#but train schedules are like puzzle pieces and sometimes they fit together really really well

[drac-kool-aid]

It's been said before, but the imagery of Count Dracula throwing himself onto a sofa after his mad dash to clear the table and light the candles with the first book he could grab is hilarious.

[mysteriouslysaltypoetry]

Cold Breeze

Chapter 4 Raph x reader story A/N: Alrighty! Here we are with yet another chapter! Is it 5am yet again?? mayhaps but oh well, ill fix my sleeping schedule soon enough. Hope Yall enjoy this chapter as well. Chapter 1/ 2/ 3

The next few weeks went by in a flash, (Y/N) was added to their group and fit in perfectly, almost like a lost puzzle piece of theirs. Mikey took the liberty to add her to their groupchat and the shenanigans just kept going from there, hang out plans, coffee dates, rooftop nights (and sometimes days) and late night pizza hours at the girls’ apartment.

But even thought she got along wonderfully with all the brothers, it was clear to see that her and Raph were the closest, they just… fit together, their banter was great and their humour bounced off each other quick and easy. It was hard not to like (Y/N), she was just so nice, listened whenever he had to go on a rant about something that was bothering while also being able to bring him back down to reality… not to mention humbling him when he was getting too cocky (her own words) for his own good.

Today’s plan was for all of them to meet up at the roof again, they had starting to hang out there more often than not. It was quiet and cosy as well as far away from any wondering eyes, they had enough of those when they went out for coffee already. Raph and Donnie would be meeting them a bit later since they had to do a bit of patrol work, nothing too big if he’s honest. This last week just had a lot of small crimes happening and they thought it best to make some quick look outs for safety.

­Back at the girls’ apartment were the others, Mikey and Casey were talking about some movie that had come out while Leo, (Y/N) and April all chatted about their day Leo and (Y/N) had unknowingly started reading the same book and were bouncing off ideas while April nodded along and gave her own input.

Soft music played in the background as usual (thanks Mikey), and the air was comfortable. Soon enough, just as the sun started going down, they heard Raph and Donnie land right next to them.

“Hey guys! Everyone alright?” Donnie asks, plopping down next to April and immediately stealing the juice she had in her hands.

“Hey!” She makes a move to grab it but he just holds it out of her reach.

“Pay some respect to the working class, April” he smiles, as he sips at the box slowly which in turn makes Leo give him a light tap on head, Donnie laughs but returns the drink to its rightful owner.

“We didn’t grab anything, thought ya would have it covered.” Raph says, he goes to sit next to (Y/N) but a single touch to her shoulder is enough for him to see that she was already starting to get cold. So, he quickly grabs at her and lifts, sitting down and dropping her on his lap, pulling his jacket over her shoulders, his expression not really one that left open the possibility of her arguing to him about it.

(Y/N) sighs, not even surprised by this anymore and just makes herself comfortable at her new spot, which is pretty easy if she’s being completely honest. The jacket brings a familiar warmth and if she focuses enough she could fully fall asleep to it. As the evening went on they all just fell into their usual banter, making fun of each other and dodging fists (lovingly of course).

“Still can’t believe this guy told me knitting was easy, he is a big ass liar that’s what! I can’t even look at another tutorial for like at least a week!” (Y/N) says laughing, the group quickly joins her and  the brothers nod.

“I mean given the fact we have been doing training like that for years I think it’s safe for us to say that.” Donnie chuckles, not that he did much of that part of training much, since it was to teach patience but he could understand where his friend was coming from.

“I keep saying it takes practice but she doesn’t listen ta me.” Raph shrugs, and he can feel her retort coming even before she opens her mouth because his big hand just covers her mouth, which is to say it covered her face.

“Dude! Move it!” she says grabbing him to pull him off, Mikey laughing but no one really doing anything much to help besides Leo lightly telling his brother to let go. Raph decided to take mercy on (Y/N) tho, taking his hand from her face to just covering her mouth.

“I won’t have ya slandering my name, not in front a’ these nerds.” He whispers to her making her huff, but he can fell her smile forming behind his hand. She leans back down onto his chest and gives his hand a light kiss, resigning to just listening to the conversation their friends were having.

It had been like this for a while now, little soft touches here and there, smiles that very much felt reserved just for them as well as looks. Raph didn’t really know what was happening, but he also sure couldn’t complain much about it. It felt nice to have someone like this for himself, yeas he got along with April, but she had Donnie to be closer to, while Mikey had Leo to… well to annoy. And Casey was different, they were friends yes, but not like this. Not soft and calm, him and Jones was always more of a friendly wrestle match waiting to happen.

So he let himself relax, laugh with the people around him and enjoy the cold breeze on the terrace.

[bleachhaven]

Soutaicho’s Secret Admirer (Shunsui x Reader) — Part 5/6

Author’s Note:

It should be noted that this story is almost coming to a close...I’m sad to stop writing about Shunsui but it’s time to wrap this one up. So there’s maybe 1 or 2 more parts left.

Warning: A bit of smut ahead. One can only be seduced endlessly for so long without something happening about it.

–

Read Part 1, Part 2 , Part 3  and Part 4 first!

Uncharacteristically, Shunsui was late to arrive at the office. It was almost ten in the morning when he finally strolled in. Nanao would have admonished him without a thought but the dark circles beneath his eyes revealed he had already had a terrible night. She didn’t want to make it a terrible morning as well.

Shunsui didn’t have the excuse of drunken debauchery at some late night party for his tardiness. The last party he’d been to had been Lisa-chan’s Valentine’s Day celebration and that was over two weeks ago.

It was more or less about how his loneliness and melancholy had kept him up late into the night. Something he definitely didn’t want to burden sweet Nanao-chan about.

He had found himself strolling randomly in seireitei at around three in the goddamn morning because simply staying in his bed staring at his ceiling felt impossible. He didn’t have these kind of difficult nights too often but when he did have them, they were quite terrible.

Sure, he missed Juu. But his loneliness was a bit more than that this time.

It has been over two weeks since he had received anything from his beloved Secret Admirer. Fourteen whole days of complete silence from her was quite unusual, and he felt it acutely. Where was she?

The darkest of thoughts had plagued him at night. What if she was sent on a dangerous mission? What if she had been injured? He hated to think it...but what if she was never coming back? Hadn’t he honestly lost enough? 

The thoughts spiraled as the evening progressed into the wee hours of the morning, growing darker and more melancholy.

He knew he was not the greatest catch in the Soul Society. That title fell to Byakuya, uncontested. Shunsui was older than everyone in seireitei - a thousand years too old, he’d say. He was nobility too but he wasn’t one to truly fit into that mould, which deterred most noblewomen from considering him. 

He wasn’t what one would call conventionally handsome either. He knew he wasn’t ugly...but he wasn’t exactly...whole. Not anymore. Maybe once he would have held some appeal and he had many lovers who thought him handsome enough to have a tumble with him... but the eyepatch never failed to remind him that he was never going to be good looking, by anyone’s standards, with a goddamn hole in his face.

Most days, none of this would honestly bother him. But last night it did.

His beloved Secret Admirer probably came to the conclusion that he wasn’t worth all the trouble after all. Surely, there had to be a reason why he had never been able to have a long term relationship. He blamed it on his job but...was that all it was? Maybe he was just not meant to have a happily ever after with someone.

As romantic as he was, he didn’t really believe in the concept of happily ever after. He knew relationships were work. It was a commitment between two people who cared about each other to work on staying together through whatever. With time, he had put any thoughts of a relationship on the back burner. With his duty to the Gotei 13, and his responsibilities as well as the added burden of maintaining his reputation as the Soutaicho...it was a practical choice. 

But his Secret Admirer had made him want. Had made him yearn for a happily ever after for himself in a way he never had before.

He wanted to be loved and cherished as much as he wanted to love and cherish that one special person in his life. But did he really deserve it?

He knew it was her silence that had his latent insecurities rising to the surface keeping him up at night.

So as sleep deprived as he was, he came to the office with a plan. He couldn’t bear her silence anymore so he was not going to. With everything that had come up in the office, he hadn’t been able to finish up the letter he had started to write to her. At that time, it had felt futile considering there was no way to send it to her. 

But he had a brilliant idea. He would have it published in the next installment of the Seireitei Communication including just enough information so that she would know it’s him while withholding enough details to still keep it anonymous. He could trust Hisagi-kun to be discreet.

He had a plan, and it could actually work!

If only he could actually find that bit of lavender paper he had left on his desk.

“Nanao-chan, did you remove anything from my desk by any chance?” he asked, opening up drawers and bending down to check under the desk.

Nanao looked up from the training schedule she was working on. “Nothing more than the usual paperwork. Why what have you lost now?” she asked with an overexaggerated sigh.

“My, my, Nanao-chan. You make it sound like I lose things on a daily basis.”

“The only thing lost on a daily basis around here is my sanity,” she said, rolling her eyes. Still she relented. A distressed Taicho always meant a distressed Nanao. “Fine. Describe it to me and I will tell you if I saw it anywhere.”

“It was nothing official. Just a bit of lavender paper I had been writing on…” he trailed off seeing the look on her face. “What? Did you see it?”

“You lost the letter you were writing to you Secret Admirer?” she asked.

“Nanao-chan! How did you…?”

“You forget, Taicho,” she said quite matter of factly. “There’s nothing that goes on here I don’t know about. But I haven’t seen it. Maybe it got mixed up in some paperwork and got sent to another division. I don’t think anyone would recognize your flowery handwriting which you reserve for your personal correspondence anyway. So nothing to worry about.”

Shunsui simply stared at her. He has known his little fuktaicho for too long to not notice that something was off. All this time, he thought she was just laughing at his expense because he was mooning over someone he didn’t even know. But now...that look...the way she said it without even having to think about it...it all felt fishy somehow. Nanao-chan was up to something.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” she huffed, correcting the papers on her desk that didn’t need correcting. A nervous habit that always gave her away. “If you don’t have any serious work, I have a pile of forms…”

“You know perfectly well who it is, don’t you, Nanao-chan?” he interrupted her attempts to distract him.

“I don’t know what you’re…”

“Please, Nanao-chan. It’s perfectly obvious you know exactly what I am talking about. Just...tell me…” he said.

He was so serious and intent. Nanao had only ever seen him like that in the heat of the worst kind of battle. She dropped her pretenses as well.

“She and I have both left enough breadcrumbs for you as it is. So if you’re so desperate to know who she is, why don’t you do the work to actually find out?” she asked him. “Clearly the girl cares about you but is terrified to approach you. Who wouldn’t be considering who you are and the position you hold. She is a nice girl, Taicho. But as things stand, she wouldn’t be the one to approach you so maybe you should find out for yourself who she is and do the approaching.”

So Nanao did indeed know who his Secret Admirer was. He understood her reasons why she couldn’t tell him. It wasn’t really her secret to divulge. Shunsui had to respect that despite his desperation.

“Is my sweet Nanao-chan giving her taicho dating advice?” he teased instead.

“Yes, I am,” she declared with a raised brow. “For even I can see how far you’ve fallen that you need advice from me to get yourself a date!”

Shunsui gasped, buying into the friendly teasing. “Nanao-chan is so mean to her taicho!”

Finally, they both got back to work, but Shunsui’s mind was still thinking about what Nanao had said. Apparently breadcrumbs were laid out and he hadn’t even noticed! He clearly had to pay more attention.

He tried to outline the facts in his mind. 

The letters were always lemon scented. It could be a shampoo or some kind of scented cream...but it smelled fresh, almost as if unintentional. Something to further ponder upon. 

The gifts were always elaborate but simple and he hadn’t been able to trace it through any vendor. The chocolates were handmade so his little Secret Admirer was probably very good with cooking and baking. 

The handwriting was very distinctive as well. Especially the way she looped all her Ls and Bs with a distinctive flowy curve. 

So far, the facts didn’t fit well into place to identify her as anyone he knew...but somehow, it felt like it was just barely within reach now. As if it’s only missing one final puzzle piece for the whole thing to come together.

__

That night, sleep evaded him once more. He couldn’t deny it. He missed her! He couldn’t help but wishing that she was right next to him, romancing him with more than just her words. He wished he could cherish her in all the ways he desperately yearned to.

 He took the letters he kept at hand in the drawer of his bedside table. He found that he liked to read them sometimes, and no matter how many times he read her words, they still managed to make him feel things. The shape of her words, the texture of the paper...it comforted him.

However, the sensual seductive ones were his downfall.

With all the time he has been alive, and all the experience he’s had, one would think he would be able to resist the temptation. But he often couldn’t.

Reading those letters, describing how she wanted to make love under the moonlight or how she yearned to taste him...it had him imagining soft feminine hands touching him. His hand would unconsciously reach into his hakama of its own volition and grasp his manhood, wondering what it would feel like to be touched by someone who ardently wanted to please him.

It wouldn’t take him too long at all. He would cum, gasping into the empty bedroom, wishing he had a name he could moan. Wishing she was here for him to hold.

Sated, he’d finally fall asleep. Yet though his body was satisfied, his mind wasn’t. He couldn’t help but feel alone on this big empty bed.

__

That coveted final piece of the puzzle arrived as, of all things, more paperwork. He was mindlessly flipping through some reports after lunch the next day when it popped out at him like well-lit beacon.

It wasn’t anything special. Just a request for more funds to be allocated for a better training ground for the 13th division. Except it was filled out by his beloved Secret Admirer. The handwriting screamed her identity at him, looping Ls and Bs and all.

“_____-san,” he whispered to himself, wondering how he could have missed it.

Suddenly, everything was perfectly crystal clear. 

Everyone knew that while Kuchiki Rukia settled in enough to pick her own fuktaicho, the 3rd seat of the 13th was acting in that role in an unofficial capacity, putting her in-charge of all the paperwork coming and going from that division. A reason why she was always showing up at the 1st...giving her ample opportunities to learn his habits well enough to leave behind those delightful missives without ever getting caught.

The lemon scent was from all the lemonade he knew she made for her division and for some special occasions in the seireitei. It was her specialty, a way of creating comfort and homeliness for her subordinates. He had tasted her chocolates twice - once at the Valentine’s Day party itself and then when she gifted them to him specifically. Both facts which had been pointed out by Nanao-chan while _____-san stood right next to him. No wonder she had flushed red then. It hadn’t been out of embarrassment but possibly from thinking she might get caught. The little minx.

He couldn’t help but remember every encounter he had with her in the recent past. Her cute blushes...the way she gasped out “Soutaicho!” Come to think of it, every time he saw her, he felt like she almost called him Shunsui out of habit only to change it to his official title at the last minute. He even recalled the twinkle in her eyes every time she looked up at him.

He couldn’t believe it. He finally knew who his Secret Admirer was and she’d been right before his eyes, had he only known where to look. He couldn’t help smiling, thinking about all the ways he would get back at her for running him around in circles. He would torture her so, so deliciously…

“You have that dopey smile on your face. Should I be worried?” Nanao asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.

“Hmm…? Of course not, Nanao-chan,” he said, not really reassuring her at all. “I am heading out. Be back soon!” 

“Taicho!” she called out but he was already gone.

__

...to be continued.

__

Tags: @seawater-aurelia-writing  @xerneussenpai​ @yakuzussian-3rd @94z-93 @anywaffle @flower98child @sadhoewinter @mindyourbaynay

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[bgn846]

Worthy Epilogue (Chapter 13) FFXV A/B/O Promnis

<Previous Chapter 12 

Ignis hugged Prompto close as they stretched out on the couch.   The omega was nearly asleep and mumbled softly at the attention.  Six months had passed since they’d moved in together, and Ignis never tired of cuddling with the blond.

 Granted, this situation was slightly unique in that Prompto wasn’t awake and chattering on about his day.  He’d been busy all week helping Luna plan a wedding. The two omegas had taken on the task of coordinating Ardyn and Soliamare’s nuptials.

 Prompto had gone from avoiding people to having meetings with florists and caterers.  Luna usually handled most of the talking, but Ignis had observed Prompto on several occasions attempting to add his opinion.  The omega was coming out of his shell, and it was a joy to witness.

 However, it appeared the stress of the situation had finally caught up to Prompto.  Of course, it wasn’t shocking that he’d run out of energy. Planning a party on that scale was a daunting task.  Running his fingers through Prompto’s fluffy blond hair elicited another contented hum from the omega. Ignis was taking advantage of the rare opportunity to watch his mate rest.

 They normally went to bed around the same time.  Prompto had adopted Ignis’ schedule within the first week of cohabitation, so he didn’t often get to see the omega dead to the world.  Ignis leaned down to tenderly kiss the blond’s head, who sighed contentedly. So much had happened after Noct’s twentieth birthday. Sometimes he would wake up afraid that all of it had been a dream.

 Thankfully, it wasn’t.

 He’d found his mate, and they were having fun experiencing life together.  They’d even rescued a cat from a local shelter to keep them company in their shared apartment.  Prompto fit into Ignis’ life like a missing puzzle piece. Aside from a few disagreements over who slept on what side of the bed, things went smoothly.

 Suddenly wondering how Noct handled that same issue, Ignis laughed at the image it provided.  He made a mental note to ask Gladio later. His friend enjoyed cuddling on an epic scale, so he was most likely very happy with the new arrangement.

 During the same week as Noct’s birthday, a private ceremony had been performed to make the princes’ pack official.  They were still learning how to co-exist together just as Ignis and Prompto were. The one difference was that Ignis and Prompto hadn’t been married yet.   Ignis insisted they live together first. Noct and Gladio had been slightly shocked by the move but understood the reason. He needed to be absolutely positive Prompto was comfortable.

 Ignis already had an inkling that after Soliamare’s wedding in a few weeks, Prompto would be asking about their own.  He’d actually already started planning it and couldn’t wait to show Prompto his progress. Nothing seemed to bring as much joy in life as gifting things to his omega.  Prompto would groan and hide his face, but the advisor knew he loved the attention as well.

 There was something about gifting your mate things that was very satisfying.  Ignis had seen the same behavior with Aranea and Nyx. She was forever leaving him little trinkets in his locker.  The alpha had even been allowed to go on a few missions with Nyx. Cor had been happy with her performance and appreciated the extra help.

 Drautos didn’t even have an issue, and he never liked anything new.  He’d single-handedly taken care of the investigation regarding Saeva and the attempted murders of King Alban and Prompto.  Needless to say, Saeva was never going to see the light of day as a free woman. According to Drautos, she’d changed after her arrest.

 Saeva hadn’t exactly gone insane, but she wasn’t really in her right mind anymore.  Ignis figured Ardyn had messed with her sufficiently to do permanent damage. Ardyn would only vaguely allude to what he’d done after he chased her down.  It was one story Ignis may never get out of his friend. The thing that mattered most was that she was locked away and unable to hurt anyone anymore.

 King Alban had to contend with his remaining brothers and their betrayal.  Otho had been sent away to live in the countryside. Amet, the fool that Nyx had met, was Otho’s friend in exile.   It was fitting that they should spend the rest of their days together. Niflheim would survive the scandal and continue on.  King Alban now appeared to be trying to follow in his father’s footsteps. It literally took getting stabbed in the back to push the issue.

 A soft noise broke Ignis’ train of thought.  Peering down, Ignis noted that Prompto was trying to wake up.  He began rubbing the omega’s back to help rouse him.

 “Iggy – mmmnn, that feels really good,” Prompto mumbled as he started to purr lightly.

 Ignis loved the sound it was so relaxing.  He’d wanted to ask Prompto about his day but that meant the purring would stop.  Maybe he could hold off for a little while longer. Waiting paid off, and Ignis was able to enjoy another ten minutes of his omega happily purring.   Finally taking a deep breath, Ignis spoke up once more. “Did you rest well?” he asked.

 “Yeah, I did,” Prompto hummed. “You’re so warm.  Can we stay like this forever?” he added.

 “I think we might starve to death eventually.” Ignis laughed.

 The blond in his arms giggled quietly. “I’m so happy we’re together.”    

 “As am I.”

 Ignis’ plans for making dinner were put on hold for a little while longer when their cat suddenly showed up.  She carefully picked her way along the back of the sofa and plonked down on Prompto’s back. The omega resting on his chest went very still, and Ignis knew what would happen next.

 The purring war lasted for nearly half an hour.  The cat eventually got up, stretched, and jumped off to go meow at her food bowl.  Prompto then pointed to his mouth and smiled.

 “Guess I need to feed you both before you faint from exhaustion.”

 “Thanks Iggy!” Prompto gushed.  “I love you so much!”

 “I think I love you more.”

 They could never reach an agreement on who loved who more.   Right after dinner, they went back to cuddling on the couch, and Prompto filled Ignis in on all the details of his day.  As he listened, Ignis couldn’t help but smile. He was going to get to spend the rest of his life with Prompto, and it appeared the blond shared the same enthusiasm on the subject.

THE END

Full fic can be found on AO3 HERE

[leejihoonownsmyheart]

Better in Stereo

Summary:

Jihoon is a new trainee at Pledis Entertainment, scheduled to debut in a seventeen-member boy group at the end of the year. He has a lot to do, a lot to learn, and has to fit in with this strange group of boys really fast. It would be a heck of a lot easier if you… Their assistant and seemingly only employee weren’t around to distract Jihoon from what was important… At least… That was the only way to explain why he thought about you so dang much…

A four-part series. Debut fic AU. This part is 11K+ words *sobs*

Part One, Part Two

-

Part Three:

With the album done, all Jihoon had to do around the studio was wait for Soonyoung to choreograph the song. 

He thought that would be a lot of fun, as he would get the chance to spend more time with you. To spend less time stressing about writing the perfect songs, and just focus on recording them with the other guys.

But... Instead... He hadn’t accounted for Soonyoung needing your help and turning most of your attention to helping him choreograph the new dances. Every time you were at Pledis now it seemed like you were just there for Soonyoung. During meals, you two would sit next to each other, half eating half writing in a notebook, brushing shoulders, giggling incessantly.

It was annoying, it was the last thing that Jihoon wanted to hear when he was trying to eat, and you didn’t even seem to be noticing just how annoyed Jihoon was to watch you guys. He hated it even more because he wasn’t really mad at Soonyoung, and he wasn’t mad at you. He was mad at himself because he was starting to like you guys so much.

He found it so endearing when one of you would jump up and run the choreography in progress. He loved to see how excited you both got whenever you made any progress with the dance at all. He even found himself leaning on the door in the entrance, watching as you two ran through each and every part.

He loved how happy you got every time you heard his song. When the song would get close to the chorus and you would get so happy, and excited that you would start doing the dance right next to Soonyoung, practically screaming the lyrics in the little studio.

It made Soonyoung laugh every time and it made Jihoon’s heart warm.

He hadn’t realized just how lucky he was to constantly have your uninterrupted attention until he had lost it. Was he really, that crazy? Crazy enough to start… Liking someone like you?

That was the only explanation for his ridiculous feelings. He knew it, he’d be dumb not to come to the conclusion that he was pretty sure everyone else in Pledis was aware of. You had won. Somehow, someway, you had wrapped him around your finger. He truly liked you.

“What are you doing?”

Jihoon jumped slightly, wondering when exactly Soonyoung had gotten there. He cleared his throat.

“Uh, just checking up on you guys,” he assured. Soonyoung smiled, one of those small soft smiles he did sometimes when he knew more than he was letting on. It made Jihoon frown and cross his arms at the other boy.

“Right,” Soonyoung mumbled. “You sure you weren’t just trying to get a glimpse of y/n over there?”

Jihoon’s face reddened a bit and he glared at Soonyoung.

“Shut up,” he mumbled. “Why would I care what she was doing anyways?”

Soonyoung shrugged.

“Why don’t you tell me?” You started to hum in the studio, making both Jihoon and Soonyoung turn their attention towards you. You didn’t seem to have any clue they were both standing in the doorway watching you as you started to dance to whatever tune you were humming.

The dance was surprisingly a bit sexy, but equally kind of cute. It wasn’t anything Jihoon had ever seen before but before he could really place any of your movements properly you paused in your ministrations and rehummed part of what you had hummed before. Then you started to sing some words, slower, and repeating the motions. Jihoon was surprised to find they were familiar…

It was one of your songs. You had a tune to one of the songs and judging by the way that you were moving. Re-singing stuff as you slowed the choreography and tweaked it in your own ways. You were choreographing to your own song.

“Were you guys…?”

“Just choreographing to our stuff,” Soonyoung replied with a shake of his head. Jihoon rested his head against the doorframe.

“Why isn’t she training to be an idol?” He asked suddenly. Soonyoung’s eyebrows furrowed.

“What do you mean?” He asked cluelessly. Jihoon rolled his eyes and gestured to her.

“I mean, she can dance, and sing… She loves to be onstage. So why isn’t she trying to become an idol? Why doesn’t she audition to be a trainee?” He asked. Soonyoung seemed to think it over for a moment. His nose scrunched.

“I wouldn’t know,” he admitted. “I’ve never thought of it before.”

Soonyoung and Jihoon stared at you silently for a long moment. You scrunched your nose as you did a certain dance move you clearly didn’t like and started over that bit of the song thoughtfully.

“Maybe she doesn’t want to be an idol,” Soonyoung suggested. Jihoon shook his head confidently.

“No…” He stated. “She said it herself. She definitely wants to be one… So why?”

It didn’t make sense. You acted so certain of yourself, just going after things when you knew that you wanted them in your life. Jihoon couldn’t recall a time in which he had seen you hesitate over anything you were truly passionate about. So then, why wouldn’t you audition to be a trainee now?

Soonyoung was just staring at Jihoon, his eyes watching him carefully as his mind turned, trying to put together a puzzle that he simply didn’t have all the pieces too.

They stood there like that for a long moment, both boys completely and utterly lost in thought before suddenly you popped up in-between the two.

“Hello,” you said, chuckling nervously. “Uh… What are you guys talking about?”

“We weren’t talking,” Soonyoung replied innocently. “We were watching you choreograph.”

Your face reddened.

“I wasn’t choreographing,” you insisted. You looked over at Jihoon. “What are you doing here?”

He knew that you were embarrassed and as such you liked to deflect the attention off of yourself to someone else potentially being stranger or more outstanding then you at the moment, but that didn’t give you any right to antagonize him like this.

“Checking in is all,” he responded. He scratched the back of his neck. “Uh, I haven’t seen you in a while.”

Your head fell to the side innocently.

“I saw you at dinner.”

It would have been cuter, had it not been exactly the sort of reaction to such a statement, that Jihoon would get from Soonyoung.

It wasn’t that he was jealous or anything. How could he be jealous after all? He knew that you liked him. You had told him a million times that was true. He hated how much he yearned to hear you say those words to him nowadays, how sometimes he would play the cards he thought he had to play, just so that you would confess to him again.

It was selfish, a little manipulative.

“Yeah…” He mumbled. He dropped his hand to his side. “I’m going to go back to my room with Mingyu for the night. See you guys tomorrow.”

“See you!” You called back pleasantly. “Breakfast in bed tomorrow- well not really but sorta. You guys get a real break. Events of the day are a total secret.”

“Sounds like fun,” Jihoon said with a small smile.

“Of course, it will be, I planned it,” you stated pleasantly. You then grabbed Soonyoung’s arm and tugged him back into the dance room. “Okay Soon, ten more minutes and then you really have to get to bed.”

But… Sometimes, Jihoon just really needed the reassurance that you liked him for him to justify his own feelings for you.

He didn’t think that his actions were too obvious. After all, he wasn’t in a relationship with you. How could he possibly be lovesick if he wasn’t in love with you?

But when he walked into his room and all but faceplanted onto his bed, Mingyu was quick to set down his book and pat Jihoon on the back.

“Thinking about Y/n?” He asked softly. Jihoon rolled over to face the soon-to-be rapper.

“No,” he scoffed. “Why would I be thinking about her?”

“She doesn’t know how you feel,” Mingyu assured softly. “If you just tell her that you want to spend more time with her, she’ll bend over backward to be with you.”

At first, Jihoon didn’t respond. He didn’t want to admit that he had been thinking about you, but he couldn’t help the way his lips pursed at how easy that all sounded.

“But… Isn’t it unfair of me? She’s spending her time helping Soonyoung,” he mumbled. Mingyu laughed.

“Girls like it when you’re unfair sometimes. As long as you acknowledge that it’s a little selfish that is,” he suggested politely. “It shows them that you care enough about them being in your life to show something that stereotypically makes a guy seem weak.”

Jihoon sat up, his eyebrows furrowing.

“What?” He questioned.

“Emotions,” Mingyu replied with a firm nod. “Girls love it when guys are emotional.” “You sure do seem to have a lot of experience with this,” he mumbled hesitantly, trying to make it seem like he didn’t care at all what advice he was being given. Even so, it had his mind churning.

“Well, unlike you I’ve dated before,” Mingyu responded. He got to his feet, walking back over to his own bed. “And I’ve also had friends who are girls before.”

Jihoon stared at the wall in front of him.

“Rude,” he mumbled but didn’t dwell on the topic. “Thanks.”

“No problem Jihoon. Get some rest or your little girlfriend will be upset with you,” Mingyu teased. Jihoon rolled his eyes and threw a pillow at Mingyu, but he did allow himself to doze off not long after Mingyu fell silent.

-

“Good morning Seventeen!”

The door to Jihoon’s room swung open for the hundredth time. He paid no attention to it. Just like he had paid no attention to Doyoon, or Samuel, or Mingyu, or even Seungkwan’s attempts to wake him up.

It didn’t matter who in Seventeen tried to drag him out of his bed, all he wanted to do in the morning was lay there. Take his time getting up out of bed and brushing his teeth and eating food and composing music.

That was the dream right there.

Not to have sixteen immature members of a boy group trying one by one to drag him out of bed.

So today, when there was no real reason to get up at this god-awful time in the morning, he simply wasn’t going to do it. He was going to stay in bed until he felt like getting up.

“He still won’t get up,” Seungkwan pouted. “I’ve been singing in his ear for like half an hour.”

The other person didn’t respond to him, but Jihoon heard their footsteps nearing the bed. He wondered idly who it might be, what member was going to try next to wake him up.

The footsteps stopped, just in front of his bed, and suddenly the mattress dipped slightly. He was confused, it was like someone had put their weight on his mattress, but not all of their weight.

“I know you’re awake Jihoon.”

Jihoon’s eyes shot open, and low-and-behold, crouched by his bed, you were there, your arms crossed to cushion your chin. You looked so beautiful today. Bright and happy as always, despite the heavy bags under your eyes. Jihoon knew you hadn’t slept the night before.

Before he could say a word to you, you smiled brightly and reached forward. Your index finger delicately brushed a strand of hair from his face.

“That’s better,” you mumbled. “Looks like you got some sleep last night. Kind of makes me glad that all those late nights spent in the studio are over. You have time to relax.”

Jihoon let a small smile spread across his lips.

“I think you’re just excited to spend some time with Soonyoung instead of me,” he mumbled. You rolled your eyes.

“As if,” you replied. Your voice was so soft, like velvet… It was almost as if you were trying to keep your voice down so that you wouldn’t bother him too much. “You think I would prefer to spend my time with a Gemini? Over you?”

Jihoon rolled his eyes, but a chuckle was still ripped from his throat.

Honestly, you could have likely said anything and Jihoon might have still laughed softly. He was just happy to be here with you. To get to talk to you, and see you, and be this close to you. God, he missed you. He didn’t think he had ever missed someone so much in his life. Especially not someone who was supposed to just be an emotional and physical anchor in his life while he prepared for debut.

“Alright buddy, everyone says you’re the last member to need to get out of bed. We’ve got a fun day ahead of us,” you assured. “I’ll let you in on a little secret… We’re going to a theme park.”

Jihoon didn’t shift at all. He just stared at you blankly.

You pouted at the reaction.

“Don’t act like that, it’s going to be fun,” you mumbled. You hit him playfully on the head. “Now get up, we have to get there early or else we’ll have to wait in a lot of lines.”

Jihoon rolled his eyes, and honestly, normally, if it had been any other member, he would have just waved away the request and rolled back over onto his side and fallen asleep.

But… It wasn’t just any member. It was you.

Jihoon sat up in bed, rolling his eyes when he saw the way that everyone who had tried to wake him up was looking at him for just getting up for you.

Why did they have to be so dramatic about everything? “I was just about to get up anyway,” he mumbled.

The other members were clearly about to tease Jihoon for it, but before they could you cheered, pumping a fist in the air.

“Let’s go to Everland!”

Everland was the biggest theme park in Korea and was the first family amusement park in the entire country. It was a popular tourist destination, even outside of the terms of the small country.

You had apparently been to Everland a hundred times in your life. You couldn’t stop talking about all the places you guys would have to go once you got there. All the sights you wanted everyone to make sure they saw. All the locations in the theme park that were your favorite.

Quite honestly, everyone was so excited to see you act like a little kid after how slightly stressed you had seemed recently that they didn’t care if any of them actually liked the idea of going to an amusement park or not.

You were practically bouncing in the seat of the bus you had convinced Pledis to get everyone you were so excited to get to the amusement park. You kept babbling random facts about the place too. Just things you must have picked up at some point during one of your many trips.

It was pretty cute to see you so nostalgic over your childhood.

Made Jihoon want to know more about it. You didn’t talk about yourself a lot outside of Pledis. You tried really hard not to make things about yourself when you were with the boys. Jihoon understood why, but he didn’t know why you continued to keep it up these days considering all the boys wanted to do was make everything about you.

You grabbed Jun’s arm in your excitement, smiling brightly at him.

“Just wait till we get there! They have haunted houses!” You said excitedly. “You and I can brave the masses, and watch Seungkwan and Hansol- sorry, Vernon cry in a corner.”

Jun chuckled, covering the action with the back of his hand but it was enough to make Seungkwan glare at him anyways.

“I’m not that scared of haunted houses,” he lied through his teeth, but nobody on the bus seemed to believe it. “You get scared by Wonwoo at night one time.”

“Wonwoo, Dongjin, Mingming, Seungcheol, me once too, and then-” You began to correct. Seungkwan interrupted you by lunging over one of the seats on the bus and tackling you onto the bus floor. You burst into giggles, but that didn’t prevent a few of the boys from jumping up to look in concern at the two of you tumbling on the ground.

Jihoon wanted to say he wasn’t one of those people, but he caught himself rising to his feet after a short second. He sighed, wishing he hadn’t been so stupid and obvious with his feelings for you, but he was a little worried that one of these days you would hurt yourself by messing around with the other guys.

His concern- and everyone else’s- was mostly misplaced as both you and Seungkwan peeked up from the floor with large goofy smiles on their faces, completely unscathed.

“You idiot,” you laughed. Seungkwan’s nose wrinkled.

“You’re one to talk,” he stated back. “Dragging seventeen boys to a theme park, and you’re planning on being the sole babysitter? You’re an idiot and a psycho.”

“That’s where you are wrong Kwan,” you replied perkily, jumping back to your feet. You stood, rather confidently in the center of the bus. “Today’s going to be fun! One of those days you will all look back on one day and just… Reminisce.”

Your overly ecstatic expression diminished slightly, your smile wavering. You took Seungkwan by the wrist and eased him to his feet, guiding him back to his seat. He pouted at the gentle actions you were suddenly using but didn’t comment on it other than that.

You quietly returned to your seat prompting Seungcheol to lean over his seat, looking at you sympathetically. He tilted his head to the side and murmured something to you, but it was too quiet for Jihoon to hear and he wasn’t good at reading lips. You rolled your eyes at whatever he had said and batted him with your hand. Jihoon didn’t hear what you said back, but he had an idea you told Seungcheol to turn back around.

Seungcheol clearly didn’t want to write off the moment as nothing because he made a face at you, replying: “We need to talk about this y/n.”

You shook your head, and when Seungcheol didn’t accept that as an answer you got back up to your feet. You began to walk down the aisle of the bus towards the bus driver. Seungcheol seemed annoyed by that, but when he noticed that Jihoon was watching him, he shot him a misleading smile and turned back around in his seat.

Jihoon wondered what that was about but decided that if anyone wanted to talk to him about it, one of them would. So instead, he kept quiet.

By the time you all arrived at the theme park, you were the same as you always were, and Seungcheol and Doyoon no longer seemed to be too terribly upset with you. Everyone filed out of the bus and followed you to the gates of the park, listening as you spoke all too excitedly about the different parking lots you used to park in as a kid, and talked about which rides you guys were going to all have to ride.

You were talking about one of the rollercoasters and before Jihoon had even registered what you were saying you started to point at the boys.

“Everyone needs to have partners for the day so it’s not hard to divvy up for rides and stuff,” you stated pointedly and before you could say anymore, the group was already grabbing partners.

Hansol and Seungkwan, Mingyu, and Wonwoo, Mingming and Junhui, Minghao and Samuel… The list went on. Jihoon was about to turn and find someone when he realized with a start that there was only one person left to be with.

He looked at you, his cheeks turned a faint shade of pink. You smiled at him.

“Guess it’s us then,” you murmured. Jihoon couldn’t help noticing that you didn’t look disappointed at all.

“Guess so,” he responded.

You didn’t let the moment last for very long. Instead, you turned to the rest of the group and smiled.

“Okay guys, let’s go!”

To say that things were chaos from the start was an understatement. The park employees didn’t seem to appreciate your level of preparedness. You stood at the entrance going over every ticket issue that came up. Making sure everyone got in the park smoothly.

You lead the boys pretty confidently, separating the large group into four smaller groups in which you had paired pairs that you thought would all be able to have the most fun and get the most done.

Jihoon couldn’t help but watch and wonder just how long it had taken you to think all of this through. The amount of forethought that went into this trip was a little crazy and along with that you practically had to predict who would end up being partnered together.

He considered saying something to you about it, but instead of doing that he ended up just watching you as you sorted everything out. You gave everyone walkie talkies and appointed one person in each group “leader for the day”. You told them when to meet up for food, and when to meet up just so that you could make sure that everyone was doing okay and once you were finally done with all of that you told them when to meet up at the end of the day to leave the park.

“Oh!” You said, just before you let everyone split up. “Just so you are aware. Today isn’t all fun like I said before.”

You gestured to the area that everyone was standing at, just at the exit of the park.

“Tonight, this will be your stage. You guys are going to do a quick flash mob of two of the dances you already know, and the fun part is that you guys won’t know which songs until tonight when they start playing.”

The boys all smiled, no one looking disappointed or surprised really that this was a promotion opportunity. Jihoon figured it was possibly the only way you could get Pledis to agree to this outing, and he couldn’t even imagine how much it could have cost.

He wondered if that’s why you had picked up so many hours at your other job recently, barely giving yourself time to breathe- just so that you could allow them to have this day of fun.

Before he could ponder that thought aloud, you began to rummage through your bag.

“Now just come over to me and put these wristbands on- it’s so employees know to call me if something is up with you guys and also a meal plan pass! You guys can pretty much eat anything in the park,” you said. As you spoke the boys started to line up behind you, and you simply began to fasten the wrist bands around their wrists as they went. Once you finished talking, you just softly reminded each boy to be careful and to text if they needed anything until finally, you got to Jihoon.

Your fingers were soft as they brushed against the skin of his wrist. You put the band on him loosely, clearly making sure to make it fit comfortably as you did so. You smiled at him once you had it securely on him, and hesitantly intertwined your fingers with his. “Ready to have the best pre-debut trip ever?”

His face was burning red, so he looked away and nodded.

“Sure, let’s do it.”

You went so far out of your way to make the trip to the amusement park worth it that it almost made Jihoon a little dizzy. You dragged him around the park, pointing out each and every store, and each and every spot worth seeing. You told him your favorite park memories and insisted he ride every ride.

You were so full of energy that anytime you saw another Seventeen member you would loudly say:

“Say the name-”

To which they would reply:

“Seventeeeeennnnn.”

He sighed and rolled his eyes every time, telling you that if you kept spoiling the song that he wanted to put on the next album he would have to tell on you to Pledis. You just laughed it off and took him to the next location on your internal list.

It was hard to imagine going on a date with you.

Not because you weren’t dateable but because he couldn’t really imagine that you two would ever be able to do something normal like ride a roller coaster and buy the pictures and sit down by a fake lake and talk about absolutely nothing while kids tried to feed birds their pizza nearby.

But this felt an awful lot like a date.

The only thing you two were missing were murmured “I love you”’s and tender kisses in-between ride lines.

He cleared his throat as quietly as he could muster and got distracted looking at some trash on the ground.

“How much time do we have?” He asked.

He hated to admit it, but he was exhausted.

He had no clue how you managed to keep up your energy. You two had walked miles upon miles and on top of that, you had broken into dance with the other guys multiple times as the radio switched from one pop song to the next.

Of course, it made him smile to watch you do it. He loved watching you dance and sing and enjoy yourself- especially when you were enjoying yourself with the other guys. He loved knowing that the smiles, the laughs, it was all completely genuine.

You were fake a lot, he knew it, they all knew it. You smiled to lure them into a false comfort, making them think that everything in your life was okay when in reality, Jihoon knew you were hiding a lot. Nowadays more so then he was sure it was before.

He wondered if one day they would be able to get you to open up more. If you were training with them after all, would you still feel the need to pretend like you were so strong?

“23,” you mumbled softly. Jihoon’s eyebrows furrowed and he frowned slightly at you.

“23?” He asked.

“The number of times you have zoned out today while or after staring at me,” you replied pointedly. You said it so casually, that at first Jihoon thought he had misheard your words. You turned away as you said it, looking over a fence at one of the areas for kids. When Jihoon was silent for too long you glanced back over your shoulder at him, an amused expression settled over your face.

“Oh, uh-” He coughed slightly, his face warming. “I just-”

“You’re worried about me, I get it,” you replied offhandedly. “I’ve been acting a little weird recently haven’t I?”

You didn’t look at him, just rested your elbows on the metal rail with a short sigh. Jihoon scrunched his nose and leaned against the rail beside you.

“Well-”

“I’m sorry,” you mumbled. “I’ve gotten sloppy recently. In the past, it was easier to keep to myself when it came to you guys, but now we’re all so close, and I don’t want to lie to you.”

“To all of us you mean,” Jihoon corrected with a half frown. You shook your head.

“No, just you really,” you mumbled back, turning to properly face the man. “It’s cause I like you. I… If I want to date you, I have to be honest with you, but I know I still need to be professional.”

“No one expects you-”

“That’s half the problem,” you said with a sigh. “There’s nothing wrong with treating each other as friends, but it’s my job to take care of you guys. Not the other way around. You guys shouldn’t have to deal with my problems.”

“But you’re not just any employee,” Jihoon replied. You weren’t looking at him. Your body was facing him but your eyes… Your eyes were everywhere but where he wanted them to be. He could tell you were nervous, lost in thought, so to pull you out of your mind he took your hand, forcing your attention to be all his. “You’re you, and we care about you the way we care about you because you’re different than the others. We wouldn’t treat just any manager like this.”

You scoffed, but he tightened his grip on your hand at that, unable to keep himself from letting you go this time.

“Seriously, get out of your head,” he insisted softly. “We love you.”

I love you.

“I love you guys too but-”

“But nothing, get out of your head,” Jihoon interrupted. “I just need your trust okay. Trust me for once, trust me that everything is going to be okay. It’s all going to work out.”

Your eyes lowered from Jihoon’s to look at your intertwined hands. It made a small smile cross your lips.

“You know, spending time like this alone, taking my hand in yours, assuring me that everything is going to be okay when I am at my lowest?” You mumbled softly. “I’m starting to think that you might be falling for me.”

It came from your lips as a joke, like a whisper.

Again, Jihoon got distracted by your lips. He had never wanted to kiss someone more then he wanted to kiss you right now. And it was true. He really was falling for you. He really was starting to understand what it felt like- what it truly felt like to love somebody. To love you.

“Don’t be crazy,” he said with a laugh. “Me fall for you? That would almost be…”

“Impossible?” You finished with a roll of your eyes. He shook his head, his cheeks filling with color.

“I was going to say, inevitable,” he replied. Your eyes widened, but before you could say anything about it, he turned away from you, his fingers still tangled with yours. “Come on, let’s go. We are wasting precious time here.”

The day was over before Jihoon really even knew it had begun.

Before he knew it, they had just finished their impromptu final performance and were leaving the park together, all heading out to the bus. Chan and Samuel were excitedly sharing cotton candy, as they told the others about the crazy things that had happened to them while they were out, and you were discussing a few things with Hansol and Joshua in English. What of which, Jihoon wasn’t sure. He watched all the commotion happening around him while he listened to Mingyu talk to him about his own experiences at the park.

“Race you back to the bus,” you blurted at Seungkwan suddenly. His eyebrows shot up.

“Oh yeah? You’re on,” he said right back. Before either of them could even make a move, Samuel and Seokmin glanced at one another. A small smirk crossed Doyoon’s face.

“And go!” He blurted out of nowhere. You and Seungkwan faltered while Samuel, Seokmin, Jun, and Mingming raced forward. It made you laugh as you launched after them, but Seungkwan pouted, taking off slower.

“That’s not fair!” He protested.

Jihoon smiled after his friends, rolling his eyes at the childish behavior you guys were exhibiting.

He would never say it out loud, but he knew that it was moments like this that made his time here so precious. He hoped that nothing ever changed. Not after debut, not after they eventually left the group and went their own ways. Not ever. He always wanted to watch you all take off in the parking lot of a theme park like children on a playground. He loved it. He loved all of you guys.

You let out a celebratory whoop and jumped up and down in the air. You looked at him and cupped your mouth with your hands.

“Jihoon,” you blurted eagerly. “I won! Look! I actually beat them!”

Jihoon smiled.

He wasn’t sure, so there was no way to say for certain, but it was moments like these, looking at you that he thought maybe, just maybe he loved you too.

And somewhere deep down he hoped that never changed.

-

“We’re here!” Seungkwan practically sang as he burst into the small restaurant. He paused after a while and looked back at Seungcheol.

“Are you sure that she is working?” He asked her confused. “She’s not here.” Chan pushed forward.

“She’s definitely here, she said she would be. I heard her, and she’s never lied before,” he said confidently. All of the boys crowded in front of the front counter, staring at the other employees there. You weren’t one of them. They never saw you go into the back, or leave the restaurant or anything so why wasn’t she where they could see?

“Did she pick up a second job?” Mingming asked. “You know how hard she is always pushing herself.”

“Maybe someone misheard her,”

“Aren’t you the guys that volunteer with y/n?”

Most of the guys looked confused, so Jihoon stepped forward and nodded slowly.

“Yeah, is she not working today?” He asked softly.

“She passed out today when she was almost done with her lunch shift,” her coworker replied pointedly. Simultaneously, all of the boys’ jaws dropped.

“What?!” They blurted. The employee was surprised by the outburst, covering her head protectively.

“U-uh, yeah. She was working outside, and she hadn’t eaten all day, and I guess the heat and over exhaustion got to her because she fell in the middle of an order. When she woke up, like two minutes later all she could do was apologize and insist she was fine, but she kept having to sit down so we told her to go home.”

“Did she?!” Seungkwan blurted. Her coworker rolled her eyes.

“Nah, she refused to, she’s right over there.”

She pointed over to a table, where they all looked just in time to see someone ducking under a table.

“She said it was too busy to just send her home and that she was fine, so she insisted on staying around in case we needed her,” her coworker responded with a roll of her eyes. “Maybe you guys can get her to go home.”

The girl yelled the last part, which made you pop up your head from beneath the table. You glared at the co-worker.

“You could have said literally anything,” you grumbled. “Say I’m on break, or got sent home early, or was doing something with the club. Literally anything. Seriously have a heart Mel.”

Her coworker… Mel, just made a face at her.

“Guess you should have thought about that before you worried all these people,” she replied back. You stuck your tongue out at her, and Mel just rolled her eyes and turned away.

“I’m serious, if you don’t get that girl out of this restaurant, I’ll remove her myself. She spends too much time here already and she needs to go home and get some rest.”

Jihoon watched until Mel had disappeared almost completely from his vision into the kitchen of the restaurant. It wasn’t until Jihoon heard Chan aggressively jump on you, that Jihoon was able to turn around and face the scene unfolding before him.

“You- you hypocrite!” Chan blurted angrily. You had practically disappeared within his arms, and gently pressed the younger boy off of you.

“It’s good to see you too Chan,” You mumbled. You scooted over slightly in the small booth that you were in, making enough room for Samuel and Mingming to squeeze in next to you. Soon enough, all the boys had made their way into the booth, making a small area meant to seat four, actually almost fit seventeen people.

Everyone was all talking at the same time, all worried about you. You seemed to be a little bit stressed out by the situation overall but didn’t comment at all. You just listened to what everyone had to say, inserting an apology every once in a while, and giving everyone a reassuring smile.

You were such a good little actress.

You had all of the boys thoroughly convinced that you would change your ways, that this was a fluke, that you weren’t usually so haphazardous about your health but Jihoon- he wasn’t falling for it.

He could tell by the way that you kept smiling, nodding your head, speaking even… He knew that today hadn’t been a fluke. He knew that you didn’t eat often and that you pushed yourself a lot more than you should, and he knew you weren’t about to change your ways because you had almost passed out once.

He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest, rolling his eyes to the side. You caught the motion and turned your attention towards Jihoon and Jihoon alone. He watched as your expression softened into something more genuine, more apologetic even.

Chan grabbed your wrist, startling your action back over to him. He pouted at you.

“You’re gonna go home and sleep now right?” He asked. You sighed, tilting your head to the side.

“Now you know I don’t have time for that,” you murmured. “I have responsibilities to attend to-”

“The world doesn’t end if you take a night off,” Seungcheol interrupted abruptly. Doyoon nodded his agreement.

“Seriously, pushing yourself like this is something an idol would do, not something you should do,” he stated firmly. Seungcheol seemed to appreciate the backing because he patted Doyoon’s shoulder in approval.

“If you expect us to take care of ourselves, you should set a good example too,” he stated softly. “You know how important it is if you want to achieve your goals someday.”

Doyoon was staring you down, his eyes filled with a sort of knowledge, like he knew something others didn’t. It made Seungcheol nod, and you lower your head to look at your hands. An indescribable expression fell over your face, something that was more mournful then Jihoon was used to seeing you.

“Right, because that’s panning out so well,” you mumbled. “Look I’m giving up on all of that. I should just stick to what I’m good at.”

“And what do you think you’re good at?” Seungcheol asked. “Come on, you belong-”

“I belong here and that’s it. At this job,” you replied firmly, making direct eye contact with the older boy. You frowned deeply. “Look, I guess now is as good a time as ever to tell you guys- I’m quitting once your first promotional period is over.”

Everyone had been waiting for those words to leave your mouth. They had been anticipating that news since you started insinuating that you wouldn’t be with them forever, but it still stung. It still took everyone by surprise. It still made Samuel’s eyes drop to the table. Even Jeonghan fell silent.

“Y/n…” Joshua started hesitantly, but you didn’t let him continue.

“I know everyone’s worried about me, but there’s no need. There are a few things I need to get done back at Pledis and then I’ll go home and get some rest,” you said firmly. “I’m fine. Really. If I think that I may almost collapse or something again then I will make sure to go home alright? Give me the benefit of the doubt okay?”

“Why are you leaving Pledis?” Jihoon blurted. Everyone looked at him, all with varying levels of surprise settling over their faces. Jihoon was a little surprised too. He hadn’t expected anyone to bring back the topic when you so clearly didn’t want to talk about it, much less himself. “If you’re just going to be working, then why not stay?”

You pressed your lips together hesitantly.

“I just… Need to stay away from the entertainment industry.”

“But you should be going into the entertainment industry,” Jihoon snapped back. Confusion crossed your face and your head tilted slightly to the side.

“What do you mean?” You mumbled.

“Y/n, why aren’t you becoming an idol?” He reiterated. Your otherwise pretty steady expression faltered at the question.

“Jihoon-”

“You write songs, you choreograph to music, you’re a good dancer, gorgeous, charismatic and you’re practically a trainee right now,” Jihoon interrupted. “So why would you leave Pledis unless you were going to some other company to debut as an idol?”

Jihoon had never seen you truly upset. You had such a carefree, easy-going personality that it was hard to get you to the point where you truly seemed like you had lost hope. Aside from that, Jihoon figured that you worked pretty hard to make sure that no one ever saw you at your lower points. You were trying to be a stable point for them after all. Showing that you had your own insecurities that may be similar to theirs, made it seem like you weren’t stable enough for them to dump their worries onto. So Jihoon knew that you would never willingly show the boys just how upset you were at any given moment unless you couldn’t control the feeling yourself.

That was why it hurt him so much to see you like that. Your expression had fallen, your eyelids were heavy over your eyes. You wouldn’t make eye contact with him. You wouldn’t make eye contact with anyone. You weren’t about to lie or evade the question or anything of the sort. You were about to tell the truth, what went through your mind every time anyone mentioned the possibility of you being an idol.

“I’m not suited to be an idol,” you mumbled. “So just drop it okay? Even if I were to debut no one would follow me.”

The boys all let the topic physically drop at that. They stayed with you for a few hours and went back to Pledis with you. You stayed a few hours and got what you needed to get done completed and then you went home. The next day you acted like nothing had ever happened, and so did the others but there was a heavy air that Jihoon just couldn’t ignore in the room.

An air that he wouldn’t ignore.

“We have to help y/n debut as an idol,” he said. Chan dropped a plate on the ground, looking at Jihoon with a wide-eyed look.

“Jihoon-” Seungcheol began, but Jihoon didn’t let him continue.

“Don’t say we shouldn’t. Don’t say we can’t. Y/n has done so much for us and she asks for nothing in return. It’s her dream to be an idol. I don’t care what Pledis says, I don’t care what anyone says. She has the talent. She deserves to be out there.”

“Jihoon is right,” Hansol agreed pretty much immediately. “She really wants to be an idol but she would never pursue the career without a nudge. We’re her friends. We should urge her to be what we know she can be.”

“Seungcheol and I have tried to talk her into it-” Doyoon tried to argue.

“Oh, because you can convince y/n to do something when she has already made up her mind on it?”

Doyoon fell silent and Seungkwan crossed his arms over his chest.

“Come on guys, this is the least we can do for her,” he insisted. Samuel sighed, and threw his arm over Dongjin’s shoulders.

“I mean, what would we even do?” He asked. “I want to help her debut but-”

“I have a plan,” Jihoon blurted. Everyone looked at him again, so he cleared his throat unsurely. “Uh, we leak our practice videos. The ones that we took with her in it and then any videos we have of her dancing alone onto the Pledis Youtube channel.”

“We don’t have access to those videos remember. Only y/n and our managers,” Jeonghan reminded with a roll of his eyes.

“So, we distract her,” Seokmin said pointedly. “That’s not too hard.”

“Of course,” Joshua agreed. “We distract Y/n and then a team of us gets on her computer and uploads the videos.”

“We don’t know her computer passcode,” Mingming pointed out. Hansol snickered into his hand.

“It’s 1-1-2-2.”

A number of the boys chuckled; Chan looked confused.

“What does that-”

Hansol interrupted him by nudging him with his elbow and gesturing over to Jihoon.

“It’s Woozi’s birthday,” he explained. Jihoon rolled his eyes.

“Getting off-topic guys,” he mumbled stubbornly. Even Soonyoung snickered at that, but despite laughing, he was still able to stay on-topic.

“We’ll just need to figure out who can distract her,” he stated. “Who’s the one person who can actually distract her long enough for us to upload those videos. It could take an hour just to find them.”

“She’s pretty organized,” Wonwoo piped up. “She keeps everything sorted away into folders. The longest we’ll have to wait is for the actual files to post onto Youtube.

“And we’ll have to keep her phone away from her. She gets notifications whenever Pledis posts anything anywhere,” Mingyu stated softly.

“Kinda gemini for a girl who is like the only one to post on our social media,” he mumbled. Minghao rolled his eyes and poked Jun in the side.

“So, we’re all thinking the same thing, then right?” He asked. They all looked over at him, eyebrows quirked as they waited for him to elaborate. “We need a distraction. The only person who can get her to not worry about not having her phone and laptop on her?”

Minghao looked over at Jihoon with a pointed expression on his face.

“Don’t you guys think it’s about time that Jihoon asked our little mascot on a date?”

Color rose to Jihoon’s cheeks at the accusation and his jaw dropped.

“H-Hey- What-“

“Who else will be able to really distract her?” Seungcheol asked pointedly. “Besides if you don’t ask her out now when will you? After we debut and you’re too busy to take her out on a date or after she leaves Pledis to work all the time?”

Jihoon shot him a glare, but Seungcheol didn’t look apologetic at all. In fact, it was clear none of the boys felt bad for Jihoon. They all just gave him pointedly looks like Jihoon was being the ridiculous one.

Sure, it was all for you, but he wasn’t anywhere near ready to just… Ask you out on a date.

He’d never imagined asking you out this early on. Ever really. Sure, he had to at some point. He knew he liked you, he knew that you would say yes. So… Why was he so afraid to ask you anyway?

“I’ll… Figure something out,” he murmured.

And just like that, you guys got to work.

Plan all in place, all that the guys needed was for you to set your phone out on the table…

Check.

Jihoon smiled at you and grabbed your hand with his to get your attention. It made his heart skip a couple of beats just to look at you. Just to know what he was about to do.

Jumpstart your life. Ask you to be his.

Most of the time people gave their managers cookies or something as a thank you for all their help. Not helped them debut as an idol. There wasn’t really a guideline for this. But still, he noticed the warm look that spread over your face at the contact. It made him a little less nervous. A little less anxious.

The smile that would spread across your lips when you realized what he already had- how many people would truly love to see you on stage where you belonged… that would be worth it.

“Do you mind if I ask you for some help?” He asked nervously. “There was just… Something in my studio…”

He couldn’t get the words out properly. Each word left his mouth with a stutter and he was sure his hand would be trembling if it weren’t for the fact that your hand was in his.

You smiled warmly.

“Yeah, of course,” you stated with a laugh. You didn’t seem suspicious at all about what he might be up to. You were just completely trusting him. “Are you already working on another song? You should relax and just focus on debut. No need to stress yourself out over-preparing for your first comeback just yet.” “I know, I just…” he trailed off. “This couldn’t wait any longer.”

You hummed and got to your feet, letting go of his hand momentarily.

“Well, you know- my time is yours. Lead the way,” you said softly. Jihoon swallowed the lump in his throat and stood up as well.

“Right, it’s nothing special really,” he started to mumble as he led you out of the room. The minute the door closed he could hear the rustle of movement coming from inside. The clock was ticking. Now he just had to buy as much time as he could. This was all up to him.

He led you into the studio and sat you down next to him at the piano.

He had literally nothing to play. Everything he had ever heard, ever written, ever read it all left his mind. He just felt like he was stuck in a room with you with nothing to do.

You were of course, blissfully ignorant of his nerves.

You walked around the room, eyes wide and curious as you wandered over to where Jihoon was standing by the computer. You didn’t say it right away, but Jihoon could tell by the way that you were looking about that you were in a surprisingly good mood.

It calmed his nerves, if only a little bit.

He sat down at his computer and pulled up some of his audio files. He started to mess around in his folders, trying to figure out what he should ask you about.

“Sorry, I think I lost the file,” Jihoon mumbled nervously.

How was he going to distract you for a whole hour? (not that it even had to be that long.) He had nothing to show you- well, not entirely true. He had nothing that he was ready to show you more like. He had all sorts of side projects he was working on. Many songs that he wanted you to hear one day. Many songs that he thought you should hear because they were totally and completely and definitely written for you and about you, and about how confused he was and how completely lost in love he was.

Well lost in you really.

He was so in his head about making sure that everything went well, that it was hard to actually keep everything in check. He kept thinking about whether or not the boys were getting what they needed to get done done or not. How much time he would need to keep you. How much time he would be able to keep you.

He tried to pick up his mouse and move it to a different surface, but his hand was shaking so hard that it made the mouse fall.

“I-”

Before he could say anything more you placed your hand over his. Jihoon looked up at you, surprised to find him smiling at you softly. Like you understood what it was like to be as nervous as he was right then.

“Relax Jihoon, I bet whatever you want to show me is great,” you assured softly. When Jihoon didn’t immediately seemed convinced by your words, you rolled your eyes playfully. “Since when is the big bad Woozi so nervous he shakes? Shouldn’t I be the one who is anxious?”

That at least got a small laugh out of Jihoon. He felt his nose wrinkle and that in itself made color spread to your cheeks.

You, however, didn’t make any attempt to hide the look. You instead rested your head on your freehand and stared at Jihoon with nothing but utter adoration spread over your lips.

“You’re so cute,” you mumbled. There didn’t seem to be any hesitation in your words. Your lips curled up slightly. “Our cute little-”

Jihoon’s face burned red at your words, so much so that he couldn’t bear to hear you say anymore.

“I’m not cute,” he mumbled. You chuckled, squeezing his hand in yours.

“Then what does that make you?” You asked softly. “Sexy?”

“The sexiest idol that you’ve ever seen,” Jihoon agreed. You laughed again- and Jihoon laughed with you, unable to help himself. He loved it when you smiled. He loved to see you happy. And your touch… Your hands were so warm in his.

“See? No reason to be so unnerved,” you mumbled softly. “You aren’t stressed over debut or anything are you?”

Jihoon slowly raised his eyes to yours, wondering if you were really asking him why he was so nervous. He felt like it was pretty obvious what he was about to do. Or at least, what he was trying to do. And he found it a little strange that you didn’t really seem to know.

You were so oblivious.

He was trying to ask you out, and you were completely and totally oblivious to it all.

“I’m a little stressed about debut but only because it’s debut,” Jihoon replied. “I… I trust you to make our debut run as smoothly as possible.”

You seemed surprised by those words.

“You… You trust me?” You asked. “I mean, it makes sense but still, you were so adamantly against me at the first that-”

“Yeah, that was just me being stupid,” Jihoon mumbled. “You care about this group. I don’t know why but it’s not hard to tell that you are willing to put your whole life on standby for us.”

“I’m leaving you guys after debut promotions,” you reminded him, turning your gaze away from him. Your fingers loosened slightly, and for a second Jihoon thought you were going to let go of his hand, so in response he tightened his grip on your hand.

“Yeah but you’d come back,” Jihoon responded. “Not if we don’t need you, but if Pledis does something or if our promotions are going poorly… Just if we need you, you would come back and help us.”

“I can’t listen to you guys after I leave Pledis. I probably won’t listen to kpop at all anymore,” you protested adamantly. It made Jihoon roll his eyes.

“You’ll listen. You’ll keep track of every comeback stage, every promotion we do. You’ll plan out events for us, and you will hope that we will follow, because we are your boys, and you won’t let us fail. Even after you leave. You won’t ever let us fail,” Jihoon said confidently.

You looked back up at Jihoon and scrunched your nose slightly.

“How is it that you know me so well?” You asked him. You laughed but it wasn’t a happy laugh. Jihoon could tell you were conflicted. “It took Seungcheol and Doyoon ages to figure me out.”

“Well, I’m not Seungcheol or Doyoon,” Jihoon stated firmly.

“Yeah, you’re Jihoon,” you replied. Your smile spread a little more naturally. “The guy that I have fallen for. Every day these feelings just get more and more powerful, I won’t lie, I don’t know what to do about it.”

“Just…” Jihoon trailed off, not entirely what he was supposed to say to that. “Don’t…”

Your eyebrows raised.

“You telling me not to move on again?” You asked with a wrecked chuckle. “I’m not gonna lie, you make it really hard to not like you when you keep telling me not to move on.”

“Well, that’s why-” Jihoon faltered, suddenly feeling nervous again. “That’s why… The guys said-”

Your other hand enveloped Jihoon’s and he was forced to look at you again. You gave him a soft, watery-eyed smile.

“It’s okay Jihoon you don’t need to do this right now,” you mumbled. “I know it feels like you have to rush this, but you don’t need to. Take your time. I’ll wait. Even if I’m not at Pledis, I’m here for you. I’ll always be waiting for you.”

“I promise I won’t make you wait much longer,” Jihoon assured softly, his face still warm. “It’s just… Now isn’t the right time.”

“It’s okay. I’d wait forever for you,” you replied. Before Jihoon could say anymore you got to your feet and brushed off your pants. “Anyways, do you actually wanna show me something? I’m down to listen to what ever beats our Woozi has put together.”

Jihoon frowned after you.

“Why does it feel like you are making fun of me?” He asked. You laughed and rolled your eyes.

“I am doing nothing of the sort,” you said with a laugh.

You started talking again, trying to encourage Jihoon to show you something that he was working on and it made Jihoon laugh a bit to himself. He was starting to wonder who was trying to keep who in this room? Was he, or were you?

-

You guys got back into the room with everyone else and Jihoon knew from the second that he got there that everything had gone well.

Everyone was in various spots in the room, all looking triumphant and happy. Jihoon tried not to smile. At least, something had gone well. You were immediately dragged to the side by Mingming, who started off some sort of question about something or other and as soon as you were out of earshot Joshua, Samuel, and Seokmin jumped over.

“Well?” Samuel asked excitedly. “Did you do it?”

Jihoon clenched his teeth and looked down at his hands. Suddenly the end of his sleeves were super interesting.

“Uh-”

“Knew he wouldn’t,” Jeonghan said with a sigh. “We got our end of the plan complete.”

“I distracted her, didn’t I?” Jihoon protested. Jeonghan crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.

“You were supposed to finally ask her out too,” Seokmin agreed. Jihoon was surprised by how distraught he looked… By how distraught they all looked.

“It wasn’t the right time okay?” Jihoon blurted. “I couldn’t ask her out like that. I was like a fumbling idiot in there!”

“Give him a break,” Joshua said with a sigh. “Can’t force it to happen.”

“Besides,” Hansol pitched in, joining the group by resting his arm on Joshua’s shoulder. “It’ll happen. You guys know how y/n is, and you know how Jihoon is. They’re both idiots they’ll make something happen.”

Even as Hansol spoke, Samuel pouted.

“Still,” he mumbled. “I was so excited.”

Seokmin pouted too and patted the younger boy on the head.

“They’re right,” he mumbled reluctantly. “It’ll happen…”

“Time to start wrapping up kids,” Seungcheol said suddenly, walking across the room from your side of it. He didn’t even have to ask whether or not Jihoon had asked you out or not. Jihoon figured he could tell just from the way that you were acting that he hadn’t. “Tomorrow is going to be a long day.”

-

You weren’t there to wake all the boys up in the morning. That concerned everyone.

While they were hoping you would go quite some time with the video up before you would find out about it, they reasoned that you would discover it pretty fast. You were active on all the forms of social media that the group was using to advertise. You followed every article on Pledis, and every fan account that had popped up since they had begun to put the group together.

You knew everything that happened, and there was no doubt in anyone’s mind when you burst into the studio that day, later than usual, and clearly frantic what the problem was.

“I don’t care that you guys are idols,” you blurted, earning everyone’s attention. “I’m going to kill every last one of you.”

“Wha-” Jeonghan tried to start, feigning innocence. You interrupted him by pointing a finger at him.

“I have been up all night trying to get this situation solved. In hours the video had thousands of views, fan accounts for me have already popped up not just in Korea but in the States and Japan too. There’s even a small hashtag trend on twitter for Seventeen’sBigSister.”

You sat down on the floor of the studio, and it was a sharp enough action that it made everyone notice just how exhausted you looked. Chan was the first one to rush over.

“Hey, take it easy-”

“The company has been yelling at me for hours, they said we were the only ones with access to those tapes- obviously, I’m not going to throw you guys under the bus because I’m not an idiot, I know it was you guys, but they are stupid they don’t know. So, we’ve been trying to play recovery-“

“Recovery?” Seungcheol blurted. He made a face. “Why wasn’t I called for this?”

“Because I told them it was too close to debut to bother you with something like this. Their dumbasses actually wanted to wake you up with this problem. We should be able to handle problems like that on our own. We are the company after all, you guys are the idols.”

Dooyoon came up behind Seungcheol and patted his shoulder.

“What they did to you was wrong,” he said softly. You laughed and rolled your eyes but then you seemed to remember that you were mad- and mad for a reason.

“How could you guys upload those videos of me? I told you I’m not cut out to be an idol,” you said sternly. “And how did you get that video of me singing and dancing to Suzy’s Sober. And how dare you upload it.”

While Jihoon was confused by that, you clearly had no question as to who had chosen to upload that particular video because you looked pointedly at Hansol. He shrugged.

“I just took a glance over your personal dance practice videos on your computer. You had a lot of good ones, I just like that one best. It’s a good cover.”

“I never thought anyone would see it,” you hissed pointedly, your face a bright red.  “No one was supposed to see any of it. Whose idea was this?! Seungcheol? Seungkwan? Joshua?!” Everyone pointed all at the same time. For a very brief second, Jihoon thought maybe they were protecting him.

But then he saw the tips of their fingers, and your surprised expression and he knew he was screwed.

“I-”

“You betrayed me,” you blurted suddenly. “I trusted you!”

Jihoon could tell you weren’t as mad as you were trying to seem. It was easy to pick out that you were more confused than anything else. Confused with what you wanted in life. Confused with whether or not you wanted this to blow over.

“You have fans, y/n.”

You stopped speaking, your jaw hanging open and your finger poised in midair. You looked over at Jihoon dumbly, looking like he had just said something unthinkable. He supposed, maybe in your world he had.

“You have hundreds of fans after your videos have been up for less than 24 hours. You took the kpop world by storm, and you haven’t even debuted. That’s how talented you are,” he said firmly. He stepped forward, and without asking if it was okay or anything, he clasped your hand with his own, forcing you to hold his intense gaze. “I know you don’t like it when others do things for you, but for once let us do something for you. You deserve this. You deserve to be an idol. You should be out there performing a debut stage with us.”

“But-”

“You do everything for us,” Chan agreed, stepping up as well. “You watch our health, you keep us fed, you watch our finances, our social media. And compared, we do nothing for you.”

“It’s my job to do all that for you,” you insisted weakly, barely able to turn your gaze from Jihoon’s.

“You don’t even get paid to do what you do,” Samuel said with a roll of his eyes. “You do everything you do for us solely out of the kindness of your heart.”

“But-”

“But nothing!” Seungcheol interrupted firmly. He stepped forward and set his hand on Samuel’s head, who pouted at the degrading action. “It’s your dream to be a musical artist, and most importantly you are good at it. The proof is in the pudding.”

You looked like you desperately wanted to argue with everyone but knew that there was no point in doing so. Your hands squeezed Jihoon’s nervously, and you turned your eyes back to him, practically pleading to have someone on your side.

“I-” You hesitated briefly. “I’m scared.”

“What do you always tell us when we say that we are scared?” Hansol asked, coming up behind you. You didn’t break your gaze with Jihoon, so he decided to fill in the blanks.

“We all get scared from time to time. The thing that sets you apart from a coward, is that you get back up and you keep trying,” he quoted softly. You wrinkled your nose, your eyes fluttering shut in annoyance.

“God, do I really sound like that?” You mumbled. Nobody missed a beat. Everyone in the room responded: “Yes” in complete unison. “Wow, I’m pretentious.”

Jihoon squeezed your hands in order to get your attention back on him, and he crinkled his nose slightly.

“Well? You’ll do it, right? You’ll become an idol?” He asked softly. You sighed.

“Well, there are still things we have to consider,” you stated. “I have to finish a debut song and mini album, and first I need to make sure you guys debut-”

“Debut at the same time as us,” Mingyu suggested. “Share stages with us.”

“Absolutely not-” You began to say, but you stopped when Soonyoung hit your arm lightly.

“Absolutely yes. Then we can all encourage one another at the same time. Experience all of our firsts together- always be right next to one another to support,” he stated firmly.

“Do you guys even know how much planning goes into a debut?” You blurted. “I can’t plan one in this little amount of time.”

“We all practice together,” Seungkwan stated confidently. “We all agreed from day one, right? We’re all in this together? We’ll all help you y/n. The same way you’ve helped us. If all 18 of us work together-”

“Then nothing can stop us,” you finished with a sigh. “Honestly, every quote I make is so annoying, why do you guys listen to me?”

“That’s what I keep saying,” Jeonghan mumbled softly. Doyoon cut him a glare, and he shot him an innocent smile in response.

“Does this mean you’re in?” Doyoon asked you after a minute. His eyes sparkling with excitement. You sighed, lowering your eyes to Jihoon’s hands intertwined with yours. You stared blankly at the tangle of fingers for a moment, before finally a small smile crossed your lips.

“What would my life be without you idiots there to throw a wrench into my plans? I’m in,” you agreed with a short laugh.

In all the excitement, you got torn away from Jihoon, practically being smothered by all the members of the boy group. Jihoon just watched with an amused smile on his face, one that Wonwoo seemed to catch. He looked away from all the commotion and placed a hand on his hip.

“One more thing to do now,” he stated softly.

Jihoon’s eyes drifted over to you.

One more thing to do.

[im-the-king-of-the-ocean]

For the pride month thing: could you do one with one of the kids accidentally outing themselves to the trolls only to find out troll culture is 100% supportive.

(since I was allowed to choose kid and label for this one, I went with demisexual Toby)

(Un)Certainty

There were certain things, certain truths, known throughout the Arcadia High student body.  What the various cliques and friend groups were.  What passing gossip was popularly spoken of.  What was only whispered when it didn’t seem like anyone was listening.  Where to find the ice cream sandwiches in the cafeteria’s freezer.  How to get there when none of the faculty was looking.  There were some things that always remained the same.  Other things, fluctuated on a weekly basis.

A prank involving the school’s mole costume that got its regular wearer temporarily suspended (through the next game) from wearing it would be forgotten after a few days.  But an ongoing, clearly evident feud between two best friends who everyone knew had been close since their diaper days?  Talked about for the entire week while it lasted.  Mostly on the grounds of curiosity of what exactly had caused such a rift.  Well, that, and it was a slow period for gossip.  Even Mary Wang hadn’t been able to get a good scoop anywhere.  The kids needed to talk about something.

Toby wished they’d all just go back to ignoring him (and Jim) already.

No, he wasn’t avoiding Jim.  He was avoiding what Jim wanted to talk about.  Jim just didn’t get It.  Get how bad this was.  Nobody tried to say Jim’s sexuality was something he was making up or that it didn’t really exist.  Not in the same ways they talked about Toby’s demisexuality.  That it was just normal.

Look, Toby had tried to be normal.  He’d tried for years, even before high school when things really set in with crushes (or lack thereof), figuring out the whole “dating” thing, and all that.  He’d watched as his classmates stumbled through their first romances and relationships.  Witnessed Jim’s crushes and failed attempts to talk to those he had crushes on.  Toby had wondered when Those Feelings would set in for him.  They never did.  Not really.  He just didn’t feel that way about anyone.

And he couldn’t really imagine himself with Those Feelings for anyone either.  Not unless he already knew them rather well (cause appearances and first impressions really wasn’t enough to go on with that kind of thing).  Toby knew he would like to be in love, but he wanted there be to be a deeper feeling.  One you couldn’t just have with someone you didn’t really know and then happened to get a crush on anyway.  An emotional connection, he realized at some point, was the missing piece he’d been looking for.

It took Toby a while to find the word demisexual, but when he did, he realized it fit.

For a while, it didn’t matter that no one else really got It or accepted him.  Except Jim, because Jim was, well, Jim.  The idea that Toby’s best friend would leave him over his sexuality was unimaginable.  Jim had been the first person Toby texted when he found his label and, so far, the only one to celebrate outright with him at its discovery.  As long as he had Jim, everything would be fine.  Awesome sauce, even.

And then the trolls had found out.

Toby and Jim had been relaxing in Blinky’s library after a particularly rigorous training session.  Joking around.  The usual.  Since they were alone and safe, they’d started joking about the lack of straightness between them.

And then Blinky had walked in.

Right as Toby was saying something about demisexuality.

Blinky had asked what that was.

Toby had bolted.

He hadn’t been back to Trollmarket since.  He knew he should, but he just couldn’t bear the thought of the trolls being…being like Nana, who didn’t really understand it and always looked puzzled whenever he tried to explain.  She loved him no matter what, she told him regularly.  But it would just be nice if she got It.

And ARRRGGGHHH!!! and Blinky?

His wingman, Toby was scared would be too much like Nana.  He was one of the smartest trolls Toby knew.  But it still took him a while sometimes to sort out new ideas in his head.  What if he didn’t get there with this one?  What if—sometimes it felt like ARRRGGGHHH!!! was the only one who truly understood him.  Toby didn’t want to lose that.

Blinky.  Blinky was even worse.  He’d probably want to dissect every last bit of Toby’s identity.  He’d ask ten thousand questions and try to poke holes in it.  Blinky would probably try to tell him it didn’t make sense.  That demisexuality couldn’t be real because of x, y, or z reason.  Because of some troll story or something that didn’t really translate to humans.  Toby would start to doubt himself again and, and it would be worse than chicken surprise day in the school’s cafeteria.

Yeah, no.  Toby wasn’t going to even consider that one.  At all.

So Toby avoided the trolls and Trollmarket, and Jim who wanted to talk to him about it.  While everyone around them at school gossiped about what could have gone wrong between them.

It wasn’t exactly a fun time of his life, to be sure.

Toby was relieved when he didn’t see Jim in the yard at lunch that day.  It was the hardest to avoid him there.  They didn’t have all their classes together and Toby could generally ignore Jim’s notes in the ones they did.  When they were both home, Jim generally gave him his space.  Though, that one Toby was a bit guilty about.  With his mom’s work schedule, Jim didn’t exactly have anyone else to talk to unless he went to Trollmarket.

A part of Toby knew he should just talk to Jim already.  Longed for that, really.  Toby missed his best friend.  He honestly kind of hated what he was doing.  But a stronger part of him liked Trollmarket and the trolls and all the adventures.  If he didn’t address the fact he’d been outed, nothing had to change.  Not really.  Toby wouldn’t have to deal with the fact they potentially wouldn’t accept him.  He could just pretend like nothing, nothing at all, had happened and…he didn’t know.  He was making this up as he went and he had a bad feeling he wasn’t doing a very good job of it.

Toby felt a tap on his shoulder.  He nearly jumped, but it was just the school’s mole mascot costume.  Or rather, Darci in the costume.

“Oh.  Hey, Darce.”  He tried to make his voice lighthearted, but didn’t really manage it.

The person in the costume maneuvered one of its arms so it was handing Toby a piece of crumpled paper.  Toby took the paper.  It read:

Meet me by the soccer field after school.

“Um, ok.  Can’t we just talk now?  While—”  Toby looked all around, but Darci was gone.  “Well, that was weird,” he said to himself.  “Wonder what’s going on?”

“Hey, Darci?  You here?”  Toby walked around the soccer field, but no one was there.  “This better not be a prank.”  He added a bit louder.  And there better not be some kind of mud monster, either.  I’m definitely not in the mood to deal with one of those.  He added mentally.

Movement caught Toby’s attention.  One of the mole costume’s arms waved at him from behind one of the trees at the side of the field.  He started walking over.

“Seriously, Darci?  You’re being really weird.  What’s going on…” He trailed off as the mole costume’s head popped off and it was Jim underneath instead of Darci.

“Sorry, Tobes, but I couldn’t think of a better way to do this.”  Jim shrugged sheepishly.

Toby turned to go.  So that was it, huh?  His best friend had resorted to trickery?

“Wingman.”

Toby froze at ARRRGGGHHH!!!’s voice.  Turned around.  The big troll was hiding in the shade the trees provided from the sun, but it was still dangerous for him to be here while sunset was still hours away.  How had he…?

“Miss wingman.”  ARRRGGGHHH!!! continued.  “Sad you gone.  Want make things better.  Talk?”

Toby opened his mouth to tell his friends to go away.  That there was nothing to talk about.  But, but he was tired.  And he really didn’t want to do that.  He wanted to be able to be with them again.  How exactly did he say as much, though?

Blinky stepped forward from beside ARRRGGGHHH!!! before Toby got the chance.  “Both ARRRGGGHHH!!! and I would like you to know we fully support you and your identity.  Master Jim has not explained anything to us.  He said that was yours to tell, if you so wished to.  Just know, whether or not you do, we support you.”

Though ARRRGGGHHH!!! didn’t say anything, he nodded.  Toby had known him long enough to be able to read concern and care from the big troll’s body language too.

Toby heaved a sigh.  Looked between the two.  “But you don’t even know what it means.”

“No, we don’t.  I would like to ask you a few questions to help clarify that.  But only if you’re up for answering them.”  Blinky went on, “I do not need to fully understand a subject to accept it.  I do not know the full mechanical and magical process that’s required for making a gyre work, but I am able to see the gyre exists and functions regardless of my lack of knowledge.  Though, I could, I suppose, research the subject and…I’m getting off topic.  You have my apologies.”  Blinky folded both sets of hands.  “Master Tobias, over the time we’ve gotten to know each other, I have come to see you as a friend.  I am deeply sorry that I have helped to create an environment where you felt unsafe opening up to us about a part of yourself that is of great importance.  I hope to rectify that starting this very moment.  You will always be welcome and accepted by us.”

“Yes, wingman.”  ARRRGGGHHH!!! came forward.  “No fear us.  Love Toby.  Always love Toby.”

“Awww, guys.  You’re gonna make me cry.”  Toby began to tear up.  Then the old thought about Nana came back.  Unease settled in his gut.  The fact was, Toby did want them to understand.  A lot.  “But if I let you guys ask questions you aren’t like gonna try and prove to me that demisexuality doesn’t exist or anything?  That I’m actually fooling myself and I’m really something else.  Cause I mean, yeah that would…it wouldn’t be very cool.  I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it.  I know it’s what I am.  I mean it might change later cause anything might change later.  Like The Taco Shack may actually use one of my suggestions for once.  Actually, that would be kind of awesome but totally not related.”  Toby took a deep breath.  “I know I’m demisexual right now and that feels good.  I don’t need you guys trying to convince me otherwise or something.”

“Goodness gracious, no.  You’re demisexuality, as you put it, is not, under any terms, up for debate.”  Blinky answered.  “However, I would like to have a definition so I may add it to my Human Dictionary, which, as you know, I’ve been trying to grow for quite some time.  Actually, this is splendid.  Now that I think about it, there has to be a parallel troll term.  It would be fascinating to see if there’s more shared history between our worlds.  Our communities share so much already—”

“Hey guys,” Jim finally spoke up, interrupting Blinky.  “This may be a conversation best had in Trollmarket.  Not at the side of the soccer field.  I’m fairly sure there’s going to be a game later.  We don’t want to be here when that happens.”

“Ah.  You certainly are correct, Master Jim.  Should we reconvene at Trollmarket?”  Blinky looked between everyone in their small group.

“Hmm.  Meet other trolls?  Like Toby.”  ARRRGGGHHH!!! looked to Toby.

“There’s trolls like me?”  Toby asked.  That was…he hadn’t expected that.

“An excellent idea, ARRRGGGHHH!  I cannot say for sure if there are trolls like you specifically, Master Tobias, but Trollmarket does have a thriving community based around gender identities and sexualities.”  Blinky turned to Toby.  “I am sure you will find some who are welcoming there.  We trolls may not be the most welcoming bunch to outsiders, particularly to humans.  Though since Master Jim became the Trollhunter, I do feel that is changing.  If very slowly.  But our culture has accepted those of any gender and sexual identity for millennia.”  He grinned.  “So shall we head for Trollmarket?”

“Yes, let’s go.”  Toby finally smiled.  Things definitely were looking up.  He breathed out and let go of his anxieties.  It felt good to be back.

Jim asked Toby, “We good?” as they walked.

Toby answered, “We awesome sauce, dude.”  He paused.  “but you might wanna return that mole costume before Coach Lawrence realizes it’s gone.”

“Oh, right.”

[thesportssoundoff]

The 2018 UFC Calendar That Remains And One Man’s Stupid Attempt To Book It

Joey

July 23rd

Before we begin, I began this project the day before the UFC's debut in Boise. I figured all things considered it would take me about a week give or take to flesh this whole thing out. It took me a week JUST to get through October. I got to the Denver show on Friday and that was when the UFC dropped all sorts of news about Edgar/Korean Zombie and Mike Perry/Donald Cerrone co-headlining said show. I haven't edited it. I'm not going to edit it. IF ANYTHING, I think not touching what I did before Friday is an important piece of the puzzle. Nothing really puts this project into perspective like having to look at what you did and then something immediately changing that renders it moot. Everything AFTER the UFC in Denver was done pretty much on Sunday night.

The UFC released their schedule this week for the rest of the year. There's a lot of fights upcoming, perhaps more than you can shake a stick at. You're talking 14 events, 7 in the US, 1 in Russia, 1 in China, 2 in South America (Brazil and probably Argentina), 2 in Canada and 1 in the always cool Australia. If you give the UFC it's usual average of 12 fights a show then you're looking at probably 168 fights across the course of four months. We've got 3 in September, 2 in October, 5 in November and 4 in December which is about close-ish to what we got last year. Of course two of those cards are on Fight Pass, one is on Big Fox, five are on PPV and unless I'm mistaken the remaining 6 are on FS1. I did this in the beginning of the year (foolishly I might add) but now with the year coming to a close, I might as well take one final swing at it am I right? Here's my belief on what we're going to get from the UFC to close out 2018 from show to show and as Brock Lesnar once lovingly said "From sea to shining sea!"

September 8th

Dallas, Texas

UFC 228

Main Event: Tyron Woodley vs Colby Covington

Co-Main Event: Valentina Shevchenko vs Nicco Montano

There's really nothing immediately on the docket to feel comfortable about as a headliner.  A natural-ish fit would be Ortega vs Holloway in a rebooking but Holloway's return to action is unknown. Jeremy Stephens, if he beats Aldo of course, could fight Edgar or Ortega for an interim title fight here if need be. Frankie is apparently a week away from being able to train again so an early July to early September set up is plenty of time for a dude who is  well known for his ability to be ready regardless of the circumstances. Already announced we have Zhabit/Yair and Jon Dodson vs Jimmie Rivera plus it seems pretty likely that Montano vs Shevchenko is getting announced soon-ish. That's not a main event and shouldn't be confused as such BUT it could be a respectable #2 on the bill.

September 15th

Moscow, Russia

UFC Fight Night

Main Event: Mark Hunt vs Aleksei Olynik

Co-Main Event: Shamil Abdurakhimov vs Andrei Arlovski

Consider this a mild, tepid dipping of the toe into the Russian fight market. The UFC's first event in Russia is a Fight Pass card; not even cracking the likes of FS1 or a PPV setting. While China got Anderson Silva and Kelvin Gastelum, Russia was getting Fabricio Werdum and Alexey Oleynik. That's still a fine main event but clearly not on the same level as the perceived GOAT and the top MW prospect in the division. That fight got USADA'd and in its place, we got Hunt vs Oleynik which is totally fine. A co-main event of Curtis Blaydes vs Alexander Volkov fell apart with Blaydes being hurt and Volkov opting to get paid to weigh in as a UFC 226 replacement. The UFC cut prices before the event to, in so many words, allow for poor people to get into the event and seats apparently are going to be at your standard UFC Fight Pass levels where they open up the bowl sections and ground floor only. There's been some rumors of the likes of Islam Makachev, Jorge Masvidal, Jimi Manuwa, Petr Yan, Nikita Krylov and Mairbek Taisumov (!) all getting a chance to fight but I'm betting when all's said and done, we're looking at Arlovski and Abdurakhimov being our co-main event of the evening. Or morning depending on where you are.

September 22nd

Sao Paolo, Brazil

UFC Fight Night

Main Event: John Lineker vs Raphael Assuncao

Co-Main Event: Alex "Cowboy" Oliveira vs Neil Magny

The UFC's brazilian ranks are being casually wiped out be it due to injuries, ineffectiveness, fighters leaving or retiring. The last show of the year from Brazil needs A GUY but finding A GUY who can headline is sort of tough in this market. The one thing I hold steadfast is the possibility that they could actually try giving a female fighter a chance to headline (Gadelha vs Calderwood at 125 lbs was something I thought of). I even figured Demian Maia is always like a phone call away as well but I can't think of a guy I'm excited to see him fight (or just a guy for him to fight at all). Gimme Lineker vs Assuncao in a true #1 contender fight since Marlon Moraes' two amazing highlight reel KOs probably vaults him about Raphael even with the loss. Also keep an eye on Formiga vs Pettis here as well since it's a natural "no shit" #1 contender fight at flyweight.

October 6th

Las Vegas, Nevada

UFC 229

Main Event: Conor McGregor vs Khabib Nurmagomedov

Co-Main Event: Holly Holm vs Ketlein Vieira

We've already got the unofficial official announcements of Sean O'Malley and Frankie Edgar/Korean Zombie for Vegas. One of the rumors going around is that the UFC plans on doing something, likely an interim placeholder title, for Holm vs Vieira. If so, you should absolutely do it on THIS card because the only way you're going to get folks excited about that fight is if it's got a McGregor-esque support attached to it. Conor vs Khabib will probably happen this year, if not in October then I'd bet in MSG. Conor vs Khabib IMO is a serious test of what is or isn't a big buyrate these days. The last BIG fight we had was Gennady-Canelo which did (IMO) a somewhat surprisingly meh 1.2 million----and this should beat that and comfortably. If it doesn't then we've got shit to talk about. Conor/Khabib, Holm/Vieira, Edgar/Zombie, O'Malley plus Darren Till (who apparently is a lock for this card) seems like a damn good top 5 to me.

October 27th

Moncton, Canada

Fight Night on FS1

Main Event: Rafael Dos Anjos vs Kamaru Usman

Co-Main Event: Ilir Latifi vs the winner of Glover Teix/Corey Anderson

I don't know what necessarily is in Moncton but the UFC tries in theory to go to new markets and bring special cards. The problem is they always tend to get picked apart due to injuries. As for this card? Well there were rumors that Usman vs RDA was the next fight to make in the Fall sometime and this seems like a fine enough time for it. Usman could also be a sleeper for the 170 lb title picture if there's an injury or whatever. As for the co-main? By all accounts Ilir is expected to be back in the middle of the Fall and so I'm betting this could be a good enough time. Latifi vs the winner of Glover/Corey Anderson isn't a perfect fight but there are worse fights to be co-main events. If anything it's a relevant fight at a division that's still trying to figure out what relevant is. Throw in PVZ vs Rachael Ostovich (come on now it HAS to happen) and Elias Theodorou for good measure for main card related purposes.

November 3rd

New York, New York

UFC 230

Main Event: Jon Jones vs Daniel Cormier

Co-Main Event: Brian Ortega vs the Jeremy Stephens/Jose Aldo winner or Max Holloway Third title fight: Cody Garbrandt/TJ Dillashaw winner vs Marlon Moraes Yoel Romero vs Ovince St. Preux Chris Weidman vs Paolo Costa

I'm betting that we're going to get the Jon Jones news any day now of a one year suspension redacted to July. If so, I'm betting the UFC puts Jones vs DC together with Cormier knowing that win or lose, the Brock fight awaits. DC seems really open to fighting at 205 lbs in the interim while he waits for Brock so I'm guessing/betting that if it's not Jones then it's a Shogun or a Gus here in this spot. The co-main event is a little more....prickly. Until I hear something about Max Holloway, I'm going to continue to believe that the rumors about him suffering something traumatic during his weight cut are true enough for me to not think we see him again this year. That means Ortega's going to have to fight somebody for the belt and if so, the winner of Stephens/Aldo lines up pretty damn well time wise. If Stephens knocks off Aldo then he'll have earned this shot no questions asked. The third title fight (because MSG tradition says three) was a toss up between Mighty Mouse coming back, the rumored Nunes/Cyborg fight or the TJ/Cody winner. Marlon Moraes is coming off of TWO 1st round finishes of the highest order and I think that puts him above Assuncao who has a better overall resume (and the win tie breaker) but no flashy "This is my title shot" moment. Moraes has that. As for the rest of the main card? Yoel Romero vs Gus seems like THE perfect fight to make but Gustafsson is seemingly not up for a Romero clash. That could in turn open the door for Romero vs OSP since they seem to gel up timeline wise (Romero had surgery, OSP has a family matter he's dealing with). Chris Weidman vs Paolo Costa is a rumored fight the UFC wants to put together for MSG and I'd be totally okay with that fight for both guys.  Throw in some "names" on the undercard and this card could/should be the 2nd biggest show of the year. If Jones vs DC III with two title fights doesn't get people excited then I'm not sure what else there is to offer y'all.

November 10th

Denver, Colorado

25th Anniversary Fight Night

Main Event: Tony Ferguson vs Dustin Poirier/Eddie Alvarez loser

Co-Main Event: Donald Cerrone vs Mike Perry (at 170)/Kevin Lee (at 155)

The UFC has built a whole marketing promotion for this one so this show might get a big damn deal. Tony Ferguson vs the loser of Poirier/Alvarez seems like a natural-ish fit for this card given that Ferguson is expected to be back by the end of 2018. Ferguson isn't getting the Khabib/Conor winner and I get the feeling that if Poirier wins, he's getting the title shot. This is a damn important stay busy fight at lightweight for both guys. As for Cerrone vs Perry? Donald Cerrone is a big deal in Colorado and if he stays at WW, this is a damn good fight for him. Otherwise? I like Cerrone vs Kevin Lee as a fight if Cerrone TRULY wants to try 155 lbs again. He shouldn't but if he does? Good fit for me. I like this fight a bunch. Throw in Sage Northcutt (!!!!!!!), Chad Mendes vs Mirsad Bektic, Do Bronz Oliveira vs David Teymur, Cat Zingano vs Rocky Pennington and the Rivera/Dodson winner vs Alejandro Perez and we're off to the races!

November 17th

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Fight Night

Main Event: Santiago Ponzinibbio vs Leon Edwards

Co-Main EVent: Dominick Reyes vs Jan Blachowicz

Take two! The UFC heads into Argentina (after flirting with a November 2017/Feb 2018 visit) and with Ponz healthy and ready to go, I'd imagine Argentina is about to experience a Ponzi Scheme. Ya like that? I like it. Ponzinnibio vs Edwards feels like a great piece of matchmaking given their respective winning streaks and the fact that Till, Covington and Usman have all leapfrogged them in the division. Good easy work here. The co-main is more about finding out what Dominick Reyes CAN'T do at this point. I've seen him steamroll dudes with enough ease to get a little curious/froggy as to what necessarily else he's got for us. I am, dare I say, intrigued. Jan has proven himself again after an up and down UFC run. The time is now and it'll never be more ready than now for thesetwo. Blachowicz might even be overqualified for the job but who cares? There's plenty of fun developing Latin American talent to find a spot for on this show, like Julio Arce, Moggly Benitez, Vicente Luque (Brazilian with Chilean roots), the eternally underrated Enrique Barzola and some of the other fine Latin American fighters in the UFC and trying to get into the UFC.

November 24th

Shanghai, China

UFC Fight Night (likely on Fight Pass)

Main Event: Francis Ngannou vs Marcin Tybura

Co-Main Event: Walt Harris vs the Arlovski/Shamil Adburahkhimov winner

Would the UFC try to run back Anderson Silva in China? I'm not sure they wouldn't consider it. As more and more decent Chinese fighters start to filter into the UFC, the Chinese market seems to actually be on the verge of finally breaking through.  If there's one thing the UFC is frequently "good" at; it's sending big dudes to foreign markets to try and appeal to casual audiences with size. With the likes of Song Yadong, Li Jingliang, Guan Wang, Kenan Song and some of the Chinese female mixed martial artists at the ready; the undercard should be loaded up with local-ish talent who can be relied upon for undercard support. With that being laid down? Go big at the top. I can't think of a more direct message to send to Francis Ngannou than to put him on a Fight Pass event while still getting max value out of him with a big main event for an international crowd. Ngannou vs Tybura is a fine test for Francis and it trumps a rumored JDS fight which doesn't make a whole bunch of sense given that JDS is coming off his first win in forever while Ngannou has dropped two in a row.  Throw in a Yushin Okami fight as well just to confirm you hate your audience. We all know you do! Also would be totally down for Li Jingliang vs Chad Laprise or someone of that ilk.

November 30th

Las Vegas, Nevada

TUF Finale

Main Event: Derrick Lewis vs Justin Willis

Co-Main Event: One of the TUF Finales (below that though and another TUF finale, Brad Tavares vs Thiago Marreta)

If big dudes throwing punches isn't your thing then November might be a rough month for y'all. I ALMOST went with JDS here but I'll pass on that one to be honest. Lewis vs Justin Willis is a good test for Willis and with a lengthy stretch of time off, the Black Beast can maybe get his back right. Wouldn't be opposed to Mark Hunt vs Lewis II either. This is the last TUF of all time and it features HWs so might as well give them a HW fight too.

December 1st

Adelaide, Australia

Fight Night

Main Event: Israel Adesanya vs Derek Brunson

Co-Main Event: Alexander Volkanovski vs Josh Emmett

The Australian/Kiwi/NZ fighter's revolution is still off and popping. Right on time too as the UFC is heading to Australia in December with dudes like Tai Tuavasa, Dan Hooker, Alexander Volkanovski, Jessica Rose Clark and Israel Adesanya at the top of the run. RIGHT off the jump we've got a problem as Yoel Romero and Luke Rockhold are out of the division, Weidman and Costa are matched up, Jacare and Brunson are matched up and you've got Gastelum waiting on Whittaker. That in turn leads us to Adesanya vs Derek Brunson win or lose vs Shoeface. At this point I feel like Adesanya has been sped up so fast that it's basically a lock that he'll take on a Brunson type next. That brings us to the co-main where it's time for Volkanovski to get a bigger name. Dude's earned this shot. Volkanovski vs Emmett makes sense or even Volkanovski vs Lamas, Bektic or any of THOSE guys would be damn cool. Throw in Tai Tuavasa vs a fun punching bag and you've got one hell of a top three and Tyson Pedro vs Devin Clark too.

December 8th

Toronto, Canada

UFC 231

Main Event: Rose Namajunas vs Karolina Kowalkiewicz/Jessica Andrade winner

Co-Main Event: Junior Dos Santos vs Mark Hunt 2 Anderson Silva vs Uriah Hall Stephen Thompson vs Gunnar Nelson Jordan Mein vs Michael Chiesa

The UFC is going to try and give Toronto something special. This SEEMED on paper like the perfect spot to roll out the Whittaker vs Gaselum title fight but Rob is out into February. An interim fight here doesn't make much sense I guess. The best option is probably the most likely option and that's going to be a 115 lb title fight at the top of the bill. In the mean time and in between time, I'm a big fan of the idea of giving the strawweight division EVERY chance to succeed. Maybe a 115 lb title fight won't draw a major crowd on its own but JDS vs Mark Hunt 2 and Anderson Silva (!) makes for a damn fine balance of options across the board for a main card. Throw in two good WW fights plus every Canadian under the sun in the prelim spots and I think we're good to go here!

December 15th

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

UFC on Fox

Main Event: Alexander Gustafsson vs Luke Rockhold

Co-Main Event: Anthony Pettis vs Al Iaquinta

Outside of just popping a number for old time's sake, the UFC really has no incentive to do anything "big" here. It's a finale for Fox, one last chance for them and the UFC to put on a good show before Fox goes into bed with pro bowling and the UFC moves on to ESPN. The main event is a fine enough rebooking as Rockhold's debut at 205 vs Alexander Gustafsson still SEEMS like a pretty great idea. It's not a Milwaukee showcase without Anthony Pettis as the dude looks to continue his career rebuild at 155 lbs. I'm not entirely all in on yet on his return BUT I'm loving the idea of it. I ALMOST went with Mighty Mouse here vs Sergio Pettis as the main event but I don't know if that fight happens on Fox since there's really no major incentive for it to be on Fox. Throw in Mackenzie Dern vs Jessica Aguilar in a showcase fight/test for Dern and Edson Barboza vs David Teymur and we should be fine enough to go here.

December 29th

Las Vegas, Nevada

UFC 229

Main Event: Amanda Nunes vs Cris Cyborg

Co-Main Event: TJ/Cody loser vs Dominick Cruz

Carlos Condit vs Robbie Lawler Cynthia Calvillo vs Michelle Waterson Khalil Rountree vs Jimi Manuwa

And so we might as well end the year hot. With the final show in Vegas, it sure seems like some form of Nunes vs Cyborg is happening. In truth it's the biggest fight that WMMA can conjure up currently so I have no issue with that. Beyond that though? I think no fight is going to sell like that one will so you might as well support the undercard for thee last remaining WMMA anti-fans. Don't want to see Nunes vs Cyborg? Well how about a rematch of the best WW fight ever @ your mom about it? Lawler should be back by then and Condit has already said he wants one more go of it at 170 lbs. If ANY fight is going to get people up for one last final run, it's that one. TJ or Cody vs Dom Cruz buys us some time for Assuncao and company to maybe get a title fight in the interim. That and TJ vs Cruz 2 still has some high upside appeal to me. Calvillo vs Waterson may not appeal to everybody but Waterson is usually in a fun fight and I'm still high up on Calvillo's upside. Khalil Rountree probably fights four times between now and this show but I really think Rountree vs Manuwa can be a bonkers striking battle. Throw in Zhabit Magomedsharipov, Claudia Gadelha vs Felice Herrig, some combination of DWTCS guys, a HW fight of a high caliber and plenty of fake rumors about a second title fight and we're off to the races!

[kyliesmilie26]

Doctor Blake Mysteries - S2E3. Otherwise known as Kylie’s inane and rather insane review… part eighteen...

We come to the penultimate post, it’s been one heck of a ride...

We learn almost all the answers in this part of the review...

*Doctor Blake Mysteries 2x3*

We’re back in the Ballarat Historical Society building. Elsie is taking down a book from the shelf, okay, maybe we’re in the library? Not relevant Kylie, move on.

Lucien enters the building. And it’s definitely the Historical Society for point of interest.

“Miss Patrick, good morning.”

Elsie is immediately on the defensive. “I’ve told you everything I know.”

It seems as if that blonde piece of hair from that wig has set off a ping! in Lucien’s genius mind. He’s somehow drawn a conclusion as to who indeed has done it.

“Yes, yes. But your colleague hasn’t.”

Martha! Quelle horreure! But why???

But I could be jumping the gun…

Lucien: “Miss…”

Martha fills in the blanks for him. “Harris.”

“Ah. Miss Harris.”

“How can I help you?”

I don’t think at this point she’s cottoned onto the fact that Lucien has figured out she murdered the man of many names… either that or she has and is trying to use her womanly wiles to distract him…

“Does the Historical Society have any material, any books…”

Cue a shot of Aaron peeking through the door to look at Martha.

There’s a lot of peeping tomfoolery afoot in this ep!

“… on migrant settlement in Ballarat?”

Aaron, who we discover is with Mattie, points to Martha.

She smiles at Lucien, I think she is pretending to be blissfully ignorant that he knows it’s her…

“A few actually.”

Lucien acts positively chuffed at this. “Wonderful! I’d love to see what you have.”

Meanwhile Aaron is nodding at something Mattie must have said. Probably confirming with Aaron that it’s Martha.

Martha is bending down behind the counter to retrieve one of the books Lucien was  referring to when Charlie makes an appearance by the door.

Martha: Uh oh. The shit’s hit the fan now… I’m f****d…

She plans her quick escape.

Charlie: “Stay where you are!”

She claims that she was “just getting her purse.”

Hmm, likely story.

Elsie seems shocked at this turn of developments. “Martha?”

*Doctor Blake Mysteries 2x3*

In case you hadn’t guessed, we’re in the interview room at the station. Opening shot has Lawson sitting, all poised to begin the interview, Martha sitting opposite him, trying work out if she can somehow still talk her way out of what she’s done. And Lucien standing behind Matthew, to his right and our left. He’s standing in front of both a window and one of the two radiant heaters in the room. I wonder what has Lucien so deep in his musings now?

Let’s find out why she did it.

Matthew proceeds. “Martha Harris. Member of the Australian Communist Party since 1943.”

Lucien starts to turn around, and then the camera focuses on a up-close shot of Martha. And I can’t recall it, but there’s a young female police officer standing guard behind her along the wall. Well, she looks female, it’s so dark where she’s standing. I’m actually surprised they are even referencing female police officers… kudos DBM team!  

Martha begins her defense, “The Soviets were our allies, and it’s not illegal.”  

Matthew continues her profile. “Sacked from a government job under suspicion of having a relationship with an attaché (for those who are unsure of the meaning: another word for diplomat, representative or ambassador) at the Soviet Embassy…”

Ah! She didn’t??? Well, why else would she kill him?

And this means Jean was right, he was a Soviet! She isn’t often wrong, as I’m sure Lucien would be thinking as the camera turns back to him. A picture of someone putting all the pieces of the puzzle together in his mind, his arms crossed.

“… who subsequently went missing.”

It’s all coming together nicely now, excellent writing team!

Matthew wants to know is that why she moved to Ballarat.

“No. I have a sick aunt who lives here.”

Does she? Or is she producing one out of thin air…

“Suffering from…”

Lucien answers before Martha can, “Diphtheria.”

Okay, I take it back; she wasn’t lying about her sick aunt. Sorry Martha. But should we believe you, really?”

Another part of the mystery clicks for Lucien. “Does she know you were wearing her wig in the park?”

Ah-ha! Right!

She chooses not to answer, instead asking if she may smoke.

Filthy habit that, you know it will kill you? (Not that they would have known much about that in 1959). My apologies to any smokers who read this, no offence intended. :)

Matthew doesn’t answer, so she takes it as a yes and goes to get her pack of cigarettes from her purse.

Lawson is more concerned about getting to the bottom of why she chose to kill her lover/ex-lover. “How many identities did you manufacture for him?”

He starts to number them off, along with some information on the real identity of the aliases.

Sven Lundqvist – he died in Wendouree in 1912 at the age of three.

Niels van der Berg died in Castlemaine in 1897. He was only six months old!

I’m gonna add my own “Bloody hell!”

“Tor Olsen…”

Martha cuts in, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Yeah, sure you don’t. Pull the other one.

Lucien asks her if she likes poetry. Had to come into it sometime. It was referenced enough throughout the episode.

She clears her throat as if to say, You tell me, I’m not giving you anything.

And again, we get Lucien reciting some more of the poem.

“Foreknowing all bounds of passion, of power, of art, Mastered but could not mask his deep despair Even as she turned with Hermes to depart, Looking at her last on her grim ravisher For the first time she loved him from her heart.”

Well, they could not have chosen a better poem to fit the story. Wow! I’m not much of an expert of the analysis of poetry, but this poem rings true for this storyline.

Lucien wants to know if, “Was that… what it was like for you?”

Does it get much better than this DBM writers? Wow!

“Holding him while he died?”

I stand corrected! Outstanding job!

Lucien goes on to say that whoever this attaché was, that she loved him.  He now gets out of the seat he’d sat down in briefly. “You’d given up everything for him. Everything. And he couldn’t even remain faithful.”

Had to be, didn’t it?

He is now sitting on the table next to Martha.

“What about his marriage?” Yep, I’d like to know about that too.

He wants to know if that was the last straw; the one that broke the camel’s back so to speak.

She still avoids the question. I guess her lack of answer, is an answer in itself. For the record, here is her reply, “You should charge me, if you have anything, or let me go. But there’s no reason to go on talking like this.”

Bringing back too many painful memories for you Martha?

Matthew comes back into the conversation, “You’re right.” And he adds that this case is no longer in their jurisdiction and that some agents on their way to talk to her.

“Unless you have anything else to say, this interview is over.”

Martha looks like she might want to say something, will she? And Lucien seems to pick up on this, “Miss Harris?”

She thinks better of it, “No. I have nothing more to say.”

She has what appears to be a mint or some kind of chewing gum and goes to put one in her mouth…

She has nothing more to say because she wants to kill herself!

Lucien immediately puts a stop to that!

He grabs her hand and tries to take the “lolly” from her.

“Cyanide! Sugar-coated to disguise it.”

Between the two men, they manage to get the poison from her grasp.

“You did love him!” Lucien exclaims.

She looks down at her lap.

“PASSIONATELY!” Lucien yells, banging his hand on the desk. “But unlike you, he was trained to walk away.

She finally cracks, “I gave up everything for him. I found him new places to live, new identities. But every time, he found another lover.”

“And the message you wrote in that book…” Lucien says, everything making sense to him now, “…you were arranging to meet, weren’t you?”

So, she wrote the message! I assumed it was him, although I’m sure that was the intention of the writers.

“I’d had enough.” She pauses for a moment, “He was a traitor.”

Ooh Lawson looks so so stern here! (Yet also slightly confused.) “To his country?”  

She shakes her head, chuckling, “to me.”

TBC...

Only the last couple of scenes to go.

Hope you’re enjoying it... even if its well and truly behind schedule...

[mindstreason]

Cat did not quite know why being in this room was on his schedule, but he was finding that he liked being hit when it was like this. The floor was soft, so when he inevitably ended up on it, it didn’t hurt.

“Get up,” Zinn said, entirely without emotion. He stretched, lean flexing lean muscles, and assumed the previous stance.

Cat huffed a little. Zinn was always perfectly exact: he never hit Cat hard, just did something with a flick of his wrist and force and angles that made all the impact come from the floor. It was more of a shove than a blow, really. The lessons had only started to involve these short bouts of sparring a few days ago. Before it was simply learning forms and sequences of movements and positions, to teach Cat how to move correctly. He still didn’t get it, but the physicality was more satisfying than any of his other lessons.

“Try again.”

Cat tried to take up the position that that Zinn had shown him moments earlier. He got it wrong, but Zinn simply adjusted it with touches to his waist and shoulder and elbow. He tried again, pulling on the arm Zinn offered him, letting go in surprise when Zinn went with the pull. Zinn promptly tripped him up again, and Cat’s back hit the floor.

“You need to follow through,” Zinn reminded. “Again.” This was more of a game than true sparring, but there were important things to learn from this too: how to fall, how to get up, how to keep focus on the opponent.

Cat’s next attempt was not much better, but the one after made Zinn take an extra step. Cat grinned with his success, though he could tell that what he was doing only worked because Zinn was relaxed and letting it happen. In many ways, Zinn reminded Cat of his original trainers. It was nice. He did not ask what Cat was thinking, or feeling, or wanted. It was simply, Cat had been sent here, and they would repeat the same lessons until Cat did whatever he was meant to do well enough.

At the end of every lesson, Cat was soaked in sweat and all of his muscles burned. That pain was how he had learned the length of two hours. He breathed hard each time he pulled himself up. He had found things about his body he had not expected. That he liked this pain, that he liked being pushed like this, that there was a physical satisfaction that felt as good as sex.

“We are done,” Zinn said, exactly on time. “What is next on your schedule?”

“I have free time before lunch,” Cat answered. He still didn’t really know what to do with free time. He usually napped in his room, but an hour was too short. He would need to shower, then get back to his room, and that wouldn’t leave much time. “Can I stay here?” he asked, on impulse.

“I have another lesson,” Zinn said. There was a beat – a pause for Zinn to speak to someone in the network, and then, “Warm As The Moon consents to let you watch.”

Cat blinked at the name, puzzled. Names like that were always meant to imply something about the person using them, but Cat didn’t know what a moon was or how warm one would be. Could he ask?

“You will be quiet and you will not interrupt,” Zinn instructed simply. “Sit over there. You should watch carefully. This will be educational for you.”

Cat settled with his back to the wall, getting comfortable. He waited patiently, his arms wrapped around his knees. He wondered what Warm As The Moon was. Probably some sort of engineer. It seemed like most of Shatterpoint was engineers. He decided that as much as he would have liked to ask, Zinn was not the sort of person that he could ask anything. It simply wasn’t his place.

When Warm As The Moon arrived – a slender person with dark hair and pale skin and no visible modifications – Cat was surprised that Zinn was no chattier for this lesson. He had thought somehow that Zinn would talk more with more important students. The warmup was more complicated, and Warm As The Moon moved faster, through a much longer form as part of it. Cat recognised small pieces of what he had studied within it. What fascinated Cat was how every movement was exact. That was what Zinn wanted. It really was educational. Cat wondered if he really could learn all those things.

The sparring was even better to watch. They started off slow, but soon the speed was almost too much for Cat to keep up with. Warm As The Moon was modified after all – he seemed too strong and too fast for that skinny frame. Cat could also suddenly see the point of the slow blocks Zinn had made him repeat over and over, and how they linked to follow on attacks. All those cycles ago when Cat had arrived at Shatterpoint, noticing any of that would have been far beyond him.

“Good,” Zinn said eventually. “You can both leave now.”

It was not a request, so Cat hopped up onto his feet. He headed to the showers with Warm As The Moon. There were no facilities with any particular privacy on this level of the station, so Cat got to sneak a few looks at the other person – Warm As The Moon had the sort of body that Cat liked, with few curves. Their skin was so pale that a few bruises from the sparring were already starting to show up.

“Like what you see?” Warm As The Moon teased as they stepped under the water.

Cat was too embarrassed to reply and washed himself in silence. He did not generally make a habit of staring at people. He smiled when he noticed Warm As The Moon looking back at him.

“What do you do with Specialist Zinn?”

That question made Cat flush too. “Very little,” he muttered, as he dried himself off. Compared to what he had just watched, he felt like all he did was wave his arms around a bit.

Warm As The Moon laughed. “Not what I meant.”

There was no follow up question. Warm As The Moon had assumed that Cat was being reticent, but the truth was that Cat really didn’t know why Zinn got to be his teacher. He had more than once seen surprise on people’s faces when he told them which room he was learning basic martial arts in. Cat started getting dressed, knowing that Warm As The Moon was watching while they put their hair back into a simple braid. Cat didn’t hurry up under their gaze.

“Where do you eat lunch?”

“Um,” Cat said. “Two levels up.” It was the refectory closest to where he lived.

“I’ll come up with you,” Warm As The Moon said as they finished getting dressed.

“Okay,” Cat accepted.

They stepped out into the corridor together. By sheer reflex, Cat walked half a step behind. Warm As The Moon went to the nearest elevator, going directly up. They stepped out into a wider, brighter and busier space. It was just about shift change.

“What’s it like living with the legendary Ghost?” Warm As The Moon asked. “If you were living with literally anyone else, I would just assume that they were fucking you...”

“He’s nice,” Cat said, at a loss. It wasn’t the first time someone had tried to ask him these sorts of questions. No one ever asked him about the other people that lived in their section, though some days Cat saw more of them than he saw of Ghost. “He’s busy.”

“I know. I take one of the classes he is teaching.”

“Which one?” Cat asked.

“Methods of viral attack on integrated neural networks,” Warm As The Moon said.

“That sounds very complicated,” Cat managed.

They waited in the queue together. Today, lunch was a cooked grain with bright vegetables, and a little portion of cooked fruit as the dessert. It all looked good this time. It didn’t always – that depended on who was on shift and if they were actually paying attention to the cooking or dreaming about some sort of vastly more important project. That was the unfortunate by-product of everyone being required to work in the kitchen at regular intervals.

Warm As The Moon found an empty table towards the corner of the room, next to a selection of large and spiky potted plants. Cat sat down, but he didn’t really know what to talk about. He might have preferred to eat alone.

“I am a strategist,” Warm As The Moon informed Cat. “So if you are interested…”

Cat felt increasingly awkward. At least he knew the name of the other person’s function now. That was something, though he was not quite sure what strategists did. Cat perked up when he spotted Ghost walking over.

“Ice, I know the game you like to play, and this one doesn’t know what that game is,” Ghost said without any preamble, sitting down. “It wouldn’t be fair. Go annoy someone else.”

Warm As The Moon delicately raised an eyebrow and laughed. “Respectfully, controller, I thought he was interested in me. He’s too cute, so I thought I’d play the nicer game.”

“Can I talk to him alone?” Ghost asked.

Warm As The Moon looked immensely amused as they stood up with their tray. “See you around,” they said to Cat. They cast a look across the room, and then headed to another table.

“Um,” Cat said, watching Warm As The Moon sit down with another group of people and be immediately caught up in conversation. “What did I do wrong?” It was very clear that Ghost had chased off the strategist on purpose, and he couldn’t quite figure out why.

“Wrong? Nothing,” Ghost said. “That one should know better.”

“You were worried about me?” Cat asked, with a small frown.

“Were you interested in fucking Warm As The Moon?” Ghost asked.

“Um,” Cat said, slowly blushing. A part of him had been interested. What was happening had not been a mystery.

“Ah,” Ghost said, considering. “Was my interruption unwanted?”

Cat chewed his lip as he thought about it. “No,” he said. Like in his training, he had not known how to follow through with what he had started in this either.

“I see,” Ghost said, watching Cat look steadily more embarrassed. “I did need to speak to you.”

Cat looked at Ghost attentively.

“The engineer Sometime During Eternity wishes to see you,” Ghost said.

“Oh,” Cat said, immediately alarmed. He had known that he would get assigned to an engineer eventually, that would poke and prod at him.

“She just wants to talk to you first, to see if you are a good fit,” Ghost said, trying to soothe Cat’s worries. “Nothing you don’t want will happen.”

“Can you come?” Cat asked.

“Yes, I suppose,” Ghost said. “It is not standard procedure, but you have the right to be accompanied.”

“I don’t want to do it alone,” Cat admitted.

Ghost shrugged. “If you wish. I will need to show you where to go anyway, so I’ll pick you up after you are done with your shift.”

[cvasps]

Transitioning To Fewer Resources-Sean Brown

This is my first contribution to CVASP. Relatively new to the profession, I’ve wrestled with what I could possibly contribute of any substance. Many things have run through my mind, and constantly ringing in my ears is a statement often echoed by veteran performance coaches everywhere I’ve been thus far. It goes something along the lines of “early in my career, I thought I knew everything”. This is not a problem for me - and I don’t mean in a good way. On the contrary, I am acutely aware of how little I know. Perhaps I just haven’t been at this long enough, but right now I just don’t feel like many coaches want to hear what I have to say 9 months through my first year running my own program(s).

It occurs to me that the best thing I can contribute is a recount and maybe even a little advice regarding moving from a high major program with abundant resources to a program that does not compete at the same level in terms of funding and resources.

I am sure that some will chuckle at the notion. Certainly, many have worked years to achieve a position at a major institution, and some are still on the way, having worked their way up the proverbial ladder. I will be the first to explain to you how lucky I have been in my career thus far, but that is a conversation for another day. So, I am under no illusion that everyone will relate to this situation. However, given this profession’s turnover rate and the rising number of internship and GA positions all over the country, particularly at the larger programs, my hope is that somewhere there is a coach who will find themselves in a similar situation that can get something out of this.

With that said, here is what it has been like to move from a high powered athletic program to one fighting with less in their pockets:

Facilities

All things considered I am doing pretty well in the facilities department. Sure, it’s not the same now as it was at a place like Texas, but so what? I have everything I need in our facility. The only major difference is that we share ours with Olympic Sports. Now, for many coaches this has been all they’ve ever known. Beginning my career at the DIII level I understand what it is like to be limited in time and space. However, it is different as an intern, volunteer or assistant than it is when actually running one of the programs that shares the weight room.

The most important thing I’ve learned regarding the shared space – and I will reference this several more times – invest in people (Full Disclosure – This, like many of my ideas, is stolen shamelessly from my former employer, friend and mentor, Daniel Roose).

Everyone is in the same boat, especially the strength coaches, attempting to get their sport coach to nail down a schedule so that they can understand their own training schedule and how it fits into the full weight room schedule. The ATCs also need to know and account for the training schedules of their respective sports. Facilities operations is at the behest of each head coach who views their program as the most important in the building. So, when change inevitably occurs just about every day, each one of these puzzle pieces has to move and adjust to make things work.

Quite simply, it is far easier and more pleasant to move this process along if you have spent the time to develop a relationship with those in the building. Admittedly I need to do a better job of this as well, but I have found that the more time I spend with others in the building, the easier it is to get what I need, especially when a curveball is thrown.

  Equipment & Purchasing

This one doesn’t take a lot of explanation. Clearly the budget, especially for strength & conditioning, or in my case Men’s Basketball Strength & Conditioning, is going to be different depending on where you are. Moving from a high-major to anywhere other than that is going to put you in a different purchasing situation. However, my head coach doesn’t want to hear that he can’t have what I tell him we need. So, how to determine what is really needed?

For me, a bare-bones look at our facilities, personnel and desired training methodology helped to reveal need vs want. Are there things that I would enjoy having and could employ frequently to help our players? Sure. Do I absolutely need them to do my job? No. But what can we get?

Again, we come back to investing in people. The more time I have spent with our Director of Operations, Associate AD, ATC, and finance department, the clearer the picture has become of when and where I have some space and leverage to purchase. Early on this was difficult because we just hadn’t spent enough time together. As trust is built, so is an understanding between myself and others involved regarding what I need to do my job and how we can help each other to make it work.

ATC

Surely each coaching staff is different, but the biggest change for me is how the rest of the pieces of a staff fill out at a smaller institution.

For instance, our ATC is one of the longest tenured members of the department. He is an Associate AD and is the Head ATC, overseeing every other sport and their respective ATC, as well as administrative level operations. He remains as the Men’s Basketball trainer in addition to his other responsibilities. Like everybody else in the building, he is spread pretty thin. I’m not the only one who needs to be able to talk to him during the day.

The more time I spend with him, the better things go. The more we have gotten to know each other, the better we have gotten at communicating effectively and accomplishing our common goals. Some of this occurs naturally over time, but much of it is a concerted effort to get to him when he is available and discuss things, even if it’s a quick meeting. In our case, we are located in different parts of the building (because my desk is in the basketball office and not the weight room), so it is vital that at some point we take the time to find the other and talk. Sometimes there is much to discuss, sometimes not. Either way, the ATC relationship is critical and requires effort, which may have to be more regimented at a smaller institution due to the increased time demands of both parties.

Administration

When I was at Texas we prepared our weight room (and our interns) every day and night with the understanding that “you never know who will walk through the door”. It could be a high-profile recruit, a player’s parent, or the Athletic Director that randomly walks in. At all times we prepared such that we were represented well in our appearance and behavior, and at various times this situation arose and everything was okay because we had prepared. But, it was a rare occurrence.

However, it was our facility. We shared the weight room with the women’s basketball team and that was it. Because of our scheduling, just about all of the time we were not even in the building at the same time as the women. So, while we prepared for anybody to come through at any moment, it was largely our world. Our facility was across a highway from the rest of campus. Nobody came there unless they meant to, and in that event we likely knew about it.

At Rice, our Athletic Director runs on the treadmill in our weight room just about every day. I’m serious. Just think – are you prepared (and have you prepared) to do your job with the Athletic Director literally in the room with you?

This is my reality. Our administration is smaller. Fewer people cover all the normal responsibilities of any other athletic department. Their offices are just down the hall from mine. If we play the music loudly in the weight room, they can hear it. They know my name and my responsibilities. There is no hiding, and I think this is a positive. It has forced me to evaluate every word I say and every move I make. Because our weight room is shared, I am frequently not the only team lifting. Sometimes there are a few other athletes, sometimes there’s an entire team. Sometimes another team may bring a recruit through. Such is life for the majority of coaches across the country, but depending on your school, you may have varying levels of transparency.

I’m not going to pretend that I don’t ever get upset with my athletes. Sometimes I raise my voice to get a point across or when I feel like one of my guys could use some extra fire. But things change when so many members of the administration can actually hear what you are saying. It has helped me to assess the manner in which I address my athletes at all times. One thing I learned is that I’m more likely to be offensive when we are having a great day, not the other way around. What can I say? I get excited. Where I am now though it is imperative that I be mindful of who is in the room and who might be listening – and that’s a good thing.

  Job Responsibilities

I used to be one member of a large team. From the nutrition staff to sport scientists, basketball team managers and graduate assistants, there were hands everywhere to get the job done. Moreover, on the strength and conditioning side alone, I was an assistant under someone’s direction, and we also had two interns. All in all, plenty of people around to get things done.

Things are a little different now. First and foremost the important concept is that even though we are smaller, the expectations for a college basketball program remain the same, or at least they do where I am. I played and have worked at the high school and DIII level where resources are limited, but clearly the expectation is different, alleviating some of the challenge. *Please do not take this to mean that at the high school or DIII level coaches do not expect quality work and winning effort. That is not my intention. I’m simply speaking of the expectations of time and energy allocation of the strength & conditioning coach, which is more thinly spread at the high school and DIII levels. So, while we don’t have the same number of people, the same level of quality is expected. Great, I love attacking challenges. Here’s the difference:

I assist in all operations of the program. In many ways I feel like an assistant to our Director of Operations. He is the hardest working person in our program and most of the time we are helping each other to get something done. This also includes our video coordinator. We simply don’t have the number of GAs, managers and interns around to accomplish everything that you do at a major program. Don’t get me wrong, we have a few that are able to pitch in when they can, but it’s simply different. Most importantly, it’s a two way street. Because I don’t have any direct assistance, I need help… a lot. By investing my time and energy in helping our operations staff, I get the same thing in return when I need help.

Here’s the other major difference: We just began conference play. I am micro-dosing our athletes in season which is fantastic (and a different article altogether). Even with a lift every day I would still estimate that about 80-90% of my time is currently occupied by nutrition.

We don’t have a training table (strictly speaking), so I am responsible for as much of our nutrition as our budget allows, which in my case is a fair amount. I actually love this. I get to be as hands on as possible with what my players are eating (or at least what I can reasonably control within the rules). I also have the benefit of working with some very intelligent and driven athletes who have been very receptive to basic nutrition education and continue to expand their knowledge of how to properly care for their body. However, I was completely unaware that it would take over my life the way it has.

Our snacks, meals, recovery shakes, etc. all obviously get stepped up a notch when travel comes into play, and our conference schedule has us traveling on Wednesdays to play on Thursdays, and then directly to our next site for a Saturday game and a return flight on Sunday. That’s a lot of travel meals and snacks to consider.

Compounding the challenge is the fact that we fly commercial. At a Power 5 or some of the larger mid-major programs, charter flights are a game changer (as anyone who has experienced it can attest). No longer do I have the ability to simply pack up whatever I need and throw it under a plane. I need to get creative and figure out how to find water and proper nutrition on the road, not just for one night, but for multiple days at a time. I have found that, as obvious as it sounds, the more planning I do ahead of time, the better. Also (say it with me), invest in people. The developed relationships with the rest of my staff go a long way in acquiring whatever I need whether we are at home or on the road.

Athletes

Hopefully this is obvious, but your athletes are going to be different. Don’t walk in with any assumptions. I made more mistakes than I can count based on assumptions about what my athletes could do or couldn’t do, as well as my understanding of their daily life. Each school is different, each program is different. This is simple. Spend as much time as you possibly can with your players before you lay out your plans. Ask them questions. Learn about them. Their training history, injury history, personal lives, etc.

For instance, the finals week on the academic calendar may not be when the players actually take finals. No way to learn that without talking to them.

I don’t know much, but I do know that ultimately there are challenges no matter where you go. I have been incredibly lucky to land in some great spots with fantastic people around me to help address any and everything to help the program. For me, that’s what this comes down to, no matter where you are - invest in the people. The most important time I have spent since arriving at Rice is not the time programming, booking catering or stocking water. It’s the time spent with people, and not just because they can help me when I need it, but more importantly because if you ask me, that’s why we do this - for the relationships we build with players, coaches, administrators, ATCs, etc. that last a lifetime.

This is where I am as I come close to finishing my first year at Rice. If this helps just one coach out there then I’ll take it as a win. As a closing, there is a lot of talk in Strength & Conditioning about helping one another, and I did just write an entire article based around the idea of investing in people. As such, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I’m making it my mission to be one of the guys that actually answers the call/email.

sean.brown@rice.edu

@brownstrength87

Who is Sean Brown?

Sean Brown is in his first year as Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Rice Men’s Basketball team. He comes to Rice from The University of Texas at Austin, where he spent the last two years working directly with Men’s Basketball.

In his current role, Brown is responsible for all year-round strength & conditioning aspects of the Men’s Basketball and Men’s Golf programs at Rice.

Prior to Rice, in 2016-17 he served as an Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach at The University of Texas at Austin, working directly with Men’s Basketball under the guidance of Director of Basketball Performance, Daniel Roose. Brown was hired into that role after serving as a Men’s Basketball Strength & Conditioning Intern during the 2015-16 season.

He also has held volunteer/internship positions with Southwestern University where he worked with football, volleyball, basketball, swim & dive and soccer, as well as University of Texas Athletic Performance.

Brown is a Strength & Conditioning Coach Certified through the Collegiate Strength & Conditioning Coaches Association, as well as a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist through the National Strength & Conditioning Association. He earned his B.A. in English from The University of Mary Washington in 2009, and an M.Ed. in Kinesiology – Sport Sciences & Nutrition from The University of Texas at Austin in 2016.

A native of Fairfax, VA, Brown lives in Houston with his wife, Kate.

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  See Full Article Here: Transitioning To Fewer Resources-Sean Brown

[cold-b-writing]

Bound Together: Part 28

Utadukeeus:

They hadn't realized it. But was the perfect time to head out as there was a festival scheduled for that night. Habriel and the family went over to a TV placed right outside the town, showing MTT news.

"The reports just came in!" The robot gasped. "Undyne and the Royal Guard have just apprehended the famed criminal Iredox. Who will be taken into custody of King Asgore and will be presented a fair trial!"

Skywardsister:

"What?! Really?!" Toriel gasped. Frisk and Chara cheered. "That's great! They got him!"

Utadukeeus:

"They actually did it..." Habriel started crying tears of joy.

Skywardsister:

"And there's going to be a festival tonight!" Chara exclaimed, listening to the robot's voice. "Awesome!"

Utadukeeus:

"We knew they were gonna announce it." a familiar voice said. They turned and saw Halustreg standing behind them. "The camera's were still rolling and we got to see Undyne do it with the Royal Guard alongside a bunch of other monsters. The official reports were just released to the news." He scratched the back of his head. "Meaning that they just finished the paper work." The monster took off his mask, revealing a genuine smile. "Its good to see ya alright, scum!"

Skywardsister:

"What? Really?" Habriel asked, puzzled and surprised by the pleasant comment and tone of the underwhelming adversary.

Utadukeeus:

"Of course!" Halustreg said. "You're my rival and the reason why I dedicate myself to training to get stronger. You're no use to me dead!"

"Aww, you do care!" Habriel laughed.

"Shut up!" The goat monster blushed.

Skywardsister:

Frisk and Chara looked at each other, then to Habriel, and snickered innocently at Halustreg's expression. Toriel wanted to do so as well, but held it in and knew better.

Utadukeeus:

Habriel put on a devilish smile as he saw Toriel struggle to hold it in. "What's the matter?" Habriel asked. "Did I get your..."

"Don't finish that thought, scum!" Halustreg growled.

"GOAT!?" Habriel snickered.

Skywardsister:

Toriel hid her face, snickering audibly. "H-Habriel, really?" She laughed between her fingers from her son's pun. Halustreg definitely didn't appreciate the boy's play on words, especially in this interaction.

"Don't worry, Halustreg, we're keeping your 'adversary' healthy and fit for you," She chuckled.

Utadukeeus:

Halustreg just muttered something no one could make out. Habriel took it a step further. "What's the matter?" Habriel asked. "Cat goat your tongue?"

Skywardsister:

The goat warrior clenched his fists and grimaced from the second pun. This boy was just too much.

Utadukeeus:

Toriel couldn't hold it at all. She clenched her stomach in tears, snorting.

Skywardsister:

"Enough!" Halustreg yelled angrily, which surprised the family. "I'm tired of your puns, scum!" He announced aloud.

Utadukeeus:

"Alright, alright." Habriel chuckled, easing the tension. "I'll quit it."

"Thanks..." Halustreg sighed, hiding his face in the palm of his hand.

"Let's not get things too heate-oh crap..." Habriel caught himself. He almost made another pun by accident. Halustreg groaned.

"Alright, well enjoy the festival, scum." Halustreg turned around. "And if you don't sign up for the fighting tournament, I'll kill you."

"There's a tournament?" Habriel asked.

"Yeah, its scheduled to be the last thing we do tonight." Halustreg said. "Fighters from all over the Underground are coming to sign up, including me. Which is why I would be steaming mad if you didn't sign up..."

Skywardsister:

"Ooooh! I wanna sign up!" Frisk cheered and did a silly little dance, jumping up and down in anticipation. "Sign me up!"

Utadukeeus:

"Count me in." Chara said, smiling. "I'm actually curious to see how I'd do in this body."

"And I will sign up." Habriel said. "All just for you." He bowed to the goat ninja.

Skywardsister:

Toriel seemed concerned over Frisk and Chara, but was okay with Habriel joining in. He was old enough, and definitely skilled.

"Really?" Halustreg seemed confused. "Oh. That was easy."

Utadukeeus:

"Yeah, to be honest. I can actually take advantage of that, right now." Habriel said. "I need the training."

"What about you, Flowey?" Frisk asked.

Skywardsister:

"Meh, I'm not feeling it," the flower responded. "I've wanted to stop fighting people and that can include this competition. Count me out. I'll watch you guys, though," He noted.

Utadukeeus:

"Alright, well we got a while until its time for the tournament." Habriel said. "Let's see what else they got..." the family made their way in and both Frisk and Toriel got very excited. They saw Sans on a stage doing a stand-up routine.

Skywardsister:

They all ran up into the crowd to listen to his routine. They caught Sans saying,

"yeah, well i told him: fighting grillby is like fighting fire with fire."

Utadukeeus:

Toriel was already giggling and Habriel chuckled quietly. Frisk and Chara sat down. Waiting for the next one.

Skywardsister:

Sans noticed them as they settled down in the audience and winked at them.

"so two fishermen are out in the ocean on their boat and it suddenly springs a leak. one freaks, and asks the other why he's not panicking. the other says, 'i don't sea the problem.'"

Utadukeeus:

Chara hid a chuckle and Frisk giggled to themselves. Habriel smiled, as he heard that one before. Toriel snorted quietly.

Skywardsister:

Sans allowed the audience to chuckle a bit before continuing into his next jokes. He smiled his usual smile.

"one time, a guy berated me because i didn't know what "armageddon" meant.  said to him, 'so what if i don't know what 'armageddon' means? it's not the end of the world!'"

Utadukeeus:

Habriel and Toriel both laughed at that one. It was pretty good. Chara rolled her eyes and Frisk giggled again. Sans gave a light chuckle. "so i was actually trying to test my luck with the ladies the other day. there's this one monster i gave her a little smile and a nod and i actually got some signals. so I walked up to her and asked 'do you wanna date?'" Sans proceeded to pull out a piece of dried fruit and waved it around for the audience to see.

Skywardsister:

They all laughed heartily at the fruit joke. "He's amazing," Frisk said to their siblings, wiping away a tear.

Utadukeeus:

"and now's time for the specialty." Sans announced. "this is the part where i ask if any member in the audience wants to get involved. they come up here and crack a few jokes themselves." He looked around the audience. "so...any takers?"

Skywardsister:

"Hmm..." Frisk tried to think of one really hard. Chara looked around the crowd to see if there was anyone willing to tell a joke. Toriel waited.

Utadukeeus:

"how 'bout you, tori?" Sans said, extending his hand. "i know you got a few good ones..."

Skywardsister:

"Oh, Sans," Toriel chuckled, blushing and shying away. "I'm not sure I can think of one at the moment."

Utadukeeus:

"Come one, mom..." Habriel insisted. "Whadya got to lose?" Frisk tried pulling Toriel's arm in order to get he woman to stand up. Their feet kept sliding across the ground.

Skywardsister:

"U-um okay, children," She stood, patting Frisk on the head. "I'll try."

She strode over and climbed the stairs, standing up beside Sans.

'Okay... think...'

Utadukeeus:

"you know tori, there's just this one burning question i have running in my head..." he said.

Skywardsister:

"Oh, yes, Sans?" She responded, looking at the grinning skeleton.

Utadukeeus:

"what horse never comes out during the day?" Sans asked. Toriel smiled, she knew this one.

"A night mare, silly." she giggled.

Skywardsister:

Frisk and Chara laughed a bit at that one.

"Oh, Sans," She chuckled.

Utadukeeus:

"so i heard you tried to catch a fog earlier." Sans said.

"yeah, i mist." Toriel giggled.

Skywardsister:

"Hey, Sans, what happens to a tree when you embarrass it?" She asked, smirking.

"What, tori?" He asked, amused.

"It turns into redwood!"

Utadukeeus:

Everyone laughed loudly. "You know, Sans..." Toriel sighed. "Sometimes I miss my ex-husband."

"really?" Sans asked.

"But my aim is getting better!" She chirped.

Skywardsister:

The crowd hooted and hollered with laughter. "thanks tori," Sans thanked her and the crowd applauded. She exited the stage and rejoined her children in the seating. "anyone else up to tell some jokes?"

Utadukeeus:

"you know what, hey tori. Just one more question..." Sans said. The goat woman turned around. "as you can tell, i've had no luck so far with this joke..." he scratched the back of his head, chuckling to himself. "but do you wanna?" he pulled out the bag with the dried fruit again.

Skywardsister:

She chuckled. "Wait, really?" She asked. He nodded, blushing a little bit.

"Alright, sure, Sans," She smiled.

Utadukeeus:

"heh..." he scratched the back of his head as the audience cheered for them in excitement.

"Wow..." Habriel chuckled. "He's got guts, I'll give him that..."

Skywardsister:

"Wait, so they're actually going to go on a date?" Frisk asked, sitting beside Chara and Habriel.

"Whoa. Who knew?" Flowey said.

Utadukeeus:

"Wow..." Chara muttered. Everyone watched as Toriel returned to her children, slightly blushing.

"Looks like someone's giving Frisk a run for their money." Habriel chuckled.

Skywardsister said the following:

"Huh? What do you mean?" She asked Habriel, not understanding.

Utadukeeus:

Toriel suddenly remembered a time during one of their dinners together when Habriel first started learning magic. "Oh!" she gasped and started snickering. "Now I remember that night..." She began to describe the night as she remembered it.

*************************************************************************************************************

"I'm honestly surprised you let me call you mom on such short notice.." Habriel said.

"Oh fear not, child." Toriel said. "I'm used to it, now. In fact, let me tell you about the time when I first gave Frisk their phone."

"Oh no..." Frisk cringed with their fork in their hand.

"Not two minutes after I left, they called me mom over the phone." Toriel giggled. "And then they decided to be a little ladies man on the next call..."

"They didn't!" Habriel choked on his food.

"Mooom!" Frisk groaned.

"Oh did you think I forgot young child?" Toriel smirked. "I embarrassed you once and I can do it again!"

****************************************************************

Its been a long time since that night. But Toriel remembered clearly when she was reminded of it.

Skywardsister:

"They decided to call me up and I guess practice... flirting?" She giggled as Frisk groaned even more.

"Come on, Mom!"

Utadukeeus:

"Better watch out, Frisk." Habriel teased. "Sans might beat you to it." Frisk hid their face inside of their shirt. Groaning out of embarrassment.

Skywardsister:

"He's not beating me to anything!" They groaned through their shirt at him. "They can date! Good for them! I hope they're happy!" Chara snickered.

Utadukeeus:

Habriel laughed in response. "Aww.. I'm only teasing." He said as he hugged them. They pouted in response. "Come on, give your big brother a hug...please?" They looked up and saw he put on a look a sad puppy would give.

Skywardsister:

They grunted and hugged him begrudgingly. Toriel and Chara chuckled.

"Wait... 'ladies man?' What gender are you, Frisk?" Flowey asked before he was interrupted. Sans announced the end of his segment.

Utadukeeus:

"Oh, I'm both." Frisk said.

"Ladies man is just a saying." Habriel said. "Kind of like a nickname, a quip or a joke. There's no gender neutral version of that one. So, mom probably just used the normal one."

"Yeah." Frisk said. "I'm what's called a herma...herma..." Frisk struggled to remember the word.

"Hermaphrodite?" Habriel asked.

"Yeah, that's it!" Frisk said.

Skywardsister:

"Oh. Sorry, I didn't know," Flowey said quickly. "When's that fighting competition going to start? You two said you were going to participate."

Utadukeeus:

"Halustreg said that was the last thing scheduled tonight." Habriel said. "We can probably find a schedule with the times, or we can ask someone."

Skywardsister:

Toriel had gotten up and talked with another monster for a bit, returning with a paper listing the events.

"Here's the festival's order of events," She said as she sat back down with her children.

"The fighting competition is last. Next, there's a hot dog eating contest, then potato sack races..."

Utadukeeus:

"And after that..." she said. "A card game competition."

"What card game?" Habriel asked.

"Something to do with trading cards." Toriel said. "It does however, involve characters in that book we're reading."

Skywardsister:

"Maybe you should participate, then, Habriel," Chara pointed out. "Sounds fun."

"We'll just have to wait a while, then," Habriel responded, looking again at the schedule.

Utadukeeus:

"Look!" Frisk said. "Napstablook is setting up a snail race course right after this!"

"Looks like Mettaton's gonna have a mini concert before the tournament." Habriel said.

Skywardsister said the following:

"Oh my," Toriel chuckled, shaking her head at the prospects of a mini live concert for the robot.

"This will be a large production, then," She sighed. "Do you want to watch it or do something else while we wait?" She asked the kids.

Utadukeeus:

"Doesn't matter." Habriel shrugged. Chara nodded in agreement.

"Let's go to the races!" Frisk said.

Skywardsister:

Toriel laughed and followed them. They were eager to see which snail would win this time; Frisk hadn't seen a snail race in forever.

Utadukeeus:

"Oh...h-hey guys..." Napstablook said to the family. "Its uh...been a while..."

Skywardsister:

"Hey, Napstablook! I can't wait to watch this snail race!" Frisk said enthusiastically, smiling as they greeted the pale ghost. "Oh, yeah! Habriel's never seen one before."

Utadukeeus:

"Snail race?" Habriel asked. "Strange to choose them out of all animals..."

Skywardsister:

"There are many snails down here, a surplus," Chara reminded him. "He just came up with an awesome sort of sport for 'em. It's entertaining." Napstablook smiled.

"T-thank you," He said.

Utadukeeus:

"Oh okay." Habriel said. "Never thought of it that way."

Skywardsister:

"I-it'll start in a moment," Napstablook said, hurrying along and getting each snail on the track area he set up previously for the festival event.

They all saw Halustreg come over to look at the snails.

Utadukeeus:

He leaned over a fence watching the snails get ready. "Looks like mom's not the only one with a snail fascination." Habriel said.

Skywardsister:

Halustreg caught their eyes. "Wrong, scum! I have pledged to win in every event in which you participate!" He announced across the fence. Napstablook looked from the goat warrior to the family and began to sweat.

Utadukeeus:

"Oh, I was just planning to watch..." Habriel said.

"Why, scared I'll win?" Halustreg asked.

"You know I wasn't born yesterday, right?" Habriel rolled his eyes. "I'm still just gonna watch."

Skywardsister:

Halustreg huffed and puffed out his chest in indignation at Habriel's statement and continued to watch until the race began. Someone handed Napstablook a megaphone, since he was so quiet.

"Alright, everyone, w-welcome to the grand snail race," He announced, smiling a bit.

Utadukeeus:

"Now we'll be taking any volunteers for this race." The ghost said. "Any takers?"

"I'll join!" Frisk said happily.

"G-good." Napstablook said. "Anyone else?"

Skywardsister:

"Sure," Chara joined, walking over next to Frisk behind their snail. "Alright, we still have a few more slots for other opponents," Napstablook announced to the crowd that gathered to watch. "Anyone else like to join?"

Halustreg decided against participating since his nemesis was not going to do so either.

Utadukeeus:

"I'll give it a try." A voice said. Everyone turned and saw Monster Kid approaching.

Skywardsister:

"Hey!" Frisk greeted the monster excitedly. Monster Kid ran up next to them and smiled.

"Hey, Frisk!"

Utadukeeus:

"Yo, its been a while!" Kid exclaimed. "How ya been?" He gave a wide grin.

Skywardsister:

"Pretty good," They answered, excited to see Kid again. "How have you been? It's been a while, hasn't it?" They said.

Utadukeeus:

"Yeah, everything's been great!" Kid said. "Ever since I stood up to Undyne, I've been the coolest kid in this town."

Skywardsister:

"That's great!" Frisk said. Napstablook announced that these three would be the ones competing in the snail race; each got a snail and the rest of them were removed from the track.

Utadukeeus:

A menu appeared in front of all three of them. It said 'Press Z to encourage'.

Skywardsister:

"Go!" Napstablook yelled, and the race was on. Because of a previous time, Frisk paced themself as they encouraged their snail, trying not to hurt it but maintain a good pace. Chara did the same. Monster Kid encouraged his snail wildly, overloading it.

Utadukeeus:

Out of nowhere, the snail that monster kid was encouraging exploded. The the racers stared blankly at the spectacular scene. Habriel's jaw dropped along with Toriel.

Skywardsister:

Frisk and Chara flinched when it happened. Monster Kid's expression drooped.

"You just encouraged him too much," Napstablook said with a sad tone and face. "I'm sorry. You're out of the race."

Utadukeeus:

The little monster had no idea what to say. He held his head down and slowly walked away.

Skywardsister:

"Aww..." Napstablook wore a sullen expression as the kid walked away from the tournament.

"Kid, wait, it's okay!" Frisk called to him. "I did that the first time I did the snail race, too!"

Utadukeeus:

"Is it okay if I stay and watch?" The kid asked.

Skywardsister:

"Yeah!" Frisk answered, focusing back on the race. "Of course," Chara said, gesturing for him to return by their side. Napstablook nodded, smiling.

Utadukeeus:

The kid smiled and cheered Frisk on.

"Let's hope Frisk doesn't explode..." Habriel said.

Skywardsister:

Frisk kept their pace well but Chara's snail was gaining ground. Frisk increased the amount of cheers they yelled to their snail, which began to sweat and speed up. It was neck-and-neck, and Frisk's snail won.

"We have a winner!" Napstablook announced through the megaphone, and gave Frisk their prize.

Utadukeeus:

"Way to go, Frisk." Habriel said as he approached them. He looked at Chara and Kid. "I think you all did great out there."

Skywardsister:

"Don't worry, Monster Kid," Napstablook tried to reassure the monster. "If you feel like practicing, you can come by my snail farm sometime."

Utadukeeus:

"Thanks." Monster Kid said. "I'll come by sometime." The family moved on, heading over to the hot dog eating competition. Kid went alongside them.

Skywardsister:

They sat down on the wooden benches set up before the competition table. The contestants arrived one by one; Undyne proudly waltzed up to one of the chairs on one side of the table. Alphys was off to the side cheering for her. Sans walked on next to her and sat down casually. Then Halustreg arrived and sat in the third seat.

Utadukeeus:

"Sans and Undyne?" Habriel thought aloud. "Now this is gonna be intresting..."

Skywardsister:

Halustreg laughed loudly and pounded the table with his fists, ready for the competition to start. A very exhausted Burgerpants brought out the plates of hot dogs for each person.

Utadukeeus:

"It's kind of funny." Habriel muttered. "I thought he only wanted to compete with me..."

Skywardsister:

"This isn't for the reason you think, scum," Halustreg laughed heartily. "This is to bolster my strength for when we compete in the fighting competition!"

Utadukeeus:

"You'll get full and you'll go through a crash..." Habriel chuckled. "But hey, you do you."

"I will!" Halustreg announced. Undyne and Sans stared at the two, dumbfounded. They had never met the goat monster.

Skywardsister:

"Hey, who's this weirdo?" Undyne whispered, leaning over to Sans. Sans shrugged in response.

"Alright, darlings! Are you ready to begin?" Mettaton asked them over a microphone.

Utadukeeus:

"One special rule, per request by a special guest who will soon be introduced." Mettaton giggled. "The losers are not only disqualified, but will also have to eat a bowl of spaghetti, mage by none other than..." The skeleton barged out from behind the curtains.

"ME, THE GREAT PAPYRUS!" the skeleton announced proudly. "I DO HOPE YOU ALL LOSE SO YOU CAN TRY MY COOKING!"

Habriel chuckled from the benches.

Skywardsister:

Toriel and the other children chuckled as well. "So, my darlings, you may start... NOW~!" Mettaton yelled.

Immediately, Undyne and Halustreg began stuffing their faces with hot dogs as fast as they could muster. As comic relief, Sans laid a napkin on his lap and squirted mustard on his first dog, eating it at his leisure. Monsters in the crowd began to laugh.

Utadukeeus:

While Undyne and Halustreg glared at each other, filling their mouths with hot dogs, Sans started balancing the others on the top of his head.

Skywardsister:

Frisk and Chara were practically crying while watching him, they were laughing so hard. Flowey chuckled watching him, too. Through a mouthful of hot dogs, Halustreg managed to say towards Sans, "Come on and challenge us!"

Utadukeeus:

"alright...." Sans said. "weiner takes all...."

Skywardsister:

"Wait, how can he do that... He's a skeleton," Habriel murmured to the others beside him. Sans winked at the crowd. He stuffed the hot dogs into his rib cage at light speed.

Utadukeeus:

Every hot dog quickly disappeared, Sans dabbed his chin with the napkin, leaned back and smiled at Undyne and Halustreg.

Skywardsister:

Both monsters stared at him in awe and disbelief before speeding up in their hot pursuit of second place. Frisk and Chara cheered for Sans and his quick victory.

Utadukeeus:

"Small guy, big appetite." Habriel chuckled.

Skywardsister:

"He didn't really eat them," Toriel whispered, leaning over to Habriel. "He just put them in his jacket," She snickered, watching the small skeleton sit and watch the other contestants struggle against each other. Papyrus's face brightened.

"LOOKS LIKE SOMEONE'S GOING TO TRY THIS SPAGHETTI," The tall skeleton announced triumphantly.

Utadukeeus:

Habriel chuckled quietly to himself. Enjoying the fact that Halustreg was gonna have to eat Papyrus' spaghetti, all thanks to Toriel's new boyfriend.

Skywardsister:

"Time is ticking! You have ten seconds, darlings!" Mettaton announced gleefully, making Undyne and Halustreg panic and hurry themselves up. All the monsters counted down the seconds together loudly.

"Time's up! Let's see how you did!" Mettaton said, strolling over to the table. His eyes widened, seeing that Sans was the only one who finished all his dogs.

Utadukeeus:

"Well well...." Mettaton said. "Welly well welly well well. It seems you both get to have some spaghetti, I hope you're ready..."

"NYEHEHE!" Papyrus laughed, slamming the bowls in front of them. "I HOPE YOU BOTH ENJOY! I MADE IT WITH AN EXTRA SPECIAL SECRET INGREDIENT...."

"Being?" Halustreg asked.

"MORE NOODLES AND LOVE!" Papyrus said.

Skywardsister:

"You eat first," Undyne ordered Halustreg. He shook his head. "No, you," He responded. Sans chuckled.

Utadukeeus:

Habriel got up. "Hey Halustreg!" he called out. "They say carb-loading helps!"

"Shut up!" Halustreg blushed.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Habriel smiled. "Was that joke in...."

"oh god, he's gonna do it!" Sans chuckled.

"Don't..." Halustreg growled.

"...poor taste?" Habriel asked.

Skywardsister:

Halustreg pounded the table with his fists again, and this time, the table collapsed out from under him, sending him, the hot dog plates, and the spaghetti to the ground. Mettaton leaped backwards quickly, saying "Oh my!"

Utadukeeus:

Habriel ran off before the monster could do anything.

Skywardsister:

Toriel told the children to stay there as she looked for Habriel. They agreed. Undyne and Alphys retreated together towards Frisk, Chara, and Flowey, slightly intimidated by Halustreg, who was still over at the collapsed table.

Mettaton was backing away from the goat warrior, chuckling nervously. "Darling, that's no way to handle things..." He muttered.

Utadukeeus:

Habriel ended up at Grillby's. He leaned his back against the wall outside, chuckling to himself.

Skywardsister:

Toriel finally found and caught up with him, huffing. "My child, I don't think this was necessary," She breathed and they both chuckled. "Though he does overreact."

Halustreg brushed himself off and Undyne helped pick up the debris from the shattered plates and the table splinters.

Utadukeeus:

"Better to be safe than sorry." Habriel shrugged, smiling at her.

Skywardsister:

"Let's head back before the next event starts," She said, putting an arm around him as they headed back towards the festivities.

Meanwhile, a bunch of monsters were avoiding Halustreg.

Utadukeeus:

They caught up with the rest of the family. They were on their way to the potato sack race.

Skywardsister:

"Ugh. Wish I didn't have to sit all of these out," Flowey muttered, watching some monsters slipping into potato sacks. "I'm going," Chara told them, and joined the other participants in a row, getting on her own sack.

Habriel and Toriel arrived in time to see them all lined up ready for the race to commence.

Utadukeeus:

Frisk sat down with Habriel and Toriel. Watching as Chara slipped into a potato sack. Getting ready for the race.

Skywardsister:

She gave them a thumbs up before the race began.

"Alright, everybody! Ready? Set? GO!" Undyne yelled, and the assortment of monsters and human started leaping forward clumsily yet enthusiastically in their sacks.

Utadukeeus:

Everyone encouraged Chara as she soon got ahead of every monster. The others could never keep up. The human was young and had a lot more energy than them.

Skywardsister:

She was cheering as she hopped ahead of the rest, until she stumbled and fell.

"Nooo!" Frisk yelled, watching her fall. She quickly got to her feet again, staying in the lead.

Utadukeeus:

Chara managed to cross the finish line and get first place. The family got up and all cheered for her.

Skywardsister:

She sat on the ground and pulled the sack off her legs, handing it in. The monsters behind her all eventually crossed the finish line as well. She was congratulated by many people. Chara went back to her family.

"That was pretty fun," She said.

Utadukeeus:

"Now onto the card game." Habriel got excited.

Skywardsister:

Toriel pulled out the itinerary. "Where's that being held?" She looked down the list of events.

Utadukeeus:

"Inside Grillby's." Habriel said, pointing out the map. "Any of you gonna play, too?"

Skywardsister:

Chara raised her hand. "Sure, let's do it."

"I'm not going to repeat what I did last time," Frisk laughed.

"I'll watch, children," Toriel said.

Utadukeeus:

"Thought you could run, scum?" Halustreg said from behind. "I'll learn this card game and finally defeat you!"

"Whatever floats your goat." Habriel said.

Skywardsister:

The goat monster looked as if his veins would burst on sight, but he calmed down and they went inside the establishment to play the card game. The family and others followed them inside.

Utadukeeus:

On their way over, a journal fell out of Chara's pocket. She opened it and started reading it. It belonged to the girl. What was in the journal was fascinating. She decided she was gonna read it instead of playing.

Skywardsister:

She sat with her family reading rather than joined the players for the card game.

"I found this in the girl's pocket," She said to her mother. "I've been reading it. It's weird..."

Utadukeeus:

"What do you mean?" Toriel asked. They read the journal together.

'Entry 1: Father has come up with a decent plan to kill the boy and take his soul. He's gonna try to demonize him around the monsters. It's a better plan than he thinks. It makes them do our dirty work while we earn their trust. Making the first step MUCH easier.'

Skywardsister:

"First step of what?" Toriel asked out loud, reading in the pages more.

"This sounds bad," Chara whispered, trying to keep from getting the other monsters' attention. "Whatever they were planning... we have to be careful... they may still be trying that plan..."

Utadukeeus:

'Entry 2: Its been a while. Father failed to retrieve the soul and attain the trust of the monsters. A shame, but not over all damning. We just have to anger them enough to march out to the surface. It'll be more difficult and we won't be able to gather as many of them due to possible carnage than if they were to trust us. However, we can still find ways around that problem. Perhaps we can force-breed some of them so we have more souls. Father will return later to retrieve the soul at least. We can then put the boy to good use, then.'

Skywardsister:

"But what use were they talking about...?" Chara murmured, turning the page to the next entry the girl had written. She and Toriel continued to read it.

Utadukeeus:

'Entry 3: Father's dead, I'm sure. I have a couple plans. When I go down there. I'll find the boy and pretend to not know be in over my head. It'll make him feel guilty and lower his guard. Giving me an opportunity. But before that, I managed to track down his lover. I'll send her in to kill him. I'll send her through where the barrier was. Should she fail, then its back to my original plan. So far, we'll see if the girl is willing to cooperate or not. For her sake, she better.'

Skywardsister:

The card game was about half way through. Frisk was watching, aware that the others were reading the journal. They just didn't want to think about it now.

"So... they were going to send... Marion in after him?" Chara looked at Toriel, who nodded slowly.

Utadukeeus:

'Entry 4: Dumb bitch got herself killed. Back to the first plan. That boy has to be in the company of numerous monsters. Perhaps I can do a ritual while I'm down there. Make the boy one of those things I've seen back at the Cathedral. He should prove useful after all. He did manage to kill my father. That is no small feat.'

Skywardsister:

The card game was coming to a close. Frisk watched; Halustreg was obviously doing extremely poorly, even while he was repeatedly told the directions of the game. He just couldn't wrap his mind around the rules and constantly broke them or made bad decisions.

Utadukeeus:

"That's it." Chara said. "Mom? What do you think of all this? Should we show Habriel?"

Skywardsister:

"Mmm... I'm worried how he'll receive this... especially about how they tried to use Marion... but he should definitely know."

Utadukeeus:

"I'll leave it up to you." Chara said as she handed the journal over to Toriel. Habriel had just beaten Halustreg in the card game. The goat monster was red with fury and steam seemed to have come out of his ears. Habriel smiled and offered a hand for the monster to shake. Toriel sat there, with the journal in her hands. What decision will she make?

Skywardsister:

Toriel sat with the journal for a moment, studying the pages. She looked back up to Habriel.

"He has every right to know what they had planned for him behind his back," She decided, and stood up as Habriel shook Halustreg's begrudging hand.

"Habriel, Chara found something that you should probably see," She said.

Utadukeeus:

"Really?" Habriel asked as he got up. "What is it?"

Skywardsister:

She held out the journal for him to take and look at.

"Chara found it in the girl's pocket. It's a journal she kept while she was alive."

Utadukeeus:

Habriel widened his eyes and looked down at the journal after Toriel handed it to him. He stood there, reading the journal. Toriel couldn't see his eyes, the shadows were hiding them. However, after a few minutes. She saw the hand holding the journal begin to shake.

Skywardsister:

"They were going to use Marion, but she refused..." Chara stated quietly as he read the pages.

Utadukeeus:

Habriel took a deep breath as he closed the journal. "I knew I could count on her. There's no way she would have let anyone use her." He looked down at the ring. "She really did love me..."

Skywardsister:

"But... they've clearly been preparing to do something involving you, special," Chara groaned.

"We better be careful and keep a keen eye on both entrances to the underground. We're not done with those idiots yet."

Utadukeeus:

"Yeah..." Habriel said, closing the journal and putting it in his pocket.

Skywardsister:

"Heh, maybe we can spring Halustreg on them," Frisk suggested, chuckling a little.

"Nah, he's too weak. It'd take many more years of training for him to be on your, level, Habriel."

Utadukeeus:

Habriel nodded his head. "Now's time for Mettaton's concert.

Skywardsister:

"Mmm... I don't know if I feel like watching that," Chara laughed. "We've seen enough of him otherwise, honestly. What do you all wanna do?" She asked.

"Whatever you guys want is fine," Frisk answered.

Utadukeeus:

"Oh, really darling?" A metallic voice called from behind. "And here I had something special planned."

"Really?" Habriel asked. "What was it."

"I had a TV set up in Iredox's cell to show the concert." Mettaton said. "And I was gonna put you on stage, after you write whatever you want about him."

"Really~?" Habriel gave a devilish smile.

Skywardsister:

"Weelll, we don't want him breaking out of his cell and uh... coming after him again," Toriel stated quickly, getting Mettaton's attention and understanding.

Utadukeeus:

"He'll try to break out no matter what we do." Habriel said. "I might as well have a bit of fun."

"Have something in mind?" Mettaton asked.

"A poem to be specific." Habriel chuckled darkly. "I already have the message."

"You really are a vulgarian, aren't you?" Seraph asked from behind. "I love it."

Skywardsister:

"Alright, darling, you can do this whenever you like! The show's about to start," Mettaton stated, leading Habriel onto a makeshift stage out in the open surrounded by cameras. He handed the boy a microphone, making sure it worked.

Utadukeeus:

The rest of the family sat in the bleachers and saw Habriel get on stage. Sans walked up to Toriel and sat next to her.

"sup, tori." He said.

"Greetings, Sans." She smiled as they started holding hands. They looked over at Habriel who was given a microphone.

"Hey everyone!" Habriel said as the monsters cheered for him. "I know you were all expects Mettaton to host his concert tonight. You'll get that, don't worry." He waved a hand as an attempt to ease any possible tension. "But he wanted to give me some time on the stage. I'm pretty sure you all know who I am." He turned towards the audience and started whispering into the microphone. "With what's happened yesterday, how can you not know?" A couple monsters chuckled in response. "Now I wanna take the time to thank someone for making this all possible. Because if he wasn't such a deplorable being. This wouldn't have happened." Habriel looked up at the cameras. "I wanna thank you, Iredox! I know you're watching this as I speak. I can smell you from here..."

Skywardsister:

Toriel feared that Iredox would spiral into an uncontrollable rampage, escape, and kill them all. Frisk, Chara, and Flowey remained by her side throughout all the events that night, including this. They all watched, feeling the same way without telling one another.

Utadukeeus:

"But you know what, Iredox?" Habriel said. "I think we had a bit of a rocky start. I think we should get to know each other a little better. So, from the bottom of my heart. I have this poem in my head, that I wanna share with you. It's not the best poem. But if you pay attention, I think you'll get the message." Habriel cleared his throat as he started reciting the poem.

"Gotta be careful in the Underground.

Ongoing danger all around.

Forging friendships and rivalries, all underfoot.

Understand, this is all due to my neglect.

Cute and cuddly monsters that are just misunderstood.

Killing them would just make you lose all my respect.

You think you got this in the bag?

Only because of all your years of training.

Understand, I've been training with Undyne, but I shouldn't brag.

Really, all this time, you've only been entertaining.

So confident, with this annoying need to nag.

Everywhere you go, I hear people complaining.

Little do you know, this is all a drag.

For the last time, I'll be the one remaining." Habriel waved at the crowd. "Enjoy Mettaton's show everyone!" He said as he put down the microphone.

Skywardsister:

The crowd applauded Habriel's cold poetry loudly; they all remembered what Iredox had done to him.

[dorothyd89]

Staci&amp;rsquo;s dog has been dognapped! (No, not really.)

Team NF Member Staci’s dog Madi has been dognapped!

(Okay not really. Don’t worry, Madi is okay!)

But in the alternate reality world of Rising Heroes, poor Madi has been kidnapped by a nefarious shadow organization in retaliation for over 2,500 rebels working together last month to track down and capture a hacker operative with ties to the organization.

Alternate reality world? Rising Heroes? Hackers? Madi?

Steve, WTF are you babbling about? I’m lost.

Okay sorry, let me start back at the beginning.

Last month, as I’m sure you heard, Nerd Fitness launched a completely new platform called Rising Heroes, which is our attempt to make ongoing habit-building and self-improvement into a fun, captivating adventure.

Thousands of people joined Rising Heroes in early January. They were onboarded and recruited by one of four factions and immediately began working together to track down and capture a hacker by completing real world daily and weekly missions around a variety of self-improvement topics and categories.

They solved puzzles, found their wingman for accountability, and decoded intercepted, encrypted messages in their hunt to capture the hacker. They walked over a half million miles combined, while also working on better morning routines, healthy cooking alternatives, social missions and personal development throughout the month.

As a member of the broader Nerd Fitness Rebellion, I wanted to give you an update on how this first month went, what we have in store for Month 2, and whether or not Rising Heroes is something that interests you. And I want to leave you with some of the core reasons why it’s working for over 2,500 Rebels and how you can build those benefits into your own system.

To start, let me share an image with from the “Michigan Rebel Squad” a self-formed accountability group of a few guys inside of Rising Heroes. I literally burst out laughing when I read it.

“Lynn… we’re grown as men tracking a fiction hacker by walking in the snow. No need to explain your use of imagination to us.”

HAHA, well said Kenny. Well said.

I realize that for many people, the concept of walking every day trying to hunt down an imaginary hacker is silly. “Why in the world would I do that. It’s freakin’ cold outside. I’m not going to do these small daily and weekly missions just because you make up some story and give me points, Steve?”

That’s fine! If you have a system that’s working for you. Do that! Keep up the progress!

But here’s the thing: This is so much freakin’ fun if you let it be!

What we’ve seen over the last month is the far majority of 2,500+ Rebels really get into and embrace the adventure, the story, and the daily and weekly missions designed to slowly build better habits and level up their lives.

They nerded out, they formed accountability groups, and they used the point system and the deadlines as EXTRA motivation even when they didn’t want to do it… they did it anyway!

Stefanie’s comment reminded me of a survey we had sent out late last year where we got over 10,000 responses from nerds around the globe.

We asked people whether or not they HAD found sustainable change in the last few years. If they hadn’t yet found the habit-changes they wanted, we asked why. And if they HAD had lasting changes and success we asked them HOW.

Most people who have failed to change their lives had cited a lack of motivation, a lack of support, and a lack of time to get things done.

Those who succeeded, however, despite have the same struggles and baggage and busy schedules as those who failed, did things differently:

URGENCY: We all say we’re going to do something, and then we don’t do it unless we absolutely HAVE to. It’s why we always waited til the last minute to write term papers in high school, why we pay our taxes at 11:59pm on April 15th.

When you say you’re going to do something, without a deadline it makes it easy to justify why you can skip it. With a real deadline associated with a goal you’re trying to accomplish, you’re infinitely more likely to do… if there’s accountability associated with the results.

ACCOUNTABILITY: What happens when you skip a workout, don’t work on your book, or miss your training run for your 5k? If it’s left up to you, probably nothing! It’s too easy to skip the things you want to do that require a little willpower. This is why the people who succeed have built accountability into their lives. They know that if they skip their workout they’ll miss out on something, or if they don’t take a certain action it would have consequences. At the same time, completing goals was a positive outcome and thus resulted in a ‘reward’ of sorts for them. This moved the accountability outside of just themselves

SUPPORT: The journey to a healthier life can be a long and lonely one. We often find readers of Nerd Fitness (and members of the team) hide their nerdy pursuits from the world… and once they start the journey to live a healthier life, end up hiding their fitness pursuits from their nerdy friends. We are going to have good days and bad. We are going to have moments when we want to give up. We have things we use to rationalize inaction. Those who succeed have a good group people around them to keep them on target. Always ready to respawn.

Knowing how important those three things were to long-term, sustainable success and an upgraded life, we created Rising Heroes.

And I’m really proud of what we created.

I’m proud because the URGENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY, and SUPPORT are really working for people. Slowly, but surely people are seeing real results – while having a lot of fun.

Here’s a few of the people crushing the habit change aspects:

We’ve also seen some very measurable results in weight loss and overall health activity:

Note: Rising Heroes cannot guarantee that you will get ENGAGED during an actual real world mission during the adventure. Despite that, we are so excited for Cal and her new fiancee! 🙂

With Rising Heroes, fitness and health plays a large role, but is only part of leveling up your life:

“Personal victories aren’t always measured in inches or pounds.”

Again, well said, Nicole.

In Rising Heroes, every recruit has to pick a non-fitness specialization that they will devote time and expertise to on an ongoing basis. We’ve had people dust of instruments for the first time in year, enroll in new classes, start back up childhood passions, and picking up new languages and skills.

With our new missions setting up Month 2, many Rebels are turning a spotlight on their finances, their mobility, their morning routines, and their daily physical activity.

And all this is literally just getting started.

Rising Heroes has turned out to be even more than we could’ve imagined. Thanks completely to thousands of Rebels deciding to buy into the process, tracking their success, and truly joining together to take back control of their lives in every sense of the word.

As Abraham Lincoln once said, “Holy shit! That sounds fun!”

Okay, I don’t know if he actual said that, but he might have!

Anyways, this has been a truly game changing experience for both the Nerd Fitness team and our core group of early adopters that are sticking with it and starting Month Two right now.

As with the first month, we have a small enrollment period where new Rebels can join up and try out Rising Heroes. We shut this off on Thursday of the first week of the new campaigns, so that everyone can move through the rest of the adventure and work together to solve mysteries together at the same time.

Rising Heroes is accepting a few new heroes this week until Thursday at midnight EST.

As with the launch last month, we offering a full 60 day try-it-out guarantee. Come see if this fun structure and style helps you see real changes like others have. If not, email us – no questions asked – we’ll get you completely refunded.

We need help taking on (fictional banking institution) Amego Financial in month two. We aren’t exactly sure how deep this rabbit hole goes, but we are starting RIGHT NOW on the inside with missions to #savemadi and research the reach and influence of this new financial institution.

If you are interested in more information, I also recorded a full video walkthrough of inside Rising Heroes using real example from missions and community events from Month One activities.

To get a sneak peek inside the platform, click here and scroll down to the read banner “Steve walks you through the inside of Rising Heroes…”  Super creative naming, I know. It’s the second video on the page about halfway down.

We understand this is an investment and certainly not for everybody, so if this isn’t right for you right now, no worries! We’ll be back to regularly scheduled blog posts on Thursday.

In the meantime though, I have a challenge for YOU regardless:

I want you to take out a piece of paper and write out a plan for 2017.

I want to know three ways you can increase the following, ESPECIALLY if you’ve struggled to stick with your resolutions by now (end of January):

What are real ways you can add urgency and deadlines to your habit-based goals in 2017? Can you schedule calendar updates or reminders? Can you create your own missions for yourself? Can you manufacture urgency to help push you? How?

How can you add another layer of accountability to your current system? Urgency is a great start, but if you aren’t accountable, you’ll just skip the deadline without any consequence. What parts of your life can you tweak today to have slightly more accountability for the deadlines and urgency you’ve brainstormed above?

Lastly, where are you going to go for support? This can overlap with accountability sometimes, but needs to be more well rounded. What will you use to educate yourself? Who will you talk to in moments of weakness? Who will you celebrate with when you hit a streak? There are hundreds of free resources (including most of Nerd Fitness) for you to explore. And it is possible to find and set this up for yourself. How will you do it?

Whether or not you want to try Rising Heroes, I want you to be intentional TODAY about how you will build these three key factors into your own life in 2017.

February can be a tough month for our 2017 goals and ambitions. A lot of people fall off the wagon, but around here we #respawn quickly and get back into the fray.

Let’s keep up the early momentum of January in whatever way works best for you.

We’re here for you!

New YouTube video coming on Thursday around why motivation fails us (and what to use instead), stay tuned!

As you can tell, I’m really proud of this mysterious, goofy, action-oriented adventure we call Rising Heroes. And I appreciate you taking the time to read my giddy Rising Heroes update.

If you want to join us, 2,500+ Rebels and I are waiting for you on the inside. Once you get recruited into your faction, you can start marking off time-sensitive missions immediately. We need all the help we can get, Month Two is going to be crazy.

You have until Thursday at midnight EST to click here and join Rising Heroes for our new February campaign.

-Steve

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[cool-crossword-quiz-answers-blog]

Work a crossword puzzle With 31-Across, flying exhibition Vegas signs Trouser material Top-left PC key Sundial number opposite I Summer of disco Sudden burst Soil-moving tool Sitting on Shoes that make you look taller Shade-loving plant See 30-Across S.A. country at zero degrees latitude Rock gp. with winds and strings Right triangle ratio Ques. response Pull's opposite Prepare to advance after a fly ball Plus Petting __ Outdoor faucet attachment Operatic icon NYSE listings Natives for whom a Great Lake is named Most of the Atlantic, to Columbus Most fit to be drafted Moscow's land: Abbr More than fair, less than great Monday, in Metz Mimics Meetings of self-improvement seekers Massage facility Like Superman's special vision Like a clever devil Lay eyes on Kitty coat Joke with a homophone, say Itinerary word Indian flatbread Hidden downside Hebrew or Latin, e.g Hanger near the shower Glamorous Gardner Giants great Mel Game with rooms and weapons Forty-__ Form 1040 and schedules Flees Elevate to sainthood Easy run Early spring blooms Dubai's fed Doctor with a pager Dinner, e.g Developing egg Desert plants Cpl., for one Contractor's detail, briefly Composer Bartók Child of a boomer Cereal grain Captures Buckeye State sch Broadband letters Bridge partnerships Be a debtor of Army vet Allow to board Acronym for a big mess About to happen 'That's __!': 'Piece of cake!' 'Macbeth' cauldron stirrer 'It all happened so fast' memory 'Impractical Jokers' network __TV 'Frozen' queen 'CSI' evidence 'Ben-Hur' setting - See more at: http://crosswordssolver.net/clue/L.A.-Times-Daily-Crossword-Answers---Jan-23-2017#sthash.iE2uc1s7.dpuf

___ Ste. Marie, Mich Wrong for the role Writers' wrongs? What the starts of 17-, 26-, 35- and 50-Across are What it takes to tango Versatile piece of furniture Used a light beam on in surgery Trig or calc To whom Butler said 'Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn' Tel Aviv native Takes a chair Something cleared up by Clearasil Some pudgy, middle-aged physiques, informally Slow-cooked beef entree Sch. run by the Latter-day Saints Samuel of the Supreme Court Regarding Red Monopoly purchases Recorded on a cassette Put into law Passage in a plane One with a leg up in the circus business? Off to the ___ (starting strong) October birthstones Many a John Wayne film, informally Macy's Thanksgiving event Long-necked waders Little shaver, to a Scot List-ending abbr Like a live radio announcer Laughs loudly Language in Vientiane Kindle or Nook Indian tribe that lent its name to two states Indenting key High on pot Have bills Hang, Wild West-style Gambling scam Fly swatter sound Fabled city of wealth sought by conquistadors Eye-related Detroit factory output Described, as something in the past Cow sound Corkscrew-shaped noodles Container for eggs Commotion Coll. entrance exam Clear the blackboard Cincinnati team Carb-heavy buffet area Bottle alternative Big name in retail jewelry Big name in potato chips Before, to Byron Aware of, in cool-cat slang Asia's ___ Sea All thumbs Alert to squad cars, for short Akron's home Airing after midnight, say Actor Hawke of 'Boyhood' 401(k) relative 'Your work is wonderful' 'Winnie-the-___' 'So THAT's the story here!' 'Shucks, you shouldn't have!' 'Kisses, dahling!' 'How do you ___?' (court query) 'Go ahead, shoot!' 'Evil Woman' rock grp 'Balderdash!' '50s Ford flops - See more at: http://crosswordssolver.net/clue/New-York-Times-Crossword-Answers---Jan-23-2017#sthash.bnH0qTzo.dpuf

___ fly Worry-free state Weapon for masked athletes Varieties Utah ski resort Ultimate act of betrayal Super star? Sum total Stone of 'La La Land' Statement that might prompt folding Stadium level Spoken tests Spirit in a Moscow mule Smelting material School locker location Scarlett's plantation Saint at the Pearly Gates Russian ruler of the past Running shoe brand Running gag Ristorante fare Possible earthquake aftereffect Persian's weapon Org. that issues food recalls One in front None too bright NBC news anchor Lester Mongolia setting Molecule component Marx's masterwork Lippy remarks Kubrick computer Knock for a loop Kind of closet John of 'High Fidelity' Jazz band staple Jackson Hole beast Infielder Ripken In need of spices Howled like a wolf Healthy green vegetable Guessed-at fig Grassy dance attire Gentle toss Gas pump number Garb for a Highland games competitor Galileo's birthplace Furniture seller with unique product names Fun facts Floppy top Fish eggs Fish eggs Feat for a duffer DVR button label Drop in on Dog trainer's command Does penance Do the laundry Dirty quarters Cuts back Comes down with Classic toy introduced in 1960 Claim on a property Cause for some TV-MA ratings Cat with colorful points Bus. bigwig Boxer's doc Best of seven, for example Beatles song, for example Bart's grandpa Bag-scanning org Assassination, mafia-style 2001 Tom Cruise/Penelope Cruz movie 'That's a lie!' 'Sounds good!' 'Look here!' 'Hold on!' 'Gimme ___!' - See more at: http://crosswordssolver.net/clue/Wall-Street-Journal-Crossword-Answers---Jan-23-2017---Inquire-Within#sthash.kiwfzkPw.dpuf

Words of rejection Word often cut from headlines What's at the end of a tunnel, proverbially What high spirits and eagles do Vacation involving packing Unidentified Jane or John Tinker with text The stuff of bird feeders The Roaring Twenties and others The act of sticking together Tattered clothing, e.g Strong impulse Starchy veggie, in slang Stand around aimlessly Series shutout Semi-aquatic alligator relative See 24-Across Rubber-stamp Romantic poetry's 'before' Relief or alleviation Really strapped for cash Prophet Poker player's giveaway Poker fees Place with water jets Part of a phone number Outpouring, as of words Old-fashioned 'Goodness!' Nice book? Nautical spine Monstrous loch Mas' guys Makes wine 'fine' Main artery from the heart Load on board Like many cars for sale Like a wet noodle Leak slowly Kind of lodge Killed, as a dragon Kidnapper's demand Keats offering It's far from a full meal Involuntary twitch, e.g Ink mishap Hyperlinked item, often Harp ancestors Grad Good buddy Glimpse in the distance Gas burner of labs Former Italian currency Flower with sword-shaped leaves Fizzle on Broadway Father's female sibling, to you Fairly matched Dovetail joint part Dignified manner or conduct Create text Court summons Cook's thickening agent Common spicy snack Colossal, in the film biz Colored part of the eye Cockatoo topper Chinese 'bear' Champion's prize, sometimes Blueprint contents Bitter brew Bit of land in the sea Betsy Wetsy maker Beaut or stunner Be extremely generous Be a good sport Bathsheba's ill-fated husband Arrow-shooter on Olympus 'It's been ___ pleasure!' 'Do-well' start - See more at: http://crosswordssolver.net/clue/Universal-Crossword-Answers---Jan-23-2017#sthash.fbvD7jjz.dpuf

Woman from the barrio, most likely Without prior inspection Winding downhill course Where swine dine Upside-down sleepers Typography option Trevi Fountain coin, once Those folks Tex-Mex dips Tender strokes Target rival Symbol of gloom, in comics Switchboard staffers Stop on a movie studio tour Stone for some Scorpios Steinway string material Steep-roofed house style Standard reply SpongeBob's milieu Spike Lee's 'She's ___ Have It' Shipbuilding wood SEALs' org Sans escort Rugged, as a cliff Rotund desert plant Rock band Blink 182, for one Recipe phrase Ready to pluck Razor brand introduced in 1977 Quick to learn PX customers Pugilist's weapons Pricing word Pooh's 'hunny' holder Playground plank Pitch-checking gadget Phone-to-phone message Pendulum's path Patches up Overly permissive Online pop-up producer One who's no pro More like a milquetoast Misleading maneuver Mineo of 'Exodus' Medicinal measure Masseur's target area, maybe Make a wrong turn, say Lauder of cosmetics Land in a lake King Kong or Donkey Kong Husbands of countesses Hardly any Get one's mitts on Dove's home Day-___ paint Croquet opponent of the Queen of Hearts Cream-colored horses County or country statistics Cornerstone abbr Common coffee break hr Chinese Disney heroine Causes to see red Cause of goose bumps Camelot, to King Arthur Bronco's offspring Before now Bearded Smurf Be dishonest with Barnyard brayer Assign new actors to Amusement park transport 'You may kiss the bride' spot 'Speak up!' 'South Park' co-creator Parker 'Bye, old bean!' '. . . and children of all ___!' '&' follower in some business names - See more at: http://crosswordssolver.net/clue/USA-Today-Crossword-Answers---Jan-23-2017#sthash.6jMNxRyB.dpuf

__ so (nevertheless) __ of the time (now and then) __ and crafts Young grizzlies Words of concern Wide necktie West Coast coll Went by bus or train Washbowl Walkway between floors Walk through water Volcano's outflow Venetian blind strip Unfortunate accident Twilled suit material Turn to slush Touch on the shoulder Took a tour Tiresome person Tiny bite Tavern projectile Suspicious (of) Spelling contests Soon-to-be grads: Abbr Song from long ago Snug and warm Sedans and coupes Scottish caps Remote-control button Read a bar code Prom dresses Point in the right direction Piece of lettuce Paid out Old furnace fuel Nickname for a noncom More skilled Mo. city with the Gateway Arch Minestrone, for one Mine passageway Medicinal amount Mall alternatives to a 49 Across Make happy Make amends (for) Lawyer's customer Is introduced to Horses' paces Hollywood award Hawaiian garlands Has a meal Had debts Garden soil Garden nuisance Frequently Fortune-teller Farmland measure Fake wood in a fireplace Eight-person band Drive too fast Do great on a test 

Acquired relative 'The Age of Anxiety' poet and family 'Mater' lead-in 'In memoriam' item 'Hold off!' 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' poet John 'Don ___' (Mozart opera) 'By yesterday!' 'A Fish Called ___'

[dorothyd89]

Staci&amp;amp;amp;rsquo;s dog has been dognapped! (No, not really.)

Team NF Member Staci’s dog Madi has been dognapped!

(Okay not really. Don’t worry, Madi is okay!)

But in the alternate reality world of Rising Heroes, poor Madi has been kidnapped by a nefarious shadow organization in retaliation for over 2,500 rebels working together last month to track down and capture a hacker operative with ties to the organization.

Alternate reality world? Rising Heroes? Hackers? Madi?

Steve, WTF are you babbling about? I’m lost.

Okay sorry, let me start back at the beginning.

Last month, as I’m sure you heard, Nerd Fitness launched a completely new platform called Rising Heroes, which is our attempt to make ongoing habit-building and self-improvement into a fun, captivating adventure.

Thousands of people joined Rising Heroes in early January. They were onboarded and recruited by one of four factions and immediately began working together to track down and capture a hacker by completing real world daily and weekly missions around a variety of self-improvement topics and categories.

They solved puzzles, found their wingman for accountability, and decoded intercepted, encrypted messages in their hunt to capture the hacker. They walked over a half million miles combined, while also working on better morning routines, healthy cooking alternatives, social missions and personal development throughout the month.

As a member of the broader Nerd Fitness Rebellion, I wanted to give you an update on how this first month went, what we have in store for Month 2, and whether or not Rising Heroes is something that interests you. And I want to leave you with some of the core reasons why it’s working for over 2,500 Rebels and how you can build those benefits into your own system.

To start, let me share an image with from the “Michigan Rebel Squad” a self-formed accountability group of a few guys inside of Rising Heroes. I literally burst out laughing when I read it.

“Lynn… we’re grown as men tracking a fiction hacker by walking in the snow. No need to explain your use of imagination to us.”

HAHA, well said Kenny. Well said.

I realize that for many people, the concept of walking every day trying to hunt down an imaginary hacker is silly. “Why in the world would I do that. It’s freakin’ cold outside. I’m not going to do these small daily and weekly missions just because you make up some story and give me points, Steve?”

That’s fine! If you have a system that’s working for you. Do that! Keep up the progress!

But here’s the thing: This is so much freakin’ fun if you let it be!

What we’ve seen over the last month is the far majority of 2,500+ Rebels really get into and embrace the adventure, the story, and the daily and weekly missions designed to slowly build better habits and level up their lives.

They nerded out, they formed accountability groups, and they used the point system and the deadlines as EXTRA motivation even when they didn’t want to do it… they did it anyway!

Stefanie’s comment reminded me of a survey we had sent out late last year where we got over 10,000 responses from nerds around the globe.

We asked people whether or not they HAD found sustainable change in the last few years. If they hadn’t yet found the habit-changes they wanted, we asked why. And if they HAD had lasting changes and success we asked them HOW.

Most people who have failed to change their lives had cited a lack of motivation, a lack of support, and a lack of time to get things done.

Those who succeeded, however, despite have the same struggles and baggage and busy schedules as those who failed, did things differently:

URGENCY: We all say we’re going to do something, and then we don’t do it unless we absolutely HAVE to. It’s why we always waited til the last minute to write term papers in high school, why we pay our taxes at 11:59pm on April 15th.

When you say you’re going to do something, without a deadline it makes it easy to justify why you can skip it. With a real deadline associated with a goal you’re trying to accomplish, you’re infinitely more likely to do… if there’s accountability associated with the results.

ACCOUNTABILITY: What happens when you skip a workout, don’t work on your book, or miss your training run for your 5k? If it’s left up to you, probably nothing! It’s too easy to skip the things you want to do that require a little willpower. This is why the people who succeed have built accountability into their lives. They know that if they skip their workout they’ll miss out on something, or if they don’t take a certain action it would have consequences. At the same time, completing goals was a positive outcome and thus resulted in a ‘reward’ of sorts for them. This moved the accountability outside of just themselves

SUPPORT: The journey to a healthier life can be a long and lonely one. We often find readers of Nerd Fitness (and members of the team) hide their nerdy pursuits from the world… and once they start the journey to live a healthier life, end up hiding their fitness pursuits from their nerdy friends. We are going to have good days and bad. We are going to have moments when we want to give up. We have things we use to rationalize inaction. Those who succeed have a good group people around them to keep them on target. Always ready to respawn.

Knowing how important those three things were to long-term, sustainable success and an upgraded life, we created Rising Heroes.

And I’m really proud of what we created.

I’m proud because the URGENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY, and SUPPORT are really working for people. Slowly, but surely people are seeing real results – while having a lot of fun.

Here’s a few of the people crushing the habit change aspects:

We’ve also seen some very measurable results in weight loss and overall health activity:

Note: Rising Heroes cannot guarantee that you will get ENGAGED during an actual real world mission during the adventure. Despite that, we are so excited for Cal and her new fiancee! 🙂

With Rising Heroes, fitness and health plays a large role, but is only part of leveling up your life:

“Personal victories aren’t always measured in inches or pounds.”

Again, well said, Nicole.

In Rising Heroes, every recruit has to pick a non-fitness specialization that they will devote time and expertise to on an ongoing basis. We’ve had people dust of instruments for the first time in year, enroll in new classes, start back up childhood passions, and picking up new languages and skills.

With our new missions setting up Month 2, many Rebels are turning a spotlight on their finances, their mobility, their morning routines, and their daily physical activity.

And all this is literally just getting started.

Rising Heroes has turned out to be even more than we could’ve imagined. Thanks completely to thousands of Rebels deciding to buy into the process, tracking their success, and truly joining together to take back control of their lives in every sense of the word.

As Abraham Lincoln once said, “Holy shit! That sounds fun!”

Okay, I don’t know if he actual said that, but he might have!

Anyways, this has been a truly game changing experience for both the Nerd Fitness team and our core group of early adopters that are sticking with it and starting Month Two right now.

As with the first month, we have a small enrollment period where new Rebels can join up and try out Rising Heroes. We shut this off on Thursday of the first week of the new campaigns, so that everyone can move through the rest of the adventure and work together to solve mysteries together at the same time.

Rising Heroes is accepting a few new heroes this week until Thursday at midnight EST.

As with the launch last month, we offering a full 60 day try-it-out guarantee. Come see if this fun structure and style helps you see real changes like others have. If not, email us – no questions asked – we’ll get you completely refunded.

We need help taking on (fictional banking institution) Amego Financial in month two. We aren’t exactly sure how deep this rabbit hole goes, but we are starting RIGHT NOW on the inside with missions to #savemadi and research the reach and influence of this new financial institution.

If you are interested in more information, I also recorded a full video walkthrough of inside Rising Heroes using real example from missions and community events from Month One activities.

To get a sneak peek inside the platform, click here and scroll down to the read banner “Steve walks you through the inside of Rising Heroes…”  Super creative naming, I know. It’s the second video on the page about halfway down.

We understand this is an investment and certainly not for everybody, so if this isn’t right for you right now, no worries! We’ll be back to regularly scheduled blog posts on Thursday.

In the meantime though, I have a challenge for YOU regardless:

I want you to take out a piece of paper and write out a plan for 2017.

I want to know three ways you can increase the following, ESPECIALLY if you’ve struggled to stick with your resolutions by now (end of January):

What are real ways you can add urgency and deadlines to your habit-based goals in 2017? Can you schedule calendar updates or reminders? Can you create your own missions for yourself? Can you manufacture urgency to help push you? How?

How can you add another layer of accountability to your current system? Urgency is a great start, but if you aren’t accountable, you’ll just skip the deadline without any consequence. What parts of your life can you tweak today to have slightly more accountability for the deadlines and urgency you’ve brainstormed above?

Lastly, where are you going to go for support? This can overlap with accountability sometimes, but needs to be more well rounded. What will you use to educate yourself? Who will you talk to in moments of weakness? Who will you celebrate with when you hit a streak? There are hundreds of free resources (including most of Nerd Fitness) for you to explore. And it is possible to find and set this up for yourself. How will you do it?

Whether or not you want to try Rising Heroes, I want you to be intentional TODAY about how you will build these three key factors into your own life in 2017.

February can be a tough month for our 2017 goals and ambitions. A lot of people fall off the wagon, but around here we #respawn quickly and get back into the fray.

Let’s keep up the early momentum of January in whatever way works best for you.

We’re here for you!

New YouTube video coming on Thursday around why motivation fails us (and what to use instead), stay tuned!

As you can tell, I’m really proud of this mysterious, goofy, action-oriented adventure we call Rising Heroes. And I appreciate you taking the time to read my giddy Rising Heroes update.

If you want to join us, 2,500+ Rebels and I are waiting for you on the inside. Once you get recruited into your faction, you can start marking off time-sensitive missions immediately. We need all the help we can get, Month Two is going to be crazy.

You have until Thursday at midnight EST to click here and join Rising Heroes for our new February campaign.

-Steve

http://ift.tt/2js9OFw

http://ift.tt/2k2WiXN http://ift.tt/2kZ3K7L

http://ift.tt/2krQbe6 http://ift.tt/2k8Gr7K http://ift.tt/2jQzQlZ http://ift.tt/2kKN7fr

http://ift.tt/2jZgXIP http://ift.tt/2kGYO4y http://ift.tt/2k6I4BK

[dorothyd89]

Staci&rsquo;s dog has been dognapped! (No, not really.)

Team NF Member Staci’s dog Madi has been dognapped!

(Okay not really. Don’t worry, Madi is okay!)

But in the alternate reality world of Rising Heroes, poor Madi has been kidnapped by a nefarious shadow organization in retaliation for over 2,500 rebels working together last month to track down and capture a hacker operative with ties to the organization.

Alternate reality world? Rising Heroes? Hackers? Madi?

Steve, WTF are you babbling about? I’m lost.

Okay sorry, let me start back at the beginning.

Last month, as I’m sure you heard, Nerd Fitness launched a completely new platform called Rising Heroes, which is our attempt to make ongoing habit-building and self-improvement into a fun, captivating adventure.

Thousands of people joined Rising Heroes in early January. They were onboarded and recruited by one of four factions and immediately began working together to track down and capture a hacker by completing real world daily and weekly missions around a variety of self-improvement topics and categories.

They solved puzzles, found their wingman for accountability, and decoded intercepted, encrypted messages in their hunt to capture the hacker. They walked over a half million miles combined, while also working on better morning routines, healthy cooking alternatives, social missions and personal development throughout the month.

As a member of the broader Nerd Fitness Rebellion, I wanted to give you an update on how this first month went, what we have in store for Month 2, and whether or not Rising Heroes is something that interests you. And I want to leave you with some of the core reasons why it’s working for over 2,500 Rebels and how you can build those benefits into your own system.

To start, let me share an image with from the “Michigan Rebel Squad” a self-formed accountability group of a few guys inside of Rising Heroes. I literally burst out laughing when I read it.

“Lynn… we’re grown as men tracking a fiction hacker by walking in the snow. No need to explain your use of imagination to us.”

HAHA, well said Kenny. Well said.

I realize that for many people, the concept of walking every day trying to hunt down an imaginary hacker is silly. “Why in the world would I do that. It’s freakin’ cold outside. I’m not going to do these small daily and weekly missions just because you make up some story and give me points, Steve?”

That’s fine! If you have a system that’s working for you. Do that! Keep up the progress!

But here’s the thing: This is so much freakin’ fun if you let it be!

What we’ve seen over the last month is the far majority of 2,500+ Rebels really get into and embrace the adventure, the story, and the daily and weekly missions designed to slowly build better habits and level up their lives.

They nerded out, they formed accountability groups, and they used the point system and the deadlines as EXTRA motivation even when they didn’t want to do it… they did it anyway!

Stefanie’s comment reminded me of a survey we had sent out late last year where we got over 10,000 responses from nerds around the globe.

We asked people whether or not they HAD found sustainable change in the last few years. If they hadn’t yet found the habit-changes they wanted, we asked why. And if they HAD had lasting changes and success we asked them HOW.

Most people who have failed to change their lives had cited a lack of motivation, a lack of support, and a lack of time to get things done.

Those who succeeded, however, despite have the same struggles and baggage and busy schedules as those who failed, did things differently:

URGENCY: We all say we’re going to do something, and then we don’t do it unless we absolutely HAVE to. It’s why we always waited til the last minute to write term papers in high school, why we pay our taxes at 11:59pm on April 15th.

When you say you’re going to do something, without a deadline it makes it easy to justify why you can skip it. With a real deadline associated with a goal you’re trying to accomplish, you’re infinitely more likely to do… if there’s accountability associated with the results.

ACCOUNTABILITY: What happens when you skip a workout, don’t work on your book, or miss your training run for your 5k? If it’s left up to you, probably nothing! It’s too easy to skip the things you want to do that require a little willpower. This is why the people who succeed have built accountability into their lives. They know that if they skip their workout they’ll miss out on something, or if they don’t take a certain action it would have consequences. At the same time, completing goals was a positive outcome and thus resulted in a ‘reward’ of sorts for them. This moved the accountability outside of just themselves

SUPPORT: The journey to a healthier life can be a long and lonely one. We often find readers of Nerd Fitness (and members of the team) hide their nerdy pursuits from the world… and once they start the journey to live a healthier life, end up hiding their fitness pursuits from their nerdy friends. We are going to have good days and bad. We are going to have moments when we want to give up. We have things we use to rationalize inaction. Those who succeed have a good group people around them to keep them on target. Always ready to respawn.

Knowing how important those three things were to long-term, sustainable success and an upgraded life, we created Rising Heroes.

And I’m really proud of what we created.

I’m proud because the URGENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY, and SUPPORT are really working for people. Slowly, but surely people are seeing real results – while having a lot of fun.

Here’s a few of the people crushing the habit change aspects:

We’ve also seen some very measurable results in weight loss and overall health activity:

Note: Rising Heroes cannot guarantee that you will get ENGAGED during an actual real world mission during the adventure. Despite that, we are so excited for Cal and her new fiancee! 🙂

With Rising Heroes, fitness and health plays a large role, but is only part of leveling up your life:

“Personal victories aren’t always measured in inches or pounds.”

Again, well said, Nicole.

In Rising Heroes, every recruit has to pick a non-fitness specialization that they will devote time and expertise to on an ongoing basis. We’ve had people dust of instruments for the first time in year, enroll in new classes, start back up childhood passions, and picking up new languages and skills.

With our new missions setting up Month 2, many Rebels are turning a spotlight on their finances, their mobility, their morning routines, and their daily physical activity.

And all this is literally just getting started.

Rising Heroes has turned out to be even more than we could’ve imagined. Thanks completely to thousands of Rebels deciding to buy into the process, tracking their success, and truly joining together to take back control of their lives in every sense of the word.

As Abraham Lincoln once said, “Holy shit! That sounds fun!”

Okay, I don’t know if he actual said that, but he might have!

Anyways, this has been a truly game changing experience for both the Nerd Fitness team and our core group of early adopters that are sticking with it and starting Month Two right now.

As with the first month, we have a small enrollment period where new Rebels can join up and try out Rising Heroes. We shut this off on Thursday of the first week of the new campaigns, so that everyone can move through the rest of the adventure and work together to solve mysteries together at the same time.

Rising Heroes is accepting a few new heroes this week until Thursday at midnight EST.

As with the launch last month, we offering a full 60 day try-it-out guarantee. Come see if this fun structure and style helps you see real changes like others have. If not, email us – no questions asked – we’ll get you completely refunded.

We need help taking on (fictional banking institution) Amego Financial in month two. We aren’t exactly sure how deep this rabbit hole goes, but we are starting RIGHT NOW on the inside with missions to #savemadi and research the reach and influence of this new financial institution.

If you are interested in more information, I also recorded a full video walkthrough of inside Rising Heroes using real example from missions and community events from Month One activities.

To get a sneak peek inside the platform, click here and scroll down to the read banner “Steve walks you through the inside of Rising Heroes…”  Super creative naming, I know. It’s the second video on the page about halfway down.

We understand this is an investment and certainly not for everybody, so if this isn’t right for you right now, no worries! We’ll be back to regularly scheduled blog posts on Thursday.

In the meantime though, I have a challenge for YOU regardless:

I want you to take out a piece of paper and write out a plan for 2017.

I want to know three ways you can increase the following, ESPECIALLY if you’ve struggled to stick with your resolutions by now (end of January):

What are real ways you can add urgency and deadlines to your habit-based goals in 2017? Can you schedule calendar updates or reminders? Can you create your own missions for yourself? Can you manufacture urgency to help push you? How?

How can you add another layer of accountability to your current system? Urgency is a great start, but if you aren’t accountable, you’ll just skip the deadline without any consequence. What parts of your life can you tweak today to have slightly more accountability for the deadlines and urgency you’ve brainstormed above?

Lastly, where are you going to go for support? This can overlap with accountability sometimes, but needs to be more well rounded. What will you use to educate yourself? Who will you talk to in moments of weakness? Who will you celebrate with when you hit a streak? There are hundreds of free resources (including most of Nerd Fitness) for you to explore. And it is possible to find and set this up for yourself. How will you do it?

Whether or not you want to try Rising Heroes, I want you to be intentional TODAY about how you will build these three key factors into your own life in 2017.

February can be a tough month for our 2017 goals and ambitions. A lot of people fall off the wagon, but around here we #respawn quickly and get back into the fray.

Let’s keep up the early momentum of January in whatever way works best for you.

We’re here for you!

New YouTube video coming on Thursday around why motivation fails us (and what to use instead), stay tuned!

As you can tell, I’m really proud of this mysterious, goofy, action-oriented adventure we call Rising Heroes. And I appreciate you taking the time to read my giddy Rising Heroes update.

If you want to join us, 2,500+ Rebels and I are waiting for you on the inside. Once you get recruited into your faction, you can start marking off time-sensitive missions immediately. We need all the help we can get, Month Two is going to be crazy.

You have until Thursday at midnight EST to click here and join Rising Heroes for our new February campaign.

-Steve

http://ift.tt/2js9OFw

http://ift.tt/2k2WiXN http://ift.tt/2kZ3K7L

http://ift.tt/2krQbe6 http://ift.tt/2k8Gr7K http://ift.tt/2jQzQlZ http://ift.tt/2kKN7fr

http://ift.tt/2jZgXIP

http://ift.tt/2kr5jtN

[dorothyd89]

Staci&amp;amp;rsquo;s dog has been dognapped! (No, not really.)

Team NF Member Staci’s dog Madi has been dognapped!

(Okay not really. Don’t worry, Madi is okay!)

But in the alternate reality world of Rising Heroes, poor Madi has been kidnapped by a nefarious shadow organization in retaliation for over 2,500 rebels working together last month to track down and capture a hacker operative with ties to the organization.

Alternate reality world? Rising Heroes? Hackers? Madi?

Steve, WTF are you babbling about? I’m lost.

Okay sorry, let me start back at the beginning.

Last month, as I’m sure you heard, Nerd Fitness launched a completely new platform called Rising Heroes, which is our attempt to make ongoing habit-building and self-improvement into a fun, captivating adventure.

Thousands of people joined Rising Heroes in early January. They were onboarded and recruited by one of four factions and immediately began working together to track down and capture a hacker by completing real world daily and weekly missions around a variety of self-improvement topics and categories.

They solved puzzles, found their wingman for accountability, and decoded intercepted, encrypted messages in their hunt to capture the hacker. They walked over a half million miles combined, while also working on better morning routines, healthy cooking alternatives, social missions and personal development throughout the month.

As a member of the broader Nerd Fitness Rebellion, I wanted to give you an update on how this first month went, what we have in store for Month 2, and whether or not Rising Heroes is something that interests you. And I want to leave you with some of the core reasons why it’s working for over 2,500 Rebels and how you can build those benefits into your own system.

To start, let me share an image with from the “Michigan Rebel Squad” a self-formed accountability group of a few guys inside of Rising Heroes. I literally burst out laughing when I read it.

“Lynn… we’re grown as men tracking a fiction hacker by walking in the snow. No need to explain your use of imagination to us.”

HAHA, well said Kenny. Well said.

I realize that for many people, the concept of walking every day trying to hunt down an imaginary hacker is silly. “Why in the world would I do that. It’s freakin’ cold outside. I’m not going to do these small daily and weekly missions just because you make up some story and give me points, Steve?”

That’s fine! If you have a system that’s working for you. Do that! Keep up the progress!

But here’s the thing: This is so much freakin’ fun if you let it be!

What we’ve seen over the last month is the far majority of 2,500+ Rebels really get into and embrace the adventure, the story, and the daily and weekly missions designed to slowly build better habits and level up their lives.

They nerded out, they formed accountability groups, and they used the point system and the deadlines as EXTRA motivation even when they didn’t want to do it… they did it anyway!

Stefanie’s comment reminded me of a survey we had sent out late last year where we got over 10,000 responses from nerds around the globe.

We asked people whether or not they HAD found sustainable change in the last few years. If they hadn’t yet found the habit-changes they wanted, we asked why. And if they HAD had lasting changes and success we asked them HOW.

Most people who have failed to change their lives had cited a lack of motivation, a lack of support, and a lack of time to get things done.

Those who succeeded, however, despite have the same struggles and baggage and busy schedules as those who failed, did things differently:

URGENCY: We all say we’re going to do something, and then we don’t do it unless we absolutely HAVE to. It’s why we always waited til the last minute to write term papers in high school, why we pay our taxes at 11:59pm on April 15th.

When you say you’re going to do something, without a deadline it makes it easy to justify why you can skip it. With a real deadline associated with a goal you’re trying to accomplish, you’re infinitely more likely to do… if there’s accountability associated with the results.

ACCOUNTABILITY: What happens when you skip a workout, don’t work on your book, or miss your training run for your 5k? If it’s left up to you, probably nothing! It’s too easy to skip the things you want to do that require a little willpower. This is why the people who succeed have built accountability into their lives. They know that if they skip their workout they’ll miss out on something, or if they don’t take a certain action it would have consequences. At the same time, completing goals was a positive outcome and thus resulted in a ‘reward’ of sorts for them. This moved the accountability outside of just themselves

SUPPORT: The journey to a healthier life can be a long and lonely one. We often find readers of Nerd Fitness (and members of the team) hide their nerdy pursuits from the world… and once they start the journey to live a healthier life, end up hiding their fitness pursuits from their nerdy friends. We are going to have good days and bad. We are going to have moments when we want to give up. We have things we use to rationalize inaction. Those who succeed have a good group people around them to keep them on target. Always ready to respawn.

Knowing how important those three things were to long-term, sustainable success and an upgraded life, we created Rising Heroes.

And I’m really proud of what we created.

I’m proud because the URGENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY, and SUPPORT are really working for people. Slowly, but surely people are seeing real results – while having a lot of fun.

Here’s a few of the people crushing the habit change aspects:

We’ve also seen some very measurable results in weight loss and overall health activity:

Note: Rising Heroes cannot guarantee that you will get ENGAGED during an actual real world mission during the adventure. Despite that, we are so excited for Cal and her new fiancee! 🙂

With Rising Heroes, fitness and health plays a large role, but is only part of leveling up your life:

“Personal victories aren’t always measured in inches or pounds.”

Again, well said, Nicole.

In Rising Heroes, every recruit has to pick a non-fitness specialization that they will devote time and expertise to on an ongoing basis. We’ve had people dust of instruments for the first time in year, enroll in new classes, start back up childhood passions, and picking up new languages and skills.

With our new missions setting up Month 2, many Rebels are turning a spotlight on their finances, their mobility, their morning routines, and their daily physical activity.

And all this is literally just getting started.

Rising Heroes has turned out to be even more than we could’ve imagined. Thanks completely to thousands of Rebels deciding to buy into the process, tracking their success, and truly joining together to take back control of their lives in every sense of the word.

As Abraham Lincoln once said, “Holy shit! That sounds fun!”

Okay, I don’t know if he actual said that, but he might have!

Anyways, this has been a truly game changing experience for both the Nerd Fitness team and our core group of early adopters that are sticking with it and starting Month Two right now.

As with the first month, we have a small enrollment period where new Rebels can join up and try out Rising Heroes. We shut this off on Thursday of the first week of the new campaigns, so that everyone can move through the rest of the adventure and work together to solve mysteries together at the same time.

Rising Heroes is accepting a few new heroes this week until Thursday at midnight EST.

As with the launch last month, we offering a full 60 day try-it-out guarantee. Come see if this fun structure and style helps you see real changes like others have. If not, email us – no questions asked – we’ll get you completely refunded.

We need help taking on (fictional banking institution) Amego Financial in month two. We aren’t exactly sure how deep this rabbit hole goes, but we are starting RIGHT NOW on the inside with missions to #savemadi and research the reach and influence of this new financial institution.

If you are interested in more information, I also recorded a full video walkthrough of inside Rising Heroes using real example from missions and community events from Month One activities.

To get a sneak peek inside the platform, click here and scroll down to the read banner “Steve walks you through the inside of Rising Heroes…”  Super creative naming, I know. It’s the second video on the page about halfway down.

We understand this is an investment and certainly not for everybody, so if this isn’t right for you right now, no worries! We’ll be back to regularly scheduled blog posts on Thursday.

In the meantime though, I have a challenge for YOU regardless:

I want you to take out a piece of paper and write out a plan for 2017.

I want to know three ways you can increase the following, ESPECIALLY if you’ve struggled to stick with your resolutions by now (end of January):

What are real ways you can add urgency and deadlines to your habit-based goals in 2017? Can you schedule calendar updates or reminders? Can you create your own missions for yourself? Can you manufacture urgency to help push you? How?

How can you add another layer of accountability to your current system? Urgency is a great start, but if you aren’t accountable, you’ll just skip the deadline without any consequence. What parts of your life can you tweak today to have slightly more accountability for the deadlines and urgency you’ve brainstormed above?

Lastly, where are you going to go for support? This can overlap with accountability sometimes, but needs to be more well rounded. What will you use to educate yourself? Who will you talk to in moments of weakness? Who will you celebrate with when you hit a streak? There are hundreds of free resources (including most of Nerd Fitness) for you to explore. And it is possible to find and set this up for yourself. How will you do it?

Whether or not you want to try Rising Heroes, I want you to be intentional TODAY about how you will build these three key factors into your own life in 2017.

February can be a tough month for our 2017 goals and ambitions. A lot of people fall off the wagon, but around here we #respawn quickly and get back into the fray.

Let’s keep up the early momentum of January in whatever way works best for you.

We’re here for you!

New YouTube video coming on Thursday around why motivation fails us (and what to use instead), stay tuned!

As you can tell, I’m really proud of this mysterious, goofy, action-oriented adventure we call Rising Heroes. And I appreciate you taking the time to read my giddy Rising Heroes update.

If you want to join us, 2,500+ Rebels and I are waiting for you on the inside. Once you get recruited into your faction, you can start marking off time-sensitive missions immediately. We need all the help we can get, Month Two is going to be crazy.

You have until Thursday at midnight EST to click here and join Rising Heroes for our new February campaign.

-Steve

http://ift.tt/2js9OFw

http://ift.tt/2k2WiXN http://ift.tt/2kZ3K7L

http://ift.tt/2krQbe6 http://ift.tt/2k8Gr7K http://ift.tt/2jQzQlZ http://ift.tt/2kKN7fr

http://ift.tt/2jZgXIP http://ift.tt/2kGYO4y