#a. is about yesterday's post here and the answer is r/collapse

[elainemorisi]

a) if you would like to indulge in probably overblown panic about world events, do I have the spot on the internet for you

b) are people like, actually commonly incapable of seeing somebody say something they (observer) believes, to a somewhat informed degree, to be probably just catastrophizing and like... dismissing it?

[ninacentauri]

if you have no clue what’s going on with $gme, short-selling hedge funds, robinhood app, r/wallstreetbets, and why this is all so important, check out this comment by u/PlayFree_Bird from reddit. i’ve copied and pasted it here for your convenience.

for those holding gme (and nokia, bb, amc and so on) stocks, we are all so collectively stoked and proud of what’s happening. we wish you all great returns. besides, gme is a promising company imo. i totally get why some people are in it for the long haul. [disclaimer: i’m not a financial advisor] godspeed!

-nina

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

comment by u/PlayFree_Bird:

I'm glad this place has quieted down enough for some actual DD written by a monkey with a keyboard and Adderall.  Disclaimer: I am that monkey.   Let me explain to you what happened, play by play.  I will give you illiterates who hate reading a spoiler up front: We were within approximately 30 seconds of triggering a nuclear bomb that would have blown up the market. Do I have your attention?  Here goes:

Yesterday, new call option strike prices were added all the way up to $570.  Do I have to go over gamma squeezes again?  Really?  We've been over this: when deep out-of-the-money call options start being gobbled up and the price starts moving towards being in-the-money, the call writers have to hedge their risk of having their sold calls exercised, typically by buying stock.  This creates upwards pressure on the market.  We've been seeing these movements all week.

Yesterday after market, you probably saw that coordinated effort to drive the price down and spook retail investors into a mass sell-off.   It didn't work.

Last night, Robinhood sent out a message to users: you could no longer enter into new options.  You could exercise them if you had the collateral (money in the account) to do so.  Very interesting and the first sign of pants-shitting fear.

Today, the market opened very strong.  It opened so strong that we were looking at a self-perpetuating gamma squeeze all the way up way past $570.

At approximately 9:58 am, the stock had reached $468 in a parabolic move.

Two minutes earlier, at 9:56 am, Robinhood tweeted that they were not allowing users to buy GME stock, but they would allow selling.

The trend instantly halted and started a collapse downwards, before picking up a bit, especially after some retail was allowed back in.

Okay, now that you are clear on the facts, understand this: The market ran out of liquidity today, or was threatening to get close enough that they killed it.  What does that mean?  It means they ran out of shares and/or capital. They wouldn't let you buy new shares because we were burning through all the shares on the market.  I saw an unsubstantiated post from a user who said a small sell limit order executed at $2600 for him.  Do you get the severity of the situation, if that's true?  It means the buying was getting to the point where it was just about to put INFINITE pressure on the price of the shares.  It means virtually any ask was getting bid.

How do you get infinite upwards pressure?  A gamma squeeze triggering the mother of all short squeezes, just like we predicted.  The call writers need shares to hedge.  Retail is still buying more.  The short sellers need over 100% of the float back.  Add these together.  There were more shares needed than existed on the open market.  That's what a liquidity crisis is.

Listen to this remarkable (if infuriating) interview where the chairman of Interactive Brokers admits that they didn't have the capital to pay out the winners (us), so they took their ball and went home.  DO YOU GRASP HOW INSANE IT IS THAT HE SAID THEY NEEDED TO SHUT DOWN BUY ORDERS TO "PROTECT THE MARKET"? Hello!  He's not talking about the market for GME shares.  He's talking about the entire market!  The New York Stock Exchange.  The NASDAQ.   All that.

Remember the movie Snowpiercer?  Do you remember that scene where the lower class people realize the soldiers who oppress them have no bullets?  Go to the 1:00 minute mark of this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH1EtiOhr6o

It kick starts a full blown rebellion.  They have no bullets.  It's the exact same in this market:  No capital.  No shares.  Infinite losses inbound.

TL;DR: For all you who will just skip to the bottom to ask, "Do I get my tendies now?" the answer is this: they NEED NEED NEED your shares.  Do you get that?  HOLD.  Like the guy in the movie, scream, "They're out of bullets!" and create a stampede.  That's how we win.

They needed your shares so badly that they literally risked PRISON TIME to get them.  They tried robbing you, and I'm not even exaggerating.  They were within 30 seconds of all being wiped out today.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

[patchwork-panda]

If A Moment Is All We Are (34/?)

AO3 link HERE

S1 OP2

I let go of Dazai and scrambled to my feet.

What was that...? That ominous feeling?

“Kusunoki-san!”

I looked up to see Atsushi rushing towards me with a roll of paper towels in his hand.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his golden eyes wide.

“I’m fine, Atsushi-kun,” I mumbled, watching the ink from Kei’s suicide note run down the page and drip onto the floor. “Sorry for scaring you...”

“That’s okay! Here, let me help.”

As Atsushi and I began mopping up the mess, I glanced down at the remnants of the mug on the floor. It had landed directly on its side, at Dazai’s feet, and split open against the tiles. From this angle, it looked like a rectangle of stained white ceramic sticking out of the bright green flooring...

Kind of like Kei’s headstone sticking out of that patch of grass in the cemetery.

I frowned.

No, not like Kei’s. Kei’s grave hadn’t been so isolated; he, like countless others, had been buried in a neatly organized row that stretched all the way across the terraced hillside as far as the eye could see.

The mug sticking out of the ground looked more like...

A soft breeze from one of the open windows whispered through my hair and as I looked up to see which one it was, a thin ribbon of dull white floating in the air caught my eye.

“That’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time...”

Dazai blinked at me as I peered up at him.

He seemed completely unaware of the fact that one of the bandages around his wrist was slowly unraveling in the breeze.

“I wouldn’t mind telling you what I know... about that man...”

I stopped wiping at the tea on floor.

That’s right...

“Something on your mind,” Dazai asked, his brown eyes sparkling as they met mine, “Kusunoki-kun?”

The broken down mug looked a lot more like the single lonely grave that stood by itself under the shade of the tree on the hill.

The grave of “S. Oda.”

I slowly got to my feet.

“Dazai-san?”

“Yes?”

I paused for a moment as he looked at me expectantly.

“Do you remember when you pulled me out of the car, after Akutagawa attacked me?”

“How could I forget?” Dazai chuckled, tucking his hands into his pockets and leaning back against his own desk. “You let me pull you into my lap and you didn’t complain one bit—”

“That’s not what I want to talk about,” I said quickly, flushing slightly as a passing Tanizaki shot me an odd look. “I actually want to ask you about the thing you said just before I passed out.”

Dazai raised an eyebrow.

“Oh?”

He placed one hand on my desk and leaned in a little, suddenly looking at me with an unusual amount of interest.

“...Which thing?” he asked, his voice oddly dry.

“Y-you know,” I stammered, looking away from his unusually intense stare.

Unable to face him, I turned away and went back to cleaning up my desk area, my face suddenly much warmer than before as I finished wiping off the surface of my desk. I could still feel Dazai’s eyes on me as I waved goodbye to Atsushi, who was setting off for the client booth at a pretty brisk pace. And when I turned back around, I realized that Dazai hadn’t taken his eyes off me the entire time.

My legs suddenly felt weak.

It’s like he forgot that there was anyone else in the room with him...

I swallowed.

“Do you remember what you said?” I asked, wishing I could loosen the ribbon around my neck without Dazai noticing. “About the man Akutagawa mentioned?”

I paused for a moment.

“You know, Oda-san?”

Dazai stiffened.

Looks like I remembered correctly...

I watched as he shifted back a little, away from me, his coffee-brown eyes going dark.

He does know something...

“Oda-san, huh...” he mused, tilting his head to the side as he looked past me, through me, seemingly deep in thought.

“That’s right,” I pressed, confused by the abrupt change in atmosphere.

Atsushi had closed the window on his way out towards the client booth and although the wind was no longer blowing throughout the office, it suddenly felt much cooler by our shared work space than before.

“You seemed to know Akutagawa from before. And from the way you talked that day, it sounded like you knew something about ‘Oda-san,’ as well. Dazai-san...”

I stepped forward, trying to catch the tall brunette’s gaze as he suddenly took notice of the bandages unraveling around his wrist and began re-wrapping them once more.

“Do you think you could tell me what you know about Oda-san? Anything at all?”

“I could...” Dazai said slowly, his eyes still trained on his forearm as he continued bandaging it up.

He pursed his lips.

“Let me think for a minute.”

Cautiously, I waited in silence with bated breath until Dazai finished tucking his bandages in place and looked up at me at last.

He smiled.

“I guess I could tell you a thing or two about the man named Oda,” Dazai said, tucking his hands back into his pants pockets.

“If that’s what you really want.”

“It is,” I said in a rush. “Thank you so much—”

“But, Kusunoki-kun,” Dazai said, interrupting me.

Tilting his head to the side, he shot me a curious look.

“Why are you asking me about Oda-san all of a sudden? Did something happen during your case that reminded you of him?”

I faltered.

“Kind of,” I admitted, scratching my cheek. “You see, when I followed Professor Matsuyama yesterday, I ended up following him to a cemetery, on the other side of the bay.”

Dazai nodded.

“Go on.”

“And while I was there, I passed by this grave...”

“Uh-huh.”

Dazai’s gaze was steady.

“Keep going.”

I bit my lip.

“Right. There was this grave in the cemetery and it was marked ‘S. Oda.’ I was wondering...”

I trailed off.

The longer I spoke, the more ridiculous my question seemed. I was beginning to wonder if I should just give up and stop, but something about the way Dazai was looking at me made me think that I wasn’t as far off the mark as I thought I was.

I took a tiny breath in and asked.

“Dazai-san, is it possible that the man Akutagawa mentioned and the man buried on the hill are the same person?”

Dazai remained quiet.

“I mean,” I stammered, heat slowly blooming in my cheeks. “They’re—they’re both d-dead. Right?”

Silence reigned.

I heard a phone ringing for a moment in the background before Kyouka abruptly picked it up and answered it in her quiet, expressionless voice.

I looked away and flushed.

“I... I’m sorry,” I mumbled, covering my face in mortification. “Y-you’re right, that was stupid. The logic, it just—there’s so many people out there named Oda—!”

“I didn’t say anything,” Dazai said, sounding so calm that it only made me feel even more embarrassed.

I heard a clunk and glanced over just in time to see Dazai heave all of the electrical cables he’d collected before onto his chair. He dusted off his hands and looked up at me.

“How do you know the person buried on the hill is a man?” he asked.

My face feels so hot, I probably look like a tomato right now.

“I...”

I collapsed into my chair and let my burning face fall back into my hands.

“I don’t.”

“Ah, well then.”

And with that, Dazai grabbed a couple of the extension cables, stuck them in his vest and wandered off.

“If you don’t have any more questions for me,” he said, heading towards the inner hallway, where the locker room and break rooms were, “then I’ll get back to doing what I was doing.”

“Hey, wait!” I cried, scrambling to my feet.

I raced after him.

“Dazai-san, wait!!”

Cursing under my breath as I smacked into Tanizaki, I pushed him aside and ran out of the main office, chasing after that tall, bandaged form as he disappeared down the hallway.

“Dazai-san, where are you going?!”

My Oxfords squeaked noisily against the floor as I screeched to a halt just outside the break room. Dazai hadn’t bothered to turn the lights on when he’d gone in and it was only thanks to the sudden sparks from the miniature stove igniting that I was able to spot him standing inside. The bandaged brunette turned to me just as I stepped through the door and as he lifted the tea kettle onto the stove, I tried to turn on the lights, only to find that they were now broken.

I squinted at him through the gloom.

“What are you doing?”

“Making tea.”

And to demonstrate, he reached inside the uppermost cabinet and took out a small paper packet of black tea.

“Want some?” he asked, shaking the packet at me.

“No, thanks,” I mumbled, suddenly realizing with a stab of guilt that I hadn’t made him a cup earlier, even though I’d passed them around to everyone else.

It’s because he wasn’t in the room until just now...

But I’d made a cup for Kunikida and as I watched Dazai tear open the packet and lift out the teabag, I tried not to notice that the miniature thermos I’d set aside for the tall blonde detective was sitting right by the tea kettle. There was even a post-it note with Kunikida’s name on it...

Tearing my eyes away from the incriminating evidence, I tried to put a smile on my face and focused on Dazai.

“Um...”

“What is it, Kusunoki-kun?” he asked, glancing back up at me with a grin.

Although it seemed like he was completely unaware of the presence of the thermos, it was only a few centimeters away from his right hand. I chewed my lip.

“You have another question for me?” he asked, reaching right past it and pouring himself a cup of hot water.

I faltered.

“Uh...”

Did I?

Now that I think about it, why did I follow him all the way out here?

“N-not really,” I mumbled sheepishly, turning to go. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bother you...”

“Oh, Kusunoki-kun,” Dazai chuckled, dunking his tea sachet into the mug. “I could never think of you a bother. Please.”

He waved his re-bandaged hand casually in the air.

“If there’s something you want to ask me, go right ahead. I’m always available when there’s a cute girl in need of my services.”

“R-right,” I mumbled, noticing the way the extension cables in his vest shifted as he moved.

I paused in the middle of the room.

“Dazai-san. You’re... okay, right?”

I turned and glanced nervously at the cables once again.

“You’re not really planning to hang yourself in the break room, right?”

“Who said anything about hanging myself in here?” Dazai returned, letting his teabag fall fully into his cup.

He set the mug down onto the counter behind him.

“I couldn’t if I tried. One—”

He tugged out both of the cords in his vest and dangled them in front of me. The longer one didn’t even reach the bottom of his black vest.

“It’s like I said before: these cords are way too short for that. I couldn’t make a noose out of these if I tried. Two.”

He pointed one slim finger at the ceiling.

“No beams here. Meaning there’s nowhere to hang from.”

“I... I see...”

And as I followed his gesture up towards the ceiling to check, Dazai picked up his mug, took a long, slow sip of his tea and released a long and heavy sigh.

“Kusunoki...”

“Hm?”

I returned my gaze to Dazai, only to see the bandaged brunette staring quietly and contemplatively into his tea. Kunikida’s thermos was sitting right by his bandaged elbow and as Dazai leaned back a little further against the counter, I watched him push it back a little further against the wall.

“Why the sudden interest in suicide?” he asked, observing me from his place by the counter. “Does this have something to do with your case? You know, since one of the men you’re investigating killed himself all those years ago? Or perhaps...”

He raised the mug to his lips and took a slow, contemplative sip, his dark eyes fixed upon mine over the white porcelain rim.

I swallowed.

“Perhaps...?” I repeated.

Dazai lowered the mug, his eyes never quite leaving my face and without knowing why, I felt my pulse begin to race.

He smiled.

“Perhaps you actually followed me in here because you were worried about me?”

I inhaled sharply.

I...

“Just kidding,” Dazai chuckled.

He set his mug down on the counter and grinned.

“But you know, if you did follow me in here to talk about suicide methods,” he drawled, sauntering towards me with his hands in his pockets. “Then you definitely came to the right man.”

“That’s not what I—”

“Oh, the things I could teach you, Kusunoki-kun,” Dazai sighed, a faraway look appearing in his glittering brown eyes. “I could teach you everything you could want to know and more about committing a good, clean suicide. You know—!”

He stopped before me, his grin widening.

“The kind of things you couldn’t find with a quick internet search. Did you know that if you search for ‘ways to kill yourself’ on any search engine, it redirects you to—”

“—the national suicide prevention hotline.”

I dropped my gaze as an old memory, seemingly from another time, slowly resurfaced.

“Yeah,” I mumbled, staring down at the floor. “I know...”

A laptop open to a search engine in the middle of the night, the harsh blue glow of the brightly-lit screen filling up the room, flickering on the walls...

I pressed enter and in the blink of an eye, the screen changed from the search page to the results.

A long, drawn-out sigh streamed from between my lips and I pressed back and tried to word my question a little differently.

The search engine was refusing to give me what I wanted...

I closed my eyes and shivered.

“...Kusunoki-kun?”

Dazai’s voice was quiet, tinged with wonder.

I heard him take a step forward.

“What—”

“I should go,” I mumbled.

And without so much as a backwards glance, I turned around to leave once again.

“Wait.”

A hand closed around my wrist. I looked over my shoulder to see Dazai standing barely one step behind me, his long fingers encircling my wrist and his dark eyes wide.

I could see myself reflected in his eyes and as I slowly rotated on the spot to face him, I thought I saw something in his gaze—something that went beyond mere curiosity. One thin bandage began to unravel from around his neck and as he slowly drew a little bit closer, my breath stilled in my lungs.

I suddenly couldn’t breathe.

“Talk to me, Kyou.”

He pulled me towards him, the bandage loosening even further. I watched as it sagged downwards and slowly draped itself over the bright green jewel of his fancy bolo tie.

“Please.”

And as I drew closer to the handsome brunette, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Professor Matsuyama once again, the way he’d looked as he gazed down at his best friend’s grave, the image of his tall, dignified form slowly fading from view as he disappeared down the cemetery’s wide cobblestone path.

I chewed the inside of my cheek, my eyes never leaving Dazai’s.

I could just as easily picture him standing in the graveyard among the headstones as I could Professor Matsuyama. Dazai, with his half-bandaged hands tucked into his pockets, his sand-colored trench-coat billowing in the wind as he gazed straight ahead...

“Hey, Dazai...?”

I was just being paranoid, right...? There’s no way that Professor Matsuyama was similar to Dazai in that way as well... right?

“Yes?” Dazai whispered, his voice dry.

His face was so close to mine...

“What is it?”

I wet my lips.

“I—”

“There you are, Dazai!!”

I jumped as Kunikida’s voice suddenly echoed throughout the hallway. Turning towards the doorway, I looked up just in time to see the tall, blonde detective stomping into view, a handful of familiar white and gray extension cords clutched in one shaking fist.

“I don’t even want to know why every spare extension cord in this building is sitting in a pile on your desk,” Kunikida snarled, storming into the darkened room. “All I ask is that you put everything back exactly where you found it and that you apologize to every single person you’ve inconvenienced in your—”

He froze.

“Kusunoki?”

I stiffened as his gray-green eyes traveled from me to Dazai and finally, to the half-bandaged hand still wrapped tightly around my wrist.

His eyes widened and I felt Dazai’s fingers suddenly twitch.

“What...?”

“Kunikida.”

Dazai’s voice was quiet.

He dropped my wrist at once and stepped away.

Kunikida frowned. His blonde brows slowly knitted together.

“Why are you...?”

Without warning, the lights snapped back on and as I blinked several times to try to clear the stars from my eyes, I felt Dazai take another step back and away from me. When I could finally see again...

I realized that Dazai’s grin was once again back on his face.

Fixed in place as if it were a mask.

I stared.

“Kunikiiiida-kun!” Dazai exclaimed, grinning even more broadly than before. “Perfect timing. I was just looking for you!”

He stepped out from around me and began to move towards his partner.

“I actually wanted to talk to you about something!” he said, sticking his half-bandaged hands back into his pockets.

Kunikida remained silent.

He was still staring at me.

“Kunikida-san...”

I was suddenly at a loss for words. Guilt flooded into my face.

“I—”

“Kusunoki-kun!”

Spinning on his heel, Dazai turned around and bent down to face me, his grinning visage now a fair distance away from mine.

“I really hate to be rude,” he said, “but could you please leave? I need to talk to my partner in private.”

His grin somehow grew even wider.

“Now.”

“Huh?!” I exclaimed, balking. “Now?!”

“That’s what I said,” Dazai said, finally noticing that the bandage around his neck was coming loose. “I need to have a quick little chit-chat with Kunikiiiida-kun, so if you could please give us a few minutes...”

Bringing his half-bandaged hands up to his neck, he tucked the loose bandage back into place and began ushering me out the door.

“...that would be most appreciated.”

“Wait,” I gasped, trying to dig my heels in so I could resist being pushed out of the room.

But it was no use. I was too short and too light for it to work.

“Dazai-san, you never answered my—”

“Another time, Kusunoki-kun,” Dazai insisted, pushing me even further out of the room. “Another time, I promise. Now then, if you could please excuse us...!”

And with that, he placed both half bandaged hands on my back and shoved me into the hall.

“My partner and I need to talk.”

“Hey—!” I yelped.

Stumbling a little as I tried to stop moving forward, I spun back around, towards the entrance of the break room. I was hoping to get one final glimpse of Kunikida’s face before I was forced out for good, but as our eyes happened to meet at last, the tall blonde detective abruptly looked away.

I inhaled sharply.

“...Kunikida-san?”

Before I could figure out what the look in Kunikida’s eyes might mean, Dazai slammed the door shut on my face and I was left staring at a near-solid block of wood.

I suddenly felt cold.

“Kunikida-san...”

“Alright, talk to you later, Kusunoki-kun!” Dazai chirped, waving cheekily at me from the other side of the tiny window near the top of the door. “Good luck with the rest of your case!”

“Dazai—wait!” I cried, rushing forward and seizing the doorknob. “I said wait!!”

But it was too late.

I heard a click as Dazai abruptly locked the break room door from the inside and as I pounded on the door and struggled to turn the doorknob, I heard Dazai’s footsteps slowly receding as he walked further and further into the room.

“Come back!” I yelled, as that familiar head of curly brown hair disappeared from view. “Kunikida-san!! Dazai-san!!”

Furious and confused, I kicked at the door with all my might.

“Damn it!”

“What’s this about, Dazai?” Kunikida suddenly spoke up from the other side of the door.

He sounded tired and only slightly irritated.

“What do you want?”

“Aw, weren’t you listening, Kunikida-kun?” Dazai sighed, his voice shrinking as he walked even deeper into the room. “I said I wanted to talk to you in private!”

“About what?” Kunikida asked, sounding exasperated.

Grumbling and cursing under my breath, I was about to give up and walk away when I heard him speak again, this time his voice much lower than before.

“Is this about Kusunoki, again..?”

Huh?

I stopped rubbing my foot and stared at the door.

Wait. Kunikida and Dazai... were talking about me? And what did he mean “again?”

Glancing up one more time at the tiny break room window, I dropped to a crouch as fast as I could and pressed my ear against the door.

I tried to keep my breathing to a minimum.

“This is the second time this week,” Kunikida mumbled as I strained to pick out his words. “Why are we doing this?”

I slapped my hand over my mouth so I could better hold my breath.

It was already hard enough to hear Kunikida’s deep voice through the thick wood of the door, but when he dropped it even lower so he could speak quietly to Dazai like that, it was nearly impossible to figure out what he was saying.

I pressed my ear more tightly against the door, my heart beating wildly in my chest—

“Huh? Kyou-chan, what are you doing there?”

I squeaked and smacked my forehead against the door.

Clutching my head and groaning in pain, I turned and looked over my shoulder to see a very surprised Dr. Yosano staring at me as she paused halfway down the hall, her black bag clutched tightly in one hand.

“Yosano-sensei!”

I stopped rubbing my forehead at once and scrambled to my feet, taking great care to avoid standing near the window in the door.

“H-hey! How are you?”

“I’m fine,” Yosano said slowly, looking from me to the door and back.

She frowned.

“Were you listening in?”

“N-no,” I stuttered, shooting another furtive look at the door. “I was just—”

But as Yosano’s eyebrows slowly rose further up into her thick layer of bangs, I thought I heard the sound of footsteps coming from inside the break room heading towards the door.

Panicked, I took one last look at the break room door and ran.

***

“I see...”

I felt the phone slipping a little out of my hands as I spoke, my shoulders dropping in disappointment as I processed the response.

“Yes, I understand. Again, I’m really sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you so much.”

I hung up my desk phone with a heavy sigh.

Great.

I should’ve guessed the police department wouldn’t be able to fax me another copy of Kei’s suicide note so quickly. It was part of a police report that was decades-old and given how long it had taken the clerk to find it the first time, I shouldn’t be surprised that it would take a while to bring it back out again. The entire document must’ve gone right back into storage the moment I’d left and now that it was almost the end of the day, I’d have to wait until tomorrow morning to get another copy.

I groaned and let my forehead fall onto my desk with a soft thump.

After running into Yosano in the hallway, I’d decided to head back to my desk so I could at least pretend I was getting some work done, even if I was actually distracted by other things. But now that I was here and actually wanted to do some work...

I let out another long, drawn-out sigh and banged my head once against the desk, prompting Atsushi to look over at me in concern.

I couldn’t. Because I’d accidentally spilled tea all over the last lead I had.

Now what was I supposed to do?

Turning my head to the side, I stared at the small pile of cables that still lay on the surface of Dazai’s unoccupied desk.

Neither he nor Kunikida had yet to return from the break room. I hadn’t been back at my desk for that long, but it felt like Yosano had left the office some time ago and the minutes were starting to feel more like hours.

“Is this about Kusunoki, again...?”

I stiffened and sighed.

Dazai had been looking for Kunikida the evening I’d run into him in the hallway, too. Was he looking for his partner so they could talk about me back then, as well?

But why?

What was going on? Why were they talking about me in private, and in such serious voices too? Did this have something to do with Kunikida’s training sessions or mentoring me in general? Or maybe...

I chewed on my lip, staring at the mess of tangled gray cords sitting on Dazai’s desk.

Maybe this had something to do with my crush on Kunikida...

I shook my head.

No, that was crazy. Why would they be talking about something like that? But even as I considered the slim probability that it did, Dazai’s voice echoed back at me from weeks past...

“You want me not to tell anyone that you have a thing for Kunikida-kun, right?”

I could still see that casual smile on his face, hear the hint of amusement in his voice. If I closed my eyes, I could still feel his body heat as he drew closer and closer, backing me up against the door of the conference room with every word he spoke.

“Not a problem, Kyou-chan. I’m pretty good at keeping secrets, if I do say so myself...”

I squeezed my eyes shut.

He wouldn’t. He promised he wouldn’t.

My teeth sank into my lip and I tasted blood.

Dazai wouldn’t tell Kunikida my secret... would he?

“Um, excuse me...”

I sat up with a sharp snap and looked to my left in time to see a tall girl wearing a delivery uniform standing at my side.

“I have a package here for a... Detective Kusunoki Kyou,” she said, her thick brows knitting together as she glanced down at the package.

“For me?”

She nodded and presented me with an electronic clipboard.

“Yeah. Could you sign here?”

“Who’s it from...?” I asked hesitantly, taking the clipboard from her.

“A professor at the nearby university,” she said, shrugging. “I forget his name but he said he really wanted me to deliver it today, if possible.”

My eyes widened as she readjusted her cap and stared meaningfully at me and the clipboard in my hands.

“I figured I’d just do it since this building was my last stop of the day anyway. So do you think you could...?”

“R-right. Yeah, sure. Thanks for doing this.”

“Not a problem,” she replied, taking back the clipboard. “Have a nice day.”

And as she set the package down on my desk, I heard a hollow “clunk” as it met the wooden surface of my work station.

“Huh?”

Curious, I pulled it towards me and was surprised to find my business card taped to the center of the brown paper wrapping, along with a folded piece of lined notebook paper. I ripped both off of the package and unfolded the note.

“Nomura-kun accidentally left your card behind while he was at my house the other day,” it said, in elegant black script. “I thought I’d send it back to you along with a small thank you, for listening to my story at the cemetery and for keeping my secret.”

I stared at it.

Professor Matsuyama sent me a thank you present? After he’d caught me following him at Nomura’s insistence? Why would he do something like that...?

Setting the note down, I picked up the package and turned it over in my hands. It wasn’t a very large package, nor was it very heavy, and it looked like it had been rather hastily wrapped. The packaging was peeling from the outside in some places and as I picked at one of the pieces of tape holding it together, the brown paper ripped. Tearing the paper away from the rapidly deteriorating corner, I found myself looking at a small shoe box with a taped-down lid.

I shook it and something hollow began to roll around inside.

Well, it wasn’t ticking so it probably wasn’t a bomb...

Curiosity winning out at last, I opened the box and peeked inside.

“Huh?”

I reached in and lifted out a tiny plastic model of a globe on a faux brass stand. It was slightly dusty and the plastic map was yellowed with age but it was well cared for enough that I could still make out the names and borders of each individual country. I placed it on my desk and touched one finger against the map, spinning it on its axis. A thin layer of dust scattered onto my desk, coating the just-cleaned surface in a layer of pale yellowish-gray and as the globe spun to a stop at last, a streak of red on its surface caught my eye.

It was a single dotted line, made with a Sharpie or something similar, marking a route between Japan and England. When I looked more closely at the two ends of the line, I noticed a tiny red star drawn at the location where Yokohama should be and another one drawn right on the dot marked as London.

“Is that from a client?” Atsushi asked, glancing up across empty desks as Kyouka stood a little to get a better look at it.

“Sorta...” I mumbled, scratching my head. “It’s actually from the guy I’m supposed to be investigating. But why would he give me this...?”

“Did he leave a note?” Kyouka asked, her blue eyes focused on the globe.

It looked a little like she wanted to spin it, too...

“Yeah, he did. He said it was a thank you present, for listening to him talk that day. But I still don’t get why he would give me something like this.”

I picked up the globe and reexamined it.

It didn’t look very expensive, but clearly in a decent enough condition that it was probably an item with more sentimental than monetary value.

Wait a minute...

I swiveled it from one side to another, staring at the red line between Yokohama and London. It wasn’t a completely straight line. It was curved around the map in the same way that a flight path would be. And if I looked a little more closely at the star near Yokohama, there was a very tiny straight line that went from Yokohama to Tokyo.

My eyes widened.

In his suicide note, Kei had mentioned parting ways at the airport. Did Kei or Shin have plans to visit London before tragedy intervened?

I got to my feet and ran for the coat rack with my messenger bag on it.

“Eh? Kusunoki-san?” Atsushi called, swiveling around to look at me, along with Kyouka. “Where are you going?”

“Back to the university,” I explained, stuffing the globe into my bag as best I could. I buckled down the top of the bag and smushed it in further.

“I need to ask the professor some questions about this.”

***

Glancing at my phone one more time, I stuffed it back into my coat pocket and checked my surroundings to make sure I was going the right way.

Not wanting to lose my way like last time, I’d made sure to download a map of the campus while I was on the train earlier so I could get to the history department as quickly as possible. I had definitely been going the right way the first time I was here but without any people around to ask for directions, I probably would’ve ended up on the other side of campus before figuring out where I should actually be.

I could feel the globe smacking hollowly against the inside of my messenger bag as I moved past the tree-lined path, I found myself standing in the central clearing Natsuki had mentioned before. On my immediate right was a collection of buildings, neat and rectangular in shape, with rows of green-tinted glass windows facing the clearing and gleaming in the sun. Further ahead were even more buildings, towering over the trees in the far distance.

The commute hadn’t taken that long, but the sun was hanging lower in the sky than it had before and students and faculty alike were beginning to trickle out of the buildings and head out. I tucked my hands into my pockets as I walked through the crowd but I kept my head up and my eyes straight ahead, searching for the building Professor Matusyama was working in.

By the time I found it, the crowd had pretty much dispersed and I found myself walking into a quiet, tidy building that smelled of books and coffee. I made my way to the elevator and pushed the button.

“Excuse me, Miss,” a man called out to me from behind his desk. “I’m sorry but office hours have ended already. If you’re looking for one of the professors upstairs, you’re gonna have to send an email instead.”

“Oh, uh that’s okay,” I said quickly, “it’ll just be a minute. I promised to help Professor Matsuyama with something after hours and—”

“Oh, you’re one of Matsuyama’s students?” the man asked, his eyes instantly widening in surprise. “Oh geez, I hope you’re not here to dispute a grade or something because you’re gonna have a tough time doing that now that it’s after the fifth.”

I blinked at him.

“Huh?”

“I guess it’s not surprising the students didn’t get the email,” the man mumbled, more to himself than to me. He scratched his head. “But you’d think he’d at least tell his class—”

“Er, I’m sorry,” I interrupted, prompting the man to look back up at me, “but I’m not actually here to dispute a grade. I just need to talk to him for a second. Is he...”

I glanced at the elevator as it pinged, signaling its arrival.

“Is he not upstairs right now?”

“Kid,” the man stated, looking perplexed, “there’s no one on that floor any more. Didn’t you hear?”

I swallowed, an uneasy feeling twisting in my gut.

“Hear what...?”

“The whole department’s been downsized,” the man said, as the elevator doors opened on my right. “Professor Matsuyama was let go just this morning.”

S1 ED 1

[animewhump]

hey!!! answer all those whump asks!!!! the ask the blogger whump edition ones. i want all of them

omg i got an ask!! yay thank you so much!!

Whats your name/nickname?

nickname is august

What’s your gender?

female

Which country do you live in?

us

What’s your first language?

english

How old are you?

21

Have any other blog on tumblr? Link them if you feel like it.

i would except i don't want ppl to find this blog kdhdjd most people think i'm just an angst lover..

What’s your favorite type of whumpee?

hmmm idk there's a lot i like, basically like a teenage or young adult male presenting, the nice ones, the kind soft ones, the capable but vulnerable ones, or just plain vulnerable ones

What is the main character trait you like to see in a whumpee?

as i said before i like the soft kind ones mostly but not only

Who is your favorite whumpee? (at the moment, or in general if you can)

in general natsume takashi, rn arata shindo (even tho the anime just ended :() and all charas from hoshiai no sora

Name one character you would love to see/read whump of but can’t find any.

oh shit there's gotta be so many ummmm is have to say mashima taichi from chihayafuru

Favorite whump trope?

UGHHH idk i really really like fainting and collapsing and eyes rolling back and weakness and FEVERS i think i just generally like sickness whump over violent whump (but violent whump is also good)

Least favorite whump trope? (any that you really, really don’t like?)

idk violence to the point of death and like really bad horrible torture to where the person is near death and bruised like that's just gross and ugh

Favorite physical injury?

hmmm.. idk if this counts as an "injury" but i really like choke situations (later their friend will say "what's that bruise on your neck?")

What’s your weapon of choice for inflicting any sort of injury to your whumpee? (Like a gun, a whip, a knife, a sword, whichever…)

ummmm ohhh how bout like poison gas (that's not a weapon is it...)

Favorite kind of trauma? (emotional/psychological whump)

ANY kind that makes the whumpee shake and collapse and hyperventilate

A whump show/movie/book you’d recommend right now?

natsume yuujinchou of course as usual and fma and psycho pass season 3 and BANANA FISH. most anime has at least a little whump in it

When was the last time you got butterflies/experienced good whump? What was it?

yesterday when i was watching the new episode of chihayafuru and mashima collapsed and fell asleep on the floor cause he was so tired and his friends carried him to a bed ❤️ i replayed it many times

Name 3 of your favorite whump blogs (or more if you want)

@whumpenia @geminihurt @animanga-whump @mypoorfaves @illnessandinjury

If you were a character in a whump scene, would you be the caretaker, the whumper, or the whumpee?

the caretaker all the way

How do you feel about medwhump?

i love it!!

Does anyone around you know that you’re a whumper? If so, tell us the story of how it went when you told someone.

lmfao no one does

When did you realize you were into whump?

i didn't really know what it was called and how to categorize it but i started watching random videos of people fainting when i was like 9 and i would always ask to play something called the "fainting game" with my cousins and siblings where they would pretend to pass out and i would be a "doctor" and lay them on the bed and fix them up

How did you find out about the whump community? When was it?

right when i made this blog lmao idk maybe like 6 months ago? maybe less? i had no idea it had a name and i was so happy idk how i found out about the word maybe it was a tag on a post or fic and i looked it up.

When did you create your whump blog if you have one?

lmao i always say too much info in my answers i said it in the last one

Are you on the whump chat? If so, give your username.

what whump chat? the one on here? i am in it idk if that's the right one tho

Give the episode/film title of that one whump scene you keep watching over and over again (don’t lie to us, we all have that scene)

i really like the scene from hyouka episode 7 where oreki passes out in the onsen and his friend has to carry him back and lay down a futon for him, it's longer than most whump scenes that's why i posted it with two parts

Do you write fics/create art? Is it whumpy? Give us a link if you feel like it.

no i don't create anything

How do you feel about noncon/dubcon?

i stay away from it

Ever written/drawn noncon/dubcon scenes?

no

What is your favorite whump trope, nsfw-wise?

don't really like anything nsfw-wise

Do you like reading/watching consensual role play scenes, in which one character/actor is getting punished/whumped by someone?

so like acting in tv? or does it mean like nsfw-wise? confuzzled

Do you like reading/watching nonconsensuel sex scenes? (yup, I’m talking about r*pe here. No shame in that, there’s a whole section of it on ao3)

absolutely not

Open wounds or bruises? Or neither?

open wounds cause they keep getting weaker

Screaming in pain or crying and whimpering?

crying and whimpering

Defiant or submissive?

submissive

Hurt or comfort?

comfort after hurt

Images or sounds?

images

[timelock97]

Love Without A Name

Chapter Thirteen: We’re Live Love

Word Count: 3577

Masterlist

Warnings: Fluff, IMPLIED SMUT AT THE END

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You're going to dig a trench in the carpet if you keep pacing like that, mate." Harrison laughs, causing Tom to flip him off while he waits for his manager's list of options of what we can do to address what had happened on Friday.

Tom had kept the two of us inside the day after the incident to focus on us, and relaxing. We watched movies, cuddled, and had lots of take-out. He had even gone out and let our family and friends know that our phones would be off the whole day so no one would worry. It had been well needed.

"Okay, thanks Brian. We will discuss it and I will let you know what we decide before going further," a pause, "You too, yup, bye." Tom ends the call with a huff raking his fingers into his hair.

"What he say?" Harry asks, sliding his mug between his hands against the counter of the kitchen island.

"He said it was up to me if I want to discuss what happened to (Y/N); which obviously I do." He runs a hand through his hair as he walks further into the kitchen, "He said I could tweet about it, Instagram it, or try and work it into an interview within the next few months-" He lets out an annoyed groan. "It needs to be discussed, and I hate that it has to because it never should have happened. But it did, so now we do because I don't want it to happen again."

"You can't just post on it; it'll look like you are trying to cover something up." Harrison mutters as he takes a bite of a cookie that I had baked earlier. "(Y/N), these are amazing-"

"Thanks, Hazza," I giggle, swinging my legs and lightly kicking the kitchen drawers.

"Yeah, no posts; maybe after discussing it we can because I want the world to know that you are mine, lovey." Tom gives me a soft smile, causing the boys to aww and gag. Tom strides in to swipe at the boys, who laugh. Once the laughter dissipates, he continues. "Waiting for an interview won't be an option. It needs to be addressed soon; I don't want you to feel like you aren't safe to go out of the house because of what happened."

"What if you did a live?" Sam put into the air, "Then it's something that is out now and you can tack it to your page for those who miss it-"

"People will screen record parts too and put it places: YouTube, Tumblr, Pinterest, wherever." I add, looking over at Sam who nods back.

"And as people have questions, you can add to that story so that they can get some of their questions answered." Sam continues, looking back at Tom.

Tom takes in a breath, I can tell that he really doesn't want to address it this way, but we didn't know what else we could do. I stand slowly and walk over to him and wrap my arms around his torso and hug him. "We can even write down some questions that we know we can answer, and discuss that we also won't be telling them everything. And the best part," I look up at him with a goofy grin, "We can finally post our wedding photos. I know RDJ would love to see the comparison picture between him and Sue kissing versus us."

Tom chuckles, pressing a soft kiss to my forehead. He leans his forehead against mine before letting out a soft breath. "Who has a pen and paper?"

Tom and I are settled on the couch, rechecking through our list of questions that we know might be asked and make notes at what else might be good to talk about.

"I can't think of anything else that needs to be discussed." I whisper as I tap the pen on the paper.

"Neither can I." He sighs, laying his head against my shoulder, pressing a kiss there. "Are you ready to do this?"

I nod, kissing the top of his head. "You want me to be in here when you start?"

He shakes his head, "No, I feel like I should talk about it first without you in here."

"Do you want me to be in the chat until you are close to when I should join you?"

"Only if you want to, I can call for you when I think I have talked about it enough if you don't want to."

"I'll stay on chat; if any questions come up I can jot them down." I lift my head away so he can lift his head. He looks at me gently before leaning forward and kissing my lips, deepening it gently while his hand comes to cup my cheek. When I pull away, he lets out a small whine. I run my hand through his hair, messing it up slightly before fixing it. "I'll see you in a few, handsome." I stand slowly, stretching before grabbing the notebook and walking out of the living room.

"I loooooooove you!" He calls, making me giggle and call back and echo of his words which causes him to laugh as well.

Once I am settled in our room, I flop on the bed and wait for the notification to come through. When it does, my heart picks up a bit as I join the chat. Everyone that has joined are sending hearts and saying hello.

Tom gives the people watching a soft smile before speaking, "Hey everyone, how is everyone doing?" Most of the chat really doesn't answer, there are a few that do, but most don't. "I'm back home; the new movie I'm filming is in London to finish up some scenes. But that's not why I am doing a live." I hear him take in a breath before looking back at the screen. "What I want to talk about happened a few days ago. I was still gone, and someone who is very close to me, who is very special to me, had a run in with some of you guys. I don't know if any of those people are watching, but what happened that day cannot happen again."

Questions begin to pop up in the chat.

What happened?

Are you going to talk about that girl?

There weren't full details on what happened.

She was walked out by Haz, I saw.

Tom sighs, looking down for a minute while he is collecting his thoughts before continuing. "On Friday, I found out that my wife was mobbed at our local mall. It was bad, so much so that she had a panic attack. I flew home a few days early to make sure she was okay."

Wife?

Did you just say wife??

But you aren't M A R R I E D??? Show me a ring!

"You heard me correctly, the girl that has been in recent photos that have been popping up is not my girlfriend, she is my wife. What happened is not something I ever wanted her to experience; no one ever wants to feel that way. So that is why I am coming out about this, because I want her to feel safe to be able to roam around and do things that she would normally do without fear of that happening again." He runs a hand through his hair, the annoyance and disappointment evident on his face. "This whole thing is very new to her as well, and we had planned to make it known when we both thought it was a good time. At this point," he shrugs, "Nothing seems better than the present."

Is she okay?

THE FUCK?!

Is she the girls from the photos? She's pretty

I smile turning off my screen, slowly crawling off the bed and making my way down the hall to the living room.

"She is the girl from the photos, her name is (Y/N), and we actually wanted to give you as much information as we are willing to give about our current relationship, as well as talk about her social media platforms-"

"Those will remain private." I say as I pop into frame, causing Tom to jump. I let out a laugh as he whips his head to the side.

"You scared me-"

"I wasn't trying to!" I giggle, wrapping my arms around his neck and kissing his nose before letting go and walking around the couch to sit down. "Uh, hello." I wave a little at the camera, "I'm (Y/N)."

"The love of my life-"

"You are a sap."

"Your sap," Tom lifts swaps his phone into his right hand so he can lift his left into frame to show off his ring, "forever-"

"Maybe we shouldn't have binged Big Bang Theory yesterday." I giggle, swatting at his hand before relaxing back into the couch.

"No, it was a good thing to binge." Tom chuckles, shifting his phone again before clearing his throat. "We came up with a list of some of the questions we thought you all might ask, so we will go through those before we take any questions on here."

"And Tom will tag this into a saved story so anyone who wants to go back through our answers can, as well as we will add answers as life goes on too. But we won't tell you everything, because we also want our life to be private."

"Well, it'll be on my account, but she will tag the story. You all know that I am basically ancient when it comes Instagram." He and I giggle before I wiggle the paper in my lap.

"Let's get started."

Tom and I talk about Heart Haven, about how we had been together for almost two years now (only recently married), and some of the smaller details that we were willing to share. The chat was mostly positive as we discussed everything. However, there were a few who did make some comments, but they got buried in the amount of positive comments. Most saying that they were glad that Tom and I were happy, that they were excited to see where our lives would take us, and eventually asked if there were any plans of little Tom's and (Y/N)'s running around anytime soon.

"I don't think there will be any anytime soon, some day, but not soon." I muse leaning my head on his shoulder. "I personally love kids, so it will happen eventually. But we have plenty of time to talk about that in the future."

"I will say one thing, they will be cute babies," Tom chuckles, bumping my head with his chin. "I mean, look at her-"

"Look at me, look at yourself." I roll my eyes, letting out a squeal when his fingers brush against my neck to tickle me. "Meanie."

"I'm not a meanie! It's not my fault you're ticklish." He chuckles as I stick my tongue out. "Well, guys we have been chatting with you for what, an hour and a half?" He checks the time stamp and nods, "Yeah, we have been on here for a long time. We are going to sign off. If you all have any more questions, I will post a little chat and (Y/N) and I will look at answering more questions within the next few weeks. Thanks for everyone who tuned in, and we will talk to you soon." Tom throws up a peace sign as I wave. Once his phone was off, Tom collapses in my lap, causing me to laugh. He groans loudly as I run my fingers through his hair and tug on the strands slightly while also massaging his scalp.

"I think it went okay."

"I do too; I just hope that nothing else bad happens to you."

"We won't know until it happens." I watch as Tom's eyes dart underneath his closed eyelids. I push his hair out of his face more before sliding my hand down his neck and press it over his heart. "How about I cook lunch then the two of us go to the pub tonight with your family, or friends. That good?"

His eyes flutter open as he smiles at me, "That sounds like a nice night. You took Monday off right?" I hum as I nod, "Good, cause we need a day out and I don't start filming until Wednesday."

"Whatever you are thinking, Holland, I am in."

~

The next few weeks fell into a quiet bliss. Work continued as normal, Tom was out filming, and nights closed with us crawling into bed and falling asleep curled up together only to wake up separated.

But today was different.

"Tom?" I call from the guest bedroom, standing with my arms on my hips as I stare up into the closet.

"Yeah?"

"Have you seen the box that has my textbooks in it? I need it to look up some treatments." I wait a few moments to see if he responds.

"Uh, I thought it was in our closet."

"Is it?" I call as I walk down the hall back to our room.

"Yeah, it should be on the right side, next to some of my dress shoes." He calls down the hall, "Love?"

I pause in the hall, turning and looking at him standing at the opposite end. "Yeah?"

"I am going to be on a conference call for about an hour, then I'm all yours for the rest of the day." He smiles at me, leaning into the wall.

I smile widely back before clapping like a little kid. "Yay!"

He chuckles, shaking his head. When his phone rings, he pushes himself back off the wall before disappearing into the kitchen.

I turn and make my way back to the bed room, shutting the door behind me as to not bother him while he is on the phone. I walk into the small walk in closet, scanning the top shelf to see if I can find the box. "Ah-hah," I muttered as I walk over to Tom's side where his dress clothes are hanging up. I smile as I stand on my tip-toes to grab the bottom of it and pull the box forward. When the box tilts forward, another box slides off the top plummeting toward me. A small shriek leaves my lungs as I let go of the box I was retrieving and basically jumping into Tom's dress clothes as the two tumble to the floor with a loud thud. I curse under my breath before running to the bedroom door, seeing Tom moving into the hallway with a worried expression, his phone pressed firmly to his ear. "I'm okay, just dropped the box." I giggle, giving him a small thumbs up.

Tom chuckles, sighing gently. "What? No, my wife dropped something in our room and I thought she hurt herself, she's fine. What were you saying?"

I turn back into the room and into the closet. I place my hands on my hips, looking at the books and lose paper scattered across the floor, "(Y/N), you are still a mess." I crouch down and begin repacking my textbooks back into the box to be moved into the office across the hall. As I reach for one book, I notice the other box that had fallen.

It had been months since I had seen in, it's slightly open from falling off the highest shelf. I reach forward and pull the box toward me, placing it in my lap. I pull the lid off, noticing the bodysuit was disheveled, whether it being from falling or from when it had been shipped back to the apartment alongside my wedding dress and Tom's tux.

I pull the piece out, holding it in the light. I wonder how this would look on? I turn and look at the door, "He will be on that conference call for a while, I got time." I look back at the piece again, biting my lip. I let out a small laugh and stand, pulling my shirt over my head and shimmying out of my navy sweatpants. Once completely undressed, I pick the piece off of the floor, slowly pulling the piece up my bare legs and shimmying the straps over my arms. I glance at the box and notice a peach ribbon folded at the bottom. I take it and tie it around my middle, directly over the sheer fabric. I turn and look at myself in the mirror, a small gasp leaving my parted lips. "Damn, Hazel. How did you know this would look this good?" The piece hugged all my curves, making my waist look smaller, and breasts look fuller. I turn a little to look at all my assets, giggling to myself as I tug my hair out of its clip and fluff it around. I blush at my reflection, running my fingers over the lace that is over the bust while my eyes look at where it shifts into sheer fabric over the skin of my stomach only to go back to lace for the thong. I turn and look at my backside, looking at how it makes my butt look a little more plump, lace, sheer, lace fabric pattern repeating until it reaches the top where the criss-cross, spaghetti straps begin. I feel nothing short of gorgeous and dare I say it, sexy.

I walk over to my sweatpants and dig out my phone from the pocket, and turning on the camera, posing in front of the mirror to look back at later. While posing I turn so that my back is facing the mirror with my face peeking over my shoulder to take the photo. Only then do I make eye contact with Tom, who he is perched leaning against the door frame with his arms folded over his chest, a smirk painted on his lips. I squeak as I spin around and look at him, my cheeks burning hot, so much so I can feel the heat coming out of my ears. "Tom! What- I thought you had your conference call."

Tom chuckles, his own cheeks tinted a soft shade of pink. "Uh, I was, but it ended early, so I came to see what you were doing?" He pushes himself of the door frame and slowly strides toward me, smirk still plastered to his lips. "What I didn't expect you to be doing was to be dressed up and posing in this." His hand falls on my waist, tugging me toward him, my hands flying to his chest. "You look gorgeous, darling." Tom leans down and presses a soft kiss to the base of my neck, causing my eyes to flutter shut at the feeling. I shift so my neck is more exposed, causing him to press softer kisses up the column of my throat.

I swallow, taking a minute to let my clouded mind form coherent words. "I, uh, found it when I was trying to get my textbooks down. Decided I was curious how it would look on, and, uh," my breath hitches as his teeth brush against the skin below my ear, my nails clawing into his shirt as he tugs at it gently, leaving a mark that I would have to cover up later. "I didn't think it would look that good on."

"Well, darling, you definitely pull it off." He mutters against my ear before turning his head so his lips can meet my own. The kiss is slow, and passionate, like we have all the time in the world. When he pulls away, he goes back to kissing my neck, sucking more marks into my skin that scream that I am his.

"God, I can't think when you do that." I sigh as I feel his hands travel south to cup my cheeks.

"Well, maybe that's the plan." He chuckles into my skin; I place a hand under his chin, lifting his head from its place against my neck and press my lips against his in a rush, deepening it quickly. Tom groans into my mouth as he leans into me, grasping at the back of my thighs as he lifts me, my legs wrapping around his waist. Tom carries me out of the closet, only pulling away when we fall back onto the bed causing a small shriek to fall past my lips. The two of us laughing a bit, his forehead pressing into mine. "God, I love you."

"I love you too. I'm so glad I met you, so glad I get the chance to be able to spend the rest of my life with you." I whisper, pressing another kiss to his lips.

"I think I got a little ahead of myself here," Tom chuckles, shifting so that he has his knees on either side of my hips instead of his previous position. "I don't want to force you to do anything you aren't comfortable with-"

"Tom," I whisper, causing him to shiver as I place my hand on his cheek, "I wouldn't want anything else. Just, go slow, I'm more than a little inexperienced." I giggle, watching as Tom's soft expression darkens, his tongue darting out to wet his lips.

"Love, all I want you to do is lay back, relax, and enjoy." He mutters against my lips before pressing into me, my hands flying into his hair to pull him impossibly closer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think, we are almost to the end! ONE MORE PART, AND ITS A TIME SKIP! Reblog and comment!

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[dfroza]

A message that began with the Jews

to be shared with all the nations of earth where in Today’s reading from the book of Mark we see the 12 who were initially chosen who were with the Author

[Mark 3]

On the Sabbath, Jesus had come into a synagogue where He saw a man with a withered hand.

The Pharisees held their breath: would Jesus cure this man on the Sabbath, right there in front of everyone? If so, they could charge Him with breaking the Sabbath law. Jesus knew their hearts. He called to the man with the withered hand.

Jesus: Come to Me.

Then He turned to the Pharisees with a question.

Jesus: Do our laws tell us to do good or evil on the Sabbath? To save life, or to snuff it out?

They remained silent.

Jesus was furious as He looked out over the crowd, and He was grieved by their hard hearts.

Jesus (to the man with the withered hand): So be it. Stretch out your hand.

The man stretched forth his hand; and as he did, it was completely healed. The Pharisees went directly from the synagogue to consult with the supporters of Herod, the Romans’ puppet ruler, about how they could get rid of this dangerous dreamer.

Meanwhile Jesus and His followers traveled to the shore of the Sea of Galilee; as always, a huge crowd from Galilee and Judea gathered. People had come from miles to see this man they were hearing so much about. They came from the big cities, including Jerusalem of Judea, Tyre and Sidon of Phoenicia, and from the region of Idumea, south of Judea. Since Jesus had healed so many, the sick and the infirm pushed forward constantly to touch Him, to be healed, and to ask His blessing. The crowd pressed so closely around Jesus that He asked His disciples to get a boat He could board if the crush became too great.

Most wanted to be near Him, except for those possessed by unclean spirits. Those people fell down before Him.

Unclean Spirits: You are the Son of God.

But He ordered them not to reveal His true identity.

Jesus called together a select group of His followers and led them up onto a mountain. There He commissioned them the twelve. [Later He calls them His emissaries.] He wanted them to be with Him. He sent them out to spread the good news and to cast out evil spirits [and heal diseases]. Here are the names of the original twelve: Simon (whom Jesus called Peter, meaning “the rock”), James and John (the sons of Zebedee, whom Jesus called “the Sons of Thunder”), Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew (the tax collector, also called Levi), Thomas, James (the son of Alphaeus), Thaddaeus, Simon of Canaan (who was also called “the Zealot”), and Judas Iscariot (who one day would betray Jesus to the authorities in Jerusalem so God’s purpose could be fulfilled).

Jesus and His disciples went into a house to eat, but so many people pressed in to see Jesus that they could not be served. When Jesus’ family heard about this craziness, they went to drag Him out of that place.

Jesus’ Family (to one another): Jesus has lost His mind.

The scribes, for their part, came down from Jerusalem and spread the slander that Jesus was in league with the devil.

Scribes: That’s how He casts out demons. He’s casting them out by the power of Beelzebul—the ancient Philistine god—the prince of demons.

When Jesus heard this, He tried to reason with them using parables.

Jesus: Listen. How can Satan drive out Satan? A kingdom that makes war against itself will collapse. A household divided against itself cannot stand. If Satan opposes himself, he cannot stand and is finished.

If you want to break into the house of a strong man and plunder it, you have to bind him first. Then you can do whatever you want with his possessions. Listen, the truth is that people can be forgiven of almost anything. God has been known to forgive many things, even blasphemy. But speaking evil of the Spirit of God is an unforgivable sin that will follow you into eternity.

He said this because the scribes were telling people that Jesus got His power from dark forces instead of from God.

When Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived, they couldn’t break through the crowd, so they sent word in to Jesus that He should come out to them. The crowd was pressed in tight around Him when He received the message, “Your mother and brothers [and sisters] are waiting outside for You.”

Jesus looked around.

Jesus (answering them): Who are My mother and brothers?

He called into the silence. No one spoke.

At last His gaze swept across those gathered close, and Jesus smiled.

Jesus: You, here, are My mother and My brothers! Whoever does the will of God is My true family.

The Book of Mark, Chapter 3 (The Voice)

Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments with Mark 3 is the 18th chapter of the book of Deuteronomy where God through Moses warns the people about practicing spiritual rites that are apart from God’s truth, such as predicting fortunes and sorcery and casting spells:

Moses: The Levitical priests and the whole tribe of Levi will not have any inherited property within Israel. They will be supported by the sacrifices and other offerings that are burnt and set aside for the Eternal. They won’t have any share in the land, as the other Israelites do, but the Eternal Himself will be their share as He promised.

Whenever someone sacrifices an ox or a sheep, the priests are entitled to these portions: one shank (a thigh and shoulder), the cheeks (those tender delicacies), and the fourth compartment of the stomach so they can have rennet to make cheese curds. You must also give the priests the first grain, wine, and olive oil you produce each year, and the first wool you shear from your sheep because the Eternal your God chose Levi and his descendants, out of all of your tribes, to stand in His presence and to serve in His name at all times.

If a Levite who’s living in one of your cities anywhere in Israel decides he really wants to go and live in the place the Eternal will choose, he must be allowed to serve in the name of the Eternal his God, like all of the other Levites who are already serving there in the Eternal’s presence. He must be given an equal share of the contributions to eat, apart from anything he earns for performing priestly services.

When you’ve settled in the land the Eternal your God is giving you, don’t imitate the horrible practices of the other nations. Don’t ever burn any of your sons or daughters alive as a sacrifice! And don’t ever get involved in any divining, such as predicting fortunes, interpreting omens, sorcery, casting spells, or trying to contact ghosts, spirits, or the dead. The Eternal is horrified when anyone does these things. It’s because of these horrible practices that the Eternal your God is driving those nations out ahead of you. You shall be complete in your obedience and devotion to Him.

Moses: The nations you’re going to displace seek guidance from people who practice divination and predicting. But the Eternal your God doesn’t want you to do that. He will raise up from among your own people a prophet who will be like me. Listen to him. This is just what you asked Him for on the day you gathered at Mount Horeb: “Don’t make me listen to the voice of the Eternal my God anymore! And don’t make me look at that blazing fire! I’ll die!” The Eternal told me, “They’re right. I’ll send them another prophet like you from among their own people. I’ll put My words in the mouth of this prophet who will tell them everything I command him to say. I, Myself, will punish whoever doesn’t listen to his words when the prophet speaks in My name. But a prophet who dares to say anything in My name that I haven’t commanded, or who says anything in the name of another god, will die.” Now you may be wondering, “How will we recognize something He hasn’t commanded a prophet to say?” If a prophet speaks in the Eternal One’s name, but the words turn out not to be true or the prediction doesn’t happen, then He wasn’t actually speaking. That prophet arrogantly spoke in the Lord’s name, but he didn’t really have a message from Him. And so you don’t need to be afraid of what the prophet said.

The Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 18 (The Voice)

my personal reading of the Scriptures for Thursday, july 16 of 2020 with a paired chapter from each Testament along with Today’s Psalms and Proverbs

A piece of Hebraic History shared by John Parsons in this post he shared yesterday:

The Scroll of Lamentations (מגילת איכה) is traditionally recited during Tishah B’Av to remember the destruction of the Holy Temple and other tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people. Lamentations is an acrostic poem that begins with the Hebrew letter Aleph in the word “eichah” (אֵיכָה): “How (eichah) lonely sits the city that once was full of people!” (Lam. 1:1). The sages note that this Hebrew word “how” (i.e., eichah) could also be read as “where are you?” (i.e., אַיֶּכָּה, ayekah), God’s first question to Adam after he broke covenant in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:9). The midrash draws a connection between the lamentation of the LORD over Adam’s banishment from Eden and Israel’s banishment from Zion (Hos. 6:7). In both cases the problem centers on the failure to ask where God is.

During the Tishah B’Av service at the synagogue, when the cantor reaches the second to last verse of the book, “Hashivenu,” he pauses and the congregation recites the verse in unison: Hashivenu Adonai, elekha vena-shuvah; chadesh yamenu ke'kedem: “Turn us back to You, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old” (Lam. 5:21). Often this verse is repeated and sung to a haunting melody as the scroll is returned to the Ark.

How many people today live in a state of self-imposed exile from the LORD? How lonely... God uses our loneliness and alienation to question our hearts, asking each of us, ayekah – “Where are you?” “Why have you turned away from me and chosen a state of exile?” Our inner pain is meant to provoke us to seek His face. He awaits our only possible response, “Hashivenu!” -- an imperative (demand) for the grace to repent: “You return us (i.e., you cause us to return) so that we may be reunited with you and healed!” We do not appeal to our own resources or strength to undergo this return, but rather trust that God’s sovereign grace is sufficient to restore us to His presence. As Yeshua said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up” (John 6:44).

The tears of the prophet Jeremiah represent God's compassionate love for the Jewish people; the Book of Lamentations is really God’s cry... God cares about the suffering of His people: b'khol tzaratam lo tzar (בְּכָל־צָרָתָם לוֹ צָר) - "In all their affliction he was afflicted" (Isa. 63:9). Even after all the horrors that befell the people of Judah due to God’s disciplinary judgment, the LORD still encouraged them to seek Him again. “The faithful love of the LORD (חַסְדֵי יהוה) never ceases, and his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam. 3:22-23). Our response to the faithful love of the LORD is teshuvah (i.e., תְּשׁוּבָה, “turning [shuv] to God”). In Modern Hebrew teshuvah means an "answer" to a shelah (שְׁאֵלָה), or a question. God's love for us is the question, and our teshuvah – our turning of the heart toward Him – is the answer. We return to the LORD when we truly acknowledge that He is our Father and our King. Hashivenu: May we so turn today...[Hebrew for Christians]

7.15.20 • Facebook

[5llowance]

Chinese netizens weigh in on the massive flooding via Zhihu (regional discrimination, office workers deployed to control the flood) via /r/China

Chinese netizens weigh in on the massive flooding via Zhihu (regional discrimination, office workers deployed to control the flood)

Today on Zhihu there is a topic about the flooding that's going on in Jiangxi right now. There was a post here on /r/China just yesterday about how the Chinese media isn't reporting on the flooding. Since that's not true and people are even allowed (for the time being) to talk about it on Zhihu, I thought I'd do a brief analysis of the Zhihu answers. This is lifted from my site, www.zhihudigest.com, which is kind of in limbo but I still update it.

An interesting phrase that pops up in the comments fairly often is 围湖造田 [wéi hú zào tián], which seems to be “polderization.” If you didn’t know what that means either, it is basically the hydrological process of turning shallow lake land into arable farm fields. As one indignant reply to a now-deleted comment accusing modern-day Jiangxi residents of wanton polderization reads: ...Have you been to Poyang Lake yourself? If you didn’t know, Poyang Lake is a nationally protected nature reserve. Nobody can build anything there unless the government lets them. It’s all uncultivated land around the lake. Most of the people living there are fishermen. So where’s all this polderization you’re talking about?

This brings up another interesting point of discussion in this topic, which is regional discrimination, or as one answerer with 1,748 likes puts it, “regional smearing” (地域黑 [dì yù hēi]). Some excerpts from that answer:

There are small-scale floods in Jiangxi every year, and because of that our drainage systems are actually better than most cities, but even the best drainage systems could not help against such torrential rainfall. It’s been raining continuously for seven days and seven nights. In 24 hours it might only stop raining for a half-hour... The rice paddies, vegetable fields, and crops have all flooded. Food prices are double what they normally are... We haven’t seen blue skies or the sun in such a long time...

We’ve been trying our absolute hardest. Firefighters have sacrificed themselves. Workers have braved the rains to dredge, but there are no areas that can be dredged anymore... Entire homes get destroyed overnight... The amount of damage is greater than it was in 1998. 46% of the country is experiencing rainfall right now. My dad is a cop and he spent all night urging villagers to evacuate...

For all of you saying that it’s our Jiangxi people’s fault, I hope you understand that the power of nature is much greater than what humans can endure... It’s true that Jiangxi isn’t very developed and we’re not such a famous place, but nobody knows how much we’ve suffered. If this were happening in a more famous city, people would know sooner and would support us... This is the damp south. This is Jiangxi, where we often have rainstorms and so we have lots of experience with flood control. That being the case, you can imagine just how serious the flooding this time is then [when even we are so heavily affected].

I’m just a young woman, an accountant, and even I’ve been drafted to do flood control work. We’re all volunteers working in rotating shifts of three 24 hours a day. We’re not asking for assistance... we’re just asking for you to be nice and not smear us.

There is another interesting exchange in an answer with about 1,200 likes from a person on the front lines of one of the most heavily affected areas.

In this exchange, somebody asks: Are you guys okay? Do you have food and water?

To which OP replies: The neighboring town’s dike collapsed. The power went out today, so we’ll be unreachable once our phones run out of battery. Our town is surrounded by water on all sides. There’s just one big bridge connecting us to the county seat. I guess all we can do is wait for rescue now. I stored food and water at home before this all happened, but I don’t know how long we can hold out. I hope our town’s dike doesn’t collapse.

Another commenter suggests that they all evacuate, but OP counters: We can’t evacuate unless we have orders from government officials. Later on in the same thread, another commenter points out why they need official orders before they can evacuate despite their desperate situation: Where would they evacuate to? The government hasn’t set aside space for them. Lots of the older folks are unwilling to leave their homes too. My grandparents are just like that, in fact. They moved everything they own to the second floor of their home today [instead of evacuating].

Personal observations: I obviously can't translate all of the answers, but I was honestly surprised how much regional discrimination came up. Apparently ever since the 1998 floods, there has been this stereotype of the people inhabiting the villages in/around Jiujiang, the prefecture-level city at the epicenter of the flooding, that they are at fault for the disastrous flooding because of reckless polderization and lackluster prevention efforts. In the young woman's post, you can see how aggrieved she feels and how seemingly resentful she is that her village isn't a well-known place ("没那么有名气" in her words).

Also interesting to note the similarities between places like Florida and other coastal American locations where older residents are usually the most resistant to evacuate and the most likely to disobey evacuation orders (I don't have data on this, but this is my impression from having read articles about Hurricane Katrina and so on).

And in another Chinese-language (VPN-required) forum, some users raised interesting points about why, despite the severity of the flood (in many areas water levels have surpassed what they were in 1998), the CCP still hasn't mobilized the army to help with flood control efforts. Some have guessed that either Xi lacks control of the army (this would explain the Indian border violence too), or that they're preparing for an offensive somewhere (Taiwan, India), or that they're expecting civil unrest and need to reserve the army to quell uprisings.

Submitted July 12, 2020 at 01:35PM by ZhihuDigest via reddit https://ift.tt/3gSCErQ

[nigeiadigitalmarketingcompany]

Links 7/31/19

Digital Elixir Links 7/31/19

Yves here. We had a terrific event last night with Lambert’s Dem debate live blog. Over 400 comments, many incisive and funny.

Hope you’ll join us this evening at 8 PM EDT (Lambert opens up the post a wee bit earlier) for what the peanut gallery hopes will be a Harris v. Biden or maybe even everyone v. Biden slugfest.

Does My Cat Want Me to Lick Her Back? Atlantic (resilc). Eeew.

RNA recovered and sequenced from 14,000-year-old mummified wolf New Atlas (furzy)

Met Office: UK’s 10 hottest years on record occurred since 2002 Guardian (Kevin W)

Coke and Pepsi abandon the plastics lobby CNN (Kevin W)

Living without water: the crisis pushing people out of El Salvador Guardian (resilc). We pointed out years ago that potable water was the critical resource that would become scarce first….

Why a cure for dementia would trigger a crisis Financial Times. This article is appalling. It presupposes that a treatment would require cancer-level intervention and before and after monitoring. It also asserts that “the disease cannot be reversed,”, when small scale studies have found cognitive improvement for some with relatively short-term (12 weeks) consumption of silica water. See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22976072

China?

Hong Kong protests: ‘I’m in Australia but I feel censored by Chinese students’ BBC (David L)

Please Stop Beating Us’: Where Were Hong Kong’s Police? – Video New York Times (UserFriendly)

China, U.S. Resume Trade Talks Amid Trump’s ‘Rip-off’ Accusation Bloomberg

Lambert notes per below “Cooling off period”:

JUST IN: #HongKong issues storm signal no. 8. stock trading to shut after 15 minutes @business

Hong Kong Starts to Shut Down as Tropical Storm Approaches: https://t.co/32OdJdjSzY

— Fion Li (@fion_li) July 31, 2019

Your Next iPhone Might Be Made in Vietnam. Thank the Trade War. New York Times (UserFriendly)

China Covertly Subverting Trump Reelection Free Beacon. UserFriendly: “Congratulations democrats, now every electoral loss is illegitimate.”

China Is On Track To Beat Its Peak-Emissions Pledge ars technica

North Korea ‘fires two ballistic missiles’ BBC

Brexit

EU must give way over backstop, says Johnson after rebuff by Varadkar Guardian. Resilc: “This will go smoothly.”

The Politico morning European newsletter version, emphasis theirs. Maybe Johnson believes his bullshit about bullying the EU?

MORE OF THE SAME: The U.K. will leave the EU at the end of October, come hell or high water. Boris Johnson’s EU counterparts have got the message he has repeated one way or another every single day since taking office as prime minister last week. Now it’s being directed to his Irish colleague Leo Varadkar. “On Brexit, the prime minister made clear that the U.K. will be leaving the EU on October 31, no matter what,” Downing Street said in a readout of the pair’s call Tuesday.

Varadkar’s response: The Irish government said Varadkar refused point blank Johnson’s request to reopen divorce talks. “Noting that the Brexit negotiations take place between the U.K. and the EU, the Taoiseach explained that the EU was united in its view that the Withdrawal Agreement could not be reopened,” a statement from the Irish government noted drily.

The backstop has to go, Johnson repeated. But it won’t, was Varadkar’s answer. The Irish leader “emphasized to the prime minister that the backstop was necessary as a consequence of decisions taken in the U.K. and by the U.K. government,” Dublin said.

Brexit causes UK car industry investment to crash to ‘pitiful’ £90m Guardian

Quarterly Bulletin No.3 2019 Central Bank of Ireland. PlutoniumKun: “On Brexit. Revises growth prediction from 4.1% to 0.7% in the event of a no-deal (worse than previous predictions).

”

US Anti-Abortion Group Uses Big Data to Manipulate Argentinian Women: Report teleSUR (furzy)

Syraqistan

Bahrain Follows U.S. Lead on Executions LobeLog (resilc)

Intra-Afghan talks only after U.S. agrees to withdraw troops: Taliban Reuters (resilc)

Imperial Collapse Watch

On Costliest U.S. Warship Ever, Navy Can’t Get Munitions on Deck Bloomberg

Bolton Proposes and The President Disposes American Conservative (resilc)

Pentagon Study Shows Violence Has Skyrocketed in Africa Intercept. Resilc: “At the DoD it’s called market development….”

Trump Transition

The Trump Administration’s Death Penalty Cult Nation (resilc)

U.S. judge tosses Democratic Party lawsuit against Trump campaign, Russia over election Reuters

Federal Judge Overturns IRS Donor-Disclosure Change Wall Street Journal

While Trump spews hate, I continue to do my job GreenwichTime (UserFriendly). Rep. Tlaib, originally in the Washington Post.

Jeffrey Epstein’s life ‘in jeopardy’ as powerful pals ‘don’t want their secrets out’, victim’s lawyer claims Sun (resilc)

2020

Who won the Democratic debate? Winners and losers from July 30 CNN (UserFriendly). Cillizza is not following the house party line…..

It’s Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren v the ‘No We Can’t’ Democrats Guardian (resilc, furzy)

Stephen Colbert Hits Longshot Democrats for Spewing ‘Republican Talking Points’ at CNN Debate Daily Beast (resilc). When you’ve lost Colbert…..

Can Someone Please Vote CNN Off the Stage? Bloomberg

Next one goes to CNN: Who wrote these terrible debate questions? https://t.co/QMk2nYFtn8

— Slate (@Slate) July 31, 2019

Coalition to air anti-Medicare for All ads during Democratic debates The Hill (UserFriendly). A pox on them.

Democrats Are Veering Left. It Might Just Work. Politico

A Guide To Bad Faith Arguments Against Bernie Sanders Medium (UserFriendly)

Democrats fail to address working-class issues during the second Democratic debate Vox (UserFriendly)

More Presidential Candidates Taking Strident Pro-Caviar Stance To Appeal To Democratic Socialite Wing Of Party The Onion

How Joe Biden’s privatization plans helped doom Latin America and fuel the migration crisis Grayzone

Stop Suing Patients, Advocates Advise Memphis Nonprofit Hospital System ProPublica (UserFriendly)

Apple put an iPhone in everybody’s pocket — now its growth depends on putting devices all over our bodies CNBC

Equifax is going to rip you off again BoingBoing (resilc)

‘Do ‘Big Four’ Tech Monopolies Deserve Their Antitrust Investigation? Yes Federalist. UserFriendly: “When the libertarians are calling to break up big tech….”

Regulators Found High Risk of Emergency After First Boeing MAX Crash Wall Street Journal. Grr, the Journal put this up just as I was turning in, otherwise I would have posted on it. From the summary:

An internal risk analysis after the first of two Boeing 737 MAX airliner crashes showed the likelihood was high of a similar cockpit emergency within months, according to a Federal Aviation Administration official familiar with the details and others briefed on the matter.

The regulator’s analysis, not previously reported, showed that it “didn’t take that much” for a malfunction like the one confronted by the pilots of the Lion Air flight that crashed into the Java Sea last year to occur, one of the people briefed on the analysis said.

Class Warfare

We Should Thank Amazon for Letting Us Have Jobs New York Magazine (resilc)

DoorDash Tip-Skimming Scheme Prompts Class-Action Lawsuit Seeking All Those Tips That Didn’t Go To Drivers Gizmodo

How Over 25 People Got Scammed Into Working At A Nonexistent Game Company Kotaku (Kevin W)

Private Equity’s Next Leveraged Buyout Might Be the Oval Office American Prospect (resilc). Where have they been? Over half of Wall Street revenues comes from PE. That includes “Government Sachs”. Rahm did a turn in a PE firm.

Globalization Isn’t Dying, It’s Just Evolving Bloomberg

Antidote du jour. Lawrence R from the Pleasant Lake newsletter> “Male Eastern Forktail (Ischnura verticalis). Odonate males are usually more brightly colored than females and are more often seen at the water.”

And a bonus (Bryan W):

Do not attempt to outsmart a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. It won’t work. pic.twitter.com/CABkzq9Dw7

— Helen Dale (@_HelenDale) July 26, 2019

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

Links 7/31/19

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[topicprinter]

Consider this:A product manager asks an analyst: “Please make a dashboard where we can see Day 1, Day 3 and Day 7 retention rates in dynamics.”“Are you sure?” the analyst asks. “These charts will be quite noisy. Just look how much the metrics alter from day to day. Maybe it’s a better idea to monitor the weekly retention rates instead. In this case, any random fluctuations will be smoothed out. ”They called it a deal.Now a new dot appears on the dashboard once a week. This dot has “Everything is fine, nothing has changed” written all over it. But sometimes, the storms of everyday life are hidden behind this apparent calm: days of ups and downs, victories and defeats that happen during weekdays and weekends.But no one on the product team finds out about them because everyone is looking at weekly metrics. Consequently, they’re missing both the random and meaningful fluctuations.Why do we need dashboards?One of the important questions that a dashboard serves to answer to product managers is “Is everything all right?” Based on the answer, there are two possible paths:If everything is fine, then the product manager can get back to her regular routine and carry on with her scheduled tasks.If some important metric has changed in a drastic way, then she must investigate it as soon as possible and come up with a plan of action.If you have a dashboard, then it’s good.If you monitor this dashboard and use it as described earlier, then great.To make it excellent, however, you need to change the key question that your dashboard answers.A spikeI first heard about the concept of spikes when I was at a theatre. It was a play about David Yang), an angel investor, serial entrepreneur, and founder and Chairman of the board of ABBYY.In one of the scenes, scientists at a university research laboratory were conducting experiments. During the experiments, the scientists looked for what they called “spikes” on graphs (a steep rise or fall on a graph).If there was no ”spike” and everything looked predictable, then it wasn’t interesting science-wise.If there was a “spike,” it was clear that something interesting was happening. There was a chance to make a discovery, a breakthrough. In general, everyone was looking for spikes.Spikes and dashboardsEvery day, something new happens to your products. Today, you’re going viral on mainstream media; yesterday, you changed the keywords for your app in the app store; the day before, a heavy rainfall drowned the city, or the team might have rolled out an update. Each point on your dashboard’s graphs represents the result of an experiment that the world (sometimes with your help) runs on your product.Become a research scientist. Instead of asking the dashboard “Is everything OK?” ask “Is there a spike? Is there something I can learn from?” And at this moment, the changes that you used to interpret as mere accidents will push you to start learning new things about your product and your users.Keep looking for “spikes.” Get to the very core of where they come from. Many of them will turn out to be happenstance and will hold nothing interesting to explore. But this doesn’t mean you should stop searching.Some “spikes” will be caused by factors you haven’t thought of before, factors that can impact the metrics of your product. And this is exactly what you should be looking for: the levers that will help you move the product forward.What should we look for?Don’t only look for positive changes in your dashboard. Make sure to search for the negative ones as well. If something has ruined the metrics, then moving in the opposite direction will most likely improve them.Investigate the reasons behind the spikes. Dig deeper. If you find a reason, but it doesn’t fully explain what is happening, then keep looking.Perhaps you will find out that the conversion rate and overall effectiveness of ad banners increased during a competitor’s television ad campaign. So why not raise your bid or allocate some extra budget during the competitor’s campaign?Maybe a thought leader’s post on social media has brought you traffic of a much better quality than paid ads. Perhaps it makes sense to start working more closely with thought leaders?Or let’s say the number of app downloads has doubled in one small country. Why so? How can we replicate this success in other countries?Yet again, maybe an accidental change in the settings of the technology underlying in product suddenly caused the key product metrics to collapse. This might mean that by improving the quality of this technology, we can improve the metrics.None of the situations described above are hypothetical; they are true stories from my own experience. And each one of them led us to significant breakthroughs.A case from personal experienceLet me tell you a story. A few years ago, I worked on a mobile app called Assistant. It was the most popular smart voice assistant developed by API.AI (the app is no longer available after Google acquired API.AI; it’s now called Dialogflow).One day, we launched a sale in the Assistant app. It wasn’t anything special – we had many similar sales before. After the sales day, I opened the dashboard to check the results. Everything looked normal. I was about to close the dashboard when I noticed something unusual.Our routine during monthly sales was to send push notifications in ten different languages to our users. Usually, conversion rates for push notifications were similar across different languages. But in this specific case, I observed a significantly higher conversion rate for the Spanish notifications.I decided to investigate the “spike” I found and postpone other plans to some other time. It didn’t take me too long to find the potential reason for the increase in the conversion rate. It turned out that when I had edited the notification, I had only copied the first part of the message in its Spanish version. The original, English version of the notification message was, “I have a surprise for you! Here is your 50% off deal!” But the Spanish version only read, “I have a surprise for you!”My impression was that the conversion rate would be lower in a push notification that excluded the discount context. Many companies that provide push notification services regularly stated this in their reports.However, I didn’t find any other explanation for the spike. So we decided to experiment with this idea and don’t mention the discount in the next sale for all the languages.As a result, purchases doubled on our next sales day. In the next update, we did the same to our regular sales, and it increased our overall revenue by 8%. This was a significant improvement, considering the fact that the app’s yearly run rate was several million dollars.Thus, a small unexpected fluctuation in the dashboard chart that resulted from a random error gave us quite a big increase in revenue.Note: I should say this doesn’t mean the same thing will work for your app. In the case I described, a number of product features went hand in hand to provide this missing-discount effect.Skyeng case studyAnd here is an interesting case from Skyeng, a popular online school that teaches English:Free introductory lessons are part of our sales funnel. During these lessons a teacher determines the level of the student and her goals.One day, we noticed that one of our teacher’s conversion rate from an introductory lesson into paying student was stably higher, and we are talking about 20%, which is a lot. For a long time, we tried to figure out what was the reason. We studied all of her lessons in detail but didn’t find any explanation.Then we noticed that while all teachers had identical topics for their students’ introductory lesson, this teacher always had different tasks and topics for the first lessons she gave. It turned out that she looked for her students’ names in advance, and was trying to get to know her students’ hobbies a little better through social networks and search engines. She discovered what sort of things they liked and then selected the topics her potential client might like.We set up the same business process for all our new clients, and now, when a person comes to us, we already know her interests and understand what we can offer. The conversion rate of our introductory lessons have increased from 60 to 75%.Summing it upThe manager from our story at the beginning of this article instinctively understands that he needs noisy metrics and “spikes.” These noisy metrics and spikes can reveal something valuable that you won’t be able to find otherwise.The analyst suggests monitoring the average metrics, which on the one hand reduces the influence of randomness, but also conceals a lot of useful information.Here’s my advice: don’t be afraid of noisy metrics. Make sure to look for “spikes” on your dashboards. Study them. Find out the reasons behind them. Do not be quick to attribute the fluctuations you find to the game of chance or seasonality.The dashboard that says “Everything is fine” should upset you, as it doesn’t carry any information to work with. Fluctuations are your chance for discoveries and breakthroughs.What discoveries did you make? What did you learn from “spikes” on the product’s graphs? Share your experience in the comments!

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Exactly one month ago I have purchased a domain name for my service - After Idea. The idea stroke me and I said to myself "time to go all in." Talked to my other half, bought a domain and started building an MVP.After Idea is a service that helps people to find out what their audience thinks of their idea - or more professionally, validate market.Most of the entrepreneurs know the feeling when you are not sure if there will be enough people willing to use your product. Well AI solves that. Instead of building MVP, investing time, money, you can order a quick market validation. We will take your idea, create a survey, research for people that are your target audience and ask them what they think and if they would use it.We also work on existing products - if you are not sure why your business did not skyrocket - was it because of the concept, landing page or something else, you can validate the first part.Around 100 hours later, with MVP built, market research is done, and countless test runs completed to make sure everything works I had soft launched and managed to generate $750 of revenue in a week. As expected this week the revenue dropped (no sales from marketing chats I marketed to during the first week). I still managed to pass the $1000 mark in total revenue, so I will not complain!📈 I have just finished the second week, and the stats are as follow:746 website visits (+64 ✅)634 unique visitors (+12 ✅)1396 pageviews (+140 ✅)93 seconds average time spent on the website (+17 seconds ✅)4 sales made (- 3 ❌)$296 revenue generated (- $647 ❌)$0 profit made (0)0.5% Conversion Rate (- 0.3% ❌)🔎 Traffic sources:~590 - Quora ($99 revenue generated)127 - IndieHackers ($197 revenue generated)12 - Search Engines4 - Twittersome single visits here and there💡 What I did last week:I have added just one answer to Quora. Most of the traffic I have got was a direct entry from my header in an answer that got featured in email digest (it reached over 125,000 people). It is related to entrepreneurs - I assumed the traffic would convert much better. The answer was added almost two weeks ago, and it receives over one thousand views a day, so not bad.I have tried to research new communities that I can market to. I have checked TheFastlaneForum, but I am not sure there will be enough potential leads for time spent on promoting it. Maybe I will try in the future. Then there is UKBusinessForums. They offer one year of premium account for 30 pounds - this allows you to advertise in their "for sale" section. I think I might try that since I offer a service, not SAAS. I have worked many hours on adjusting bits and bobs (changing some text, improving content, optimizing certain parts). I have fixed some bugs and performed few test rounds to maximize response ratio from surveyors contacted.I also took 2 days off from laptop first time in 4 months. Went camping to relax and recharge my batteries. It is nice to have a business that won't collapse when you are offline a day or two. I assume this affected my sales a bit (I estimated I have lost 1 or 2 leads due to not being able to answer 'more information' request fast enough).👨‍💻 Plans for next week:I have installed yesterday evening Crisp Chat, and I will try to increase the conversion rate of Quora traffic. As of now, it is only 0.16% - I would like to try to bump it to 0.5% over time if possible. I am also trying to communicate more clearly about what After Idea does and how it benefits the buyer. I will be adding "Process" page explaining how everything works in a friendly manner. Then adding some tooltips, adjusting some content, maybe I will have another look at the FAQ section and rewrite some of it.I have added one more package. At first, when I started, I had six packages spread between two categories, but I thought it is too much. I switched to three and now to four packages (added one huge for potential agencies and businesses).I will create some answers on Quora (I will try to get ten more answers and get to two thousand answer views a day), and I promised myself I would start content creation to get a new source of traffic. I am still wondering how and where to write, but I think I will stick to Medium, IH and share my creations on Reddit. The first topic I want to write about is soft launching. I want to finish it by Thursday (I am yet to start writing it). Mind that I am not a native English speaker, but I will try to learn to write engaging content. My goal is to reach over 1,000 visits this week. I think this is doable with enough work invested. I would also like to generate four sales (so the conversion rate will be 0,4%).You can check the service here: https://afteridea.comI know that starting is hard, so I hope this post will help some of you!