#safe struggles with tagging niche interests day ???

[safekeeperscosm]

idc if the timeline doesn't add up there are scenarios in my head !!!!!!!!!!

[interact-if]

Welcome to Mod Appreciation Month!

This event is a lowkey one, designed for us to take some time to catch up on asks, rec lists, and other blog pages that happen mostly in the background such as the masterlists, database, and post tagging.

This blog is a lot of work! And we're happy to help out with promoting authors and exposing readers to new and interesting stories based on their interests!

That being said, we need a break!

This is why we are closing the inbox for July.

Please refrain from sending asks for rec lists through submissions. We’re leaving that line open specifically for new authors to submit their projects.

We are going to utilize this time to try and clear out our inbox--we have over 100 messages, most of them asking for rec lists, which take a few weeks at a time to properly curate, tag, and put in the queue.

We will also be working behind the scenes on other projects we hope to show off soon!

We're thrilled y'all are eager to read more, and we'll be back in August for sure. For now, if you need to get in contact with us, feel free to reply to posts, DM one of the mods, or get in contact with us over on our discord.

[Discord] [FAQ] [Ko-fi] [Reddit]

Below the cut are our rules, guidelines, and FAQ for recommending or suggesting games as well as general practice and etiquette.

We'll be back in August! <3

Now, to get into some of the details. (This applies regardless of the event to every ask sent, even if the inbox is currently closed.)

RULES WHEN SENDING ASKS

If you can and it is relevant, please tag your asks with content warnings in the beginning. Such as (cw violence) or (cw death), this is an extra precaution to keep both our mods and our readers safe and well-advised. This will also make tagging easier!

Please keep your asks as brief as you can! Any asks that are more than two asks long may get eaten by the Tumblr machine and/or may not be answered due to length.

If your ask hasn't been answered, it may be because it already has been! Be sure to search the tags and FAQ before sending in an ask.

Please don't spam! We won't respond to inappropriate asks or asks that have already been answered.

Recommendation lists

If you are submitting an ask for a rec list please be aware that these lists take a lot of time and effort to make! In average, it might take us up to two weeks to fully finish and queue a rec list, sometimes even longer. We’re happy to put them together but we ask for patience and understanding.

With that in mind, here are some guidelines:

Please look through the #interact-if asks and #if: rec list tags before sending and ask.

Constantly looking out and keeping track of IF projects takes a good chunk of our time among our other responsibilities as mods. For this reason, we came up with a tagging system that makes it easy for our audience to look through the blog. Unfortunately, it gets overlooked most of the time.

And for this reason, we get repetitive asks, which we ignore and delete.

The tagging system is there for your and our convenience. If you’re not sure whether you’re asking for a rec list of the same theme/genre that has already been posted, please consider looking through the aforementioned tags before sending an ask.

As much as we love entertaining the rec list asks, it does tend to be bothersome having to constantly reblog and link new asks to the posted rec lists, as well as reminding people to use the tagging system.

Please make your ask neither too broad nor specific.

This isn’t to sound finicky we promise! If an ask is looking for fantasy IFs without specifics we cannot properly curate a list of what you’re looking for. Is it modern fantasy? Medieval? Non-Eurocentric? Do you want fae fantasy? Supernatural? Fantasy is one of the most popular genres and asks like this example we cannot properly answer.

This is why we ask for rec list requests to be not too broad.

As for narrow–too narrow an ask will likely return a very short or non-existent list! At the end of the day there are only so many IFs and very specific niches may not be filled. We will try our best to answer, but likely your list will result in games adjacent to your request that we think best kind of sort of fit your request. We’re doing our best with the IFs that are out there.

Please be patient!

We often spend several days working on a single list. If your ask hasn’t been answered yet it may still be in the works or in our queue! If it’s been a long while and it still has not been answered, it may have been ignored for a variety of reasons including: Too broad an ask, too similar to previous rec lists, contains NSFW or offensive materials, etc. Please refrain from sending multiple check up asks

On the topic of NSFW asks/content…

We have received some inquiries regarding NSFW (like smutty scenes) recommendations in IF recently, and believe it best to clarify the stance Interact IF has on the matter.

We will be refraining from answering questions about explicit sexual content in IF. We as a team do not feel we have the expertise to help with this, nor have we been on the lookout for explicitly sexual IFs.

As well, it is not entirely suitable for the blog, as Interact IF is for all ages and there may be minors following it.

We would like this blog to remain as SFW as we can manage, with games properly tagged for their age groups and limiting asks and rec lists to non-sexually-explicit content.

With that in mind, feel free to get in contact with us anytime and we’ll do our best to find what you’re looking for!

Game Recommendations

Before sending in a game, please keep these aspects in mind:

DO

The game must be interactive fiction–the reader plays a character (either customizable or pre-determined) and makes choices that influence the game in some way.

The game can be text-based or a visual novel.

The game does NOT violate copyright (i.e. A published for-profit IF that is using the Star Wars universe. If it is not-for-profit (it’s free to play) then this is fine)

DON’T

If you play a character and can physically move them (walk, run, jump, attack), we consider this a video game and isn’t currently a niche we are supporting.

Recommend a game produced by a company–we are here to support individual authors or games written collaboratively by a group of authors/artists/etc.

Don’t recommend games that glorify violence, sexual violence, racism, sexism, and so on. Or which has (an) author(s) who also have a history of having engaged In aspects like these.

If your rec is good to go, here’s what you have to do! If you are able please provide a link to the post to reblog - this makes it a lot easier on us!If the game is 18+What language/program the game is in (Twine, Choicescript, Ren'py, etc.)If the game has a currently playable demo. If you would like your game reblogged/recc'ed, let us know with the same info/more if you like!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Can you recommend games that are finished or complete?

We have a tag for that! Check out #status: complete, though you can also check out COG, Hosted Games, and search for complete games on Itch.io.

I can’t find a game and can’t remember the title, help!

If you’re struggling to find a beloved game and can’t remember the title–go to our Reddit and see if it’s there at the Lost & Found! If not, you can ask our community on the Reddit to help find it, or join our discord and ask there!

I noticed you failed to include x game on a list, so I will inform the author about it.

Please, don’t. The mods here are nothing but human, so we do our best to include as many games as we can remember, and frequently ask other people for help. However, this doesn’t mean we will include every single game in existence. We will forget, things will slip, so the least we ask of you is to leave a reply or send an ask and we will add it in. We promise we always keep a close eye on those.

The extra step of informing the author about this is unnecessary. The only thing you’re causing is either making the author feel left out or having them reach out to us to be added, which is essentially the same thing we ask of you to do. There’s no need to get a third party involved within something that can be easily tackled, so please respect us instead of putting our blog in a bad light.

The only suggestions we ignore and might erase are the ones we realize don’t fit the theme of the ask, or ones that don’t fit the guidelines specified in the question right below this.

What we do not promote.

Trans-exclusive radical feminism

Gratuitous sexual violence (This includes pedophilia, domestic abuse, r*pe, etc.)

Racism, including cultural appropriation, stereotyping, whitewashing, brown face, etc.

Any and all versions of sexism

Religious phobic rhetoric (Islamophobia, belittling indigenous religions, etc.)

And so on.

We also do not promote authors who have aligned themselves with these rhetorics, whether or not they are exhibited in the author's playable content.

[azems-familiar]

tag 10 people you want to get to know better

i was tagged by @commander-krios a couple days ago and keep forgetting to do this lol, sorry!

relationship status: in a qpr with my beloved @ipreferfiction

favorite color: purple, blue

favorite food: oh lord this is a legitimately difficult one. baked potatoes are a comfort food and a safe food, so maybe that?

song stuck in your head: the kill, thirty seconds to mars

last thing you googled: uhhhhhh we have it all pim stones lyrics (GO LISTEN TO IT)

time: 11:20pm EST

dream trip: does visiting AC count? lol. i would absolutely love to get to tour Europe, specifically Scotland, Ireland, and Italy

last book you read: thrawn (2017), red rising by pierce brown

last book you enjoyed reading: both of the above. thrawn gave me a new ship to fall into hell over lol

last book you hated reading: hmm that's a good question? i dnfed harrow the ninth because some of the tropes in it i struggled with, but i do keep meaning to go back and try it again because it's fascinating and i'm really interested in the world

bonus:

favorite thing to cook/bake: christmas cookies! when i was a kid i stayed with my grandparents whenever i had days off school, because my bioparents worked all the time, so during christmas break my gramma would always have me help her make the cookies. i loved it

favorite craft to do in your spare time: writing, if that counts. i'm not crafty, the only other creative thing i really do is photography, and i haven't done much of that in a while!

most niche dislike: hm. can i say the revan novel. wait can i say drew karpyshyn. he's technically not niche but i feel like most people like him i just hate his novels they are so bad

opinion on circuses now and in history: knowing the rates of animal abuse and whatnot in them, i have to dislike them, but they always fascinated me when i was younger, and one of my better teenage memories is when my grandparents took me to one and i got to ride an elephant (my favorite animal)

do you have a sense of direction and if not what is the worst way you ever got lost: uhhhhhh i don't think i've ever gotten lost but that's mostly because of gps? i'm not great at senses of direction but once i've driven a route a couple times i can usually piece most of it together

tagging: @ipreferfiction @darthsassacre @tarrevizsla @glitter-cronch @isaakandreyevs @tenarcansteponme @voiceofthetraveler

[aye-write]

Summary: Research student Isla Reid has been fascinated with the legend of the Kildonian Chessmen - a trio of mythical Pokemon rumoured to have lived centuries ago on the remote region of Kildo - for as long as she can remember. So, when a museum exhibit on the Chessmen is set to open in Kildo’s Hydrogate City, coinciding with her independent research project, she packs herself and her trusty partner Furret onto the long ferry journey bound for this new region.

However, when she arrives in Kildo, thoughts of her research, new friends, and an entire Pokedex’s worth of new Pokemon, are quickly dashed. Kildo is a troubled place, beset by natural disasters and fierce rivalries among its people. Isla suddenly finds herself at the centre of a centuries-old plot to invoke the wrath of the Chessmen, and is set on a race against time to stop them, before it spells destruction for the entire region.

Other Links: Read it on Ao3!

Tags: OC Pokemon journey, OC region, Fakemon region, bisexual main character, found family, ace main character.

If you are not interested in these posts, especially as I know Pokemon journeyfic is fairly niche, please blacklist the tag #Checkmate. Most of the story will be put under a Readmore anyway!

Author’s Note: This is a mammoth chapter (over 5k!) but it wouldn't have felt right ending it at any other point. I hope you enjoy it nonetheless! I am hoping to keep up a bimonthly update schedule to give me plenty of time to focus on work and my other novels, so I'm aiming for February 7th as my next update date! Anyway, here we go with chapter one! 

*****

Chapter One

Isla Reid stared down at the churning ocean and wondered what would happen if she fell overboard.  

It could happen, she reasoned. The railings felt flimsy and only came up to her waist. With no ferry staff nearby and only a handful of other passengers too preoccupied with puffing on cigarettes, or watching their Pokemon, would anyone even notice if she did fall? Someone’s Snubbull careened past and Isla could have sworn she heard it cackle. That was another thought. A collision with a Snubbull could easily launch a full-grown person six or seven feet. At least. More than enough to send her over the railings and down into the roiling ocean below. It wouldn’t be pretty, no, but she would have taken anything over what was coming next.

Over my dead body, her mother declared when Isla gave her the news, will my daughter be going halfway around the world alone. As if she’d conveniently forgotten the past four years Isla had spent working and living independently the moment that inter-regional travel was more than a fragile possibility. Before she knew it, her mother had taken over, sitting at the telephone with the air of a military general and a dog-eared phonebook that hadn’t seen the light of day since Isla was a child. Banging the phone down ten minutes later, her mother announced that if she really must go all the way to Kildo (but you really should reconsider, darling, it’s ever so dangerous!), she would be collected from the ferry by her cousins. Cousins they’d had no contact with in years. Cousins that, if she was being honest, Isla had forgotten even existed.

Isla fixed her gaze forward. The ocean unspooled in every direction, slate-grey water in a haze of mist. The ferry ploughed on, swaying like the rocking of a newborn baby, kicking up fans of white foam. A man hanging over the railings made a funny burping noise as they cleared a large wave. Soba mewled and pushed her head into Isla’s clenched hands until she relaxed them enough to pet her. They were getting closer. And she definitely wasn’t in Johto anymore.

A stir of movement behind her and she was pulled back from her percolating thoughts. A group of men shifted through a cloud of sweet-smelling smoke towards the seats. The youngest, who couldn’t have been more than thirteen or fourteen, had a Pidgey perched on his shoulder and a frown deepening his face.

“Shouldn’t we go inside?” he prompted the older men, glancing up at the leaded sky. “It looks like it’s going to rain. I saw on the news that another storm is coming.”

“Don’t be daft!” a man with a wiry beard laughed. His accent was thick, heavy on the vowels, and took Isla a moment to understand. “We’ll be docked well before any bad weather hits.”

“You hope,” the younger boy muttered, but it was drowned out by laughter. “Dad, I’m serious! Remember I was telling you about ADoomWithAView – that streamer? He said that all these storms and stuff are because the Vitalities are angry with— Dad? Dad! Dad, I’m trying to talk to you.”

“Son, you would do well to stop listening to that brainwashing drivel.”

“It’s not brainwashing! I’m serious! Humanity’s dependence on technology is what—”

The rest of the boy’s protests were drowned out by a prolonged blast of the ship’s horn. In the distance, something loomed out of the thinning mist. Land. They were approaching land. Soba squeaked as a ding-dong-ding rang out and a voice, in that same thick accent, crackled over the speakers.

“Good afternoon, passengers, we will soon be arriving in Port Glen. Passengers are reminded that all personal belongings and luggage must be removed from the baggage area, communal spaces, and all outer decks before disembarking. For those disembarking via the gangplank, a reminder that all Pokemon – with the exception of service Pokemon – must be safely stowed in Pokeballs and not released until you are safely onto the harbour. To repeat, we will soon be arriving in Port Glen. Passengers are reminded—”

Isla’s heart tightened in her chest. This was it. They were here.

She let her Furret bump against her hands, Soba’s soft fur instantly soothing. “I guess it’s time to face the unknown, eh?”

“Fur!” Soba squeaked.

Isla waited until nearly everyone else had disappeared down the gangplank before braving it herself. She’d travelled as light as possible, much to her mother’s disdain, but the backpack still felt she like she was hauling around a bag of rocks instead of a few changes of clothes and a laptop. Anxiety prickled over her skin – or was it just the cold? – as she faced her first tentative steps into Kildo.

She was almost disappointed when she looked out onto a perfectly ordinary little port town. Tucked into an alcove of beach, Port Glen’s harbour was filled with people and the dreamy hues of blue and green. The town lay ahead in a generous curve, bordered by a strip of sea that already looked darker, almost black, under the deepening sky. A thin wind roused the hair on the back of her neck.

Her mother had given her a reference photograph of Rhona, the cousin who was supposed to be meeting her. Related by marriage through some obscure aunt, Isla struggled to notice even one iota of family resemblance between them. The woman in the photograph had pale skin and a shock of red curls, but not much else in the way of distinguishing features.

At the bottom of the gangplank, Isla swept her gaze around, desperate for a sign of her chaperone. But there was no-one waiting. And as the last few passengers sidestepped her, heading towards the town, Isla suddenly felt very small and very alone. While she hadn’t been thrilled at the prospect of staying, even temporarily, with strangers, being alone in a new place hundreds of miles from home was an entirely different brand of anxiety.

Panicky thoughts looped through Isla’s head. Where was Rhona? Why wasn’t she here? Had she forgotten? Had she somehow missed her? Or maybe she just hadn’t seen her yet. But who was still here? She could see a sailor tying ropes, a child wailing at a dropped ice cream, a woman arguing with a… what even was that?

The Pokemon looked like an ordinary Wingull at first, so much so that she nearly skipped over it, but the longer she looked, the more she saw that was wrong with it. This Pokemon was much rounder, a body like it’d swallowed a bowling ball, and its wings were shorter and rimmed with black, rather than the traditional blue. Isla delved for her battered old Pokedex and lined it up with this new Pokemon.

“Wingull, the Seagull Pokemon. Facing competition from Chibber for natural resources, Wingull have resorted to stealing food from witless tourists instead. As such, it has gained weight over time, as well as a more deceiving nature.”

So it was a Kildonian Wingull! That made sense. Isla was the first to admit that her knowledge of native Kildo Pokemon was lacking – a poor decision in hindsight – but she really should have been able to work out it was a regional variant. A flush deepened her cheeks as she imagined her professor’s scowl.

With no guardian in sight, Isla watched the scene unfolding in front of her. The Kildonian Wingull screeched as it dove at the offending woman at the end of the docks, the sound rippling over the wind. There was something in the woman’s hands, something that the Wingull seemed intent on, certainly enough not to be deterred at the attempts to fend it off. Isla let her bag fall and released Soba from her Pokeball.

“Soba, go and help! Use Quick Attack to chase that Pokemon away!”

Soba bulleted towards the struggling woman, squashing herself flat against the ground like a snake, rising into a fierce, full-body strike when the unsuspecting Wingull’s back was turned. With another ear-splitting screech, the Wingull went down like a sack of potatoes.

By the time Isla caught up, the Wingull was gone, dropping into the water of the harbour with an indignant squawk. The woman it had accosted looked harassed as she tried to piece together a ripped plastic bag brimming with wrapped sandwiches.

“Are you alright?” Isla asked, patting her thigh to call Soba back to her side.

“Oh, I’m fine, chick, but I can’t say the same about my lunch! Those Wingull are a terrible nuisance. These tourists think it’s funny to feed them and then it’s us locals that have to live with them. Oh shoot,” she cursed as one of the sandwiches slipped out of her grasp.

Isla ducked down to retrieve it. “Here, let me help you.”

“Oh, thank you, chick,” the woman said. “I have a spare bag here. Gosh, I can’t thank you enough for stopping to help. Usually when a Wingull gets its sights on your food, it’s a foregone conclusion.”

“They definitely seem a lot more, uh, food-oriented than the ones we have back home!” Isla laughed as she helped drop the sandwiches into the new bag.

“Back home?” the woman’s eyes brightened. “Oh, I thought your accent wasn’t local. You’re Isla, right? I can’t believe I didn’t realise it straight away. You’re the spit of your mum, so you are.”

Isla tried very hard not to mind being compared to her mother, but she took a small comfort in the fact that her waif of a mother would be far more scandalised. Was this woman really her cousin? Rhona, if this was her, was pleasantly round, much bigger than she was in the photograph. And while she was still small compared to Isla, it felt like a comfort to finally see another woman in their family that looked like her. And Rhona was pretty, her red curls pulled into a modest bun and her plump skin pebbledashed with freckles. She met Rhona’s eyes and they filled with warmth. Instantly, Isla felt soothed.

“Yes!” she said, barely able to hide her relief. “I’m Isla. And you’re Mrs—”

“Now, chick, you’ll call me Rhona. We’re family after all.”

“Rhona,” Isla corrected herself shyly. “Thanks ever so for letting me stay.”

“Oh, it’s not a problem, dear. Always happy to have visitors! I’m just sorry I’m a bit late, I’d stopped to pick up lunch and that blasted Wingull got a sniff of it. Chased me all the way down from the road end! If it hadn’t been for you and your lovely, uh… what Pokemon is this, dear?”

“This is Soba,” Isla stroked Furret and she purred appreciatively. “She’s a Furret. I’m not sure if you have them here. We’ve been partners for years.”

“She’s gorgeous!” Rhona said. “Don’t leave her alone with my daughter, though, she’s obsessed with all things Pokemon. She might try and adopt her!”

“You have a daughter?” Isla asked, frantically wracking her brain to try and remember if her mother had ever mentioned that.

“Yes, my Skye. She’s thirteen and Pokemon daft. And there’s my son, Blair. He’s the same age as you, give or take. They’re both very much looking forward to meeting you.”

Isla felt like something had just severed her at the chest. Why hadn’t her mother mentioned Rhona had children? Living with one stranger had been a scary enough prospect, now there were two more cousins to contend with?

“Come on, chick, shall we head off?”

As the harbour decking melted into gravel path, Rhona’s questioning amplified – How’s your mum? How has she been getting on? Does she still see Great Aunt Florence? Does she enjoy working for herself? – as if she were trying to make up for ten years of missed conversation. Even though Isla could only give short answers, Rhona still nodded and responded as if she’d just given her the secrets of the universe.

“So, what about you, Isla?” Rhona eventually asked as they turned away from the streets and approached a dirt road, littered with pebbles. “Your Mum said you needed a place to stay for a while, but she was a bit hazy with the details. What brings you all the way to Kildo?”

By the time Isla finished explaining her final year thesis proposal, Rhona oohing and ahhing the whole way through, they were coming up on the Whispering Pines Croft. A weather-beaten cottage sat beneath the shade of a looming forest and sloping hills. Fencing laced through the land like thread through fabric, bordering off sections of patchwork ground in brown and green and the occasional flash of vibrant purple. If Isla squinted hard enough, she could make out a field full of Miltank grazing in the distance. Another field to its left was occupied with the puffy, cotton-wool silhouettes of Wooloo. The whole place smelled of earth and mud, with a tinge of salt, wafting in by the ocean-bound breeze.

Rhona paused to catch her breath. “The Whispering Pines Croft has been in our family for generations. Every generation, we seem to find something new to build.” Indeed, the cottage looked like a mishmash, a Frankenstein’s monster of building expansions. “We do all sorts here. Livestock, farming, everything. The soil isn’t as forgiving as it is in other regions, it’s full of salt from the ocean, but we manage.”

Rhona didn’t take her shoes off when they clomped inside, but Isla slipped hers off, conscious of the mud clinging to the bottom of her soles. She put Soba in her Pokeball for the same reason. Rhona led her through to a kitchen with a low ceiling, steamy with condensation, and thick with the smell of baked apples. Like the house itself, the kitchen had a hodgepodge feel, a cosy mismatch. A proper family place, a life centred around a kitchen table.

“You can throw your stuff anywhere,” Rhona said, but Isla, totally out of her depth and wishing very much she could shrink to half her size to accommodate herself in this tiny, bustling place, just slotted her backpack in the gap by the fridge.

“Can I help you with anything?” Isla asked, the pressure of standing there like a stubbed toe eclipsing every other feeling.

“No, chick, you sit yourself down. You must be tired,” Rhona said as she laid the sandwiches down on the table.  “Here, you take first choice, but be warned, if there isn’t an egg and cress left for my mother, she’ll fall out with you.”

Isla’s hand froze. “Your mum lives with you?”

“Yes. She went with my Dad to assisted living for a while, but when he passed, well, it was easier on everyone to have her here. Does her the world of good to be around people and have a little independence,” Rhona said over the clatter of plates. “She’s got more hobbies than I do, in fact! She teaches classes in the old Kildonian language on the weekends too. Keeps her out of mischief.”

“Really?” Isla’s heart leapt to her throat. “The Kildonian language is something I wanted to look into for my report!”

“Well, that’s a happy coincidence then. I’m sure she’ll be happy to go over some of it with you. Oh, hang on a moment,” she said, reaching up to pull a Pokeball from an apron hanging on the kitchen door. “I’m just going to call everyone to the table.”

Isla’s mouthful of cheese salad sandwich almost ended up splattering the table as Rhona tossed the Pokeball to the ground, and the kitchen was invaded by a flurry of grey and red feathers. The Pokemon – whatever it was – came up to Rhona’s hip, had a squat body, long muscular legs, and powerful wings that it beat to great effect as it noticed the stranger. Isla yelped as the Pokemon cocked its head, its movements quick and jerky, like the ticking of a clock.

“Ruchter, calm your feathers,” Rhona said, tapping the Pokemon on its haunches. It clucked and crowed, shaking its head fiercely. “This is Isla. She’ll be staying with us for a bit.”

The Pokemon relaxed, but still fixed Isla with a withering glare. Isla consulted her Pokedex.

“Ruchter, the Farmer Pokemon. The evolved form of Chickter. Able to precisely work tough soil with their talons, Ruchter can cover a small field in minutes. Despite looking old and frail, they are tireless, and can work for hours without a break.”

Rhona ruffled the Pokemon’s tail feathers. “Ruchter, please go and fetch Blair and Skye from the fields.”

The Pokemon was off before Rhona could even finish her sentence, barrelling out the door with all the grace of a drunk Tauros.

Rhona poured tea into a flowery mug and arranged one of the sandwiches on a matching plate. “Isla, I’m just going to pop up with this for my Mum. I’ll be right back. There’s lemonades and sodas in the fridge, so help yourself.” Rhona was halfway up the stairs when she called back, “And if my two come in tracking mud everywhere, make sure they wash their hands before sitting down!”

The tightness in Isla’s chest squeezed harder. Any moment now she was going to be dropped into a meeting with two new mystery cousins. What would they be like? Would they like her? Would they think she was weird, as most people did? The memories of barbed stares resurfaced like a Sharpedo’s fin breaking the water. Strangers, her peers, her friends, even her own family, all of them silently judging her, as she tried to navigate life being both big and invisible.

No, she needed to calm down. Spiralling wouldn’t help. She repeated it like a mantra inside her head. She hadn’t even met them, and she’d already decided they wouldn’t like her. She had to get better at this.

All the same, her stomach stayed knotted and eating felt like the last thing she wanted to do. Though maybe she should wait until her cousins came in anyway, do the polite thing. She paused and went to the fridge instead, opening and draining half a can of fizzy lemonade. The bubbles pulsed through her twisty stomach, prickling like pins and needles.

She heard the voices before she saw their owners, one deep and droning, the other light and lilting. Then the door swung open, Ruchter scrambling inside in a skittering of talons on wooden floor, two people bringing up the rear.

“Skye, take off your shoes! Mam will go mad if you track mud in.”

He hadn’t seen her. Neither of them had. She didn’t know if that felt better or worse. As the two of them tromped towards the sink, she cleared her throat.

The oldest – a young man with long red hair tied in a ponytail – stopped in his tracks. “Oh, hey! You must be Isla? Nice to meet you,” he extended a hand covered in mud only to retract it when he saw Isla staring. “Maybe later, eh? Skye, make room at the sink please.”

“It’s nice to meet you too!” Isla said over the sound of running water. “Blair and Skye, right?”

“That’s us!” Blair shook his hands off at the sink. “Nice to have you here, cousin. It’s quite something having family coming from all the way in Johto, isn’t it, Skye?”

Skye moved like a ghost, silently staring under a canopy of brown fringe. “Do you have Johto Pokemon?”

Isla blinked. “Ah, yes. Just one though.”

“I want to see.”

“Oh,” Isla looked at Blair and then to Ruchter. “Is that okay?”

“Go ahead!” Blair took a savage bite out of a cheese and pickle sandwich. “Let me just put Ruchter out so the two don’t end up in a scrap.”

After Ruchter went haring out to the garden in pursuit of scattered pellets, Isla let Soba bounce out of her Pokeball. Her younger cousin’s eyes lit up.

“She’s so pretty! What is she?”

“She’s a Furret. They evolve from something called a Sentret. They’re kind of common around where I live, I’m afraid,” she added with a nervous chuckle, then wondered why on earth she was apologising.  

“What type is she?”

“Normal.”

“Is she strong?”

“She’s not super strong, but we’ve been together for seven years. She knows how to handle herself.”

“What moves does she know?”

“Quick Attack, Fury Swipes, Rest, things like that.”  

“What’s her nature?”

“The lady at the Pokemon Centre thinks she’s Bashful, if I remember right.”

“Does she have any TM moves?” And before Isla could answer, Skye kept going. “What’s her favourite Rock flavour? Where did you get her from? Does she—”

“Hey, easy up, Miss Missy,” Blair nudged his sister. “Come on, let Isla relax and eat her lunch. You need to get something in you too. Keep your strength up for the big day.”

Skye rolled her eyes but did as she was told.

“Big day?” Isla asked, desperate for something to fill the silence.

“Skye is going to Aberdrip City in a few days to get her very first Pokemon,” Blair said proudly.

Isla smiled encouragingly but the fact that her younger cousin was a year late in getting her first Pokemon didn’t escape her attention. She decided not to ask as Skye chattered on about Aberdrip City and how she still hadn’t decided which starter she wanted. By the time Rhona came back downstairs, Isla felt fuller and warmer than she had in days.

“I see you guys are getting acquainted,” Rhona smiled, collapsing into the chair next to her daughter and dropping a kiss on her head. “Here, what did you leave me? Ugh, cream cheese and cucumber. I don’t know why they keep it in the multibuy deal, no-one likes it.” She took a bite anyway. “How are you, Isla?”

“I’m good,” Isla said, and she meant it. “Thanks again for having me. It’s a real help.”

“So, what are your plans for Kildo?” Blair asked, nibbling on a crust. “Seeing anywhere nice?”

“I’m here for a research trip,” Isla said. “I’m doing a project on the legend of the Chessmen Pokemon, so really, what I want to do is visit the places that the Chessmen were rumoured to live, and then finish up with the exhibition in Hydrogate City.”

“Hydrogate is a long way to travel,” Blair said seriously. “Especially with all the… complications.”

Rhona shot Blair a fierce look. “Now, Blair, don’t go terrifying the poor lass! There’s nothing wrong, chick. Just a bit of funny weather.”

“And the rest, Mam! There was a landslip near Auchtermelty the other day. They reckon it could take days to clear. It’s totally stopped trade and deliveries; they have to go the long way around. Wee Arthur – that’s Auchtermelty’s Gym Leader, Isla – has been trying to dig it out single handed with his Pokemon but even he had to stop because it was too dangerous.”

“Arabella’s mother says it’s because the Vitalities are unhappy,” Skye interjected.

“Arabella’s mother needs to take a long walk off a short pier,” Blair said, and Skye let out a snort of laughter.

“Blair, watch your mouth,” Rhona said, without looking up.

“Well how stupid can you get?” Blair said. “The Vitalities aren’t to blame for this.”

“Wait, what’s all this about?” Isla asked, confused.

“Just an old legend, chick.” Rhona said. “I’m surprised you haven’t heard of them, considering you’re interested in the Chessmen tale.”  

“Of course she hasn’t,” a voice rasped from the doorway and Isla nearly dropped her can of lemonade. Standing in the door’s alcove was an elderly woman, skin deeply lined, and grey hair styled into a candyfloss-like perm. She was tiny – maybe a whole foot smaller than Blair – but her voice was sharp and crisp like every word held a pointed edge. “Incomers don’t make a habit of learning our secrets,” the woman said, fixing her gaze on Isla. “Then they wouldn’t be secrets, would they?”

“Mum!” Rhona said, her voice tight. “What are you doing up?”

“You think I wouldn’t get up to greet our guest? Especially one who has such a vetted interest in our local legends?”

“Oh, here we go,” Blair stood up. “I think I’m going to get the Miltank in. Looks like a storm on the horizon. Skye, are you coming?”

Isla glanced out the window. The sky had turned granite-grey, swirled with black.  When Skye and Blair left, a thin wind send the temperature plummeting. Rhona fiddled with the thermostat and the heating clanged into life, but it didn’t make a difference. Icy fingers had worked their way up Isla’s spine the minute the old woman had spoken.

“Isla, this is my mum, Morag. You can call her Nana Morag though, as my two do.” Rhona said. “Mum, why don’t you tell Isla about the Vitalities while I wash up?”

“Why not?” Nana Morag said, settling herself into the chair that Skye left empty. “The Vitalities legend dates to round about the same time as the Chessmen. Think of the two as intertwined, rather than separate. The Vitalities, made up of Voltean, Burnach, Creakrone, and Liathsong, were said to be able to give – and take – all forms of energy from the world around them. Legend has it that the earliest settlers, who came here centuries ago, were given gifts from the Vitalities that allowed them to heat their homes, harness the ocean, work on the harsh land, and even have some form of electricity hundreds of years before it became common use. Now, the Chessmen, they were different. They were said to control—”

“I know this,” Isla couldn’t help herself. “They’re known as the Progression, Expression, and Protection Pokemon. They gave early Kildonians the means to develop industry, arts, and security.”

The old woman nodded approvingly. “You know your stuff. Very good for an incomer.”

“Mother,” Rhona said warningly.

“You know how the legend ends, yes?” Nana Morag checked. “The Chessmen, enraged with how humans squandered their gifts, tore the region apart and set humanity back hundreds of years. The Chessmen became dormant and the Vitalities were banished, leaving the humans to rebuild alone. Many people believe the Vitalities are responsible for all the natural disasters—”

“They’re not disasters, Mother.”

“—because they’re still furious about being banished all those years ago.”

“Fascinating,” Isla breathed out. “Is there anything else you can tell me about them?”

“I think, for now, we’ll get you sorted in your room, shall we?” Rhona interjected hastily.

“Oh, of course. Thank you,” Isla said, trying to hide the disappointment in her voice.

As she manoeuvred her backpack out of the gap by the fridge, Nana Morag caught her by the elbow, her thin, bony hand proving a surprisingly strong grip. “I have some books that you might find interesting. I’ll drop them off for you later.”

And then Isla was climbing the creaky old stairs, ready to try and slot herself into this strange new home with these strange new people.

**

The rest of the day passed slowly, like petals of a flower unfurling in the sun. She met Kenneth, Rhona’s husband, who split his time between the farm and the market in town. He was frighteningly tall, too tall for the cottages’ low ceilings, and he walked with a noticeable hump even when there was enough space. Rhona was a mean cook, serving up a vast pot of bubbling stew, and Isla had to banish all thoughts of whether the meat too was “home-grown” from her head in order to enjoy it.

Tiredness swept in the moment she laid her knife and fork down. The night came in so much faster in Kildo than Johto, and it felt somehow thicker and darker, like she was swaddled in a large black cloak. She was glad when Rhona took one look at her when the family was doing the final storm checks on the farm and sent her straight up to bed.

Maybe it was the fresh air, maybe it was the excitement, maybe it was the long journey, but the second her head hit the pillow, Isla was dead asleep.

Hours slipped by, or maybe it was minutes, until her world was split apart by a huge bang! She sat bolt upright, cocooned in slippery blankets, and it was all she could do not to topple headfirst out of the bed. As the world phased in around her, freezing cold air gusted into the tiny room, causing goosepimples to erupt on her bare skin. The window, left on the latch before she fell asleep, had blown open. The storm had hit.

Slamming the light on, she untangled herself and grappled with the slippery latch. Eventually she shut out the wind. Outside, everything was pitch black like the swirl of spilled ink, and the rain lashed against the house, sounding like bullets. Isla pressed her face to the window, her breath misting the glass. Something bobbed in the distance, a single pin of light, moving through the velvety dark. It looked too small to be Blair or Kenneth. But who else would be out there during a storm?

The light moved closer. Isla scrubbed impatiently at the fogged glass, terrified that if she took her eyes away, even for a moment, it would disappear. It grew, doubling first, then tripling in size, then a crack of lightning split the sky. Isla let out a gasp as her entire room plunged into darkness. The power was out.

The light in the garden was growing brighter.

Or was it really a light? It looked almost solid now. Like a real living thing. Or maybe not a something. Maybe a someone. Something behind the light looked like the silhouette of a child.

It intensified, burning so bright that it seared Isla’s eyes and for a moment, all she saw was white. Then it faded and was gone. The lamp on her bedside table flickered back into life. The winds seemed to calm. The rain simpered to a stop. And Isla was alone, aside from the impression of a pair of wide, childlike eyes burned into the back of her head.

**

As we have a full Pokedex (130+ Fakemon), we decided to provide more details about each new Pokemon as it's introduced, especially as we may not always be able to give full details for each one. These aren't necessary to enjoy the story but it's here for anyone who is interested. So, here are the dex entries for Kildonian Wingull and Ruchter!

Kildonian Wingull Number: 041 Type: Water/Flying Evolution: Kleptern at Lv25 Abilities: Keen Eye/Pickpocket. HA: Rain Dish Stats: 50/55/30/30/30/75 Dex Description: Facing severe competition from Chibber for natural resources, Wingull have resorted to stealing food from witless tourists instead. As such, it has gained weight over time, but has also gained a more deceiving nature.

Ruchter Number: 090 Type: Flying/Ground Evolution: Evolved from Chickter (Happiness, Male-only) Abilities: Early Bird/Tough Claws. HA: Vital Spirit Stats: 100/125/55/50/55/90 Dex Description: Ruchter, the Farmer Pokemon. The evolved form of Chickter. Able to precisely work tough soil with their talons, Ruchter can cover a small field in minutes. Despite looking old and frail, they are tireless, and can work for hours without a break.”

[sharkflip]

Non-cishet friends of Tumblr and beyond, I need some helpful advice.

My younger sister identifies as nonbinary asexual, and wants to be in a committed long-term romantic asexual relationship with a woman or nonbinary person. She is currently sad and frustrated because she doesn’t know how to meet people looking for that sort of relationship.

Part of this is the tumblr-documented introvert struggle of wanting to be in a relationship but not wanting to, like, go out and meet people, but part of it is also apparently a logistics issue - dating sites and other such resources just aren’t geared towards asexual relationships (as far as she tells me).

Any tips for seeking out people interested in that kind of relationship? We’re in Seattle, so I KNOW that they must be around here, and possibly just as lonely and frustrated as she is.

I’m able to help with the getting out of the house to meet people in safe lgbtqai+ spaces part (I’m taking her to a party at my favorite quirky artspace/gallery/comixshop tonight), but am at a loss on how to offer advice or help problem-solve in a big sisterly way.

Anyone finding this through the tags: I’m a cishet woman who's been with my highschool sweetheart for almost 20 years, so I can barely even offer help for ways to more common types of partner, let alone niche lgbtqai+ relationships. Kids these days with their swiping and their apps...

[danfanciesphil]

too high (can’t come down) by @danfanciesphil

Suspending himself 7,000 feet above the rest of the world seems likely to be a sure-fire way for Dan to escape normality, and isolate himself for the foreseeable future. The Secret of the Alps, a small hotel tucked into the side of the Swiss mountains is too niche for most avid adventurers to have heard of, making it the perfect place for Dan to work as he sorts through his problems. Unfortunately, privacy is a coveted thing, and as Dan soon finds out, the hotel harbours one guest who values it more than most.

Rating: Explicit Tags: Enemies to lovers, snow, mountains, skiing, hostility, slow burn, secrecy, longing, repression, nobility, classism, cheating, eventual sex

Chapter One

Chapter Two

After Dan and Mona have served breakfast to the two - yes, just two - couples staying at the hotel, they clear everything away, leaving the tablecloths out for the lunch service in a few hours. As they are pretty much cut off from civilisation up here, guests are served three meals a day, along with optional extra nibbles sent to their rooms upon request. It takes Dan a full day of quietly observing, but he eventually comes to understand that The Secret of the Alps is not a place people come for adventure, or entertainment.

The hotel is instead a serene, atmospheric getaway, isolated high up in the scenic Swiss Alps, away from the stresses of civilisation. People come here not for planned activities, but to spend time alone, or with each other, reading books by the fire, playing scrabble, or taking the occasional guided walk around the safe paths of the mountain. These walks are led by Kaspar, who can be called up a day in advance. There’s a jacuzzi and sauna outside at the back of the hotel for guests to enjoy, a small gym, and a lounge stocked with a wide range of books and board games as Dan has seen. Louise is available for cooking classes if guests are interested, and each night Mona puts on a film for the guests in the mezzanine area; Louise makes buttery popcorn and Bailey’s hot chocolate for everyone, and if people are feeling social, sometimes they loiter there well into the night, chatting.

It’s probably not what Dan would choose for a holiday, but he understands the appeal. If you were some corporate lawyer-type drowning in fast-paced city life, it would be tempting to come somewhere remote and distant, where the WiFi is shocking enough that nobody can really contact you.

“So, for this week, I’m just going to have you follow me around, like you have been today,” Mona explains to Dan in a hushed voice. His shift is almost over, and the evening film is just starting for the guests. She and Dan are at the back of the mezzanine lounge, stood next to the serving hatch, through which Louise is leaning, chin in her hand as she watches the opening credits roll. “That way you’ll get used to the routine.”

“Sounds good,” Dan says. 

He met Louise earlier, as he brought through the dirty plates after dinner, and though their exchange was only brief, he feels that she’s the type of dry, sarcastic person he could eventually be friends with. 

“You say that, but Mona’s a tyrant,” Louise mutters, and Mona shoots her a stern look. “If you need a break from the whip-cracking, come find me. I’ll keep you caffeinated, it’ll make the week go faster.”

“Anyway,” Mona says pointedly, “things don’t differ much day-to-day here, as you’ll come to learn.” Louise makes a grunting sound of assent. “By the end of the week, I reckon you’ll have the routine down, and then we can start giving you some more independence. Manning reception on your own, that kind of thing.”

“Right,” Dan says, stifling a yawn. “Cool.”

“I think Dan might be about to fall asleep on his feet,” Louise says amusedly, making Dan straighten up.

“N-no, I’m awake,” he says hurriedly. “Sorry, I’m just not used to the long days yet, and it’s dark in here-”

Mona laughs, then pats him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, Dan. This job can be boring and somehow exhausting at once. You can call it a night, I’ll see you bright and early.”

Dan smiles at her gratefully, then yelps as Louise reaches out and pinches his arm. Two of the guests watching the movie turn around at the high-pitched squeal, making Louise giggle.

“Night, Dan.”

“Night,” he says, and then scurries towards the stairs.

By the time he gets to the top floor his knees are about to give way; he pauses in the hallway, digging in his pocket for his room key, more than ready for this day to be over. It hasn’t been awful, just long and strenuous. As he pulls out the key, he notices a sliver of yellow light beneath the door of room eight, the one beside his. For a long moment, Dan stares at this light, his overtired brain struggling to work out what it could mean. Mona mentioned that she sleeps on the ground floor, in a room attached to the office. Louise and all of the other guests are still downstairs watching the film, so it can’t be any of them, unless one of them inexplicably left their light on.

Too tired to consider this further, Dan lets himself into his own room, deciding he’ll just ask Mona about it tomorrow. Once again, he barely makes it to the bed - though this time he does manage to pull on pyjamas - before curling up in the thick covers and letting the tears fall.

He’s well into becoming a gross mess - nose running heavily, eyes piggy and sore - when he hears something odd enough to make him pause. A waft of soft, calming notes, shaping a sweet melody, filtering into his room through the wall behind his bed. He sits up against the pillows, ears straining, his face damp. He’s so puzzled by the music that he forgets why he’s crying, and just listens. In the stillness of the night, the music is the sole sound, worming its way beneath Dan’s skin, and settling into his weary bones.

He has just enough wakefulness left in his brain to wonder how classical music could be playing at a range close enough for him to hear right now, considering everyone else is supposedly downstairs watching Ocean’s Eleven. Before he can think of any answer, however, he is slipping down into the mattress, and then right through it, until he’s floating into a sea of dream.

*

It’s eight o’clock in the evening, and Dan’s second day is winding down. He is at the front desk, which he's beginning to recognise as his base camp for the times of day when he’s without pressing tasks - which is often. Mona’s base camp is the office behind the reception desk, where she does scary managerial business like handling the accounts and speaking to investors. 

At the moment Mona is upstairs in the kitchen, asking Louise to make she and Dan something to eat, as the dinner rush is over now. Just as Dan is about to give in and dig in his pocket for his phone to alleviate the boredom, he hears the back door that leads to the jacuzzi and sauna opening. The door is around the corner from the reception desk, hidden from Dan’s view, but he straightens in his seat nonetheless, preparing to make polite small talk with one of the guests.

To his total astonishment, a man walks into the lobby that he has never seen before. He’s wearing one of the robes left for guests in each room, as well as the complimentary slippers. The robe is loosely tied around his waist, as if it might undo itself any moment, and reveal the long, toned, naked body beneath. His black hair is wet, dripping to his shoulders. As he passes the desk, he aims a vague smile at what he clearly assumes will be Mona, as when he sees Dan sat there, he does a double take.

Fixed in place by two inhumanly blue eyes, Dan cannot find a single word to utter. This man is an apparition, serene and impossible. How is he here? Dan has met all of the guests and staff. Mona would surely have told him if there were anyone else by this point. They are up the side of a mountain, with no means of being reached save for a private plane or a death-defying cable car ride, so he can’t be an intruder, yet Dan cannot think of another explanation. He thinks of shouting for Mona, but still he cannot summon his voice.

“Hi,” the man says, half-mumbled.

He doesn’t stop walking, so Dan has no chance to respond even if he could, and then the man is climbing the stairs to the mezzanine, and disappearing out of sight. Ten minutes later, when Mona reappears, Dan explains to her what just happened in a rush, the words spilling out as if whatever had stoppered them up before has been violently uncorked at her reappearance.

“Ah, yes,” Mona says, clearing her throat. She hands him a bowl of what looks like chilli, with a slice of crusty bread. “That’s Mr Novokoric,” she says. “He’s our… special guest. Don’t concern yourself with him right now.”

“He’s a guest?”

Mona hesitates. “Yes.”

“He didn’t come for breakfast,” Dan points out, bewildered. “Or lunch, or dinner.”

“Mr Novokoric has his meals in his room,” Mona says briskly, fidgeting with obvious discomfort. “When he eats at all, that is,” she mutters, lower. “I will explain about all that later, Dan,” she promises. “For now, let’s just focus on the main aspects of the job, getting your routine in place...”

She rambles on about the responsibilities he’s still getting to terms with, and he half-listens, unable to stop the hundreds of questions about this mysterious ‘other’ guest from swooshing around in his mind. With a lot of effort, and mostly because he feels his and Mona’s professional relationship is still in its infancy, he swallows his curiosity down with a spoonful of piping hot chilli.

*

The following morning, Dan’s third working at The Secret of the Alps, he is up even earlier than usual. He’d gotten more sleep than his previous two nights, thanks to the music that again drifted through the wall to staunch his free-flowing tears. 

The light filtering through the window is still too startling to ignore however, so he abandons any attempt at staying in bed, and dresses quickly, hoping to impress Mona with his work ethic by getting an extra early start. Sure enough, he’s the first one to reach the front desk, though he can hear Mona in her room at the back of the office shuffling around - perhaps gluing her unmoving bun in position with industrial strength adhesive. Whatever she’s up to, Dan knows he doesn’t have long before she emerges, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, so he sets himself up at the desk and attempts to look productive. As he skims through the hotel brochure, scanning photos of happy families in bobble-hats, and wine-flushed couples in front of log fires, his mind wanders back down the mountain, to his old life - his real life - which lurks menacingly below him, claws outstretched, ready to snatch him back the moment he peeks over the precipice.

He hears vague footsteps on the stairs, and assumes it must be Louise, as she’s the only other person he could conceive might be up this early. He and Louise have struck up an instant colloquial rapport which he’s grateful for, even in the few days he’s been here, so Dan says, without looking up, “unngh, need caffeine, Lou. I’ll tip my head back and you just pour the coffee down my throat, kay?”

He expects, of course, one of Louise’s snarky yet fond comebacks, probably focused on how inadvertently sexual that request sounded. He waits for the cut of her steel tongue, but it doesn’t come.  Dan looks up, and meets the two vibrant blue eyes he remembers from yesterday evening, over which two dark eyebrows are arched high on a pale, exposed forehead. At once, Dan flushes, shutting the brochure with a slap, and sitting up straighter in his chair.

“Oh, God, sorry, I thought you were someone else. Um, good morning-” Dan struggles to recall the name Mona had given this man last night - Novak? Novorak? He’s not sure. “...Sir.” Best to be on the safe side. “Is there anything I can help you with?”

The blue-eyed man doesn’t pause, crossing the lobby towards the door, but he does shake his head slightly in response to Dan’s question. He’s a startling thing to behold so early in the morning. His shock of onyx hair contrasts against the scarlet snow-jacket he’s wearing. It takes Dan a moment for his eyes to adjust to the sheer vibrancy of him, and an even longer moment to realise that tucked beneath his arm are two cherry-red skis.

Skiing and snowboarding is not a good idea up here, Mona’s voice echoes in his head. The mountain is treacherous and unpredictable, so stress that to guests...

Dan jumps to his feet at once, heart already in his throat as he watches the man nearing the front door, apparently about to walk outside and strap those skis to his feet, then most likely hurl himself to his untimely death.

“Oh, S-Sir, hold on,” Dan calls out, jogging out from the desk and over towards the man, who has turned to him with such an expression of astonishment that it’s as if Dan had begun to perform a striptease right in the middle of the lobby. “S-sorry,” Dan says, stepping towards him more cautiously now, “but I’m afraid you’re not allowed to ski here.”

One of those dark eyebrows arches upwards again. “Excuse me?”

“It’s… not permitted for guests to ski,” Dan says hurriedly; he can feel a steady blossoming of burst capillaries in either cheek. “The mountain is, um,” what did Mona say? “...treacherous. You could be hurt.”

A long moment passes, during which time Dan begins to wonder if maybe he should repeat himself, slower, as perhaps this man doesn’t understand English very well.

“What’s your name?” the man asks eventually, in the sort of voice Dan recognises from all the times he’s dealt with petulant, ‘I-want-to-speak-to-the-manager’ type middle-aged women in the retail jobs he’s worked.

“Dan,” he replies, swallowing.

“I assume you’re the new concierge, Dan?”

“Well… yes.”

“Right.” The man hitches his skis up into the crook of his arm. “I suggest that next time you decide you have any right to come up and reprimand me, that you consult with your boss before making a fool of yourself.”

He says this in such a calm monotone that it takes Dan a few seconds to realise how rudely he’s just been spoken to. He blushes again, absurdly. “I-I’m really very sorry, Sir, but I can’t allow you to leave the hotel with those skis.”

The man fixes him with a glare that would put the Real Housewives to shame. “And what is it that you’re going to do to stop me, Dan?”

“Well… I’ll, um-”

Dan is saved from finishing this sentence by the sound of Mona’s kitten heels tapping hurriedly across the wooden floor. As she gets closer, Dan can hear that she is muttering “oh, dear god” repeatedly under her breath. Relieved that he is no longer on his own in this situation, Dan takes a subtle step backwards from the hostile guest. He averts his gaze from those hard, cold blue eyes as he waits for Mona to assert her prim, managerial dominance over this man, and confiscate his forbidden sports equipment.

“I am so sorry Mr Novokoric,” she blurts, much to Dan’s horror. “Please forgive Dan, he only arrived yesterday and isn’t yet aware of your special circumstances.”

Mr Novokoric huffs an impatient sigh, but nods tightly. “Might I recommend offering treats to help him learn faster.”

“Very funny, Mr Novokoric,” Mona says with a polite, false-sounding laugh. Dan’s cheeks are now rivalling the man’s jacket, he’s certain. Surely he can’t have just implied Dan were a dog, and Mona is simply laughing. To Dan’s abject bafflement, she then seems to actually give a small bow of her head. Where is his stern, no-nonsense, manageress in shining armour? This is not the same woman he recognises from the last two days. “We’ll have Dan up to speed in no time. This won’t happen again.”

Mr Novokoric nods again, sliding a final, disapproving look towards Dan for good measure before muttering something like ‘alright then’, and slipping out of the door. As soon as Dan is relatively sure the man is out of earshot, he turns to Mona, scandalised.

“Please explain to me what just happened,” he says, as calmly as he can manage given that he is utterly seething. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No,” Mona says, then considers this. “Well, yes, but you weren’t to know. It’s my fault, I was trying to ease you in, but I should have discussed Mr Novokoric’s special case sooner. I apologise for that. I didn’t think you’d have the chance to speak to him without me being there.”

Dan waits for her to continue, but she simply turns away, strolling determinedly back towards the desk, and nimbly side-stepping the entire issue. “Well, I would appreciate being filled in now,” Dan says, hot on her heels. “I don’t fancy being on the receiving end of one of Mr Nobby-whatsit’s glacial stares again any time soon.”

Mona sighs, smoothing down the non-existent stray hairs from her high bun. “All right,” she says after a moment of deliberation. She gestures for him to follow her, and moves towards the stairs up to the mezzanine. “Come up and have some breakfast. We can discuss it - briefly - as we eat.”

For some reason, Dan’s heart is fluttering in his chest. He tries to imagine what possible secrets are about to be revealed to him surrounding this mysterious, moody ski-enthusiast. Perhaps Mr Novo-whatever is some sort of secret agent, using his skis to swoop from mission to mission. Or perhaps he’s a mentally-unstable ex-patient of some nearby facility that could no longer afford to keep him due to his hostile nature.

He’s so caught up in these various possibilities that he doesn’t realise he’s followed Mona into the kitchen until Louise is pushing a bowl of porridge into his hands. The letter ‘D’ is drizzled on top in syrup, and there are blueberries scattered across the surface.

“Oh, wow,” he says, chuffed. He aims a grateful smile at Louise. “D for Dan?”

She cocks her head to one side, frowning. “Huh. Didn’t think of that. I was going for Dick-brain.”

Dan snorts, but digs straight in; it’s thick, warm and sweet. “Orgasmic as usual, Lou. Got any coffee to go with it?”

“It’s blueberry, honey and cinnamon,” Louise tells him enthusiastically, her front two gap-teeth bared. She’s already at the coffee machine, turning vials and spurting steam without needing to look at what she’s doing. “Is it the best porridge you’ve ever had?”

He considers this for a moment, then bites down on a blueberry, which bursts out a tangy, tart flavour that mixes so deliciously with the sweet syrup, that Dan actually moans. “Oh, hands down.”

Pleased with this response, Louise makes his coffee double strength, which Dan notices, and hopes Mona doesn’t. “I like this one, Mo,” Louise calls over the hissing of steam as she makes Mona a cappuccino. “Don’t go scaring him off like you did the last one.”

Dan wonders if the failure and possible trauma of his predecessor should alarm him, but finds that he’s too busy enjoying the blissful experience of Louise’s porridge to really care. Besides, he’s already here now, has already given up his life back in England to do this; it’s going to have to be something really stupendously terrifying to chase him back to the ruins of what he left behind.

“I did not scare that little nitwit off,” Mona says sniffily. “She was far too sensitive. I only told her she couldn’t fold a towel to save her life. Which is not true of Dan, so it’s all fine.”

“Yeah yeah,” Louise says, pouring foam. She walks over and hands the cappuccino to Mona, giving her a look. “Just don’t hurl him into the deep end without a life raft.”

“Well I was trying to ease him in,” Mona says with a heavy sigh. She blows on the coffee, then plucks a teaspoon from nearby and scoops some froth into her mouth. “But I took my eye off him for two seconds and he went squaring up to the beast.”

Louise makes a face halfway between a grimace and a grin, turning to Dan. “So, you’ve met His Lordship, then?”

Dan snorts into his near-empty bowl. “Is that what you call him? He does act as if he’s Royalty.” Mona and Louise exchange a look so loaded with unspoken somethings that Dan actually pauses, spoon of porridge halfway to his mouth. “What?”

Louise chuckles, seemingly to herself, and turns to uncover what looks like a delicious homemade loaf of bread, which she immediately begins sawing into thick slices for the guest breakfast. Dan turns to Mona, sensing that Louise is not going to be the forthcoming one here. Mona’s fidgeting, which seems unusual for her, not that Dan is the best judge given that he’s only known her forty-eight hours.

“Dan,” she says eventually, seeming to navigate some internal minefield of appropriate phrasing. “I know we’ve only just met, but there’s something I need to ask of you.”

Dan nods slowly, aware that Louise is watching him, though she’s trying very hard to pretend she’s focused solely on the bread. “Okay,” he says warily.

“I understand it’s a bit early to ask you to commit, but… do you think you’d be interested in permanently accepting this job?”

“Well… yes,” Dan says. Briefly, he thinks of his final discussion with his father, the gist of which had been ‘if you do something as stupid and reckless as pissing off to waste your time up the top of a snowy hill, I’ll disown you’. Even that lovely parting sentiment hadn’t managed to dissuade Dan from coming here though, so he supposes he must really be serious about his decision to do this. “I’m not going to back out, if that’s what you mean.”

Mona casts a brief, relieved look in Louise’s direction, which is happily returned. “That’s good. That’s very good to hear, Dan. Okay then,” she says, placing her cup of coffee down carefully in order to clasp her hands together at her waist. “What I need to ask you, in that case, is for your total discretion. I need your word, unwaveringly, to keep quiet about a certain matter.”

“Is this about Mr Novocaine?”

Louise’s bark of laughter is shrill and high. “At last! I have someone on my level of comedic talent to witticise with. It’s been an arduous few years attempting to engage Mo in banter. No offense.”

Rolling her eyes a bit, Mona corrects Dan, “Mr Novokoric. And yes, it’s about him. I’m assuming, from your reaction earlier this morning, that you don’t recognise him?”

“Er… no.”

Mona clears her throat, nodding. “And have you ever heard of Sir Nikolai Novokoric of Swtizerland?”

Some distant bell rings in the back of Dan’s mind. He tries to dredge up the memory that accompanies it, wrinkling his nose. “Is he that party-Prince that’s always in all the papers? The heir of some nobleman’s fortune or something?”

“He’s not a Prince, but he is connected to the Swiss monarchy,” Mona replies carefully. “And yes, his exploits are often splashed across international entertainment news.”

Not being the sort of person to indulge in celebrity gossip, Dan has only a vague sense of Sir Nikolai, but his general impression of the man is that he’s a spoiled, disgustingly rich little brat, squandering his inherited fortune on hundred-thousand euro bottles of champagne to fuel his obscene sex parties in exotic locations.

“I don’t really follow him,” Dan says with a shrug. He’s already bored just thinking about the vapid excuse for a man. He sees no reason why he should be under discussion, aside from the fact he’s apparently Swiss, and they’re currently atop a Swiss mountain. “Why’d you bring him up?”

“You may or may not be aware that Sir Nikolai’s most recent scandal was to come out as publicly bisexual,” Mona says, checking her watch and speeding up the tempo of her explanation. “And when the scandal of this statement proved to be virtually non-existent-”

“Switzerland’s rather blasé about that sort of thing,” Louise butts in, cheerily. “Sexualities and whatnot. People just sort of get on with it, round here. Doesn’t matter whose pants you’ve got your hand down.”

“-he then decided,” Mona continues, aiming a sharp look at Louise, “to hype up the scandal by eloping with a male student he met during a brief stint at a British university.”

Mona’s expression is carefully neutral, but from her rigid stance and the way her lips purse around the words, it’s more than clear what she thinks of this impulsive, erratic behaviour.

“Elope?” Dan asks, mildly intrigued. He’d been under the impression that this rich playboy was a renowned perpetual-bachelor. “So he’s married now?”

“Honestly, Dan,” Louise says with a tinkling laugh. “Don’t know how you could’ve missed it! When the media found out he’d run off and wedded some nobody from Manchester they had a field day! Even I heard about it, all the way up here, where the newspapers are only delivered once a week, and that’s if Kaspar even remembers to bring them.”

“Like I said,” Dan says uncomfortably. “I don’t really follow that stuff.”

“Well, now might be the time to catch yourself up to speed,” Mona says, one eyebrow raised as she surveys him, unimpressed. “As the gentleman you just attempted to accost in our lobby is Sir Nikolai’s recent groom, and therefore a distant member of the Royal family.”

Dan’s face pales, and he places the empty bowl in his hands down, feeling suddenly nauseous. “He… that guy?”

Louise laughs, radiant and bright, bouncing off the chrome surfaces of the kitchen. Dan tries to wrap his head around the new information, feeling de-stabled. He supposes that he understands the physical appeal of the man he met just now, but surely even Sir Nikolai would be put off by the resting bitch-face, or the general rudeness. Dan expects that young men like Sir Nikolai are used to having people fawn over them; he can’t imagine Mr NovaScotia-or-whatever doing anything akin to fawning.

When Dan focuses back on Mona, she’s fighting an amused smile. “Mr Novokoric is actually quite sweet, I’ve found. But he does have a rather… spiky set of barriers up, until you get to know him.”

Dan snorts quietly, thinking privately that he would have phrased it a little differently. Possibly he would have adopted Louise’s imaginative term ‘dick-brain’. In no circumstance can Dan ever imagine being as rude to customer service staff as that man had been to him earlier. Having worked in retail and hospitality all his life, Dan is painfully aware of how shit it is to deal with irate customers; he feels that working those jobs at least once should be a rite of passage for anyone to go through, so that they can learn how to be decent human beings. He’d bet that Mr Nobby-ski-head has never set foot on the other side of the till. Like his husband, he’s probably an elitist twat, privately educated and living off his parents’ money.

“If you say so,” Dan mutters. “You said he was a permanent guest?”

Mona nods, glancing at her watch; they’ve been discussing this for too long for her liking, evidently. “More or less, yes. Our only suite is permanently rented out under Sir Nikolai’s name, but his husband is the one who lives there most of the time.”

“Doesn’t he have a mansion somewhere to lounge around in?”

“I don’t know the ins and outs of it, Dan,” Mona says, impatiently. “It’s not exactly my place to pry into such matters. All I know is that he’s married to a Royal, and for whatever reason, he spends most of his days alone here, either in the suite on the top floor, or out on the slopes somewhere.”

He nods, feeling strangely guilty for his probing question. He has no idea why he’s interested at all, really. What’s interesting about a severe, cold dick-brain with a superiority complex and no manners? Sure, he’s… striking to behold, but that doesn’t make him worthy of dwelling upon.

He’s about to say something dismissive to this effect, but then he notices that Mona is already heading for the door. He grabs his bowl, about to speedily wash it up in the sink, but Louise snatches it from him and makes a shooing motion, then winks at him. He grins, grateful, and chucks the remains of his coffee down his throat before following Mona out of the kitchen.

(Chapter Three!)

[dxmedstudent]

Do you think medical training breeds mental illness? Being a 4th year med student, I feel that my anxiety&depression have skyrocketed since starting school. So many (frankly, useless) tests that define whether or not you’re going to be a good doctor. Doing rotations with attendings who get off on embarrassing&belittling students (not all, of course, but many). The absolute fuckery of applying to residency & the thought that all your hard work for 4 years could be for nothing if you don’t match.

Sorry for venting in your inbox. I just think the entire process is unhealthy & leaves students/residents feeling stressed, inadequate, and burnt out. I don’t think it needs to be this way. I know I’ll be a good doctor. I am so compassionate and care so much about patients. But because I can’t answer multiple choice questions well, I’m not going to be as good of a doctor? Because I didn’t join a million clubs/have leadership positions/do research, I don’t look at desirable to programs? It sucks.             

Hey, No need to apologise! It’s an issue dear to many of our hearts. I think it’s fair to say that medicine has a complex relationship with mental health. On the one hand, medicine attracts certain types of individuals; driven, organised, perfectionist. People who expect a lot from themselves and are used to pushing themselves very hard. People who are therefore at reasonable risk of struggling if they can’t quite reach the very standards they set themselves; I’ve seen a lot of people struggle with adjusting to the reality that med school and working in medicine is very different to secondary school.But medicine is also a very stressful environment that poses huge challenges. Med schools, as you say are very pressured; often lots of tests, it can feel like a constant struggle to pass each hurdle. The tests can feel endless, and sometimes it’s hard to see just why we’re learning all this information. Universities don’t always set out their training in ways that are conducive to student wellbeing; a lot of people struggle during med school and need support. Bullying is absolutely not acceptable, but it still occurs, for students and for doctors, and that absolutely has a huge effect on morale. When you feel belittled by a senior, you can’t wait to finish that rotation, and it makes every day you come into school or work an absolute nightmare. When you graduate, working as a doctor has its own pressures. There’s time pressure, sheer volume of workload, emotional impact, and making complex decisions that require juggling a large amount of specialised information. It’s intense.  There’s a reason so many of us have depression and anxiety (and other mental health problems, and at least part of it is that parts of our jobs are often depressing, and the pressure of trying to be a good doctor and not killing anyone are frankly anxiety-inducing. Many of us are suffering, but it’s down to more than individual life problems (though we all have those, too). There are many institution wide and systemic factors that contribute to the mental health status of the workforce as a whole, and I don’t think we’re always doing enough to address these problems. I can’t comment on US residency, though I think things are similarly stressful here. The thing is, medicine is full of talented, smart people who work hard. Sometimes they look great on paper, sometimes they get by. And you are more than how good you look on paper; when you look after a patient, they don’t even know what your CV is like. All they care about is that you treat them with respect, and you do your best for them. That you try your best to keep them safe. I know you’ll be a good doctor, and you’ll find your niche. Do your best, but don’t let the system destroy your sense of who you are. Perhaps my medblr friends who’ve struggled with The Match can say some helpful words, I don’t know much about your system over there. But I know that you are far more than anything an application system can reduce you to. You burn with the incandescent passion of a raging star; don’t let someone diminish your light just because they can’t appreciate it. Maybe that’s all they see, but that’s not who you are. If you’re interested, I collect my previous posts on mental health and medicine under the tag #mental health and medicine.

[movedto-dazaipositive]

I've seen way too many people struggle with this, sit the fuck down while I teach you how to find good fic on ao3

my criteria are:

good writing. that's my priority. the best fic with bad writing is near unreadable for me because I get headaches.

+ if it has favourite my kinks/tropes/pairings

if you're the same, or similar, here's how you work ao3 to your advantage

start with a rec list from tumblr. it may take a while but you can usually tell from the summary of a fic whether the writing is good. read the fic. did you like it? create a rating scale.

for me, 4s and 5s go in my bookmarks. 2s and 3s get kudos. 1 gets a click out. bye.

I'm a terrible person and I only comment if I have something to say. I have social anxiety (before you come screaming at me to always comment). and lemme tell you that no matter what anyone says/tries to guilt you into, you only have to comment as often as you have the energy to. on the other have I leave kudos on almost every fic I read through to the end.

okay now you've read one (1) fic. scroll to the top (leave a kudo). check the tags. does anything there interest you?

option 1- it does, go click on it. chances are it's a filtered tag. so just below the headline telling you # fics in [tag], you have four options. click on filters. let's say you're searching for f/f fics in the alternate universe: soulmates tag, and you only want to read complete fics in the overwatch fandom. there's a little box down that says complete only. check it. note go look for overwatch under >fandoms. if it isn't there, type it into additional tags. it will search within fandom automatically. now here's the fun part. at the top it says sort by. the default option is date updated, but if you sort by kudos, comments, or bookmarks, then you get the best fics at the top.

don't sort by hits–that tends to put the longest fics at the top. longer fics on ao3 always have more hits.

fucking enjoy yourself. you've hit a goldmine of good fic.

you can get more specific in additional tags: type in 'angst', 'fluff', 'enemies to lovers'–go wild.

option 2- nothing on the tags catches your fancy, but you like the author/their writing/the tropes/the way they interpret your faves. whatever. click on the author's name. fantastic! you've accessed their dashboard. the front page shows you their fandoms, their 3 latest fics, series, and bookmarks. look for fics in your fandom. you'll get lucky quite a bit–a lot your favourite authors might turn out to be in your other fandoms. go crazy loving on their work.

OR go to your favourite author's bookmarks. here you'll find your faves' faves, and that's a great feeling. great authors have great taste. you can also filter their bookmarks to search for stuff within your fandom/with your favourite trope.

I have given you all my secrets. go forth and live a blessed life.

give back to your community. make rec lists. talk up your favourite authors and their fics on your blog or to your friends. if you're shy about commenting, that's okay. authors are not going to hate your guts because you felt too depressed to comment that day. leave kudos liberally–they cost you nothing and they may make your favourite author's day. leave kudos even on stuff that wasn't that good. it's okay.

if you're afraid of being judged for your weird kinks or smth like that–it's okay. lots of people out there are into the same niche stuff you are. if nobody is writing what you want, write it yourself. I guarantee that someone will love you for it.

you can always make your bookmarks private. you can always turn a google doc into a private rec list that you only give out to some people. it's okay.

don't be mean. you are going to come across strange and disturbing stuff. click out. use the back button liberally. you are not obliged to read something to the end if it doesn't interest you. you are not obliged to read things that make you uncomfortable. breathe. click out. keep yourself safe first. that's your number one priority.

something makes you uncomfortable/feel some way/freaked out? change tabs. x out of there. drink some water. it will pass. watch some youtube. you will be fine. don't leave a hate comment–things are never that bad. never.

in conclusion: stay safe, make yourself happy first, find the stuff you want to read instead of angsting over how much bad (by whatever standard) fic exists. you're okay. have fun.

[seowarlocks]

Social Media Wars in 2021

As socially inclined creatures, human beings have embraced technology that connects us with others. Every year, there is an increasing number of people signing up for and using social media. While there weren’t even a billion people using social media back in 2010, the number exceeded more than 2 billion within just five years. In 2019, there were around 2.77 billion people using social media. And, with smartphones and internet connectivity becoming cheaper and easier to access, we should expect to see these numbers grow even higher. By 2021, more than 3 billion people will be using social media. What this means for marketers is that there is huge potential to reach a massive and engaged audience on social media. And that’s not just limited to the popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. In this post, you’ll discover 75+ social media sites that you can include in your social media marketing strategy for 2020. Some of these platforms could even help you build valuable connections in your areas of interest. These are 77 of the most popular social media sites that you should know about in 2020. If you’re a marketer, some of these platforms can help you promote your brand and products. They can also help you expand your network. If you’re an influencer or a consumer, you can use these sites to connect with like-minded individuals and build better connections.   75+ Social Media Sites You Need to Know in 2020:

#1: Facebook

Facebook is currently the largest social media site in the world. With 2.6 billion monthly active users as of 2020, it’s safe to say that nearly every social media user is on Facebook. So it’s an excellent platform for brands to market their products to a huge audience. Users can share text posts, links, images, and videos with their Facebook friends. They can follow famous people and pages and react to people’s posts on the platform. Brands can also promote their products using paid ads on Facebook.

#2: Instagram

Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social networking platforms. While it is mostly app-based, users can also access their feed through the website version. In June 2018, it finally reached 1 billion monthly active users. Instagram is a highly visual platform, where users share videos and images. You can also use Instagram Stories and Live features. It is very popular among the younger generations. According to Statista, 32% of users are aged between 18 and 24 and 33% are aged between 25 and 34.

Image: Statista

#3: Twitter

Twitter is a platform that lets users stay on top of trending topics and engage in relevant conversations. In 2019, the platform had over 330 million monthly active users. While it doesn’t have as many users as other top social media sites, it does have a highly engaged user base. Twitter users send out at least 500 million tweets per day on average.

#4: Tumblr

Tumblr is another leading social media site. Users can join communities and participate in cultural dialogues to expand their ideas. It’s one of the top social media sites for self-expression and is very popular among teens and fandoms. In February 2020, there were a total of 321 million unique visitors to the website.

Image: Statista

#5: LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a social media site for professionals and is very popular among a B2B audience. The platform has grown rapidly over the years and currently has 690 million members.  Members can expand their professional connections on the platform, showcase their portfolios, and search and apply for jobs. LinkedIn is also an excellent platform to share your professional expertise, as it allows members to publish blog posts that reside on the platform.

#6: WhatsApp

WhatsApp is a messaging app that lets users share text messages, images, voice notes, audio files, documents, and videos. It has grown exponentially over the years and had about 2 billion monthly users as of March 2020. Along with its growing user base, the platform has also introduced many new features to make interactions easier among users. While users could only make one-on-one calls before, it now has a group calling feature. They also introduced a WhatsApp Status feature that allowed users to update photo, video, and text statuses that disappeared after 24 hours. As of Q1 of 2019, 500 million users were updating their WhatsApp Statuses daily.

Image: Statista

#7: Snapchat

Snapchat is another highly visual social media platform that’s popular among the younger generation. Users can send snaps to each other and update 24-hour Statuses just like on WhatsApp and Instagram. In Q1 of 2020, it had 229 million daily active users who are highly active on the platform.

#8: Pinterest

Pinterest is a virtual scrapbooking social media site and is therefore, highly visual. Users can create themed boards and add images and products to the board. Brands can even create Shoppable Pins through which users can directly make purchases. In 2019, there were 335 million monthly active users on the platform. These users have created more than 200 billion pins on over 4 billion boards.

#9: Reddit

Reddit is a social media site where users become part of subreddits and engage with other users on relevant topics. It is also somewhat of a news aggregator site since users share the latest news from different sources on the site. Other users will then interact with this news, upvote or downvote it, and comment on it. It has a huge community and gets over 1.3 billion monthly visitors. It gets most of its traffic from the US, followed by the UK and Canada.

Image: SimilarWeb

#10: YouTube

YouTube is the largest video-sharing social media site in the world. It lets users upload videos on the platform, view videos from other users, and interact with them. In 2019, it had an average of 2 billion monthly active users. YouTube users spend an average of 40 minutes watching videos on the platform.

#11: Mix

Previously StumbleUpon, Mix is a news aggregator social media site that lets users curate their favourite content from around the web and add it to their “Collections”. It provides several browser extensions and also has iOS and Android apps.

#12: Tagged

This social media site acquired the once popular hi5 social media platform in 2011. It is mainly focused around friendship and dating. Users can connect with others through common interests, games, browsing profiles, and more.

#13: Nextdoor

Nextdoor is a private social network for dedicated neighbourhoods. You can enter your street address and find a community of people living in your area. While it was previously just for neighbourhoods in the U.S., it has now expanded to other parts of the world. You can now use it from the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Sweden, and Denmark.

Image: Nextdoor

#14: DeviantArt

Deviantart calls itself the world’s largest social media community for artists and art enthusiasts. Users can share photos of their artwork, discover the work of other artists, and interact with other members of the community. According to the platform, it currently has more than 44 million registered users and 45+ million unique visitors each month.     

#15: Quora

Quora is one of the largest social networks for people to ask and answer questions about hundreds of topics and categories. This includes everything from language and career to mythology and marketing. As of 2018, it had 300 million monthly active users. If you have any question that internet results cannot answer, you can post it under a relevant category. You can even send answer requests to experts on the topic.

#16: Meetup

Meetup is a social media site that does exactly what its name says – it helps connect users with local groups to meet up with new people. Groups can organise events for like-minded people to get together. You can find groups in a wide range of categories including outdoors and adventure, tech, photography, language and culture, music, and more. It is most popular in the U.S., which contributes to 49.9% of its traffic, followed by the U.K., which contributes to 7.95% of its traffic.

Image: Meetup

#17: ReverbNation

ReverbNation is one of the most reputable social media sites dedicated to musicians. They can promote their music through the platform and reach a bigger audience. They can even make money off of their tracks by selling them to fans or distributing them to major digital platforms. Besides these basics, ReverbNation also offers a host of tools and features to help musicians build their careers.

#18: Flixster

Flixster is another niche social media site with a focus on film. It’s an American-based site where film enthusiasts can connect with like-minded people and share their film reviews and watching experiences. You can use this platform to learn about new movies and see what others think of it. You can also use it to book movie tickets for watching movies in a theatre.

#19: Goodreads

Goodreads is another niche social networking site, but this one focuses on books. Book lovers can connect with fellow bookworms and share their book reviews. The site also provides them with book recommendations based on their reading history. Users can join virtual reading clubs and socialise with like-minded individuals.

Image: Goodreads

#20: Twitch

Twitch is a live-streaming platform, mostly used by gamers to stream their game play or watch other gamers. Users can interact with live streams from other gamers and comment on them or upload videos to Twitch for their audience. It has about 5 million monthly broadcasters.

#21: CaringBridge

CaringBridge is one of the only social media sites of its kind. It’s a personal health journal that connects people with their loved ones during a health journey and allows them to provide support. It’s an excellent platform for people who are undergoing serious illnesses and health struggles as it helps them stay connected with people who care about them.

#22: Wattpad

Wattpad is a social media community of readers and writers. The platform sees a ton of user-generated stories across various genres including fiction, poetry, humour, and even fanfiction. It currently has about 70 million readers worldwide.

Image: Wattpad

#23: Viadeo

Viadeo is another professional social networking site that connects business owners and entrepreneurs with one another. It is more popular in Europe than in the U.S. and is available in different languages ranging from English and French to German and Portuguese.

#24: Crunchyroll

Crunchyroll is the go-to platform for anime enthusiasts to stream the latest anime shows and read popular mangas. It’s also a social media site where users can interact with each other and engage in anime-related discussions through the forums.

#25: Skyrock

Skyrock is a France-based social networking site, where users can create profiles and blogs and interact with other members. Music, sports, and film blogs are the most popular on this platform. With Skyrock, you get free, personal web space to create and share blog posts and talk to others. You can also search for profiles of other users by using their search filters like location, gender, age, etc. You can also post images, like on Instagram, and others can like and comment on them.

Image: Skyrock

#26: VK

VK is a Russian social media site. While it’s also available in other languages, it is mostly popular among Russian speakers. Users can create groups and public pages, organise events, and message other users. They can also share images, video, and audio or even play browser-based games.

#27: MyHeritage

MyHeritage is a genealogy-based social media site. Users can create family trees, upload and view family photos, and update their family histories. People have even used the platform to find their ancestors and learn more about them. MyHeritage has also introduced DNA testing so users can more accurately trace back their family histories and discover their blood relations.

#28: LiveJournal

This is a blog-based social media site where users can create blogs and journals for other users to read. The platform also curates the top blogs and communities so users can easily access the most popular content on the platform.

Image: LiveJournal

#29: Classmates

Classmates is a social media site that connects you with your ex-classmates and school alumni. Users can easily plan their high school reunions through the platform and access their high school yearbook.

#30: SoundCloud

SoundCloud is a music-sharing social media platform where users can upload their original tracks or listen to tracks from other artists. They can add music to their playlists and comment on parts of a track that they like for other users to see.

#31: Bubbly

Bubbly is a voice-based social media site where users can create voice posts and tag and customise them with relevant images and filters. They can also find and connect with celebrities and artists to listen to what they have to say. Users can also share their voice posts to other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

#32: Flickr

Flickr is a photo-sharing social media site that’s a favourite among photographers and graphic designers. You can share original, high-quality images on the platform or discover relevant images from other users. You can also join groups and connect with new people with shared interests.

Image: Flickr

#33: We Heart It

This is another image-based social media site where users can discover and curate their favourite images into their collections. There are several channels on the platform including art, music, school, quotes, and more. Users can check out these channels for relevant images to inspire them.

#34: Influenster

Influenster is a product review and discovery platform where users can view honest reviews from other consumers. They can gain access to reviews of products across various categories ranging from beauty and makeup to tech and electronics. They can also submit their own reviews of products they’ve used. The platform will measure each user’s social impact by collecting data from leading social media platforms. Based on this analysis, users can even become part of influencer marketing campaigns relevant to their interests.

#35: FilmAffinity

Another social media site for film enthusiasts, FilmAffinity is a movie recommendation platform. Users can rate the movies they’ve watched and get movie recommendations based on their favourite genres.

Image: FilmAffinity

#36: Open Diary

Open Diary is one of the earliest social media sites, founded in 1998. Users can keep a virtual diary to record their daily lives and deepest thoughts. The Open Diary community will be able to access these entries and interact with them. You can even create anonymous posts to share thoughts and experiences that you can’t talk about with anyone else.

#37: Yelp

Yelp is a crowd-sourcing review website where users can share their opinions about local establishments. It’s a great way to find the most recommended places and events in your area.

#38: CollegeHumor

As the name suggests, CollegeHumor is a humour-based website that features fresh humour articles and videos on a daily basis. In addition to content from its in-house team, users can also access memes, articles, images, and videos submitted by other users.

#39: Gaia Online

Gaia Online is an anime-themed social media site where users can participate in trending conversations through forums. They can also explore the platform to meet new people with shared interests and play browser-based games.

Image: Gaia Online

#40: MocoSpace

This is a mobile social community where users can connect with other members through public chat rooms and group chats. They can also engage in private chats with other users. They can play mobile games, send eCards, and more.

#41: CouchSurfing

This social media site connects travellers with people from all over the world. They can discover locals in the destinations they’re visiting, request to stay with them, and meet other travellers.

#42: Funny or Die

Funny or Die is a humour-based social website that mainly focuses on video content. Users can view the latest trending videos and upload their own humour videos. In addition to videos, the website also publishes some humour articles and lists to entertain the community.  It is frequented by several celebrities like Will Ferrell, Selena Gomez, and Jeff Goldblum.

#43: italki

italki makes language-learning easier by connecting users with native language teachers through video chat. This helps language learners to get interactive, one-on-one tutoring sessions so they can easily learn the language of their choice. They can choose from thousands of teachers in any language.

#44: eToro

eToro is a social trading platform that allows users to follow leading traders in the community and connect with other traders. Users can also earn some extra income by having other traders copy their trading strategies and portfolios.

Image: eToro

#45: XING

This is a career-oriented social media site that helps people expand their professional networks. Users can conduct a job search, get the latest industry news, and discover professional events like conferences, seminars, and trade shows. It is mostly a European-focused website.

#46: MeetMe

Previously known as myYearbook, this social media site helps users discover new people to connect with. You can discover new people in your area to connect with and people who share your interests.

#47: Ravelry

There’s a social media site for everyone and for every niche interest. Ravelry is a dedicated social network for people who are interested in knitting and crocheting. They can connect with people who share the same interests and share ideas and inspiration with them.

#48: Care2

Care2 is a social media site for activists, where they can discover trending stories and petitions from around the world. The community is made up of more than 45 million people who want to make the world a better place and stand against cruelty and injustice.

Image: Care2

#49: YY

YY is one of the biggest social media sites in China, where users share video content with other users. It has more than 300 million users and allows group video chats. Like Twitch, users can watch a single video of someone engaging in an activity. These activities can range from tutorials to karaoke.

#50: Vero

Vero is a social media site where users can share their favourite things with the community. They can share songs, photos, books, and movies. The platform markets itself as a social network that cares about building real connections between users and doesn’t use data mining and algorithms.

#51: Medium

Medium is a content publishing site with some social network elements to it. Members can publish content on the site and share it with other users. They can “clap to” and comment on posts created by other members. While most articles are free to read, some of them are reserved for paying members.

#52: GIPHY

This is an online database of animated GIFs that are usually humour-based. Users can upload their own GIFs or search for and discover GIFs created by other users. They can react to their favourite GIFs and even share them with friends on other social media platforms.

Image: GIPHY

#53: Tribe

Tribe is a cloud-based community where consumers can connect with a brand community. Users can engage in conversations and discussions under specific brands. They can explore and follow different brands, ask questions, start discussions, and create polls relevant to the brands.

#54. Tencent QQ

This is a Chinese instant messaging platform that was initially launched only in China but later expanded to 80+ countries. It supports text messages, voice calls, and video calls. It also has a built-in language translator to help you communicate with people who speak a different language. It had 647 million users in China, in 2019.

#55. WeChat

WeChat is a popular messaging app that allows you to connect with people using your app ID. This makes it possible to talk to strangers without divulging your phone number or other information. So, the unique selling point (USP) of this app is it helps maintain anonymity when connecting with strangers. You can use it to send text messages or share photos and videos. It also supports voice and video calls. It has 1.2 billion monthly users as of 2020.

#56.Qzone

QZone is another app from the makers of QQ and WeChat—Tencent. This social media platform is very popular in China with as many as 517 million users currently. You can use it as a blog, an online diary, a platform to share photos, watch videos, listen to music, and more.

#57. TikTok

TikTok is a short-form video sharing platform that has become quite popular within a short span of time since its launch in 2016. It was created by the Chinese company, ByteDance, and has a Chinese version called Douyin. This app is famous for its lip-sync videos and has over 800 million monthly users.

#58. Sina Weibo

This is a Chinese microblogging and social networking website with over 516 million monthly users. It is often called the Chinese version of Twitter because it is actually quite similar in the sense that people share short updates and posts just like a tweet.

#59. Kuaishou

This is a Chinese video-sharing platform that has been active since 2011. It has over 400 million monthly users in over 9 countries.

#60. Skype

It is a communication-based social networking platform that is most popular for making video conference calls. It also provides instant messaging functionality and you can use it to share texts, images, videos, and audio files.

#61. Viber

Viber is an instant messaging platform from the Japanese company Rakuten. It can be used on both mobile devices and desktops. You can use it to make free voice or video calls and send messages. It had over 1 billion registered users in 2019, however, not all of these are active users.

#62. LINE

LINE is a popular Japanese social network that also attracts users from other countries like Thailand. You can sue it to send messages and make free voice or video calls. It also allows photo and video sharing options.

#63. LINE PLAY

It is an avatar-based network, like a virtual world. It combines elements of both a game and a social networking platform. You simply need to create your avatar and meet people online from anywhere in the world. It has over 65 million users. It is available as a mobile app as well.

#64. The Dots

This is a professional networking platform for people who are in creative fields. It is a good space to collaborate with others, find jobs or clients, and upskill yourself. You can also talk to other experts in your field and seek advice from them. Overall, it is a great platform to showcase your work and get discovered. You can check it out in your browser or download their iOS app.

#65. Telegram

This is an instant messaging platform that is somewhat similar to WhatsApp in that you can use it to send free messages. One unique benefit of Telegram is that all the messages shared on this platform are encrypted and can self-destruct. So, when it comes to security and privacy, it gets a big thumbs up. Another great feature is that it allows you to create groups of as many as 200,000 members, which is more than what other messaging platforms offer. It is available for both iOS and Android devices, as well as desktops. It has over 400 million users.

Image: App Store

#66. Foursquare Swarm

Foursquare is a search-and-discovery based app that helps users discover nearby places by providing recommendations. Foursquare is so much more than a social media platform but is also a location data and technology platform. Their social networking feature is now available as a separate product called Swarm. It is a social networking app that has Foursquare’s popular functionality of check-ins when visiting a place.

#67. Douban

This is a culture-oriented Chinese social media site with a focus on movies, music, and books. You can use it to create fan pages or review books, movies, etc. It also has the option to create groups to discuss specific topics. The average audience on Douban is more educated and culture-oriented than any other social media site in the country.

#68. Discord

Discord is the preferred instant messaging platform for gamers. A lot of gamers use it to create team channels and discuss game strategy. You can use it directly from your browser or download the app. Even though it is popular for gaming groups, it can be used for creating practically any type of group and connect over a group chat. It can be a book club, a movie club, and even a study group. So, with Discord, the possibilities are endless.

Image: Discord

#69. Badoo

It is a social media cum dating platform where you can create your profile and find people with similar interests. The platform claims to have over 474 million registered users who send 350 million messages every day, on average. This makes it one of the largest social discovery platforms in the world. It is available across devices and platforms and provides multiple login options. It is available for use in over 200 countries. You can use it to find people in your location and make friends.

#70. Myspace

Myspace is one of the older social networking platforms. In fact, it was the largest social platform almost a decade ago and was extremely popular in the US. The rise of other platforms like Facebook and Twitter eventually led to a decline in its popularity. However, Myspace is still active and gets monthly traffic of over 7.5 million users. The main focus of the platform is on music, but it is also quite popular for blogs.

#71. Mixi

This is a Japanese social networking site that started as an invite-only service but can now be used by anyone. You can use it to find and connect with people who have similar interests. It has over 2.7 million community groups based on different hobbies and interests. The platform also provides you with the option to create and join events for people with specific interests.

#72. Ravelry

This is a niche, hyper-targeted social media site for people who like knitting, weaving, and crocheting. The purpose is to discover ideas, share your own work, and seek advice. It is a free site and provides tons of resources for knitters and crocheters.

#73. Cellufun

It is a social gaming community where you can create avatars, play games, socialise, and purchase virtual commodities. The site is free to use, but you can pay to get additional features using FunCoins, their virtual currency. It can be used on both mobile and desktop devices.

#74. Xanga

This is a social networking platform for bloggers and allows you to create and share blog posts. The social networking aspect is that you can create your profile, connect with friends, and share blog updates with your subscribers like you would for a social media post. Friends and subscribers are two different categories. Subscribers can follow you and get updates on your blog. Friends, on the other hand, can have a more direct connection with you. They are currently updating their platform and will soon launch Xanga 2.0 with updated features.

#75. Imgur

This is an American social media image-sharing site somewhat similar to Instagram, but not quite. It is mostly popular for sharing viral images and memes and is not as versatile as some other platforms. However, it does provide features like hashtags and topic-based content search.

Image: Imgur

#76. Ello

Ello is a niche social media platform for and global community of artists. You can use this to showcase your work, look at other artists’ creations, and connect with them. The platform is visual and vibrant in nature. So, even if you are not an artist, you can always check out the beautiful work done by them.

#77. Vimeo

This is another video-sharing social media platform like Twitch or YouTube. You can create and share videos or go live, just like you can on any other video platform. It is a paid platform and the plans start at $7 per month.                 Which social network has the most users? We have covered a whole range of social media sites in this post. However, despite all the new social sites opened in recent years, Facebook is still the social network with most users. During the first quarter of 2020, Facebook reported that it had 1.73 billion daily active users (DAU). It has 2.6 billion monthly active users (MAU). The second most popular social network is YouTube, with 2 billion monthly active users (MAU), who watch 250 million hours daily.   What are the top 5 social media sites? We have covered a considerable number of social media sites in this post. With nearly 3 billion people using social media, there is a vast range of apps to appeal to everybody. The five most popular social networks are: - Facebook – 2.6 billion monthly active users (MAU) - YouTube – 2 billion MAU - WhatsApp – 2 billion MAU - Facebook Messenger – 1.3 billion MAU - Weixin / WeChat – 1.165 billion MAU - Instagram and TikTok follow these.   What app will replace Instagram? Instagram will argue that they are still on the rise and that no other app is ready to replace them. Indeed, it is now the sixth most popular social app in the world with more than one billion users. Instagram's claim to fame is the emphasis it places on sharing images, so any potential replacement would also need this focus. This suggests a visual-focus social site, such as Imgur, Flickr, Snapseed, or Retrica.   What social media is best? It isn't easy to definitively state what social media is best. It all depends on your interests and tastes. If you want to be where everybody else is, Facebook is a clear winner. If you like videos, YouTube is an obvious starting place, although if you prefer short videos, TikTok may be more to your taste (or even Byte for video snippets). For quick turn-around comments, Twitter is ideal. Instagram is the main image-sharing social app, although many people love pinning images on Pinterest.   Who uses Instagram the most? A wide range of people uses Instagram. It is most popular in the United States, where it has 120 million users. 63% of Instagram users log in daily. 56.3% of Instagram's users are female, compared to 43.7% male. Instagram is popular with teenagers, with 72% of teens using Instagram. 30% of Instagram's audience is aged 18-24, and 35% aged 25-34%. An estimated 75.3% of businesses expected to be on Instagram in 2020.   How does FB make money? The vast bulk of Facebook's revenue comes from advertising. The company's revenue in Q1 2020 was $17.74 billion, which was up 18% compared to Q1 2019. This increase came about, despite a decrease in advertising revenue in March 2020, due to Coronavirus. The importance of advertising to Facebook is evident when you see that of that $17.74 billion revenue, $17.44 billion comes from advertising with only $297 million in other income.   What age group is on Instagram? Although Instagram has fans in all age groups, it is particularly beloved by the young. 35% of US teens consider Instagram to be their favorite social network. Looking at Instagram usage by age group: 18-24-year-olds: 75% use Instagram 25-30-year-olds: 57% use Instagram 31-49-year-olds: 47% use Instagram 50-64-year-olds: 23% use Instagram 65-year-olds +: 8% use Instagram       Read the full article

[theajaheira]

adapting

ao3

He should place some sort of advertisement in the paper. Wanted: Childcare for Potential Vampire Slayer; Emotional Support for Watcher.

(in which giles and buffy adjust to living on a hellmouth. well. mostly just giles)

lmao remember when i was talking about how this fic was going to be angsty? that fell tf apart. it has angsty parts but it’s a short fluff piece; one more of these & then i think we might get to some Actual Plot Things!

tagging @theforestlesbian as always <3

Giles had been in Sunnydale for two days when he nearly got jumped by a vampire on his way back from the grocery store, and it was then that he started considering that he'd made a pretty serious mistake coming to an active Hellmouth just to get away from the Council monitor. Keeping Buffy in his care was definitely not as important as keeping Buffy alive, and living here alone with no one to take care of Buffy if anything happened to him was most certainly a bad idea, which was why Giles was panicking at two in the morning and couldn't go to sleep.

Buffy was awake, but not because she'd been crying. Giles, wanting to remind himself of the one certainty in his life, had picked her up and out of her crib while he paced around her bedroom. She seemed somewhat upset by his anxiety, and kept on making concerned little whimpering noises that didn't really alleviate Giles's stress. He should place some sort of advertisement in the paper. Wanted: Childcare for Potential Vampire Slayer; Emotional Support for Watcher.

"You," he said to Buffy with some exhaustion, "need some sort of reliable care that isn’t me, because sooner or later I'll probably get murdered by some sun-resistant vampire. It's California, after all. I expect these people can withstand five thousand bloody degrees of heat even after they’re dead." He bounced Buffy in his arms, trying to distract himself. "I'd give you back to the Council if they weren't likely to just lock you in a room and set up a few magical wards to make sure you don't die before you get Called—"

Buffy began to cry.

Giles felt more than just a little bit horrible for passing his worry to Buffy. Part of him wished he'd just stayed at his desk job in the Council, never mind the shame he'd have brought on his family for not accepting a Potential when offered one. Maybe then Buffy would at least be with someone who could keep her safe, if not happy.

But Giles hated the thought of Buffy being alone—that was why he wanted her to have the chance to meet other children. She was such a social butterfly, always smiling and laughing at complete strangers, and Giles knew that the Council didn't approve of Potentials as mischievous and charismatic as Buffy, and who better to take care of her than someone who had dealt with mischievous, charismatic people on a daily basis back in college—lord, was that only seven years ago? It felt like so much longer.

"Shh," Giles murmured, bouncing Buffy in his arms. "Hush now, dear, everything's all right."

It wasn't, really, but he certainly shouldn't be worrying Buffy. Giles did wish there was a manual for rogue Watchers trying to secretly raise a child instead of prepare a Potential, something with affordable resources and self-help tips. It would be a niche sort of book, certainly, but it'd be better than whatever the hell seemed to be going on with him right now.

Buffy had stopped crying, but she still looked upset. Giles took her tightly curled fist in his hand and hummed an old song his mother might have sung to him, once.

 There were two daycares within Sunnydale city limits, and both were absolutely out of the question when it came to finding safe and affordable care for Buffy. One was two blocks away from a location where new vampires seemed to enjoy going to spend time, and the other had a two-hundred-dollar entrance fee and was located in the distastefully wealthy section of Sunnydale that Giles was trying his hardest to avoid.

Putting an advertisement in the paper did next to nothing except make Giles panic even more about the possibility of the Council finding it and asking questions he wouldn't be able to answer without incriminating himself and losing Buffy. Adding to Giles's panic was his worry that he was creating a negative home environment for Buffy anyway with all this worrying. He couldn't believe he was even thinking this, but he very much missed Los Angeles.

Growing more and more desperate, Giles decided to check out the two-hundred-dollar daycare. He could always dip into his emergency funds, if need be. Perhaps just a little time, enough for him to figure out something more permanent and definite.

"Hgb," said Buffy from her car seat. She'd started to vocalize a bit more precisely as of late, though nothing amounted to an actual word just yet. Currently, she was chewing on the arm of the small cloth doll Giles had bought her back in Los Angeles. She had grown incredibly attached to that doll, even more so than her old baby blanket.

"Right," said Giles with nervous determination, and pulled into the parking lot of Bright Smiles Daycare. In Giles's opinion, that name better suited a dentist's office, not some ridiculously overpriced daycare full of tiny children with extremely wealthy parents.

After getting out of the car, unbuckling Buffy from her car seat, and picking her (and the doll) up, Giles locked the car and surveyed the daycare from outside. It looked quite nice, it was in the part of town that seemed to have quite a lot of mansions, and it was well protected by a solid brick wall with a mural featuring many eerily smiling children painted near the gate. Giles wondered how desperate for childcare parents had to be in order to walk their children past these small painted goblins every day.

Then again, he thought, I seem to be rather desperate myself at this juncture.

"Welcome to Bright Smiles Daycare!" gushed a young woman standing at the door. She was holding a small child in her arms that looked perhaps Buffy's age, if a bit smaller. "You must be Rupert Giles! It's always a pleasure to meet a new member of the Bright Smiles family!"

Stepping into the perfectly symmetrical hallway and neatly organized artwork, Giles was very vividly reminded of the cult he'd had to join as part of an intelligence-gathering mission for the Council. He held Buffy protectively to his chest (Buffy, of course, was at this point very involved with babbling to her doll and didn't really notice) and stepped closer to the woman, inquiring, “Do you, um, have anything to eat?”

“Oh, of course!” said the woman warmly. "We have snacks for you, applesauce for your daughter—"

"Oh, she's not my—" Giles began reflexively, before remembering that he was trying to seem relatively normal to this perfectly nice young woman. "allergic to applesauce," he finished awkwardly. "Which is perhaps very good if that is what you have."

Buffy, taking advantage of her close proximity to the first child her age she’d ever met, threw the cloth doll at the other baby as hard as she could.

"Buffy," said Giles, mortified.

The doll bounced off the other baby’s face, and the other baby began to cry. The woman, whose expression had suddenly changed, said awkwardly, “Cordelia’s parents make very generous donations that help finance most of this daycare. I’m terribly sorry, but if your Buffy doesn’t get along with her, Bright Smiles might not be the best fit for you.”

“No, this is just her way of saying hello,” said Giles helplessly. “I think.”

Buffy was watching Cordelia with a sort of scientific interest. Cordelia seemed wholly unaware of the fact that she was being observed, too focused on crying as loudly as possible.

“I’m so sorry,” said the woman again, “but Bright Smiles can only afford to take on well-behaved and well-mannered children.”

Giles had accounted for the fact that he might not be all that good at finding Buffy a daycare. He hadn’t considered that Buffy might not be all that good at daycare in the first place, and it was very difficult to understand, particularly after spending so much time with Buffy. Buffy was excitable and sweet and, well, perhaps a bit rambunctious, but she was most certainly a lovely young girl that any daycare would be lucky to have, and—and he was still just standing here, not saying anything. “Well,” he said finally. “I’ll just search elsewhere, then. Good day to you.”

“Mr. Giles, we can perhaps discuss—” the woman began, but Giles was already turning and hurrying out of the daycare.

As soon as they were outside of Bright Smiles, Buffy began to wail. Giles turned and saw the woman, struggling with a still-sobbing Cordelia in her arms and Buffy’s doll in one hand. “I really am sorry,” she said apologetically. “We’re just a very exclusive place. We can’t afford—”

“Yes, thank you,” said Giles exhaustedly, and took the doll, handing it to Buffy. Buffy sniffled and stopped crying, going back to her usual pastime of chewing on the doll’s arm. “I expect we’ll need to look elsewhere, at any rate.” Turning, he hurried to the car, unlocking the door and placing Buffy into her car seat before climbing into the backseat himself.

“You’ve made my life very complicated, you know that?” he said softly to Buffy. “It’s rather impressive. You’re quite small, and yet you’ve caused nearly as much upheaval as Eyghon.” This was quite a exaggeration, but Giles just liked talking to Buffy. As of late, she rarely ever paid any attention to him while he talked, and it was strangely endearing. She lived in her own very happy little world.

Giles leaned back into the seat, thinking. It wasn’t just that Buffy had made a bad first impression, it was that he didn’t want Buffy to be in a place where he constantly felt like he was walking on eggshells. He didn’t want Buffy’s daycare to be dependent on how much money he could shell out to cover any misbehaviors, and he got the distinct sense that this was the sort of place that catered to the rich part of Sunnydale. All the parents who wanted an exclusive experience with only the most well-behaved children.

“I feel a bit bad for that Cordelia girl you threw your doll at,” he said to Buffy. “That sort of place seems as though it might not be the kindest.”

“Pshhh,” said Buffy happily.

Really, Giles thought, he needed some guidance, and there was only one resource in which he’d nearly always found consistently good advice.

 Buffy, sitting on the sofa with her beloved cloth doll, watched Giles with a large smile as he entered the room with the third box of books. Giles smiled back, feeling more than a bit reassured by the fact that someone seemed to have steadfast faith in him, even if that someone was a six-month-old who wasn’t well-behaved enough for daycare. “Daycare is rubbish anyway,” he informed her. “I didn’t go to daycare, and look how well I turned out.” He considered this, then winced. “Well. There are plenty of other people who didn’t go to daycare and turned out just fine.”

Buffy held out the cloth doll to Giles.

“Oh—” Giles placed down the box, crossing the room to take the doll from Buffy. “Thank you,” he said very seriously. He knew it was a bit early to start on good manners, but there was a parenting book he’d read recently that said encouragement was extremely beneficial to a growing child. Besides which, he did appreciate the gesture; Buffy didn’t give her doll to just anyone. Buffy did throw her doll at just about anyone, but giving her doll willingly was reserved for only Giles.

Tucking the doll into his front pocket where Buffy could still see it and know it was being taken care of, Giles turned back to the books. He’d brought along a few copies of Watcher journals that the Council had gifted to him, as infant Potentials weren’t generally all that common and the Council seemed to think Giles could use some frames of reference. Giles had been mostly ignoring them out of spite, but quite frankly, he was getting desperate. Perhaps among one of these books he might find some kind of a solution, some Watcher who softened to their Potential and wanted a better life for them.

But after a good two hours spent researching (or, more accurately, one hour spent researching, half an hour spent playing with Buffy—she was such a sweet child, and Giles didn’t want her to feel neglected—and half an hour preparing dinner for the both of them), Giles really hadn’t found anything of use. The Watchers’ diaries were dispassionate and disinterested in their charges, and Giles had the strong sense that these had been specifically selected to encourage a similar mindset for him.

It did make him very aware of one thing, though. These Watchers never really seemed to mention any sort of community or resources, instead putting a specific emphasis on how solitary their lives had become. One Watcher boasted that his Potential’s first encounter with another child didn’t take place until she was eight years old, and even then it was under incredibly controlled circumstances.

“The system is broken,” Giles informed Buffy, and was unexpectedly reminded of Ethan, both of them sprawled in the grass talking lazily about burning the world down. Giles had been frightened, he realized, by what had happened with Eyghon, stumbling to distance himself from rebellion so that no one would ever get hurt again. Choosing to raise Buffy the way he thought would be best was a sideways way of rebelling against the Council without really rebelling against the Council, and it still didn’t really address the actual problems he was creating with his careful approach. He had no real way to make sure Buffy wouldn’t go to another Council operative in the event of his death, no contacts he trusted, no community to fall back on, and he still felt as though impulsive, rebellious behavior was the absolute wrong way to go.

Buffy made a small whining noise and stretched a tiny hand toward the doll in Giles’s pocket. Turning, he absently handed it back to her, but she grabbed plaintively at his hand instead.

“Hello,” said Giles tiredly, managing a smile. “I’m sorry. It’s been a long day.” He sat down next to her on the couch, thinking. He couldn’t at all handle the idea of hosting some neighborhood get-together to meet people; pretending to be a single father for a long period of time would be difficult when faced with cheerful Americans eating his food. All he really wanted was someone he could reliably count on to take care of Buffy if anything happened to him—

The solution to his problems occurred to him quite abruptly. “Idiot,” said Giles to himself, picking up Buffy and making sure to add for her benefit, “Not you, dear, you’re very smart and let no one tell you otherwise.” Carrying Buffy down the hall to her bedroom, he placed her gently down in her crib before hurrying back to the living room to find a pen and paper.

 “You’re not serious.”

“I assume you received my letter?” said Giles cheerfully.

“We did. We’re calling to inquire what on earth would make you think legally adopting the Potential would be a good idea.” Travers’s voice was clipped and irritable. “That sort of thing makes placing her with another Watcher extremely difficult in the event of your demise. It would be significantly different were she British, but there is only so much we can do in regards to the American legal system.”

“Oh, I’m aware,” said Giles, who was feeling thoroughly proud of himself at the moment. “I simply feel that—well,” here he dropped his voice a bit dramatically, “I’m of the mind that it also makes things more difficult for any family member to step in. You don’t want just anyone swooping in and claiming guardianship of a Potential, Travers, do you?”

On the other side of the room, Buffy noticed a dog outside and started shrieking with delight.

“What on earth is that racket on your end?” Travers demanded.

“Television,” lied Giles, making a shh motion to Buffy (who, as usual, happily ignored him and pressed her hands up against the window while she stared at the dog). “Listen, Travers, I’ve been doing a bit of digging,” this part actually wasn’t a lie, “and this particular Potential has quite a few relatives in this area. I’d move, but I’m taking my research responsibilities quite seriously.”

“Mr. Giles,” said Travers, “tread carefully.”

Giles winced. That didn’t bode well. “I’m sorry?”

“These constant changes in your approach to training your Potential are giving me doubts,” said Travers. “I will support your request to adopt the child and pull a few legal strings, but only because you claim that there is danger of a relative ‘swooping in.’ I hope you understand that you make any more requests and we will conduct a very thorough investigation.”

Giles felt almost dizzy with delight. He did feel awful about using Buffy’s relatives as though they were pieces in some horrible game of chess. But he’d be able to make legal arrangements that would keep Buffy out of the hands of the Council in the event of his death, and that was truly comforting to him.

Buffy, meanwhile, was still very distracted by the dog, which was chasing a squirrel. “Go!” she shouted suddenly, and Giles nearly dropped the phone. “Go go go!”

“Mr. Giles?”

“Go!” Buffy crowed, and hit the window as though watching a high-speed chase.

Giles stared, eyes wide, and a slow, proud smile spread across his face. “Yes, of course,” he said. “Good day, Travers.”

“Good day.”

Giles waited for the click of the receiver before crossing the room to scoop Buffy up. She uttered a whine of protest, peering over his shoulder at the dog and the squirrel. “Go,” she informed Giles sulkily, which did make it a bit unclear as to whether she knew what she was saying was an actual word.

Giles chose to believe that she was just trying to be mysterious. “Yes, it did go,” he agreed. “But you can’t hit the window.”

 To celebrate their small victory, Giles decided to take Buffy on a walk to the nearby park. She’d been mostly cooped up since the daycare incident a few days ago, and he thought they could both do with a bit of fresh air. Besides which, he was more than a little bit proud of the high-quality stroller he’d gotten for Buffy, and he wanted to see if it worked as well as advertised.

Buffy was always very happy about getting dressed and going outside; she was a very sweetly cheerful little thing. Carefully buttoning Buffy’s tiny sweater, Giles lifted her up and into the stroller, tucking her doll in with her. “Now, if we meet any new children, kindly try not to throw things,” he instructed her.

Buffy smiled. It was very clear that she had no qualms about throwing things.

They lived in a refreshingly shady part of Sunnydale. Giles was not at all fond of the sun that the town’s name advertised, and very much missed the chill of England. Buffy very clearly loved the sun, but was willing to settle for the breeze and shade that the many trees in their neighborhood allowed. It was pleasant, Giles had to admit, and very lovely to walk with an excitable Buffy in her stroller (who had just seen a pigeon and was babbling happily in its direction) without all that many plans for the day. It felt like the sort of break he needed after the panic of their first week in Sunnydale.

“Do you suppose things will settle down?” Giles asked Buffy, stopping the stroller to peer down at her.

Buffy gave him a very irritated look, crossed her arms, and said, “Go.”

“You’re quite a demanding little girl, aren’t you,” said Giles affectionately, and went back to pushing the stroller.

[inceptionbigbang]

The day has come! The Second Round of Fic Claims for the Inception Big Bang is here. It's a second chance for you to work on any fics that you missed on the first round, and a chance to take on a secondary project.

Claims will work on a similar way to the last round, but we will give priority to fics that haven't been claimed and to artists that couldn't get any of their choices on the first round.

Fics have different numbers for my own organisation, to separate the rounds. Make sure you send the right numbers!

Without further delay, here they are:

21. When dreamshare is first developed, no one has totems. They've always gone into dreams for short amounts of time and always with another person, so there's no chance of someone forgetting their reality. Mal's friend Pip has consistently been pushing the boundaries of dreaming, and one day she decides to go a later deeper without Mal. When Mal wakes up, she realizes that Pip is still asleep and she has to go down after her where she basically incepts Pip with the idea of totems.

Gen

General audiences

No content warnings apply

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22. Arthur is a flight attendant. Eames is a passenger.

Arthur/Eames

Teen and Up – Mature

No content warnings apply

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23. Arthur learned a long time ago that he was special, and no else could see the strings.

Or, ‘everything is still the same, but Arthur can see Red Strings of Fate’ AU.

There are moments when Arthur thinks he needs to tell Eames about the strings. Owes him the truth, he thinks, Eames deserves to know. Other times – well.

Eames knows enough, and he has secrets of his own. Arthur is allowed this one.

Maybe someday it will come up on Sunday brunch, or something.

“Oh yeah, by the way, I can see red strings that I’m pretty sure are tied up to being literal soulmates and we have one. Get it? Tied up hehe. Anyway, no pressure or anything. Love the sex.”

Yeah, Arthur, that would go lovely.

Arthur/Eames

Teen and Up – Mature

No content warnings apply

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24. Eames on vacation after inception and stumbling upon Arthur; floppy haired, tanned and just completely the opposite of how Eames has ever seen him before.

Hawaii looked good on him, no better than good...

Arthur/Eames

Teen and Up – Mature

No content warnings apply

.

25. When Eames first moved to America, he was at a loss for things to cook. He wasn’t used to the supermarkets and ingredients he needed were expensive. So he Googled food bloggers and found Arthur’s blog. The weekly updates keep Eames going in his boring office job. It takes him a few months before he gets the courage to comment but it’s all downhill from there. Eames is lost with Arthur’s sardonic commentary and when Arthur’s next recipe is one Eames requested, he knows he’s in bad.

Arthur/Eames

Teen and Up – Mature

No content warnings apply

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26. Arthur and Eames meet as trust fund teens in a Manhattan private school. Eames is a new student who's just moved from overseas, and him and Arthur hit it off immediately. Friendship turns to a whirlwind summer romance, until Eames is forced to move back to London. They meet again many years later when Arthur has to kidnap Eames for a job.

Arthur/Eames

Teen and Up

No content warnings apply

.

27. Arthur is in love with Eames, and he's pretty sure Eames is at least interested in him back. Only problem? Arthur is ace, and not at all sure how Eames is going to react to that. But Arthur's going to talk to him about it, because the alternative is to lose even his friendship with the forger, and that's just not on.

Only the team is also determined to set the two of them up. Will that end up being a wrecking ball to Arthur's fragile attempts at making things work with Eames?

STORY OUTLINE:

Arthur is ace, and no one knows. When Eames invites Arthur to join him for Christmas, Arthur panics and says no - and spends the whole of Christmas regretting it. The team comes back from Christmas break, and everything is awkward. Arthur knows he has to say something or ruin his relationship with Eames forever, and he's going to do that at the New Year's party where Eames will hopefully be in a good enough

But unbeknownst to him, he's not the only one who's realized something needs to happen. Cobb, Ariadne and Yusuf agree that an intervention is in order. And when better to set their two friends up than at New Years? Get them kissing and surely the tension between them will resolve itself.

What could possibly go wrong?

At the New Year's party, Ariadne suggests playing a game of spin the bottle. Arthur is less than enthused, but Cobb and Yusuf both back up the idea. They play a few rounds before it lands on Eames, whom Ariadne dares to make out with Arthur.

There's an awkward beat before Eames moves to do it. Arthur reacts by freezing and shying away physically. Eames takes this a rejection and leaves the room. Arthur sits there, frozen, and then leaves too.

He goes to the bathroom and breaks down, blaming himself for being so stupid and backwards. Eames hears him, and comes in and comforts him. Once Eames realizes what the problem is - that Arthur is ace - he promises Arthur that it doesn't matter to him, he just wants to be close to him. Cue happy end credits.

Arthur/Eames

General

No content warnings apply

.

28. A songfic featuring Aubrey by Bread, studying Arthur and Eames and what their relationship might have been like before the Fischer job. The characters aren't going to resemble fanon (Arthur's closed-off persona and Eames's flirtiness). I'm going to try to expand more on what Nolan gave us during the movie (Arthur's straightforwardness and Eames's aloof/cold personality). Basically, Eames is distant and Arthur chases.

Arthur/Eames

Side: Dom/Mal

Teen and Up – Mature

Graphic Depictions of Violence*

* There might be a torture scene, but I'm still debating on whether or not I want that in the story.

.

29. This is an academia AU! Arthur is a struggling young professor trying to find his niche, Eames is the mysterious colleague he keeps (inadvisedly!) hooking up with at conferences.

Arthur/Eames

Mature

No content warnings apply

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30. A fic about arthur and eames and their first meeting in the military to all their other meetings in the criminal underworld of dreamshare. not that long, i'm aiming for 2.5k or maybe 3k if i can. i wanted to focus on their totems and how eames could use forging as a totem (because if he can't forge then he must be awake, right?) but he has a totem just in case. and arthur has a totem (the die from the movie) that he uses a lot more except when he happens to be taken and tortured for some secret or another and the only thing that convinces his brain that he isn't dreaming is the way eames stands when arthur aims a gun at him? if that makes sense....

here's a little bit of what i have written so far:

he’s more surprised at the lack of surprise he feels when eames digs a poker chip out of his desk. its blood red with gold and white accents, worth five thousand dollars at the particular casino it came from, disregarding the fact that it was arthur’s shitty first and last attempt at a real world forge after he participated in a poker game eames held on base many years ago and realized half the chips in the set were fake, pocketing a one thousand dollar chip to use as a reference.

“our totems match,” eames murmurs, flipping the chip over his knuckles with a concentration a bit too intense for something he could do in his sleep (ha).

“match how?” he asks, sipping a glass of orange juice, freshly squeezed because eames wanted to use the electric juicer. he's tempted to pull out his die from his pocket and roll to see it land on five, even though he knows this isn’t a dream.

“i have something that you made, and you have something i made. also, there’s some significance with the number five.”

Arthur/Eames

Side: Dom/Mal

Mature

Graphic Depictions of Violence*

*I put the Graphic Depictions of Violence just to be safe but i think it's less than what's shown in the film? because it's supposed to be like an after-torture scene where arthur is like "ouch i'm super hurt and drugged and don't know if i'm dreaming" but again i don't think it's any more graphic than the film at least. might keep that tag just to be safe though idk

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31. There was a small lake behind Arthur's house. The following night, he sat at its edge and stared at the moon's reflection in the water.

See something you like?

Arthur turned. A man was sitting next to him.

"Hello," Arthur said. "Thank you for helping me get home last night."

The moon smiled. "How did you know it was me?"

Arthur rolled his eyes. He picked up a pebble and tossed it into the water, watching the waves ripple the reflection. "How can you be here and there at the same time?"

The moon leaned back on his elbows and stared up at the sky. "Same way I can be in the lake and the sky at the same time."

Arthur frowned. "That's not the same thing. The lake's just reflecting the light from the moon. From you."

The moon turned to smile brightly at him. "Well aren't you a smart one, hm?" He leaned in and whispered, "I'm a reflection, too. We all are, at the end of the day."

Arthur thought about that. It didn't make sense, but that didn't mean it was wrong. He looked up at the moon in the sky, then at the moon sitting next to him.

"My name's Arthur," he offered. "What's your name?"

The moon looked at him strangely. "Eames. You can call me Eames."

"I'm going to be an astronaut, Eames," Arthur said. "Then I can come and visit you in the sky."

Eames smiled again. Arthur wouldn't have thought the moon liked to smile. "I would like that very much," Eames said. "Very much, indeed."

Arthur/Eames

General – Teen and Up

No content Warnings Apply

*This fic is a canon AU and will ultimately include the events in Inception.

.

32. It’s a follow up story to Cat Person.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11040948

First story summary:

Arthur misses his cat and would very much like to get another. He gets Eames instead.

Arthur/Eames

Teen and Up

No content warnings apply

Set in the Star Trek Universe

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33. Haunted House AU. Arthur’s working at a popular horror maze escape place to make some extra money over the summer. It’s far from his dream job—making minimum wage crouching behind dark trap doors and chasing random couples and tourists—but at least he gets to vent his frustrations about his coworkers (who are, frankly, driving him insane day by day) by literally screaming at customers. Then there’s Eames, who finds haunted houses boring, overrated, and not the least bit frightening, but is willing to humor a friend (Ariadne?) by accompanying her. But an encounter (and some painfully obvious flirting) with the cute guy under the ghoul mask is enough to make him want to come back again, and again, and again—

FEATURING:

- Cobb as the owner/boss and the only guy who actually takes his job seriously. He probably squints a lot because sunlight genuinely hurts his eyes lmao - Mal as his wife, who used to be an actress but left to start a business with Dom. Super sweet and kind of protective of their employees. Plays the main ghost. She’s terrifying. - Yusuf doing their costumes and makeup!!!!

- Arthur getting the job in the first place because his screams are so full of rage (let! him! rest!)

- Eames blowing all his cash on haunted house admission fees so he can flirt with Arthur (who plays different roles on different days, maybe? but Eames can always recognize him, even under the masks/makeup)

- he’s not trying to be creepy, he just wants to ask if he can see him outside of work/get his number—but something always goes wrong before he can

- Arthur being frustrated because Eames is a) distracting, and b) not easily scared, which doesn’t look good for his job. And it annoys him because he has a track record of being able to freak out anyone. He takes it upon himself to make him scream at least once (I haven’t decided how he does, but he does, eventually. Eames probably jokes about screaming with something other than fear, but i am too babey to write any sexytimes)

- maybe??? mild h/c?? Dumbass Drunk College Students coming in all wanting to prove to their friends that they're the Alpha Male, picking a fight and being super violent/rowdy/destructive, + arthur getting hurt/generally kind of shaken up; that’s the first night he lets eames really talk to him outside of the job, maybe even lets him take him home (i dont know if im including this scene for sure but..perhaps)

- Ariadne getting them banned from the haunted house after reflexively slapping Arthur in the face with a rubber snake (Cobb takes the ‘no touching the actors’ rule seriously—especially after what happened^). Eames thinks he’s lost his chance for good, but Arthur finds him outside and finally makes the first move :)

Arthur/Eames

General – Teen and Up

No content warnings apply

.

Ok folks, the next fics are or may eventually get explicit. Minors, we love you guys! Stay safe.

.

34. Arthur is an undercover narcotics officer posing as a high school senior. Eames is his teacher, who is taken with Arthur and who feels terrible for lusting after a student. Arthur takes down the bad guys, saves Eames' life, then they smash (after Eames finds out he's a fully grown adult person).

Arthur/Eames

Explicit

No content warnings apply

Eames is (shamefully) interested in Arthur, who he thinks is 18 and also his student.

.

35. Summary: Eames hasn't seen Arthur in almost four years.

Pseudo- Winter Soldier AU.

--

There's no response from Arthur, no recognition in his eyes. No banter, no teasing – a coldness that would leave any lesser man with severe frostbite.

"... Arthur?" The words sound so raw, so gutted in Eames’ mouth. "Are you-" are you alive? Are you dead? Am I dreaming?

He reaches for his poker chip.

But before he can trace the ridges for the familiar grooves, a shot rings out loud like a crack of lightning.

And the last thing that Eames sees is Arthur and how he always remembers him: in his whip-black suit and a smoking gun in his hand.

Bang.

A single bullet tears through Eames' temples, and he is ripped open, pain lighting every nerve in his body like a pinball machine – and he prays to god that this is merely a dream so he can finally wake up.

Arthur/Eames

Mature – Explicit

No content warnings apply

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36. Pre-movie: Dom and Mal are a dominant/dominant couple who want to find a sub they can play with together. Arthur is interested in trying to fill that role.

Arthur/Dom Cobb/Mal Cobb

Mature – Explicit

No content warnings apply

BDSM, dominance/submission, bondage, spanking/flogging, roleplay.

.

37. Arthur has a goldfish which, long story short, he has convinced himself he only needs to keep alive to prove he is not a hot mess. Except now it’s not looking so good and has a weird sore on its side and he doesn’t know what to do but he can’t just let it DIE. So he takes it to the vet and is scoffed at and told it is a feeder goldfish, they cost less than a dollar, just get a new one.

Two vets later and he’s at the end of his rope when he meets Dr Eames, whose dog is introduced as his PA and goes on all his rounds with him. Dr Eames doesn’t even question it, just starts the exam and tells Arthur to pet the dog and start at the beginning while he works.

Arthur/Eames

Teen and Up – Mature - Explicit

No Content warnings apply*

* Discussions of parental death.

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38. “Taxiing an injured delivery boy around the neighbourhood to help him complete his remaining orders had not been a contender on Eames’ list of potential scenarios for the night. Instead of the morose teenager bleeding onto the synthetic leather of the passenger seat, and the short stack of pizza boxes sliding to and fro across the backseat, the Brit had rather imagined his rental car would serve far more nefarious purposes tonight." -- Essentially, Pizza Delivery Porn Guy Crack A/E AU. Aim: comedic tone with bowchikkawowow.

*Arthur isn’t the teenager. He is a customer who ordered pizza.

Arthur/Eames

Mature – Explicit

No content warnings apply*

*There is mention of a traffic accident - no detail, but it might not be someone's cup of tea. Also, not yet at the sexual scene so don't know whether I'll stop at M or go to E.

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39. Eames is working with Arthur the first time in a long while, only now it seems that he has a huge crush on Arthur. He doesn't know how else to get rid of the crush and he really can't concentrate on the job when he's thinking about Arthur all the time, so he asks Arthur to have sex with him, to get the crush out of his system. Arthur agrees surprisingly easily and sex is great, but afterwards Arthur doesn't seem happy and Eames' crush is worse than ever. The more Eames tries to get rid of his crush, the more it sticks, and the less Arthur is talking to him. After the job, Eames has some time to think and he realises that maybe neither of them really wanted for him to get over Arthur. He goes to see Arthur to talk to him about it, but they end up kissing and stuff as well.

Arthur/Eames

Mature – Explicit

No content warnings apply

.

40. In the court of the vampire supreme Saito, ambitious human noblemen Eames and Arthur battle for the coveted position of favorite bestower. Winner takes life everlasting.

Arthur/Saito

Side: Arthur/Eames

Arthur/Dom Cobb

Eames/Saito

Explicit

Graphic Depictions of Violence

Bloodplay, Extreme Sadomasochism. Possible Necrophilia

.

If you've got any questions, send them our way!

[son-of-skarmory]

🐋 ?

Getting to know you Questions for the Mun!

🐋- share a Weird/funny story?

((I feel like you’ve heard most of my funny/weird stories! I talked about the escaped convict under our house, and nearly dying via motorcycle, and probably other less harrowing stories that I can’t think of right now...The awful art teacher I had and going back to rub the success of my ‘weakest piece’ in her face, how I got into circus arts...Have I talked about getting into circus arts? Let’s do that.

It’s long and not actually funny or weird-it ended up getting really deep and emotional. Be prepared, and check the tags for triggers.

So before I started high school, I went to this one-week LARP camp with Erin and another friend, and in the downtime after lunch you could usually either join in a big battle game or do some task towards a skill.

And on the third day they offered juggling. And I tried, and I wasn’t great, but something in me got hooked.

Fast foreword to freshman year of high school. Spirit Day of Homecoming Week, to be precise, when we had a shortened schedule so we could do the pep rally. It’s my off block, first thing in the morning, and I recently decided to try juggling again. I’m sitting in the main atrium, back against the wall, trying to juggle three balls...when the student resource officer approaches me.

I should mention I was incredibly confused by the degree of freedom given in high school at first. Like...I could just leave on my off block??? What??? So I thought I was in trouble for having toys.

The SRO asks if he can see my juggling balls (which were like...those foam golf balls? No real weight), so I give them to him thinking they were being confiscated...and he suddenly starts juggling. Turns out he used to be a Barnum and Bailey’s clown. 

He tells me that he and a friend have started a circus club for the high school, and they meet twice a week, and invites me to come.

The rest is kind of history. I learned juggling, face paint, rolla bolla, unicycle...they took us to a trapeze, brought in a professional magician to teach us, helped us put together a show at the end of the semester...But something really important happened the one time they took us to see the Ringling Brothers.

As you can all guess, I was not the most outgoing person in the world. What was more, and as some of you know, I was about a year into my mental health treatment, having wound up in the eating disorders unit of Children’s in eighth grade. But you might not know that I wasn’t going to my feeder school. I knew maybe six kids, going into the largest high school in my school district. It was really a recipe for disaster.

Circus was my lifeline. It gave me something to look foreword to, something to practice. Juggling gave me confidence, an endorphin boost, and a niche that made me, in my mind, interesting enough to talk to and befriend.

But I was still so painfully uptight and standoff-ish.

That night we went to the circus, at intermission when all the other kids got up from their seats to get food, that SRO sat down by me and just talked.

He talked about his time in a gang, and his struggle with drug abuse, and all sorts of things, and how clowning had helped him bring his life together. How he became and SRO and a youth minister, and how he wanted to give kids chances they wouldn’t have otherwise.

And he said, very specifically, that he didn’t know what my story was, and wasn’t going to force me to share...but that I was safe, and that it was okay to let myself be vulnerable and get out there and interact with people. That he saw how I lit up when I was juggling.

There’s this song I reference a lot. When people ask me about songs to describe me. That’s Pierrot. (blood and potential death in video)

That song always makes me think about that moment, and how it and my time with circus arts have shaped me as a person. That confidence it gave me, and the ability to open up, and to laugh about myself.

I don’t think I would have survived high school if it hadn’t been for circus club. It fell apart the next semester (the SRO and his buddy had different plans for it, and he could balance it by himself), but I kept juggling and stuff. When I graduated, he gave me a unicycle that I’d borrowed from him every summer.

It’s still something I turn to sometimes. It’s a big part of why, as some of you may have noticed by now, Blacephalon is a big deal for me.

[undyingsunshine]

Tag Game!

Thank you @cross-d-a for tagging me!!! :D

I have two tags to do, so I'm gonna put them in one post xD

Tag 1!

Instructions: tag people you want to know better/catch up with.

Last Song: Pearl Jam Jam - Circa Survive

This song is what I listen to when I need to something to tune out to! It's got a very hazy vibe to it, emphasised by the lack of clarity in the vocals. To this day, there hasn't been any official lyrics released and the song was made like 15 years ago! XD it's also a song that didn't actually make it onto Circa Survive's first album! Though I believe it might have been added into anniversary releases of it. This song makes me feel lost and confused, but in a very controlled and safe way. Like drifting through an ocean of static beneath a still, grey sky :P

Last Film: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind!

A good film that I really enjoyed! I don't watch a whole lot of films, both out of general disinterest (I'm a very picky person with niche intruiges apparently) and also because I struggle to actually focus xD My mind is very active and I find myself thinking of anything but what I'm watching most of the time! But anyway yes!! Eternal Sunshine!!! If you haven't watched it, I highly reccomend! Jim Carrey plays the character of Joel very well ^^ Though do be warned, there is one character who's just a little (a lot) bit creepy! Played by the ever amazing Elijah Wood (My childhood hero! xD)

Currently Watching: Ultimate Note (Just finished!) and The Lost Tomb Reboot (I need to get back to it!)

Loved Ultimate Note to bits! Though I do have my nitpicks, they hardly prevented me from enjoying the show. I find myself fawning over how adorable Zhang Qiling is (is that weird?), being proud over Wu Xie's incredible mind and of course feeling assured with Pangzi's ever reliable self!

TLTR honestly makes me feel so many different emotions I can't handle them!! Especially Wu Xie, oh gosh Q~Q Too much sadness for my poor fragile soul to take!! I love the characters so much...

Currently Reading: Mostly just DMBJ Fics xD

I don't read a lot of books because my brain hates me :( It's similar to what I have with films! My mind just wanders off a lot! And it's very rare that things catch my interest xD HOWEVER! If you would like a very good book reccomendation, I reccomend House of Leaves written by Mark Z. Danielewski, ESPECIALLY if you love horror and mystery! The entire book is one giant puzzle that's packed full with many layers and stories! Do be warned, the book is quite vulgar! Those who don't cope well with written violence, horror or sexual content should at the very least read with caution!

Currently Craving: I don't actually know! :0

Maybe some water? XD Water is always good

TAG 2!

Rules: share five songs you’ve been listening to on repeat recently!

It's gonna be hard to choose only 5 since it's very rare that I'm not listening to music, but here we go!!! xD

1. Higrashi No Naku Koro Ni OPs

Kind of cheating because I'm putting 5 songs into one spot, but I didn't want to fill the whole list with songs from the same source!

These OPs are quite dark or melancholy in nature, and they really set up a nice (or not so nice) atmosphere! Apart from Higurashi Kira's OP xD That song is just cute!

I've found myself listening to Higurashi Gou's OP the most! Mostly because the lyrics may or may not have me thinking about DMBJ (particularly Zhang Qiling and  Wu Xie) while I listen to it! XD Then again, I'm pretty much always thinking about DMBJ these days!

I'm also absolutely addicted to Higurashi's main theme! It has a very unique feel to it! Been listening to it a whole lot today!

2. The Amulet by Circa Survive

Not too sure what to say about this one! I just really like it ^^ I find Circa Survive to have a very distinct and unique sound, something that feels very empty and solemn, but can also hold a lot of anger and other emotions within! The ending of this song especially just captures a kind of desperation and perhaps even anguish that I can't really seem to find anywhere else!

3. Criminal by Taemin

A very awesome song that I absolutely love! Taemin is a very unique artist, and though I don't listen to many of his songs, the ones I do listen to are nothing short of addicting! This song in particular has a lot of charm, and lyrically...well it's certainly... interesting xD

4. Nageki no Mori (嘆きノ森) by Ayane

Yet another Higurashi related song! This one is just as sorrowful and mysterious as the songs found at the start of the list! Definitely a song I love to have on while I draw! I'm especially hooked on just those last few seconds! Makes me think of something that has been fighting so hard to stay alive, but is now finally letting go with a very bittersweet goodbye. ^^

5. What You Want by Evanesence

Energy!! Lots of energy and intensity! I love listening to this song xD

As for who I'm tagging... Well I honestly don't know that many people 

here yet xD So I'm gonna say that I tag anyone who sees this and wants to do it! XD

[entergamingxp]

Down and out in Orgrimmar and London • Eurogamer.net

Spend any amount of time on any popular gaming message board when the issue of LGBT+ representation raises its head, and you can guarantee there’ll be someone waiting in the wings to, at the very least, remind LGBT+ players that it’s 2020 and ‘nobody cares they’re gay anymore’ – oh, and ‘Would you mind keeping your sexuality out of my video games?’. It’s not exactly surprising then that countless LGBT+ gamers around the world are still seeking the comfort of like-minded individuals and social spaces, both in-game and in real-life, where they’re free to be themselves without abuse, judgement, or fear of repercussions – and to simply enjoy the games they want to play.

“I think in mainstream culture there is this wishful idea that because we’ve had too many seasons of Will & Grace…things are just fine and dandy for the queers in our society,” Benjamin Bon Temps, founder of the long-running Rough Trade Gaming Community tells me, “Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth. While things are better, and the average Bubba Beercan Gamer might be more open-minded and respectful, there is still the same slew of tired asshats firing off verbal fag bombs and ‘this stupid dungeon is gay’ type bullshit.”

It’s a sentiment shared by Matthew Hardwick, co-founder of the on- and offline LGBT+ community London Gaymers; “Online spaces can be generally quite a negative experience for minorities as it is,” he says, “but with insults like ‘fag’, ‘queer’, and ‘gay’ often thrown around in a derogatory manner, it can be particularly hard for LGBT people.” By way of illustration, Hardwick relates one of his own experiences, when someone he’d played online with for over a year immediately bombarded him with abuse on finding out he was gay in party chat. “[He] said I should ‘die of AIDS’ and ‘ass cancer’ before threatening to come to my home to murder me.”

Although Hardwick admits this is one of the more extreme responses he’s encountered, the constant minefield of anti-LGBT+ vitriol can be exhausting for players – and he points to an academic study by Jason Rockwood, backed up by London Gaymers’ own research during MCM panels, which found 80% of people have heard anti-LGBT+ slurs online. When I ask Hardwick to describe these encounters in his own words, he simply responds, “Dehumanising”.

It’s for precisely these reasons that countless LGBT+ gaming communities have been established around the world in an effort to provide a safe, welcoming space for LGBT+ players and allies, and remain as popular as ever. The London Gaymers, for instance, started life as a Reddit community and Google group back in 2012, with the goal of providing a means for LGBT+ players to easily find others to enjoy video games with. “What online spaces existed already were toxic, and not very welcoming to any minority that was open about their identity,” explains Hardwick.

And if proof were needed as to how much demand there still is for welcoming social spaces for LGBT+ players, the London Gaymers has, from its humble beginnings, now grown to over 3,750 people on its Facebook Group and over 1,800 regularly visit its Discord channel. Additionally, it has active guilds and clans hosting regular gaming nights for the likes of Minecraft, Final Fantasy 14, and Sea of Thieves; it has one of the largest LGBT+ WoW guilds in Europe; there’s a dedicated space available for women, including non-LGBT+ players, looking for somewhere to play, and for other women gamers to talk to. And London Gaymers even has a pretty large Animal Crossing Turnip Exchange community too.

“Many LGBT people face an increased risk of Mental Health issues,” explains Hardwick, “Isolation, anxiety, and depression are all issues many LGBT people face. Having a group that can knock down some of the barriers to battling those by providing a friendship group and space to express yourself is important”.

Some of London Gaymers members attending real-world Pride.

Inevitably too, these online communities have gradually spilled out into the real-world, and London Gaymers now hosts LGBT+ nights focussed on everything from board games and ping pong to bowling and laser tag. Crucially, these activities help provide real-world connections and spaces some may struggle to find ordinarily. “They may be feeling isolated or nervous, and not be willing to attend gay bars without people they know they can talk to about things they are interested in,” says Hardwick, “or they may be nervous about their appearance or perception in a traditional gaming space. The group provides that intersection for LGBT people to be themselves in both their nerdy-ness and their queerness.”

These days, thanks to London Gaymers’ size and scope, the group is able to use its influence and community to assist other gaming and LGBT+ organisations. It’s hosted panels on games industry representation at MCM, given talks to studios and government departments, and it regularly embarks on fundraising efforts with its members, for charities including the likes of SpecialEffect, the Terrance Higgins Trust, LGBT Hero/GMFA, and the Albert Kennedy Trust.

In real terms though, the London Gaymers reaches but a small fraction of LGBT+ players online and around the world, and thousands of other LGBT+ gaming communities continue to thrive, each catering to different audiences and niches. One of the oldest and most established of these is the MMO-focussed Rough Trade Gaming Community, described by its founder Benjamin Bon Temps as a “counterpoint to and escape from the general immature, homophobic bro culture that still permeates gaming spaces” and, more importantly, a “fun, safe, relaxing space where people can bring their authentic selves and play together” .

“Any queer can tell you that being seen and accepted feels awesome,” he says, “and we do what we can to help make that happen for our members.”

Real-world events are an important part of London Gaymers activities.

The RTGC had its unofficial beginnings over 17 years ago, when Benjamin joined a Dark Age of Camelot guild “comprised of mostly gay dudes and a few ‘mo-friendly military guys”. The group was eager to move over to superhero MMO City of Heroes but, says Benjamin, “I knew from somewhat bitter experience in DAoC that the gaming community at the time was absolutely rancid with frequent expressions of homophobic slang. Furthermore, there was, and still is, a ‘don’t tell, don’t share’ attitude from players claiming to be tolerant and accepting, yet [who] lose their collective minds if a queer character options or storyline is introduced in their favourite game, or if you reveal the gender of your partner in guild chat.”

“Much of the social aspect in gaming happens during the downtime,” he points out, “waiting on other players, recouping between battles, repairing armour etc., and that’s when chatting about our lives happens. I’ve heard countless stories from other members of RTGC about how they’d have to lie about the gender of their partner and other details so as not to instigate the possibility of harsh comments from other intolerant players.”

While some groups prefer to offer a somewhat sanitised space for their members, Benjamin notes the RTGC is relatively unique in that it has never shied from the subject of sex. “There always seems to be a secondary censoring of queer lives and stories by the mainstream,” he explains, “something along the lines of ‘Okay, you are gay and you can talk about it a little, but nothing about your sexual acts, preferences or fetishes please’…but I’ve always been at least mildly interested in what excites people, whether it be geekery or in the sack or sling.”

And so, from that goal of building a community that didn’t just enjoy games, but celebrated all kinds of sexual expression, the Rough Trade Gaming Community was created as an “unapologetically queer [place to] celebrate geekdom and fetish life.” Benjamin admits the group “might not be everyone’s cup of tea” thanks to its openness to fetish and kink, but says he believes it’s a “good fit for the queer person who may feel too queer, too kinky, too hardcore in mainstream gay social spaces.” What’s more, it happily welcomes “heterosexual-identified players who, because of their own kink, political views, spiritual practices, or whatever else, don’t feel comfortable in standard gaming social spaces” too.

RTGC’s Taint guilds continue to have a significant presence in WoW.

“We’re also a great testing ground for those of us emerging, or considering emerging, from the closet,” says Benjamin, “We are a very welcoming bunch for the most part and online experimentation in a gaming environment can be a fun and safe way to experiment with self-expression.”

It’s a social mix that’s clearly working; the group now organises real-life meets around the likes of San Francisco and New Orleans, and Benjamin is proud to have helped build a community that can cater to both younger gamers and “an older and more mature player”.

These days the RTGC has over 9,000 active users online, split across six officially supported games (World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft Classic, Final Fantasy 14, Guild Wars 2, Elder Scrolls Online, and Phantasy Star Online 2), alongside a variety of forums and social media sites including Facebook. “Our Xtube channel has close to 2 million views,” notes Benjamin, “but honestly most of those are probably from me.”

One of the RTGC’s most high-profile activities comes in the form of Pixel Pride, an annual virtual Pride event that started out back in the group’s City of Heroes days and is now celebrating its 16th year. “We wanted to show how many players in the game were queer,” says Benjamin of that initial event, “so every queer superhero in the game wore the colour red and we flew, leapt, and teleported to a central meeting place, and had a great time.”

These days Pixel Pride takes place every July on World of Warcraft’s Proudmoore server that many of the group’s guilds calls home, and this year’s pride celebrations – which occurred last weekend – passed in a flurry of ‘donations, support, dancing, laughing, flirting, and duelling in their skivvies’.

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“Pixel Pride,” explains Benjamin, “is important because of the ease of accessibility for folks who can’t and don’t want to find parking at real world Prides, for folks who for whatever reasons can’t be fully out in the real world, and to also remind the non-queers on our servers that we are here, and we are legion, and that the toon tanking in your party, or healing your ass in a dungeon, or peeling aggro off you in PvP might be one of us, so watch your fucking language.”

Benjamin also believes Pixel Pride is valuable for those group members in rural areas too. “We know that queers can tend to flock to big cities to find their tribe, but we also have tons of players who live in remote areas as well”, he says. “I’ve heard from folks like that who are grateful for our Pixel Pride celebrations because, due to distance, or being in the closet, or mobility challenges, that is the only Pride they can safely or reasonably attend. This has, of course, become even more important during the current pandemic.”

Yet despite the obvious demand for the kind of LGBT+ communities and spaces fostered by the likes of London Gaymers and the RTGC, resistance still remains in the wider gaming community to the idea that visibility for LGBT+ players is even necessary, usually, and tellingly, alongside the declaration that ‘politics doesn’t belong in video games’.

“In much the same way a fish can’t really tell you what ‘wet’ feels like, because it is all they’ve ever known, straight folk can be blind, and sometimes stubbornly and wilfully so, to how inextricably enmeshed expressions of affection, sexuality, longing, romance etc. are in our everyday lives,” says Benjamin. “It permeates everything we experience, games included. Every game I’ve played has some element of a love interest storyline, an unrequited romance, etc. It is just fair play that some of those reflect our lives as well.”

A note from an RTGC member attesting to the importance of Pixel Pride.

The good news, though, according to London Gaymers’ Matt Hardwick, is that attitudes do slowly seem to be shifting. “Anecdotally, I would say things have improved over the years, certainly within some areas of online gaming,” he tells me, “[but] there is still a long way to go.”

“I think that developers play a big part in this. Weeding out toxic behaviour is something that a few studios say they are dedicated to but is seldom reflected in their feedback loops or reporting processes,” Hardwick continues. “Gamers at large can help by calling out the behaviour when they see or hear it. Remind them that whilst they may think it’s trash talk they have no idea how their words affect those around them. I do however appreciate this is often easier said than done and that’s why spaces like London Gaymers exists – nobody wants to paint a target on their back – but using reporting processes is always one small step that doesn’t require you to interact with trolls.”

Yet while a harmonious gaming future will ultimately benefit everyone, and is a goal worth aiming for, Benjamin doesn’t think it will spell an end to LGBT+ gaming spaces.

“It can obviously be challenging to be your true queer self, in the ‘real’ world and in-game, and a lot of old, tired attitudes and beliefs can get in the way and make that difficult to attain,” he says. “Once we have though, one of the great blessings about being queer, for me anyway, is the ability to be a little left of centre, to be slightly outside what is considered ‘normal’ or ‘average’. I think that is intensely valuable, both for queers and for the heteronormative, relative ‘centre’, to have that perspective and space for folks who don’t feel they fit in with whatever the fuck ‘normal’ is.

“For that reason, I think and hope we’ll always occupy that space, to question and challenge expected norms, ‘common wisdom’ and convention. To not have that, to have everything and everyone in one homogeneous space, would dilute the colourful and diverse part of the human experience and that would just be boring as fuck…Things could be, and certainly might be, better than they are today, but whether that happens or not, the Rough Trade Gaming Community will be here as a space for anyone fun, friendly, and ready to play.”

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/06/down-and-out-in-orgrimmar-and-london-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=down-and-out-in-orgrimmar-and-london-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

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Make Money On Instagram

Make Money On Instagram

You have in all probability found out accounts of Make Money On Instagram whom are cashing in at the photos they snap and share every day. You might've even researched your own good sized thought and following, “Maybe I could make this happen too”.

Just likebloggers and YouTubers, and any person who’s amassed a crowd around the content and articles they yield, Make Money On Instagrammers have reach and impact discovered-a couple of things lots of companies struggle with.

Together with each other, these two elements provide potential for Make Money On Instagram inventors to learn several streams of probable revenues, even if they want to develop an empire or maybe just make a little more moolah and free things.

What number of readers must you earn money on Make Money On Instagram?

The short answer is “not as many as you think” if by now you're wondering how many followers you need to make it happen.

The longer respond to depends upon points that include:

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Obviously, the more interested visitors you will have, the higher quality. Test our easy methods to get fans on Make Money On Make Money On Instagram.

At the same time top rated Make Money On Instagrammers make large numbers every put up at the picture-featuring program, even people with a smaller-but-engaged subsequent of 1000 have the possibility to start out earning income.

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How to make money on Make Money On Instagram in 2019

Dependant upon your distinct brand of Make Money On Instagram website content, your target market, together with your amount of responsibility, you can also make money on Make Money On Instagram while in the sticking to techniques:

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•Starting to be an online affiliate and making a commission payment selling other brands’ systems.

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Chasing one revenue stream doesn’t necessarily rule out another. That's the beauty here.

So, let’s start with the most common approach to Make Money On Instagram monetization: partnering with labels as a possible influencer.

Make use of famous brands on subsidized articles or blog posts

The words “influencer” becomes cast approximately a whole lot right now.

An influencer is essentially people who’s crafted him or her self an on-line name by sharing and doing awesome stuff online. In their readers, influencers are tastemakers, trendsetters and trusted consultants whoever thoughts and opinions about certain themes are reputed.

A number of famous brands just can't contend with that and in addition they associate with influencers in its place for sponsored blog posts that can help spread the word concerning their items.

But it is not just the type and accomplish of this Make Money On Instagram consideration that brandnames want. It is your audience’s trust and engagement along with your content.

It is usually hard to steadiness your income being a influencer as well as your stability as being a inventor, yet if you’re not relying on your Make Money On Instagram profits to stay in afloat, you normally offer the opportunity to be discerning with regard to the makers you work with, just as makers are going to be particular with regards to the Make Money On Instagrammers they deal with.Models of all sorts are using influencer marketing and advertising to have their products and solutions in existence (via Fohr Charge card).

Methods to settle on what you should require for being an influencer

These influencer deals involve the creation of content-an Make Money On Instagram post, video or Story-and will sometimes include permission for the brand to use this content on their own site or in an ad, typically.

A great number of offers are negotiated which enable it to include a particular write-up or perhaps an whole entire venture in return for a expense, a 100 % free product, services, a great gift, the promise of being exposed, or some combined these.

Always remember when discussing that you are not only offering up written content but the means to access your market, a essentially larger get in touch with on among the most preferred public platforms in and around, and intake proper rights way too.

With a questionnaire of 5,000 influencers, throughout 42Percent pointed out they incurred $200 to $400 each write-up-just to present you with an idea of what some manufacturers are willing to pay, and the way discuss with regards to the credit cards you are having.

Ultimately, it's important as an influencer also to know your own private crowd.

Exactly what is the makeup from your customers and what exactly your engagement level (whole engagement separated on your wide variety of followers)? You can dig up numbers to back this up in your Make Money On Instagram Analytics report, if you've switched to a business account. This will help be well prepared in regard to the time to settle.

Interested in learning the best way to cultivate and generate income from your Make Money On Instagram bank account? Make Money On Instagram marketing and advertising authority, Gretta vehicle Riel, demonstrates how in Grow Your Small business with Make Money On Instagram, an absolutely free system interior Shopify Academy.

Getting brands to use

Chances are brands will find you if you're big enough. But you might also try to find labels to work with which are upon a related degree concerning values and personality, which means that your readers won’t believe that you’re “selling out”.

You can reach out to them directly to try to work out a deal, but you can also list yourself on one of the many influencer marketplaces out there to increase your chances of being discovered:

•Fohr Unit card: Connect your Make Money On Instagram, blog page, Vimeo station, in addition to other friendly networks to generate an influencer “card” that programs your totally different user profiles and complete take models looking around for that venture. You will also gain access to a long list of brandnames as well as requires, which enables you to take the initiative to arrive at out at the same time.

•Grapevine: If you have 5000 or more followers, you can list yourself in the Grape Vine marketplace for the opportunity to work with like-minded brands.

•Crowd Touch: Do very small subject matter construction things to produce returns. If you've got a smaller audience, this is great. Available in the U.S only.

•indaHash: Manufacturers build promotions you can attend. Posting a photograph along with the particular hashtags on Make Money On Instagram and then get compensated. You may need 700 involved visitors to always be eligible.

The rules vary when it comes to sponsored content, but to be on the safe side and respect your audience’s trust, consider adding a #sponsored hashtag to indicate sponsored posts. If you need reassurance, about 69% of influencers in one report said that being transparent about sponsorships didn't affect how consumers perceive their recommendation.

Yow will discover illustrations of subsidized articles or blog posts as well as how Make Money On Instagrammers assimilate makes inside their narrative or caption by browsing up #sponsored on Make Money On Instagram, like this just one from How He Asked, a merchant account that conveys marriage ceremony offer partners and stories employing a jewlery business enterprise:

Make Money On Instagram has also a "Spent Alliance with" tag that conspicuously identifies subsidized blog posts, which some makes may perhaps ask you to use to make known your connection with each other.

Be an online affiliate

Contrary to an influencer, an affiliate is more invested in producing product sales for your boyfriend or girlfriend branding-not just for generating interest-in return for a commission fee.

This can be usually done with a trackable connect or distinctive discount policy to confirm mouse clicks basically translate into income. If you choose to rely on affiliate links, making promo codes a better option for Make Money On Instagram since you can actually incorporate them into your posts, since Make Money On Instagram doesn’t yet allow links anywhere outside of your bio, you can only focus on one product at a time.

Observe: Make Money On Instagram has intentions to roll out backlinks for Make Money On Instagram Experiences, which will open up new prospects for you personally for an influencer.

Have a look at contacting among the many via the internet vendors which provide affiliate programs which you could engage in. Or also look at favorite marketplaces like:

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•RewardStyle: An invitation-only fashion and lifestyle influencer community that delivers 20% profits.

•Amazon's Affiliate Marketing Program: A well liked choice that will pay out a 10% commission.

If you have a plan going into it and expand your online presence to include a website and other marketing channels, though it sounds like a numbers game, affiliate marketing is also an art, and you’ll have a better chance at success.

Guideline: Affiliate links can be ugly and long, so I recommend a URL shortener like bit.ly, especially if they're going in your Make Money On Instagram bio.

Wide open your website

Nowadays it may well seem like the only method for an Make Money On Instagrammer to earn money is almost always to market out and work with other makers.

But designers of all sorts can also be at a beneficial posture to "sell out" along with their personal solutions: naturalservices and goods, or electronic digital things that is an extension of their make, setting up a company through an readers at its facility.

In today’s world it’s almost natural for creators to make the leap into entrepreneurship.By selling your own stuff, you don't need to worry about integrating messages from other brands into your posting strategy, although you need to invest some time upfront. Better still, you can purchase the label you can get within the solutions you advertise.

Enthusiast can show their love and support your career by buying of you-a purchase they will feel good about.

There are some solutions to begin this:

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•You can use your Make Money On Instagram account to launch a business selling your own original products, or even a book.

If you plan on selling several items in your own Shopify store, you can also make purchases through Make Money On Instagram possible on your website using one of the available Make Money On Instagram gallery apps.

Take it a step even more with the store shopping on Make Money On Instagram incorporation to enable system product and tags peel off stickers that will make the experience from Make Money On Instagram Stories and posts into your very own solutions and products more effortless and liquid. To make use of it, you'll should also move to an Make Money On Instagram internet business account, have a Myspace article, as well as an recognized Facebook or twitter store (which all you can actually establish for no supplementary cost you).

Offer your photos via the internet or on important things

Someone might get famous on Twitter by telling 140-character jokes, but Make Money On Instagram is a photo-sharing app at its core. And photos are valuable assets which could belicensed and printed, and purchased in many simple ways.

If photography is what got you into the Make Money On Instagram game in the first place, you can list your photos in marketplaces like 500px or Twenty20 where brands and publishers might license them.

You can also sell your photos as prints and on other physical products using a similar methods described in the last section, however. Solutions like Teelaunch and Printful allow you put your portraits on cards, phone examples, special pillows, and better, taking care of pleasing instructions and support service so that all you should stress about is building marketing.

According to an interview on Forbes, to making $15K in a single day by offering to sell prints of his popular-but-controversial photos, take the story of Daniel Arnold who went from “eating toast 3 meals a day”. If you've already got the demand, all you need to do is take the initiative and offer your audience the opportunity to buy your photography from you.

Do so for that 'Gram (to get paid)

What setup as a good interest-making men and women chuckle, performing absurd photoshoots with your doggie or spreading imagery of foods-can snowball into the chance to move Make Money On Instagram straight into a income source fuelled by the active following.

There's a whole world of potentialities nowadays as a good author having a substantial on the web clients made of those who can't help but avoid if they browse earlier your write-up into their satisfy. It's this amazing elegance that you have that opens the door. You need to simply move because of it.

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New Post has been published on Sunny Dawn Johnston

New Post has been published on https://sunnydawnjohnston.com/blog/the-writing-nook-7-must-have-tools-for-writers/

The Writing Nook - 7 Must-Have Tools for Writers

This is such a GREAT BLOG about tools for writers. Man, I wish I had these 6 years ago when I started my writing career:) I truly believe that writing can heal our hearts … Even if you never share your writing, the release of the energy and emotion within your body can be truly life saving. So, for those of you that are interested in sharing your story in a bigger way, this blog, The Writing Nook, is for you. And, for those of you that just want to heal and release your story, this blog is for you too … For those of you that don’t know if writing is for you or not, I’m sure you’ll find something in here to resonate with as well. Enjoy … and please … I’d love to hear what your thoughts are in the comments below. Can you relate? Let us know what you think – Blessings SDJ♥

7 Must-Have Tools for Writers

Whether you’re penning a novel or working on a smaller project such as an article for a blog, there are many online tools that can assist you, and best of all, many of them are free!

Here are a few of my favorite “must haves” from my writing toolbox:

Trello – Before you begin any writing project, it’s a good idea to start with a brainstorming session and a bit of outlining for organization. Trello makes it fun to do just that! Set up your free account with Trello and begin by creating a new board for your latest project. You can create lists, cards, checklists, assign tags and even invite others to collaborate on your board! This is a fun way to mind map and stay organized all at the same time.  https://trello.com

750 words – This is essentially an online journal; a place for you and your thoughts. The creators of this platform were inspired by Julia Cameron’s, The Artist Way, with the belief that writing three pages each morning (approximately 750 words) will not only get you in the habit of daily writing, but it will help clear your mind and get the ideas flowing for the rest of the day. You’ll earn points for reaching your daily goal, which makes it fun to rack up points and record your progress. If you love to journal but prefer to type in a safe, password-protected place, you’ll love 750 Words.  http://750words.com/

Daily Page – Writing is a like a muscle that strengthens with exercise. Therefore, if you want to become a better writer, developing a daily writing habit will get you there much faster. Don’t know what to write about? No problem! When you sign up for Daily Page, you’ll receive a new writing prompt to your inbox each day. There is a small monthly fee of $3.99 for this service, but I find it well worth it to have a new idea delivered each day.  https://www.dailypage.co/

Blog Idea Generator – Do you love to blog but struggle with coming up with fresh article and headline ideas? Try HubSpot’s free Blog Idea Generator! Enter three keywords related to your niche and HubSpot will generate a week’s worth of article ideas for you. For example, I entered writer, book and publishing, and within seconds HubSpot came up with these five blog ideas for me:

Think You’re Cut Out for Writing? Take This Quiz

15 Best Blogs to Follow About Writing

20 Myths About Publishing

The Ultimate Cheat Sheet on Writing

10 Signs You Should Write a Book

Now I have five new article ideas to write about this week. (Watch for these topics in future publications of the Writer’s Nook!) https://www.hubspot.com/blog-topic-generator

Trint – You may have more content created for a book than you realize, even if you’ve yet to begin writing! Do you enjoy creating video content in the form of a Vlog, YouTube or Facebook Live? If so, you could have those files transcribed to text and then use that written content to create blog posts, eBooks, lead magnets and more. With Trint, you simply upload your video file, click the ‘transcribe’ button, and in a matter of minutes you have a Word doc containing your transcribed text. Try their free trial and see if it’s right for you before you invest. For me, it’s a staple in my business, so I’m happy to pay $15 per one hour of transcription. www.trint.com

Grammarly – If you ask me, Grammarly is a must-have for anyone who publishes content online. If you’ve ever put out a Facebook post with a simple error only to have the grammar police publicly scold you, then you’ll love Grammarly! Before you publish your next social media post or blog article, copy and paste it into Grammarly to see if your text is free of errors. While it’s not 100% foolproof, it can help you catch embarrassing errors before you publish your content. Grammarly will allow you to check a small section of text for free, but if you do a decent amount of writing, you may find their paid service is well worth the monthly investment. https://app.grammarly.com/

Google Docs – Finally, where can you house your daily writing in a safe, password-protected place? If you’ve ever had your writing erased or lost because you didn’t properly save a file, or even worse, experienced a computer crash, then you’ll appreciate Google Docs. You can log in and write wherever you are, and best of all, it’s free! https://docs.google.com

I hope you find these seven must-have tools for writers helpful. Almost all of them offer a free version or a trial period so you can find the ones that are best for you. Enjoy!

  Shanda Trofe

  Shanda Trofe is an independent publisher and author coach specializing in book-writing and marketing strategies for aspiring authors, coaches, speakers and entrepreneurs. Through her flagship program, Publish Like a PRO, she aims to educate authors not only on the business side of writing and publishing, but also how to grow an empire based on their published work. She is the bestselling author of many books including Write from the Heart and Authorpreneur: How to Build an Empire and Become the AUTHOR-ity in Your Business.

PS: Shanda and I are facilitating a Writers Retreat workshop in the Florida Keys in May 2018. Check it out here