#all i know is this user got suspended and people have been really pissed at staff over the situation?

[eyeoftheaxolotl]

i do not know what happened with predstrogen and at this point i am too afraid to ask

[yarichin-imagines]

Hi!!! okokok, how bout a s/o who has a kind of quirk (just like bnha!), how do you think they would react? Like, I think they'd probably integrate into something related to sex or develop a kink (? LMAO

y'all i am so into bnha you have no idea!! also, for neutrality purposes, i'll be using the quirks of deku, todoroki, bakugou, uraraka, kirishima, denki, sero, iida, and satou, all from class 1A, mostly just because none of their quirks rely on physical appearances!!

tw: impact, dubcon (drugging, somno), dummification if you squint

Toono – S/O's Quirk: One for All – This Quirk is a union of two different Quirks, one that stockpiles power and one that passes itself on to another. The user can momentarily gain strength and speed far greater than any other Quirk and hero.

thankfully by the time he'd met you, you'd mastered the use of your Quirk

you were never the prance about type to flash around your power anyway

you preferred to use it for more mundane tasks – like opening pickle jars and carrying the groceries into the house in one trip

he found out about it on accident

he was on his way out when he caught you in the parking lot coming in––

with your car in hand, two feet off the ground

you'd dropped your fob somewhere underneath it and couldn't see

toono passed out

when he came to, his first questions revolved around whether or not the car was okay

once he wraps his head around it though..

he's way more into it than he tells you

but it also fuckin terrifies him

so much so that he really doesn't want you to use it on him

definitely has watched you use it so intently that he can nut off to it later

maybe one day he'll pluck up and ask you to activate it for some pictures he can keep

Kashima - S/O's Quirk: Half-Cold, Half-Hot – This Quirk splits the user into two, half of the user's body can emit ice, the other half emits fire.

honesty is a pillar to kashima's relationship

your quirk came to light a month or so into seeing him

and at first, he was mostly excited about the health benefits

he decides then and there that you gotta do him a solid and chill his side of the bed

that way he can keep cool when he sleeps

sometimes

even if he's half asleep

he'll grab your right hand with a lil soft tug

and in your drowsy stupor you chill his pillow so there's no need for a flip

makes him grin like an idiot every time

when he comes home from practice or from the gym he has you freeze and unfreeze the bathwater-- saves you guys a whole lot of ice

he doesn't mind letting you ease his muscles with your left side after all the heats works wonders that would make any rice pack green with envy

as a top, kashima's got complete control in the bedroom

all day, he'll ask you to close your eyes and heat something up, maybe it's a vibrator or a dildo

or when you chill something, they're usually beads or a plug

all for him to torment you with later on that night

Yacchan – S/O's Quirk: Explosion – This Quirk allows the user to sweat a substance similar to Nitroglycerin from the user's palms and ignite it to create explosions.

kyosuke recognizes it's too dangerous to use in the bedroom

but that being said, there's plenty of other stuff around the place to let you show off

your firework shows are always the best on the block

especially when he sets some off right when yuu isn't expecting it

mainly, yacchan appreciates your quirk when it comes to pulling pranks

It's really funny when you're popping ziploc bags full of nothing right outside tamura's dorm when he's trying to power nap before exams

and even funnier when he storms out in just tighty whities to yell at you

only to meet the flash of yacchan's cellphone

toono will fall asleep during study sessions sometimes and yacchan will facetime you so you can let out a boom and wake him up

he will most definitely fall off the bed and yacchan will most definitely record it

the two of you are the best of the worst that way

Shikatani – S/O's Quirk: Zero Gravity – This Quirk allows the user to cause people and items to float on contact. There is a weight limit on how much the user can levitate, and if this Quirk is used to much, it will cause the user to get sick.

it's really helpful when you help him deep clean

after all, if the supplies are gracefully floating behind him, that leaves his hands free to do twice the work, saving him half the time

but you're content to watch the beautiful boy work

if you help him clean like that, he won't ask for much more that day

he is very very conscious of how much you use your quirk

because he cares about you too much to let you get sick

since he knows for a fact that because of his ocd he won't be able to take care of you

and that stings

so on the days where the chores have all been done he gets the honor of experiencing the effects of your quirk in bed

he likes how it feels when your tease him from the air above

your throat feels more open

but it's not like he can do too much about it since the instant he gets too eager you always float just out of reach

sometimes if he's behaved very well, you'll suspend him

the headrush he gets is euphoric

but the best is how good you are when you blow out his back with your strap

after all, without gravity, your stroke game is literally out of this world

Akemi – S/O's Quirk: Hardening – This Quirk allows the user to harden any part of their body. This shell can withstand several tons of metal falling on the user, along with shock waves, explosions, etc.

there's nothing cuter to akemi keiichi than a brat

if you want to misbehave?

by all means

go right ahead

he'll leave it to you to exhaust yourself

that's the first time he saw you use it

he wasn't aiming to cause any major damage, he was only spanking you with his hand

but he'd been at it for almost an hour

then suddenly he'd pushed you off him after he'd slapped what felt like a solid rock

not that it could stop him

his eyes only grew darker

from then on out, it was all a game to see how far he could push before the shell wore down and you gave into him

Itome – S/O's Quirk: Electrification – This Quirk allows the user to discharge electricity out of the user's body. It goes out in all directions around the user, and can be used to even charge objects, such as batteries. There is a limit to how much this Quirk can be used, and if used too much, the user will short circuit their own brain, and won't be able to do anything for an hour.

of course you can charge his phone in a pinch when it dies at the worst possible moment

hotwire his car when he's already running late

restart the fusebox when there's a power outage

after hours, itome's not a hard dom

not in the slightest

but every once in awhile, he can be particularly malicious

like when he has you overcharge your vibrators to give him the liberty of overstimulating you for longer

really it's less about the scene and more about what comes after

due to the limits of your quirk, aftercare is all on him

that's what he likes the most

taking care of you completely

being able to coax you through your braindead state

clean you off and pose you all comfortable

you're all the sweeter when you come to, when you come back to him

Yuri – S/O's Quirk: Tape – This Quirk allows the user to shoot extremely strong tape from openings on the user's elbows.

the tape is good for fixing most messes yuri gets himself into, clumsy fuck

also waxing!

of course he's gonna be into it

he loves the sting it leaves when you pull it off him the most

and he feels it all over again when there's red rectangular patches all across his skin the next morning

though the gluey part is a bit of a pain to wash off

sometimes he'll leave it for him to pick at throughout the day -- that way he'll get the shivers, makes him hot all over again!

he literally cannot get enough

when you do your school work or anything that diverts your attention from him, he'll be tugging at your elbow

this way you can restrain him until you're ready to ahem

put him to use

you can also use your tape to toss him around, floor to bed to floor to wherever

sometimes you even tape up his face, cover his mouth until the drool renders the tape into a thin flimsy strip

you tie his hands tighter and tighter every time, and it never breaks him

he loves it

on the other hand, yuri can be quite the slippery fuck

for emergencies, you've got some of your tape stored away

you've woken up more than once hogtied, your quirk turned against you

like it or not, yuri can easily turn the tables and you're almost never expecting it

you might have an unlimited supply, but he's too quick for your own good

Tamura – S/O's Quirk: Engine – This Quirk gives the user incredible speed by engine-like protrusions in the user's calves. The engines are fueled by orange juice, and carbonated drinks will mess the engines up.

he calls a 40 meter dash every single weekend

he sets his treadmill to train for it the whole week

but he never beats you

and it seriously pisses him off

you're always faster, no matter the game

if anything, it motivates him

he'll take the bruised ego if it helps him get into better shape

the fact that sometimes, you let him win makes his "engines" overheat faster than you can blink

he'll chase you and chase you for hours

fueled on adrenaline and testosterone, there's no way he'll tap out before you

expect a long, hard bite once he catches you

he goes absolutely animalistic

that lilt in his voice when he finally gets to sink his teeth into your shoulder, even if it's through a shirt, that doesn't matter to him

"caught you"

Jimmy – S/O's Quirk: Sugar Rush – This Quirk allows the user to become stronger and faster every 10 grams of sugar they eat for three minutes. The more the user uses this Quirk, the dumber they get.

every time he catches you snacking on a chocolate bar his whole brain turns off

he's practically jumping, the way he bounces around

waiting for you to inevitably choke slam him against the nearest surface

wall, couch, bed, anything

he likes it when you just toss him over your shoulder

even more the way your hits are harder than usual

he antagonizes you on purpose

making sure to stuff a grocery cart full of sweets he knows you like so that he can catch you snacking and make him pay through the nose

he always asks so nicely

but when you won't give in, well that just won't do!

doses your miso with sugar, drops in three extra cubes in your milk tea, encourages extra flan for dessert

for the next three minutes, you're nearly tripping over yourself

everything is lighter

and then when the crash hits---

jimmy can finally take what he wants

and karma is quite the bitch

[abbacchios-sunflower]

Welcome Aboard Part 2

The second half of my collab with @dongiovannaswife ! Thank you so much again Lena for doing this with me, I had sm fun! <3<3 ^o^

*****

“Sooo, what’s he like anyways? Your boss? Giorno you said his name was?”

 “Hmm? Oh, yeah, Giorno’s a fair guy, really smart, kinda scary to most people who meet him for the first time, but he’s one of my best friends, great guy,” Mista leaned back in his seat, arms folded, knees crossed as he looked to Marissa. “To be honest I don’t know why he needs bodyguards, his stand is probably the scariest thing I’ve ever seen.”

 “Hmm, I see,” she looked out the window as they drove on what felt to be forever. “He’s kind of mad I got involved, huh? Is he even going to like me? I’d rather not get shot in the head for walking in on mafia business, you know?”

 Bruno closed his laptop, tucking it away as they were going to be arriving soon, “Just like Mista said, he’s a very fair guy, we’ve known him for a long time now; he’s just very protective over his famiglia and doesn’t like civilians getting tied up in our business, doesn’t think it’s right. I’m sure he’ll be very welcoming when meeting you.”

 “Yeah; exactly! It’s not like it’s your fault you almost got sliced up by that dickwad we were chasing!” Narancia interjected.

 Fugo rolled his eyes, “Yes well, you didn’t have to be such a blabbermouth and tell her we were the mafia, Giorno has the biggest problem with you doing that if anything.” He looked across to Marissa as well, “he’ll probably ask questions about your stand, what your intentions are, you’ll be fine, try not to worry too much about it, all of us here got roped into the mafia at young ages and we did just fine,” the blond checked his phone.

 Well, yeah, of course it was easy to tell someone not too worry when this has been your norm for like, ten years. The newcomer folded her arms, stretching her legs out in the back seat of the car. “Alright I guess.” Maybe she was starting to regret the decision to come. When her parents had said to “branch out and meet new people'', but this probably wasn’t what they meant, oh well she was kind of stuck in the situation now, might as well see where this all goes. Worse case scenario she probably would just go back home.

 “Just be grateful you don’t have to do the lighter test to get your stand and we discontinued that kind of stuff; that was so nerve wracking, I thought I was a goner!!” Narancia rubbed his neck nervously.

 “Lighter test?”

 “It’s how things used to be done, though some of us already had our stands by the time we joined, you see,” Bruno had explained. “Mista and Abbacchio both had manifested their stands by the time I had found them, not everyone needs to pass the arrow’s test to get one. It’s a topic Giorno and his family are highly interested in actually.”

 “Oh?” Marissa looked to Abbacchio who was sitting in the front seat. In the few days she had known these five men; it was probably him that she knew least of. He was even more closed off and disgruntled than Fugo, barely speaking a word to her unless they were bickering about something.

 “Hey guys, maybe you shouldn’t be telling her everything about us, she’s still an outsider in case you forgot about that; I doubt Giorno would like you guys running your mouths more than you should, he’s already probably pissed,” the goth grumbled, looking back from the passenger’s seat.

 Bruno has a teasing smirk, leaning back, “And since when you were so interested in obeying what Giorno says? Hmm? I thought you liked being difficult with him.”

 “You’re just lucky he always trusts your judgment, Consigliere, or else he probably wouldn’t have even wanted to meet her,” Abbacchio sarcastically snapped back. Bruno had rolled his eyes.

 “You’re still just sore that I didn’t tell you about why I brought him into Passione in the first place all those years ago,” Bruno chuckled, “but that’s a story for another time, perhaps Giorno would like to tell you himself,” the leader pleasantly smiled. “Now, we’re almost there,” he regained Marissa’s attention. “I don’t care what you’ve heard from any of us, you’re going to refer to him just as Don Giovanna, okay?” she nodded stiffly. “I take it we can trust you to be respectful?”

 “Hmm? Oh yeah, of course!!” she straightened up in her seat; the anxiety was definitely setting in now. This was probably— definitely a mistake. How did she always get into weird and scary messes with people?

 *****

 The estate was huge, yeah; surely the Don of the mafia and his most trusted men stayed there. Mista was the one to open the door first and stroll on in, followed by the others. “We’re baaaaack!” He loudly announced. “Oh Trishy? Did ya miss us?!” He confidently smirked as footsteps approached.

 “I’ve been wondering when you would be back, I’m still bummed out I didn’t get to go…” a young woman with pink hair slowly came to a stop as she looked past the men, seeing the shorter woman with them. “Dio mio- when I said to bring me back a souvenir, I didn’t mean kidnap a local!” She folded her arms, narrowing her eyes at the gunslinger.

 “Relax, she just got caught up in our bullshit, she’s a stand user and Bucciarati was interested in her stand and thought Giogio would be too, said he wanted to meet her when we were on our way over!”

 “Speaking of that, I already finished the reports from this job, we burned down the warehouse, not a trace of the drugs left, same with Emiliano,” Fugo held up a small folder.

 The young woman’s face relaxed more as she exhaled, taking the file and extending a hand to the newcomer, “Trish Una, I know how it feels to get swept up into trouble by these assholes, they don’t bite though, I promise, well, maybe Abba will if you provoke him enough, but he’s a bit of a softy under the fangs,” she smirked when Abbacchio looked disgruntled by the use of the nickname and teasing in front of the other woman who was smirking back at him now.

 “Abba, huh?” she raised a dark eyebrow, smirking as well.

 “That’s just “Abbacchio” to you, brat,” he snapped back.

 Rolling her eyes, she ignored the threat and took Trish’s hand, “Marissa, but uh, you guys can just call me Mar, all my friends do, it’s easier in my opinion,” she tilted her head back and forth. “So are you, like, a stand user too?”

 “Got that right, most of us are,” Trish pulled her hand back, gesturing to follow her, “come on, they’re right this way! They’ve been expecting you!”

 “They?” Mar blinked.

 “Oh, of course, the Donna will be there too naturally, she’s a lovely lady, Giorno’s lucky to have her for sure. She’s very interested in you too; I’m sure you guys will be great friends if you’re to stay with us! Also, we better get you Italian lessons if that’s gonna happen, luckily a lot of us speak English pretty well too,” Trish stopped talking and turned to face a set of doors, knocking twice. “Don Giovanna, Bucciarati is back, Fugo already finished his reports.” She announced.

 “And is she with them?” A male voice came from behind the door.

 “Right next to me!” Trish replied.

 “Well, send her in then.”

 *****

 Trish Una turns to Mar, a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes directed on her way as she opens the door, holding it open for her. “Good luck.” She mouths right when Mar walks by her side, closing the door at her back.

 The office looks like a lawyer’s would; bookshelves around the room are filled with all kinds of books; from astrology to philosophy, biology, medicine, math. All the knowledge the human race had cultivated through centuries seemed to rest there, in a silent office where only the light of the window pooled in, illuminating it just in the right amount.

 “Please take a seat, would you like something to drink?” a feminine voice, soft and gentle, breaks the silence.

 Marissa’s head snaps towards the source of the sound.

 In the couch where the sunlight is gentler, a woman sits, a glass of liquor suspended between her fingers. Her short black dress hugs her figure in a comfortable way —and the dark purple cloak resting on her shoulders, huge and almost drowning her makes it clear the garment is not hers, both from its size and the cut.

 Her red lips curl upwards in a genuine kind smile when Marissa and her make eye contact.

Nodding her head, her curls move along her head, strangely giving her that aura of mysteriousness. “Don’t be shy.”

 “Sit down.” the male voice is there again, this time, coming from the desk. Just when Marissa looks on, a blond man stands up, all six foot six of him towering and blocking the sunlight from the window. As he moves on, his features and figure become clearer: short blond hair that reaches the nape of his neck, piercing green eyes and lips in a tight line, and a strong, imposing built. Hands inside the pockets of his burgundy suit —the black shirt underneath the suit jacket glistens with something underneath, a shape unknown to most —but to him, the rumble of the arrow lets him know this is a stand user standing before him.

 “We were told about the incident.” He starts, not expecting an answer from her until he rounds the couch, coming to sit down besides his wife and circling her shoulders with one arm as the other extends forward, signaling her. “And we wanted to talk about it.”

 Mar nods, quickly walking in and sitting down at the couch before the couple.

 Their glances feel like an ice cube and a flame at the same time but even then, she still finds the courage to look at them in the eyes before centering her attention in a spot above their heads, where her voice doesn’t quiver when she speaks.

 “I was the one who asked,” she starts, quickly correcting herself as her fingers fiddle with her clothes. “I wanted to know what it was —just a part, because the rest was obvious.”

 Giorno hums, “First things first, what’s your name?”

 Marissa gulps down, feeling the man’s gaze harden when her reply doesn’t come immediately; naturally, one would expect this question to be answered right there.

 “Marissa.”

 Giorno nods, curtly: all business. “Well then, nice to meet you. She’s my wife and the Donna of the famiglia —I suppose you already know who I am, don’t you?”

 Lena nods, raising her glass shortly —making the Don tone it down. “Please make yourself at home.”

 “Thank you, Don, Donna.”

 “Now,” Giorno doesn’t let silence settle in, “There is something we need to talk about first; we have a strong policy to not get civilians involved in our… Matters. You were a special case, and before we start, you’re totally free to choose and swear silence over this. If you do, you can go home right now, and you won’t talk about this —not the police, not your family, not your lover, no one at all. Is that what you want?”

 Marissa opens her mouth to reply when Lena raises a hand up, her palm open and exposed towards her —perhaps a blind body language sign.

 “Think about it. We won’t go anywhere.”

 And this time the rest is silence.

 As Marissa’s head spins with thoughts and questions, her eyes go back and forth between the couple and the literal library around them, the sound of birds chirping outside and the water in the fountain falling. The distant sound of male laughter and the following hush to it.

For fucks sake, she had come here without a purpose. It was all a mere impulse to go out and explore, find new things, meet people perhaps.

 But the Italian mafia was a whole other level of her mom’s phrase. It was crazy.

  “Listen,” she says, making the couple’s ears peek immediately as they look back from each other’s faces —their quiet conversation forgotten immediately. “If you’re trying to embed another question about my reason to be here I’m gonna be sincere with you, I don’t know what I want from this, but I’m not your enemy. Hell, I’m just a girl from a damn boring town.”

 Giorno nods, tilting his head to the side slightly. “That does answer one question, but not the other.”

Marissa sighs, “I want to stay.”

 “Why?” Lena shoots back, leaning forward to place her glass into the coffee table. The liquor left there is now ignored.

 “I don’t know.” Marissa repeats, trying to bite back her annoyance —she had already said it.

 Lena hums, a sweet smile making its way into her lips; the situation makes it feel like a venomous one. “Mar,” she stops for a second, giving her the time to correct her in case the nickname does not match her taste. “There is always a reason for everything; you want to stay, and there must be a reason for it. Everyone here has one.” She gestures around with one hand, recalling some of their most loyal men. “Loyalty, money, a lost cause, redemption, a golden heart. Everyone has a reason; and all of them are valid. As long as the interests match, then there is no way we won’t let you in.”

 Giorno’s gaze comes back from outside, a solution on the back of his mind. “Let’s do something; we will proceed with your test,” if he noticed Mar’s stiff shoulders at the word ‘test’ he played an excellent act when he didn’t react to her reaction. “And by the time we’re done, the last question will be your reason to be here.”

 “Sounds good,” Lena speaks up. “Shall we start, then?”

 Mar hums, gulping down.

 “What are your views on law and justice? Is it true or just another circus?” Giorno leans back, chest puffed out in pride.

 Mar huffs, almost rolling her eyes. Now that she has found her physical reactions don’t seem to have an effect on them, the will to be herself comes back slowly but surely. “Money. If you have the money, then there is no way you’ll put a foot in jail; no one will be able to find out about your actions, unless you want them to.”

 “And what if you don’t have the money and you are not the culprit but you find yourself in jail?”

 “Then… Someone who doesn’t want you out there got you there with their influences.”

 “I see,” Giorno nods, eyes falling into the window once again. Thoughtful. “What would you do to escape if you found yourself in that position?”

 “Let’s be real, any person who knows about this kind of business will be killed in no time: the news and the police will say they took their own lives. But we all know the government doesn’t want to be seen as a traitor to the people they swore justice and truth to. So they will kill them and make it seem like a suicide, they will pay and eliminate anyone who dares say otherwise,” Mar looks up, almost as if looking into the white celling will give her the answers. “The only way to escape is paying, as I said before, anyone will do whatever they can to grasp a few more bucks into their hands, even if that means letting go someone important under the lie of an escape.”

 Lena nods, a small smirk tugging at her lips. “But… Most people in the government are there because some of them have been put there by us.”

 Mar nods, humming along. “And that’s why you’ll probably never find yourselves there, because those men are working for you. They owe you one, that’s it.”

 Giorno turns to Mar, smirking slightly. “That’s right. Then, next question —Will you commit murder? Whatever your impulse is from these two; orders or will, never from liking —would you do it? And who would it be?”

 Mar’s lips end up pressed together for a moment —her eyes go around the room until her sight falls outside; the sun is gone, hidden by grey clouds. Even the birds have gone silent. The only sound is the water fountain still working.

 Looking on, Mar stares into Giorno’s eyes, then into Lena’s, replying in a firm, concise tone. “Well, as far as the rich and powerful that get away with horrific crimes? Anyone who takes advantage of the weak? I don’t care about what happens to them and I’d gladly set them on fire without thinking twice if given the opportunity.”

 The couple before her don’t reply, turning to look at each other —right there, Mar can see the deep connection between them, as the simple glance into each other’s eyes proves to be enough to communicate; only a small smile from Lena and her nod, and Giorno turn to her again.

“That does actually match with our interests —you’ve got one point there.”

 Lena nods, speaking up. “Next question, Mar, and this one is my favorite; are we born good or evil? Do we turn evil, or perhaps good, as time goes by?”

 Mar nods to herself, replying shortly after —eyes going between them in a simple conversational gesture, out of nervousness or insecurity. Despite the topic, it already seems like everyone there is comfortable with each other’s presence. “As far as that whole debate, well, everyone has some kind of baggage; people are just people. You have to make the conscious decision every single day of what kind of person you want to be. People who come from bad homes either choose to rise above it and be ‘good’ or they’ll choose to use it as an excuse to hurt others because they were hurting. Regardless, yeah, at the end of the day, there’s always a choice that has to be made.” She shrugs her shoulders a little.

 Giorno nods, humming low. The sound spark’s Mar’s attention.

 But his last question is not expected.

 “Usually, we ask more, but you’ve surprised us —last question; what is your will, if you ever form part of the famiglia?”

 After a moment of hesitation, considering all the previous answers she had given, she looks back up, finally thinking she had a solid, cohesive answer to give. “To be honest I’ve been kicked around all my life, I was never taken seriously, I hated being ignored, and in turn I hate seeing others face injustice. I even considered a job in criminology at one point; my dad always thought I should have been a lawyer or went to work for some behavioral analysis unit, ya’know, FBI stuff,” she licks her bottom lip as she starts off. “But like I said earlier, it’s all corrupt at some level, the law, all the red tape and bullshit rules, that’s why I stopped trying to pursue the idea of becoming a profiler, it frustrated me to see people manipulating the system.”

 Letting a few beats go, she continued on, “That said, one might say I have a moral flexibility problem and I don’t like playing by rules that are designed to protect the corrupt, my ideals of justice aren’t really what the government is interested in. Sadly, for me, that means I’ve never really fit in anywhere, never had much of a plan after I realized I couldn’t stick with a job I had thought I wanted.” She looked down at her feet again, “That’s why, when I ran into your guys pursuing that drug dealer this week, I guess I figured it was a sign that maybe there could be a place for me, after all, it doesn’t seem like any of you had much success being on the side of government or law enforcement.”

 Folding her arms, she looked back at the Don of Passione, “I guess that’s why I want in; if you guys could find a place and purpose being here, why not me too?”

 Giorno’s eyes bore into Marissa’s, cold and empty of anything but plain green pools accentuated with yellow bits.

 The Donna leans back as a single chain enveloped in red energy emerges from her palm. It flicks, filling the room with the sound of clicking metal.

 Rising a hand up just when one of the chain’s links rests there, surrounded by a brighter tone of red, turning orange briefly just when another hand, humanoid and clearly not hers, but her stand’s, touches the object, producing a creak that echoes and bounces around the walls.

 And as soon as it came it’s gone; the sound, the stand’s arm and its glow, everything’s gone and now, in the Donna’s palm rests an insignia. She leans forward now, with Giorno’s eyes on both women as he watches the moment through proud and calm eyes.

 “Welcome, Marissa. Wear this and serve loyally for our cause, which is just.”

Giorno speaks up just when Marissa leans forward to take the insignia, “You will be assigned to an area with a Caporegime, and will work for them, understood?”

 Marissa nods, taking the insignia from Lena’s palm. “Understood, boss.” She looks down at the golden object —it’s not that heavy, but it does have a certain weight, taking in consideration it’s apparently made of pure gold; the arrow that crosses the small button has what seems to be an insect, whose form is palpable.

 “Please, wait outside; we’ll send someone to lead you into an apartment soon. And Mar?”

 Mar stands up, freezing and turning back to the Donna. “Yes, boss?”

 “I can assure you you’re part of this now, you’re not an outsider anymore.” 

 Mar nods, sighing in something she can’t say —turning around, she doesn’t fail to notice the sun back again, the birds flying out the mansion’s garden and the fountain still there, functioning as if nothing happened. Where a world keeps going, her world seems to stop; or maybe time passes slower, she couldn’t know what was it, but everything felt different the moment she closed the door at her back.

[parugi]

My time in the Jedi Academy RPG community

Alternative title: How I helped destabilize four forums worth of RPG players!

So I recently started posting my first let’s play, and the game I decided to play first is Jedi Academy. My reason for going with this game was not random by any means. In some ways, I attribute many of my current set of interests and skills to it--and not for particularly great reasons. Still, I can’t deny the impact it has had on me, and I feel like it’s worth it to share the absolutely insane experience that I had in the Jedi Academy RPG community back in like, 2003 to 2005ish.

I’ll be the first to admit that some of this is going to sound... very outlandish, but I guarantee that it is all 100% true as far as I can remember it. Unfortunately, for the most part, I only have my word to share, because the forums that hosted all of the evidence for this have been either shut down or archived when InvisionFree/ZetaBoards shifted over to “Tapatalk.”

Anyway, bear with me. This is me performing a sort of self-therapy after 16 years of half-repressing the memories. I’m also not sure quite where to begin, so this might jump around a bit. Again, please bear with me.

For a bit of backstory--Jedi Academy is a Star Wars game. It’s built on a system that is very mod-friendly and possessed a rather large multiplayer community back when it first released--dozens and dozens of servers with up to something like 36 players each, many of which were always full and impossible to get into. And the mod community thrived, too--there were hundreds of downloadable maps, vehicles, character skins, even mods that changed battle stances and mechanics. It was neat.

One mod in particular was called ForceMod 3, which completely revamped the multplayer so that you could select between different classes to play instead of having just a bucket of things to choose without any nuance--from Jedi Apprentices, to Jedi Masters, to smugglers, to Imperial officers followed by Stormtrooper NPCs, even a custom Yuuzong Vong class with its own adjusted mechanics. Each came with its own number of Force points, its own designated weapons, even differences in health/shield distribution. Obviously, this made it perfect for role-playing, and more than one set of users recognized this.

I don’t know exactly when or how my brother and I discovered FM3, but at some point I logged on and noticed something different about the servers being run on it. For one, there were not as many; the most I ever saw was 8 at a time, quite different from the standard 30+ on vanilla multiplayer. More than that, there were servers designated as “RPG” servers, a term I, at the time, had never encountered before. When I first discovered this, there were only three big RPG servers:

ForceMod 3 RPG Server

((RPG_Server))

and one whose name I do not remember; it was something like Jedi Enclave

The third does not matter as much, because it only suffered from the following series of events as a side-effect of the other two causing them. But we’ll get to that.

Also of note, this list would later include [[RPG_Network]]--my server.

Keep that in mind. Its resemblance to ((RPG_Server)) is not an accident.

Also keep in mind that I was 9/10ish at the time.

So, back to the list. I saw these “RPG servers” and joined one--((RPG_Server)). It didn’t click to me that it wasn’t the same as a free-for-all server at first, but I soon realized the difference when I noticed that people weren’t just randomly going around and killing each other. They were interacting as if they were characters.

That was interesting.

Interesting, and yet I thought nothing of it.

A couple of days later, though, I decided to give it a try. And it was fun! And interesting! I got to pretend to be a Jedi instead of just playing as a Jedi! Nice! That was in ((RPG_Server)). And it was super relaxed! Basically we got to do whatever, as long as we were playing characters. It was a nice community, and it got me hooked to RPGs, which I continue to play to this day.

They also had a forum. I would later join it.

But first, I had something to learn about RPG communities: They are not all fun and games.

((RPG_Server)) was not always up; sometimes it would not appear on the list. Usually, but not always. One day it wasn’t there--but FM3RPG was. That was fine; these RPG servers were all pretty lax, right? I’d just join it and do as I do, right?

Wrong.

I joined it, I did my thing--and got pretty immediately kicked.

FM3RPG was more of an “elitist” server--they took their RPG very seriously. That meant that you couldn’t play as certain classes without approval. In fact, unless I’m remembering incorrectly, you could not join the server at all without first getting a character approved on the forum. This was not a simple process, particularly for a 9 year old. They expected an elaborate character sheet to be submitted, with a full history and details down to the character’s height and weight.

I joined the forum. I submitted a character. I didn’t get approved.

That’s fine. ((Server)) was back up, so I went there and joined the forum, and that was dandy. But that also made me not like FM3RPG, so I didn’t go back there. I did ghost their forum, though, and it became clear that they held a low opinion of ((Server)) because ((Server)) wasn’t as stringent as FM3RPG.

IMO, that was a blessing. But not everyone thought that way.

Quick side-note--FM3RPG had a specific moderator who became infamous within the community for many, many reasons. This person went by Naru. Naru was petty to the point of banning players for expressing political views that they did not agree with.

Keep Naru in mind.

I don’t have a great recollection of what all occurred in ((RPG_Server)) before everything went to shit, but I think it was mostly fine. There were a set of three mods who had created the place, and these were the only mods/admins when I joined. They were Subrerec, Mose, and I think Maverick was the third one? They would later be joined by Marrin (replacing Tarrin, who supposedly died in a car accident about a month in (and I only say supposedly because Marrin and Tarrin were... suspiciously similar people in hindsight) and Aitrus, my friend who actually was very helpful in showing me the ropes.

Later-later, they would be joined by Docco.

Oh, Docco.

Docco was actually my friend for a while. Pretty much everyone was, actually. It was a good community when I first joined. But I was not good at accepting changing times, so that didn’t last--and here’s why.

The first crack in the structure, so to speak, came from a really petty conflict. There were these official profile avatars available on the Jedi Academy website. Subrerec, Mose, and Mav all had one, as did Marrin. I liked them, so I used one. It got reverted. I thought that was weird so used it again. Mose reverted it again and gave me a warning because “Only the mods got to use those.”

Twas a very petty thing to get someone in trouble over, and it made me dislike Mose. But whatever, find a different avatar and move on.

The second crack was a certain player named Dorian Remedy. Dorian was an... immigrant of sort from FM3RPG. He had played there and then joined ((Server)). Note, however, that he didn’t leave FM3RPG, he merely also joined ((Server)).

He was also the biggest fucking prick that I have ever had the displeasure to encounter to this day.

His modus operanti was to criticize. Not in a constructive way, either, but in the rudest way possible. And I say that even with hindsight. Dorian made no effort whatsoever to come off with any sort of empathy or tact, because he didn’t care--he was the embodiment of the elitism that pervaded FM3RPG. Anyone who wasn’t interested in a more structured RPG system, he couldn’t be bothered to give the time of day to, because they were too incompetent to understand why FM3RPG’s system was superior.

I was one of those people. Because I was 9. Do I think differently now? Certainly. At the time? No. And would I act anything like he did if I were in that boat? Hell no.

The problem with Dorian was that it didn’t matter how rude he was, because the mods, particularly Mose, agreed with him and wanted to revamp ((Server)) into a lighter version of FM3RPG. That itself was not a problem, but because of it, they would not take any sort of action against Dorian regardless of how he talked to anyone. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but I feel as though that would drive anyone insane.

Dorian would cause many, many problems for me, personally, but he did not cause this particular incident that really broke the camel’s back.

At some point, I had suggested to Subrerec and Mose the introduction of the Sith into the plot. It was a surprisingly good idea for a kid, imo, and I was allowed to do it. So I created a Sith Lord and chose an apprentice. That was my friend Docco.

And that was cool. I had fun. Until I didn’t.

One night I logged on and had this really brief message from Docco and someone else whose name I don’t even remember. It basically just said, “We need you to log on ASAP.”

So I did, because I was 9 and didn’t think to ask questions.

Turns out, they were performing a Sith coup.

They killed my Sith and overthrew me and I wasn’t allowed to do anything about it. I felt hurt and angry and betrayed because they hadn’t given me any indication of what they were planning. I like to think that if they had, I would have been fine with it, but who knows? I was 9, so maybe, or maybe not. Hard to tell.

The short of it is, Dorian made fun of me, Mose didn’t care, Docco didn’t apologize, and I was pissed off. There were some players on my side and some who weren’t. What erupted after that was basically an all-out war of constant fighting and name calling and getting suspended and everything. In a matter of weeks--or maybe days? Months? Time is an abyss--the forum had gone from something great to just this cesspool of people constantly at each others’ throats.

I was mad and decided to split off and make my own forum with my brother (also involved in all of this, unfortunately) and a friend who went by Mara Jade. We made a forum called RPG: Palace of RPers (a very not-redundant name) and it lasted about a week before Mara Jade gave admin rights to Dorian, who proceeded to change everything and locked the three of us out.

So that was the second betrayal by a friend in less than two weeks. I did not talk to Mara Jade after that. And I was stuck in ((Server)) because I am not a quitter--even at 9.

Around this same time, someone else joined the forum, and this is where things went from just a singular forum issue and cross-contaminated the entire community.

FM3RPG ousted Naru. Naru’s already tenuous popularity had tanked. And why? For a couple of reasons. One, Naru was not a teen girl, as she had claimed, but a 30-something year old man. On top of that revelation, it came out that Naru had engaged in cybersex with several underage children.

So Naru was banned from FM3RPG.

Someone named Cassandra joined ((Server)).

Immediate. Chaos.

Some people figured out pretty quickly that they were the same person. Some were doubtful but said they should get a chance even if it was true. Some just did not believe it.

I was 9 and did not believe it.

I did not believe it because Cassandra was on my side in the Sith debacle and was nice to me and Dorian, Docco, and Mose did not like her so therefore I should like her.

Docco and Mose tried to convince me otherwise and I ignored them because I was mad at them about my Sith. Dorian continued to make fun of me.

More and more people were starting to catch on, though, and at some point it was just me left defending Cassandra. Around that time, my brother and I made another forum, with help from some different friends (Reverser, Bane, Heero, Inuyasha, Duo, and Cyran Ciin--remember that last one). This was [[RPG_Network]]. We set it up and actually were able to host a server on occasion because of Reverser. So that was cool--we were sort of official.

But there was still the Cassandra issue.

I can only guess that Docco and Mose and others were just frustrated with trying to--what I realize in hindsight--protect us from an actual, straight-up child predator. I say this because they joined the [[Network]] forum and just started causing chaos, spamming and using what I consider highly disgusting images for their avatars and signatures.

They made it pretty clear what would make them stop, and that was banning Cassandra.

Which I did, but not because of their stipulation.

Around the time we got our server running, ForceMod 3 updated and did something... interesting. Whenever someone joined a server, it would show that they were joining, and it would show their IP address. At some point, Naru joined a server--don’t remember which one--and we got a picture of “her” IP.

IPs were also visible to admins of InvisionFree forums.

Naru and Cassandra had the same IP.

She tried to tell me that it was done via proxy, but even a 9 year old can experience clarity.

So I banned Cassandra from [[Network]].

I’m lucky to say that I had this revelation before anything bad happened. So I have that to be thankful for.

Anyway.

((Server)) shifted officially to a strict system like FM3RPG. It still bore the ire of FM3RPG because FM3RPG was the only “real” RPG server. Dorian got what he wanted and made sure to lord that over everyone. I didn’t want to stay, so I left and went to [[Network]].

And you know? That could have been the end of it. It really could have. But people like Dorian can’t just let kids be. So instead of letting the servers coexist--maybe not peacefully, but certainly coexist--he instead made a point of popping onto [[Network]] not infrequently to throw his weight and insults around.

I wanted to ban him, others wanted to give him his chances.

That splintered the [[Network]] admins.

Some other things also splintered the [[Network]] admins, including these key points:

Revenge of the Sith had come out pretty recently and some of us, myself included, thought a Jedi Purge copycat would be cool. Others did not. None of us agreed on what to do.

Inuyasha did this plot in [[Network]] where a 17ish year old Jedi apprentice got captured by a Hutt and violated by said Hutt’s Twi’lek slave. It was not vague what happened. I was not a fan.

Myself and Bane concocted a plot to kill multiple characters. This included multiple of Inuyasha’s characters. Bane later went public with this. This was very hypocritical of me and I am now ashamed of my involvement. It stemmed entirely from the previous point.

Everything after this is kind of a blur. The [[Network]] stuff was going on in 2005 just before my family moved to Oregon, and after we moved I kind of just dropped out--mainly because all of this drama had spread so far and wide that a large chunk of the entire RPG playerbase had up and quit. That and I’m pretty sure my account was banned from ((Server)) at some point. I do know that during that time, my remaining Jedi character was killed in their Jedi Purge. I do have to give Dorian some credit for giving Master Kyle South a cool death scene, if nothing else.

Anyway, [[Network]] was basically dead by the time we moved, ((Server)) was barely on its last leg, and FM3RPG was ruined because of Dorian’s attitude across Network, Server, and Enclave (which also just died without much fanfare). At some point my brother attempted a revival of [[Network]], but that did not really take off and the entire thing just became a board full of spam.

Buuut that revival was after a certain event that served, I think, as just the final nail in the coffin.

And that was caused by one Cyran Ciin.

I was not around to witness this, but here is what I understand occurred:

Cyran Ciin did something to [[Network]]. This basically killed it. I don’t know what he did exactly, just that there was something done.

This got him in the good graces of Mose, and he became an admin on ((Server))’s forum.

However, Cyran Ciin was actually also from FM3RPG originally, and had a thing against ((Server)) and the other RPG servers. So, now an admin, he was free to just completely demolish ((Server))’s forum.

Just, everything moved into a trash bin, the forums rearranged, the background changed to a spam image, and all of the other mods and admins revoked of their privileges.

Karma? Maybe. 

Additional karma? Those actions getting Cyran Ciin banned from FM3RPG.

He didn’t care, though. He thought it was hilarious. I think he was an actual sociopath.

Anyway, FM3RPG was done. Their players had a reputation now and no one wanted to be associated with them. That’s my assumption, anyway. They might’ve just died to time like everyone else.

It doesn’t matter, though. The FM3 RPG community was dead--r.i.p 2003-2006ish.

There is an epilogue of a sort.

((Server))’s forums and [[Network]]’s forums were dead, but not gone--for a while. I found I was able to get back to both by correctly recalling their addresses--s6_invisionfree.com/rpg_server and I believe it was z11_invisionfree.com/rpg_network. Neither works now, of course, but they did for a time.

My brother gave me his login information for Network, so I was able to look around and see all the great things I had missed after the reboot. Luckily everything else was gone--during the reboot they had completely wiped the forums of everything from the first run, including the evidence of what I had done as a bad admin. That was nice. But I didn’t like what I saw, so I locked the forum, forgot the login information, and only occasionally looked at it via a throwaway account that I had made under the name of boxabox (password: boxabox).

The forum is gone with the change to Tapatalk, so that information is all useless now.

The real “heartwarming” epilogue comes from ((Server)). For a while, again, the forums remained accessible, and so I logged on back in like, 2013 or 2014. Surprisingly there was a thread that ran for a few days where someone was basically like “yo anyone still around?” A few people responded, including Docco, which was astounding. No Dorian, which was great.

Somehow I still remembered my login and password (although I don’t now) and decided to post on there.

The initial response was, unsurprisingly, not friendly, but long story short, Docco and I made amends and never spoke again after that.

By what I am sure is sheer coincidence, the forum got locked only a couple of weeks later, with only admin access enabled. So everything from there was already gone, and is now double-gone with the switch to Tapatalk.

I did discover that FM3RPG’s forum remains open, though. I won’t link to it because I don’t want to, but if you really want to, you can certainly find it--no login required.

Aaand that’s that. That’s my sordid history with the Jedi Academy RPG community. I won’t say I killed it, because that would be taking way too much burden of the responsibility, but... Well, let’s just say that I found a wikipedia-esque article about this same community several years back and I was mentioned as an important figure in everything that transpired. I have no idea where that page is now, but hey, it existed at some point, so I gotta own it.

Peace.

[itsallavengers]

would you be willing to write some more tony stark with peter parker and their father-son relationship? because i think it's so precious and i loved your story with peter getting drunk! maybe you could write something with peter being really, really sad and crying and desperately needing a hug and feeling like nobody cares about him and someow he finds his way over to tony. and before tony can even ask what's wrong peter just breaks down crying, so tony comforts him and hugs him maybe?

“Fuck.”

Everything was blurry. He felt wobbly on his legs; a little bit like he’d been concussed, except he knew there would be pain if he had. Physical pain, anyway. Or blood.

From behind him, people were laughing. It was loud and grated against his ears. He wanted to tell them to shut up; to scream at them, or hit them, but he knew he couldn’t. He was too strong. One punch might kill them, for all he knew.

He couldn’t do a damn thing.

“Fucking…fuck,”

More laughs. Someone shoved him in the shoulder, and he would’ve ducked out of the way, but it would’ve looked too fast to be normal, so he let them. 

“Awwww, guys, look at him, he’s going to cry!” Someone called out, and Peter looked down to the floor immediately, desperately fighting back the hotness behind his eyes. Fuck fuck fuck fuck- he wasn’t supposed to cry, he was bigger than that, he was a superhero for Christ’s sake, he could take a little teasing-

“Oh my God, look at him! He’s actually fucking crying!”

He wanted Ned. Or MJ. Where the hell were they- it was their spot in the school cafeteria, they were supposed to be here, he needed them to be here right now, everyone else was stood around him, crowding him, crushing him, he couldn’t breathe- he wanted at least one person on his side, Jesus-

“Aww, Peter,” came a soft voice to his right, so pretty and nice and exactly what Peter had loved listening to for such a long time now, “you really think I would actually have said yes? For like…serious?”

Someone shoved his shoulder again, harder this time, and Peter gritted his teeth, getting to his feet. He’d had enough of this, he needed to find…something, a toilet maybe, or an empty classroom-

Hands grabbed on to his jacket and shoved him back on to the seat again, and Peter physically fought back the urge to grab their wrist and force them off. He’d hurt them. He’d hurt them he’d hurt them he’d hurt them, he was too strong, he’d hurt them-

“You’re honestly one of the most pathetic things I’ve ever seen, Jesus, Parker,” someone else, a boy this time, leaned down and ruffled a rough hand through his hair. Everyone laughed again.

He was done.

Getting to his feet, he ignored the people who tried to push him back down again. Strength be fucking damned, he wasn’t going to spend another second in their company. He pushed at the nearest person he could reach, and then watched as they were yanked out of place and sent hurtling across the room, falling on to their back and rolling all the way across the cafeteria.

There was dead, stagnant silence.

Peter stared, horror-stricken. Oh…fucking Christ, what if he’d hurt him-

“What the shit?” The boy called out angrily, getting back to his feet and staring across the room with a look that could’ve curdled milk.

Right. Not that injured, then.

“What the fuck is your problem, Parker?” The boy snarled, beginning to step forward, and there was a crowd gathering now, obviously preparing for some sort of fight, and where the hell were all the teachers, shouldn’t they sort this shit out-

“FIGHT!” Someone called, breaking the silence, and then suddenly they were all yelling; chants and sneers, egging the other boy on as he took another step, vicious grin on his face.

Peter had to stop this. Immediately.

Turning on his heel, he did the only thing he could think of.

He ran. 

He ran and ran until he reached the main entrance, and then he kept running until the school was just a distant building amongst the many in Queens.

(Read more, mobile users!)

He’d ended up sat on the curb of some street on the outskirts of Brooklyn.

He wasn’t too sure how long he’d been running for. Enough to get him pretty far, at least.

Everything hurt.

He hadn’t even been roughed up that much. But he felt tired; his bones just ached. It seemed as if there was a drum in his head.

His eyes stung, as they had been for about a non-stop hour now.

God, he’d been an idiot. He should have fucking seen it.

There was a hot trail down his cheek as a tear slipped from the corner of his eye, and he desperately fought to hold it back. He wasn’t going to cry. He wasn’t. He was a superhero. He was better than that. He wasn’t going to cry.

He just wanted someone to talk to.

But MJ and Ned would be in class. Aunt May was at work. Peter didn’t have any other friends.That was it.

Well. There was Tony. But what were the chances that Tony Stark would want to waste time on him? God, the other kids were right- he really wasn’t worth anyone’s time, least of all fucking Iron Man, who the hell did he think he was?

He looked at the contact for a long time, debating whether or not to hit dial.

He knew he shouldn’t. He knew it was stupid. Pathetic.

The tone beeped seven times before there was a sharp “Peter, I’m in the middle of a very important meeting- unless the world is falling apart, can it wait a few hours?”

See? Fucking idiot. Tony had a job too, what the fuck was Peter doing, so desperate for some fucking pity that he was happy to just interrupt Tony in the middle of a board meeting-

“Oh God…I’m so sorry. I… sorry. I didn’t- I’m…sorry,” Peter whispered, shutting his eyes and ending the call before Tony could finish the word that had half-formed through the speaker.

“Fuck,” he breathed out, long and deep, trying to steady himself as he put his head in his hands. The world was starting to spin again, he felt sick to his core- how he was going to turn up to school tomorrow and face them all, he had no idea.

His phone rang again, but he ignored it. When it rang a second time, he put it on silent. It was probably just one of the kids, anyway.

He really was pathetic.

People passed him as he sat on the curb, but they were New Yorkers. They saw it all the time. No one stopped. Peter was kind of grateful. He didn’t exactly fancy being told to go back to school by some pissed off pensioner.

He watched the traffic pass. Everything felt a little surreal. This was the first time he’d ever bunked off school before.

He was probably going to get suspended. 

He was so out of it, he barely even heard the noise of repulsors off to his right. 

Of course, he was sort of objectively aware of it- with his senses, it was impossible not to be- but once he’d registered it wasn’t a threat, it stopped mattering.

There was the sound of expensive shoes on pavement again, and then someone slid down next to him, expensive suit rubbing up against the grime of the New York streets. Hands rose up and curled around his knees, and Peter saw the sleek black bracelet that circled around his left wrist, tiny little flashes and numbers popping constantly on the small screen.

“So. Rough day?” Tony asked him, head turned and looking down at Peter.

Peter had all but a second of silence, before opening his mouth and bursting into tears.

“Oh, Christ,” Tony muttered, immediately pulling him in by the waist and guiding his head into Tony’s shoulder, right hand wrapping around Peter’s front as he held tight and let Peter cry against the incredibly expensive material of his Tom Ford suit.

“Shit.. I’m sorry, I- I’m fine, you got a, a m-meeting, I’m f-”

“Peter, shut your face,” Tony interrupted gently, squeezing a little tighter and letting his head drop against the top of Peter’s hair.

It felt nice. Different to Aunt May hugs- Tony was bigger, and his grip was stronger, more grounding than comforting. It was exactly what Peter needed.

“Tony, I didn’t- I didn’t mean to interrupt- you… y-y-you’ve got a meeting-”

“Fuck the board meeting,” Tony waved a hand, and Peter could guess the sort of face he was pulling, “they’re boring. I feel like my services are needed more over here, anyway- all I was doing was nodding off back there.”

Peter sniffed, wiping shaking fingers over his eyes. He should let go; pull away, stop fucking crying. Jesus, he was so-

“Okay, first thing’s first, I want you to stop thinking whatever you’re thinking. I don’t care what it is. Just stop it,” Tony declared, slashing a hand through the air firmly and holding Peter that little bit tighter with the one still curled across his back.

Peter tried. But he couldn’t let it go. He probably fucking deserved this anyway.

Tony sighed, like he could physically read Peter’s mind. “Okay then. So if you’re not going to stop, are you at least going to tell me what happened?”

Peter didn’t say anything; he just clutched tightly to the lapels of Tony’s shirt and desperately tried to quell the apparently never-ending stream of tears, shaking his head quietly as he did so.

“Trouble at home? Uh. Fallout with friends?” Tony tried, clearly unsure of how best to tread.

Peter shook his head, trying to open his mouth and form a sentence whilst Tony just stroked his back, hand running along Peter’s jacket in a soothing motion, until fingers caught on the rip just above his shoulder-blade from where one of the kids had yanked it. He froze, and then dug underneath just a little, pulling it upward and having a look.

Peter winced at the motion- there was a bruise just beginning to form there from where he’d been grabbed, and it stung.

Tony’s eyes widened, and he let go. “Peter, has someone been hurting you?”

“No,” Peter said immediately, but Tony had turned around fully, grabbing him gently by the shoulders and facing him, serious and concerned. 

“Peter, has someone been hurting you-”

“It was just one stupid day,” Peter cut in, looking down at the floor and pushing the tears that were springing to his eyes off his cheeks hurriedly. “Fuck, sorry, I’m not… I’m not this upset, Jesus, really, I don’t know why I’m… please don’t think I’m weak or anything, because I- I’m not, okay, I just-”

He broke off, unable to finish as his voice broke pathetically and a fresh wave of tears fell down his face.

Great. Great fucking way to assure people you’re fine. 

Tony looked like someone had just run over a puppy in front of him. There was a look of horror etched into his face as he looked down at Peter, and Peter could only imagine all the stuff he must be thinking right now. Probably everything along the lines that the other kids had been saying about him, because it was true, he was pathetic, he was just a coward who couldn’t even stand up and fight for himself when someone pushed him-

“Oh, Peter,” Tony said quietly, pulling him back in again, holding so tight against his chest that it would probably have hurt a normal person, “believe me, kid, I will never, ever think you’re weak. I’ve seen you in action. I’ve seen you lift buildings up and hide people behind your body to keep them safe- that will never be the actions of someone who’s weak, okay? Ever.”

Peter screwed his eyes shut, burying his head a little further into Tony’s jacket as his shoulders heaved. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m-”

“Stop apologising, please, God, you’re gonna give me a heart attack, kid,” Tony interrupted, and Peter felt him suck in a shaky breath before pulling away again, taking Peter’s forearms and then tugging lightly. “I say we blow this Popsicle stand and head somewhere a little less…conspicuous. What do you think?”

Peter just nodded, hands still clutching weakly to Tony’s expensive shirt. There were little patches on the grey jacket from where he’d cried.God, that was mortifying.

“Right. Up we go,” Tony declared, jumping to his feet and pulling Peter with him. He walked forward, Peter trailing behind, until Tony ducked into an alley and then stepped into the suit that was parked just around the corner.

“You wanna go flying?” Tony asked, grinning widely as he opened his arms.

Peter gave him a watery smile and nodded a little. 

“Hold on tight, then,” Tony said, stepping forward and grabbing him around the waist before lifting off with a whoop.

“Okay, before we begin- ice cream?” Tony asked, pushing open the door of whichever of his houses they’d ended up in and stepping through the threshold.

Peter debated for a moment, before a quiet “that’d be nice, yeah.”

Tony blew out a breath as he heard Peter’s voice; still too wavery to be considered normal. He was frowning, but that had been pretty much nonstop since arriving, so Peter didn’t think much of it. “Right. Good. See, I don’t even live here properly, but I always make sure I keep icecream in the freezers. Just in case. Lucky, huh?”

Peter stood awkwardly at the door whilst Tony bounded off in search of food. He felt…well, stupid, really. Today had just been horrible, and his stomach was roiling with a hundred different emotions- he wasn’t even sure he’d be able to keep the icecream down at all.

“Peter?” Tony’s voice called from down the hall, and Peter watched as the man’s head poked out from around the corner, looking at him curiously. “You gonna come in, buddy? There’s a sofa and like, 7000 different movies in here, which I feel like you’d appreciate.”

“I… I really should get back to school, Tony,” Peter said, suddenly imagining all the punishments he would probably get from bunking off; suspension, exclusion, detention for the rest of his life, a  screaming Aunt May-

Tony looked at him for a long time. “Do you want to go back?” He asked, cocking his head.

Peter pulled a face. “It’s not about what I want to do. I have to go back. I’ll get into trouble if I-”

“Kid, you’re already in trouble. You already left. Whether you go back now or tomorrow morning, the punishment will still be the same,” Tony said, pulling himself around the corner properly in order to lean against the wall. “Now, I am not condoning skipping school here- but I would really rather you didn’t go back there until I can get this all sorted out. I already got JARVIS to alert both the school and May that you’re okay, so there will be no search parties out for you, don’t worry.”

Peter paused, and Tony continued to look at him, that little frown still fixed on his face, eyes flicking back to the tear across Peter’s shoulder every now and again. “I… are you really sure I’m not holding you up-”

“Absolutely not, my day is entirely free. I had one meeting, but it really wasn’t as important as I made it out to be over the phone, just your usual stocks stuff, very boring,” Tony waved him off, pushing off the wall and then chucking a tub of what had to be icecream down the corridor. Peter caught it on instinct, checking the label quickly as he did so.

Mint chocolate. His favourite.

“Kid,” Tony said, walking forward and then putting a hand on Peter’s shoulder, “please tell me what happened. You don’t have to, if you really don’t want to, but I might be able to help,” he pulled a little face, and winced, “I’m not what one would call a ‘responsible adult figure’ or whatever- but if I were, you’d probably be back in school by now, so I guess that’s a good thing. I just… dislike seeing you like this, that’s all. Makes me uncomfortable.”

He was looking at Peter with that stupid pained expression on his face again, and his hand was a grounding weight against Peter’s shoulder.

“I just… kids, right?” Peter said, with a fake smile, “they suck sometimes. All the time. Whatever. It’s-”

“-don’t say fine, Peter, if they’re hurting you, it’s not ‘fine’-”

“they didn’t hurt me, look, I’m fine, I’ve faced off goddamn aliens, okay, I can deal with some shoving-”

“That’s not the kind of hurt I meant,” Tony said, his voice quiet, serious. His eyes were boring into Peter’s, brow furrowed deeply as he observed the tear-tracks and miserable expression.

Peter sighed, letting his head hang in shame. “I…It was nothing.  I had this crush, that’s all. On a girl. For a few months, now. She hung out with all the popular kids, but… I don’t know, she smiled at me. Seemed nice.” 

He stepped, laughing and shaking his head self-deprecatingly. “Damn, was I far off-bat with that one.”

Tony said nothing, but he took Peter’s arm and pulled him forward, moving them both down the corridor and into the living room. Taking the ice-cream from Peter’s hands, he opened the lid and pulled a spoon from his jacket pocket, handing it over. 

Once they were both settled comfortably on the warm leather couch, Tony waved a hand. “Continue,” he said through a mouthful of icecream.

Peter licked his lips, turning away from Tony again. He could feel the heat behind his eyes- he didn’t want Tony to see him cry.

A hand pressed against his back, thumb rubbing softly between his shoulderblades. “You know, I’m pretty sure over the course of the last six months, I’ve cried way more than you. You really don’t need to be ashamed, kid. I’ve heard it’s healthy.”

Peter sucked in a jagged breath, and nodded his head grimly. “Tony- she asked me on a date, last night, Over text. Wanted to go see a movie with me on Saturday.”

He hid his face in his hands. “I… you know me. When I’m excited, I tend to… i talk a lot. Ramble and stuff. It’s stupid. Embarrassing. But…yeah.”

“What happened today, then?” Tony prompted, eyes soft as he offered the tub over to Peter again.

Peter shrugged, face hard. “Turns out it was a joke. They wanted to see how I’d react, ‘cuz they knew I… they knew I liked her. She showed everyone the texts.”

Tony’s hand stopped moving for a brief moment,. “Peter… what was in these texts, exactly-”

“Nothing bad!” Peter said hurriedly, cheeks flushing in embarrassment, “nothing bad, just… me acting like an idiot, I guess. They thought it was hilarious. They told me as much today at lunch break. All 13 of her friends, and anyone else who happened to be around.”

Tony nodded, lips pursed in a hard line as he looked out of the window. His hand was clutching Peter’s shoulder very, very tightly. “Right. I see.”

Peter sighed, tucking his knees up into his chest and wishing he could just take the last week back. “Public humiliation, yup. They kept…shoving me, and I couldn’t stand up. They wouldn’t let me out, and I didn’t want to hurt them, so I just…”

“You just took it,” Tony finished, closing his eyes and making yet another pained expression, “Jesus, Peter.”

Peter felt his face crumble a little further, tears slipping down his face once more, dripping off his chin and on to the couch in little splats.

Tony shuffled closer again, muttering some truly foul curse words as he pulled Peter in, one hand sweeping the tears off his cheek while the other curled across his shoulders and held on tight.

“How am I gonna go back there now?” Peter whispered, “how am I gonna face them all? They’re horrible on a good day, but after this? I… I can’t.”

Peter felt Tony rocking them both gently back and forth, and he wanted to tell him to stop, that he wasn’t a child, he didn’t need to be coddled, but he couldn’t find the strength in him to lie about it. He just wanted someone to tell him it was going to be okay. 

“Listen, Peter- I am shitty at this,” Tony began with, voice muffled by Peter’s hair, “I don’t know what to say to make this better, because to be honest, nothing really can. Unless you want me to build you a time machine- which, by the way, I’d be totally up for- we can’t just magic this away. School sucks. Kids suck. And that is, unfortunately, a fact of life. But…” Tony shrugged, fingers fiddling with Peter’s collar as he thought through his words, “there’s more good things in life than bad. I think. And you, Peter Parker, are one of the best things this place has to offer. No word of lie. And you just need to be able to hold on to that, I guess. Even when everything else is shitty, you need to step away, look at everything around you, and then think ‘yeah. I really am so much better than all this crap. I’m goddamn spiderman. What do any of you losers have to offer?” Tony said with a grin.

Peter was silent, and so Tony added “but I give you permission to take a swing at them if they cross the line, though. You know I can actually do that? I have authority, surprisingly. So if you ever do get sued for punching a Nazi or whatever, I can say that I, Ironman, condoned your behaviour, and you stand a way better chance of getting off. It’s kinda crazy.”

Peter let out a burst of laughter at that, and he felt Tony smile in response. “Ah, yes, Good- laughter. I like laughter,  lets keep that up, huh?”

Peter smiled, a little watery around the edges, but Tony seemed to accept it, because he patted him on the cheek and then grabbed the icecream back. “Oh, and I’ll sort out the kids, don’t worry. They won’t bother you again.”

Peter raised his eyebrows. “You’re not going to kill them, are you?”

Tony shrugged, knocking the spoon against his nose. “I make no promises. Now- there are like, a billion different movies here that I’ve never seen in my life, and a ton of time to kill. Seeing as you’re apparently a rebellious little teen now, you don’t have anywhere to be either. You wanna eat icecream and watch movies? I’m pretty sure I can get Aunt May to let you stay over, if you can’t be bothered leaving.”

Peter wanted to protest; despite what Tony had said, considering the near-constant vibrating his phone was doing, it seemed as if Peter had caught him on a busy day.

But Tony’s shoes were already off, and tucked up underneath Peter’s legs as he grabbed for the remote, so Peter guessed he wasn’t planning on moving any time soon.

Wiping any stray tears off his face, he leaned back and stretched his legs across Tony’s so they were both tangled in the middle of the couch. For the first time all day, the weight felt a little bit less heavy on Peter’s heart.

“Up, up, Peter, fuck, I’m terrible- we have like, 20 minutes to get you to school, come on, come on, let’s get moving!”

Peter jerked awake, unsticking his cheek from the leather couch and glaring sleepily at Tony, who was stood over him, a pile of clothes in one hand and a toothbrush in the other. “They’re my size, so they might be a little big on you, but they should be okay. You better hurry your ass up, Parker, I don’t want to get yelled at by your Aunt.”

“Ugh,” Peter groaned, wincing as Tony let the clothes drop on his face. “Can’t I just take another day off? It’s Friday. No one does anything on Friday- it’s practically weekend-”

“Nuh uh,” Tony said, from somewhere over to his left, “that would be considered irresponsible adulting, and I’m supposed to set an example to you kids. You’ve got five minutes. Get dressed.”

Peter felt his heart sink at the thought of going back, and he bit back a sigh. He knew he had to, of course. It was just…gonna suck. A lot.

“Hey, kid,” Tony clicked his fingers, and Peter zoned back in, looking at Tony as the other man stood over him. “Hm- sorry, what did you say?” Peter asked.

Tony rolled his eyes, but the hand that ruffled his hair was gentle. “It’s gonna be fine, okay- I promise. You’re gonna enjoy yourself, trust me. Just get ready quickly. Open your mouth.”

Peter frowned, halfway to asking “wha-” before Tony shoved a slice of toast in his mouth and then scurried off again, grabbing his jacket as he went. “BREAKFAST MAKES FOR A HEALTHY START TO YOUR DAY!” He called out, whilst Peter just sat there, toast in mouth and clothes in hand.

“Tony, do I really have to-”

“Yes,” Tony said, shooting him a look from the driver’s seat as they pulled into the school’s driveway. “I’m sorry, kid, but I can’t just let you bunk. It’s seriously gonna be fine, I promise, just look-”

“It’s not gonna be fine, as soon as I get through the doors they’re gonna be there, I just know it, please, can’t I just-”

“Peter, seriously, look-”

“-Not go, just for today. Seriously, it’s one day and I’m a genius anyway, it won’t exactly matter-”

“Peter,” Tony flicked his temple, momentarily surprising him into keeping quiet, “look.”

He turned his head to where Tony was pointing, and then frowned in confusion when he noticed, in the distance, a line of kids, all stood meekly by the roadside. They were shuffling self-consciously as everyone turned to look, but didn’t move. They seemed to be waiting-

“That’s them,” Peter said, eyes widening in apprehension. “Tony, that’s them, they’re waiting for me, oh, fuck-”

“Damn right they are,” Tony muttered, before fiddling with the dashboard and grinning. “Hey, I think we should ride with the top down for a bit, give everyone a show.”

Peter’s eyes narrowed. “Tony, what are you planning?”

“You trust me?” Tony asked, letting an arm rest across the open window, a picture of calm and coolness. This was, without doubt, Tony Stark- from the expensive Ferrari they’d shown up in, right down to the red tinted shades and perfectly trimmed goatee.

Peter got the feeling he had an idea what the man was planning.

He grinned. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

Tony laughed, and they drove down the drive, Tony’s bright red car catching everyone’s attention as they went. People started talking excitedly- because why the hell was Tony Stark at their school… and was he with Peter Parker? What the fuck?

When Tony drew nearer to the line of Peter’s bullies, he couldn’t help but let his heart flutter nervously in his chest.

“Watch this,” was all Tony said, patting him on the shoulder before pulling up, right next to them.

“Okay, ladies and gentlemen, how do you wanna do this?” Tony called out, beeping his horn and making them all jump nervously. “How about I just drive real slow, and you tell Peter what you wanna say, huh?”

The kids looked utterly mortified, but nodded jerkily all the same. Peter shot Tony a quick look, but he was staring straight out of the window as his head nodded absently to the beat on the radio.

The first kid was a boy; grim-faced and bright red as he muttered a tiny “sorry, Parker,” once Tony had rolled the car up beside him.

“I… sorry honey, old age, affecting my hearing. You’re gonna have to speak up,” Tony called out, putting a finger up to his ear and then making a face. “Also, you’re talking to him, not me.”

“S-sorry, Parker,” the boy said, louder this time, before quickly turning and walking off, shoving the crowd who had gathered out of the way.

Next up was the boy who Peter had shoved. Peter locked eyes with him, but the boy just averted his gaze, looking down to his shoes. “…Sorry, Parker,” he mumbled, jaw clenched. 

Peter looked down the line of 11 more kids, eyes wide and face utterly disbelieving as one by one, each of them apologised, every one of them pushing past the laughing crowd with faces like thunder, mortification obvious on their cheeks.

“Oh look, and last but not least, it’s you, sweetie,” Tony said, voice dripping with sarcasm as he smiled up at the girl Peter had been crushing on for weeks.

She had her hands tightly behind her back, and her eyes were flickering everywhere except Peter and Tony. Peter really didn’t know if a face could get any redder.

He was honestly having the time of his life, at that moment. He wasn’t sure what could possibly get better.

“So, what do you have to ask, properly this time, to Peter over here?” Tony said, flicking a thumb over in Peter’s direction and smiling again.

She looked at him, taking a breath. “Will y-you…will you go to the movies with me?” She whispered quietly, head sinking into her shoulders as the kids around them all started chuckling.

Peter stared, eyes, if even humanly possible, going wider. “What?”

There was silence, and then Tony honked the horn again, making her jump nervously. “Come on, kiddo, we don’t have all day. He didn’t hear you, so say it again.”

“Willyougotothemovieswithme,” the girl stammered, words falling over themselves in her haste to get it over with.

Peter stopped. Jerked back a little. And then laughed, loudly. “I’d rather fall backwards into an open sewer, to be honest.”

Around them, everyone burst out laughing. A few clapped. The girl looked completely horrified, and quickly turned tail, running through the audience as they laughed.

Peter watched her go, feeling somewhat as if he was in a dream, before turning back to Tony. “Okay, how the hell did you make them do that? How… how?” He asked incredulously, whilst Tony laughed.

“Simple. Just hacked the CCTV at school, found out which ones they were, and then got their parents’ phone numbers from the school databanks. After Ironman reamed out their mommies and daddies, I asked to speak to the kids themselves. When you get yelled at by a superhero, you tend to do whatever they say. Also I threatened to put a virus in all of their phones from now until forever, which is compelling. Especially when youre a popular teenager who requires social media in order to establish hierarchies.” Tony shrugged again, fingers tapping against the steering wheel as he looked solemnly at Peter. “They won’t ever bother you again. I swear. They’re too pussy to try anything.”

Peter gaped; huffing out a breath in a mix of shock and immense, terrific gratitude. “Oh, God. Thank you, Tony. Thank you so much.”

Tony looked down at him, a small smile on his face as he opened his mouth to speak. But before he could start, however, the radio suddenly crackled off, and Tony’s face fell a little as he shut his eyes. “Oh, crap-”

“Tony Stark, you are a dead, dead man,” came the furious tone of Pepper Potts through the audio system. “Are you kidding me? I had to get JARVIS to hack into your god damn radio, because you refuse to answer your phone for 24 hours! 7 MEETINGS, TONY! 7 meetings and a Gala you were not only supposed to attend, but open! and give a speech for! I have been putting out fires ever since your goddamn ass walked out in the middle of our INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT STOCKS M-”

“Oookay, kid, time to go, out out out,” Tony interrupted, dialling the volume down until it was nearly entirely silent and then leaning over, opening the door for Peter. He kept his hands by his sides, but Tony muttered “yeah, okay, this one’s a hug,” over his shoulder, and Peter wasted no time in grabbing him and holding on for a moment.

“Thank you,” he whispered, as Tony pulled away and looked anxiously at the speaker system where Pepper’s muffled voice was yelling at him from. “I’m sorry you missed all your meetings. I didn’t mean-”

“They weren’t important,” Tony said, and then winced when Pepper’s voice rose a few decibels in order to argue that statement. “Okay, well maybe they were a little important. But I’m a Priorities Guy. I knew the wonderful and amazing Pepper Potts would cover my ass. It’s all good,” Tony said, speaking the last part into the speakers and then giving Peter’s shoulder a shove.  “You seriously have to go, Peter, or you’re gonna be late. And I’m sure a lot of people are going to want to be talking to you about what just happened. After all,” Tony gestured to himself, revving the engine a little and grinning, “you just got dropped off to school by Tony Stark. I’m guessing that’s big news.”

Peter stepped out of the car, and with a look of mild disgust on his face, Tony turned up the volume up again, beginning to start his apologies to the furious woman down the line. 

“Have I ever told you what a wonderful colour your eyes are?” Was the last thing Peter heard him say, before he drove away down the road.

As soon as Tony had left, it was like a chain reaction. He suddenly found himself surrounded by excited kids, all asking him why, where, how, who, when-

He spotted Ned, just beginning to walk up the stairs, star wars backpack resting high on his back as he climbed.

Peter grinned, and pushed through the crowd.

[concluded-illusions]

MMO AU Where everyone is part of the same guild and uh. Are. Friends.

Light and Firion are IRL friends who decided to create a guild.

Light and Firion are roommates in college. They were both pretty awkward but they found a common ground in gaming. Light almost murdered Firion once over Fantasy Mario Party. So they play games where they can work together instead of going to prison over party game murders. Light is a paladin, his username is just WarriorofLight1. Someone took WarriorofLight.

Firion used to garden in his free time, but he can’t really do that in a dorm, so. New hobby time. He likes farming sims. He has so many hours in Fantasy Stardew Valley. After the almost murder incident, he and Light tried out an MMO and started a guild. Firion is a hunter, his thing is WildRoseRebel.

Luneth was their first recuit. He plays most on weekends cause school because he is a 14 year old lad. He’s starting high school and is a stressed out bean. He and Arc try to get their homework done when they get home from school. But they are children. Who actually does their fucking homework when they’re supposed to. On Sundays, Firi and Light make sure that Luneth has done his homework. Little do they know it’s already 2AM for him, and he hasn’t. Luneth plays as a healer because someone has too, and his user doobly is RecklessTravels.

Cecil is also a college kid, but he got into a fancy college because his daddy is important. He plays because Kain plays. He accidentally joined a guild and got really sucked in. He played as a Dark Knight, but Rosa and Kain had an intervention with Cecil, which led to the deletion of the account. With a clearer mindset and not being so gosh dang addicted, he rejoins as a paladin, and plays the game but also takes care of himself. His username was DarkWaningMoon before he deleted, but now he is MoonlightWaxing. Kain is DragoonGuy45.

Okay so Bartz used to play a lot. He was really good. Then he took up traveling. So he rarely plays. He comes back occasionally to see his friends, and always likes to meet the people who have joined during his absence. He is team hot boy. A model. Not profesh. But fantasy instagram loves him. Bartz plays as a rogue, and always comes back with neat stories. His username is ChocoChocoChocoboy. He has an ongoing rivalry with rival guild, VoidBois55. And a romance with their Dragoon. It’s like romeo and juliet, but one of them has no idea what the fuck is going on and doesn’t even know there is a romance. Rip Gilg.

Terra is going to school to become a teacher for younger kids. She’s usually swamped with papers and work, but every so often she gets some time off and she’ll play. It helps her vent frustration from her evil clown professor, who is an asshole. While playing she sometimes passes out and her roomies Celes or Locke hop on, finish the raid for her and log out so she can sleep. She plays as a mage and her username is MoogleFluffer. As soon as she learns Luneth is 14, she becomes his mother. And later when Zidane joins and is 16, despite all his flirting, she insists on being his mother. She makes sure everyone in the guild is well taken care of. She is the team mom. She and Light are the Team Moms.

Cloud moved away from home to go to a good college but he didn’t get in. So he’s working on supporting himself. He’s an unhealthy boy. He works, and sleeps, forgets to eat. Tifa suggests Cloud do something with his free time so he decides to try out this game. He has no intentions to actually take the game seriously and he doubts that he will play after this. So he chooses a dumb name. Oops. He likes the game. He joins the guild and everyone is instantly mothering him. Especially Terra. Every time he gets on the guild checks up on his health. Makes sure he’s eaten. Next time his mom visits with Tifa, Cloud is a slightly healthier boy. He is still. Very. Very depressed. But new friends help. Cloud is a Warrior and his username is GAY420GAY. He rooms with Zack and Aerith. Aerith occasionally plays with him as his healer, her username is COOLRANCH. Good team.

Squall is out of commission for a while since he got suspended along with Seifer for slicing each other’s faces in half. So he’s bored. Has a lot of pent up rage and he can’t leave since he’s grounded. So. Games I guess. He plays a hunter. His username is Heart-of-a-Lion. Little does he know Seifer is playing too, and is ready to wreck Squall’s ass, and also beat him in game.

Zidane is skipping school to help out at home and work. The theater needs him. When he gets time off, and he doesn’t feel like girls tonight (this is a rarity) he decides to game. He joined a guild while the guild’s hot boy was actually on and they instantly became friends. So he gets numbers and tries to plan his free time around when his friend will be on. But he ends up really liking the group. So yay. Friendship. The school counselors are concerned though. Boy needs to start going to school more. He hits on everyone who’s playing as a lady character until they inform him that they are a dude behind the screen. Yeah, Cloud is the prettiest girl in the game, but he’s still a man. Sorry Zidane. There is only one girl, and she is your mother. Anyway, Zidane is a rogue and his username is GrandLethalTheif.

Tidus is a sport boy. The last thing he thought he would be into was a soul sucking video game. Yet here he was. Quitting a sport he didn’t want to be part of, but also to piss off his dad, and not really doing much. He works out, but with no sports practice, he doesn’t really know what to do after school. His GF lives far away and he can’t just hang with her. He decides to try out some games and well, he meets a friendly Frio who teaches him how to game and invites him to his guild. Firion and Tidus start a real friendship here. Slow burn YUTIFI okay, that’s my end goal with these guys. Anyway, Tidus plays a support mage, because he is a supportive boy. He pockets Firion. His username is WaywardDreamer.

Shantotto is a librarian. She’s older than the rest of the gang, and has been playing longer than the rest of the gang. She’s a veteran. And she chose their guild. Cosmos bless. And she kicks ass. When she plays the guild goes after huge raids and sometimes they win. She is a Warlock and her username is ReignofPaine.

Vaan plays this because his pirate mmo shut down. Firi understands, for his friend Leila also played the pirate mmo. Vaan meets Terra first, and then Luneth, and they teach him how to not suck. He is a Rogue and his username is Sky_PirateXII.

Lightning is currently going to college to study uhhhhhh. Security. Things. It’s 5AM, cut me some slack. Anyway, she needs an outlet to vent Snow related anger out of. So video games. She is a Hunter and her username is StrikesTwice.

Y'shtola. College. Is. Cat. Warlock. Uh. Fuck. Username. Is. Cultured_Conjurer. I’m sorry I know nothing about XIV.

But I know like. One things about XV.

Noctis starts playing games as a frail boy. He is no longer frail, but he still games. He is a warrior, and his username is NightLight. Onetime he offers to fly everyone in the guild out to his city’s con. Everyone thought he was joking. He was not.

Anyway.

They are all friends. And they play game. Yay game.

[yourhelpfulaffiliate]

My Pinterest Suspension: A Cautionary Tale

I recently had my Pinterest account suspended and after a few days of back-and-forth with Pinterest Support I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s basically dead. I want to share the story of how I ended up here so that you don’t. Pinterest can be a very powerful tool for getting traffic to your website as well as a fun way for your readers to share and save blog post they like. As I’ve had some time to reflect and except that the suspension was probably the result of my own actions I can see an easy comparison between my story and the story of Icarus.

In the story of Icarus, Icarus escapes a labyrinth using wings constructed for him out of things that were just lying around. The construction of the wings was sound and he was able to fly out of the labyrinth. Unfortunately Icarus becomes drunk on his own accomplishment and flies ever higher and higher. The higher he flies the closer he gets to the sun. The closer he gets to the sun the warmer his wings become and since they’re just held together with beeswax eventually the wings fall apart and Icarus falls into the sea. I know my stories no Greek legend but I think people can still learn from my mistakes. It all started out so simply. If you don’t already know, when you create a new blog website it can take quite a long time for new blog posts to rank on search engines. This can leave your website looking and feeling like a ghost town for months. I had heard that creating a Pinterest account for your blog website was a good way to get traffic to it in this early stage. So I created and set up a Pinterest account for my blog website. When I adopt a new tool I like to create a step-by-step method to follow for posting content. When I first started using Pinterest this method was quite simple but overtime evolved to be my downfall. My method stage 1 Write a blog postDesign a basic pin for itPin that image linked to the blog post At the end of stage 1 my Pinterest monthly views were 7500.

Growing My Pinterest Account

After creating my account and posting a few pins I became very interested in how I could grow my account. I started doing a bunch of research on Google and YouTube to see how other people had grown their accounts. I have a blog post about these strategies which you can check out by clicking on the link below. https://yourhelpfulaffiliate.com/how-i-grew-my-pinterest-monthly-views-from-7-5k-to-20k-in-less-than-two-weeks/ I was proud up myself. I had done the research and then I done the work. After adding a few more steps to my method which I learned in this research I started seeing more visitors to my website from Pinterest. I want to point out this wasn’t a huge change in traffic. But when you have a new website in your traffic is zero and you’re able to make it go from 0 to 10 that can be pretty exciting. It can also lead you to try and amplify those results. It was this want to amplify my traffic that I think caused the most problems for me. My method stage 2 Write a blog postDesign a pin image using CanvaAdd image to blog postPin that image linked to the blog post Fill the whole DescriptionAdd 3 related hashtagsShare on 3 Tailwind Tribes I also experimented with a few $5 Pinterest ad campaigns during this stage. At the end of stage 2 my Pinterest monthly views were 20,000. This growth only took 2 weeks. I did post about 20 blogs in that time.

Flying Too High

This is where I think the trouble started. I had been so successful in such a short time at growing my Pinterest account. I wanted to see if I could grow it more and faster. This lead me to make some dumb mistakes. I think if I had just stuck with the method in stage 2 I would not have lost my account. Unfortunately I had to push it and when you push things to far they break. My method stage 3 Write blog post Design 3 pin images using CanvaAdd the 3 images to the blog postPin those images linked to the blog post Fill the whole DescriptionAdd 3 related hashtagsShared on 7 Tailwind TribesShare pins on Facebook group Repin threadsShare pins to multiple boards Follow 50 people in my niche a day Adding this many steps makes it difficult to judge which of them is effecting your results the most. On top of that it is just more work. I was focused on the wrong metric, monthly views. I was able to grow this from 1500 to 85,000 but in the end it wasn’t worth it. I should have kept my focus on website traffic. As my monthly views grew and grew my click through rate did not. I never got more than 15 views a day from Pinterest even with my huge monthly view numbers.

The End

Well this is how it all fell apart. After taking a break from Pinterest and visiting my family over thanksgiving I got back to it. I was doing my usual daily thing, following a few Pinterest accounts. After following about 15 accounts Pinterest gave me the boot. I was locked out of my account! I got an email saying my account had been suspended because of spam. I was stunned! All those hours of hard work and research wiped away in a single second. I couldn’t believe it.

Dealing With Pinterest Suspension

Almost immediately after reading this Pinterest suspension email I began going through the 5 stages of grief. Denial My first thought was this must be some kind a mistake. I’ll get in contact with Pinterest and they’ll reactivate my account and tell me they’re sorry. I was so sure I would get my Pinterest account reactivated I wrote a blog post on what to do if your Pinterest account gets suspended. You can find that blog post by clicking on the link below. https://yourhelpfulaffiliate.com/what-to-do-if-your-pinterest-account-is-suspended-with-pictures/ After actually getting in touch with Pinterest it didn’t look like it was going to go my way. Pinterest was set on keeping the account suspended and not telling me clearly why. The closest I could get to an explanation was I was participating in spammy behavior. Anger Now I was pissed. They won’t tell me what I did wrong. They won’t give me a way to get my account back. Pinterest had make their decision and their decision was final. And to think I pay Pinterest for ads, I added hundreds of pieces of content to Pinterest platform, and I shared hundreds of other peoples pens as well. It’s been hours sorting pins on the proper boards, creating interesting and descriptive descriptions, and designing eye-catching pins. And now it was all for nothing because Pinterest decided my account should be suspended. Bargaining After I cool down a little bit from being pissed off I decided to try and contact Pinterest again. I asked them if there was anything I could do to try and get my Pinterest account back. I apologize for whatever I have done to be suspended. I asked if they could clarify what that thing was so that I wouldn’t do it again. And then I politely asked to have my account reactivated. I was met with a brief email reply. Basically it said they decided my account should be suspended because some of my actions went against their anti-spam policy. They told me they would no longer be able to look into the issue and that it was resolved. Depression Now I knew there was no turning back. My Pinterest account was gone, Suspended, deleted, removed, and destroyed. Even my URLs on existing pins are now blocked. If you try to click on them you’ll receive a spam warning message and you will not be allowed to visit my website. It was all terrible news. I spent several days feeling very down on myself about it. Acceptance Well, as they say, time heals all wounds. About a week after being suspended from Pinterest I finally accepted that it was my fault. I knew pouting about it would not change anything. So I decided to make lemons into lemonade. If I could stop one person from making the mistakes I had made maybe it would be worth it. So I decided to share this story. It wasn’t easy to share but I think it’s for the best.

Pinterest Behavior To Avoid

I can’t tell you exactly what it was that got my account suspended because Pinterest would not clearly answer that question, but I can guess. Posting Too Much Too Fast If you combine the number of pins I physically posted everyday with the number of pins I had posted using Tailwind’s pins scheduler I was posting somewhere between 65 and 100 times a day. With Pinterest less is more. Don’t flood it with pins, they will notice. Posting The Same Pin On Multiple Boards This is straight up listed in Pinterest spam policy. Don’t do it. Just post your pins to the best possible board. That should keep you out of trouble. Using Pinterest Sharing Facebook Groups I am pretty sure this was a major mistake. Let your pins grow organically. Using this type of repin for repin group is dishonest and I’m pretty sure it is against Pinterest spam policies. Posting Multiple Pins For the Same Blog Keep it simple. One pin per post. Using Too Many Tailwind Tribes Don’t get me wrong, Tailwind is a great tool for growing your Pinterest account. Tailwind tribes can also be very useful but posting the same pin to many tribes is not the best idea. Mostly because if the tribes are in related niches chances are the same people are in those tribes. It is better to pick a few and share different pins instead of the same pin to a ton of tribes. To learn more about Tailwind click the link below. https://yourhelpfulaffiliate.com/new-tailwind-users-get-15-tailwind-plus-credit/ Following Too Many People Too Fast Take this slow. This is the last thing I did on Pinterest. Personally I don’t know what the limit is for this but you should try to stay as far away from it as you can. Putting Promoting Over Content The quality of your contacts should always be you’re number one focus. While promoting your Content is very useful it should not be your primary focus.

Conclusion

While sharing the story wasn’t easy to do I hope at least by sharing it I can help someone avoid the mistakes I’ve made. It really sucks being suspended from Pinterest and if you can avoid it I highly recommend doing so. While being suspended from Pinterest was not my favorite experience, I do think I can walk away with a few valuable lessons. The first one being Patience. Growing up presents online takes time. When you try to force this you’ll probably cause nothing but problems. I’m going to try and let my web presence grow organically from here on out. It won’t be easy but I think it’s for the best. The second lesson I learned was to put content over promotion. Now that I can no longer promote my blog on Pinterest I suddenly have more time to focus on creating content. I’m going to choose to take it vantage of this extra time I found. I hope this blog post was helpful or at least entertaining. Feel free to share your Pinterest story in the comments. Have a great day! Read the full article

[castorsilver]

more cas plots ayyee~

casually adding more plots for Cas because I kinda wanted to think of some in relation to his powers? But feel free to still check out his original plots post and message me if you’re more interested in those. 

I. More fun facts:

likes to annoy people who are just as sarcastic as him 

is soft and nice if he thinks someone is innocent

fastest way to piss him off: mention Pollux in even a vaguely non-positive way. 0 – small angry garbage man real quick

avoids feelings 25/8

will have a pun on his gravestone

would die for his brother without hesitation

technically an intergalactically wanted criminal (for petty crimes)

has been arrested (on a distant planet) but used his powers to escape

terrified to take anyone else through a portal with him

acts like he’s the fucking best

thinks he’s a piece of shit

very low self esteem

thinks that caring for his brother is his only redeeming quality

surprisingly skilled swordsman (learned it while being a space pirate)

has lots of scars from being a space pirate (and from his dad)

thinks sex is no big deal

gets embarrassed at hand holding

reluctant space nerd

still might steal your wallet

if he did it as a “magic trick” he’ll return it

if he did it because you pissed him off, he won’t

really needs a nap

read his full bio

II. Powers:

First let me explain a general overview of Cas’ powers, along with my headcanons for them. 

Overview — The user can create, shape and manipulate portals, allowing them control portal size, location/destination, etc. Similar to teleportation in some sense, but the user is not limited to transporting themselves. If the user is skilled enough, they could transport other people, or even entire buildings, wherever they choose. 

Headcanons — (bolded information is the main point of each section, the rest are details.)

Cas has relatively good control over his powers. As long as he’s been somewhere before, he can usually open up his portal destination in the exact spot he wants. If he’s never been somewhere before, it’s a lot harder and may be hit or miss. 

He tells himself he lies about his powers because they’re too difficult to explain. In actuality, he’s worried about what people will think of them. After he read up on the ability and learned that — theoretically — he could send entire cities through a portal, he worried people (his brother) might be afraid of him. Pollux grew up afraid of their father — due to John’s rage and abuse of Cas — but Cas never wanted his brother to be afraid of him. 

He’s also quite afraid of the space between portals. I call it the Void. When you’re in the Void, you feel as if you’re nothing. Nothing can exist in the Void. No sounds, no smell, no light, no taste. No concept of time, no concept of movement. You don’t know where you end and where the Void begins. You’re hot, you’re cold, and you’re numb all at once. It feels like hours when you pass through it, but in reality it’s instantaneous. It’s a terrifying experience, to suddenly feel like you don’t exist. What happens if something gets lost in there? What happens if a portal opens, but it doesn’t have an exit? Cas is terrified of what can happen in the Void. It’s the reason he refuses to take anyone with him while he uses his powers, and it’s one of the reasons he went with the lie of “teleportation.” Because it’s just easier.

Cas is not actually powerful enough to create a portal that could absorb anything more than a small group of people, but he’s not aware of that. 

Portals can indeed be opened without an exit. The person wouldn’t cease to exist, but they’d be trapped in a sort of suspended animation until someone found them. Their exact location would vary, depending on where they were lost. 

The Void exists between multiple planes of existence, not just portals in this dimension. It’s a sort of Purgatory, an endless sense of nothingness before you reach your true destination. It’s not dangerous, but it’s creepy as heck. 

Portals exist naturally. They open and close with the bending and shifting in the fabric of space-time. They’re often what scientists might call “wormholes.” The Bermuda Triangle has tons of them. Cas can sense when portals have opened nearby. If one did open in a particularly crowded or dangerous location, he’ll close them so people don’t accidentally wander in and end up somewhere else. 

Portals are invisible to the naked eye. Scientific radar can detect changes in pressure, but other than that they are invisible. Traveling through them is instantaneous, even if it doesn’t feel that way. To the untrained eye, what Cas’ powers truly do look like teleportation. The biggest difference is that he has to be moving. He can’t be standing still and using his powers. He has to move through the portals, even just by taking a step. 

III. Plots:

Okay! We’re finally at the plots section! If you’ve made it this far then dear god you’re committed. All of these plots are specific to Cas’ powers, feel free to message me with as many as you want, and we can tweak them and customize them to fit your character(s)!

just passing through — When Cas was first starting out with his powers, he had some trial and error. One of his errors was that he ended up in a random person’s home. Most of the time he wasn’t seen, but at one point he was spotted by Muse A. They were shocked (perhaps angry, scared, or nervous) to have seen some 17-year-old suddenly appear in their home. (1-2 slots max)

accidental astronaut — Unknowingly to them, Muse B stumbled across a portal five years ago. It was one an 18-year-old Cas made and forgot to close. Muse B was suddenly on Montressor, with no idea how they got there. Cas found them and got them home safely. (However long it took for Cas to find them is up to you.) (1 slot max)

portal magnet — For some reason, unbeknownst to Cas, portals tend to naturally open up around Muse C constantly. He has yet to figure out why, but is determined not to let them go through a portal. He is always spending his time closing up the random portals that appear around them. (1 slot max)

delivery boy — Muse D heard about Cas’ teleportation and started asking him to get them things. Food (most likely), but anything Cas is able to carry. He always has to benefit from their delivery, either through getting some of the food or charging a fee, because he doesn’t do good deeds for free (usually). Maybe they sometimes hang out and eat their authentic Chinese food together. (1 slot taken, 1 still available)

teleportation expert — Cas always says he has teleportation. Up until now, it has never been an issue. But Muse E happens to know a lot about teleportation, and what Cas does doesn’t look like it. Whether teleportation is their power, someone close to them has it, or they just happen to be an expert on powers. They know that Cas doesn’t have teleportation. Whether or not they confront him on it is up to you. (1 slot max.)

portal playdates — When Cas was young — around the age of 12 — he used to use his powers to escape his father’s ship while everyone was sleeping. He always had to come back in a few hours, because he would never abandon Pollux, but sometimes it was nice to get away. One day he stumbled across a kid around his age. (4-5 years age difference range is preferable. Just because it’s hard to imagine a 12-year-old playing with anyone younger than 7 or older than 17) Muse F and Cas hit it off immediately. For the next six months, Cas would visit them to hang out. Now they’ve run into each other at WDA. Maybe they recognize each other, or maybe they don’t (either is plausible, it’s been 11 years.) But regardless, they’re the one person who saw a younger Cas, who had sincere moments of emotion and didn’t put on a mask. (1 slot max)

[alimonytony]

This is a repost from my rant forum on my site and since I'm interested only in it being read, rather than advertising or shilling it out for hits, I'm going to just repost it here. Before I do let me give you a quick introduction.

I finally registered on the SA forums a week or so ago having been a loyal reader for a couple of years. I don't like the new design of the site, I want to kill it with fire, I liked my good-old Web1.0 scrolly site, give it back please.

I'm posting this here because you lot are smart, and as such, I have no issues with you telling me that you think I'm wrong with this pseudo-rant. This may also be preaching to the choir a bit and for that I sincerely apologize. I hope at least you get some enjoyment out of this. If you're one of those fellows who likes to Digg, the article also has a Digg page, do with it as you see fit - http://digg.com/general_sciences/At...you_intelligent

With that said and done, here goes.

"It's novello time, and it's about religion, so unless you're ready to deal with some views you may not agree with, switch off now. In the words of Illidan "You are not prepared".

Let's get this out here right now. I'm a 23 year old law graduate with an IQ of 155. My political beliefs are liberal and leftist, I listen to Metal and I enjoy violent movies, books and videogames, and I've been a Christian since birth. Baptised, confirmed of my own free will, son of a priest (who are pretty notorious for rebelling against their father's religious beliefs just for the sake of it). I'm part of the Anglican Church of England, which is pretty much the result of Henry the 8th getting pissed off with the catholics not allowing him to divorce his wife(s). We're the state religion of the UK, if you could even say the UK has one, we're pretty liberal about most things, women priests, gay priests, homosexuals in general, sex before marriage, contraception, we take the modern, reasonable way of looking at all of them. At the end of the day, the Bible taught us about forgiveness and being excellent to one another. It had a bit of a round-about way of doing it but what do you expect for a 2000 year old book written entirely by clerical males? It's gonna be a bit out of date, you've gotta read it in context.

I have no problems with anyone's beliefs. Be whatever you want, as long as you believe (or don't believe) for a good reason. But here's what I really don't like, trend-atheism/trend-theism (also referred to as e-atheism, since it seems to be most prevelant in the domain of anonymous blogspammers and Digg-users).

In my late teens, I spent a long time thinking. Yeah, just sitting around and thinking, thinking about faith. Thinking about what it is that I believe in. Rationalizing the various conflicts and contradictions that faith presents us with, looking at the viewpoints of other faiths, or those with no faith at all, taking into account the new things we discover every day and factoring in the influence of science. Some people would claim that, if I had indeed done that, I'd have come to the conclusion, as an intellectual, rational thinker, that God does not exist. They would of course, be wrong.

My beliefs center around several factors. Firstly, it is important for us as human-beings to realize our own limits, and the limits of our understanding. Centuries ago we believed the world was flat. "The Bible told us so!", would be the first cry. Wrong, it really didn't. In the Old Testament, Job 26:7 explains that the earth is suspended in space, the obvious comparison being with the spherical sun and moon. The Old Testament, you remember that one? The one with the fiery bushes, the pillar's of salt, the cool plagues and such? Even that managed to get it right. There's a few more references as well to the 'round' earth (and before you say anything, flat is not a shape, it could have been a flat octagon for all they knew) but I'm not going to go into that yet. We've had computers for less than a century, powered flight for just over a century and of course our amazing horseless carriages. Genetics, electricity, nuclear-bombs, toaster-strudel, the world is in the palm of our hands! And it didn't take us too long did it?

Reality-check, we're still primitives. In the great scheme of things this technology is a mere blip on the historical radar. We've got an awful long way to go before we're able to dissect and understand the mysteries of the universe. We haven't even put a man on Mars yet, let alone left our solar system to find out what exactly is out there. How can it be that we have suddenly, so recently, become so arrogant as to believe we know more than we really do? The Laws of Science are written by man, based on our understanding of how things work. They are theories that, while prove true today, may be debunked by another amazing discovery tomorrow. Which leads onto my next point.

Name this quote "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". Arthur C Clarke, physicist and author, smart fellow. It also hilights the point I'm making. Our understanding of the universe is peerless only amongst ourselves. We are not as smart as we think we are. Just as fire wowed the neanderthals, what would it take to wow us? What would make our jaws drop and our minds boggle? Well, any sufficiently advanced technology of course. And what is technology after-all? Man-made machines. The concept of technology is a human concept, a concept that may, in other parts of the universe, not even exist, replaced by something even more advanced than that, so advanced that we cannot comprehend it. Not surprising really as we mammals only use 10% of our brains.

So where am I going with this? Simple really, take yourself off of your high-horse, you, and the human race, is not as smart as it thinks it is. Now, open your mind a little, and let's explore some possibilities.

The definition of a God. Let us turn to the good book.

Wikipedia.

"God most commonly refers to the deity worshipped by followers of monotheistic and monolatrist religions, whom they believe to be the creator and ruler of the universe. Theologians have ascribed a variety of attributes to the various conceptions of God. The most common among these include omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, perfect goodness, divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence. God has also been conceived as being incorporeal, a personal being, the source of all moral obligation, and the "greatest conceivable existent"

Hmm, a tall order one might think. Could such a being exist? Some argue that logically, he could not, however, there is very little logic in denying the possibility that a being or beings of such power and advancement exist that they could indeed, be considered 'God' within our definition. That's not to say that God is a small green alien with a flying saucer and a phaser though that would give some of the overzealous fundamentalists something to sweat over, much to our amusement. But what is this God? A creator? Sure, we create. We create technology, we're getting to the stage of being able to create life in one form or another, using the basic building blocks of nature. Could it not be surmised therefore that it is entirely within the realms of possibility that someone or something created those building blocks? Like a programmer creates a new program, someone must have also created the coding language in which he created it. We scramble for answers. We come up with theories. Some believe in the beginning there was nothing, which exploded. Some believe a man in the sky created it everything in 6 days and then mooched around on the 7th. Which is valid?

Neither, and both. They attempt to apply meaning to something where meaning may, or may not exist. Creationism and the Big Bang are in that sense, as bad as each other. They are both merely attempts for us to explain the unexplainable. The Big Bang contradicts our laws of physics (something most catalyse an explosion, therefore something must have been there in the first place, where did that come from, at which point your brain melts). The Creation Story contradicts our laws of physics (Same reasons, who created God after all?). Everything we've so far managed to come up with, from the sublime to the ridiculous, the complex to the simplistic, it's an exercise in desperate straw-clutching. At the end of the day, we don't know jack.

And that's ok. Someone once said that the journey matters more than the destination, it's not the winning, it's the taking part, at least ya tried sport. These explanations of where it all comes from, be they ancient or modern all boil down to the same need. To know. Who'd have thunk it, we've got brains for a reason, and they rather like being used. Those neurons like to be fired, the little grey matter likes a little exercise every once in a while. Just as the Creation Story was a way to explain an unexplainable concept, so is the Big Bang theory. If one were to compare the human mind to a computer, try feeding the Big Bang theory to the medieval man, and it's like trying to shove Bioshock into a Commodore Vic20. Good luck. And what will our children's children's children's grandchildren's children think of our Big Bang theory? My money's on exactly the same thing.

So what am I trying to tell you, stop asking questions, stop looking for answers and just believe whatever the hell suits ya? Absolutely not. Believe whatever suits you, but question it, never stop thinking, never stop asking or learning. In this day and age it seems people are way too willing to believe, or not believe. Belief, or non-belief should be a life-long arduous process and it should end involuntarily, when you fall over dead. Someone (there's a lot of talkative someone's aren't there?) once said 'Never stop believing', I say, "Never stop asking yourself what you believe, and why".

It's time to criticize, so let me load port and starboard cannon and fire a volley at both atheists and theists alike. Believing, or not believing, does not make you intelligent. Smart people do not come to a conclusion on the basis of insubstantial evidence. Smart people do not mindlessly attack other people's beliefs just because they don't conform to their own. Smart people do not assume that their own rigid, poorly formed definitions of logic and faith, reason and belief are mutually exclusive and that if one exists, the other cannot. Smart people think outside the box, not pick fights with those poor souls trapped in it.

What makes you intelligent, is knowing why you believe what you believe. Knowing that you are but one mind, and knowing that at any time you could be proven wrong, only for that person to be proven wrong ad infinitum as we as a race advance.

I suppose you're waiting for my personal beliefs, waiting for this to be some kind of sermon, preaching why my God is better than your God, or non-God. You'll be waiting a long time, because it's not coming. My personal beliefs are just that, personal, they're mine, they belong to me. You cannot take them away from me, only I can. What I can give you though, are my opinions.

Right now shots are being fired. They're not physical shots, they're bullets and shells of ignorance and bigottry. And it's no one-sided battle let me tell you that much. Factionalized camps everywhere you can imagine. Atheists, Theists, Satanists, Christians, Republicans, Democrats, Capitalists, Communists, every group you can imagine, all shouting 'Your God/Non-God sucks, mine is better!'. These days, the internet's become their battleground. So much for sharing knowledge, we're sharing ignorance.

The bigottry and the condemnation has to stop. The sad thing is, I'm having to condemn the condemners. Isn't it lowsy how you generally have to be a hypocrite in order to make a point these days? Food for thought. We can look at the extremes and see the simplistic, secular vs sacred, trend-atheists vs fundamentalist evangelical christians, the most common stereotypes. But in reality, it's so much more complicated than that. It's this stereotyping and narrow-minded attitude that prevents us as a race from achieving the greatness we can. I could make as many decrees as I wanted till I was blue in the face, and I'm going to just to let off a little steam mind you,

"Trend-atheist Digg users, shove your agendas where the sun don't shine, refusing the possibility of a supreme-being does not make you a genius or a radical thinker, it makes you a bloody sheep hiding behind a cloak of anonymity"

"Evangelical Fundamentalist morons, get your overly simplistic, judgmental, dogmatic Crayola God out of my face, you have about as much understanding of the universe as a wet lettuce. That does not make you holy, pure, or guaranteed a private booth at the big game in the sky, it makes you a bloody sheep hiding behind a cloak of propaganda that you only believe because you're told to"

Wow, that feels good, I can understand why you internet-bound condemners like it so much. Gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling doesn't it? What, I'm not allowed to indulge in such a guilty pleasure every once in a while? Play fair Wink

Where's my conclusion? Hell if I know. Did you have the mistaken impression this was some carefully constructed plea for tolerance? Absolutely not, it's an angry slap in the face to my peers. Wake the hell up and use your brain, because my God/Non-god/Explosion/Man-in-the-sky/Vic20 gave you it for a reason.

TB.

[yourhelpfulaffiliate]

My Pinterest Suspension: A Cautionary Tale

I recently had my Pinterest account suspended and after a few days of back-and-forth with Pinterest Support I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s basically dead. I want to share the story of how I ended up here so that you don’t. Pinterest can be a very powerful tool for getting traffic to your website as well as a fun way for your readers to share and save blog post they like. As I’ve had some time to reflect and except that the suspension was probably the result of my own actions I can see an easy comparison between my story and the story of Icarus.

In the story of Icarus, Icarus escapes a labyrinth using wings constructed for him out of things that were just lying around. The construction of the wings was sound and he was able to fly out of the labyrinth. Unfortunately Icarus becomes drunk on his own accomplishment and flies ever higher and higher. The higher he flies the closer he gets to the sun. The closer he gets to the sun the warmer his wings become and since they’re just held together with beeswax eventually the wings fall apart and Icarus falls into the sea. I know my stories no Greek legend but I think people can still learn from my mistakes. It all started out so simply. If you don’t already know, when you create a new blog website it can take quite a long time for new blog posts to rank on search engines. This can leave your website looking and feeling like a ghost town for months. I had heard that creating a Pinterest account for your blog website was a good way to get traffic to it in this early stage. So I created and set up a Pinterest account for my blog website. When I adopt a new tool I like to create a step-by-step method to follow for posting content. When I first started using Pinterest this method was quite simple but overtime evolved to be my downfall. My method stage 1 Write a blog postDesign a basic pin for itPin that image linked to the blog post At the end of stage 1 my Pinterest monthly views were 7500.

Growing My Pinterest Account

After creating my account and posting a few pins I became very interested in how I could grow my account. I started doing a bunch of research on Google and YouTube to see how other people had grown their accounts. I have a blog post about these strategies which you can check out by clicking on the link below. https://yourhelpfulaffiliate.com/how-i-grew-my-pinterest-monthly-views-from-7-5k-to-20k-in-less-than-two-weeks/ I was proud up myself. I had done the research and then I done the work. After adding a few more steps to my method which I learned in this research I started seeing more visitors to my website from Pinterest. I want to point out this wasn’t a huge change in traffic. But when you have a new website in your traffic is zero and you’re able to make it go from 0 to 10 that can be pretty exciting. It can also lead you to try and amplify those results. It was this want to amplify my traffic that I think caused the most problems for me. My method stage 2 Write a blog postDesign a pin image using CanvaAdd image to blog postPin that image linked to the blog post Fill the whole DescriptionAdd 3 related hashtagsShare on 3 Tailwind Tribes I also experimented with a few $5 Pinterest ad campaigns during this stage. At the end of stage 2 my Pinterest monthly views were 20,000. This growth only took 2 weeks. I did post about 20 blogs in that time.

Flying Too High

This is where I think the trouble started. I had been so successful in such a short time at growing my Pinterest account. I wanted to see if I could grow it more and faster. This lead me to make some dumb mistakes. I think if I had just stuck with the method in stage 2 I would not have lost my account. Unfortunately I had to push it and when you push things to far they break. My method stage 3 Write blog post Design 3 pin images using CanvaAdd the 3 images to the blog postPin those images linked to the blog post Fill the whole DescriptionAdd 3 related hashtagsShared on 7 Tailwind TribesShare pins on Facebook group Repin threadsShare pins to multiple boards Follow 50 people in my niche a day Adding this many steps makes it difficult to judge which of them is effecting your results the most. On top of that it is just more work. I was focused on the wrong metric, monthly views. I was able to grow this from 1500 to 85,000 but in the end it wasn’t worth it. I should have kept my focus on website traffic. As my monthly views grew and grew my click through rate did not. I never got more than 15 views a day from Pinterest even with my huge monthly view numbers.

The End

Well this is how it all fell apart. After taking a break from Pinterest and visiting my family over thanksgiving I got back to it. I was doing my usual daily thing, following a few Pinterest accounts. After following about 15 accounts Pinterest gave me the boot. I was locked out of my account! I got an email saying my account had been suspended because of spam. I was stunned! All those hours of hard work and research wiped away in a single second. I couldn’t believe it.

Dealing With Pinterest Suspension

Almost immediately after reading this Pinterest suspension email I began going through the 5 stages of grief. Denial My first thought was this must be some kind a mistake. I’ll get in contact with Pinterest and they’ll reactivate my account and tell me they’re sorry. I was so sure I would get my Pinterest account reactivated I wrote a blog post on what to do if your Pinterest account gets suspended. You can find that blog post by clicking on the link below. https://yourhelpfulaffiliate.com/what-to-do-if-your-pinterest-account-is-suspended-with-pictures/ After actually getting in touch with Pinterest it didn’t look like it was going to go my way. Pinterest was set on keeping the account suspended and not telling me clearly why. The closest I could get to an explanation was I was participating in spammy behavior. Anger Now I was pissed. They won’t tell me what I did wrong. They won’t give me a way to get my account back. Pinterest had make their decision and their decision was final. And to think I pay Pinterest for ads, I added hundreds of pieces of content to Pinterest platform, and I shared hundreds of other peoples pens as well. It’s been hours sorting pins on the proper boards, creating interesting and descriptive descriptions, and designing eye-catching pins. And now it was all for nothing because Pinterest decided my account should be suspended. Bargaining After I cool down a little bit from being pissed off I decided to try and contact Pinterest again. I asked them if there was anything I could do to try and get my Pinterest account back. I apologize for whatever I have done to be suspended. I asked if they could clarify what that thing was so that I wouldn’t do it again. And then I politely asked to have my account reactivated. I was met with a brief email reply. Basically it said they decided my account should be suspended because some of my actions went against their anti-spam policy. They told me they would no longer be able to look into the issue and that it was resolved. Depression Now I knew there was no turning back. My Pinterest account was gone, Suspended, deleted, removed, and destroyed. Even my URLs on existing pins are now blocked. If you try to click on them you’ll receive a spam warning message and you will not be allowed to visit my website. It was all terrible news. I spent several days feeling very down on myself about it. Acceptance Well, as they say, time heals all wounds. About a week after being suspended from Pinterest I finally accepted that it was my fault. I knew pouting about it would not change anything. So I decided to make lemons into lemonade. If I could stop one person from making the mistakes I had made maybe it would be worth it. So I decided to share this story. It wasn’t easy to share but I think it’s for the best.

Pinterest Behavior To Avoid

I can’t tell you exactly what it was that got my account suspended because Pinterest would not clearly answer that question, but I can guess. Posting Too Much Too Fast If you combine the number of pins I physically posted everyday with the number of pins I had posted using Tailwind’s pins scheduler I was posting somewhere between 65 and 100 times a day. With Pinterest less is more. Don’t flood it with pins, they will notice. Posting The Same Pin On Multiple Boards This is straight up listed in Pinterest spam policy. Don’t do it. Just post your pins to the best possible board. That should keep you out of trouble. Using Pinterest Sharing Facebook Groups I am pretty sure this was a major mistake. Let your pins grow organically. Using this type of repin for repin group is dishonest and I’m pretty sure it is against Pinterest spam policies. Posting Multiple Pins For the Same Blog Keep it simple. One pin per post. Using Too Many Tailwind Tribes Don’t get me wrong, Tailwind is a great tool for growing your Pinterest account. Tailwind tribes can also be very useful but posting the same pin to many tribes is not the best idea. Mostly because if the tribes are in related niches chances are the same people are in those tribes. It is better to pick a few and share different pins instead of the same pin to a ton of tribes. To learn more about Tailwind click the link below. https://yourhelpfulaffiliate.com/new-tailwind-users-get-15-tailwind-plus-credit/ Following Too Many People Too Fast Take this slow. This is the last thing I did on Pinterest. Personally I don’t know what the limit is for this but you should try to stay as far away from it as you can. Putting Promoting Over Content The quality of your contacts should always be you’re number one focus. While promoting your Content is very useful it should not be your primary focus.

Conclusion

While sharing the story wasn’t easy to do I hope at least by sharing it I can help someone avoid the mistakes I’ve made. It really sucks being suspended from Pinterest and if you can avoid it I highly recommend doing so. While being suspended from Pinterest was not my favorite experience, I do think I can walk away with a few valuable lessons. The first one being Patience. Growing up presents online takes time. When you try to force this you’ll probably cause nothing but problems. I’m going to try and let my web presence grow organically from here on out. It won’t be easy but I think it’s for the best. The second lesson I learned was to put content over promotion. Now that I can no longer promote my blog on Pinterest I suddenly have more time to focus on creating content. I’m going to choose to take it vantage of this extra time I found. I hope this blog post was helpful or at least entertaining. Feel free to share your Pinterest story in the comments. Have a great day! Read the full article