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businessbusy-love · 4 years

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Reason why you need to manufacture your products yourself

we're going to discuss why you need to manufacture your products yourself now I know I've been talking a lot about manufacturing in the previous videos any advantages of how much money you can make by yourself and that you don't need anybody else in this day and age but Want to go into a little detail here so let's say you do have a simple plastic product that you want to make you don't make it yourself what you do is you design it yourself and then you farm out all the injection molding processes you're not going to bring in some giant injection molding machine to get start edit's a waste of time you don't have the space. You have to know the business current affairs to be success.

Those machinesare really expensive they take a lot of skill to run you need to make the moldsand it goes on and on and on the electric bill the employees you don'twant all that you're an inventor looking to make good money in the simplest waypossible I call people lazy for coming up with their ideas and then not doingaging with them other than trying to sell them to other people but the reality of it is we also don't want to work too hard either we want to work efficiently for the maximum amount of money and we do that by manufacturingthem ourselves think about this even a 30 $40 item through business news.

If you can make $10 on eachitem after you've shipped it out the door to your distributor reseller oreven retail imagine how much money you can make simply just selling you know to300 units to 300 units at a $10 profit each is two to three thousand dollarsfor very little effort if all you're doing is slapping labels on and you needa bedroom or a basement or a garage somewhere just to store a few of them asthey arrive from whoever's manufacturing them for you this is a win win it shouldbe a dream come true for you guys.

It's the way I started when I first started Iwas making a hundred pieces out of aluminum at a time I had a bunch oflittle aluminum parts I would have a made at the machine shop take them overto the anodized pick him up from there bring him homeand my wife and I would sit at a table in my garage and we'd put them togetherit really it was just a weekend and part time job but here's a thing about whenyou price your products correctly now those products of mine were sellingfor two three four hundred dollars apiecethey took me about 10 15 minutes to assemble but I was doubling triplingquadrupling what it was actually costing me to make them so when I was sellingthem at a few hundred dollars and only selling twenty thirty of them a week Iwas making thousands of dollars I mean literally out the gate.

I started makingfifty a hundred thousand dollars with my first it was one product that I didn'tspun off to two products to raise the revenue a little bit more that went tothree then went to four five six products and then that was it and I didthat for god I think five six seven years by the time I was done with thatsimple product that only cost me a few thousand dollars for that initial run ofa hundred pieces I made close to a million dollars in the life of that oneseries of product that was it that was a five year run and a million dollars overfive years is pretty darn good when you consider.

I was working fulltime in the movie industry and then coming home and just doing that as aside thing instead of watching TV those products they took me two days to makein my garage the original prototypes and then a fewhours to drill out the parts and also go over to the machine shop and talk withthem but once the machine shop had it in her hands they did all the workit was easy it was just me picking up the parts when they were done takingthem to the anodized ER waiting a few days getting the colored parts back andyou've seen anodizing in the previous videos I talked about it but you cangoogle it or look here on YouTube if you're not sure what I mean it's ahardening colouring process that they use onaluminum and some other materials it's actually a ceramic coating which isinteresting in fact aluminum becomes non conductive after you anodized it whichis really interesting because of the coating it's a process that you justdrop the parts off you wait you wait for them to be done you pick them up youtake everything home you buy your screws whatever else you need you keep them inbags on a shelf and you assemble them as you go it's kind of a no-brainer but nowyou can control your destiny with your products and here's the other thing weneed to talk about this.

And I'm not gonna go just pro-america here I'm gonnatalk about America and I'm gonna talk about Europe and I'm even gonna talk tomy Indian friends because I seem to have a lot of like 5% of the people on hereare from India and I know they're coming from croire and that's one of the othervideos that I showed you on how you can use Quora to attract video views so Iknow that about 5% is Indian you guys have the opportunity in India with allyour little manufacturing facilities around you to make anything you wantcheaply and then put them on eBay and sell them worldwide and then us inAmerica forget about what they have available to them we have everythingavailable to us in every state I will be surprised if you guys in any state inthe United States cannot find a machine shop and an anodized er I guarantee youcan find both and if you need screws and all that other stuff you order it onlineit's you know that everything's right there it comes in the mail here.

If Iorder from McMaster Claire in the morning my screws are here within fourhours so you have no excuse in America everything is available to you in aninstant it's really convenient and great for you to grow your business now allyou need is a small space in your apartment or house realistically couldbe a closet I mean my wife you know she didn't mind the garage but as thebusiness started to grow it took over the house so she would complain aboutthat but so I did have to move beyond thehouse pretty quickly but it was easy for years just to stock boxes on the shelvesand ship them after about five years of doing that I was looking for the biggeryou know the bigger revenue and that's when I came up with the product attractstick the last one I was talking about was hobby camp and that's no longeraround so I really didn't mention it but track stick you can go to the websitewhen I started thinking about track stick it was a couple years after 9/11and I knew there was some concern in the world about terrorism so that's whatgave me the idea for track stick it was a product that I designed completelyhands-off when I made track stick I knew I wanted it to be big and there wereonly two ways I could do that one way would have been to invest in equipmentlike you see here but this isn't even really high speed equipment this is justfor me to do small batch runs when we're talking high speed thousands of boardsyou need much bigger pick-and-place machines and I didn't want to get intoall that I'm in California I didn't want the rent the electricity to theemployees all the insurance all the retirement expenses the medical and itgoes on and on and on I was young I was like got 32 years old.

I wanted to stillbe able to have fun travel the world it's what you want to do it's up to youif you want that responsibility I know a lot of guys that just drive off of thatI didn't want that I didn't want the risk of going out of business I didn'twant the risk of not being able to pay the rent those types of things but Icould tell you one thing I learned if you do it you will figure out a way topay the bills no matter how much more they are than the bills you have nowit's an amazing thing I've been saying I'm worried about the rent or themortgages or all the other costs for 20 years now I haven't gone bankrupt yetin fact I've done quite well I may not have you know the huge facilities likeyou see on some of these youtube channels with the manufacturing but mostof them aren't in California where real estate is really expensive and there area few like one of the guys I love is Titan C&C look him up he talks aboutmanufacturing in in America I could not take the pressureof his responsibilities he's actually talked about how he's going bankrupt afew time his credit is bad he's nearly lost his businesses I I would I wouldlose my hair that.

I love it would all turn gray first and that's not what I'mlooking to do it's up to you if you have the money if you have the balls to beable to put up with that go for it I don't have it and I'm not ashamed toadmit that I don't have that kind of risk taking ability I tend to just do itlittle baby steps at the time and as I make profits pay my taxes that's anotherthing when you make money taxes are coming so don't forget that I can't tellyou how many Kickstarter projects I've seen go under not because they didn'tship a product but because of the taxes you and you're an inventor you're abusinessman too this is another thing we will talk about it in the future but notonly are there responsibilities for bills the taxes can be hugeand in California believe me they come knocking they come looking for youso you need to think about that that as you become successful you are a targetfor the taxman so prepare for it and these are the realities of manufacturingand it's really not manufacturing we're talking about in most cases here we'retalking about micro manufacturing we're talking about 100 200 500 pieces at atime we're talking about not big investments for you guys I know theprices if you do all aluminum products if you do injection molded parts you canmany times get in depending on your product to three to five thousanddollars at the most for your first product I think that's a good risktolerance and then as you grow you take on a little more maybe a fifteenthousand dollar product here's another hint so my most successful products andthis has been pretty consistent I have products that have cost meanywhere from $2,000 to make up to a quarter of a millionand I will tell you a little secret my most successful products this is true mymost successful products have cost me anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 to makenow I have made hundreds of thousands of dollars in mistakes along the way takingthose $3,000 products to market I don't have to make those mistakes anymore butI did in the beginning I mean my track stick technically cost me less than$10,000 to invent but I blew twenty thousand dollars of my own money makingmy first mold that was useless because I wound up hiring people that had nevermade molds before and they were like two thousand miles away and here's thekicker so I blew twenty thousand dollars on that mold and I was so upset about itand I started googling there was a mold maker within walking distance of myhouse in California then.

I wound up hiring and I think he did my first moldit was about 15,000 I told him I went broke for 20 grand could he please makemy next fold for 15 and I promised that I would give him more business which Idid I made about 10 molds with the guy it was just incredible the learningexperience and how much I could have saved if I knew ahead of time but that'slife and that's why we talked about you need to get out there and you need tostart talking to these people and learning the processes so you don't makethe same mistakes that I made in the beginning and if you are learningsomething from these videos I hope you're subscribing you're leavingcomments below you're giving me a thumbs up because I want to help I also want togrow this channel and you know I want to be here for you guys because it'sexciting as you guys are making things and talking to me it really encouragesme to keep going even when I have such a low view countright now thanks to YouTube and its new algorithms but we'll getthat if you just keep on leaving me comments so that I know were punchingthrough the slow views I don't care how many people are viewing this what I careabout is that the ones that are viewing this channel are learning something andimplementing it that's what you need to do because if you just start doing somemicro manufacturing invest a few thousand maybe and I know this in Indiayou guys are probably investing a few hundred the equivalent of a few hundreddollars with your friends and they're making you product so anybody can dothis in America it's gonna cost us a little more because we do have differentlaws and restrictions that don't allow us to be that cheap Europe the same wayEurope's going to be a little more expensive for manufacturing than inAmerica and definitely more than it's gonna cost in Asia but it doesn't matterit depends on what your interests are where you want to make your productswhat your commitment is I am like 100 percent make it in America butunfortunately in California because of all the environmental laws and all theother restrictions most of the time I get prices that are three times the costof what they are to make in Asia so you know if they can't compete you can'tjust say oh okay.

I'll pay three times more that three timesrepresents the entire cost of my product which means that they've raised theprice by three times at the same C shops my retail is going to double my cost tothe distributors is probably going to triple I'm gonna price myself right outof the market so when it comes to manufacturing you'regonna have to pick all different places if you know something's cheap to makearound the corner do it around the corner don't send it to Asia you know doit locally but at the same time if you're good if you have a part that'smachined and let's say it'll cost you 75 dollars to make in the US but China willsell to you for $30 a piece in a quantity of 100 where do you think youhave to go you're going to have to go to Asia toChina and I'm going to mention Titan C&C again because I'm watching his videosthis guy gets me pumped up I mean he's different he's differentjust like I'm different big guy big strong guy I'll put a link down belowand he he's a genius I know a genius when I see one this guy's so smart andthe way he looks he may not even realize how smart he is because he talks aboutmachining like I've never heard it talked about before and I know machinisthe has beautiful shops Titan C&C has shops that you could eat off the floorseverything is pristine when I look at his machines they shine there's no chipsthere's no oil they're beautiful and it's not because he's not using them andthey're brand new this guy loves what he's doing and he's pumping me upbecause I gotta say he's making stuff in the US I'm saying make stuff in the USwe're both doing it and you can too and if you're in Asia make it in Asia ifyou're in Europe make it in Europe make your commitment to the people around youthat's all that's important it's not about nationalism it's aboutmanufacturing because manufacturing is what made America great we all need tomanufacture if we want to see our countries do well so look at Titan andwhat he says the only way that America is going to compete in the world is ifthe machines make the parts quicker we already know that especially inCalifornia labor is expensive and the liability that goes with itit is prohibitive for companies.

it does create a burden for companies so what hesays is you hire less people but you make the machines run quicker you buynewer machines you program so they're fastyou make efficient ways to manufacture so you can get more product out the doornow I should listen to this advice because the stuff that I run on thesemachines many times gets back ordered by days by weeks it's frustrating for mebecause I can never predict the amount of sales that I'm going to get and nomatter what I put on the Shelf it seems to sell out so you can actually and thisis a weird thing about business even though my profits on purpose are high Ican actually put myself out of business by making too much product yes I knowthat people are going to buy it but at what cost to me in terms of stocking iton the shelves Titan talked about this too we're a company said we need to stopour orders but he kept going and these were expensive millions of dollars inparts it was actually a hundred million dollar contract you can look at hisvideo he just said you know what they're gonna come back and they're gonna ordermore so I'll just start keep making them for weeks maybe months he went on and hemade all these parts they never came back for them so when you do this yougot to watch how many you put on yourself manufacturing is a game youjuggle how many do I make versus how many I think are going to sell not howmany are actually selling because remember there's a delay after orderparts from Asia I order parts from down the street they all take time to come inthen there's processes like anodizing painting whatever processes you add tothat they all take time and god forbid one of those manufacturers get busybecause then the time that you normally get them in becomes longer so when itcomes to manufacturing start thinking of a plan because that's how you're gonnamake your money you.

If you need many business blogs like this then you can visit VISHLOGIC BUSINESS.

#business #business guide #bussiness news #vishlogic

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beautifulblhell · 5 years

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Welcome Home Ch1

Finder Fanfic: Asami x Akihito

Summary: Akihito is living with Asami, yet he refuses to say "Welcome Home" to Asami. Will Asami be able to get Akihito to welcome him home, or will danger take Akihito away first?

0 1:36am

A black silhouette was pacing backwards and forwards like a caged animal in front of the entrance of an abandoned warehouse. Every so often, the shadow would jerk its head towards any sound coming from nearby, standing still, but after realizing it is not the sound that it is after, it would resume its pacing. Soon the silence was broken by a distance sound of two engines. The shadow paused once more, head cocked to the side, and listened. When it realized the sounds were getting closer, it hurried towards the entrance of the warehouse, and nonchalantly leaned against the decrepit frame.

The sound of the cars grew louder and louder until two pairs of headlights swerved from the side of the building and turned towards the entrance. Bright lights illuminated the black figure, revealing a tall man clad in a long black coat and hat. It was impossible to tell where his body and shadow separated, as if they were one. The tall man didn’t move a muscle as the cars came to a stop a short distance away from him, but the dark glitteringorbs beneath the hat followed the cars’ every movement without blinking.

As the sounds of the automobiles cut off, the second car’s doors opened, and a small army of bodyguards spilled out, surrounding the first car, guarding whoever is inside. Then, the driver’s door of the first car opened, and a huge man stepped out. Dressed in a black suit and a pair of sunglasses like the rest of the bodyguard army, he went around the car and opened the passenger door and remained bowed as he waited. Waited for his superior, his boss, the person that could end his life with a single gesture, to come out.

A man stepped - no, it was more accurate to say that he squeezed with all his might against the car’s door frame, then, with a pop, he was free and rolled forward, his flock of bodyguards surround ing him instantly. How so many bodyguards fitted into one car will forever be a mystery.

Donning a bright purple suit, the ball of a man tottered forward, breathing heavily. The fabric around his waist stretched alarmingly, threatening to tear open any second. A striped gold and red tie were tied under his green shirt collar. Without the tie one would have trouble telling that he possessed a neck. The shoes were a maroon colour, polished until it reflected the huge balloon stomach. Every short, pudgy finger was adorned with a least one flashy diamond ring. The authenticity of the diamonds ha s yet to be confirmed. The fat around his face seemed to fold down and hide his little eyes, though there was a gleam that indicated where his eyes were. His mouth opened, showing two rows of yellow teeth, with the occasional gold teeth. T he nose was crooked, giving the impression that it had been broken too many times. Maybe he used to play sumo, or maybe he really annoyed someone and they bashed his face repeatedly against a wall. He took out a handkerchief and wiped the beads of sweat rolling down his shiny forehead. While wiping near his hairline, his whole hair moved backwards, showing more forehead.

Mr Shadow strode forward to greet Mr Gaudy, bowing slightly, but jerked upright again, as if afraid to keep his eyes away from the small army before him. Mr Gaudy seemed pleased with this, and stood even straighter, pulled his head back and proceeded to look down on Mr Shadow, which was quite hard since he was at least four heads shorter. Mr Shadow held out the briefcase he was carrying, opened it and showed the contents to Mr Gaudy. Mr Bodyguard turned on a flashlight he magically had with him while his boss inspected the goods. Mr Gaudy was obviously satisfied, and he smiled, opening wide his mouth, his fake gold teeth flashed, reflecting the light from the torch. Motioning with his hands, Mr Bodyguard No. 2 stepped out and held out a thick A4 envelope. Mr Shadow handed over the briefcase and accepted the envelope and peered inside quickly, but decided it was too dangerous to stay to check, hurriedly bade Mr Gaudy farewell and slithered back into the shadows. Mr Gaudy soon disappeared into his car and drove away.

Unbeknownst to them, their secret rendezvous was all captured through a viewfinder...

“Hmph, amateurs.” The photographers muttered. “ Hewould never do something this easily to be caught.” Only the wind caught his words, carrying and dissipating them into the darkness.

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

~ The next day ~

“Hahaha!” The Chief Editor ’s booming laughter echoed throughout the whole editorial department.

“ Hmph , we all know why he is so happy,” Mitari , a fellow journalist, grumbled, and took a swing of his canned coffee.

“Why are you sucking on lemons so early in the morning, Mitari ?” A cheerful voice rang out. A hand clapped on Mitari’s back, which caught him in surprise and made him choke on the coffee.

“Ew, gross, I just saw coffee spurting out of your nostril s. Ahh, I should have taken a picture, could have been another headline photo for me then.” The mop of blond hair shook in fake sadness, while there was no masking in the cheeking grin.

“Don’t get such a big head just because the Editor likes your picture, newbie.” Mitari barked.

“Yeah, yeah. Mr Old Timer.” The blond smiled goofily and headed towards the Chief’s office. “We will sit tight on our ass all day and wait for the gold mountain to fall onto our head, shall we? Except we might be smashed to death. Urgh.” He pretended to shudder at that thought. “Though that might do wonders to your face. Maybe it will smash a permanently smile on your face?” He smiled innocently towards the veteran journalist.

“Maybe I will smash your face inwards if you don’t stop annoying me.” Mitari growled, which just earned a laugh from Akihito as he opened the door and disappeared into the office.

“Hmph, we will see how long that bravado of his lasts.”

“ Haha , give him a break. Not many youngsters these days shows guts like him, right?” Another fellow journalist laughed and tried to pacify Mitari .

The photo that Akihito took was indeed good: the angle, the clarity. Mr Gaudy, the politician that had been captured by Akihito’s viewfinder, will definitely be working at McDonald’s at the end of the day, if they were desperately short of staff. Or maybe at a street food vendor. Mr Shadow, the drug dealer, no doubt got in trouble with his own boss, stealing and reselling drugs that belonged to his boss. The normal punishment would be cutting of his little finger , present it to the boss and be banished, but Akihito reckoned that the fish tonight in Tokyo Bay will end up with a feast.

Despite being happy that his photo ended up on the frontpage news, Akihito was aware that just because of this once doesn’t mean that he could take it easy. The other journalists would certainly try and surpass him. But maybe he could just celebrate today as he got extra pay since the Chief was feeling generous (the Chief had not been a fan of Mr Gaudy). But even though he got quite a lot, he could never compare to him. This was probably no more than a tip he leaves in those fancy-ass restaurants.

Akihito strolled out of the building, humming, spirits high. Maybe he could afford to splash out, buy some premium Wagyu beef for Shabu-shabu hot pot tonight. Just thinking about it made his mouth water, and his feet naturally made him walk faster towards the fancier supermarket, which sells the Wagyu beef that he eats. Just. No way was Akihito going to that super fancy shop that sells Wagyu beef a thousand times more expensive than normal wagyu beef. What made them so different? Does the shop wrap them in thin sheets of gold and sprinkling some truffles? With a giant diamond studded on top? After all, Wagyu beef was already expensive enough and if he wasn’t going to eat any then damn him, Akihito will eat all of it. Totally not why his purse refuses to allow him to go there. Anyway, he already looks out of place in here, where the slightly more ‘upscale’ housewife shops and gossip about whose wrinkle grew deeper by 1 picometre and whose pimple grew bigger by 1 nanometre.

Parking his vespa at the parking spot next to a shiny black BMW (Akihito had to resist the urge to bump slightly against the car to scratch its shiny new surface), he took off his helmet, sucked a big breath, and speed walked towards the entrance. Giving a quick nod to the salesperson who welcomed him, he grabbed a basket and proceeded to grab his shopping in record speed. Akihito had already memorized the whole layout of the shop so he doesn’t need to waste time trying to locatewhere something is, and, even worse, ask a salesperson in those fancy suits for help . Pray God that they don’t change the layout anytime soon.

Udon , check. Cabbage, check. Tofu, check. Kombu, check. Premium Wagyu beef, Akihito winced at the price, check. Enoki mushroom, check. Shimeji mushroom, check. Aaaaaand , Akihito grinned evilly, shitake mushroom, check. Fresh shitake mushrooms, since they got way more flavour than dried shitake mushrooms. He wondered what people would think that he wouldn’t eat a simple thing such as shitake mushroom. Akihito laughed inwardly, and realized that he was smiling when the housewives were doing the whole staring-whispering thing at him. Akihito couldn’t care any less at this point, already coming up with fifty ways of hiding the shitake mushroom. Maybe wrapping them inside the wagyu beef? Chopping them up to atomic size and blend them into the soup?

At the cashier, the final amount made Akihito gulp and he made a quick prayer to whatever d ei ty that was listening to him that his card wouldn’t be declined, then remembered that he got extra pay today so he definitely had enough. Akihito gingerly picked up the receipt, glanced at it to make sure that they didn’t charge anything extra (refusing to look at the final amount), then quickly scrunched it up into a ball and chucked it into the nearest bin. Stuffing his groceries into his Vespa, he opened up his phone.

To: Ultimate Final Boss

: Shabu-shabu hot pot 4 2nit. Be on time. Or beef will be all mine mwahaha

To: Glasses-san

: Make sure the evil warlord is back early from his conquer 2nite. Cheers Glasses- chan

Strapping his helmet on, he zoomed across the roads, finally arriving at the condo, and parked his vespa in the underground parking space. With his shopping in hand, Akihito stepped into the elevator and rode to the top floor.

With a ping, the elevator arrived at the penthouse level, and Akihito carried the bags out, shuffling all the bags into one hand, while the other hand dug into his pocket to fish out his key, or his spare key, to be precise, and unlocked the door.

A gust of cool air greeted him when he flung open the door. Placing his shoes at the genkan, he put the bags down and stretched, arms raised above his head, letting the cold air wash over him. How lucky one is to have working air conditioning, especially during the summer, and to be able to leave the air con on while no one is home, Akihito shook his head, grabbed the bags and headed towards the kitchen.

By now, the kitchen was overflowing with Akihito’s presence. A whole cupboard with double doors was dedicated to Akihito’s snacks. The fridge was stacked full of vegetables of all different sorts of colour. Pots and pans of different sizes were laid out on the counter to dry.

Akihito changed his clothes, put on an apron, andproceeding to make a feast.

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

Akihito had just finished setting up the table for Shabu-shabu when suddenly a pair of steel arms wrapped around him from behind, caging him.

“Woah!” The plate of sliced Wagyu beef nearly went flying. “Jeez! If they had fallen on to the floor, we would still have to eat it! Damn, that’s half my salary in there.” Akihito grumbled.

Before he had time to say anything else, a hand snaked around to his face to turn his head to the side , and a pair of scorching lips crashed against his.

“ Mm m , wait.” He gasped. Before he had time to protest, a burning hot tongue invaded his mouth, twisting and sucking his tongue, and the hand on the back of his head pushed him firmly against him.

His smell filled his nose, the smell of a faint cologne and Dunhill smoke.

Akihito’s brain stopped working. The world seemed to rev olve around him . Or maybe it did. Maybe all the stars and planets did orbit around him . Akihito wouldn’t be surprised if they actually did.

Asami Ryuichi.

Chiselled jaws that even Zeus would be jealous at. Raven black hair that had slipped from its place and had fallen onto his eyes. Smouldering gold orbs stared deeply into his eyes, as if they could see Akihito’s soul. Akihito trembled slightly, enjoying the gaze that never failed to make him shiver in excitement.

“Hmm.” Asami’s lips tug ged upwards slightly, and his thumb gently caressed Akihito’s lips.

“W-what were you thinking?” Akihito pretend to fume, desperat e ly trying to cool his flam ing cheeks.

“That your glistening lips look very delectable right now , h ow can I hold myself back?” Asami smirked, and inched his face closer to Akihito’s.

“Wait!” A hand slapped across Asami’s mouth. “I’ve got Wagyu beef!”

Asami’s eyebrows quirked upwards. Then a devilish smirk appeared on his face. He tongue flickered across Akihito’s palms, and bi t them slightly.

“B-Baka! Stop it! Otherwise I will only allow you to watch me eat the beef!” Akihito desperately tried to pull his hand back.

Asami’s hand caught Akihito’s wrist and wrapped his tongue around Akihito’s forefinger.

“Hmm, I hope that you will satisfy my hunger?” Asami leaned in and whispered seductively into Akihito’s ears, his teeth graz ed against the younger man’s earlobe.

“Ahh, you bastard.” Akihito moaned, finally resigning himself and pushed his chest toward Asami, wanting more contact.

To his surprise, Asami pulled back, grinning evil l y.

“What?”

“Fufu, I quite like this hungry look on your face.”

“Twisted bastard.” Akihito grumbled, shoving Asami away from him so the yakuza couldn’t see how red his face had become.

He quickly grabbed the plates that were filled with meats and chopped vegetables and set up the table, all the while muttering curses under his breath, and throwing scowls at the older man. Once everything was set, he threw himself across the table, a rms crossed against his chest, looking warily at the man opposite him. Asami had changed into a simple white shirt, buttons undone at the top, showing his muscular chest. Akihito quickly adverted his eyes as Asami smirked at him, noticing what he was staring at.

“You are late.”

“I tried to come home as soon as I can.” Asami opened a can of imported beer, tilted his head back and took a gulp. Akihito couldn’t help noticing the condensation from the can dripping down from Asami throat before slowly making its way to his chest. Akihito swallowed noisily and teared his eyes away before he gets too turned on.

“That doesn’t make it okay for you to be late. And you are late by a whole hour. I should have eaten all the beef myself.”

“But you didn’t.”

“Maybe I should have.”

“By the way, where’s my welcome home?” Asami tilted his head to the side , staring at Akihito.

“...”

“Shut up, you arrogant bastard, I'm not your wife. I’m going to start to eat . Itadakimasu ” Akihito snatched up a piece of Wagyu beef and put it in the pot, swishing it around and shoved it in his mouth, wishing that the smirk on Asami’s face didn’t make the bastard so sexy. No, EVERYTHING the man does make him look like some kind of god. Every male on the planet will feel inferior when being compared to Asami. Probably even the way that he accidentally trips would look graceful, though Akihito highly doubt that will happen, Mr Glasses Secretary always makes sure that nothing comes to harm his boss.

By the time they were finished, the sky ha d become completely dark . Akihito leaned back, and patted his full stomach.

“Ahh, I can’t eat any more.” He groaned and looked over at the man across him . A small pile of mushrooms was at the corner of his bowl. Asami noticed that Akihito was looking at his bowl and smirked.

“It doesn’t matter how small you cut them up, I can always pick them out.”

“Only pre-schoolers are picky about their food.” Akihito stuck out his tongue at him. “That was so good.”

“The quality of the beef wasn’t that good.”

“Insufferable rich bastard.”

Asami stood up and opened the doors for the balcony, gazing outside. Akihito soon stood next to him.

“Here.”

A look of surprise passed Asami’s face as he realized what Akihito was holding.

Akihito shrugged.

“Figured you might need it.”

Asami took the box of his Dunhill cigarettes and the lighter, smiling slightly.

“Here.”

Asami he ld out a small white box. Akihito’s eyes widened at the sight of the logo on the box.

“Isn’t this from the really famous bakery shop that you have to reserve months ahead for a seat and it’s nearly impossible to buy a cake from the shop as the line is hours long and by the time you are at the front everything is already sold out? How did you get this? Did you know that I always wanted to taste this?” Akihito gabled, raising up the box gingerly , looking at it in awe.

“Of course I knew, since a certain brat wouldn’t stop talking about it for days.”

“Oh.” Akihito mumbled. It was true. When the first time he saw on the news that the shop was open, he knew that he wanted to try their cakes. Everything looked so good and amazing, but it was virtually impossible to get a seat. Either you wait ed for months or you knew the owner of the bakery. Or if your name was Asami Ryuichi.

“So ...what’s the occasion?”

Asami tilted his head. “No reason. The owners wanted me to taste it. I thought they might suit someone else better.”

“ Haha , they should have known better than to feed you sweets.”

Akihito opened the box carefully. Nestled inside were a Mont Blanc cake, a slice of cotton cheesecake and strawberry shortcake. All his favourites. He didn’t know what to say. He knew that Asami didn’t like sweet things, but he remembered all of Akihito’s favourites.

“Oh.”

Probably an understatement, but that’s all his brain could think up of.

Asami clearly thought so too, and arched one of his eyebrows , amused.

But Akihito couldn’t care less right now. He wasted no time before taking a huge bite of the cake and moaned, closing his eyes. “Dis iz zooooo guut”

“I don’t understand what you are trying to say.”

Akihito poked his tongue out at the older man, and took another great mouthful. “ Seriously. Amazing. I think I just saw heaven. You sure you don’t want a bite?”

“Hmm, maybe I will.”

Before he could utter another word, Akihito’s head was tilted back, and a mouth crushed against his fervently, taking his breath away.

Asami pulled back and licked his lips, staring hungrily at Akihito, “Not bad. But I wouldn’t compare this with heaven. Maybe I should show you what heaven really feels like.” He then swooped down to claim the photographer’s lips again. The kiss burned Akihito’s lips, and the heat spread throughout his whole body. His whole being ached for Asami. He twisted his hands around Asami’s neck, pulling them closer. His mouth pressing equally passionately to Asami’s, tasting him

Without breaking their kiss, Asami scooped Akihito up and carried him to their bedroom, the box of cakes lay long forgotten on the table.

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

It was late at night, just before dawn, the darkest time of the day, when Asami’s phone beeped quietly once. The screen flickered to life, its bluish light lit up the ceiling eerily, casting a small, faint blue circle on the ceiling. The light made the shadows more prominent, darker, before disappearing. Asami’s eyes snapped open, and turned his head to look towards Akihito, who was lying across his arms, fast asleep. Gently, he cupped the latter man’s face, slid his arm out and lowered Akihito’s head into the pillow. Standing swiftly and silently, he took a nearby bathrobe, wrapped it loosely around himself, grabbed his phone and left the bedroom. The door closed with a soft click.

“ Kirishima .” Asami’s voiced was clipped. He wasn’t happy to be woken up in the middle of the night.

“Asami-sama, forgive me for waking you up at this hour, but I do believe that you need to hear this as soon as possible.”

“What is it?” The pair of g olden eyes narrowed slightlybefore he poured himself a tumbler of whiskey without ice, and gulped down a mouthful. The alcohol burn t his throat, and cleared his head.

Kirishima could hear the displeasure in his boss’s voice, but he knew that his boss would prefer to hear about this as soon as possible. He coughed slightly before resuming. “I believe that we found someone suspicious sniffing around asking about Takaba. The information was all varying. We would need time to confirm who it is, but judging from the amount of work done, it seems to be either a very talented individual or a very small group of people. Their intentions are still unknown at this point, but I thought it would be better to inform you.”

“Arrange someone to guard Akihito 24/7, but do it discretely, don’t let him or anyone else notice them. Keep me updated.”

“Hai. Goodnight, Asami- sama .”

The phone beeped, signalling the end of the cal l. Asami raised the tumbler to his lips, but decided against it. His eyebrows furrowe d, and his eyes flashed dangerously. Someone got a death wish.

Asami returned to the bedroom quietly. Akihito has sprawled across the bed, arms and legs everywhere, with the duvet twisted around him. A small smile graced upon his face, before his face hardened again. He would sort everything out in the morning. He gently untangled the limbs and duvet, covering Akihito with the blanket, before slipping into the space next to the younger man. Akihito mumbled something about can’t any more, and turned towards Asami. His even breathing was the only sound in the silent room.

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

*The Next Day*

Akihito was coming out of the underground parking on his vespa. He had just finished making breakfast when he got a text about a job. He had left the breakfast(traditional Japanese breakfast that the yakuza likes) on the table for Asami , who was still asleep. The sun shone upon him, and the wind blew against his hair that had escaped from his helmet. He clicked the indicator for his right lights, and was ready to turn onto the main road, when suddenly he felt a chill down his spine. He quickly stopped and looked around, but nothing looked out of place. He frowned slightly, but shrugged and decided that maybe he was getting a cold or something, and drove the vespa down the road.

The shadow in the alley stared a t the road after the photographer had long gone.

“ Takaba Akihito.” The voice hissed, dripp ing with venom and pure hatred, as if the words itself was acid that burnt his mouth. Then, he took a step back and melted into the shadows.

#asami ryuichi #takaba akihito #finder series #yaoi #yaoi fanfiction #BeautifulOtomeHell fanfic

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kaibuntsu · 5 years

Text

The Dragon of No Words - #3

A/N: I’m gonna leave out links to avoid my post disappearing from search... But it’s on Wattpad too, if anyone prefers to read there.

Avi watched his boss walk out of the Italian restaurant with another big fitness bag from inside the van. His tail wagged; it seemed like another successful deal had been struck.

In his two months working for him, he slowly begun to learn of Emrys’ business model. The man clearly was not the biggest or the richest arms dealer in the world, or even in his country. How could he when he had never had someone work for him before Avi. Instead, the larger, richer arms dealers were his suppliers, and Avi learned throughout the months that most of them were Eamon’s connections. Emrys acted as some sort of a reseller for their weapons, with local gangs and smaller mafia families from neighboring countries as his target customers. And he did all that on his own, much Avi’s amazement.

Emrys slid into the driver’s seat and threw the bag to Avi. “There, grab your share and leave the rest in the bag,” he said, turning on the engine. A small smile cracked on his face hearing the loud whooshing from Avi’s tail wagging intensely in excitement. He drove off to his next destination, one that Avi noticed he kept going to after he made profit. A graveyard.

Avi had always chosen to stay inside the van whenever Emrys visited the graveyard, in case someone will spot him and his eight feet stature among the gravestones, but this time, he was curious. When Emrys opened the back side of the door to grab his share of the payment, Avi hopped out, to the red-head’s surprise.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

Avi simply pointed at the hill Emrys normally climbed up to and the small gesture alone was enough to inform him.

“O-oh. Well…I guess you got bored of waiting in the van all the time, huh? Alright. But keep quiet.”

Avi nodded and soon, followed his boss walking up the hill, upon which was a large tombstone with an elaborate shape of a monument. Unlike the other tombstones on the same hill, this one had two names on it, sharing the same last name: Gorman. Avi tilted his head to the side. It was a different last name to Emrys. He would ask questions, but he promised Emrys he would be quiet.

Emrys was even more silent, refusing to say anything except a very hushed prayer as he knelt before the tombstone. The dragon could only watch and ponder in silence, but he sort of understood why Emrys frequented this place, even if he was still clueless to the relationship between his boss and the two people under the grave.

After praying, Emrys finally turned to Avi, who expected some elaboration about the names on the tombstone. Instead, what came out of Emrys’ mouth was, “Can I have a moment alone, please?” Avi whimpered in protest, but Emrys was having none of it. “I…tend to get really sappy when visiting and I’m not yet comfortable to let you see my ugly side.”

Avi sighed, which came out as a low droning sound, and moved a fist in a circular motion on his chest. He sort of figured out that his boss had a hard time trusting people, let alone a monster like him.

“No need to be sorry. Maybe one day I’ll let you stick around until I’m done. If you keep up the good work, that is.” He dismissed the dragon, returning to the large monument tombstone once again while Avi flew down the hill back to the van.

The dragon landed gently on top of the van and sat on its roof. He wasn’t thinking anything until he realized something from earlier. Did…did Emrys just understand what he just signed? He did say sorry, but how did he know? Avi rarely signed at home, opting to struggle with his handwriting which Emrys had a hard time to decipher. He was tempted to fly back to Emrys just to confirm, but again, he requested not to be disturbed. So now Avi had to sit on the van with curiosity brewing in his head.

When Emrys walked back, Avi immediately signed asking to confirm his suspicion. The flurry of hand gestures nearly made Emrys sweat. “Uh, can we wait until we’re home? I don’t get any of that…” Emrys said, a tinge of awkwardness in his tone.

Avi’s body slumped with disappointment. He supposed that was too big a wishful thinking expecting him to be able to sign fluently. He nodded and stepped inside the van, while Emrys entered the driver’s seat before tossing the empty bag of money to the seat beside him.

The two came home to two voice messages on the phone. Emrys chose to ignore them, more focused on making food, but the curious Avi was more concerned about the ignored messages. He whimpered while pointing at the phone, fingers itched to press the play button.

Emrys sighed exasperatedly. “Whatever. Play it,” he said, tearing apart the bag containing huge pork ribs.

And with more enthusiasm than necessary, Avi’s index finger made contact with the play button and a robotic voice started announcing the first voice message.

“Salut, Emrys! It’s Vivi! You know, Vivian? You sister? I know it’s been a while since we talked, but I never forget to say: Happy birthday!”

Avi’s spikes perked up at the last phrase, head whisking from the phone to the red-haired man, who looked back at the dragon with slightly blushing cheeks. Emrys quickly turned his face away, hiding away his embarrassment, but the voice message made it hard to do so.

“It’s too bad you’re not at home. I was hoping we could chat for a bit, I want to know how you’re doing. I know you’re very busy, what with you working alone and all. You know, there’s no harm in taking a little vacation to Marseilles and visit your new niece. Well, take care, love. Call me back maybe? Bye.”

Emrys coyly glanced towards where the phone was, only to see Avi wagging his tail so wildly he created a mini wind vortex from the motion alone. His face was directed straight towards him. Emrys didn’t need to see Avi’s eyes—if he had them—to know he was thrilled at the knowledge that today was his birthday. “M-my sister got the date wrong, I swear…”

But the phone betrayed him by playing another voice message that came two hours after the previous one. “Happy birthday, Emrys!” another woman’s voice squealed from other side of the line, prompting the receiver to slap a hand over his face. “Oh, it’s Anna, by the way. I hope you don’t forget that you have other sisters other than Vivi. She just bragged about calling you first. It wasn’t my fault I was working! If she wasn’t on maternity leave, she would be late calling you too. Okay, I promised my boss I’ll be quick. Gotta go. Happy birthday, again! Love you!”

Finally. No more voice messages.

Avi rushed to the kitchen counter, body language brimming with excitement with how his tail kept wagging and the spikes on his back rattling. He moved back a bit just so he could make gestures, starting with gently clapping his hands twice and followed by two subsequent gestures. He repeated a couple of times more slowly.

“Is that…how you sign ‘happy birthday’?” Emrys asked, hesitantly. The colors on his cheeks spread further to his face. Avi nodded vigorously, mouth opening slightly in a toothy smile. “Well, I…” Emrys moved his hand to touch his chin and then move it outward. “Thanks…. Did I do that right?”

Avi made a rumbly, bassy “Ooh!” sound, his tail wagging intensified. He nodded to confirm, purring contently.

“I’m not that good at it yet, but at least I know the basic greetings. Still trying to memorize how to sign the alphabet.” Emrys’ index finger scratched a nonexistent itch on his cheek, face warming up watching how pleased and proud Avi seemed after his very small demonstration. The dragon landed a hand on his lean shoulder, while the other hand gave him a thumb’s up. He couldn’t stop a small chuckle from escaping his mouth. “I appreciate your support. I promise I’ll be better next time. Hey now, you’ll hit my furniture if you keep wagging your log of a tail that hard.”

Avi collected his tail into his arms and hugged it, but he couldn’t stop the last five inches of it from wagging wagging. Learning that his boss had spent some time to learn some sign language filled him with unbridled joy. His chest kept vibrating with bass purrs, even as he entered the kitchen area to offer assistance with cooking. Emrys planned to make some simple grilled pork ribs, but looking at Avi, he found a new idea. He instructed his draconic employee to gently blow fire over the ribs, making sure not to burn it, while he flipped and turned the meat to its other sides in between breaths. It was meant as an experiment. An experiment that, to his own surprise, yielded better results than he thought. The surface was slightly charred, but the inside was well-cooked, even leaving some pink in the middle, just the way he likes it.

Before he and Avi could celebrate their experimental cooking method, they were interrupted by his doorbell. The maroon-haired man sighed. “Wait. Let me check who it is,” he said, holding a hand up before allowing Avi to hide in his room. He peered through the peephole and found the same shade of jade staring back, startling him a bit. But then his guest moved back, the familiarity of the face washed him with relief. “It’s okay, Avi. You don’t have to hide.”

Avi’s body relaxed, though he was still curious of the guest’s identity. He watched Emrys opened the door and a woman about the same height as he—maybe an inch or two shorter—entered and hugged him. The dragon’s head tilted slightly to the side; whoever she was, she was close to him.

“Happy birthday, love,” she said, kissing his cheek. When she moved back, her hands lingered on Emrys’ face. Her eyes drifted to the large black creature hanging out in the kitchen, a hot iron skillet in his hand, and her eyes widened. “Emrys, is that…”

“Oh, yeah. Yeah!” Emrys invited the woman in and quickly locked the door shut. “He’s the guy I told you about. Morgaine, this is Avi. Avi, Morgaine. She’s my sister.” He guided her to the dining table, in the middle of which was a steel cooling rack. Avi put the iron skillet of charred pork ribs on it, but a confused chirrup came from his throat. “My oldest sister,” Emrys answered, sensing the confusion in Avi’s tone. “Vivi is the second, Anna is the third, and me…I’m the baby of the family.”

At the explanation, Avi hummed. He wiped his hand with a napkin nearby before offering a handshake to Morgaine, who looked at him with puzzled wonderment. She was slow to return his offer, but eventually their hands grasped each other. Morgaine’s opinion changes were visible from her expression.

“Wow, I—” she stammered, “He’s polite,” she remarked, turning to her brother, who smiled sheepishly. She looked at the dragon’s humongous hand, how it easily dwarfed hers. Sharp triangular claws tucked tightly into the back of his fingers by design. They resembled trimmed human nails. The dragon retreated and took his place on the dining table, his tail slipped through the opening on the back of the chair. Morgaine turned again to her brother. “Your first employee ever and you treat him like a roommate.”

“Well, what can I do? He’s probably from outer space. You should know better how people are in a place that’s foreign to them. You hire hapless fish-out-of-water all the time.” Emrys took a seat adjacent to Avi, serving himself a rib. He gestured the hot skillet of ribs to his sister. “Care to join, sis?”

Morgaine eyed the table full of feast, her face twisting to a restrained disgust. “Do you have anything that’s not…meaty?”

“Oh, oops. Fuck, I forgot about the potato gratin. Is that okay?” He jumped from his seat and rushed back to the kitchen to grab the forgotten food. Luckily, it was already done baking by the time he and Avi were collaborating on the ribs.

“That’ll do. I’m just taking a little munch. Already ate before I came here.” She served herself a glass of whisky that was already on the table while waiting for Emrys to fetch the lighter meal. The flavor of it was stronger than she preferred, but she still found it quite delectable.

The two siblings talked most of the time, though Morgaine was the more chatty one. Avi was mostly forgotten during their conversation, but he was listening the entire time, tail slowly swishing across the wooden floor. From clues left behind from the conversation, Avi was able to deduce that Morgaine was at least seven years or more older than Emrys. They would tease each other about the attractiveness of some man they were talking about, so Morgaine seemed to be single and not interested in serious relationships. Emrys, on the other hand, had subtle looks of longing that he would shove away forcefully with sass. Watching them converse caused Avi to purr in a very low tone, low enough that the two humans failed to notice it, despite the slight rumble on his throat.

The laughter were somewhat interrupted as the doorbell rang again. Not just once, but twice, thrice, four times, too excessively. That effectively killed off any sounds of enjoyment. It didn’t help that the excessive bell ringer was none other than Eamon. His face was somewhat pinkish, a half-empty bottle of vodka in his right hand and a thick tablet with a crack on one of its corners in his left.

“Surprise! Happy birthday!” he cheered, his words were a bit slurred.

Emrys moved aside, gingerly letting his father in. “Normally, I don’t like surprise parties, but I’m genuinely curious about this one. How did you know?”

“Of course I know. I’m your dad!” He shoved the half-empty bottle of vodka to his son’s chest. “Here’s your present, lad.”

Emrys grimaced and placed the bottle on a shelf near the door before following his father. “Yeah, except this is the first time you’ve ever come to celebrate.” Emrys crossed his arms, watching the tipsy old pirate helped himself with a rib. A rib that was supposed to be Avi’s last. Already he noticed Avi was restraining a protest from coming out of his maw. The only reason he knew the dragon was upset was because his spikes perked up.

“Oh, hi, Morgaine—hey, there’s a first time for everything.” He chomped at the ribs, oil coursed over his lips and his unruly beard, dripping down to the table, much to Morgaine’s disgust. “Jesus, this is some good shit. You make the best shit, boy!”

“Can you at least sit down and eat on a plate?” Morgaine half-groaned.

“Nah, I’ll just eat from the pan. Ooh, still warm.” He carefully wrapped his fingers around the handle, testing its safety. Once he determined that it was just about cool enough to touch without searing his skin, he dragged it across the table. He smeared the rib in his hand all over the leftover grease on the pan, absorbing the lost flavor back into the meat. He then glanced to the dragon adjacent to him. He swore he was looking at him. “Don’t be so mad. Here, I got you a present too.”

Eamon handed a thick tablet to the reluctant dragon. His greasy fingers left very oily fingerprints on the back and on the screen. Avi quickly cleaned the grease off with a tissue before studying its partially cracked glory. It was a really old data tablet. It was as big as a hardback book, both in size and thickness. Avi made a puzzled grunt as he spun and turned the tablet in his hands.

“What, never seen a data tablet before?” Eamon flouted.

“Dad, that thing’s from the stone age. I have one that’s newer and smaller.”

“Fuck, then why didn’t you buy one for him?”

While the father and son bickered, Avi managed to turn on the tablet, having to wait for an agonizingly slow boot time. When it turned on, the screen was all black, until neon green pixelated text appeared on the corner of the screen, showing its time. It was eight hours late and the date was still stuck in 1970. Stone age was right.

“What for?” Emrys asked, his voice gradually rising the longer he talked with his father.

“So you can talk to him properly. You can stop playing charades in front of your clients and embarrassing yourself when you keep getting it wrong.”

“Well, I happen to enjoy doing ‘charades’. I’m kinda good at it,” Emrys retorted. He pursed his lips, choosing not to mention that he had started learning how to sign on his own. Telling him more will only invite the old man to prolong the conversation, while all he wanted was for him to leave.

“You shouldn’t spoil your employee just because he’s special. Look at this! I know you like to cook, but it just seems like you’re his butler, making his food for him.” Eamon took the bottle of vodka—the bottle he gifted his son for his birthday—and downed half of what was remaining.

Emrys’ jaws clenched. “I buy his food using his money. This is something we agree on.”

“Ah, see. You even do his groceries for him.”

“Then what the hell do you expect me to do? Tell him to wear a trenchcoat and a hat and send him to the market?”

“Well, I dunno! Something! He should be the one working for you, not the other way ’round! Tell him to go hunt or something. Plenty of deers around this part. You just like being someone’s bitch housekeeper!” Eamon finished the bottle, oblivious to the throbbing veins on his children’s foreheads and a faint sound of glass cracking. “Really should’ve took you with me when you were a wee lad. This what happens when you leave raising boys to a bunch of women.”

The table suddenly split in half, divided unevenly, but in the epicenter of the destruction was Avi’s gigantic hand curling in a tight fist. Eamon scuttled backwards, narrowly missing Avi’s claws trying to snatch his face, but the dragon was quick to pounce on him. He roared in front of the drunk pirate’s face, splatters of saliva covering his cheeks. Eamon screeched in terror. This must be it for him.

“Back off, Avi,” Emrys’ voice sliced into the tension. “Just leave him.”

Avi stopped roaring, but he was unsatisfied. He grabbed the older man by the face, claws already tucked back, and dragged him out of Emrys’ front door. Morgaine sighed, placing her hand on her brother’s shoulder.

“I’ll call you tomorrow morning. Someone’s gotta drive the old man home.” She leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on her brother’s cheek, before leaving the vicinity with her father.

The apartment was suddenly silent. Avi locked the front door and faced the carnage he had caused in his brief burst of rage. He began picking up the damaged table as well as the broken glasses and plates. Emrys joined him shortly after, bringing the trash bin and helping him picking up the shards. Avi whimpered and was about to sign, but Emrys spoke ahead of him. “Thanks…for kicking him out…” he muttered, energy had left his soul.

Avi braved himself to look at his boss’ face. His jade eyes were glassy, the bottom edges of his eyelids were starting to redden. The dragon’s chest tightened at the view. One of his hands left the shards, he brushed the tips of his fingers to the side of the human’s face, which startled him.

“Jesus, I’m okay. I’m not gonna cry,” he denied, his voice cracking at the end. He tried to distract himself by doing more cleaning and noticed, strewn under Avi’s chair, was the old tablet his father gave to Avi. The crack on one of its corner had been covered by more cracks that shattered the entire tablet. Avi’s fist must have hit it first before extending to the table. He picked the broken tablet and studied its damage. “I guess I can’t communicate with you anymore.”

Avi signed a ’sorry’ after dumping all the glass shards into the bin. Emrys shook his head and let out a low energy chuckle. “I’m just being sarcastic. I’m still determined on learning sign language from you. But if you still want a tablet, I can give you mine. I can just get a new one.”

Avi nodded at the offer; while he appreciated Emrys’ effort to learn his language, he still needed a tablet in case he needs to say a lot. Still, he could not stop the guilty feeling for having broken the dining table. After cleaning up his mess, he disappeared to his room for a few minutes and then returned with a handful of money. He handed the stack to Emrys, who eyed it with puzzlement. Avi clarified by pointing at the carcass of the table.

“Oh, is this—Avi, you don’t have to.” Emrys pushed back Avi’s money-holding hand, but the dragon pushed again with more insistence. Too tired from the near emotional breakdown earlier, Emrys relented. “Well, at least I know you’re a responsible guy,” he remarked, a small smile crept to his face.

Avi started wagging the tip of his tail, pleased to see a smile back on Emrys’ face. It was the least he could do after the damage he had done.

Emrys left briefly to his room and returned with a tablet in hand. He gave it over to Avi, who studied it. This one was definitely newer compared to the one Eamon gave. It sported more colors in its screen, with a system more intuitive than the mobile Apple DOS the old brick had. “I haven’t factory reset this thing yet. I just want you to test it out. Go on, write something.”

Avi took a few moments to do what Emrys told him, his fingers tapping on the digital keyboard carefully, not wanting to extend his superhuman strength over to the newer tablet. He didn’t want to destroy another of Emrys’ property. Once he finished, he flipped the tablet over to him.

It works just great, written on a notepad application.

“Awesome! Still, if you prefer signing, that’s okay too. You just…have to bear with me, I still need a lot of practice.”

Avi quickly typed another sentence, the rush of joy of being able to communicate more effectively washed over his head. I can help you practice.

Emrys blushed but his smile bloomed a bit more. Whatever remnant of earlier’s emotional turmoil had been chipped away, thanks to the dragon. “I appreciate that, Avi.” He placed a hand on Avi’s upper hand, since the dragon’s shoulder was a bit too high to reach without standing on his tiptoes. “Also…thanks for defending me earlier…”

This time, Avi set aside the tablet. He returned to signing, setting his arms on both of his sides and motioned his fingers.

You’re welcome.

#exophilia #terato #dragon #monster #my writing #my ocs #the dragon of no words #avinashi shirmi #emrys

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kitto-toberu-sa · 7 years

Text

DigiFes

It’s a long day folks. We were up at 5 to get to the venue by 7. You aren’t meant to line up until 8 and goods weren’t meant to go on sale until 10.

Heaps of people were there earlier in a somewhat orderly fashion. But management decided to fuck us all around and said we needed to line up from the opposite end of where we were. This may not seem like a big deal, but remember items are limited and resellers are a thing. This was a chance for people who arrived later to get to the front.

There was a literal stampede. People were screaming and being shoved. I was separated from my group numerous times, and only got back with them due to shoving others and the kindness of other fans who clearly realised I was with the other foreigners.

To get to the other side, management made us go in a complete circle. It was unnecessary and quite frankly, a little dangerous. It didn’t stop people who were there earlier from being close to the line, or help those who arrived on time be rewarded. It was just bad planning.

Of course, then it started raining. Umbrellas went up and if I hadn’t of been wearing glasses I would have been poked in the eye more than once. To say it was unpleasant would be an understatement.

The line slowly shuffled along. Every now and again people behind us would start pushing like mad, despite the fact that the line wasn’t moving. It was 35+ degrees Celsius, no air con, everyone was a bit hot and bothered. These jerks were not helping or doing anything to get the line moving faster.

If you follow my snapchat and/or twitter, you may have seen me mention the kindness of fans. This specifically refers to one lady in line who let me stay under her umbrella with her and who talked to me when I was separated from my friends. It also refers to another girl who kindly returned one of my badges to me.

You read that right. The lines and shoving were so bad, numerous people were having items ripped off their ita bags.

I don’t care where you’re from, that’s disgusting. It’s unnecessary, rude and disheartening. We’re all meant to be fans of the same thing and we all know some of these items are expensive or rare. The fans who were helping others get their things back were the MVPs of the day. Everyone who pushed and shoved can eat dog food for the rest of their life.

Goods started being sold early, at 9. Most likely due to the feral crowd. We were only a little over 100 people into the line, but by the time we got there, all of the keychains had sold out, as had some other items. On the other hand, by the time the first session finished, most items were sold out yet the amount of tshirts left was overflowing. Whoever did the math in the product department really needs to be fired. So many goods were gone, and the badges being so limited was honestly appalling. They want our money and Tri is a pretty blatant cash cow to the point it’s disgusting, yet they limited the badges (among others), one of the few things people are happy to buy quite a lot of, to such a small amount. Very bad planning. Lots of people were disappointed and trading was mediocre as a result.

We left the building just after 12. We’d spent around five hours lining up, buying goods and trading. We went to a supermarket and got some food, and since we had our trading stuff still out, a little girl came over to talk to us. I was with people who got Meiko badges (so many people did) and they didn’t want her, so they gave the badges to the little girl and her brother. A new set of Digi fans in the making???

I ended up trading the Koushirou acrylic stand to THE Koushirou fan. She lost her shit. In exchange I got ‘frontier no debu’ (the frontier fatty). She couldn’t remember Junpei’s name ;;; I also traded something else (Omegamon?) for LadyDevimon which is an A++++++ trade, tho the other girl was very confused as to why I wanted LDevimon. I SO regret not ordering that figure it’s sooooooo beautiful!!!! They had the prototypes for the sibling figures as well, and I can’t wait until the Yamakeru one is mine, they’re so cute!!!

For seats, I was in the fifth row, pretty much in the centre. Before you went in they had the life size AguGabu duo. One kid was like ‘um, no thanks!’ when his mum made him have a photo with them and I ended up sitting next to him. The girl on my other side was there for the first time too and pretty much cried the entire time haha

So first up was a talk and the reveal of the twitter poll. Nobody believed Jyou has a girlfriend – everyone thought that scene was the funniest moment. This happened a few times during the conversation. Every time it came up, his VA would just stand up, shrug and go I DO TOO HAVE A GIRLFRIEND.

Meiko got a lot of support – Junko (iirc) said she supported Meiko because ‘she moved to Tokyo from the country’. As someone who lives in rural Japan, I can totally relate! Literally nobody supported Yamato lmao

I apologise that it’s short, but it was funny and interesting, but I can’t remember a lot of specifics sorry ;;; Fans and staff were shocked Leomon died. Like, have y’all ever been involved in this franchise????

Mini live – Miyazaki then AiM. Most people are only familiar with adventure stuff tho, which is kinda sad. It is also the main focus of fes so it’s understandable.

Next was advertising. Basically the figures, Agumon being in Appmon etc. Unfortunately, they showed a lot of this pre-show while we were waiting, so it was pretty dumb and pointless unless you came in just before the show started :/

The trailer, obviously online now, made people excited. I’m hoping Hikari goes dark either because of Taichi, or she tries to fight Takeru and Taichi gets in the way and gets hurt hehe~ Nobody really spoke about it tho.

Next was the drama segment. Essentially, there’s a singing contest and the winner gets an all you can eat buffet with them and friends. Obviously, with nine kids and mons, that's a great prize! Yamato wasn’t there due to his VA being ill, which came up a few times.

They all sung their chara songs, which was a little dull tbh. If it had been last year, it would have been great promo for the cds, but this year it feels too late and they didn’t want to put effort into a full drama.

Jyou ran off because the pressure made him have a bad stomach. Gomamon tried to bring him back and failed. Gabumon tried to bring Yamato in but failed but Gabu sung. Most of the cast didn’t sing. Hikari and Gomamon sung. Takeru did as well, Patamon blew him out of the water since it’s Seiyuu was jumping around and being cute.

Mimi sung I wish iirc and then started with Super Girl. AiM came out and they duet’d. It was pretty rad and you can hear how close new Mimi is to AiM’s Mimi. Palmon was like ‘wow two Mimi’s!!’ and Koushirou was ??? a little confused by past and present versions.

Agumon’s seiyuu ROCKED Agumon Sunba and then Agumon Ondo (fit will since it’s matsuri and obon season). I would drink with her any day of the week. The seiyuu and lifesize Agu Gabu all joined in to dance, and it was cute how some of them had no clue what they were doing.

Meikuumon also sung. Weird to see the VA do the voice change so quickly. And she’s so tall??

Anyway, Agumon won and Mimi was low key pissed. “I lost to Agumon? That’s kinda…”

Then, the new song. Aikotoba. Holy shit it’s pretty. It’s very soothing, their voices work so well together. Please buy a copy of the CD!!!! I haven’t heard a single person say they didn’t like it. Wonderful song and lyrics.

Of course, everyone sang Butterfly. They had Wada-san’s performance from the time when they announced tri, which was special. Everyone gets kinda emotional. It’s definitely a moment where everyone feels like family.

In the group photo, I can’t be seen but I can see my light stick lol Most people had red or blue, so I chose green to represent Mimi (no point in representing Yama if he isn’t there lol). So it was easy to figure out where I was haha

By the time we left it was 4ish, and by the time we got home it was 9. A very, very long day, but a mostly eventful and amazing one <3

#Digimon #DigiFes #Everyone is convinced next year will be the last #The other shows just don't have the fanbase of Adventure and there's only so many goods they can advertise #Also it wasn't sold out soooooo

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genzelda · 8 years

Text

Weird Genster dream...

I had a dream about being sold as a human slave on the surface, before the war between monsters and humans. I was dressed in dirty rags and was a little shorter then normal. Probably was a preteen somewhere between the ages of 14 or 16. I didn't have my wolf ears or tail. I was a normal human being... besides the pointy ears on my head. My body ached like I had been badly beaten and there were chains on my wrist and ankles.

There was a lot of women in their early 20's being sold. I was the youngest from what I could see. I was being presented before a small crowed of buyers on a larger wooden stage. They chained my hands behind my back and roughly pushed me to the edge of the stage so the buyers could get a better look at me. I ended up tripping and falling on my face, causing an uproar of laughter within the crowed. The dealer forcefully pulled me up from where I laid and mumbled something like “worthless whore” under his breath. At first, I didn't really understand why he called me that until he began to, once again, present me to the crowed.

“Here we have a beautiful young slave who will grant you whatever you physically desire from her, even sex, without complaining or resisting. The bids start at 500g.”

I knew what kind of slave I was then and it terrified me. Men started bidding from left to right as the price for my body rose. All I could do was lower my head and shed a few tears in defeat. My worst fears were slowly unraveling before me... I was going to be sold as not only a slave, but a slave that gives pleasure to her master...

I was so wrapped up in myself that I didn't even hear the dealer yell out “SOLD!” before forcefully pushing me off the stage towards whoever my buyer was. When I looked up though, my heart sank. It was Sasster. And he didn't recognize me in the least. He was my new master. And there was nothing I could do about it.

When we were at a long enough distance from the crowd, Sasster suddenly turned to me and broke the chains off my wrists and ankles. I was confused at first cause most people who buy slaves keep the chains on them. That was until he gestured to a nearby human town and told me to run, that I was free. I only shook my head at him, tears rolling down my face.

“I can't run even if I wanted to. They'll find me eventually and resell me. This has happened before and it will happen again. Besides, I've got no where to go, no where to live. I honestly rather be someone's slave then be homeless with no food.”

Sasster paused for a few moment before picking me up bridle style, and carrying me back to his home. He told me I could stay with him as long as I pleased and was free to go at any time. I was not a slave anymore. I was a free person and could do whatever my heart desired. I asked him why he was doing this for me, a total stranger. He didn't answer for a long time, so long that I started turn away when he said something along the lines “Because for some reason... I feel like I know you. I don't know how or why since I can't recall ever being friends with a human like you. Yet, I can't shake this nagging feeling in my soul. I know it sounds crazy, believe me, but that's all there is to it.”

I stood there looking at his backside for a few moments before uttering something like “I... feel the same way honestly. You look familiar to me. I don't understand why, but maybe we can figure thus out together if you like.”

“I guess it wouldn't hurt to try.”

The dream jumped from different sense from there, one were I was my actual age, resting in bed with Sasster. He was playing with my hair while I rested my head on his chest.

I have no idea why I had this dream but if you like this idea, I could maybe continue it. With @stealthnerd‘s permission that is.

#idk why i had this #i am very confused #guess you could call this a slave!gen au #sasster #gen #genster #shipping #my dreams #my art #my writing #stealthnerd

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herdestinypatrol-blog1 · 6 years

Link

Let me explain…

In 2006 I partnered with a $160M IT Group to provide 500,000 of their B2C computer hardware customers with our online computer training software (my first company) which eventually turned into an offer to buy us out and integrate us into the large group as our collaboration proved very profitable.

I then repeated this formula in 2016 when I collaborated with a top Corporate sales management company to provide their team with some specialized consulting and training on Joint Venture Partnerships which proved so successful that it again turned into an 8 figure offer in 2017 for my business and IP of Sohail Khan known as ‘The Joint Venture Expert’ a businessman based in Gloucestershire and Las Vegas.

So how do Joint Venture Partnerships actually work?

Joint ventures involve recognizing the myriad opportunities out there and leveraging every one of them through partnering. You must seize the important opportunities, be aware of the smaller ones or overlook any minor problems. You’ve got to go all out; this is one of the fundamentals of successful joint ventures and deal making.

A joint venture (also known as a JV or strategic alliance) is an arrangement that will be of mutual benefit between two (or more) people, businesses or companies who have complementary resources or assets that can be leveraged.

What do I mean by resources or assets? I mean products, services, machinery, equipment, buildings, unused capacity and a customer list (or mailing list) that can be leveraged by the owner or whoever approaches the owner with a joint venture proposal.

Joint ventures are known under many names. Some refer to them as “tie-ins”, “collaborative marketing”, “strategic alliances”, “endorsement marketing”, “hidden asset marketing”, “reciprocal marketing” or, as Jay Conrad Levinson calls them, “fusion marketing”. Regardless, all these terms essentially refer to the same thing and, if you just look around, you’ll see many examples there in the world. For example, when you see a commercial for McDonald’s you almost see a pitch for Coca-Cola.

The idea of the joint venture is as simple as Business A agrees to include Business B’s brochure or an endorsed letter in their next mailing, either for a fee, a percentage, or if Business B agrees to do the same for them. The result is instant access to a whole new influx of customers without having to spend any money on advertising or market research to find them.

A joint venture is a win-win situation because everybody gains and nobody loses. Joint ventures cut through the top-heavy expense of finding large numbers of customers from scratch. You don’t need to do any market research. You don’t need to buy a lot of expensive advertising. You don’t need to weed out unqualified clients. Joint ventures drive right to the customer in one swoop. With a joint venture, you make someone else’s already captured customers your client’s customers. You capitalize instantly on the other’s guy’s resources, and he’s glad to let you do it because he will capitalize on yours.

Joint ventures are a very powerful but underutilized guerrilla marketing strategy. Yet, according to another legendary marketing guru (and mentor to a few of the joint venture business experts in the world today, including me), Jay Abraham, less than 5% of all business owners use joint ventures properly and most don’t know how to use them at all. Joint ventures are successful because of the old business rule that says: “People like to buy from someone they know and trust”.

The best and most well-known example of a joint venture is when one company endorses (recommends) someone else’s product or services to their customer list with whom they have a relationship and both share the additional profits. This is a win/win arrangement!

For those of you who do not know what a customer list is – it is a list of addresses and/or phone numbers/email addresses that a business owns of all the people who have previously bought from them. You have probably already been asked your name, address and/or phone number while purchasing something in a store, or your email when surfing the internet.

The owners can then communicate with you to try to sell you other things. Smart business owners regularly send helpful information to their customer lists, thus building a relationship with them. And when they have a good relationship, it’s a lot easier to get them to buy more. The relationship between a business owner and his/her customers is the most valuable asset that a business has, the value of which isn’t measured in dollars. However, if you know how to leverage it, it’s as good as gold. In fact, when a business is sold, this asset is valued on the balance sheet.

You may not have realized it, but it can cost SIX TIMES AS MUCH to sell to a new buyer than to resell an existing buyer. And, it costs less and less every single time a client buys from the same business again. Eventually, when they buy from the same business enough, all of the money earned is practically pure profit.

On the flip side, using other people’s mailing lists allows you to use their assets without paying for them. This way your acquisition cost is ZERO. More of the profit is yours because you don’t have to pay for advertising expenses to earn them. This is the true power of Joint Ventures – leveraging other people’s resources and assets or even your own for a minimal or sometimes even zero marketing investment upfront.

How To Avoid Bad Joint Venture Partnerships

Not everybody has a good experience with joint venture partnering, so here are a few pointers to help you avoid bad joint venture partnerships: 1. Have your partners sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (or Intellectual Property Rights Agreement) and have those agreements in your possession before telling your partners everything. Whether you have them sign something or not beforehand depends on the deal and the people you’re working with. If you don’t have a non-disclosure agreement, have your lawyer write one for you. Just be sure to explain in-depth what you need it for so he can draft a good one for you. If you can’t afford to hire a lawyer, do a search for “free non-disclosure agreements” on Google. Save a few and then simply tweak them to include everything you need.

2. Have them sign an Agreement (Contract).

3. Put in your agreement that you have the right to inspect their shipping records, telephone records, etc to see if there is a discrepancy between the two. For example, if they got many clients calling to place orders, and they shipped considerably fewer orders, something may be going on.

4. Never deal with people who seem to be dishonest. Always listen to your intuition (the little inner-voice or feeling you have) when you’re in contact with them. If you have a funny feeling about them, even if it’s tiny, forget about it.

5. Screen your partners beforehand. If your partner lives in the US, go to www.merlindata.com and if they live in the UK go to www.creditgate.com; this is a service used by private investigators. You can do background checks on all your potential associates before dealing with them. Ask other people in your field if they know them and what they think of them.

6. Work with people who have good track records, who are known for their honesty and who have a lot of good testimonials.

7. If you JV online, there is tracking software available and other services that will track all the sales and you’ll know exactly how many items were sold and what is owed to you.

8. If you’re doing JVs offline and you meet your partner in person, you can bring a witness with you to the signing of the Agreement.

9. Offer to pay for everything, the mailing of the letter and all the other real and provable hard costs, then take those costs out of the gross and divide the rest of the profits.

10. Go on their website and check for the following things: see if they include their real names, phone number, mail address, and other contact information. See if they have a privacy policy and a seal from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) or other such quality monitoring programs. Look them up after that to be sure that they really are part of that program because some people may just take a seal and put it on their site. Go on www.bbb.org and do a search on their business. If they really are a member of that organization, it’s a good sign.

Go on Network Solutions at www.networksolutions.com/cgibin/whois/whois and write their domain name in the search box to get their contact info.

11. If you’re the endorser, you may be able to take the orders yourself in order to A. Either calculate how many you have received and thus how much is owed to you before sending them (fax or e-mail or whatever ASAP) to the endorser so he can fulfil them or, B. Take the orders, get the money, send the orders ASAP to the endorsee, then pay the endorsee and the broker (if there is one).

12. If you are the endorser, set the deal up so you can offer a special bonus product/service to every paying customer. Every time one of them buys something, they have to come to see you to get the bonus and that is how you can keep track of the number of sales.

13. Use a respected third party affiliate tracking service like ClickBank, or any other service that has a good track record. ClickBank will track your sales and then pay you and your affiliates (JV partners) like clockwork.

14. Do a search on their name with Google. Doing this may bring up some interesting information and I’m not only talking about clues about the person’s background or work ethics. For example, I just recently researched a marketer I wanted to send a proposal to and you know what? I learned that he only considers JV proposals from people that take the time to call him. If I had contacted him by any other means, I would not have been able to get his attention. Everybody has their rules, and if you don’t take the time to find out what they are, chances are you will get it ass-backward and they won’t want to play ball. Do you know what one of my rules is? NEVER call me if we don’t know each other; that is NOT the way to approach me.

15. Only work with warm prospects. Cold prospects are not only hard to convince to JV with you, they are also riskier partners, as they may not think twice before taking you for a ride. Your main focus should be to build relationships with people and then make them your offer. It takes longer but is definitely worth it if you are really afraid of being ripped off. What I said previously about avoiding getting ripped off by list brokers also applies here. If your cold prospect is a friend of one of your contacts, have your contact introduce you directly, or just mention that your friend referred you to your prospect. If the prospect values the relationship they have with your friend, they will be especially careful. In other words, you’ll probably be in good hands. If you find someone who has a great reputation, they will probably be a good partner, even if they are a cold prospect. If they make it a point to over deliver, and have been known to bend over backward to make people happy then, in my opinion, they are almost as good as a warm prospect.

16. Take things slowly with your partners at first and drop the deal as soon as you discover that they aren’t as trustworthy as you thought. 17. Talk about getting out before you get in. Everyone needs to have a clear exit strategy before partnering with others. This won’t prevent you from getting ripped off, but it will help in somewhat minimizing the damage. You want to be able to get out with only a few scratches, not after several big hits that could knock you out and ruin you financially.

18. Don’t commit to anything long-term with cold prospects. Let them know that you are ready to leave the deal at any time; you want them to be careful with what they do, and you also want them to understand if you want out. Ideally, if you are dealing with a new partner, avoid JVs that you can’t easily get out of – even if you do have an exit strategy.

19. Set up an escrow account with a bank. You then instruct the bank to transfer X% of the profits into your special account.

20. Try to find someone who can recommend a good list broker to you. Tell them you want to work with someone that they often deal with (and that they have a good relationship with). Then, when you contact the broker, you explain that their good client referred you to them. Remember that they don’t know how close you are with their client (your friend) so they’ll most likely think twice before ripping you off.

I hope that helps you reach your goal of creating the ultimate win/win business partnership and leveraging that relationship to an eventual exit strategy!

Sohail Khan is known as ‘The Joint Venture Expert’ a businessman based in Gloucestershire and Las Vegas.

#joint #ventures #marketing #company #successful

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