic Mastery and MGYB. We tried to you know, give you guys mind-blowing deals, and this is not going to be any different. So stay tuned, because it’s going to be pretty awesome. I mentioned to you guys yesterday during our corporate meeting, and during, I mentioned it to buy other people in the mini mastermind meeting how just using our stuff, just using it the way that it’s supposed to be used, I took a class 1200 percent gain in earnings in four months. 1200 percent. That’s not a mistake, that’s not a bluff. That’s not a beat that that’s a hockey stick. So over that period, it looks boom. So and like I was telling you, let’s say it dips, I don’t know 10 20% before, before bouncing back up. Well, we’re still at around 900%. So in a month, you know, cuz it’ll do the dance, it’ll still do it over a million links, plus Presley’s bras, all of these other things that we do, post post, the way that we do them, everything, everything, all of the training and everything that we make available in Semantic Mastery, everything that’s going to be available on Black Friday at a discount with you guys know, I hate giving shit away. I hate it. I hate it. But I mean it is what it is we’ve gotten our people used to it. I’m not going to oppose it, although I am. But dude, and I was telling my guys, I said What the fuck is keeping all of you from just going and just burying the competition’s bury them, just bury them. Just to do it, it’s systematic. If you need more, you just apply more, and you charge the client for it doesn’t come out of your pocket, you’re supposed to offer the services and mark it up so that you benefit. And then when you hit that hockey stick effect, you got to have a clause. Of course, I don’t have contracts, what I have is a recording that we talked about, we’ll look at it in we looked at it after 90 days, and then at the six month period, we’ll look at it again, just because of that, because when that hockey stick takes effect, I want to be able to charge for that I don’t want to charge what I’m charging, I want to be able to charge that 1200 percent markup that is gaining business that he’s getting, I want to benefit from that tool. So you got to get all of this working but the way to do it is follow the system the systems in place have been in place for years.

And why are you people not benefiting from the fucking system? That’s what upsets me most that’s what upset that we’ve been offering this for years and years and years your way to go and make that money to rank him back. And you don’t do it. Why?

I’m done. rant over. Alright, well before we get into the questions, I popped a couple of links on the page and just wanted to follow up on that. So if you’re new to Semantic Mastery and MGYB first of all thanks for watching. We’ve got some free information is where you should usually start out right so head over to the SEO shield calm right the SEO shield comm you can find out about you know shielding your site you hear us talk about SEO shields this other stuff, it can be a lot we get it so go to the SEO shield com find out about how you’ll never have to worry about algorithm updates ever again. All right now if you’re an agency owner or a consultant and you want to get more clients, you want to grow your revenue you want to scale your team so that should be three yeses for most people. If you want to find out more about that head over 2xyouragency.com. And last but certainly not least for those of you who do already have agencies you’ve got a digital marketing business maybe you’ve got a physical business that you’re wanting to grow online, then you want to join us in the mastermind at semantic mastermind dot semantic mastery comm not going to bore you to death with reading neither about what that’s all about. You can find out but it’s about having an experienced community. I think all of us here are part of other communities as well as our

Our own mastermind, and we know and recognize the role that plays in growing our businesses and expanding our horizons. And last, but certainly not least of all, I guess it’s a second class today is head over to mg y b.co. That’s the done for you services. You hear us talking about the SEO shield, syndication networks, link building press releases, all that sort of good stuff. You can get it all done for you at mg y b.co. Alright, so with that said, you guys, unless there’s anything else we need to cover, let’s get into it.

Sweet.

Wayne says Chris, move your camera down. Unless you’re naked. What are you hiding? Dude?

Rolling naked.

Internet Marketing lifestyle, man. It’s right. Oh, man.

Instant Indexing By RankMath

All right, we got your screen. Bradley. Did you get it? Yeah. All right. Cool. So it looks like Alana has the first question. I know. She says she sorted it out already as the follow-up, but I’ll just briefly read it and answer it. Hi, guys. You mentioned using rankmath for indexing last week, just wondering if you know if you can use that feature. Meaning like, can you only use that? Yeah. Because and this is what I was mentioning. It’s called the instant indexing for Google. Right? That’s the name of the plugin by rankmath. It’s an add on. So no, you don’t need to use install the rankmath plugin, which has like a ton of different modules and all that stuff. You don’t have to do that just install this separately on its own. That’s it. And again, it’s just this one feature that will connect your WordPress site. I mean, you have to go through the developer’s console and Google and set up the billing. And in the end, you have to turn on the instance or the Indexing API, download a JSON code, and then you upload that to the WordPress plugin settings. And that’s it. Once you’re done, then every time you update a post or page will automatically send it to the in through the Indexing API directly to Google. And there’s also in the Settings tab, there’s a little window where you can go in and insert links there and ask for Google to index them. So again, it’s a great little plugin. I’ve got this installed on multiple sites now. And I’ve been using it for about two weeks. And it’s a really, really cool plugin. Again, it doesn’t cost anything. You do have to pay for the credits, or API usage, but you get $300 in credits for free for the first year to use when you sign up or enable billing on your developer’s account. So your Google account Alright, so it’s unlikely that you’ll hit those limits. Go ahead please get rid of that. bloatware. Please? Yeah, no, I mean, that was the follow up she says she wants to stick with a lot of says wants to stick with iOS for everything else. And I was waiting for Margaret to say why SEO ultimate Jeffrey’s a friend Jeff. He’s a baby. We’re like this Semantic Mastery. And Jeffrey so let’s be crystal clear about this and transparent. We love Jeffrey, do we do we have an affiliate for SEO ultimate? If we don’t we should. We love Jeffrey. He’s active in his group. I meet with him. Every Wednesday, I’d be done on Is he a great guy, but he just does great stuff. And his teaching is beyond awesome. If you happen to catch the webinar that we did, with heavy-hitter where he came on to talk about entities. I mean, that was just that was worth the price of admission for the price of the first two months is what Jeffrey shared. I mean, and that one happened to be for fifth, I think it’s in the training area. But I can’t say enough about Jeffrey Smith and his training, SEO ultimate boot camp, the plugin just everything that he’s doing, man.

Yeah, totally agree. I finally got around to starting to implement the semantic tags. Yeah, through the SEO ultimate pro plugin. And that’s crazy powerful, too. And I waited all this time to really start implementing that. But I just started digging into that this week, actually. And it’s sick. It reminds me to share some wickedness about tags with you. Sure, in private.

Should The Google Site And The Custom Domain Both Remain Indexed In Google When Mapping?

Alright, so next is NYK says, When mapping your Google new site to a custom domain name, does both the Google new site and the new custom domain name site both remain indexed? And Google is the new Google Site eventually get indexed? Just wondering if there was a hack to get them both ranking highly. Now when you do custom domain mapping, I haven’t done it with the new sites. But I’m sure I’m not sure. But I assume it’s the same as when mapping a custom domain to the classic Google sites and that both sites can remain indexed however, the Google site on the sites google.com domain is canonicalized to the custom domain. So in other words, there’s a canonical and HTML header of the new Google site that links or that sets the canonical URL to the custom domain. So by Google’s own, you know, practices, that means the new Google Sites should eventually fall out of the index because it’s canonicalized to the custom domain. However, that gives you an opportunity to have a kind of like a ghost site out there that you can use for link building, still waking up to the Google Sites domain and it still pushes through to your custom domain. So there’s some pretty ninja stuff that you can do with that. But I typically don’t go through that trouble anymore. I did originally when we first started doing that, several years ago. But now I don’t even bother. I just, I just use the Google site on the sites google.com domain.

And in that, that’s it. But you can still canonicalize it as far as I know, more, or you don’t canonicalize it Google does that automatically. Yeah, Google it, Google Google, set up a custom domain. Yeah. But now, the great thing about it is that the G site has to stay live, until Google comes up with a true content management system, right? Because the CMS is the G site. Right? So until they come up with that that new g site is going to stay live. And there’s a lot of good stuff you can do to that. So it says since it’s a Google canonical to your website, I just think that through, and you’re going to see how awesome it is that Google keeps that Google site indexed, or it remains part of the index, although it. I don’t think it’s going to rank for Oh, testing. Yeah, this is nothing but a test. And see, because I stopped doing it. Also, I stopped creating the custom domains, and I’m just going with T sites because they carry so much power. Yeah. So little work. Yeah, same thing. And I was, I was doing custom domain mapping for IDX pages to subdomain ID mapping up and I got away from doing that too because it’s just like an extra step that’s really unnecessary. You know, you can get them just use the s3 bucket URL, and you’re good to go. So

How To Target Multiple Cities Within A County Within GMB Posts?

Alright, moving on. Next one is Josh. Josh says how do we target multiple cities within a county is that through GMB posts, Facebook ads, Google ads and PRs that have the city name included? Well, I mean, what is your when you say target multiple cities? Like in which way? Are you attempting to target them? Because you just listed SEO and paid traffic and content marketing and everything else? So if you’re talking about you know, when it comes to Google ads, or I can’t talk about Facebook ads, Hernan could, when it comes to Google ads, you just pay for whatever keywords you want to target. So whatever search queries, right, if you’re talking about search, PPC, obviously, there’s YouTube and display, and you can set geo-targeting for that. But I think your question is more really relevant to SEO. Right? And that’s if that’s what you’re asking, like, how do you target multiple cities within a county? Yeah, what I do is what, what I do for my clients, and for lead, gen assets are both GMB posts as well as posts optimized on the blog. If we even if there’s a money site associated with the project, which most of mine do, most of my projects do have that, then I have my blog or go out and create an optimized post targeting one specific keyword plus one location, a city within a county. So let’s say a county has 10 cities within it or, you know, municipalities, towns, unincorporated communities, whatever you want to call them. Let’s say there are 10 towns within the county. And what we do is we optimize post blog posts for a keyword plus town. Right. And so we might end up having 10 blog posts within that, within that one county because we’re targeting, you know, a keyword plus the location or town within that county. And we published a post for each one of those. And so and again, Josh, I’ve talked about this a lot in the mastermind I know you were in the mastermind briefly, but I don’t think you are anymore. But the way that I do silo for locations is I use tags talked about that many many times. In fact, if you go to semantic mastery comm slash process, again, semantic mastery comm slash process, I give a very high-level overview of how I create location-based silos using WordPress tags. And so again, that’s the way that I do it. It works really, really well. There are some real ninja things that you can do with tag pages, especially with the G sites and our SEO shield methodology. So that’s the way that I recommend doing it. But like I said, For paid traffic, it’s really about just bidding on your keywords or setting geo-targeting. As far as Google Ads goes, Hernan Can you comment on Facebook? Yeah, for sure. For sure. I first off, you know, totally agree with what you’re saying. I think that this is an SEO related question. If you wanted to do with multiple cities within a county, there’s a couple of options. The first one is to just collect zip codes, you can put a list of zipcodes and the location. So if you’re targeting, that will be number one, the other one will be just, you know, put the name of the city, you know, and then you can do and then sometimes what I do is to just drop a pin, right? So you can drop a pin and then and then, you know, you would do up to, you know, this city plus 10 miles or the city alone and all that. So those are the two-three ways that you can actually go ahead and do that via zip codes via the name of the city itself with the county and the drop in itself. Now, with that being said, once you’re when you’re doing this is a recommendation when you’re doing counties or zip codes, or, you know, you drop a pin and then you target a specific area, what I would suggest is that you don’t add like any interests on top of that or any like demographic targeting on top of that, the reason why is because usually, the Facebook algorithm works a little bit different than that than Google and, and when it comes to Facebook itself, the more you constrict your reach, the more you will, you will pay on a CPM basis, meaning you will pay more per click, you will pay more per per per thousand impressions. So what I would suggest is you drop in you select the zip code, or the or the city name, and even the county name. And you just leave Facebook to optimize and find out you know, leads, or whatever it is that you’re trying to do. If you’re running a lead gen campaign or a conversion campaign to a landing page, you should let Facebook do its thing. And that’s basically how I recommend you do it. So I’m not going to comment on this as far as ads because I always get people. I get asked people they’re the experts. I’m not, but I can’t tell you that if you’re what you’re targeting is map specific. In other words, when you go to the locations, it triggers a mapping and at times it triggers a knowledge panel or both. Then it’s GMB posts and press releases done. The local GMB pro Wait, does that mean that you have to trigger the map pack if it’s local specific, meaning that it triggers a map? It triggers a knowledge panel that triggers a map pack. And so I’m not going to go into details on how to do that. But yes, I mean, Bradley. Bradley is presently stacking, link building embeds all of that so that you can get that that GMB, GMB listing to pop in the three pack and if the city is far away from your centroid, meaning that your business is in one city and the next city maybe is 2025 miles away and you’re looking to trigger that, then you’re going to go with a GMB in that next city, and start doing polls and PR stacks and and and on and on. Now you can get past the proximity filter, you can force your way through. We teach that also in local GMB pro so we have the training.

Okay, so something else I want to mention very quickly if you’re going to be using Google Ads because since Hernan mentioned zip codes, it brought this to my brought this top of mind. But something that I’ve been doing a lot lately with, especially when you’re doing like display ads or YouTube, YouTube ads in Google ads, right. One of the things that I do for location targeting it works, excuse me for just for any type of ads when you’re doing geo-targeting, setting your geo-targeting locations to target within the ad campaign.

What I do know is I kind of just went through the process while the other guys were talking. But you know, you only have to do this once I just wanted to show you kind of what I did. But I go to zip dash codes.com on the left-hand sidebar, you can see where it says other free lookups I always put the county name and so I just use Fairfax County, Virginia is an example. So I just typed in Fairfax, then for the state, put VA, and then hit go, it’ll bring up the last page that you saw a minute ago, this one, then I just click through to the county and it shows all the different zip codes and the cities within that county and then their population too. But then again, there might be another tool, this just a tool I’ve been using for years, guys. So if there’s another tool, that’s great, you know, but I’m just showing you how I typically do it. So then I go through and I clean the data I sort by, you know population because a lot of these are like PO boxes or unique zip codes that have zero population. So they’re not something that you can physically target because they’re not really geographic in that like they don’t have like an area they’re just more like, you know, like a peel box, for example. So I just sort by population, and then I delete everything that has zero population. And what I’m left with now is I know that and again, I know this is probably small, but I’ll zoom in. So what I’m left with now are the city names or the town names within the county and all of the zip codes. Does that make sense? So then what I do is for targeting and I’ve opened up a notepad file is in Google Ads when you go to set your geo locations or your targeted locations, then what you do is you just add in that so for example, the first one would be Fairfax County, then it would be comma Virginia comma the United States, okay. So this is how you would add if you add locations in bulk. So when you go into your geo-targeting or add targeted locations, you can click on a little radio button that says Add locations in bulk. So I format all of this upfront. And then all I do is just copy and paste from my notepad file into there and click search, and then click target all but scroll through and eliminate anything that doesn’t quite line up the way that it’s supposed to. But typically, the way that I’ll do it is like Fairfax County would be the broadest of service areas, right? But then I want to go through and I want to literally target all of these city names within. And I’m going to show you guys how to get super granular on this just because it’s a, it works really, really well for Google ad targeting. And let me explain why. And then I’ll get back to this. When people are doing searches from mobile devices, especially in fact, if I were to go over to let’s go here for a minute and just click into Google and search. In fact, let me close that for a minute and open up a fresh version of this, I think it’s a really good question. That’s why I’m going through this guy. So just stand by for a minute.

See? Firefox is freaking out on me for some reason. All right. So if I go to Google, and I just do a quick search for let’s just say, Tree Service Fairfax VA, okay, we scroll down to the bottom down here, you’ll see that it’s showing my location-based upon my IP, now I’m on my desktop, and it’s showing Cole pepper, Virginia. But what I’ve noticed is oftentimes, like from a mobile device, or sometimes, if my IP changes, or whatever, or if I’m on my laptop, and I’m click connected through a Wi-Fi, sometimes it won’t be a city name, it’ll be an actual zip code that shows up down here. Does that make sense? And so by tart by adding, or specifically adding targeted locations from at the broadest level, based upon this example, county, right, so if you if I type in Fairfax County, Virginia as my targeted location in Google ads, that’s going to target any areas supposedly within that county. Right? Does that make sense? But then if I go in, and I add all the individual town names, as well as separate targeting locations, it adds a second layer of targeting on top and in Google Maps, or excuse me, Google ads, you’ll see that when you add the county makes that targeted county on the map, which is like a little map there, it’ll make it like a very light blue color showing that that’s targeted. But then if you add the town names, on top of that, for all the towns within that county as another additional targeting option, you’ll see that it adds a second layer on top of that initial county blue coloring, so it becomes a darker blue. And then if you go in and add all of the zip codes as well, it adds a third layer, so becomes even darker blue. And so what happens is, especially with people searching for mobile devices, depending on how Google determines their location, sometimes it will be by town, sometimes it will be by zip code, it gives it a much greater chance of your ads showing to them, because it’s relevant, and you’ve covered all of those bases, right? I don’t know if that makes sense to you guys or not. But that’s what I do is I just go through and I extract all the town names and all of the zip codes, just using zip dash codes, calm, I clean it, then I bring it into a notepad file like this, and I format it. So I would go actually copy all of these zip codes, all of these names, I would append comma Virginia, comma United States to each one of these items, then I would do anything, right. So if there are any duplicates, I would do that. And then I would copy this text file and paste it in as my targeted locations, and select target all. And what that does is again, it adds multiple layers of targeting, it’s very specific targeting, but it adds multiple layers. So that it, it almost ensures that your ad gets shown to people no matter how Google sees their location if that makes sense. All right. So that’s a very powerful pro tip there that works really well, especially when targeting people with mobile devices. And lastly, there’s one other thing that I found you can be even more granular. And that’s why I brought up Wikipedia, is if I go here to Wikipedia, go to Fairfax County, Virginia. And I click through if I come over here where it says communities, right and most all, on Wikipedia, if you search for your county, that you’re targeting, you’ll the Wikipedia page for that county will typically always have a community, you know, jump link, which is right here. And so you’ll see that it says that these are the communities as well as the census, census-designated places, and other communities. A lot of I don’t know about the other communities so much but I know that the census-designated places there’s more of those here than what was listed.

In the zip codes data, does that make sense the zip caste das codes data, if I were to D dupe this, it’s only going to have about 23 location names? But you can see that there’s more than 23 in this list right here where it says census-designated places. So you can actually go through and extract those names and do the same thing as where I said, append, comma, dash, Virginia, comma, or excuse me, comma, Virginia, comma United States, to each one of the additional locations that are listed here that weren’t in this zip dash codes, data. And then target those also. And again, that what you end up with is your targeted locations, and Google Ads becomes really, really, really dark blue, because it’s got three layers of targeting options on it. And it almost guarantees that your ads are going to be shown to people no matter where they are within the county. So that’s kind of a power tip there, guys. Hopefully, you understand what I said.

I’m going through a rather quick

How Does Google Treat A Site That Contains 20 Press Releases Linking To Different Anchor Texts But Same Links?

next question, maybe he’s got multiple questions. I wouldn’t expect anything less from me. What’s up? BB? I know that is not the proper way to do press releases, like PR stacking. But how do you think Google treats a site that has 20 press releases linking to it with different texts, but each PR has two links, with different anchor text, but with the same. I guess, URL maybe? Meaning 20 PRs with two links with the same hrefs. But all the text and anchors, texts are different.

I just always wonder what the hell you’re doing. Maybe mark is scratching his head look, knock because I have no idea what he’s talking about. He has 30 press releases, two links in each press release. What is eight? What does href have to do with anything? I think he’s talking about URLs, the same two URLs in every press release, but different anchor texts. So you’re hammering the same URL directly with the 20 press releases? Yeah, I think that’s what he’s saying the same two links in every single PR, but they each have different anchor texts each and each instance. So you had 20 or 20 press releases, and supposing that those 20 only have what distribution of 150 sites, each now you’re talking about 3000 websites potentially linking back to those two pages from those press releases? Or to that page? Is that what you’re saying? I have no idea what you’re saying.

Yeah. Even though the acting anchor text is different, are you still hammering the same page?

Yeah, that’s unnatural as hell. I agree. I totally agree. I mean, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t do that. And I and again, I’m always curious as to why because you’ve got some interesting questions, maybe. And I would be nice to have some context as to why these questions about using, you know, building links from the same handful of domains. You know, we went through weeks of questions about how many links can you get from one specific domain before they’re not, you know, beneficial? And now this is similar, right? It’s kind of in the same neighborhood as that type of a question. And again, I wouldn’t recommend it, you know, we, yeah, I like the specular. Right. They’re asking, or he’s asking us to speculate how Google would treat it. Don’t tell me, you might get hammered. You might not. That’s the best stacking to give you from that. Yeah. supposition. Question. And not only that but, you know. We just talked, the market just talked about the press release stacking. And that’s really the best way that we found to do it. And in fact, I just started implementing Marco and I have done the PR stacking slightly differently. But based upon Marco’s recommendation, he is absolutely the better SEO. So I’ve been doing it another way for quite some time. But within just the last couple of weeks, I started implementing his specific PR stack method, which is just using two links, as opposed to three in each PR, and I’m waiting to see the results come in from that. But yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s much better to just create a link wheel with your press releases with and link from one press release to the previous press release in that chain, right to create that daisy chain, that link wheel effect. And that way, like your initial press release, the top of the stack would be linking to your money site page. But all the subsequent press releases in that silo stack, they don’t link back to that money page at all. The link to the previous press release and maybe one of your other tier-one entity assets. But that’s it two links per press release. And, and not so you’re not constantly hitting the same, you know, your money site with the same you know, press releases over and over and over again, because what you’re doing is you’re using one press release with the link back to your money site page, and then you’re stacking press releases to link back to that original press release. And you can build so much power and relevancy that way. And I think that’s the better way to do it that that’s a hell of a lot more natural-looking for your money site than to keep hammering away at the same two URLs over and over and over again.

With the same PR distribution network over and over and over again, if that makes sense. So I’m gonna say it again, I don’t even recommend hitting the money site with a press release unless you really know what you’re doing. And you really want to do it all the time. Yeah, yeah. But you need to create a good pillow. And you need to know what you’re doing, what we actually tell you to extend your SEO shield, get that extension, get that inner page on that g site, and that inner drive stack. And that aim, the press release had that which is then focusing on the top-level category on the inner page and your website, everything is a mirror, you can even mirror that category, partially with your press releases. And now what you’re doing is you’re amplifying the effect. I mean, you can get really good results if you go to one of your website pages from a reprint from the president, but you better know what you’re doing. Because it’s going to get a lot of power. Once you start blasting those press releases with link building is going to get a lot of power to that page, from that silo from the or from that press release stack.

Does The SEO Shield Help Rank A New Domain With Zero Backlinks Faster?

Alright, just for clearance, I guess clarification, it means if somebody will buy a new domain tomorrow with zero backlinks and no history at all, and say he connects the shield to it, it will post long-form content, then it will rank faster than without the shield. And it won’t get hit and with the sandbox, even if it even exists also do tell it Yes, the sandbox does exist, as well as the Google dance essentially. No, I mean, will it rank faster than without the SEO showed? I mean, likely, but it’s not necessarily the speed that we’re looking for, you know, is whether it will rank at all or not. And just adding long-form content and an SEO showed may not be enough, it likely depends on the keyword sometimes you get lucky and it’s a very uncompetitive keyword. And just adding an SEO shield to the project where you’re targeting, you know, whatever keyword it is, will end up ranking. But that’s, that’s really the exception to the rule. Typically, it’s going to require some sort of off-page work. That’s where we talk about the press releases. That’s where we do link building and embed gigs. That’s where you can do like if you’ve got GMB associated with the project, you can do GMB posts and link back to your entity assets, your SEO shield, your money site itself, the page that you’re trying to rank. That’s right. So that’s all that I consider off-page. And that’s, you know, 99% of the time or 95% of the time, I should say, you’re going to need some sort of off-page in order to get the benefit that you’re looking for. comments. Yeah, because it’s the art of art. Because we recommend activity, relevance, trust, and authority. We’re not to say, okay, so build a shield, build some long-form content, and you’re going to rank that’s not what we’re saying. It Sees, these are these are all it depends on questions BB that you always have. This totally depends, what are you targeting, you are not going to rank for DUI Toronto with a lot of long-form content, and an SEO shield, not gonna happen. No, not gonna happen. Now, if you pick gobbly gook, it’s going to happen. because nobody’s trying to rank for that. All right now.

Oftentimes, you’re going, but not often. So you’re always going to need to make sure that that entity is solidified. And what we do in that first 90 days through the SEO shield, through Bradley’s brand, ads for branding course, through the press releases and through everything else, is to begin that effect of this entity getting activity. Otherwise, one of the three pillars of the art of art is missing, which is activated on all of these links that you’re driving over to this website. That should not be racking in the first place.

Remember that right? You shouldn’t be racking because it’s brand new. Google isn’t supposed to pick it up. We forced Google into doing it because we’re going through Google. We’re going through that g site through that drive site. We’re going through GMB whenever we can and I’m even doing it for national campaigns by the way for national projects. There’s a specific way that you can use that to further solidify the entity and works like a gang but gangbusters but

alright, so we do the initial SEO, SEO and link building then I weighed out the 21 day what dedhia says, Here you go in the link building is finished, I weighed out 21 days. So now we’re out. I don’t know how long it takes to build the SEO show from some from the time the shield is built. And Dahlia tells me a hidden link building it’s done. I still wait 21 days because I want to know what effect

everything has on my rankings. what effect it has on the GMB if I have one what effect it has, on the drive stack on the G site on the buddy site that I’m trying to rank? If it’s brand new, is it getting movement is still getting the bounce effect? Did it drop from rankings? Do I need to wait longer for these? Okay, so at the heavy hitter club, what I’m teaching people is we have to be data scientists, we have to be able to analyze data, we have to be able to interpret the data. And then we have to be able to act upon the data. But the keyword here is data. We need data in order to know what the hell is going on. Without that thing, again, you’re flying a plane blind, blind, and you don’t know where you’re going. You don’t know whether you can land that plane. But that’s actually what you’re doing. Now. When you take that data, and you analyze it, and you can act upon that data. That’s when it starts to happen because that’s where you get the extensions. And that’s when you do the keyword targeting. And that’s when you do the isolations. That’s when you can run more stack, you run embed gigs, you run further link building. I mean, we’re doing a 10 million link test and coming up, which will probably share in the heavy hitter. I’m gonna do a billion. Did you hear that? Doesn’t work. I’m gonna do a billion linked. Yes, I am a billion link test. And more and more, because I’ve been told that we can do unlimited link-building you’ll never tell me that and have me not see what we can try to break with that. But yeah, so we got 10 million workings, the next step would be 100 million. And then we’re going to jump again, 10 x two to a billion and see what happens.

But these are all things that we’re testing, again, to gather the data, and to know what the next step is, in the process, because it’s all a process. It’s a repeatable process that helps us to get to where we want to be, whether it’s in the map pack, whether it’s organic, whether it’s both whether you’re looking for both. It all depends.

We got to her nones. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

He’s multiplying.

I don’t know we can handle another nine.

How To Tell Google To Rank A Page With Long-Form Content With Two Different Keywords That Are Not LSI?

All right, the next question is how to tell Google to rank a page with long-form content, because without it, it won’t be possible. That’s not true knocking rank with short-form content, I prefer long-form content, but you can absolutely brute force in with through off-page SEO rank for short-form content, I just prefer long page because it requires less off-page, if the content is structured correctly, well written, it’s relevant, right, that that’s what I’m taught. So I prefer long-form content because it requires less off-page to achieve results. But doesn’t mean you can’t, you know, Mark has done it millions of times, or, you know, dozens and dozens of times, I’ve done it sometimes where I can rank, you know, thin content, but it just requires a lot more off-page.

So just to be clear about that, he says, so let me get back to the question of how to tell Google to rank a page with long-form content with two different keywords that are not LSI related, meaning like, muscle, dog food, and digestion, dog food? Well, those are related keywords, right? Yeah, they’re both related keywords, because, the overall term I would target in that case would be dog food. And then, throughout the long-form content, you could target or mention or have, you know, heading header sections, and in summer, you know, descriptions of each different type of dog food that there is. And so those are absolutely related keywords. They’re there they’re topically relevant to the broader keyword of dog food. Does that make sense? So you could technically target you know, all the different types of dog food, which I don’t know all the different types of dog food, but you could type you could target in long-form content, let’s say you had a 3000-word article that had, you know, eight different types of dog food on them, you know, described or highlighted within the article itself, then you could have an again, we talked about using jump links, I’m not going to get into that, but you could have like a table of content. Anytime I use long-form content, now I put the Table of Contents at the top of the, with the jump links back down to that section. But then you could that would be like a dog food category on your site, right, that’s a silo, then you could have supporting articles that would target individual types of dog food that would link to that long-form page, that dog food page. And again, it’s just standard silo architecture. And the reason I like to use long-form content is that in the past when trying to separate out like dog food is your top level. And then having using a complex silo structure, we would end up having, you know, muscle dog food and I don’t know that those I’ve never heard of that. But you know, let’s say muscle dog food would be a subcategory and digestion dog food would be another subcategory.

Then you add a bunch of width or breadth to your topical category. And then you can add depth right supporting articles to each one of those subcategories. The problem with that is that’s a complex silo structure. And it is just what the name implies. It’s complex. And so what I’ve switched my method, you know, the way that I build sites now is I use simple silo architecture, which is just top level categories. And in supporting articles, and long-form content, where I used to create subcategories, I can compile all of that onto the long form, top of silo page, and use jump links. And then that way, all I have to do is a simple silo structure with posts that I would, you know, supporting articles as post publishes posts, that would link up to that top category page, because there are no subcategories, if that makes sense. And I do it that way because it’s a much easier site to manage. And so I try to stick with simple silo structure at every chance that I, you know, for every project now specifically for that, and that’s where I found formatting long form content with jump links and headers, and that kind of stuff is the way that you can accomplish the same thing that you could with this complex silo structure. But keep your off site architecture much easier to manage. So I don’t know if that was clear or not. Anybody want comment on that? Yeah. I mean, I don’t know where he’s getting the long-form content information. Because that’s absolutely false. It without it, it won’t be possible to rank in Google that that’s not true. You don’t even have to have your own content. You can there you can rank an iframe of somebody else’s content. You can it, No, we’ve, we’ve done it, we’ve done it time. And again, can you do you can do it? And you do it from multiple keywords, not just one. So I don’t know where you’re getting that information. I’d say either stop listening to whoever saying this, or it’s probably someone who doesn’t know how to rank without long-form content. It’s one or the other because I don’t see how many how anyone can test the different ways that there are two, right, you could rank an image in a regular video that’s not long for. So no, this is absolutely not so. And like Bradley said dog food is the category. So the totally semantically relate I mean, they’re directly semantically related digestion and muscle when they both have to do with POFU.

So, yeah, so And again, I you know, I just prefer long form content, because it gives me the ability to keep my site structure is a simple silo. And I like that because it’s so much easier to manage it really is I got just tired of banging my head against the wall trying to figure out how to manage complex silo sites. They think they’re just a pain in the ass.

Thoughts On Facebook’s Tighter Security And Ownership Verification Processes

Anyway, Aaron’s up, he says, Are you noticing Facebook is becoming more grumpy? Facebook continuously wants to send a code to log in and send SMS text to verify account ownership. Does anyone else finding this to be excessive? I haven’t experienced that at all. No, yeah, that happens.

Specifically right now. Well, I mean, they went on like red alert during the election season. But now that they are, quote, unquote, over, it should go back to normal. But yes, like, that is something that’s happening. In fact, it’s happening randomly across the board. So if you get like, if you get like an SMS verification or something like that, you can even do Google Authenticator. So if you set up a two-step to the two-factor authenticator, you can do Google Authenticator, which is an app that you download to your phone. And, and then it will give you a QR code that you take a picture off, and that QR code will allow you to come up with a random six digit number. So that’s another option for two FA or two-factor authenticator, which is, I think, is going to be enforced across the board on Facebook. Now, with that being said, that could be the case that you can be, you know, asked for ID for verification through SMS. But also sometimes they will even ask you to upload your ID. And that has happened. It’s normal, it happens and sometimes it’s randomly happening to some accounts. So yeah, that’s the way I mean, that’s the way Facebook is going and Facebook in lieu of, or in regards to security. I think that they will start enforcing two-factor authentication. In fact, for everyone running ads on Facebook, it’s almost mandatory that you need to have two-factor authentication enabled on your Facebook account so

Have I ever told you guys that I hate Facebook?

I think you did. Yeah.

For necessary evil. No, it is. But I do I can’t stand it.

I had a page that from alpha land realty business I set up a page but I can’t remember what I did. I did something where anyways, I ended up removing myself as the man

The only admin of the page somehow. And I think I was trying to move it from one business account to another because I was planning on running ads or something. Anyways, I ended up removing myself as the manager of the admin. And it was and I was the only admin. So I contacted Facebook help to tell them like, Hey, I set up the I created this page. But I somehow accidentally removed myself as an admin. They made me jump through hoops. And I’m not kidding like I had to go, I had to draft the document and then go get it notarized. And then sent the notarized, notarized document to them, swearing that I was the one that created the account, and that I had authorization to become an admin of the account, even though I was the one that created or anyways, it was some bullshit. And I was furious, and it took like a week and a half to get it. Finally, to get access back to the very page that I created. There was never any other admins either. So it’s just, whatever, fuck Facebook.

Good Marga says on Facebook, and you got and you got to resolve like, it only took a week. So that’s not too bad. I’ve heard people that, you know, they’re still battling with Facebook to get back ownership up for an ad account. So yeah, you got the bright side of things. So I guess if you can if you can call it that. Yeah.

Does A NoFollow Link Never Get Any SEO Juice?

All right. Moving on. Next question. BB says when nofollow when a nofollow links link gets juice? Or is it never does it never get juice at the end of the day? If a strong site approved by your link?

Then it should tell Google this site is legit and does what it says and has no harm in content? I’m not sure what you mean, I doubt a nofollow link does not pass PageRank. If that’s what you’re asking. I’m not sure that that’s what you’re asking.

So I’m not really sure what the question is here. Just somebody else interpreting the question here.

Ah, nofollow link gets juice. When you link below to a nofollow link.

I still do it. Does it pass? Does? It doesn’t pass PageRank according to Google. Yeah. That’s Google that that’s the nofollow is a bad directive that tells the bot not to pass any PageRank what you get is the trust and authority from the website without accruing PageRank, which is almost as good. I mean, we’ve seen Wikipedia links that are just fantastic for SEO. Now, what is meaning about does it tell Google The site is legit and does what it says has non harming? Now, I mean, how can you transmit all that to Google? This is nofollow. Getting it gives you trust and authority, but everything else is going to come? According to the users and the user information that Google gets back. They don’t know if your heart if your content is harming or non harming, you’re gonna have to try to BB. I don’t mind answering your questions, but try to frame them better. I understand that might be a language problem. But like, I’m not really getting what you’re saying. Yeah, I’m not sure what doesn’t tell Google that nofollow, in fact, does not tell Google that the site is legit. It tells Google not to count the link for PageRank purposes. Yeah, not to pass allow websites like Wikipedia have such

high Hi. Just an authority according to Google, not according to any other metrics. Like I don’t care about any other metrics. It has so much authority and trust, that it does pass that along. So it’s kind of getting like a vote without passing PageRank. But it doesn’t tell Google that the sight of the did what eventually is going to tell Google whether the site is legit. And whether the content is harmful or not army is what the users transmit to Google and what the but find on your website engagement metrics. Exactly. Yeah, and here’s the thing now, this was five years ago, but um, you know, I remember nofollow links are supposed to not pace pass PageRank. And so older SEO methodology was, you know, that you should always try to build do follow links, and blah, blah, blah, but you have to have a good natural looking link profile. And so you’re you’re not a natural-looking link profile is going to contain a lot of nofollow links, right. I mean, depending on number of links that you have, but there should be a fairly high percentage of nofollow links. I had one client project where somebody was negative SEO in them. And for their primary keyword was a local project. So it was like plumbing plus city, whatever that was, I think it was monascus they’re no longer they hadn’t been a client for years. But I think it was like plumbing Manassas, VA or plumber, Manassas, VA or something like that. Anyways, long story short, somebody was negative SEO in them. And they built 10s of thousands of nofollow links with exact match keyword anchor of that specific keyword. And guess what? The fucking site ranked number one for that. And it was like and I and I wondered what it was and I went straight

Doing some backlink analysis on it trying to figure out what had happened. And all of a sudden I see 10s of thousands of links that I didn’t build. It was 100% exact match. And I’m not telling anybody to do this. But they were nofollow links and they were all exact match anchor text. And I ended up that site ranked number one for that keyword. And I always thought that was the funniest thing because they’re they backfired whatever, that negative SEO or whoever that was, it backfired on them because we ended up ranking the damn site. Now. I never tried to duplicate that I probably should up for testing purposes. But um, but yeah, I just thought it was interesting because I mean, I was just doing like syndication network link. So in other words, you know, publishing content, the same method that I’ve been using for years. And all of a sudden, like the backlink profile, shot up through the roof over the course of like, six weeks or so. And it was 10s of thousands of exact match anchors for one keyword. And it just so happened that ranking number one for that one keyword after that. So I thought that was funny because they say nofollow links don’t really count for anything. And I think that’s bullshit. At least that was years ago. It may have changed since then. Do you want to comment on that at all? Marco? Nanami. We know. Yeah.

Do You Use Google Tag Manager?

All right. Ah, okay. Next is BB. He’s got two more I guess we’re about out of time. So this is good. Good timing. He says do use Google Tag Manager for some reason. If so which tags do you recommend? Yeah, I use Google Tag Manager all the time. Because I’m always running Google ads. I’m setting up remarketing campaigns through Google ads. So I use Google Tag Manager to set up all my Google Ads tags, right. So there’s the conversion linker tag, the remarketing tag, then there’s the conversion, Google Ads conversion tracking tag, I also use Google Tag Manager to set up Google Analytics. So I install the Google Analytics Universal Analytics tracking tag, through Google Tag Manager. I also depending on which type of WordPress theme I’m using, sometimes I set my JSON LD, my structured data, my schema, through Tag Manager as well, that’s not the recommended way to do it. But in some cases, some of the sites that are the WordPress themes that I use, they don’t, they don’t like that the front page isn’t doesn’t have its own like page and WordPress pages. And there’s no way to insert code on it’s it’s odd, I’ve got a couple of themes that I use for local stuff that I just I have to use Tag Manager to add structured data to the homepage, there’s no other way to do it unless I inserted it directly into the theme files, which I don’t want to do. So yeah, I use Tag Manager for all of that stuff.

You know, I love Tag Manager, because it’s really easy to manage, you know, push everything through Tag Manager, and it automatically will deploy to the site. So again, I like Tag Manager, I use it for mostly for Google Ad stuff, but also for a few other things. You can use it to for Facebook, like with Facebook, you can do really advanced stuff with Google Tag Manager that you could not usually do with just the facebook pixel, you know, unless you hacked the code or whatever. So you know, you can throw anything in it, you can still like if you have a hot jar, craft, like if you have whatever, like split testing scripts, like you, you can throw anything at it. And the good news about Google Tag Manager is that it will not it will prevent your website from loading slower because you have all of these scripts directly loading in the page. So I think that you know, I love Google Tag Manager as well using for Facebook for some Facebook events stuff on pixels. But yeah, for sure, definitely.

By the way, this guy His name is Julian or some Julius or I don’t know, I think is Julian anyways, measure school Comm. He’s got fantastic training on Google Tag Manager and analytics. And he’s a total data nerd. Which is, I mean, it’s cool. He’s got a really and it’s, at least it used to be I don’t know if it still is, but he has some free had some free training on Tag Manager when I first started learning how to use Tag Manager, it was through measure school. He’s got a great YouTube channel as well with tons of free content that talks about how to set up analytics and Tag Manager set up Custom Event Tracking with Tag Manager and analytics. So like for example, you can set up like scroll, you know, scroll tracking, like scroll depth tags, so that they fire once a certain scroll-like 25% or 50%. You can set up timer tracking. There are all kinds of cool stuff that you can do with Tag Manager and analytics and measure school. Like he’s got a ton of free stuff on his YouTube channel and on his blog here that will teach you how to do all that stuff. So anytime I have to set something up that I’m not real familiar with, with Tag Manager analytics, I just go to measure school and I find it and it’s great. And again, he’s got a really good YouTube channel as well. So I recommend you check that out.

The last question is it does not matter if it’s prs are article directories. The focus is on the same two links. Okay. I think he’s talking about the question, the first question that he asked and he’s saying that he wants to keep targeting the same two links, whether it’s through press releases or article directories.

And again, I would very I would caution against that BB, because you know, at least our methodology has been set up the SEO shield. And you do all of your external link building to the SEO shield assets or tier one entity assets, right instead of direct to your money site, which is what you keep asking about here. And we don’t recommend that because it’s very easy to set unnatural link profiles. If you’re constantly hammering, especially the same two URLs over and over again, um, you know, I don’t recommend that. So I would, I would highly recommend that you work on, you know, using utilizing the SEO showed, and tier-one entity assets is your link building targets, right, you can pass all the relevancy through how you link from your entity assets back to your money site, but then do all of your external link building to your tier one entity assets so that you’re protecting your money so you don’t run the risk of that unnatural link profile. Does that make sense? Yep. Okay.

Should We List The Entire States Or Only The Cities When Optimizing GMB Profiles?

Uh, Josh says for our GMB profile, and I know we’re out of time guys, last question. For our GMB profile. Should we list the entire states we do business in or just our cities? Well, with GMB, I think you’re only allowed to list up to 20 locations as service area locations. I think it’s 20. Um, so what I do, again, is when I was what I was talking about Josh earlier with, you know, looking at the data here, I just target on a county level, or if perhaps the if it’s a service area business, typically they’ll cover the whole county, but not always the case, right. So I’ll just cover whatever their area is. So for example, I don’t usually Tip Top target. I talked about layering location targeting when you’re setting up Google ads, but and I try to layer inside of Google My Business to a degree like in other words, if a tree service company services, all of Fairfax County, and then there are 23 towns within Fairfax County, but Google limits me my ability in GMB to add only up to 20 service area locations, then I obviously can’t add Fairfax County, and then also add the 23 separate, I’d be over limit. And then also, there are all those zip codes too. So I don’t do that. So in that case, I would do the county and then I would do you know, the primary locations or just the county and that’s it. If that makes sense. What I was talking about for doing this is specifically for ad targeting, but for GMB profile, yeah. Like unless your whole of your service area is an entire state. I wouldn’t list the state as the service area. I would keep it specific to whatever the service area is an all in reality for that particular business. Okay.

All right. Thanks, everybody, for being here. We will see you guys next time, everyone. Thanks

Source: Semantic Mastery Weekly SEO Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 313 published first on your-t1-blog-url

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Weekly SEO Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 313

Click on the video above to watch Episode 312 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://semanticmastery.com/humpday.

Announcement

We’re live. Hello, Adam. We’re live. See if I can make my speakers work. Can somebody say something? Hello? Hello, hello? Know You started Hump Day hangout with broken headphones apparently. All right, well, Hey everybody, welcome to Hump Day Hangouts. We’re gonna get into the questions after we have a couple of quick announcements. And I pull up the page I’m looking for Anyways, I’m gonna defer for a minute introduce everyone, and then we will have those announcements. So Chris, hopefully, your headphones are working today. How are you doing? Yeah. Working excellent. Here’s two good complaints. Nice to hear. So yeah, yeah. Sounds good. Marco. How about you, the man looks like, you know, pretty good weather, I guess, man.

It’s as if I lived in the tropics. And I don’t know why. Who knew? Right. But yeah.

Last Wednesday, we had six straight days of rain man. And it was like on NBC on Sunday.

I can’t, we just had so much rain. But then Sunday. It was a beautiful Monday, the last couple of days back to rainy season weather. Beautiful morning, kind of overcast and rainy afternoons. But I won’t complain. And I’m living the life I want to live because I’m a powerful. One thing.

I was told yesterday that my biggest fan is Jennifer. She’s been listening to me for like three and a half years. She’s 12 years old. So she’s been listening to me since she was eight. Oh, man. So I don’t know I feel about that. I’m thinking, do I want my son listening to me? anyway?

Anyway, it’s awesome, too. She’s the one I think I mentioned her. She’s the one who wants to charge 1500 an hour. She doesn’t know what she’s gonna charge it for. But she’s gonna charge 1500 bucks an hour. She’s awesome. You just keep doing the do you do? And you’re gonna get there. So that’s awesome. Shout out to Jennifer man.

Outstanding. Well, I was going to move on. But real quick before we do that, you know, I realized we introduce ourselves and say how things are going but for those of you who are watching today, how are things going for you? If you feel like it, you can join the weather talk and let us know how the weather is but just say hi, let us know you’re watching, and say hello I know we have some people who are watching you know absorb and that’s great. But also just drop a note and say hello. So Hernan How about you, man? How are you doing? Doing great man. I’ve been in back to back calls for the past couple of days for some reason. So when I’m back to back calls, nothing gets done. So what I’m trying to do is to block out Mondays and Thursdays with no calls, no meetings, nothing so you know, I can actually get some stuff done. And you know, there has been that’s been helping quite a lot. So because you know, otherwise. Tuesday I had something like 14 calls or something like that. And then today was kind of similar. So anyway, trying to do that. We’ll see how that goes. Yeah, man. Good on you. I know you’re more outgoing. In that sense than I am. I hit my limit around four or five. I think on Tuesdays I have five and like diam tapped out man at the end of that day. Like I fell asleep on the couch at like eight o'clock at night just exhausted from talking to people so good. Anya Bradley, how about you, man?

Good, super busy. Uh, give me a little teaser as to what I’ve been doing. Were you in the process, we’ve talked about this updating syndication Academy. We’re gonna relaunch that with all brand new updates and everything. And so you know, IFTTT has the like for free accounts to only be able to create three apps Well, we have a pro account, which allows us to create an unlimited amount of apps and you can actually publish them as a pro account to and but it’s been so long since I’ve had to go in and set up all those apps or the applets. Because, you know, we’ve had builders doing it for us now for years. And I have to go in and recreate all of the applets. And to be honest, there, it’s slight like the interface is a little bit different when you create applets to publish as a on a pro account. It’s like a different format and everything else. And so I’ve had to go through and I’ve spent the entire day like trial and error during applets. And now I remember why I trained virtual assistants to do it for me because I fucking hate is so tedious. But it’s really cool because now we have share URLs that we’ll be able to, you know, provide for syndication Academy as well as to our builders to where they can just go in and set up the applets very easily by just swapping out their RSS feed URLs for example. So they don’t have to do any coding at all. It’s it’s really, really cool and I’m glad that this is getting done. Hopefully, I’ll have it done by this evening. And syndication Academy will be updating and

And relaunching that shortly, can’t give me an exact date on that. But we’ve got some updates and surprises prior to the launch of that, that we’re going to be bringing to you guys in the coming weeks. So definitely, and to jump on the upcoming but can’t say too much train, we definitely got some good stuff cooked up for Black Friday weekend, which is coming up after Thanksgiving in the US if you’re familiar with that, if you’re not, that’s going to be on November 27, we’re going to have some great stuff going around the 26, maybe 27th for the few days. So if you’re not on the Semantic Mastery email list, and you’re watching this head over to semantic mastery sign up right there. If you’re on the watch page, right now you just scroll down and hop on over there. By the way, sorry, sorry to interrupt you, but as usual, which we try to over-deliver as much as possible. So Black Friday is not gonna be it’s not going to be different, both for Semantic Mastery and MGYB. We tried to you know, give you guys mind-blowing deals, and this is not going to be any different. So stay tuned, because it’s going to be pretty awesome. I mentioned to you guys yesterday during our corporate meeting, and during, I mentioned it to buy other people in the mini mastermind meeting how just using our stuff, just using it the way that it’s supposed to be used, I took a class 1200 percent gain in earnings in four months. 1200 percent. That’s not a mistake, that’s not a bluff. That’s not a beat that that’s a hockey stick. So over that period, it looks boom. So and like I was telling you, let’s say it dips, I don’t know 10 20% before, before bouncing back up. Well, we’re still at around 900%. So in a month, you know, cuz it’ll do the dance, it’ll still do it over a million links, plus Presley’s bras, all of these other things that we do, post post, the way that we do them, everything, everything, all of the training and everything that we make available in Semantic Mastery, everything that’s going to be available on Black Friday at a discount with you guys know, I hate giving shit away. I hate it. I hate it. But I mean it is what it is we’ve gotten our people used to it. I’m not going to oppose it, although I am. But dude, and I was telling my guys, I said What the fuck is keeping all of you from just going and just burying the competition’s bury them, just bury them. Just to do it, it’s systematic. If you need more, you just apply more, and you charge the client for it doesn’t come out of your pocket, you’re supposed to offer the services and mark it up so that you benefit. And then when you hit that hockey stick effect, you got to have a clause. Of course, I don’t have contracts, what I have is a recording that we talked about, we’ll look at it in we looked at it after 90 days, and then at the six month period, we’ll look at it again, just because of that, because when that hockey stick takes effect, I want to be able to charge for that I don’t want to charge what I’m charging, I want to be able to charge that 1200 percent markup that is gaining business that he’s getting, I want to benefit from that tool. So you got to get all of this working but the way to do it is follow the system the systems in place have been in place for years.

And why are you people not benefiting from the fucking system? That’s what upsets me most that’s what upset that we’ve been offering this for years and years and years your way to go and make that money to rank him back. And you don’t do it. Why?

I’m done. rant over. Alright, well before we get into the questions, I popped a couple of links on the page and just wanted to follow up on that. So if you’re new to Semantic Mastery and MGYB first of all thanks for watching. We’ve got some free information is where you should usually start out right so head over to the SEO shield calm right the SEO shield comm you can find out about you know shielding your site you hear us talk about SEO shields this other stuff, it can be a lot we get it so go to the SEO shield com find out about how you’ll never have to worry about algorithm updates ever again. All right now if you’re an agency owner or a consultant and you want to get more clients, you want to grow your revenue you want to scale your team so that should be three yeses for most people. If you want to find out more about that head over 2xyouragency.com. And last but certainly not least for those of you who do already have agencies you’ve got a digital marketing business maybe you’ve got a physical business that you’re wanting to grow online, then you want to join us in the mastermind at semantic mastermind dot semantic mastery comm not going to bore you to death with reading neither about what that’s all about. You can find out but it’s about having an experienced community. I think all of us here are part of other communities as well as our

Our own mastermind, and we know and recognize the role that plays in growing our businesses and expanding our horizons. And last, but certainly not least of all, I guess it’s a second class today is head over to mg y b.co. That’s the done for you services. You hear us talking about the SEO shield, syndication networks, link building press releases, all that sort of good stuff. You can get it all done for you at mg y b.co. Alright, so with that said, you guys, unless there’s anything else we need to cover, let’s get into it.

Sweet.

Wayne says Chris, move your camera down. Unless you’re naked. What are you hiding? Dude?

Rolling naked.

Internet Marketing lifestyle, man. It’s right. Oh, man.

Instant Indexing By RankMath

All right, we got your screen. Bradley. Did you get it? Yeah. All right. Cool. So it looks like Alana has the first question. I know. She says she sorted it out already as the follow-up, but I’ll just briefly read it and answer it. Hi, guys. You mentioned using rankmath for indexing last week, just wondering if you know if you can use that feature. Meaning like, can you only use that? Yeah. Because and this is what I was mentioning. It’s called the instant indexing for Google. Right? That’s the name of the plugin by rankmath. It’s an add on. So no, you don’t need to use install the rankmath plugin, which has like a ton of different modules and all that stuff. You don’t have to do that just install this separately on its own. That’s it. And again, it’s just this one feature that will connect your WordPress site. I mean, you have to go through the developer’s console and Google and set up the billing. And in the end, you have to turn on the instance or the Indexing API, download a JSON code, and then you upload that to the WordPress plugin settings. And that’s it. Once you’re done, then every time you update a post or page will automatically send it to the in through the Indexing API directly to Google. And there’s also in the Settings tab, there’s a little window where you can go in and insert links there and ask for Google to index them. So again, it’s a great little plugin. I’ve got this installed on multiple sites now. And I’ve been using it for about two weeks. And it’s a really, really cool plugin. Again, it doesn’t cost anything. You do have to pay for the credits, or API usage, but you get $300 in credits for free for the first year to use when you sign up or enable billing on your developer’s account. So your Google account Alright, so it’s unlikely that you’ll hit those limits. Go ahead please get rid of that. bloatware. Please? Yeah, no, I mean, that was the follow up she says she wants to stick with a lot of says wants to stick with iOS for everything else. And I was waiting for Margaret to say why SEO ultimate Jeffrey’s a friend Jeff. He’s a baby. We’re like this Semantic Mastery. And Jeffrey so let’s be crystal clear about this and transparent. We love Jeffrey, do we do we have an affiliate for SEO ultimate? If we don’t we should. We love Jeffrey. He’s active in his group. I meet with him. Every Wednesday, I’d be done on Is he a great guy, but he just does great stuff. And his teaching is beyond awesome. If you happen to catch the webinar that we did, with heavy-hitter where he came on to talk about entities. I mean, that was just that was worth the price of admission for the price of the first two months is what Jeffrey shared. I mean, and that one happened to be for fifth, I think it’s in the training area. But I can’t say enough about Jeffrey Smith and his training, SEO ultimate boot camp, the plugin just everything that he’s doing, man.

Yeah, totally agree. I finally got around to starting to implement the semantic tags. Yeah, through the SEO ultimate pro plugin. And that’s crazy powerful, too. And I waited all this time to really start implementing that. But I just started digging into that this week, actually. And it’s sick. It reminds me to share some wickedness about tags with you. Sure, in private.

Should The Google Site And The Custom Domain Both Remain Indexed In Google When Mapping?

Alright, so next is NYK says, When mapping your Google new site to a custom domain name, does both the Google new site and the new custom domain name site both remain indexed? And Google is the new Google Site eventually get indexed? Just wondering if there was a hack to get them both ranking highly. Now when you do custom domain mapping, I haven’t done it with the new sites. But I’m sure I’m not sure. But I assume it’s the same as when mapping a custom domain to the classic Google sites and that both sites can remain indexed however, the Google site on the sites google.com domain is canonicalized to the custom domain. So in other words, there’s a canonical and HTML header of the new Google site that links or that sets the canonical URL to the custom domain. So by Google’s own, you know, practices, that means the new Google Sites should eventually fall out of the index because it’s canonicalized to the custom domain. However, that gives you an opportunity to have a kind of like a ghost site out there that you can use for link building, still waking up to the Google Sites domain and it still pushes through to your custom domain. So there’s some pretty ninja stuff that you can do with that. But I typically don’t go through that trouble anymore. I did originally when we first started doing that, several years ago. But now I don’t even bother. I just, I just use the Google site on the sites google.com domain.

And in that, that’s it. But you can still canonicalize it as far as I know, more, or you don’t canonicalize it Google does that automatically. Yeah, Google it, Google Google, set up a custom domain. Yeah. But now, the great thing about it is that the G site has to stay live, until Google comes up with a true content management system, right? Because the CMS is the G site. Right? So until they come up with that that new g site is going to stay live. And there’s a lot of good stuff you can do to that. So it says since it’s a Google canonical to your website, I just think that through, and you’re going to see how awesome it is that Google keeps that Google site indexed, or it remains part of the index, although it. I don’t think it’s going to rank for Oh, testing. Yeah, this is nothing but a test. And see, because I stopped doing it. Also, I stopped creating the custom domains, and I’m just going with T sites because they carry so much power. Yeah. So little work. Yeah, same thing. And I was, I was doing custom domain mapping for IDX pages to subdomain ID mapping up and I got away from doing that too because it’s just like an extra step that’s really unnecessary. You know, you can get them just use the s3 bucket URL, and you’re good to go. So

How To Target Multiple Cities Within A County Within GMB Posts?

Alright, moving on. Next one is Josh. Josh says how do we target multiple cities within a county is that through GMB posts, Facebook ads, Google ads and PRs that have the city name included? Well, I mean, what is your when you say target multiple cities? Like in which way? Are you attempting to target them? Because you just listed SEO and paid traffic and content marketing and everything else? So if you’re talking about you know, when it comes to Google ads, or I can’t talk about Facebook ads, Hernan could, when it comes to Google ads, you just pay for whatever keywords you want to target. So whatever search queries, right, if you’re talking about search, PPC, obviously, there’s YouTube and display, and you can set geo-targeting for that. But I think your question is more really relevant to SEO. Right? And that’s if that’s what you’re asking, like, how do you target multiple cities within a county? Yeah, what I do is what, what I do for my clients, and for lead, gen assets are both GMB posts as well as posts optimized on the blog. If we even if there’s a money site associated with the project, which most of mine do, most of my projects do have that, then I have my blog or go out and create an optimized post targeting one specific keyword plus one location, a city within a county. So let’s say a county has 10 cities within it or, you know, municipalities, towns, unincorporated communities, whatever you want to call them. Let’s say there are 10 towns within the county. And what we do is we optimize post blog posts for a keyword plus town. Right. And so we might end up having 10 blog posts within that, within that one county because we’re targeting, you know, a keyword plus the location or town within that county. And we published a post for each one of those. And so and again, Josh, I’ve talked about this a lot in the mastermind I know you were in the mastermind briefly, but I don’t think you are anymore. But the way that I do silo for locations is I use tags talked about that many many times. In fact, if you go to semantic mastery comm slash process, again, semantic mastery comm slash process, I give a very high-level overview of how I create location-based silos using WordPress tags. And so again, that’s the way that I do it. It works really, really well. There are some real ninja things that you can do with tag pages, especially with the G sites and our SEO shield methodology. So that’s the way that I recommend doing it. But like I said, For paid traffic, it’s really about just bidding on your keywords or setting geo-targeting. As far as Google Ads goes, Hernan Can you comment on Facebook? Yeah, for sure. For sure. I first off, you know, totally agree with what you’re saying. I think that this is an SEO related question. If you wanted to do with multiple cities within a county, there’s a couple of options. The first one is to just collect zip codes, you can put a list of zipcodes and the location. So if you’re targeting, that will be number one, the other one will be just, you know, put the name of the city, you know, and then you can do and then sometimes what I do is to just drop a pin, right? So you can drop a pin and then and then, you know, you would do up to, you know, this city plus 10 miles or the city alone and all that. So those are the two-three ways that you can actually go ahead and do that via zip codes via the name of the city itself with the county and the drop in itself. Now, with that being said, once you’re when you’re doing this is a recommendation when you’re doing counties or zip codes, or, you know, you drop a pin and then you target a specific area, what I would suggest is that you don’t add like any interests on top of that or any like demographic targeting on top of that, the reason why is because usually, the Facebook algorithm works a little bit different than that than Google and, and when it comes to Facebook itself, the more you constrict your reach, the more you will, you will pay on a CPM basis, meaning you will pay more per click, you will pay more per per per thousand impressions. So what I would suggest is you drop in you select the zip code, or the or the city name, and even the county name. And you just leave Facebook to optimize and find out you know, leads, or whatever it is that you’re trying to do. If you’re running a lead gen campaign or a conversion campaign to a landing page, you should let Facebook do its thing. And that’s basically how I recommend you do it. So I’m not going to comment on this as far as ads because I always get people. I get asked people they’re the experts. I’m not, but I can’t tell you that if you’re what you’re targeting is map specific. In other words, when you go to the locations, it triggers a mapping and at times it triggers a knowledge panel or both. Then it’s GMB posts and press releases done. The local GMB pro Wait, does that mean that you have to trigger the map pack if it’s local specific, meaning that it triggers a map? It triggers a knowledge panel that triggers a map pack. And so I’m not going to go into details on how to do that. But yes, I mean, Bradley. Bradley is presently stacking, link building embeds all of that so that you can get that that GMB, GMB listing to pop in the three pack and if the city is far away from your centroid, meaning that your business is in one city and the next city maybe is 2025 miles away and you’re looking to trigger that, then you’re going to go with a GMB in that next city, and start doing polls and PR stacks and and and on and on. Now you can get past the proximity filter, you can force your way through. We teach that also in local GMB pro so we have the training.

Okay, so something else I want to mention very quickly if you’re going to be using Google Ads because since Hernan mentioned zip codes, it brought this to my brought this top of mind. But something that I’ve been doing a lot lately with, especially when you’re doing like display ads or YouTube, YouTube ads in Google ads, right. One of the things that I do for location targeting it works, excuse me for just for any type of ads when you’re doing geo-targeting, setting your geo-targeting locations to target within the ad campaign.

What I do know is I kind of just went through the process while the other guys were talking. But you know, you only have to do this once I just wanted to show you kind of what I did. But I go to zip dash codes.com on the left-hand sidebar, you can see where it says other free lookups I always put the county name and so I just use Fairfax County, Virginia is an example. So I just typed in Fairfax, then for the state, put VA, and then hit go, it’ll bring up the last page that you saw a minute ago, this one, then I just click through to the county and it shows all the different zip codes and the cities within that county and then their population too. But then again, there might be another tool, this just a tool I’ve been using for years, guys. So if there’s another tool, that’s great, you know, but I’m just showing you how I typically do it. So then I go through and I clean the data I sort by, you know population because a lot of these are like PO boxes or unique zip codes that have zero population. So they’re not something that you can physically target because they’re not really geographic in that like they don’t have like an area they’re just more like, you know, like a peel box, for example. So I just sort by population, and then I delete everything that has zero population. And what I’m left with now is I know that and again, I know this is probably small, but I’ll zoom in. So what I’m left with now are the city names or the town names within the county and all of the zip codes. Does that make sense? So then what I do is for targeting and I’ve opened up a notepad file is in Google Ads when you go to set your geo locations or your targeted locations, then what you do is you just add in that so for example, the first one would be Fairfax County, then it would be comma Virginia comma the United States, okay. So this is how you would add if you add locations in bulk. So when you go into your geo-targeting or add targeted locations, you can click on a little radio button that says Add locations in bulk. So I format all of this upfront. And then all I do is just copy and paste from my notepad file into there and click search, and then click target all but scroll through and eliminate anything that doesn’t quite line up the way that it’s supposed to. But typically, the way that I’ll do it is like Fairfax County would be the broadest of service areas, right? But then I want to go through and I want to literally target all of these city names within. And I’m going to show you guys how to get super granular on this just because it’s a, it works really, really well for Google ad targeting. And let me explain why. And then I’ll get back to this. When people are doing searches from mobile devices, especially in fact, if I were to go over to let’s go here for a minute and just click into Google and search. In fact, let me close that for a minute and open up a fresh version of this, I think it’s a really good question. That’s why I’m going through this guy. So just stand by for a minute.

See? Firefox is freaking out on me for some reason. All right. So if I go to Google, and I just do a quick search for let’s just say, Tree Service Fairfax VA, okay, we scroll down to the bottom down here, you’ll see that it’s showing my location-based upon my IP, now I’m on my desktop, and it’s showing Cole pepper, Virginia. But what I’ve noticed is oftentimes, like from a mobile device, or sometimes, if my IP changes, or whatever, or if I’m on my laptop, and I’m click connected through a Wi-Fi, sometimes it won’t be a city name, it’ll be an actual zip code that shows up down here. Does that make sense? And so by tart by adding, or specifically adding targeted locations from at the broadest level, based upon this example, county, right, so if you if I type in Fairfax County, Virginia as my targeted location in Google ads, that’s going to target any areas supposedly within that county. Right? Does that make sense? But then if I go in, and I add all the individual town names, as well as separate targeting locations, it adds a second layer of targeting on top and in Google Maps, or excuse me, Google ads, you’ll see that when you add the county makes that targeted county on the map, which is like a little map there, it’ll make it like a very light blue color showing that that’s targeted. But then if you add the town names, on top of that, for all the towns within that county as another additional targeting option, you’ll see that it adds a second layer on top of that initial county blue coloring, so it becomes a darker blue. And then if you go in and add all of the zip codes as well, it adds a third layer, so becomes even darker blue. And so what happens is, especially with people searching for mobile devices, depending on how Google determines their location, sometimes it will be by town, sometimes it will be by zip code, it gives it a much greater chance of your ads showing to them, because it’s relevant, and you’ve covered all of those bases, right? I don’t know if that makes sense to you guys or not. But that’s what I do is I just go through and I extract all the town names and all of the zip codes, just using zip dash codes, calm, I clean it, then I bring it into a notepad file like this, and I format it. So I would go actually copy all of these zip codes, all of these names, I would append comma Virginia, comma United States to each one of these items, then I would do anything, right. So if there are any duplicates, I would do that. And then I would copy this text file and paste it in as my targeted locations, and select target all. And what that does is again, it adds multiple layers of targeting, it’s very specific targeting, but it adds multiple layers. So that it, it almost ensures that your ad gets shown to people no matter how Google sees their location if that makes sense. All right. So that’s a very powerful pro tip there that works really well, especially when targeting people with mobile devices. And lastly, there’s one other thing that I found you can be even more granular. And that’s why I brought up Wikipedia, is if I go here to Wikipedia, go to Fairfax County, Virginia. And I click through if I come over here where it says communities, right and most all, on Wikipedia, if you search for your county, that you’re targeting, you’ll the Wikipedia page for that county will typically always have a community, you know, jump link, which is right here. And so you’ll see that it says that these are the communities as well as the census, census-designated places, and other communities. A lot of I don’t know about the other communities so much but I know that the census-designated places there’s more of those here than what was listed.

In the zip codes data, does that make sense the zip caste das codes data, if I were to D dupe this, it’s only going to have about 23 location names? But you can see that there’s more than 23 in this list right here where it says census-designated places. So you can actually go through and extract those names and do the same thing as where I said, append, comma, dash, Virginia, comma, or excuse me, comma, Virginia, comma United States, to each one of the additional locations that are listed here that weren’t in this zip dash codes, data. And then target those also. And again, that what you end up with is your targeted locations, and Google Ads becomes really, really, really dark blue, because it’s got three layers of targeting options on it. And it almost guarantees that your ads are going to be shown to people no matter where they are within the county. So that’s kind of a power tip there, guys. Hopefully, you understand what I said.

I’m going through a rather quick

How Does Google Treat A Site That Contains 20 Press Releases Linking To Different Anchor Texts But Same Links?

next question, maybe he’s got multiple questions. I wouldn’t expect anything less from me. What’s up? BB? I know that is not the proper way to do press releases, like PR stacking. But how do you think Google treats a site that has 20 press releases linking to it with different texts, but each PR has two links, with different anchor text, but with the same. I guess, URL maybe? Meaning 20 PRs with two links with the same hrefs. But all the text and anchors, texts are different.

I just always wonder what the hell you’re doing. Maybe mark is scratching his head look, knock because I have no idea what he’s talking about. He has 30 press releases, two links in each press release. What is eight? What does href have to do with anything? I think he’s talking about URLs, the same two URLs in every press release, but different anchor texts. So you’re hammering the same URL directly with the 20 press releases? Yeah, I think that’s what he’s saying the same two links in every single PR, but they each have different anchor texts each and each instance. So you had 20 or 20 press releases, and supposing that those 20 only have what distribution of 150 sites, each now you’re talking about 3000 websites potentially linking back to those two pages from those press releases? Or to that page? Is that what you’re saying? I have no idea what you’re saying.

Yeah. Even though the acting anchor text is different, are you still hammering the same page?

Yeah, that’s unnatural as hell. I agree. I totally agree. I mean, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t do that. And I and again, I’m always curious as to why because you’ve got some interesting questions, maybe. And I would be nice to have some context as to why these questions about using, you know, building links from the same handful of domains. You know, we went through weeks of questions about how many links can you get from one specific domain before they’re not, you know, beneficial? And now this is similar, right? It’s kind of in the same neighborhood as that type of a question. And again, I wouldn’t recommend it, you know, we, yeah, I like the specular. Right. They’re asking, or he’s asking us to speculate how Google would treat it. Don’t tell me, you might get hammered. You might not. That’s the best stacking to give you from that. Yeah. supposition. Question. And not only that but, you know. We just talked, the market just talked about the press release stacking. And that’s really the best way that we found to do it. And in fact, I just started implementing Marco and I have done the PR stacking slightly differently. But based upon Marco’s recommendation, he is absolutely the better SEO. So I’ve been doing it another way for quite some time. But within just the last couple of weeks, I started implementing his specific PR stack method, which is just using two links, as opposed to three in each PR, and I’m waiting to see the results come in from that. But yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s much better to just create a link wheel with your press releases with and link from one press release to the previous press release in that chain, right to create that daisy chain, that link wheel effect. And that way, like your initial press release, the top of the stack would be linking to your money site page. But all the subsequent press releases in that silo stack, they don’t link back to that money page at all. The link to the previous press release and maybe one of your other tier-one entity assets. But that’s it two links per press release. And, and not so you’re not constantly hitting the same, you know, your money site with the same you know, press releases over and over and over again, because what you’re doing is you’re using one press release with the link back to your money site page, and then you’re stacking press releases to link back to that original press release. And you can build so much power and relevancy that way. And I think that’s the better way to do it that that’s a hell of a lot more natural-looking for your money site than to keep hammering away at the same two URLs over and over and over again.

With the same PR distribution network over and over and over again, if that makes sense. So I’m gonna say it again, I don’t even recommend hitting the money site with a press release unless you really know what you’re doing. And you really want to do it all the time. Yeah, yeah. But you need to create a good pillow. And you need to know what you’re doing, what we actually tell you to extend your SEO shield, get that extension, get that inner page on that g site, and that inner drive stack. And that aim, the press release had that which is then focusing on the top-level category on the inner page and your website, everything is a mirror, you can even mirror that category, partially with your press releases. And now what you’re doing is you’re amplifying the effect. I mean, you can get really good results if you go to one of your website pages from a reprint from the president, but you better know what you’re doing. Because it’s going to get a lot of power. Once you start blasting those press releases with link building is going to get a lot of power to that page, from that silo from the or from that press release stack.

Does The SEO Shield Help Rank A New Domain With Zero Backlinks Faster?

Alright, just for clearance, I guess clarification, it means if somebody will buy a new domain tomorrow with zero backlinks and no history at all, and say he connects the shield to it, it will post long-form content, then it will rank faster than without the shield. And it won’t get hit and with the sandbox, even if it even exists also do tell it Yes, the sandbox does exist, as well as the Google dance essentially. No, I mean, will it rank faster than without the SEO showed? I mean, likely, but it’s not necessarily the speed that we’re looking for, you know, is whether it will rank at all or not. And just adding long-form content and an SEO showed may not be enough, it likely depends on the keyword sometimes you get lucky and it’s a very uncompetitive keyword. And just adding an SEO shield to the project where you’re targeting, you know, whatever keyword it is, will end up ranking. But that’s, that’s really the exception to the rule. Typically, it’s going to require some sort of off-page work. That’s where we talk about the press releases. That’s where we do link building and embed gigs. That’s where you can do like if you’ve got GMB associated with the project, you can do GMB posts and link back to your entity assets, your SEO shield, your money site itself, the page that you’re trying to rank. That’s right. So that’s all that I consider off-page. And that’s, you know, 99% of the time or 95% of the time, I should say, you’re going to need some sort of off-page in order to get the benefit that you’re looking for. comments. Yeah, because it’s the art of art. Because we recommend activity, relevance, trust, and authority. We’re not to say, okay, so build a shield, build some long-form content, and you’re going to rank that’s not what we’re saying. It Sees, these are these are all it depends on questions BB that you always have. This totally depends, what are you targeting, you are not going to rank for DUI Toronto with a lot of long-form content, and an SEO shield, not gonna happen. No, not gonna happen. Now, if you pick gobbly gook, it’s going to happen. because nobody’s trying to rank for that. All right now.

Oftentimes, you’re going, but not often. So you’re always going to need to make sure that that entity is solidified. And what we do in that first 90 days through the SEO shield, through Bradley’s brand, ads for branding course, through the press releases and through everything else, is to begin that effect of this entity getting activity. Otherwise, one of the three pillars of the art of art is missing, which is activated on all of these links that you’re driving over to this website. That should not be racking in the first place.

Remember that right? You shouldn’t be racking because it’s brand new. Google isn’t supposed to pick it up. We forced Google into doing it because we’re going through Google. We’re going through that g site through that drive site. We’re going through GMB whenever we can and I’m even doing it for national campaigns by the way for national projects. There’s a specific way that you can use that to further solidify the entity and works like a gang but gangbusters but

alright, so we do the initial SEO, SEO and link building then I weighed out the 21 day what dedhia says, Here you go in the link building is finished, I weighed out 21 days. So now we’re out. I don’t know how long it takes to build the SEO show from some from the time the shield is built. And Dahlia tells me a hidden link building it’s done. I still wait 21 days because I want to know what effect

everything has on my rankings. what effect it has on the GMB if I have one what effect it has, on the drive stack on the G site on the buddy site that I’m trying to rank? If it’s brand new, is it getting movement is still getting the bounce effect? Did it drop from rankings? Do I need to wait longer for these? Okay, so at the heavy hitter club, what I’m teaching people is we have to be data scientists, we have to be able to analyze data, we have to be able to interpret the data. And then we have to be able to act upon the data. But the keyword here is data. We need data in order to know what the hell is going on. Without that thing, again, you’re flying a plane blind, blind, and you don’t know where you’re going. You don’t know whether you can land that plane. But that’s actually what you’re doing. Now. When you take that data, and you analyze it, and you can act upon that data. That’s when it starts to happen because that’s where you get the extensions. And that’s when you do the keyword targeting. And that’s when you do the isolations. That’s when you can run more stack, you run embed gigs, you run further link building. I mean, we’re doing a 10 million link test and coming up, which will probably share in the heavy hitter. I’m gonna do a billion. Did you hear that? Doesn’t work. I’m gonna do a billion linked. Yes, I am a billion link test. And more and more, because I’ve been told that we can do unlimited link-building you’ll never tell me that and have me not see what we can try to break with that. But yeah, so we got 10 million workings, the next step would be 100 million. And then we’re going to jump again, 10 x two to a billion and see what happens.

But these are all things that we’re testing, again, to gather the data, and to know what the next step is, in the process, because it’s all a process. It’s a repeatable process that helps us to get to where we want to be, whether it’s in the map pack, whether it’s organic, whether it’s both whether you’re looking for both. It all depends.

We got to her nones. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

He’s multiplying.

I don’t know we can handle another nine.

How To Tell Google To Rank A Page With Long-Form Content With Two Different Keywords That Are Not LSI?

All right, the next question is how to tell Google to rank a page with long-form content, because without it, it won’t be possible. That’s not true knocking rank with short-form content, I prefer long-form content, but you can absolutely brute force in with through off-page SEO rank for short-form content, I just prefer long page because it requires less off-page, if the content is structured correctly, well written, it’s relevant, right, that that’s what I’m taught. So I prefer long-form content because it requires less off-page to achieve results. But doesn’t mean you can’t, you know, Mark has done it millions of times, or, you know, dozens and dozens of times, I’ve done it sometimes where I can rank, you know, thin content, but it just requires a lot more off-page.

So just to be clear about that, he says, so let me get back to the question of how to tell Google to rank a page with long-form content with two different keywords that are not LSI related, meaning like, muscle, dog food, and digestion, dog food? Well, those are related keywords, right? Yeah, they’re both related keywords, because, the overall term I would target in that case would be dog food. And then, throughout the long-form content, you could target or mention or have, you know, heading header sections, and in summer, you know, descriptions of each different type of dog food that there is. And so those are absolutely related keywords. They’re there they’re topically relevant to the broader keyword of dog food. Does that make sense? So you could technically target you know, all the different types of dog food, which I don’t know all the different types of dog food, but you could type you could target in long-form content, let’s say you had a 3000-word article that had, you know, eight different types of dog food on them, you know, described or highlighted within the article itself, then you could have an again, we talked about using jump links, I’m not going to get into that, but you could have like a table of content. Anytime I use long-form content, now I put the Table of Contents at the top of the, with the jump links back down to that section. But then you could that would be like a dog food category on your site, right, that’s a silo, then you could have supporting articles that would target individual types of dog food that would link to that long-form page, that dog food page. And again, it’s just standard silo architecture. And the reason I like to use long-form content is that in the past when trying to separate out like dog food is your top level. And then having using a complex silo structure, we would end up having, you know, muscle dog food and I don’t know that those I’ve never heard of that. But you know, let’s say muscle dog food would be a subcategory and digestion dog food would be another subcategory.

Then you add a bunch of width or breadth to your topical category. And then you can add depth right supporting articles to each one of those subcategories. The problem with that is that’s a complex silo structure. And it is just what the name implies. It’s complex. And so what I’ve switched my method, you know, the way that I build sites now is I use simple silo architecture, which is just top level categories. And in supporting articles, and long-form content, where I used to create subcategories, I can compile all of that onto the long form, top of silo page, and use jump links. And then that way, all I have to do is a simple silo structure with posts that I would, you know, supporting articles as post publishes posts, that would link up to that top category page, because there are no subcategories, if that makes sense. And I do it that way because it’s a much easier site to manage. And so I try to stick with simple silo structure at every chance that I, you know, for every project now specifically for that, and that’s where I found formatting long form content with jump links and headers, and that kind of stuff is the way that you can accomplish the same thing that you could with this complex silo structure. But keep your off site architecture much easier to manage. So I don’t know if that was clear or not. Anybody want comment on that? Yeah. I mean, I don’t know where he’s getting the long-form content information. Because that’s absolutely false. It without it, it won’t be possible to rank in Google that that’s not true. You don’t even have to have your own content. You can there you can rank an iframe of somebody else’s content. You can it, No, we’ve, we’ve done it, we’ve done it time. And again, can you do you can do it? And you do it from multiple keywords, not just one. So I don’t know where you’re getting that information. I’d say either stop listening to whoever saying this, or it’s probably someone who doesn’t know how to rank without long-form content. It’s one or the other because I don’t see how many how anyone can test the different ways that there are two, right, you could rank an image in a regular video that’s not long for. So no, this is absolutely not so. And like Bradley said dog food is the category. So the totally semantically relate I mean, they’re directly semantically related digestion and muscle when they both have to do with POFU.

So, yeah, so And again, I you know, I just prefer long form content, because it gives me the ability to keep my site structure is a simple silo. And I like that because it’s so much easier to manage it really is I got just tired of banging my head against the wall trying to figure out how to manage complex silo sites. They think they’re just a pain in the ass.

Thoughts On Facebook’s Tighter Security And Ownership Verification Processes

Anyway, Aaron’s up, he says, Are you noticing Facebook is becoming more grumpy? Facebook continuously wants to send a code to log in and send SMS text to verify account ownership. Does anyone else finding this to be excessive? I haven’t experienced that at all. No, yeah, that happens.

Specifically right now. Well, I mean, they went on like red alert during the election season. But now that they are, quote, unquote, over, it should go back to normal. But yes, like, that is something that’s happening. In fact, it’s happening randomly across the board. So if you get like, if you get like an SMS verification or something like that, you can even do Google Authenticator. So if you set up a two-step to the two-factor authenticator, you can do Google Authenticator, which is an app that you download to your phone. And, and then it will give you a QR code that you take a picture off, and that QR code will allow you to come up with a random six digit number. So that’s another option for two FA or two-factor authenticator, which is, I think, is going to be enforced across the board on Facebook. Now, with that being said, that could be the case that you can be, you know, asked for ID for verification through SMS. But also sometimes they will even ask you to upload your ID. And that has happened. It’s normal, it happens and sometimes it’s randomly happening to some accounts. So yeah, that’s the way I mean, that’s the way Facebook is going and Facebook in lieu of, or in regards to security. I think that they will start enforcing two-factor authentication. In fact, for everyone running ads on Facebook, it’s almost mandatory that you need to have two-factor authentication enabled on your Facebook account so

Have I ever told you guys that I hate Facebook?

I think you did. Yeah.

For necessary evil. No, it is. But I do I can’t stand it.

I had a page that from alpha land realty business I set up a page but I can’t remember what I did. I did something where anyways, I ended up removing myself as the man

The only admin of the page somehow. And I think I was trying to move it from one business account to another because I was planning on running ads or something. Anyways, I ended up removing myself as the manager of the admin. And it was and I was the only admin. So I contacted Facebook help to tell them like, Hey, I set up the I created this page. But I somehow accidentally removed myself as an admin. They made me jump through hoops. And I’m not kidding like I had to go, I had to draft the document and then go get it notarized. And then sent the notarized, notarized document to them, swearing that I was the one that created the account, and that I had authorization to become an admin of the account, even though I was the one that created or anyways, it was some bullshit. And I was furious, and it took like a week and a half to get it. Finally, to get access back to the very page that I created. There was never any other admins either. So it’s just, whatever, fuck Facebook.

Good Marga says on Facebook, and you got and you got to resolve like, it only took a week. So that’s not too bad. I’ve heard people that, you know, they’re still battling with Facebook to get back ownership up for an ad account. So yeah, you got the bright side of things. So I guess if you can if you can call it that. Yeah.

Does A NoFollow Link Never Get Any SEO Juice?

All right. Moving on. Next question. BB says when nofollow when a nofollow links link gets juice? Or is it never does it never get juice at the end of the day? If a strong site approved by your link?

Then it should tell Google this site is legit and does what it says and has no harm in content? I’m not sure what you mean, I doubt a nofollow link does not pass PageRank. If that’s what you’re asking. I’m not sure that that’s what you’re asking.

So I’m not really sure what the question is here. Just somebody else interpreting the question here.

Ah, nofollow link gets juice. When you link below to a nofollow link.

I still do it. Does it pass? Does? It doesn’t pass PageRank according to Google. Yeah. That’s Google that that’s the nofollow is a bad directive that tells the bot not to pass any PageRank what you get is the trust and authority from the website without accruing PageRank, which is almost as good. I mean, we’ve seen Wikipedia links that are just fantastic for SEO. Now, what is meaning about does it tell Google The site is legit and does what it says has non harming? Now, I mean, how can you transmit all that to Google? This is nofollow. Getting it gives you trust and authority, but everything else is going to come? According to the users and the user information that Google gets back. They don’t know if your heart if your content is harming or non harming, you’re gonna have to try to BB. I don’t mind answering your questions, but try to frame them better. I understand that might be a language problem. But like, I’m not really getting what you’re saying. Yeah, I’m not sure what doesn’t tell Google that nofollow, in fact, does not tell Google that the site is legit. It tells Google not to count the link for PageRank purposes. Yeah, not to pass allow websites like Wikipedia have such

high Hi. Just an authority according to Google, not according to any other metrics. Like I don’t care about any other metrics. It has so much authority and trust, that it does pass that along. So it’s kind of getting like a vote without passing PageRank. But it doesn’t tell Google that the sight of the did what eventually is going to tell Google whether the site is legit. And whether the content is harmful or not army is what the users transmit to Google and what the but find on your website engagement metrics. Exactly. Yeah, and here’s the thing now, this was five years ago, but um, you know, I remember nofollow links are supposed to not pace pass PageRank. And so older SEO methodology was, you know, that you should always try to build do follow links, and blah, blah, blah, but you have to have a good natural looking link profile. And so you’re you’re not a natural-looking link profile is going to contain a lot of nofollow links, right. I mean, depending on number of links that you have, but there should be a fairly high percentage of nofollow links. I had one client project where somebody was negative SEO in them. And for their primary keyword was a local project. So it was like plumbing plus city, whatever that was, I think it was monascus they’re no longer they hadn’t been a client for years. But I think it was like plumbing Manassas, VA or plumber, Manassas, VA or something like that. Anyways, long story short, somebody was negative SEO in them. And they built 10s of thousands of nofollow links with exact match keyword anchor of that specific keyword. And guess what? The fucking site ranked number one for that. And it was like and I and I wondered what it was and I went straight

Doing some backlink analysis on it trying to figure out what had happened. And all of a sudden I see 10s of thousands of links that I didn’t build. It was 100% exact match. And I’m not telling anybody to do this. But they were nofollow links and they were all exact match anchor text. And I ended up that site ranked number one for that keyword. And I always thought that was the funniest thing because they’re they backfired whatever, that negative SEO or whoever that was, it backfired on them because we ended up ranking the damn site. Now. I never tried to duplicate that I probably should up for testing purposes. But um, but yeah, I just thought it was interesting because I mean, I was just doing like syndication network link. So in other words, you know, publishing content, the same method that I’ve been using for years. And all of a sudden, like the backlink profile, shot up through the roof over the course of like, six weeks or so. And it was 10s of thousands of exact match anchors for one keyword. And it just so happened that ranking number one for that one keyword after that. So I thought that was funny because they say nofollow links don’t really count for anything. And I think that’s bullshit. At least that was years ago. It may have changed since then. Do you want to comment on that at all? Marco? Nanami. We know. Yeah.

Do You Use Google Tag Manager?

All right. Ah, okay. Next is BB. He’s got two more I guess we’re about out of time. So this is good. Good timing. He says do use Google Tag Manager for some reason. If so which tags do you recommend? Yeah, I use Google Tag Manager all the time. Because I’m always running Google ads. I’m setting up remarketing campaigns through Google ads. So I use Google Tag Manager to set up all my Google Ads tags, right. So there’s the conversion linker tag, the remarketing tag, then there’s the conversion, Google Ads conversion tracking tag, I also use Google Tag Manager to set up Google Analytics. So I install the Google Analytics Universal Analytics tracking tag, through Google Tag Manager. I also depending on which type of WordPress theme I’m using, sometimes I set my JSON LD, my structured data, my schema, through Tag Manager as well, that’s not the recommended way to do it. But in some cases, some of the sites that are the WordPress themes that I use, they don’t, they don’t like that the front page isn’t doesn’t have its own like page and WordPress pages. And there’s no way to insert code on it’s it’s odd, I’ve got a couple of themes that I use for local stuff that I just I have to use Tag Manager to add structured data to the homepage, there’s no other way to do it unless I inserted it directly into the theme files, which I don’t want to do. So yeah, I use Tag Manager for all of that stuff.

You know, I love Tag Manager, because it’s really easy to manage, you know, push everything through Tag Manager, and it automatically will deploy to the site. So again, I like Tag Manager, I use it for mostly for Google Ad stuff, but also for a few other things. You can use it to for Facebook, like with Facebook, you can do really advanced stuff with Google Tag Manager that you could not usually do with just the facebook pixel, you know, unless you hacked the code or whatever. So you know, you can throw anything in it, you can still like if you have a hot jar, craft, like if you have whatever, like split testing scripts, like you, you can throw anything at it. And the good news about Google Tag Manager is that it will not it will prevent your website from loading slower because you have all of these scripts directly loading in the page. So I think that you know, I love Google Tag Manager as well using for Facebook for some Facebook events stuff on pixels. But yeah, for sure, definitely.

By the way, this guy His name is Julian or some Julius or I don’t know, I think is Julian anyways, measure school Comm. He’s got fantastic training on Google Tag Manager and analytics. And he’s a total data nerd. Which is, I mean, it’s cool. He’s got a really and it’s, at least it used to be I don’t know if it still is, but he has some free had some free training on Tag Manager when I first started learning how to use Tag Manager, it was through measure school. He’s got a great YouTube channel as well with tons of free content that talks about how to set up analytics and Tag Manager set up Custom Event Tracking with Tag Manager and analytics. So like for example, you can set up like scroll, you know, scroll tracking, like scroll depth tags, so that they fire once a certain scroll-like 25% or 50%. You can set up timer tracking. There are all kinds of cool stuff that you can do with Tag Manager and analytics and measure school. Like he’s got a ton of free stuff on his YouTube channel and on his blog here that will teach you how to do all that stuff. So anytime I have to set something up that I’m not real familiar with, with Tag Manager analytics, I just go to measure school and I find it and it’s great. And again, he’s got a really good YouTube channel as well. So I recommend you check that out.

The last question is it does not matter if it’s prs are article directories. The focus is on the same two links. Okay. I think he’s talking about the question, the first question that he asked and he’s saying that he wants to keep targeting the same two links, whether it’s through press releases or article directories.

And again, I would very I would caution against that BB, because you know, at least our methodology has been set up the SEO shield. And you do all of your external link building to the SEO shield assets or tier one entity assets, right instead of direct to your money site, which is what you keep asking about here. And we don’t recommend that because it’s very easy to set unnatural link profiles. If you’re constantly hammering, especially the same two URLs over and over again, um, you know, I don’t recommend that. So I would, I would highly recommend that you work on, you know, using utilizing the SEO showed, and tier-one entity assets is your link building targets, right, you can pass all the relevancy through how you link from your entity assets back to your money site, but then do all of your external link building to your tier one entity assets so that you’re protecting your money so you don’t run the risk of that unnatural link profile. Does that make sense? Yep. Okay.

Should We List The Entire States Or Only The Cities When Optimizing GMB Profiles?

Uh, Josh says for our GMB profile, and I know we’re out of time guys, last question. For our GMB profile. Should we list the entire states we do business in or just our cities? Well, with GMB, I think you’re only allowed to list up to 20 locations as service area locations. I think it’s 20. Um, so what I do, again, is when I was what I was talking about Josh earlier with, you know, looking at the data here, I just target on a county level, or if perhaps the if it’s a service area business, typically they’ll cover the whole county, but not always the case, right. So I’ll just cover whatever their area is. So for example, I don’t usually Tip Top target. I talked about layering location targeting when you’re setting up Google ads, but and I try to layer inside of Google My Business to a degree like in other words, if a tree service company services, all of Fairfax County, and then there are 23 towns within Fairfax County, but Google limits me my ability in GMB to add only up to 20 service area locations, then I obviously can’t add Fairfax County, and then also add the 23 separate, I’d be over limit. And then also, there are all those zip codes too. So I don’t do that. So in that case, I would do the county and then I would do you know, the primary locations or just the county and that’s it. If that makes sense. What I was talking about for doing this is specifically for ad targeting, but for GMB profile, yeah. Like unless your whole of your service area is an entire state. I wouldn’t list the state as the service area. I would keep it specific to whatever the service area is an all in reality for that particular business. Okay.

All right. Thanks, everybody, for being here. We will see you guys next time, everyone. Thanks

Source: Semantic Mastery Weekly SEO Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 313 published first on your-t1-blog-url

[starkillerscience]

Just a few very quick TLJ notes in relation to my fics:

(Yes, there will be major spoilers for TLJ.)

First off, thank God I’m not able to write fic any more and that I hadn’t decided to wait until this film to continue my Starkiller Science fic following the plot of this most recent film, because it would have been IMPOSSIBLE.  No matter how much I’ve thought about it through the night and into this morning, there is no possible way that I could have included the reader character (Christina Xavier; which is what I will call her for the rest of this post) and still kept the same plot of The Last Jedi.  Second, Kylo Ren had amazing character development for the first 3/4 of the movie and then reverted back to his childish characteristics and just totally destroyed a proper redemption/grey Jedi arc that I had planned.

Like, none of Kylo’s actions would have been possible if he had known that Christina was on board the same ships as Leia.  It would have been too damn much for him.  He already didn’t want to fight because his mum was on board, but having his lover with a Force Bond on board, too?  No.  He wouldn’t have been able to fight, and he wouldn’t have allowed Hux to fire on the ships.  He would have sabotaged something so that the Resistance could get away.

On top of that, I don’t know how I would have incorporated the already existing Force Bond into the bond that Snoke created between Rey and Kylo.  Unless it was a weird three way call the whole time, and I wouldn’t have been able to take myself seriously.

Last, the odds of Christina surviving with the Resistance would have been nill considering that all of like 40 people survived the movie.  I told my friend in the theatre with me that after Laura Dern’s character fucking OBLITERATED Snoke’s ship, and after Hux killed off most of the Resistance, there would have only been enough people on either side to have like a bar brawl or something. idk.

So sticking to TLJ plot for a fic would not have worked, and I’m glad that I had fully developed a plot way ahead of time of how I would want the story to continue if Christina and Talia were there to influence the actions of Kylo and Hux.

My original sequel ideas had the First Order crumble apart under Hux’s leadership, leaving him and Kylo both more or less abandoned by Snoke who then used the Knights of Ren to continue on with a newly formed First Order under Captain Phasma’s command.  The basic plot structure was that Christina would briefly spend time with the Resistance to form a plan for her return to the First Order as a spy.  In that position, she would join Amena as a nurses aide to help with the mass casualties of the First Order, all the while gathering intel on the First Order to send back to Jessika Pava and Poe Dameron.

Meanwhile, Rey would train under Luke, Finn would go and join Rey when she and Luke return, and they would start forming a plan to take down Snoke.  All the while, Kylo would be on the run from the First Order after having largely disappointed Snoke.  Kylo would eventually sneak into the Resistance to beg forgiveness from his mother and try to make things a little bit more right.  During this time Hux and some First Order defectors would also be in hiding, biding their time, though Talia searches for them, finds Hux, and kills him.  Off the top of my head, I can’t remember how she manages to get here because some plot points are fuzzy after 20 months of not writing this fic.

Christina would eventually be found out as a spy and be held in prison on Snoke’s planet, basically being used as a pawn to get Kylo to come back to Snoke.  So Kylo teams up with Rey, Finn, and Luke with the intent of killing Snoke, which they would do in an epic showdown.  This would allow Leia and Luke to restore order to the galaxy, Rey and Finn and Poe could go off and have their beautiful perfect ot3, and Kylo and Christina could just gtfo away from both the First Order and Resistance to start their own lives in a way they most see fit.

The fic would have ended with Leia and Luke going on a trip to visit Kylo and Christina on the planet where they have made a home.  They walk up to the house, giving hugs, so happy to see one another.  And at the very end, Christina hands Leia a little bundle to hold: the newest member of the Skywalker family.

It was going to be dramatic and end cute as all hell.  But my PhD has taken over my entire life, and I also don’t have the motivation to write this, even if I had the time.  So instead, I am going to copy and paste all of my notes below about the sequel.  They are convoluted.  Entire plot points are missing that would have needed to be filled in as I developed the story.  There are run on sentences for days and my own commentary, but I think it pretty much sums up the ideas I had.  Enjoy.

Welcome to the five pages of notes that I took.  Also, if you were wondering what it looks like when I develop a story and am designing it, welcome to that process:

starkiller science sequel: Crescent Base Captives

 (why kylo cut the Bond: On one side, he honestly believes that he’s going to die, and he wanted to shut her out so that she wouldn’t feel his death through the Bond, because that would be so detrimental that it could kill her.  On the other side of things, he figures that if he does survive, he’s going to be facing Snoke and more training, and he doesn’t want her to slip into the Dark side of the Force along with him.  So by blocking the Bond to the fullest of his abilities, he sees it as the only way to truly protect her.)

 christina is trying so hard to adjust to not having contact with kylo and being with the resistance.  She's promisted leia that she will bring her son back, but she has no idea how to actually go about this.  She's a scientist—not a warrior, not a diplomat.  But at the same time, she knows that she has allies.  She is still in contact with Talia to a limited capacity, though Phasma and Amena are harder to reach, and christina isn't sure if she /wants/ to reach them because they're so close to the first order.  Talia doesn't know what to do with herself. She wants to find Hux and bring him closer to her.  She can't let him go, even though she knows that he doesn't love her how she loves him. And with her collection of brains gone and research gone and everything else, she feels like she has been left with nothing.  The first order doesnt need her.  They have bigger fish to fry.  So she leaves and heads back to the academic planet, where she had also studied ten years before you.  She becomes an assistant in a university morgue, where she can teach brain anatomy and dissection to medical students.  She isn't really happy there, but it's something.  She still gets to play with brains, and she's safe.  But she longs for hux.  Longs for things to go back to the way that they were before.

 Christina is trying really hard to get closer to finn and poe and rey.  She sees them as being the only hope of getting kylo back.  She trusts finn fully, but he is slightly wary of her. He knows that she's a good person, but he can't forgive kylo for what he has done, and it's difficult for him to just forgive you supporting him.  But at the same time, he sees you as weak, as scared, and as willing to set things right as him and rey.  So he puts aside his anger at kylo and meets with you in private.  The two of you are on d'qar, sitting in the forest, and he vows that he'll still be your guardian angel.  And you break down crying beside him that you would receive such kindness once again when you least deserved it.

 From there, leia starts to draft a plan.  She and christina go through ideas with finn and poe about what o do with you, but there isn't much they can think of.  You aren't a warrior, aren't a politician. And leia ends up coming up with the idea of you spying and rejoining as a doctor.  It seems like the best idea out there, even though it's really morally conflicting.  Leia decides for you to undergo a bootcamp with some of the newer recruits, so the next two months are spent training physically.  It's a time to work on basic combat, building muscle, just generally getting some skills that she may need later.  She learns how to properly fire her blaster, how to fight hand to hand. She doubts that she will use most of the training, but there's something satisfying to seeing her arms become more muscular and body work better.  She had never worked out before this because she had spent so much time sitting and doing academic work.  “I got a brain work out” she tells Poe, and he laughs at her one night, because he remembers hearing stories from Jessika about her brainy roommate.  Jessika nd Poe and Finn are basically in charge of training Christina when she's not at the bootcamp during the days, and Rey is meanwhile training with Luke.  Sometimes, Christina swears that she can hear Rey's thoughts, but she wonders if she's imagining it just like the bits and pieces she's getting through the Bond from Kylo.

 SHE BECOMES A FUCKING SPY FOR THE RESISTANCE AND IS SENT BACK TO THE FIRST ORDER TO WORK UNDER AMENA.  She calls talia, and it turns out that talia is on her own teaching and generally hating herself.  But she gives her amena's comm and christina calls amena and basically begs for some position in the first order and to come back.  Amena doesn't know that christina will be a spy but thinks that she just wants back with her friends and people she knows or whatever.  Amena is like 'I don't know hwere to put you' and christina convinces her to take her back as an aide.  And so amena obliges but can't guarantee a pay at all.  

 Christina goes back to crescent base and meets with amena's younger cousin, Beatriz, who is also working as an aide.  Beatriz was a former Storm Trooper, but Amena pulled strings to get her into the medical centre since Beatriz was a field medic.  She has the skills and is safer there with Amena.  Beatriz starts to take Christina under her wing to teach her how to do the medical stuff.  Christina catches on quick since she had done some of this stuff during her schooling (like giving immunisations and doing assessments is fucking easy; she can do that. But learning how to give proper stitches and stuff becomes necessary.  And she learns how to use the equipment in the medical centre).

 Meanwhile, christina only feels bits and pieces from Kylo. He's on such a far away part of the galaxy that it's hard to feel much of a connection.  She only gets these fluttering emotions, and she knows that he's hiding from her.  Probably due to snoke.  Snoke gave ren the ultimatum to kill her or han, but he would prefer for them to both be dead so that kylo can delve even further into the darkness.  Especially when considering that killing han didn't work for the plans.  Snoke realises now that he shouldnl't have given ren the choice.  Kylo knows this, and he hates the fact that he's supposed to kill christina.  He sends her emotions every now and then when he thinks he can get past snoke, but it's so minimal that christina starts to wonder if she is imagining the Bond.  

 Kylo has been at the citadel for a couple of weeks, slowly healing.  The tendons of his right shoulder are completely fucked up, and he has limited motion.  He undergoes two different surgeries, leaving his shoulder completely covered in scars and a few screws and electronic tendons now wrapping through the muscle and joint.  It hurts when it rains, hurts to hold his lightsabre, but he works through it anyway. He thinks briefly about whether you feel the same pain (which you do on occasion, but you don't realise that it's when it's raining near kylo; you feel particularly blue and sad on these days. You tell amena that it feels like you have days where everything is raining on you.) and also thinks about how Amena is no doubt trying to recover from the blaster wounds—that is, if she made it out alive.  He hasn't heard a single word from Phasma to know.  Kylo has been kept purposefully in the dark because of snoke.  At first, it's because he is healing, but even after that, kylo understands that he's being trapped.  Snoke doesn't trust him, and he's right not to trust kylo, because kylo is being drawn to the light the longer that he is there.

             “Last time, I made the mistake of giving you an ultimatum,” Snoke sighed. “It was foolish.  I hadn't understood the full extent of your relationship with that woman.  If I had known it was more than lust, more than your desire to fulfil a possessive nature, then I would have forced you to kill her along with your father.  But this time, I will not make that same mistake. This time, you will be given an ultimatum that forces you to act in accordance with my will.”

           Ren swallowed the lump in his throat, already aware of what Snoke was about to ask.

           “This time, you may choose, but it is between her life and your own.  Choose wisely.”

 Though Hux has been in contact with Phasma, trying to get her to take a lot of the reigns of the first order.  She has been made a general, which is awesome, but she's stressed and upset that hux is hardly leaving the citadel.  He meets with her after four weeks, and she's boiling mad. She wants him to stay on the crescent base and finalizer with her and the troopers, but hux wants to keep an eye on kylo as well as get further training from snoke.  Hux sees the starkiller base's destruction as a major blow to his standing, and he fears that snoke will have kylo kill him or will simply eliminate him himself, so he's trying to suck up to snoke, I suppose. Phasma calls him out on this.  He tries to ignore that she is correct.

 At some point, hux falls out of favour with the first order entirely and is kicked out.  He kills the people who try to kill him under snoke's orders, but he knows that it's only a matter of time before he's captured by either the resistance or the first order and killed.  There is absolutely no one he can go to, and his credits have been reposessed by the first order.

 At some point, the first order asks christina to then be a spy on the resistance and like, she's then a double agent and everything is getting really shitty, and she can't keep it up, and one of her transmissions to jessika and leia gets intercepted, and phasma realises just what kind of position christina is in, and she shoves her up against a wall and is like 'DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE?'  and it hurts phasma so much, but she can't hide the transmission.  She is legally obligated to show it to the rest of the captains and generals and even to snoke.  And snoke demands that she be killed.  Phasma is heartbroken, as is amena and talia, so phasma at least sets up a trial.

 Kylo has been with snoke during this time still doing his training and shit, but when he finds out about christina's trial and that she will be killed on a certain date by blaster fire, he loses his shit. Breaking free from snoke's citadel, he makes his way to the crescent base and personally interrupts her trial (think dumbledore when he breaks into harry's trial at the ministry lol).  The Bond reawakens at this moment, and it brings Christina to tears because she can hear him again.  She can see him again.  She can hear his thoughts and how much that he loves her.

 He is furious and threatens to kill everyone there if she is not freed.  Phasma is there and trying to calm him down because they're all under orders from snoke, and he's basically like 'FUCK SNOKE.  SHE'S MINE.'  and one of the captains decides to post-pone the trial for another day, and christina is dragged away in cuffs to a holding cell.  Kylo demands entrance to see her, and through the bars of her prison cell, they finally meet again for the first time in over six months.  He promises that she's not going to die, and she doesn't know how to believe him because this whole situation is hopeless.  Kylo is called away from her, but he refuses to budge.  He won't leave the other side of her prison cell until the next day when her trial is starting up again.  He follows into the court room regardless of what anyone else says, and he interrupts and distracts everyone.  He argues on her behalf, but he doesn't kno what he's talking about.  The fact of the matter is that she's a spy, and nothing he can say will negate that.  As the verdict comes down, he screams out and quotes obi-wan in a new hope when he says that if vader cuts him down he will only come back stronger or whatever.  And christina is dragged away with an execution date set for three days from then.  Kylo follows back to her cell, but it's now being guarded.  He threatens to kill anyone, but the knights of ren are there, now guarding christina because of snoke's orders.  Kylo is furious because this means that his knights have turned against him.  He leaves in a storm of anger, determined now to save christina from the knights and kill snoke.

 From here on out, kylo is officially on an opposite side of the war from everyone else.  Like christina, he is no longer on a side.  He has simply chosen a person.  And it's her.  She is everything.

 Somehow he breaks her out or something idk.  He dumps her on talia's planet for safe-keeping because hiding her seems like a good option while kylo goes out to kill all of his knights.  He's now completely grey.

 Talia and christina don't feel safe because they know that talia is being watched by the first order; they see bazine netal twice and know she's watching them.  Talia makes the decision to quit, and they pack their things in the night and leave for another planet.  Somehow, this leads to them meeting back up with hux after a couple of weeks of hiding. They are only getting little bits and pieces of information that kylo is out fucking things up.  The whole galaxy is under war, and kylo has gone off on his own and is killing high up members of the first order and resistance alike. But you and talia are aware that they are not actually indiscriminate.  He is killing anyone who stands in the way of him and christina being together.  He is killing his knights, killing spies, killing people loyal to snoke.  He kills bazine netal but is heavily injured during the battle with her, thus he isn't able to come rescue chrstina and talia when they finaly meet up with hux again.

 Talia ends up killing Hux by shooting him in the head with a blaster.  this is significant because she destroys his brain.  he trehatens to kill her and it becomes apparent that his freedom means far more than any emotions he had for talia.  talia means nothing to him. he has talia at knifepoint. christina steps in and manages to get him to let talia go. christina has him pinned and he threatens that you can either kill him right there or he will kill both of you and escape.  you know that he is fully capable of doing what he says and ther is no way that even the two of you could get him back to the resistance.  so as you're holding him to the ground with a knife at his throat, that's when talia steps in andshoots him in the fucking face.  christina is splalttered in hux's blood and completely shocked.  there's hardly anything left of his head, and she shakily rolls off of him.  talia is heaving, still holding the blaster in her hand.  "YOU SON OF A BITCH!" she shrieks, and she shoots again where his head should have been, aimed directly at what was once his brain.  she sinks to the ground, sobbing violently. what had once made hux the most fearsome general in the galaxy is now gone—to talia, a brain is the person. Without it, they are no longer real. all that is left are the blood splatters against the ground and the burnt hole in the dirt from the plasma blast.

 They escape, no longer being chased by anyone, and christina decides tha the best course of action is to get talia to the resistance.  She'll be safe there.  Talia is reluctant but she is taken in, though she's a bit of a pariah there because of her background.

 Christina goes back out, this time with help from poe and jessika.  Her goal is to find kylo, who's currently recovering on his own in a shitty inn on some backwater planet, trying to lay low.  The three of them find him, and he has an infection and is kind of out of it. Jessika brings in a med kit, and poe kind of can't believe that he's here, helping the dude who tortured him for information a year before.  But they fix him up becaue they're GOOD DAMN PEOPLE.  And there needs to be a fluffy scene of kylo and christina sharing a room as poe and jessika get their own room in another part of the inn.  And like, sexy kylo times idk.  But damn, we will all be in need by that point.

 Kylo requests that poe and jessika keep christina safe but drop him off at snoke's citadel because he wants to go kill snoke.  They're like 'no, ur hurt and dumb'.  And rey finishes her training around this time and they're like, 'team up with rey'.  Kylo is like 'ew gross no'.  But they team up anyway, and they start to devise a plan with Finn, and the three of them are going to go kill Snoke together with Luke.  Idk.  Something like that.  Meanwhile, poe and jessika are going to launch an offensive against snoke's planet and the final forces under phasma's control who are all around the planet.

 The battle is going on in the air. And then there's the in person battle of the three force sensitive bbs against snoke.  Christina is with leia.  Ships are leaving the finalizer as the battle rages on, and you realise that this will be the end for phasma.  She is the resistance's primary target along with some of the generals and captains of the first order.  Amena refuses to leave phasma, but she makes Beatriz leave, because Amena knows that anyone who stays is going to die there.  Beatriz comms Christina for help, and Christina is like 'I really can't help you. Just lay low.  Get somewhere safe.  And never say that you're from the First Order again.  I'm sorry.  That's all I can do.'  except you actually /can/ do something.  You comm beatriz back as she's crying and tell her to go to eriadu; market 67; the fountain.  She's confused but agrees.  captain harpin maltolpol is with her because I think they're going to get together idk. You comm samson and tell him to go to his usual spot in acouple of days to pick up those idiots.  He does and takes them to his home planet where they go into hiding.  They live happily ever after probably because they're good people at heart.

 Anyway, battle is continuing, and christina is very involved because of the Bond with Kylo.  Rey is kicking ass.  Finn is too for a while but gets injured along with Kylo.  Snoke starts manipulating any metal and wiring in their bodies, and Finn has metal rods in his back from Kylo's attack and Kylo has metal and wiring all through his right shoulder from a battle, so both fo them are kind of down for the count.  And rey is still fighting snoke, and christina kind of transfers into kylo's body and starts fighting.  This is a major parallel to the fight with stratoveer, because she takes kylo's lightsabre and uses it lefthanded as she had in that battle.  She feels like she's really there, just to Rey's right as they both take down Snoke.  And Kylo is cheering her on the entire time and feeding information about fighting. They are essentially sharing his body during the fight, and Snoke starts to realise that he's losing.  And Rey kicks him and uses the force to take away his lightsabre, and then christina gives kylo his body back, and he beheads snoke with his left arm and then drops down, realising that this is all over. He's done it.  And rey runs to finn.  Just as this battle has ended, the finalizer is critically damaged by poe, and it's only a matter of minutes before it all explodes, which will take out parts of the citadel planet.  So then kylo, rey, and finn all have to run to escape back to their ship, which rey pilots away as the boys sit in the back all injured and dumb and whatever.  Idk where luke was during this lol.

 The finalizer explodes, and everyone heads back to the resistance base on d'qar, and kylo falls to his knees before leia, asking for forgiveness.  She hugs him and doesn't even know what to say, because he has redeemed himself, and she's so happy that he's capable of love.  But she also knows that he is wanted by the new republic.  Christina comes over, and leia knows that the two of you must leave.  She says that they'll all be in touch, but she shushes them away and makes them promise to keep hidden.  Kylo nods. After all of the shit that he's gone through, nothing sounds better.  Kylo gets fixed up since his shoulder is shit, and then in the dead of night, they board a ship, heading for who knows where.

 Christina ends up taking kylo back to her original home planet, which is coincidentally where samson is now living. It's warm.  Sunny.  Bright. She hasn't been there since she was 17 and had left for university.  Kylo asks if she wants to visit her family but she shakes her head.  They were never close, and it wouldn't do any good to show up. They most likely believed that she was dead, and that was fine.  Besides, she has a new family.  It's kylo. It's leia.  It's talia.  Beatriz. They end up telling beatriz and harpin to join them on the planet after a little while, and though they don't live that close to one another, it's nice to know that there are other people in hiding with them.  A few people end up knowing that kylo and christina are there—leia, talia, jessika, poe, etc.  they occasionally visit.    THAT OR THEY GO TO SAMSON'S HOME PLANET.  I think this would make more sense??

 Talia works for the resistance and new republic, doing research.  She finally seems happy.

 The fic ends with kylo burying his hands into the earth, and christina is bringing a potted plant over to him with Pickles rubbing up against her leg.  They are planting it beside a house that they built from hand.  It's earthy and so incredibly opposite from the starkiller base, which had been dark and rocky.  There is beautiful metal work, which christina has done with the Force in her artistic metal bending and whatnot.  A ship flies by, and you look up, recognising it.  It parks just over a hill, and a few minutes later, Leia walks up with Luke following shortly behind.  Christina runs over to her, giving a hug as Luke gives Kylo a pat on the upper arm before Kylo hugs his mother.  They are standing there in the dirt path before their house, greeting, and Leia mentions, “Now, while I love seeing my son and daughter-in-law, I believe you owe me another introduction.”  and all four of you go inside the house to see a cooing little girl in a crib beneath an open window, light pouring upon her.  Leia holds her grand-daughter for the first time, and there are tears in her eyes.  The scene ends with the two of them as Leia rocks the infant in her arms, seeing through time to when she did the same with Ben.

[suzanneshannon]

Love in a time of Corona Virus - Tips, Tricks and Best Practices for Working Remotely

In this time of the Corona Virus and COVID-19, Microsoft has taken the unprecedented move of shutting down their Seattle campus. No one goes in to work until March 25th. That means they're all remote workers! Like me! For 13 years!

Do note that I am deeply sympathetic for the situation we all find ourselves in and I'm deeply aware of the privilege we have as tech/desk workers to be able to do our jobs remotely. I am also (dare I say) looking forward to what I believe will be a dramatic increase in Remote Worker Empathy on the part of the in office folks.

Check out my previous posts on being remote and explore the Remote Work category if you like.

Good, Better, Best creating the ultimate remote worker webcam setup on a budget

Tragedies of the Remote Worker: "Looks like you're the only one on the call"

30 Tips for Successful Communication as a Remote Worker

Virtual Camaraderie - A Persistent Video "Portal" for the Remote Worker

I also want to showcase some of the great tips and suggestion for remote work that are being shared. Here's tips from our own Adrian Murphy who has shared them internally at the company and has given me permission to share them externally. You can follow Adrian on Twitter and thank him his team for sharing all this information and for their kindness!

These tips are written in the context of using Microsoft Teams (which has an extraordinary free plan, BTW) but you can replace those references with Zoom/Skype/Whatever and the tips are the same.

Tips, Tricks and Best Practices for Working Remotely

Working remote can be quite a shift from being in the office, and sometimes the things you take for granted in person suddenly become massive inconveniences when working remotely. Whether this is your first time being remote or you're a remote superstar from the Antarctica office, this collection of tips and best practices may help you get settled.

Communication

Be mindful of time zones. Your middle of the day may be someone’s 3:00 am, so when scheduling calls or pinging via Teams, don’t forget to take into account the time zone differences for all involved.

Turn on your video when on a call with your team (there’s a bunch of communication which is non-verbal). Occasionally show off your pets on said video. It’s the little things that make it all feel more human.

Some might have reduced bandwidth. Consider turning on video at the beginning during intro and turning it off during important parts if you experience hiccups.

During calls, make sure to wait a few extra seconds when asking if folks online have any comments. It can take time for folks to un-mute themselves, and sometimes things can chug or hiccup. It’s not as instant as it is face to face, so you don’t want to move on before folks can even get a word out on a call.

Some headsets have a hardware mute button and different conference software has hotkeys for mute/unmute. That can make it faster to unmute yourself.

If you are in a room full of people with a conference mic, speak loudly and clearly regardless of where you are sitting. While folks in the room may be able to hear you fine from 6-10 feet away, the conference room mic registers barely a whisper for those dialing in.

Mute your mic in big meetings, in small meetings it’s up to you—an unmuted mic will also give some of the incidental non-verbal (but vocal) indicators of what you’re thinking/feeling.

If you plan to present, prepare for meetings ahead of time by pre-loading web pages, powerpoints, or other presentation materials. During larger calls Teams can sometimes get bogged down, esp with many video sources at once, and this will cause the rest of your software to run slower. Having a room of 15+ people watch a web page load for 30 seconds is a great way to lose friends.

Summarize action items or conclusions in the call for everyone when one has been reached. Finalizing a conversation by summarizing the key take away is a great way to make sure the information is correct, and allows the folks on the call have a chance to hear it and respond if need be before the meeting moves on.

If you are leading/proctoring a meeting, be prepared to play switchboard operator if multiple people speak up at once. In person we use social cues and body language to naturally reach a speaking order, in a remote call someone is going to have to make sure only one person is speaking at a time, but also that everyone gets heard eventually. It can be as simple as “why don’t we have person A speak first, then person B” and let the conversation flow from there.

If someone has something to say but is waiting their turn, and the conversation veers in a different direction for a few mins, make sure to check back with the person who was waiting. It’s possible their comment was addressed during the course of that conversation, but don’t assume so. Offer them the chance to speak before the meeting moves on.

If you are presenting from your machine remotely, ZOOM IN. What looks fine to you on a home monitor may be microscopic on a projected screen in a room of 20 people. You can use the free ZoomIt tool from SysInternals and draw on the screen if you like.

If possible/acceptable, record meetings in Teams. This allows folks who weren’t able to attend, or may have otherwise missed a moment in the meeting due to a bandwidth hiccup, to catch up after the fact. Add the video link to your meeting notes when sending out (Teams will usually finish processing a recorded video within 10-15 mins of capturing it, and sends a notification to you in outlook that it’s ready).

Keep on top of your mails and Teams inboxes. If people can’t walk up to tap you on the shoulder, this is your only interface with your colleagues. Consider enabling pop up notifications or flashing task bar indicators for when you have unread messages.

Likewise, be aware that Teams chat is async by nature, just like e-mail. Expect more delay than when you walk to someone’s desk to ask them a question.

Never forget that there’s a real person behind every email address, Teams message, and DevOps Tickets.

You may have to “read the room” more as a remote worker. You may not be able to see someone’s body language to know whether or not they are joking, smiling, or upset about something.

It’s okay to take calls in casual clothes if you're comfortable and able. Don’t wear anything that’s offensive, explicit, etc - use your best judgment - but don’t feel like you have to get super dressed and be uncomfortable all day. Enjoy being home and wear your sweatpants!

It’s okay to eat on calls if it’s your dinner or lunch time, we do it all the time in the Boston office! Just mute your mic, chewing sounds are gross!!!!

Equipment

Make sure that you machine is properly enrolled in Intune and has VPN access before attempting to work from home

Make sure you have at least one of your comm tools (email, teams, slack) on your phone in addition to your laptop, so that you can let people know whats up if you lose power/internet at your home.

Keep your laptop batteries charged.

Get mobile with unlimited data if possible.

Stock up on necessary dongles, adapters, cords, and wires. Lack of necessary connectors can decrease your productivity.

Consider a headset for calls, specially ones with an easy to access mute button and fold down mic. It really can improve the quality of your audio. Webcams, specially those not at keyboard level (pointing up your nose) are also important.

Lifestyle

Take a little time to make your work environment pleasant. If you’re working in a mop closet with no windows, or the spare-room-equivalent thereof, you probably won’t be that productive. We’re complex beings. Put a plant on your desk, get some music going, clean.

You may wish to have a conversation with your kids that goes something like this: “Now, when I’m at my desk this week, it means I’m working. I can be interrupted a little bit sometimes, but most of the time I’ll need to be able to concentrate.”

You may wish to choose a work place in your house with a door to make this more explicit for children. “When this door is shut I am at work and you need to find your other parent”

EAT. You’ll forget to eat when you’re not surrounded by huge cafeterias or a team of people asking you what you want to do for lunch.

Working remotely can be lonely sometimes. Find a way to reproduce the feeling of that office chatter, or the casual hallway/water-cooler conversation. Music, podcast, background TV noise (when appropriate), etc.

Get some fresh air from time to time. Normally when you’re at the office you’re walking to/from the office and from your building to the cafeteria for coffee or lunch so you get outside quite a bit, but when working from home and the kitchen is just downstairs, you can very easily go a few days without actually leaving the house. It doesn’t need to be far, and with COVID19 around it probably shouldn’t be, but maybe sit on your porch while you drink your coffee, it helps clear the lungs and the head.

Good light is important. Having good lighting closer to natural light wavelengths makes the environment much more pleasant.

Build a routine of specific cues to help you switch into “work mode”. For example, you may still get dressed as you would if you were heading into the office to put you into the right mindset for the day.

Get interesting drinks and snacks!!! If you drink 12 cans of seltzer a day, make sure you have seltzer in your fridge. If you like getting peanut M&Ms from the team room at 2pm, grab some for your home! You’d be surprised how boring your regular drinks are when you’re used to fridges filled with flavorful things and a huge tea selection etc.

Things to avoid

If you are in a meeting room with other folks, try to keep side conversations and noises to a minimum. Imagine you are sitting in the center of the table and hear the things closes to the mic the loudest, because that’s how it is for anyone calling in.

Don’t sit right next to the microphone if you are going to be taking notes on a loud keyboard. It will drown out every voice in the room.

Don’t disclose sensitive information if there are others in your home office when you’re in a meeting. Generally speaking, it’s better to be using headphones if others are around.

Don’t direct a question to more than one individual at a time. This can be mildly awkward in person, but over a call it becomes nearly impossible to figure out who will speak first without any of the visual/bodily cues we normally rely on to resolve speaking order conflicts.

Don’t use whiteboards unless they are clearly visible to the room camera (and even then it can be tricky to see). Digital mediums present in Teams are always going to be superior for folks who are calling in.

What are your tips?

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      Love in a time of Corona Virus - Tips, Tricks and Best Practices for Working Remotely published first on https://deskbysnafu.tumblr.com/

[arielsojourner]

Part 11 of Luke and Vader Save the Galaxy. Previous parts found under the tag #fatherandsonsavethegalaxy or #lukeandvadersavethegalaxy on my tumblr page.  Since this has morphed from sharing crack head canons into some sort of story told in scene format (I may actual have to clean this up and post it somewhere, I haven’t written a fan fic in over 10 years), this won’t make much sense without the other parts but if you do want to read this out of order, all you need to really know is Luke and Vader travel back in time to the clone wars and rescue everyone.

-The Temple is on fire. Rex and his men have managed to hold back most of the attack, but there are gaps in the shield and the outer walls are collapsing and chip controlled trooper are getting in on the west side of the plaza.  General Windu is suddenly beside him, ordering him to take his weapon off stun, to meet the attack with lethal force and press forward, Windu leading the way. Rex refuses.

“I don’t think you heard me, Captain!” Windu yells over the sound of battle. “We are pressing the advance and getting the Guard away from the Temple. Weapons must go hot. Order the men to shoot to kill and follow behind me as I lead them away from the Temple,” Mace repeats himself.

“I heard you the first time, sir. The answer is no. Please retreat back into the Temple proper. This area is under GAR control.” Rex will not kill his brothers if he can help it, never again. “Boomer! Waxer and Boil report the west line has broken. Send two squads!”

Windu turns, incredulous and grabs the shoulder of a nearby trooper pushing back a Guard member. “Trooper! Shield down and weapons hot. We are pressing the attack!”

Jesse shoves back the chipped brother and yells over his shoulder “Go to hell, sir!” and process to use his shield and baton to knock his attacker to the ground and into unconsciousness.

“Sir, I must insist you retreat back into the Temple,” Rex demands. “You are interfering with our operations.” He knows he cannot force the General or stop him if he wants to attack the Guard, but he will not comply. Windu looks from clone trooper to clone trooper fighting back their brothers who are attacking with deadly intent. He shakes his head and ignites his saber, but backs away to the ruins of the outer wall. Any Guards who get past the line he cuts down and kills.

Behind Mace Windu, Jedi young and old stand just within the wall and Rex dies a little inside each time he sees one of his brothers fall to a saber blade. This is torture of the most acute kind. It is Krell all over again. He tries to get ahold of himself, to shake it off, but it is so hard. He yells to his brothers to hold the line because any trooper that they cannot stop through non lethal means will meet death inside the Temple at the hands of the Jedi Order.

-In the airspace above Coruscant, Ahsoka takes a page out of her master’s playbook. Their cruiser is failing and will soon be destroyed. Kickback and Oddball have done what they can with ion bombs and fighters but it has not been enough. She orders everyone to abandon ship and get to Master Plo’s cruiser and she will maneuver her ship into place like a physical shield blocking any further orbital bombing of the Temple. She looks up and Commander Cody is still beside her on the bridge. She orders him again to leave, and he refuses. If she stays, he stays. She smiles at him through the smoke filling the bridge and together they turn the ship to protect the surface below.

-At the Senatorial Apartments, Padme has the babies tied in a sling to her chest, and is crouched down inside the ‘fresher tub, blasters in each hand.  Artoo and Threepio are pressed against the closed ‘fresher door, blocking it with their metal bodies being as much as a barrier as they can. She can hear Anakin and Obi-Wan and the clones fighting, she can hear her husband screaming. The babies are whimpering and she speaks to them softly as the room shakes and plaster from the ceiling rains down. “Shh, shh, little ones. Mommy’s here, Mommy’s here. Daddy will protect us, Daddy is fighting for us. Obi-Wan is helping. The clones are helping. Shh, don’t cry, don’t cry. We’ll be all right.”

-Anakin and Obi-Wan fight shoulder to shoulder using the Force and maiming cuts whenever possible as the Coruscant Clone Guard attempts to destroy the apartment complex, kill Padme and take the babies. Brothers fight brothers, and Senatorial guards, and assassin droids that attempt to enter through the elevator and stair wells, the ruined balcony, and even scaling up the building or down from the roof.

The holoscreen is still on, though it has crashed to the floor, but Anakin has heard enough even over the sound of battle to know it was Palpatine. Palpatine, his mentor and friend, the man he thought he could trust with his life, who made him believe that all the fighting, sacrifice, and bloodshed was worth it, has betrayed them all. This is the man who has made a mockery of all the death and suffering of the past three years, who has sent men and droids to kill his wife and take his children. Anakin has given his all, has committed totally to the war, to the safety of the Republic, to protecting the people and it means nothing, nothing! It was all worthless. The knowledge feels like a vibroblade to the chest. His whole world seems to be crumbling around him. Nothing makes sense, it is like he is in free fall, the Force feels so far away and fury threats to take over and have him slaughter everyone, everyone who dares attack his family.

It is only Obi-Wan’s presence at his side that gives him the strength to hang on to sanity by his fingernails when all he wants to do is let the red curtain of rage fall over his eyes and hurt everyone else for hurting him and his loved ones. Obi-Wan keeps up a stead stream of talking and sometimes shouting over the sound of blaster  fire, and whoever it is who keeps screaming, (someone keeps screaming, screaming in Basic and Hutteese) telling Anakin that he can’t wait to spend time with the children, how he hopes they are holy terrors and give Anakin at least the same amount of grief he gave Obi-Wan growing up, how strong in the Force they are, how Anakin couldn’t have picked a more lovely woman to be his wife than Padme, how Obi-Wan could not be prouder of him as a man, as a friend, as a Jedi, as a teacher, as a warrior, how Obi-Wan loves him like a brother, how he has to stand firm, don’t choke them, Anakin please, try and remember, the children and Padme need you, I’m here, dear one, I’m right here, hold on, Anakin, Force please, just hold on!

-For Luke, this fall is almost as painful as the fall from the gangway in Cloud City. The Sith Master clawing at him, lighting coursing out of his fingertips. The pain is agonizing, he can barely reach for the Force to slow their descent. He feels his father’s Force grip yank him free from Palpatine’s grasp and then his father’s arms are around him, holding him tight as they hit the ground. Somehow, Luke still has his lightsaber and he wastes no time staggering to his feet, pushing past the pain and igniting the blade just in time to block another lightning attack. Vader circles around the Sith Master, trying to pen him in between the two of them. Hardcase and Fives rush to join them and they circle the Sith, waiting for an opening.

The Force sends a warning nearly a second too late and Hardcase turns to block blaster fire from Senatorial Guards in sniper position. He blocks most but one catches him in the leg and another in the shoulder. Fives rushes to defend him and Sidious steals a saber and slashes Fives in the back. Luke prevents the killing blow and Vader hammers Palpatine back with punishing strokes.  Luke begins to drag the men out of the line of fire and there is Chatterbox leaping down to join them, pulling his brothers aside and blocking further blaster fire, ricocheting the bolts back to the attackers. Luke throws himself back into the fight.

--Slice and his team have been having a grand time the past months, robbing the Trade Federation and the Banking Clan and all the corporate guilds blind, hacking the code of the inhibitor chips, and using backdoor codes to shut the Seperatists down.  But now he, Gin, Wires, Mal, and Uni have to slice the entire Holonet galaxy wide and the Senatorial security feed and the Supreme Chancellor’s computer and back ups and they have to do it now before brother kills brother all over the galaxy and the Jedi are massacred and the friends all die fighting the Sith Master.

No pressure.

“Do we have the code to shut off the kill order or not?” Gin yells.

“There is too much, he has files buried within files,” Mal spits. “The worm is having trouble locating it.”

“We are running out of time!”

“There!” Uni says. “Patch me in to all comms via the satellites.”

“You mean the ones Kickback hasn’t blown up!” Mal complains.

“We have to switch the holo feed. We have eyes on them in the Senate Plaza,” Wires orders. “Slice?”

“Got it. Uni, broadcast the signal!”

-All GAR communicators spit out an incomprehensible screech of noise. At the Temple, the clones chipped and free stagger and some rip off their helmets from the pain, but when the noise ceases the attacking clones stop and stagger and drop their guns. Some vomit. Some look ready to turn their weapons on themselves. Others rush to help brothers that just a moment before they were trying to kill. The call for medics fill the air. The Jedi guarding the Temple stand down. Rex yanks off his bucket and sucks in great noisy breaths of air. He looks out into the dusk and falling night towards the Senate District where weapons fire continues. He calls for Jesse and a few others to get a transport here now.

-The turbolasers fall silent and Ahsoka staggers across the listing deck to helm control. She has spent enough time flying and crashing with her Master that she is sure she can land what is left of the ship on Coruscant. Cody hurries to strap himself in. “Are you sure you know what you are doing, Commander?” he asks as she takes the controls.

“I’ve seen Master Skywalker do this at least a dozen times,” She tells him as they begin their descent (begin to fall really, but Anakin always said attitude was important when flying, so descent it was).  

Cody shakes his head and braces himself. “That doesn’t fill me with a lot of comfort, sir.”

-When the chipped clone troopers fall and stop fighting and the last of the Senatorial Guard are dispatched, Obi-Wan puts away his weapon and grabs Anakin. Anakin, who is smashing an already destroyed assassin droid to bits, screaming obscenities. Obi-Wan pulls Anakin’s saber from his grasp and pins his apprentice’s arms to his side and yanks them both backward, holding his Padawan and trying desperately to reach his dearest friend with his words, with the Force, with his physical presence. Anakin finally stops struggling only to collapse on the floor, dragging Obi-Wan with him. He shakes violently and then as if some invisible hand is ripping into him, Anakin sobs, deep wretched cries. Kix moves to help, but Obi-Wan directs him with a shake of his head to see to the fallen troopers. Echo yanks off his helmet and takes one terrified look at his broken General and rushes to get Padme and the babies. 

Obi-Wan holds onto Anakin as tightly as he can, whispering soothing nonsense in his ear, hoping that this will be enough. The holoscreen flickers and security footage from the Senate Plaza now fills the screen and the sound of lighting strikes, screams, and lightsabers crashing blasts from the speakers.

-Luke and his father have never practiced fighting together but that doesn’t seem to matter, they move in tandem. He goes low and manages a hit to Palpatine’s leg and Vader moves in for the kill only for Force lighting to arc through him at close range. Vader drops his saber, his prosthetics shorting and sparking and Palpatine slashes out. Vader roars in pain and Luke uses the Force to shove his father clear so the blow maims, but does not kill. Luke blocks and parries, and finds his opening, slicing off Sidious’ hand. Maddened by pain, the Sith throws out great arcs of lightening, striking furiously around the Plaza. Luke goes down with a cry as his flesh begins to cook from the inside out.  In the distance over his own cries of agony he can hear Sidious gleefully cackling about power. It seems so far away and Luke can feel himself slipping away.

Palpatine’s sadistic joy seems to fill the air as much as the scent of ozone and burning. He is so engrossed in murdering the Jedi that he misses the dark shape of Vader looming out of the evening dusk behind him. Vader impales Sidious with one vicious stroke and then both he and the would-be-Emperor fall.

Luke finds the strength to look up only to be blinded by the explosion of Dark pouring out of the Sith’s body as he dies.