#theyve achieved so much and have become so close and have such a good and close relationship with their fans too

[anthracite-writes]

hiya! can you do the brothers with a gn!mc whos kinda popular with other demons? i just think that overtime demons have become curious since theyve managed to grab the attention of the brothers and dateables

Obey Me! Imagines - Demon Brothers X Popular!GN! Reader [SFW]

A//N: Ohhh, intresting - I'll try my best with this one! I hope you enjoy it! Apologies in advance if I misinterpreted your request or if it's a bit OOC.

NOT PROOF READ!! APOLOGIES FOR ANY TYPOS OR SPELLING ERRORS! - PS; Congrats, you're my first request submission <3

Summary: Demon brothers with a popular GN! Reader. Your popularity was fairly lowkey when you arrived in the Devildom just because of pure curiosity, but once word gets around about your Pact making with the 7 Brothers and you managed to become such close friends with both Lord Diavolo, Barbatos, Luke and Simeon in such a shot time - that's when your popularity skyrockets and everyone wants a piece of you. You're practically a minor celeberty in the Devildom, but - how exact does the Demon brother's feel about it? - CW//TW; Minor jealous behaviour, possessive behaviour [Lucifer & Mammon], some angst??? [Leviathan]

𝗟𝘂𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗲𝗿

At first, he didn't mind it - you're the human transfer student, of course the other demons in the Devildom would take an interest in you just out of curiosity.

Once word gets around about your achievements in such a short time - that's when it catches the Prideful Demon's attention.

The fact that there were so many eyes on you, watching your every move with your sudden popularity - you were bound to have some students that were interested in you, wanting your attention, etc.

Extremely good at masking his jealousy.

Why is he jealous exactly? All the attention you have on you is taking away time and attention you usually have on him and him alone.

Absolutely hates it when your attention is pulled away from him just because some RAD student wanted to ask or talk to you for a bit.

He draws the line when he catches wind that some demons are developing feelings for you and confessing said feeling from your popularity.

They've been taking your time and attention with they're curiosity long enough and he won't stand for this any longer, he would pull you aside;

"Have you forgotten the terms of our pact, Y/N?" He says in a hushed voice, leaning in close to your ear as he holds you by the shoulders with firm hands after he had pulled you aside from prying eyes of other students, "I hate that you're attention is never on me now, you know how much I hate being ignored..." "I don't care how popular you get," He pulls way slowly as he tilts your head up to force your eyes to meet his, "I want your eyes on me and only me, at all times. Got it?"

𝗠𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻

Oh, he was never on board with your popularity to begin with when you first arrived.

That meant he actually had to do his job as your supervisor to stop you from getting eaten by other demons.

When your popular grew more and more, that's when he started getting [a TON] tiny bit jealous. And he's very vocal about it.

Mans greedy for your attention and you being popular, having people around you all up in your business doesn't sit well with him at all.

He's extremely impatience when your talking to other demons when you two are hanging out - crossing his arms and getting all pouty.

Once he even sees another demon show any interest in you, he's gonna make a scene.

Makes a bigger scene if a demon even tries to make any romantic advancements with you due to said popularity - "Nu-huh! They're not into you, now go. It's my time with Y/N, you're cutting in."

Mammon takes you hand in his as you two walked back to the House of Lamentation after a little walk around the shops, you can feel his hand squeeze yours slightly as he tenses up. "Y/N..." Mammon starts, getting your attention. "I should have priority over everyone else." He says, looking away from you slightly, covering his face slightly with the back of his hand to hide his settle blush on his cheeks. "I get your suddenly all popular and all but... I want you to pay attention to me, I am your first after all."

𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻

Doesn't care that much to begin with, that's normie behaviour and he's not about that.

Besides, he hates the crowds you draw in with your popularity so he chooses not to hang around you that much.

Though, he does envy you but would never admit it out loud and word for word, probably would beat around the bush.

When your popularity grows more and more as the more things you achieve in the Devildom - that's when the reality kicks in for him.

You suddenly have so many friends and so many admires, and he gets it - you're so much cooler than him, why would people want to hang around a yucky otaku like him.

Watches on from a far, seeing you happily interact with other demons from your popularity only worsens his feelings.

Watching you - his only friends slowly drift off from him, he doesn't try to salvage the relationship he once had with you.

He just reminisces while in room - remembering how you two use to game together, all the anime marathons and watch parties you two had, read manga together, etc.

When he does see you, he just only has very surface level conversations with you [ex. weather, classes, what you've been up to, etc.] - no longer having he's rabbit-hole rambles about the newest game he's been playing, animes he's been watching, manga he's been reading, etc.

He doesn't want to eat up too much of you're time knowing you have other friends that were probably more fun to be around than him.

Often cuts conversations short in an abrupt manner with you if you start the conversation yourself .

Falls back to his habit of locking himself in his room for days on end - opting to just take the classes online / independent learning - refusing to leave beside for the necessities.

"...Maybe it's for the best, if I were Y/N, I wouldn't want to be around me either..." Leviathan mumbles to himself, curled up on a beanbag and leaning up against his room's tank wall's glass as he watched Henry 2.0 swim around the coral and rocks in the lonesome tank. "Why would Y/N want to hang around a yucky otaku like me? I just haul up in my room like the shut-in I am... I'm probably so boring to be around... and annoying with how much I talk..." he said with a sigh, looking at the goldfish that was now staring at him from inside the tank, "At least I got you... you're my friend. Right, Henry?" Silence filled the room, only the tank's heater and filter whirring audible. Leviathan pressed his forehead against the tanks glass as he felt his chest tighten followed by a lump in his throat formed, his eyes watering up. "I miss them so much..." He said quietly as his voice cracked, pressing the palms of his hands into his eyes as he tries to stop tears flowed from his eyes and down his cheeks. As much as he tried to deny it, with your popularity - he's just no longer your friend. He's just now sees himself as another person in the faceless crowd to you.

𝗦𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗻

Honestly doesn't care much for your popularity.

Genuinly, he's quite impressed with how popular you gotten in the Devildom with you're achievements.

Though, does worry about you from time to time due to you being close to Diavolo so... there's that.

He doesn't want other demons to take advantage with your ties and popularity.

Other than that, he's really not that responsive to your popularity, even if it grows.

Most likely, you might have the same connection as him due to your popularity so you two go to exclusive events [restaurant grand openings, friends/acquaintances only parties/events, etc]

If that's the case, he's glad to have you there - having a familiar face in the room really puts him at ease.

"Hey, Y/N." He calls out to you as he makes his way through the crowd of demons mingling and talking amongst themselves, seeing you stand off to the side of the room - taking a break from all the socializing. "How are you feeling? Do you want to head out for a breather with me?" He asks with a soft smile, offering you his arm. "You must be a bit tired from talking to all these people - especially with the respect you've garnered amongst other demons. If you'd like to join me, I know a good place to get away for a little social break."

𝗔𝘀𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝘂𝘀

Absolutely ecstatic that you're finally getting the popularity and recognition in the Devildom.

You do have a pact with him anyways, it's what he expects - the more eyes on you, the more eyes on him by proxy.

He constantly brags that he knows you on a personal level, but would never indulge in any information - he doesn't kiss and tell <3

Would take you to so many parties so you can get to know more Demons than you already know just from your popularity alone.

He's most likely by your side whenever you two are out in public, he LOVES attention and your popularity helps with getting stares and all.

Def. introduces you to all his friends like... 99% of new people you now know is all thanks to Asmo.

Does get a bit pouty when you two are out and random demons try to talk to you.

Usually doesn't mind it but he does have his limits - is it because he's not getting the attention from the people who are fascinated by you and your achievements or is it because he doesn't have your attention and he craves your attention alone?

A mix of both post likely, one more than the other - which one favours over the other? That's for Asmo to know and you to find out.

The two of you were out clubbing with a couple of Asmo's friends but it seemed like the Avatar of Lust's friends were more intrested in you than him, asking you about what's it like to be so close to Diavolo or what's the celestial realm like since you're really close to the angels. Asmo had enough of this, downing the rest of his Demonus and putting his glass down with a tap as he rose to his feet in a a swift manner. "Y/N, let's go dance~" He says with his usual happy-go-lucky voice, not even waiting for an answer before taking your hand and pulling you out of the private room right into the hallway. He pushes you against the wall gently, putting an hand next to your head - pinning you up against the wall as the club's music bumped in the distance. "It's my turn to give you attention, Y/N." He whispered as he leaned in close to your ear, his tone now almost a purr as he spoke. "I'll be sure not to bore you with question like my friends back there~"

𝗕𝗲𝗲𝗹𝘇𝗲𝗯𝘂𝗯

Doesn't let it affect him.

He doesn't mind the fact you're popular, just doesn't like it when you two get interrupted when you two are out.

When you two are out buying snacks and someone recognizes you and starts chatting with you when he's was in the middle of asking you something - he gets kinda upset but not really.

But due to Beel's sometimes expressionless face, the demon that interuping you two's bonding time usually backs off.

In a way, he's kinda like a body guard for you.

Due to his sheer size and the common knowledge he's extremely strong - demons that do post a threat or just want to interact with you back off immediately when you're with this guy.

But the fact your popularity has some perks, that catches his attention.

When you admirer gifts that are food related [and trust me, that a lot of the time] - don't worry, Beel would happily take that off your hands if you allow him to.

"Y/N, do you want get these Hellfire Spicy Newt Chips? This flavour is new-" Beel's words trail off when he sees you talking to another demon, 'Huh, must be one of the demons curious about Y/N...' he thought as he stood up straight, his build and large figure towering over you as he stared intently at you're interaction - just waiting for the conversation you're having to end with the lesser Demon. He notices the other demon's eyes slowly drift up and look at him, suddenly ending the conversation you where having with them and rushing off down the opposite direction of the store aisle you two were in. You look up at Beel with a confused look painted on your face from the lesser Demon's sudden choice to end the conversation abruptly. Beel just shrugged in response and held the chip bag he was holding, "Do you want Hellfire Spicy Newt Chips too, Y/N?"

𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗴𝗼𝗿

Like his twin, really doesn't care that your popular.

Matter of fact, he uses it to his advantage all while looking after you.

How exactly? You two a little routine that you two do.

He's already waiting in the attic for you, laying down on the sleeping area he had made when he was held captive up there or in his shared bedroom with Beel - probably already napping.

He senses when you enter the room, he waits up from his slumber and invites you to nap with him.

Gives you cuddles and uses you as a human body pillow while the two of you naps,

Listens to you talk about the latest happenings in you new life being popular in the Devildom - gossip and all.

He stays awake long enough to watch you fall asleep next to him before falling asleep himself.

He lets out a soft while as he stirs awake, hearing someone enter the room. Just from the sound of the footsteps, he knew who it was. "Y/N... you're home..." Belphie welcomes you in his hald-asleep toned voice, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He scoots a bit on the mattress - inviting you to lay with him. Once he feels the mattress sink as you lay beside him, he scoots back that his body was pressed against your back, you feel his arms wrap around you and a leg straddle over your hip as if the sleepy demon was using you as a body pillow. "You must be tired, Y/N... it must have been an eventful day..." he mutters into your clothed back as he presses his face into it, his eyes fluttering closed comforted by your warmth. "Tell me all about it..."

[mamadarama]

i REALLY need to express this somewhere bc i didint knwo where to go BUT since ypure the CEO of madarei (and orher rarpeairs i RLY like) i just can NEVER get over the fact that they have so much undiscovered lore togetjer 🥲🥲🥲 its like. they have a red string tying their bonds for fuck knows why (that successor business shit we never got to know what) and ITS MAKIGN ME LOSE MYMINDDD EVERYTIME I THINK OF ITTTT like what the HELL was he doing at their livign place??@?$#??#?$ this successor business shit is literaly fuckigng INSANE to me like what the actual fuckity fuck was that abouttttt 😭😭😭 (i even wrote like. a non-idol au fic thingy about this.) n im kinda sad the writers lowkey do not give a fuck abt elaboratign on this further .... UGHHGJJJ its just that they have so much THINGS going on behind the screen and its makign me rip my hair out EVERYTIME its slightly mentioned or implied 😭 like. how long have they known eachother????@??#?@??# im so fucing emo abt thrm omg

WAOW am i the ceo of madarei now ????? tis an honor o7

YEAH ITS CRAZY HOW LITTLE THEY ACTUALLY INTERACT ON SCREEN im kind of obsessed with it actually it makes them seem sooo mysterious .... i love me a good ship that doubles as a thinkpiece .

i dunno if its that the writers dont care to elaborate on their relationship , i think theyre doing it on purpose for the suspense and ambiguity. sometimes the best flavor to add to a piece of writing is the parts you leave up to suggestion . makes people have to think a little harder and become more invested in the characters as a result . the secrecy of it all is part of what makes madarei so interesting to me..... the writers do a really good job of writing from anzus point of view as a classmate and coworker, shes the protag but not the protag of every story so from reading the stories , we only have a little more information than she does. so the fact that we barely know anything about madara and reis relationship, in addition to the fact that the only other character that seems to know anything about their relationship is ritsu , suggests that madara and rei are actively hiding something. and ritsu only knows because madara was living with them for awhile when he was exiled; they didnt tell him. he wouldnt even know any more than the rest of the cast currently does if he wasnt reis brother .

i wanna bet theyve probably known each other since they were kids. at the very least since middle school cuz by the time madara was exiled, he and rei were already close enough that rei invited madara to stay with him and his family until he got back on his feet . the sakumas are incredibly secretive and cagey about practically everything, so the fact that reis parents allowed that to happen at all implies that they also already knew and trusted madara. which, for the sakumas, is not an easy or quick status to achieve .

so yeah. theyre up to something . cant say what it is or when well know, but the longer the writers hold out on telling us the harder itll hit when they do. ya think rei and madara are planning for rei to turn him into a vampire and thats what he means by successor? hahahahah. wouldnt that be something.

[pinkseas]

[parasocial bestie] you still did progress anyhow and das really really good!!! focus on ur trip the attention might mess up da writing vibe and thought process tho i trust 10000000% on ur gigantic shiny brain what you do on ur writing <333333

ALSO WHAT BREAKUP THERES A??? NO YOU DID NOT TALK ABOUT IT HERE JUST ZHONGVEN RECENTLY 😭😭😭😭 pls elaborate please dump it all on me i am sitting i am preparing the Tea i am Sipping for the oncoming angst silly whatever i am expecting and the piping hot tea stays no matter what reaction LETS GOOOO 🍵🔥

SCREAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM OMG THANK GOSH I DIDNT TALK ABOUT IT OKAY OKAY SO.

im so excited omgggggg also good morning !!!!!!! :DDD <33333

okay SO. this is actually basically just an idea i initially had for a Different piece of media taken and recycled.

xiaolumi. modern au. lumine and aether move to xiao's town and start at his school when they're like 13 or 14.

aether befriends half of their year in half the day. lumine is quieter, sticks closer to those who are the same. scara, xiao <- im absolutely not biased in any way. aether is chatty but quiet once you get to know him, lumine is quiet but chatty once you get to know her.

she and xiao share loads of classes and work well together and very much want to be closer to each other but dont exactly know how, there's this sort of tension there that neither of them can figure out to save their lives. they're still very close, just. definitely not as much as they could be. and they endure CONSTANT teasing through their school years from friends and family alike about them liking each other/having crushes on each other/"so when's the wedding?" type stuff. people will try to get them together and they just kind of awkwardly laugh it off and dont really know what to do about it. they don't like each other like that. do they?

its never been a question of whether or not they love each other. never. of course they do. but in college they make new friends, and those new friends not ONLY assume they're together from the very start but also jump right in on the teasing after learning that they're not and they finally think okay. fuck it. lets just try dating.

it lasts... a week? two weeks? three? they've never, ever felt further apart from one another. it's strange and weird and they do not like it, even with all the congratulating and claps on the back and celebration that its "finally" happened.

they break up. they make it very clear to all of their friends that they've broken up. and they're scared !! they're scared. they've been each other's closest friend for years now. what they had worked so well for both of them and now they feel theyve ruined it and they're so scared that it's gone for good.

but the breakup is a huge weight off their shoulders. there's a little bit of distance until one day lumine makes a joke about it and suddenly they fall back into rhythm like nothing ever happened. more jokes about the breakup and about each other being shitty partners are integrated right into their vocubulary, and suddenly, somehow, they're closer than ever before. that tension that'd always been between them seems to vanish, they become so COMFORTABLE with each other in a way they weren't quite able to achieve beforehand

venti is probably a pretty big part of it. i am so ready to shove the aroace agenda onto everyone. they meet him in college and he's friendly and carefree and kind and he befriends them both pretty easily, is one of the few who never teases. he does ask, after the fact, about the breakup and how it felt-- but hes respectful and he doesnt come at it from a romantic standpoint and he helps one of them (i havent really decided but Probably xiao) work through a lot of those feelings and what they mean.

lumine and aether end up having a pretty serious conversation about it. lumine has always, always known that she loves xiao, that she's in love with xiao. that hasn't changed. its just... not that kind of love. aether listens. he helps her to better understand, and he starts to understand, too.

"lumine. all that matters to me is that youre happy. are you happy?" and she is. she really, really is.

lumine and xiao do talk about it eventually, too. lumine asks xiao if he loves her. not because she wants or expects to hear a yes, just because she wants to know. wants to understand his feelings, too. and he describes it-- the depth of his care, how important she is to him, describes exactly how he feels and does not once use the word love to do so. he doesnt really know if its love. he doesnt know if any of it is. and lumine tells him that that's okay. that it doesnt have to be love. they're on the same page, they understand, that's what matters.

the Biggest Focus if i were to write it would be that huge comfort and the weight off their shoulders afterwards. the characters i first had this thought for were slightly younger teenagers, one with a huge crush on the other thats so intense they barely manage to befriend them out of shyness, and the thought was that they'd finally date, it would suck, theyd break up, and suddenly without all the perceived romantic feelings in the way there'd be nothing stopping them from being besties. i do think it works a little better with that and in theory i could change this around so that xiao and lumine meet later on and both have ""crushes"" on each other and dont know each other super well before getting together? i actually do kind of like that thought now. fawk. erm. ill Probably end up doing that if i ever do this :sob:

BUT ANYWAYS yeah that's the whole idea/premise smile. breakup fic my <3333333

[sanhatation]

i just finished rewatching ok!ready for the thousandth time but the ending makes me so emotional. when they go in a line having to tell the next member words of encouragement and how then you can see how awkward they were telling eachother serious things and they cant help but giggle while saying i love you. but 3 years later theyre so extremely comfortable with eachother and saying meaningful things isnt hard anymore. its been incredible watching them go from best friends to family.

[rayalahon]

season 7 is the quintessential hermitcraft season to watch

Admitedly, i’m not THAT old of a hermitcraft fan, ive only been around since s6 and will vanquish the Mic of Opinions to fans whove been around for longer, but what i CAN say to all the newbie hermitfans who want to get into the community is this:

watch season 7.

bc while hc s6 is regarded as the ‘turning point’ for hermitcraft and holds a lot of influence on the following seasons, its a fairly daunting task to backwatch and experience it in all of its glory and chaos. Its called the Season Sixfinity for a reason; it lasted nearly twice as long as any season before it, and is just not accessible for everyone. Scar alone has about ~100hrs worth of content on that season. What more if newcomers wanna backwatch the series of other hermits like xisuma, grian, falsie, etc?

And thats not even considering the fact that historical context is very relevant for this time. Season 6 was in 2018— the minecraft renaissance era was in full swing, and the minecraft community as a whole was going through a lot of changes. Its just a lot of stuff to take in for a new viewer. (in particular: new gen dsmp fans who are alr pretty burnt out by the concept of Multiple Povs I Am Obliged to Watch, and is a common reason why so many of them migrated to hermitcraft recently in the first place)

But season 7? It has the perfect balance of everything. If you comb through the hermits’ channels youd find that for most of them, their most viewed hermitcraft videos IS their s7ep1 bc thats simply how hype the season was!! Minecraft was on a good track of evolving as a game. The hermits were left flushed from the previous season and eager to ramp up their Minecrafting AND Youtubing skills.. Season 6′s main problem—immature discourse during server-wide events—began largely dying down and has become pretty much extinct by the time s8 came around (partly because grian’s clout began to bleed over to the other hermits and by the end of the season so many of them have finally, finally gotten the recognition they deserve and have passed/are so close to passing the 1mil milestone.) 

Season 7 was The Return of hermits like etho and xb. keralis and bdubs’ first full season in a while. wels’s return from burnout— it tied up Old and New hermitcraft with a neat little bow.  The vibes were simply IMMACULATE. 

Some ppl didnt even know that season 7 is where winged!grian became a thing. [EDIT: I meant the pesky bird!variety, he's been drawn w elytra since season 6 but s7 was when he began to have floofy feathery wings :>] or that this was when scar and grian really began becoming buddies (desert duo enthusiasts know your history!!) When mumbo began letting loose his loony side. stress’s pink cardigan becomes magenta, bdubs gains his anime eyes, and joe gets his bright neon green hair. It has a fair amount of historical events of its own: the Button. the mayoral race. the Turf War. the HCBBS. the boomers. the keralis secret-base games. the first hermits helping hermits stream. the first inclusion of proximity chat. the armor stand book. Decked Out and Amogus (tango popped off this season fr!!) and the BUILDS oh my god the world was so built up this season it was insane!! the absolute madlads on this server man.

and then season 8 is easy to continue on from there. lasted very short which is good for catching up on and the hermits whose s7 DID suffer (doc, who had his little one and jevin who also went through burnout) get their redemption in s8. the addition of gem and pearl. which then brings us to hc s9 where the hermits are on top of the world and going back to their roots, and being honest w themselves about what kind of balance they want to achieve w their content (mumbo, being currently on break and taking time to recharge and we love him loads <3).

The whitelist is now at top notch quality, full capacity. Theyre on top of the world, and theyve decided to take it chill for the while before returning to your daily schedule of hermitcraft shenanigans with a fresher outlook on life. A truly inspiring and satisfying emotional journey. 

tldr; dont know where to start? Start from s7. 

[pluviophile-imagines]

i'm sure i just spammed your notifs but sis!!!! usurper!gojo!!!!!! i'm in love with your writing ugh and i have a question. have you thought about the reader in canon? is she a sorcerer? a civilian? are she and gojo still together?

ADJFHDB ur good i think its so cool when i can tell someone's going through a specific tag of mine, im flattered u like the concept & my work that much!!!! ironically up until i got this ask i hadn't thought abt that reader in canon but after some pondering i kinda fell in love with the idea n here's what i came up with.

i think she is a sorcerer! not like special grade, id put her at around nanami's level; that is to say, having achieved black flash but not Hugely powerful (have i thought abt her ability? no i do not have the brain power for that sorry kajhbdf). now in the au she n gojo r childhood friends—i don't rlly wanna apply that here, bc his childhood in canon is implied to be v heavily influenced by his status & his clan and i imagine her to have come from a non-sorcerer family (or perhaps one only vaguely involved with the society, like maybe one of her parents was one of those people who could see curses but not a sorcerer??? idk, trying to apply the low-ranking-noble thing here) but either way not someone who he would've known since an early age. however since they're the same age theyd be in the same grade in hs! so i like the idea of her going to the kyoto school, while hes at the tokyo one, and they meet at the goodwill event thing they do every year where he.....

well, in essence, falls in love right away and in classic gojo fashion decides the best way to express that is though aggressive pigtail pulling in the form of beating her ass 🙄 bc of course. so she Hates him at first, and he is Madly In Love

now i v much like the idea of them spending the next many years in that oh-so-classic frenemies situation where hes silently pining after her while being A Menace and shes slowly falling for him despite herself lmfao. maybe she even transfers to tokyo after their initial meeting for whatever reason??? idk! not gonna get too into it but i do think by the time they graduate it evolves from him pestering her while shes annoyed into a close friendship where...... he still. pesters her. bc hes gojo pfft do also like the idea of her becoming a teacher (or otherwise working for the school) when theyre adults as well <333 bc i am a cliche and i simply adore it <333 i love the idea of her being a radical progressive wrt the society much like him n nanami, n thats one of the reasons he's so head-over-heels (sometimes...... he gets her to rant abt how the higher ups suck and the system is broken...... and watches with heart-eyes as she's angrily rambling.....) but yeah. also i rlly like the idea of her n nanami being v close solely bc theyre very similar KJAHSBF (this is also true in the au btw hes one of gojo's royal advisors i just havent mentioned it lol).

ANYWAYYYY i think!!! round abt the time hes idk 25 he comes to her and is like listen so the elders in my clan r rlly riding my ass to get married and pass on my genes and shit (not a lie, he just doesnt really care) and like shoko said she wouldnt do it (blatant lie he never asked her) soooooo u wanna maybe get hitched??? n reader's hesitant at first but then hes like look u n i share the same ambitions abt sorcerer society, we both wanna change it, its good for us to get married yanno? i give u the gojo name and suddenly theyve got two of us to contend with, two of us to send off on missions if they dont want us around, whaddya say?

and as established in the au one-shots, miss reader is an ambitious lil thing. n sure this might pose some issues (despite herself she is in fact v much in love with this fucker shes not super sure her heart could take being married to him......) but hes right, marrying the strongest sorcerer puts her in a position to help him change their society for the better and also hes Loaded who tf Wouldnt want a piece of that gojo fortune so she says fuck it why not.

and cue the agonizing "we're literally married and pining but havent even figured it out yet" slow burn as shoko and nanami and megumi and literally everyone who even somewhat knows them is tearing out their hair watching them KSJDHFB

[gg-astrology]

Hi could you do a reading of birth chart to Choi Minho?Thanks.

Hey there! 💛💛 Oh I like him too! 💛 I hope you won’t mind if it’s brief ok? 💛

[Below Cut: Choi Minho Brief Outlook ]

Note: This is very brief and also just my own lil overview of everything, everyone can have differing interpretations, so please read with ur own discretions 💛

Aaaaah here we have a Sagittarius Sun, Capricorn Moon, Sagittarius Mercury rx 

Someone who likes to think alone, is rather serious (despite loving to make things light for others, joke around is main method of communication) and is more of a visionary than you realize

You know how Sagittarius is both the bow and arrow right? Well Minho as the archer (in his Mars too) is someone who sees what he wants, aim for it and then becomes the bow, and go get it.

Doesn’t like waiting, can be a lil impatient but at the same time– he is often well educated, a serious learner/pursuer of education. Takes his advocacy seriously and is often noble in nature

Seeks good statues/reputation as his emotional gratification, but at the same time Sagittarius/Capricorn also has a rather blunt sense of humour

Doesn’t like being the punchline to things, because Capricorn placements likes to have the last laugh– and is also extremely competitive. Especially with his friends/relationships (Scorpio Venus) 

To him— losing is like, an emotional feeling (Capricorn Moon) with so much fiery Sagittarius and that one Scorpio Venus— he doesn’t like things coming easy to him (the Grind and Working Hard to achieve his success is what makes him happy) and at the same time he doesn’t like being proven wrong as well. 

Absolutely hate it when people point out he doesn’t know everything, or pick on him for his mistakes. It’s the one thing that he often cannot take, because those Sagittarius placement keeps him rather lively, joyous and spontaneous– so being ‘criticised’ is like someone coming in to ‘stop/pause’ the music, the fun. Ruins his vibe completely.

Doesn’t sweat the small detail which is probably his biggest down fall, absolutely no tact besides his coy/slyness and charm. Is a big thinker, so things that requires him to actually sit down and go over minute/minor detail talking to someone about it every single time drains him.

Is inherently optimistic, which is his greatest strength. He KNOWS its a strength as well, which is why he projects it (Sag Sun/Cap Moon) 

The thing about people with ‘older signs/placement’ is that they are also exponentially more childish as their maturity grows. It’s like….they have the ability to choose to be mature, but they learn the value of keeping things youthful, keeping things light whenever they can because they’re always aware/caged by the overwhelming responsibility/severity of the world around them too y know?

Buddy doesn’t like losing in both verbal AND physical challenges. His ego is tied into that, especially when it comes to his verbal battles, it means much more to him than physical challenges (Sun Conjunct Mercury 1′)

Takes things personally, can get quite big-headed. But you know what? It’s fine. His Jupiter is trine Uranus/Neptune, making him someone who can often be too altruistic/see the better good in exposing himself for his foolery in case opportunities/inspiration comes to him for it anyways. 

Jupiter trine Uranus/Neptune also talks about being able to connect to the public, often at large they are people who idealizes and shape those around them. Yet at the same time, he also has his Sun square Jupiter– a private person despite all this. Doesn’t necessarily agree with everyone around them or ‘conformist’ attitude of those who just ‘agree’ to things (Sagittarius, sigh).

Has his Moon conjunct Uranus/Neptune and sextile Pluto wow— blessed with sympathy, can often be very compassionate/altruistic because his emotionality is in it. Imaginative and powerfully domineering without even trying, a quiet, reserved but often calm/severe person. Gives you one look and knows what you’ve done wrong. Wants you to be independence and authentic to yourself, is shaped towards helping others as well as helping himself. 

Mercury-conjunct-Mars points to someone who is often very enthusiastic, has Strong Opinions and isn’t afraid to share them. Can sometimes not take well to criticism (personally) – but is often respectful if not tolerant to some extent (if it comes from authority/people who he doesn’t know) Probably good at learning languages, if only his Mercury square Jupiter doesn’t make him too patient or distract him often (needs focus, clarity and discipline/motivation in this area to manifest)

Venus-Saturn aspect once again: makes a person v v awkward with showing affection/expressing themselves to others in vulnerable ways. Often times it gets better with time, those theyve grown fond of and has seen some of the worst sides with— but with people who are friends or just kinda close– they often refrain from trusting them completely– time/experience can only soften them up to others. 

Other placements: Leo Chiron rx, Sagittarius Ceres, Aquarius Juno. 

Impatient as hell– Mars-square-Jupiter, most of his Sagittarius are squaring Virgo Jupiter which makes him a little bit more hot-tempered, knows full well he lacks attention to detail/discipline but at the same time– just wants to self-express.

Despite his reservation/stead-fast focus and seriousness Sagittarius/Capricorn/Scorpio can bring– he often choose to die in the most ridiculous battle. Can be easily remedied by being more flexible, less opinionated and willing to listen more to other people. Accepting their guidance instead of rushing into things/thinking he can hard-carry it all (Looking at you Capricorn/Scorpio). Impossibly stubborn. 

I hope you like it!!! 💛💛💛 

[toby-stephens]

MAY 2018 : TOBY NEWS

‘LOST IN SPACE’:

By May 16th, it was pretty much confirmed there would be a Season 2 of ‘Lost in Space’, confirmed on 20th by Netflix twitter.

‘SUMMER OF ROCKETS’:

Also confirmed was a new BBC 2 cold war drama, ‘Summer of Rockets’ to star Toby alongside Keeley Hawes, Linus Roache & Timothy Spall.

This six-part series is set in the UK during the Cold War period of the late 1950s, a time when the UK, like much of the world, was dealing with the threat of international espionage and nuclear armageddon.

Filming has begun in and around London and Oxford, and it will be screened sometime in 2019.

The story will be Poliakoffs personal insight into this period and is set against the backdrop of Britain testing its first hydrogen bomb.

Executive Producer Helen Flint, a long-time collaborator with Poliakoff on productions such as Close To The Enemy, Shooting The Past and Perfect Strangers, said:

This piece set in 1958, is hinged at the pivotal point of world history where the past and future are pulling in equal strength and human beings, young and old have little control over the eventual outcome.

IN TOBY’S OWN WORDS:

On “Lost in Space”:

“I think they have been very respectful to the original series, but they smashed it out in their own way.  The thing is, one cant’ be overly reverential to these things because otherwise, you’re just remaking exactly what was already made very well.”

“I think John’s just trying to find his place within this family now. The idea is that he was confronted with the situation of his family going away and him never seeing them again unless he went along. Now that he’s come along for this ride, he’s trying to find his way back into the family, how to relate to his family, how to relate to Maureen, and how to work things out.”

“In my case, why I think it is fun and why I think it works is there’s something timeless about the original idea. The Swiss Family Robinson, obviously, is the original idea of a family in jeopardy. It follows the trials of that family, but also the emotional trials of how they overcome their problems and their weaknesses, because they have to confront them and overcome them.”

“That was then taken into ‘Lost in Space’. In the first iteration of that what worked is that you’re looking at a regular family and their problems, but in this extraordinary situation. It’s hundreds of light years away from earth in a space ship and on a planet, but they’re having the same regular, everyday problems of any other family. The irony of that is that dynamic is really fun. What we’ve done is we’ve updated it, so rather than it being this pristine, apple pie, American family, its a modern family with all of its dysfunctions.”

“We know every family has dysfunctions. There is no ideal, pristine family, and the Robinsons are one of those families. Just a normal family that everybody can relate to, but it’s in this extreme situation and you still get the ironies of watching a family deal with each other and their own problems in the way every family does that you can relate to, but in this extraordinary back drop of being on a planet thousands of light years away. I think that that trend still works and its fun.”

“The only reason to do something again is if you feel that you can say something to a new generation of people and you can do it in a totally individual way. You’re just taking the kernel of the original idea and re-doing it, but for now.”

“We can’t replicate what was done in the original show. It just wouldn’t work now. The tone of it is very different although it still retains some of the fun aspects of it, the comic stuff that goes on there, the light touch. I don’t think we could repeat what that show became.”

“I think the original pilot episode is much more akin to what we’re doing. As the series went on, it became if you’ll forgive this phrase campier and campier. It was almost like a sitcom, but in space. I just don’t think that that would work now. So, we’ve made it into something that is lots more for todays generation.”

“I think it’s really great that they did a gender swap. It’s actually a genius stroke because you cannot replicate what was done with that character in the original series. But Parker Posey is such an individual performer. She brings to it her own sense of wackiness and fun.”

"That is a reflection of what the original character was, but it’s very much its own thing, and I think that’s absolutely right. If you cast a man in that part, they would feel this pressure to replicate what was done in the original series, a moustache-twirling villainous kind of thing. I think it just wouldn't hold water now and it would just seem sort of arch.”

“In other words, I think what Parker Posey does is so much her own thing, and as it goes on, you realise that it’s a much more nuanced character in that there are reasons for her being the way she is. I like that you can get the fact that she is horrible and does terrible things, but at the same time, she’s a real and complex character.”

“I don’t have any interest in doing that at all. I love earth. It’s a beautiful planet, and I think, going to Mars, although it looks amazing from aerial photographs taken from orbiting satellites and things like that, and I’ve seen documentaries about it, but I think it’s a desolate, dangerous place, filled with radiation. It would be too dangerous going there, and so arduous.”

“I think that is one of the things that we show. There is a warning to this. The idea that we can trash this planet and then move on to another planet somewhere else, that there’ll be some other Goldilocks planet that we can go to, have it and trash that one, and then just keep on moving on, its crazy. We have to look after the planet were on. I’m all for space exploration, but I wouldn’t want to do it myself because I’ve got kids and a family and the idea would be terrifying to me.”

“The planet is presented to an audience initially as, ‘Oh, it’s so great. It’s got oxygen, so they can breathe. It’s similar to the Earth.’ But then as you get further and further into the drama, you realise there are more and more hostile things about this planet that are dangerous and there are reasons that there are storms with diamonds and deserts. There are astronomic reasons why this planet is like that, which then become apparent. Then they realise that they have to get off it. This isn’t somewhere where they can just set up their colony.”

“It is aspirational to me in that it’s about people trying to be better, in the best way that American shows and films sometimes do. When it doesn’t work, its because its super sentimental and glib.”

“This is about people who find themselves in jeopardy, but also they’re in jeopardy in their personal relationships, in the way that they relate to each other, and it shows how they overcome their own problems and weaknesses. They all do that in a very real way, so I think that’s aspirational.”

“Also, one of the things in watching this, the kids are so bright and so capable, especially the girls. One of the things I would like my daughter to get from this is how strong and capable the girls are, and how intelligent they are. They’ve worked really hard to be that way.”

“It would inspire me, if I was a child, to want to work hard and to want to be like that. Look, I’m not saying that TV should be life changing. It’s entertainment, but if it, along the way, inspires kids, or reflects good qualities, aspirational qualities, without lecturing people or being sentimental, I think that’s good. I think ‘Lost in Space’ does that to a certain extent, in a way that family shows should do, in a gentle kind of encouraging nurturing way, rather than patronising.”

Source: parade.com

“When I discussed it with Zack Estrin he was like, look, this is not an apple pie family. This is a family that is full of great people, but they’re damaged here. The relationship between the mother and father is dysfunctional. They’ve padded it, and it’s in disrepair and that’s part of the drama. Are they gonna be able to figure things out? How do they relate to one another? It’s an estranged father, who’s been away fighting wars and stuff like that, and he has become disconnected from his kids.”

“It’s just not very dramatically interesting to have a family thats always kind of fine. I mean, it’s dramatic enough that they’re in this life-threatening situation, but you add to the drama by saying they don't really know how to relate to one another and there’s this whole family dysfunction that they have to work out as well. And are they gonna work that out?”

“There’s something disingenuous about them being a family that’s perfect. Not only would it be dramatically boring, but it’s also just not true. We know anybody who has a family knows that it’s not perfect and that people make mistakes. But the thing is that these people, like everyone, are just trying to do better. And I think that that is something everyone can relate to, whether you’re a kid or you’re an adult.”

“One of the things that I really love about the show is that it’s aspirational. This family, they are, they’re people who are trying to be better and do good and to survive. And so it’s very, in many ways I think its a very cognitive show. And all these relationships in the end, while they’re complicated they are part of this. And we need that kind of, I think we need the kind of show like that because theres a lot of really depressing shows out there, which are fantastic and amazing, but they’re really depressing. And this is one has a really positive message and a kind of affirming message.”

“To be able to do what they wanted to do with this show, to kind of make it as magical to kids now as it was when it originally came out in 1965  it takes an organisation like Netflix that can throw enough money at it to achieve that. The kind of wonder and the kind of adventure. The scale of the adventure that they’re going for.”

“I think what I really loved about it was the kids are really intelligent. If I was a kid watching this I would go, I want to be as intelligent and as capable as that child. Im gonna work harder in school. Im gonna really try and work hard at math. That’s great as well. So I like that, the fact that the kids, to some extent, end up helping out the adults. Its a nice dynamic.”

“The kids need that adventure and the fun. But then the grown-ups who are watching the show need to care about these people as well and enjoy the show on a different level. So we were kind of like, that part of the show is for the grown-ups. For them to relate to these people and to identify with them. To go, I know what thats like. I know how difficult that can be sometimes."

“I really love working with Molly. We actually had a lot of dialogue early on, both together and with Zack Estrin, about just figuring out exactly what their relationship was. Because when we were talking, we were both like, This marriage has to seem real to people; otherwise people just aren’t gonna care.”

Source: indiewire.com

“One of the relationships I though was really quite clever is not between Will and the robot, but between John and the robot. The fact is the son chooses the company and protection of the robot above his own father.”

Source: thetimes.co.uk

“If it’s going to be a family show, then the families have to recognise themselves through the screen. We had to present normal families, and modern families are all complicated.”

Source:  dailynewsegypt.com

“There's this sort of thing of, ‘Oh, why are they together on this thing if they’re separated?’ It’s like, If you don’t take me with you, I’ll never see my family again. So theres that reason for him being there”

Source: io9.gizmodo.com

“They sent me the script and I was dubious, at first. I said, ‘Lost in Space’? They’re reviving that?! They tried to do that with the film, and it didn’t work. And then, I read the script and I actually liked it. The thing I liked most was that they were pitching it at such a great level. It was sophisticated enough for adults to watch and really get something out of it, and yet it had this fantastic adventure quality. What I really liked about it is that the kids are intelligent and its aspirational. If I were a kid watching this, I’d be like, I want to be that bright and that capable. And it doesn’t get ridiculous. They pitched it at the right level. And I felt that Maureen and John were real people. I like the way that they were written and I liked the fact that it was a relationship in trouble. They’re trying to figure out how to get along and how to deal with not only this extreme situation that they’re in, with extreme jeopardy and the terror of that, but also figuring out how to work things out between themselves. Thats what sold me on it. They seemed to be a family that people can relate to because its not some apple pie family that just doesn’t exist. They’re fallible human beings, who are trying to be better.”

“Like most kids, they’re all completely different from one another, and they have different strengths and weakness, just like normal kids in a family. It’s about how you cope with that. All of those different dynamics that happen seemed real to me, they're just in these extraordinary circumstances.”

“It’s brilliant! It’s one of the reasons that I love doing what I do. You can do something so entirely different, not only in its context, but also in its whole feel. I had done ‘Black Sails' for four years and it was a really tough journey for me. I know it sounds slightly pretentious, but I really was wrung out, by the end, by the whole experience. It was an amazing experience, but Ive never worked that hard, in my life. There were long days with extreme conditions, filming in South Africa, and you had to go from massive physical set pieces to doing intense dialogue scenes. You’d go from one extreme, of being beaten up physically, to another extreme, of being beaten up mentally. So, when this came along and I started doing it, it was a relief to me. With ‘Black Sails’, Flints journey and options were narrowing down and it was inevitable, what was going to happen to him. With ‘Lost in Space’, it seems to be opening out. Its about people trying to survive and trying to be better people and fighting to be alive. Flint had a death wish. After four years, that was really dark. It’s just a really nice juxtaposition to ‘Black Sails’, which I miss, enormously, but it felt like I was on holiday with ‘Lost in Space’. Although, like any job, ‘Lost in Space’ had its own pressures, but they weren't the same pressures that I experienced on ‘Black Sails’.

“His relationship with the kids,  that was a wonderful journey for me, as an actor. I really enjoyed playing that. As the season progresses, the robot becomes this surrogate father and protector for Will, who’s physically frightened. The irony is that Will has this father who is very brave, and who’s gone off on done all of this fighting in war, and he’s very capable, himself, but he’s nervous and frightened. So, the robot becomes very protective of him, but at the same time, threatens John. His son has to go to a robot to get what he should be giving him, and thats painful for him. The realisation that he's missed out on an enormous amount of his kids childhood and not being there for them, and trying to make up for that and connect with them again, is a very moving thing to play.”

“Initially, John is very distrustful of the robot. It’s a real problem because you need the robot in this extreme situation, since he seems to be able to help you, but at the same time, what is this thing goes berserk? You just don’t know what he's going to do. And as the show goes on, you realise that there are more reasons for him to distrust this thing. The whole thing is a great journey. All of that is really fun to play.”

“The biggest learn for me, that I’ve never had to do before, was doing all of that spaceship acting, sitting in the pilots chair and knowing what all the buttons do. That was such fun. While you’re doing it, you’re going, What am I doing?!, and then you have to remember what you used the buttons for, the next time. Being on a spaceship, throwing yourself around, I had a blast. You have to pinch yourself, once in awhile, and go, What am I doing?!”

“Yeah, the spacesuit was pretty uncomfortable, I have to say. One of the things I most enjoyed about the shoot, because it was so refreshing to me, was working with the kids. One becomes a bit jaded. Its easy to fall into saying, Oh, this spacesuit is so uncomfortable! But when Max Jenkins is jumping around going, This spacesuit is so cool!, it’s so refreshing. It’s so refreshing to be around that enthusiasm. It’s infectious. It was so great having the kids around because it just made you realise how lucky we were to be doing what we were doing.”

“We had a little bit of rehearsal time, but it was just a little bit. Max is such an easy kid to get to know. He’s just so open, and his parents are adorable. We couldn’t have lucked out more with the children that we got because they’re really great kids. They’re really open, really friendly, really open to having a great time, and up for learning. That just makes things so much easier. Im assuming that things can go very differently. We were incredibly lucky. All of us just really got on well and working with them seemed very natural. There didn’t seem to be any process that we had to go through. It just happened very quickly.”

“Molly and I spent a lot of time with Zack Estrin, talking about their relationship. If this isn’t a real relationship and a real family than nobody is going to care. The relationship has to be real without being depressing or sentimental. It has to be something that people can relate to. Especially because this is a family show, grown ups have to watch this, so it has to be sophisticated, as well as incredibly fun for the kids. We need grown ups and parents to be able to relate to Maureen and John and their problems and aspirations. What made it really great fun for me was working with Molly because she’s such a great actress, and we have that back and forth, both on screen and off. Their relationship feels like these are real people. Whats kind of funny is that the romance of the whole thing is really them. They’re the romantic couple. You want them to figure it out because they’re good people. If we’re lucky enough to go again, it will be interesting to see where they take John in Season 2. The other thing that I really enjoyed was working with Max and exploring that relationship, which to me is very real. I spent a lot of time away from my family, filming in South Africa, so I knew what it was like, being away from your family for a long time and feeling slightly out of place when you come back into it and trying to figure things out. I could really relate to that relationship, between John and Will. My son is about the same age as Max, but maybe a bit younger.”

“Interestingly, I would say that he creates the strongest bond with his son. He works out a lot of stuff with Maureen, but the greatest distance he covers is with Will. The last four episodes are really lovely, for me. John is also a slow burn. You don’t really get to know him that well, for awhile. It takes awhile to figure out his agenda, and whats going on between him and Maureen. It takes a long time to figure him out, but once you see what he’s trying to do, the last four or five episodes are really nice. It really is a journey for him. He does things wrong, but it’s because he’s clumsy. He doesn’t quite get it right and he misjudges things a bit. He’s too tough because he’s used to giving orders to people. Hes an army guy, so it’s all about training and execution for him. He has to relearn what empathy is, and how to deal with these kids without being this grumpy soldier.”

“Yeah, my kids did come, a couple of times, and they got on really well with Max, Mina and Taylor. And Mollys son came to set. It was really nice. It felt like a very family-oriented show, and they all hung out together. It was a really nice feeling and very relaxed.”

“Molly and I were quite adamant that the stakes had to be real and the threats had to be real. As an actor, the only thing you have is your instinct and your imagination. Those are the two main tools that you use. I didn’t really enjoy putting myself in that situation, where you are the person and your kids are under threat, but you had to give it that intensity. Of course, if it was real, I probably would have died. I would have had a nervous breakdown within an hour, but these characters can manage it. Obviously, one has to imagine what that would be like.”

Source: collider.com

“I was seven years old when ‘Star Wars’ came out. That just kind of blew my head off. ‘2001’, ‘Blade Runner’. All of these, all of the stuff like that. This is the one genre I completely expected to be in.”

“The character of Captain Flint, who I was playing, was a very nihilistic character that was on this kind of tragic course toward death. So to get something so polar opposite was really fun. It just sort of ended up being the perfect antidote to having done something like ‘Black Sails’.”

Source:  indiewire.com

"The thing I admire in John is that he is somebody who knows that he has got it wrong, and he's trying to put it right. Not only for his relationship with his wife, but individually, his relationships with his children. He's trying to not only save their lives, but he's also trying to do the right thing. And I think that's what I really like about this series, is that it's something that is aspirational without being sentimental. It's about people trying to be better people and trying to do the right thing."

"I think that that's something we kind of need right now, because the world is really depressing at the moment, and things are really frightening. You watch TV and a lot of it is really depressing--and brilliant--but pretty much depressing. And I think what's nice is you can get lost in the adventure of this, but also these are people who are trying to be better. And I think there's something uplifting about watching that."

Source: gamespot.com

"Will is quite insecure, his confidence is not great”

Source:  digital spy.com

On inequality in Hollywood:

"I think the movements are great. I am a parent of two girls and I have a wife who is very passionate, and I want a change for them, my wife and for all our friends”.

"I can only sympathise with and support the movement. Change needs to happen and it is mad that it has taken so long”

"It is a correction. It is really needed at the moment. Being a parent of two young girls, I am really excited about a show that has two young girls who are represented as incredibly capable, strong, smart, and sassy.”

"It is really great that there is a show which is showing that. I am excited for my kids to watch that and excited for the whole generation of kids to watch those characters and aspire to be like that.”

"There are moments which are light. Also, what is fun is that it is taking the domestic situation essentially and putting it in space.  So, there are these situations that occur and every parent or child will recognise... They have either been through that or seen them. But it is this extraordinary situation where they are million of years away from Earth which makes it different.”

Source: business-standard.com

On ‘Summer of Rockets’:

“It’s great to be working with Stephen Poliakoff again after such a long time. I loved working with him on ‘Perfect Strangers’; he’s such a unique and original voice in British television. It’s also good to be filming something back home in the UK for the BBC. It’s been a while.”

Source: deadline.com

OTHERS ON TOBY:

Maxwell: “I’ll never forget going up on top of the glacier. My scenes with Toby where we were walking in the snow, weren’t green-screen we were on a real glacier! We had to take a one-hour and 45-minute ride on a snowmobile to get there.”

“It was cold but sunny, and Toby didn’t think of getting sun protection. The following day, he had sunburn above his eyes and under his nose, and the glass of the space suit charred half his face.”

Source: entertainment.inquirer.net

[theparaminds]

It’s not as though Natalie Green knew what this year held in store or what would exist at the end of the road. Though, at every step of the way, he kept going. Embodied in both his music and his story of perseverance, is a rare example of an artistic soul that found peace where few would ever dream to look. It took months of learning and continued questioning of himself and what he wanted to be. But in the end, it resulted in a man anew.

With a new project taking shape in studio sessions that contrast his earlier life, Natalie Green is finding a voice he previously was nervous to share, speaking louder than before. The ideas, memoirs and anxieties he hopes to express have become clear. With every note, he continually finds himself as much as he does connect to those who battle the same confusions.

Natalie Green now stands with a new asset he hadn’t held prior, the ability to embark on the path he wants, not the one life throws him upon. He can stand and become the artist he visualizes, the artist he knows is essential to reveal to the world. For the first time in a while, Natalie Green is in control, with a steering wheel in hand and a road of possibility on the horizon.

Our first question as always, how’s your day going and how are you?

Things have been hectic, but good. Good busy you know? There are different kinds of busy and this one has been all positive.

On your last EP last year, it sounded like you weren’t fully at peace, do you find that you are now after a year of personal introspection?

Yeah for sure, when I was writing the EP, I was in a really terrible place physically, emotionally and mentally. It was a passion project when it came out, I didn’t have to think about it. Whereas now, I’ve got a place, I’m not just in my car anymore, I emotionally feel a lot more centered, I have my head on straight. I’ve found friends and people that I love to surround myself with. Everything’s been a thousand times better.

When you’re looking within this shift you’ve undertaken, where do you think you’ve personally grown the most, whether artistically or as an individual?

I think I’ve gotten more empathetic towards people. All people. As well, I feel more self-aware. What I realized when living in my car was that I didn’t know myself. Living in a house again with roommates made me, in a new way, learn more about myself, and where I needed to spend a lot of time mentally. As far as musically, I feel more confident, I think that’s apparent in my vocals and instrumentation, they’re far more personal in that sense.

With the new year in season, being a time of reflecting upon the past year, do you have any memories that stick out to you as positive through the difficult and turbulent times?

There’s a lot. I don’t know if there’s one specific moment, but definitely moving into the apartment. I also got to play a private show in my friend’s backyard for all my close friends. That was a big moment for me. There’s a lot of moments where I had friends reassure me, and believe in me when I wasn’t doing so myself. One of my best friends from back home came to live here a little while ago, that was really special to have him back. The whole tour with Roy, of course, was inspiring, to see him do all that and becoming closer to everyone I went on tour with will forever be in my memories.

With that tour, and even more so working on Cat Heaven, happening while you were working on your own projects, did they influence the way you approached your new work?

There are certain things I learn from other people I can implement in my own music later. There will be something I’ll figure out while I’m working with someone, be it a sound or a new style, I can kinda pull out later. A lot of it is just talking to others and learning their inspirations and how that reflects in their music. Then turning and comparing that to my own influences and seeing how I do the same. It’s all just inspiration.

To touch on that idea of inspiration, you’ve mentioned in the past how you have a wide range on influences in your life in terms on music, but in the last year, which artists have really been influencing the work you’re putting out?

There’s been a lot of really great artists I just got into this past year-ish, but a big one is Michelle Zauner, who’s the singer for Japanese Breakfast. I’m hugely inspired by her, the fact she directs her own music videos and does all her own creative output, it’s really amazing. I’ve also loved the movies of Michel Gondry and the writing of Charlie Kaufman, anything they work on is amazing and so intoxicating.

With this new album you’re ramping up to release, has there been a difference in approach to how you wrote songs and lyrics? And how does that process look like?

I mean it’s been different for almost every song, I tried to do the album the same way I did the EP, and it wasn’t working right. Every song I wrote just felt lacklustre or the same. So to change it up, I had to change my methods, like the first song I wrote, I did two guitar parts first and then I sang, then produced over. That is very different to the EP which was songs first then lyrics. There are certain songs where before I recorded, I had a guitar riff and just wrote the song in a very traditional way, just chords and singing. Maybe loops would be first at times, and then they’d be built off of. Everything has been different.

It’s interesting because it sounds like you’ve really been adding more to your skill set as an artist, would you say that if you had a tool belt of music, that you’ve been adding towards it in the last while?

Yeah, definitely. I’ve been doing that my whole life honestly. I started in bands, not knowing how to produce or anything, but I could play guitar and from then I learned the bass just to add of that. Then I learned production, and that is forever useful. Now I’m working more to be an artist and learn what that entails and requires. Every time I learn something new I really take that and hold onto it until needed.

If you could create your ideal music creation space, where would it be and how would it look like?

That’s interesting, It would really just need to be a secluded place. A place I could disappear and a place I could be as loud as I want as late as I want. No interruptions, all the equipment I needed. Some food, drinks and a bathroom, that’s all I need.

Over the year you’ve posted some concerts you went to, like Paramore in the summer. Are there other shows you saw live that really had an impact upon you and maybe changed the way you approach live shows yourself?

Well, of course, the tour with Roy, he’s been super inspiring in general and watching the man work is amazing. He has a lot of fantastic ideas and he goes through with them. I saw Daisy as well, and they’re so good live. Solange was also amazing with her stage design and her choreography. I also saw Soccer Mommy pretty recently, and it wasn’t too extravagant but it was so well done and exciting to see as a fan of the music.

When you’re on stage, even something like the backyard show you mentioned earlier, what’s the emotion you’re trying to achieve and what is the mindset that you find yourself within at that moment?

When I played that private show, I realized all my songs were pretty mellow and hard to dance or move to. All except for Beachwood didn’t translate very well. So with this new project, I want them to translate really well live, to feel energetic, to feel lively. The songs are just fun. But I keep that emotion in and make sure that I don’t lose what made the earlier work so special and important.

What’s been the overall message you’re trying to pursue this new work and what is it you’re hoping to convey?

I kinda just want to tell my story. Or a story of mine. If people learn things from that, its great, but I’m just saying what happened in my experience. What I realized is that there’s a lot of shitty things that happened to me in my life, but the truth is that things could be a lot worse, so far they’ve been pretty good for the most part. While I had those tough days, I’m still here kicking it.

I apologize if it’s a repeated question, but with the topic of your story, what’s the meaning behind the stage name you’ve taken upon yourself?

It is and it isn’t part of my story in a way. A big part of that choice was that I wanted to separate myself from my old name and work. I wanted this to be super new. The name is taken from two names of people I am very inspired by. And it also, to me, sounds like the quintessential hot girl from a high school, the girl in the coming of age movie they all go after.

If you had a message to artists out there who may find themselves in the same space as you have previously found yourself within, those who may feel as unsure, what would be your lesson to pass on?

I think it doesn’t matter if you’re as confident or as talented as you want to be, as long as you recognize what sounds good to you, just put out the song. It doesn’t matter if you think your voice was bad, just keep progressing as an artist. If you wait for that progression you’ll never put stuff out, you’ll never be happy. With whatever you have right now, just start putting something, anything, out.

Follow Natalie Green on Twitter and Instagram

Listen on Soundcloud and Spotify

All Photos by Guthrie King

[stripesquadsideblog]

Meeting shizuma headcanons

For that lovely polite nonnie <3

 Hassaku

Shizuma found hassaku scurrying around in the dark of his villain lair hideout . hassaku was arguing with his family and gone out for a walk in monsoon season. He had ducked into the building to get out of the rain. Shizuma found him nearly asleep on one of the gantries. Startled and spoiling for a fight hassaku attacked shizuma but he was no match for him.  Shizuma can smell emotional vulnerability a mile away, like blood in the water .hassaku is in marvel at how easily this man knocked his ass to the ground and now? Listening to him is like savlon of the soul. When shizuma asks him to join him hassaku jumps at the chance .

Buntan

Buntan and shizuma met at the academy but not the way you’d think. They were in the same year but not the same class. They would occasionally make goo-goo eyes at one another across the canteen , buntans friends telling her to ask him out, but it never went any further than that. They didn’t have any real interaction until the chunin exams.

The year they graduated the exam took place in suna; all the kiri kids are water babes and as such they were suffering in suna’s dry heat. Buntan and Shizuma were paired up at random by their tutor for a quick sparing match early in the morning before it became too hot for them all. Buntan was taking her training seriously but shizuma was just playing around. As far as he was concerned the exam was beneath him. Buntan called him arrogant , until he told her it was beneath someone of  her skill too; buntan was struck dumb. Shizuma took advantage of the situation to win the match but honestly she couldn’t bring herself to bear much of a grudge .

Especially not after he invited her out for dinner to make up for it. They got to talking and realised how much they had in common ( regarding the blood mist anyway)

Theyve been pretty inseparably since.

Ichirota

Shizuma went looking for Ichirota.  Hes a year or two his senior so i doubt they were in the same class. He might have seen shizuma around the academy but its been implied that shizuma was a poor student so i doubt they associated much . mr Ichirota “perfect grade” oniyuzu does not affiliate with second class low achieving scum. Especially not a low chaste member of kiri like a hoshigaki.

Ichirota is terminally bored of life. Hes looking for anything to make things interesting for him . no one is more surprised than Ichirota when shizuma slides into his life with his ideas of revolution.. it doesn’t take long for Ichirota to become completely devoted to the idea and by affiliation, shizuma.

 Hebiichigo

Hebiichigo was out of the academy for over a year before she met shizuma. They were both on penance for botched missions at the time: doing menial labor around kiri . hebii is tiny. Labor is not for her, she tried to tell the powers that be that she couldn’t do something like that but no one listened. Bitter and grumpy everyone else on penance avoided her for fear of stabbing. nobody noticed hebiichigo get knocked over and stuck under a pile of logs . shizuma herd her swearing and squeeking by accident and simply came over to investigate out of curiosity. He eventually got her out, after about 20 minutes of laughing and even offered to help  her finish her work as a reward for giving him a good laugh.

He then discovered that hebiichigo has a damn good right hook. He recruited her because she is mean as all hell and always ready to fight. if youre going to war you need an angry goblin like hebiichigo

Kyoho

No one knows where shizuma found kyoho. He speaks so little the only reason everyone in the stripe squad knows his name is even kyoho is because he has it on the door of his room.

The prevailing theory is that kyoho used to participate in a lot of underground illegal sparing matches in and around kiri. They’re pretty popular since fighting to the death is discouraged now  thanks chojuro . they think shizuma must have gone to watch or participate and found kyoho down there like some sort of kiri god of war. Impressed by his bloodlust and sheer strength there was no way shizuma was going to leave someone of his skill alone. He just sort of showed up one day with a suitcase ( no one knows what was in it) and moved in to their hideout. Shizuma just acted like it was totally normal and everyone was too freaked out by this behemoth of a man showing up on their doorstep to ask.

Kagura

Shizuma only took the position of senpai at the academy teaching all those little snotty brats how not to use a sword  because his parents told him it would be good for him ( or rather they said do it or suffer our wrath)  Shizuma was just a bored instructor half heartedly supervising until he saw kagura. He’d heard the rumours ; that Yaguras grandson was in the academy, but he didn’t believe it until he saw kagura for himself. Ever since then kept an uncomfortably close eye on kagura waiting for the chance to  get closer to him.

Kagura being the little cinnamon roll he is never noticed shizuma trying to monopolise his time, never realised that shizuma was the one spreading rumours about kaguras viciousness around the academy in an attempt to drive him to shizumas side. Not until it was too late anyway

 BONUS

Tsurushi Hachiya

Tsurushi fell in with shizuma totally by accident and got too deep in way to fast. The light closed above him and now he was sort of stuck with a crazed murderer. He knew from the start that this new group of friends was bad news but he didn’t care. He had a group of “friends” who listened to him, who looked up to him. Shizuma saw he had a large following of blind fools who just wanted to cause trouble

Their first meeting was cool enough. Shizuma took him and a load of others out to dinner , flaunting his power by getting them a private table in the back room. Tsurushi felt like a kid at the adults table but he didn’t care because this was just so cool!.

Things  were going swimmingly...untill shizuma reviled he knew several of his minions had betrayed him. Their food poisoned they were dead within minutes leaving the rest him stairing in abject horror while the rest of the table looked on in apathy.

Shizuma could only smile at his reactions.”how cute” he had said. Tsurushi wasn’t used to death, especially not when it had fallen on his lap before the hors d'oeuvres.  It didn’t occur to Tsurushi until much later that this wasn’t just an efficient way to get rid of his enemies; it was a warning to him and him specifically. “ this is what happens when you mess with me.”

Tsurushi will forever be grateful to boruto and sarada for getting him out of that situation and putting shizuma away.

[thisanimal]

im done with college next wednesday o_0

it feels incredibly weird to know that im just Done academically next week. school has taken up ~18ish years of my 22 years of living so its just so bizarre to think that itll all be over so soon? obviously im crazy excited because fuck college and school man but i feel this kinda emptiness when i really think about it. i think im really bad at mentally compartmentalizing my life so even during summer breaks, holiday breaks etc i feel like school is always in the back of my brain. i truly do not know whats gonna happen with all of that extra Brain Data when school ends!!!!!! and thats uhhhhh kinda scary!!!!!!!

and objectively i know i should be proud of myself for completing my bachelors when im the first in my family to do so and majoring in something objectively hard to boot but idkkkkkkkk. i feel like ive faked my way through my entire degree. ive been carried by my friends in the same major thru all of my classes and idk it just does not feel great. theyre staying an extra ~year for their masters which is so lit but idk how im supposed to get a full time job when ive been a fraud these past 4 years......it also makes me sad that i wont be able to see them as much and uhhhhh this sounds selfish but i hate the idea of two of my friends becoming ssuper close without me :(

and hey i also dont have a job yet which is terrifying. i just cannot live at home for an extended period of time, especially when my dad is planning on selling our house, moving us in with his girlfriend, then all of us moving again into a new house. and its not like i can live with my mom because she literally rents out a room to live lmfao. it just fucking sucks man the best thing about this whole global pandemic shit is that my dad cant sell the house so we cant move lollllll which againnnn is a really selfish way of looking at things

idek i think at this point my parents divorce has sucked out all my ?emotional? energy and now i just dont have the capacity to be SAD sad like before.......i havent cried in a hot minute which is super unlike me. i really shouldnt be bitching about my parents getting divorced when im 22 but hey i am poorly adjusted! whats even weirder is that my parents are objectively nicer to me now probably because theyre not 1. miserable together and 2. maybe saw how badly them getting divorced fucked me up......but them being nice now doesnt erase years of emotional trauma baby! and now its gotten to the point where i feel that i cant broach my mental health struggles with my parents at all! yeehaw! nah i dont “feel” i know telling my parents i am mentally ill would go poorly.....these are the same people that made fun of high schools having activities to promote good mental health after a student k*lled themselves because “what do high schoolers have to be sad about!!!!!!”

i think also its just really sad to look back on my childhood and think about how.....non affectionate my parents were?? like i was never congratulated on my achievements, and whenever i asked whether they were proud of me the answer was always “of course we are”......omg i sound like suchhhhhh a little bitch  but one of my friend’s mom is planning on getting a bunch of people in a surprise zoom call with my friend to pop champagne and congratulate him on graduating.........and that just made me soooooo sad man my parents would NEVER do something like that for me.....this also sounds lame but theyve never posted those cringey little congratulatory posts on facebook for me amkdsslal;dklasd im sorry it sounds soooooo whiny when i write it out but mannnnn i really do crave praise!!!!! but even when i get praised by my friends or whatever i can never take it well. like the idea that my friends are proud of me and actually enjoy my company is just. unfathomable to me. truly i think i am just straight up stupid and dont deserve anything from like. idk man i never even saw my parents be affectionate with each other when i was younger lol i truly do not know how to love!!!!! wild

kinda wacky how all of my problem stem from my parents lmfao

[tumblunni]

Man i'm remembering how raw all of Nami's early arcs were in One Piece and how much it sucks that she just got completely sidelined later on and increasingly turned into a sex symbol as well as being pushed further into the box of 'token weak normal human who can never win a fight' while usopp eventually escaped it. Oh except she can sometomes win sexualized fights against other sexualized women. *sigh* That moment where she got fuckin assualted ny an invisible man while naked in the shower and it was all played as sexy to the audience and sanji makes a shitty joke about wishing he had the invisible power to perv on girls and then EVERYONE ELSE EXCEPT NAMI gets some damn resolution on beating up invisibiluty asshole and its clear the whole thing was just an excuse for the author to show tits and her feelings dont really matter. Oh and the fuckin literal soap bath battle with the lady whose power is magic soap that makes people extra slippery and shiny like JESUS CHRIST BRO

Anyway lets not go on for an hour about the bad nami stuff and instead remember the great stuff!

Like that FUCKIN RAW moment in her backstory arc where theyve played the reveal of her being part of Arlong's crew SO WELL that you genuinely cant tell if she was really evil all along and is really betraying everyone. And then they slap you right in the face with what seems to be a scene of her murdering usopp! And its just done so damn great and dark and shocking, like right down to the framing of it where it looks like he escaped for a second and then he barely has time to gasp out a word before she stabs him. And they let this ride for a decently long amount of time too before revealing she's not evil after all. Just enough time to sink in and make you believe it! And the circumstances of the reveal are SO DAMN GREAT, yo! I think its straight up the most badass heroic thing anyone has ever done in the entire series and i hate how it doesnt get remembered much or aknowledged as much as the bigger more dramatic fights.

Cos you see...yeah Nami was not in fact evil and was just pretending to be loyal to these villains because theyd been blackmailing her for years ans she had a plan to trick her way out of it and wanted to keep her friends safe from being involved (and loads of other complex shit!) But she REALLY FUCKIN DEDICATED HERSELF TO HER ACTING cos she knew just how damn dangerous these bastards are and how much it was gonna take to fool them. The real reason Usopp got cut off mid sentence into a strangled scream is because Nami stabbed HERSELF to fake killing him! She wrecked the shit out of her arm and rubbed the blood on him and told him to stay down, and then managed to not let out the slightest sound of her pain and continue pulling off her amazing fake villain acting while bleeding out underneath her sleeve. Its not really brought up again but from the degree of how goddamn much she injured that hand and how she wasnt able to get it treated until after HOURS OF HIDING THE PAIN, it probably would have left her with permenant muscle spasms and difficulty moving her fingers. And she's a mapmaker so thats an injury that would really affect her career for the rest of her life. She risked all that to save a friend who believed she'd betrayed him and was 100% down to fight at that moment! Like seriously they also had some great development with usppp realizing he was wrong and working hard to overcome his cowardliness and put his own life on the line to help save Nami later on. It was such a good arc!!

Oh and of course theres the entire context to this whole thing that this villain group actually murdered nami's mother when she was a kid and groomed her into joining them. And right from the age of like six years old she was already planning how to out-manipulate the manipulators and gain the trust enough to take revenge someday. And she faked joining the villains, faked being fine with it, faked not mourning her goddamn mom. She let herself be treated like a heartless demon child by everyone she ever knew, so she could make these monsters believe she'd betrayed them and thus someday save them all. Save all those people who never even fuckin believed in her! And the villain dude fuckin branded her like a cow and she was so traumatized she tried to dig the tattoo out with a knife and seriously man her left arm must be so damn scarred and i hate that they dont atually show it just cos 'she's gotta be sexy'. They used to show the scar underneath her life-affirming happier replacement tattoo, but it just got phased out around the same time her waist became 2cm wide...

Also it really fuckin sucked that this arc just ended with Nami's decade long plan to save her family failing and she cries into the dirt and then all the male characters save her aand defeaat the bad guy instead. Even worse that this started becoming a trend where every new arc from now on would have some sort of femle character who was very sad and her grand character development was admitting she needed luffy to save her and then everyone else except her gets to defeat the bad guy she has this deep personal reason to want to defeat. Sigh!

So yeh seriously Oda i know ur tryin real damn hard to amp every damn battle as the biggest thing ever now but nothing will ever be bigger than back when you had more simple fully realized concepts that gave the whole cast time to shine and aalso very specifocally nami who was the best most goddamn engaging character and you suddenly somehow forgot this. "Woman who is so much of a damn hero that she'd stab herself to save her friends who didnt even believe she wasnt evil" is like the fucking apex of what this series has ever achieved and i wpuld personally like to remember her always as the way she was in that moment.

Also seriously it would have been way better if nami got to contribute towards defeating arlong AT ALL, and especiaally if she could have dealt the final blow. Like yeah she isnt some beastly strong superpowers guy like luffy and co, but it would have been so satisfying to see all her intelligence and planning pay off! Instead of just bullshit 'arlong somehow magically knew everything she was ever planning and he only let her believe he was fooled so he could have fun shooting down her hopes when she got so close'. Nah yknow what would have been really satisfying and great? If we still had that moment but then it was revealed nami actually double-doublecrossed him! Like he's boasting about seeing through her whole plan and then suddenly he stumbles and realizes she poisoned his drink or something. Would have been extra mega double triple satisfying if this was after him actually beating all the main brawn-over-brain characters in a physical fight, and it looked like our heroes were all doomed but she managed to take down this guy they couod never hope to defeat. Though some very simple clever trick that he never expected because he underestimated her. And also this could work well to introduce the seven warlords kf the sea without immediately undercutting them, like if we clearly show that arlong actually WAS wildly out of their league and they genuinely could not defeat one of the warlords at their current power level, they just got lucky with a creative solution. That would have worked better than having zoro fight mihawk for literally no reason except 'i wanna prove im stronger than mihawk'. Srsly so much of zoro's goddamn honor shit seems so dumb on a rewatch, he outright stabs himself to give himself a handicap cos something sonething honor, and refuses to accept help because honor and fights people who didnt wanna fight him because honor and generally this looks more like signs of the man being suicidal, geez! Also stabbing yourself for no reason is nowhere near as raw as stabbing yourself to save a friend. Also zoro fuckin passed out from blood loss and nami not only didng do that but also completely hid her injury from a literal shark man who can smell blood. And stared him right in the face and lied about murdering her best friend. Nami is the highest goddamn power tier in one piece and if the creator cant figure that out then i have no interest in reading any more of it

WE ARE NAMI STANS FIRST AND HUMANS SECOND

[dorothydelgadillo]

The Website 6: Key Characteristics of the Perfect Inbound Website

It's safe to say that most - if not all - businesses want a website that brings them perfectly packaged, highly qualified inbound leads. That is the most common goal we hear from our clients here at IMPACT, and why so many marketers pour hours of time and thousands of dollars into their websites.

So how do we achieve this goal? I’ll tell you, but first a quick story.

Last year as my son’s second birthday approached, I remember freaking out just a bit about what to do for his birthday party.

I have proudly attended many a toddler birthday party, and I think everyone has seen the ridiculously amazing pinterest birthday party ideas out there (all the moms out there know what I’m talking about). The over-the-top, no-way-is-it-DIY, must-cost-thousands-of-dollars type of parties have apparently coined a real term called “pinterest stress”.

Meanwhile, I fail just trying to glue two popsicle sticks together.

So, needless to say, I was stressing just a little bit about what to do for his birthday. Then a realization struck! My son was turning TWO. He could care less about decorations and party themes. His favorite things were sugar, rolling in mud, chasing our chickens, and playing “dinosaur” with his friends.

So I stopped everything. I gave myself a virtual slap in the face and reminded myself that his birthday party was for HIM and not for anyone else.

I made a perfect toddler party, and NONE of it was pinterest-worthy, but my son thought it was the most perfect day in existence. I made banana bread instead of cake, we dug holes in the backyard, the kids held monster truck toy races, and the adults drank mimosas (because let’s face it, some of the party is for the adults 😉😏).

Ok, so why am I talking about toddler parties?

It’s simple really.

As businesses, we suffer from the exact same problem when it comes to our websites. We have a really hard time getting over our pride and remembering that our websites aren’t for US, they are for OUR CUSTOMERS.

I was spending all of my energy focusing on how I could make everyone else think I was a great mom by throwing a picture-perfect party when I should have simply been focusing on how I could throw the perfect party for my son so HE thought I was a great mom.

There is a huge difference between those two goals.

Similarly, the way to build the perfect inbound website that generates the results you want is to stop focusing on your own ego and start thinking about who our website is really for.

There are 6 key drivers that make a great inbound website and will take your marketing results to the next level.

1. Sales Driven

If you've been thinking that your website is a marketing tool, I've got news for you: you're wrong. You need to shift your mindset and think of your website as a sales tool.

Your website is your best salesperson. It is available 24/7, it never asks for a raise, and it is always collecting data on your most qualified customers for you. Really, what else could you ask for from a sales rep?

Now, if you start to think of your website this way, you need to ask yourself one question. Have you really invested everything you should into it?

The best ways to ensure that your website can become a conversion machine are to ensure your sales team views the website as the most valuable resource they have and your website visitors have very easy ways of self identifying as prospects.

To make your website a valuable sales tool, all you have to do is answer the questions that your reps answer in the sales process on the site itself. Then, tell your sales people about it.

Here is an example of the Sales Content Directory that our Director of Web & Interactive Content, Liz Murphy, keeps updated for our sales team on a weekly basis. It gives them a one-stop shop to search for helpful resources to send to prospects.

If your sales team isn't using your website every day, you have failed to create the perfect inbound website.

2. Customer Driven

There are lots of ways you can make your website more friendly for your customers that you might not be doing right now, but you should be obsessing over how to make your website more customer friendly on a daily basis.

Did you know that 70% of the buying decision is typically made by a consumer before they ever speak to a sales rep or go to purchase a product? This means most of the purchase process is totally out of your direct control.

Nonetheless, there ARE ways to guide that first 70% of the conversation.

The number one reason people choose to buy - from any business - is based on trust. So not only do you have to make sure your prospects trust you before they will buy, but you have to figure out how to build that trust during the 70% of the buying process that happens before you even talk to them.

Whew, that is a lot to ask of your website!

Luckily, there are a few simple rules that you can follow to do just that.

Focus on Providing Value: Every page and every word on your website should be there because it provides value to your audience. Your website visitors don’t want a bunch of fluff. Give them real value and educate them in exchange for the time they’ve spent reading the words on your page. Providing value is the first step in building the trust you need oh so badly.

Answer their Questions: Answer the REAL questions your audience has. Don’t shy away from the topics that most businesses are afraid to talk about like pricing or your competitors. Really focus on making sure you are thinking like a customer and answer every question you know they will ask you in the sales process. And here’s the most important part: make sure you answer it honestly. You can’t build trust based on lies.

Use Video: People don’t buy from businesses, they buy from people. Video is the number one way to build trust with your audience and humanize your brand. In today’s environment, incorporating video on your website is table stakes if you want to see measurable, lasting results. There are 7 types of videos that every website must have: 80% videos, bio videos for your team, product or service videos, landing page videos, customer journey videos, videos about the claims you make as a brand, and a video that details who you are not a good fit for (yes, seriously).

Make the Customer the Hero: As one of my favorite country songs so aptly reminds us, our website visitors want us to talk about them, not ourselves. Use “you” statements in your content rather than “us” or “we” statements as often as possible. Customers want to see themselves in your website, not you.

3. Search Driven

The next group you need to be really chummy with are search engines. They are the ones who bring the customers to your website. Luckily it is really easy to be friends with them because they have the same goal as you: providing value to your customer.

To get Google and the other search engines to send lots and lots of visitors to your website, focus on providing value. (Good thing we already covered all that up in the previous section.)

With that taken care of, there are some ways that you can now structure the value you provide in order to help Google more easily understand who they should be sending your way.

You are already doing a great job of writing valuable, educational content for your audience, right? Now all you have to do is make sure you are using the right keywords and organizing your content into clusters, grouped by topic area, to help Google understand where your expertise lies.

Learn more about how to do this exceptionally well from, keyword research to content execution, with our comprehensive guide.

Some of the other factors that Google looks at in order to determine how much value your website is providing are:

User Engagement: Google looks really closely at how your current visitors are interacting with your website as a strong indicator of how happy other visitors they send your way will be. It does this using metrics like Time on Site and Page Depth. The idea is that if people are spending a lot of time on your website and navigating through multiple pages, they are likely finding lots of valuable content and are happy with their experience.

Content Freshness: The frequency with which your website is updated is also a big factor in Google’s ranking. The idea here is that newer content is most likely more relevant to potential visitors than older content, and the longer you’ve been regularly producing content, the more likely it is that you are a valuable source of information. Thus, having a good balance of a domain that has been around for a while and plenty of regularly updated, fresh content is the perfect mix.

And, lastly, Google really cares that your users are having a positive experience with your website regardless of what device (mobile, desktop, etc.) they are visiting from. In order to ensure that Google knows your visitors will be happy, there are some Technical SEO basics you should focus on:

Website Load Speed: Google cares a lot about how fast your website loads because it knows that users are impatient and will get frustrated by things that take too long. As a result, it is less likely to send traffic your way if your website takes too long to give them information. You can test your website using www.webpagetest.org to see how quickly your site loads. Ideally, it should be under 2 seconds.

Mobile First and Responsive Design: More and more users are visiting websites from mobile devices, so Google has been cracking down hard on websites that have poor mobile user experiences. Make sure your user experience is flawless on any device to steer clear of problems here.

Site Security: SSL certificates are no longer negotiable. Not only do website visitors expect them at this point, Google will seriously ding you for not having one. So just get one, please.

4. Experience Driven

This characteristic goes hand-in-hand with being customer friendly, but it deserves it’s own category because it is so important. Treat users that come to your website like you would customers in a store.

I know when I go to a store with my toddler in tow (maybe to buy birthday party supplies), I want to be able to find what I need as fast as possible, and with as little effort as possible.

Your website visitors want the same thing.

Make it as easy as possible for them to find the thing they want with the least amount of effort on their part.

Make sure the entire experience is built to delight them from start to finish. The design of the website should speak to what they like (again, not what you like). My toddler’s design aesthetic is very different than my grandmother’s. Anything I’d design for them would be wildly different from each other, and wildly different than what I personally like.

To provide the simplest experience and avoid overwhelming your visitors, make sure your website is free of clutter and doesn’t provide them with too many options at any one moment. Create an experience that is familiar to them while finding small, pointed ways to inject uniqueness where it makes sense.

A good goal to keep in mind is to structure your site in a way that requires the user to make the least number of clicks to get to their goal. Then, structure and design your menus and individual pages to that end.

5. Conversion Driven

If you're like most businesses, the end goal of your website is probably to drive revenue. To do that, it has to support a solid conversion rate of anonymous visitors into known contacts.

What is better than having our customers tell us they want to buy instead of us having to try and convince them? Nothing is better. That is the holy grail of website results. So how do we get it?

A self selection tool is the best way to help your website visitors feel like they are getting a customized experience, and it allows them to do all the work for you.

Tools that allow users to customize options, select features that fit their needs, or even do all of the qualification your sales team needs without the help of an actual sales person are the best way to do this. Done right, your customer is happy because they got exactly what they wanted, and your sales team is happy because they don’t have to do any work to close a deal anymore!

If you want to see a great example of what I'm talking about, check out the Wix.com website. It has one of the better self configuration tools we've seen (and it's pretty fun to play with!).

Every page of your website should have a goal to move customers to their logical next step in their journey with you. If you haven't mapped out your next step conversion goal for every page of your website, you are leaving that conversion up to chance.

Another way you can improve your ability to convert is to make it insanely easy for your users to convert. The harder it is for your users to contact you (e.g. the more clicks they have to make to get there) and the longer it takes for you to contact them back, the more leads you will lose.

So take the effort and the waiting out of the equation with great tools like Live Chat and Messenger Bots. This allows your user to get right to speaking with a person the moment they are ready. Now who doesn't love that?

6. Marketer Driven

Ok, we are finally ready to talk about you instead of your customer.

Given everything we’ve already said about how your website is for your customer and not for you, there is one small caveat we have to talk about.

If your website is a hassle to update, maintain or change, how often are you going to do it? Be really honest, now.

Probably almost never, right?

So, for your website to do all the great things we talked about above, it should be really easy and user friendly to maintain so that you will actually maintain it.

What do I mean by this? The backend of your website should be intuitive and flexible, allowing for easy page creation, content updates and structure changes. The best way to do this is by building your website on a content management system (CMS).

Some of the most common CMSs that are reasonably priced and allow for the flexibility mentioned above are:

HubSpot CMS

WordPress

WooCommerce

Shopify

The most beautiful, custom coded website in the world that never gets updated with new content will never provide you the results you want. Instead, find the right place on the spectrum from super custom to super flexible to ensure you will update your website regularly and produce content consistently.

Final Thoughts

Your website is the face your company shows the world. Make sure it represents what your customers want to see, allows them to find what they want quickly and easily, and provides them so much value that they can’t help but trust you.

Do all these things, and I promise, your website will provide you results.

For one day, my son thought I was greatest mom in the world when I threw him the perfect party. Allow your website to give that feeling to your customers and they will keep coming back for more.

from Web Developers World https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/characteristics-of-the-perfect-inbound-website

[themoneybuff-blog]

Things We Don't Cherish and Things We Do

Often our spending differs from our real values. We fritter away cash on things we dont cherish and deny ourselves those things we do. Julia Cameron, The Artists Way The Artists Way is a fantastic book about nurturing internal honesty and creativity that I recently found myself rereading, and when I stumbled onto the above quote, it stuck right in my head and I knew it would eventually turn into an article here because it just nails a fundamental truth about personal finance. Camerons point is simple: spending money on things we dont care about is a financial and personal misstep; denying ourselves things we do care about is also a financial and personal misstep. Both of those steps lead to misery, but in different ways. The more obvious misery comes from self-denial. When theres something that we cherish that we intentionally and frequently choose not to spend money on because we need it for other things, we quickly get a sense of feeling deprived and sad. This happens often to people who are just figuring out the ropes of financial responsibility. They make stiff financial cuts to their life and then discover that theyve cut some things that are really dear to them and find themselves feeling miserable. Unless corrected, this usually leads to a complete abandonment of financial change and a return to ones old habits after all, even with financial pressure, it will still feel like a more joyous life. However, a more subtle misery comes from spending money on things you dont really care about. Spending extra money on things like name brand household supplies or on items bought solely to impress someone or on expensive but completely forgettable meals can really add up over time, and thats money taken away both from achieving financial stability and from things you might otherwise truly cherish. Taking money away from financial stability adds a significant level of background stress to ones life that very financial stress is often the motivator for people to start making financial changes and taking money away from things you truly care about can make one feel deprived, as noted above. The optimal situation is where youre spending money truly in line with your values minimal spending on things you dont cherish and adequate spending on things you do truly cherish. That can go out of balance in several ways, and all of those ways contribute to a sense of stress and unhappiness in life. In my own life, Ive found that achieving this kind of balance is like aiming for a target that I never quite reach, but happiness is found by getting close to it and consciously working toward it. You never quite reach it for very long because youre constantly changing as a person, but aiming for that target and being close to that target is very life-affirming: you dont feel (much) financial stress but you dont feel overly deprived, either. How do you go about it, then? There are a few key elements. First, you have to trust the process. It takes time to achieve a balance of spending as little as possible on things you dont cherish and spending adequate and reasonable money on things you do cherish. Its a target youre never going to perfectly hit, and youre going to miss it widely sometimes, especially at first. Its okay. Give it time. Trust that youre going to eventually hone in on a much healthier balance, but that missing it, especially at first, doesnt mean that the whole idea is bogus. Second, you have to be a little introspective and really listen to yourself. The two things you really need to pay attention to are the sense that something you really care about is missing in your life and also the underlying stress that comes from financial insecurity and not achieving or making progress toward financial goals. Those two feelings tend to work in opposition to each other. If you listen to one too much, the other one gets cranky and starts to act up. The feeling that tells you that something is missing tends to be louder and more obvious, but its a bit easier to work with. The feeling that your finances are in a shambles is less obvious but more corrosive, as it fills your life with a low but slowly rising level of stress. It doesnt shout at you all at once it just slowly makes things miserable. Look for both. Listen for both. If one is loud and the other is quiet, its a sign that youre out of balance and you should move slowly in the other direction. If youre feeling deprived, then you should figure out ways to alleviate that feeling without just opening the floodgates on a spending spree. If youre feeling the corrosiveness of financial stress, you should cut back on many things that arent obviously a key source of contentment in your life. Third, you have to be willing to really consider whether you value something or not, and accept that you might not actually value some things as much as you thought you did. A huge part of this whole process is figuring out what you actually care about. That doesnt mean what you think that you should care about. That doesnt mean what you think others care about. That doesnt mean what you cared about in the past and keep involved with even though your passion as faded. That doesnt mean what pop culture is telling you that you should care about. All of those things are false signals. Theyre the things that drain our money without any real return for us. Theyre the source of that acidic financial misery and stress. What you need to think about is whether or not you truly care about the things youre spending money on now. Do that with every purchase, before you do it, as youre doing it, and after you make it. Is this something that you really cherish? Or is it something that you think you ought to cherish but actually do not? Maybe you used to cherish it but youve changed or your life has changed. Maybe you feel social or cultural pressure to cherish it but you actually dont. Pay attention to that. Dont spend money on things you used to cherish but dont any more. Dont spend money on things that your friends or society or your culture tell you that you should cherish but arent highly meaningful for you. Use that litmus test for everything you buy beyond the basic essentials, and use it repeatedly (because you do change as a person). Fourth, cut back on everything, but pay attention to which cuts actually hurt and be unafraid to roll them back. The strategy that works best for me is to say no to spending, then consider whether Im really missing out on something I cherish later, and restore it if I do come to that realization. Yes, there are times when I skip out on something that I later decide is really important to me, but its far more frequent that I say no to something and then promptly forget about it. Youre far better off changing direction on 5% or 10% of your spending than overspending 90% of the time. Finally, you have to be willing to see the benefits of responsible spending. Part of the reason that people err on the side of spending on things that theyre uncertain about is that they often dont see the benefits of not doing so. It is very easy to lose track of the benefits of responsible spending because theyre not obvious at first glance, or they appear to be just a drop in the bucket. The biggest non-obvious benefit of being very responsible with your spending is that you basically kill ongoing financial stress, which is corrosive to almost everything it touches. Financial stress is a kind of subtle background stress that ends up weighing in on all kinds of decisions in your life, making you feel subtly on edge and stressed out about things as simple as checking the mail or telling your partner about something cool you did today. Cutting down on financial stress (and eventually eliminating it) is an enormous life benefit, but its not an in-your-face benefit like the benefit of making a purchase in the moment is. Theres also a sense of achievement and accomplishment and progress that comes from steadily paying off debts and steadily filling up your retirement savings. Step by step, the future doesnt feel like a place for wishful thinking; rather, a bright future begins to feel inevitable. Thats incredibly powerful for your sense of well-being. Thats something worth cherishing on its own. So, here are three things to think about. First of all, the best financial life is one where you spend adequately on things you cherish and spend absolutely minimally on things you dont. In a healthy life, this leaves you with a financial surplus, which you can then apply to something youll likely cherish in a less obvious way, which is paying off debts and improving your financial security. Second, a big part of that balance is understanding what it is that you cherish and what you dont. People often become unclear on this, particularly in the heat of the moment. Influences such as your past passions, your personal relationships, and the constant nudging of culture can make you feel like you cherish something for a short while, but it doesnt last. Understanding what it is that you cherish now is important, and that takes some honest reflection. Finally, this is an ongoing, imperfect process. There are times where youre going to miss the target. Thats okay. When you feel like youre missing out on something you cherish, listen to that. When you feel like youve overspent on something, listen to that. When you feel financial stress affecting your emotions or your relationships or your state of mind, definitely listen to that. Youre a marksman honing in on a very small target and what youre hoping to do is get consistently close to it. Good luck! https://www.thesimpledollar.com/things-we-dont-cherish-and-things-we-do/

[nancygduarteus]

The Best Skin-Care Trick Is Being Rich

As a longtime resident of New York City, I’ve developed a little game I play when I’m alone in one of Manhattan’s especially ritzy neighborhoods: “Famous or Just Rich?”

To play, all you have to do is notice a person and try to decide if they’ve caught your eye because they’re famous. It will feel like they’re famous. But more often than not, it’ll just be a regular person who looks like a celebrity, with that polished glow they always seem to have. If you play this game enough, you’ll eventually realize that it’s not just expensive-looking clothes or a striking resemblance to an actual celebrity that gives you pause. It’s the smooth, poreless look of their skin, even-toned and plump. The wealthy, both famous and non, tend to be visibly well-moisturized.

The general folk wisdom of skin care has two simple steps. Step 1: Do healthy things. Wash your face, avoid the sun, stay hydrated, wear sunscreen, and get plenty of sleep. Step 2: Apply the right goop to your face, in the form of creams and serums. This advice is repeated time and again in women’s media, with an almost religious authority. If you find the right product and live the skin-care lifestyle (No alcohol! No dairy! Don’t enjoy anything!), then you will be rewarded with the glow of the youthful and righteous.

[Read: Should I keep spraying this water on my face?]

In this advice is a little sleight of hand. The guidance usually comes from the wealthy, who have all the access in the world to the best skin products and treatments, and it tends to over-emphasize the importance of lifestyle while sweeping under the rug the actual cost of tinkering with your facial chemistry. Celebrities wouldn’t be as distractingly beautiful without dermatologists, estheticians, and the women behind the beauty counters at Bergdorf Goodman. You can drink as much water and wear as much sunscreen as you want, but the most effective skin-care trick is being rich.

The moral halo around “good skin” isn’t a coincidence. The behaviors associated with a clear, even-toned complexion require those who want it to reject hedonism in a way that is still deeply ingrained as virtuous in American culture; that the wealthy have mastered the look reinforces capitalistic notions of success and who achieves it (the ascetic, dedicated, and hardworking). The journalist Jaya Saxena found as much when she investigated the connections between skin and poverty earlier this year. “We assume those at the top are there because they’ve done something right. And if they have straight teeth, toned bodies, and smooth skin, that must be ‘right’ too,” she wrote. “It’s not that we think having bad skin is a moral failing. It’s that we think poverty is.”

Maybe that’s why the wealthy models and actresses and the media who exalts them are so dedicated to the idea that those results must be earned through actions, when in reality, they’re usually bought with money. Regular people are hungry for intel on how the rich and beautiful became that way, which means that almost all beauty media regularly publishes tips-and-tricks lists from models and actresses. It’s no mystery to beauty editors and writers, as well as the famous women surveyed, that the answer is a combination of youth, genetic luck, and access to expensive products, treatments, and cosmetic dermatology procedures that few people outside their world could ever hope to experience. But a dozen 20-somethings telling you about their expensive laser treatments would be too depressing for women to read about and too embarrassing for the professionally beautiful to admit.

For example, in a 2016 Elle magazine article surveying 17 Victoria’s Secret models, eight of them praised lifestyle habits like drinking water and exercising, with several more crediting low-cost fixes like drugstore pore strips. None of them mentioned Mzia Shiman, who tends to the skin-care needs of Victoria’s Secret models. The facials at her New York spa start at $200, and more advanced services offer tightening and plumping via LED light bed or electric microcurrent.

Even if you forgo high-tech treatment and avoid skin problems like cystic acne or dermatitis, which Saxena notes usually require intervention from an expensive dermatologist, a skin-care regimen itself can get very expensive, very quickly. Into The Gloss, a beauty website whose popular series Top Shelf asks influential people to detail absolutely everything they do to their skin and hair, provides readers with a rare look at the litany of services and products required to keep the famous and wealthy looking that way. The most recent edition, from the veteran model Angela Lindvall, lists skin-care products that add up to $629, most of which come in small, quickly emptied packages. This price range is typical of Top Shelf.

When affluent people name just one trick that supposedly works like magic, usually when prompted by a women’s publication, that elides hundreds of dollars worth of creams, serums, and peels. Even if you’re dedicated to low-cost alternatives, the trial-and-error of finding what works for your skin adds up, and you’ll probably go without some of the specialized ingredients that target problems like wrinkles or hyperpigmentation. (And yes, often those chemicals really do work.)

Which is not to say that a diet of fresh foods, plenty of water, and eight hours of sleep every night don’t affect how your skin looks; studies have demonstrated links between all three and physical appearance, and they’ll help most people achieve the modest goal of looking totally fine. Unless you’re very young and even more genetically gifted, though, self-denial won’t get the results it promises. What its constant recommendation in place of expensive beauty products belies is how closely tied those factors also are to wealth. Only some people have access to a diet of fresh fruits and vegetables. Only some people have the kinds of jobs with steady schedules that allow for a good night’s sleep. Only some people can drink the water that comes out of their faucet.

[Read: The pseudoscience of beauty products]

Sunscreen is another one of those beauty hacks whose accessibility is assumed, and it’s elemental to staving off visible signs of aging. Its actual accessibility is a bit more complicated, depending on who you are. In 2017, the YouTuber Jackie Aina posted a review of her favorite sunscreens, intended to help viewers navigate the ghostly cast that results when most SPF products are used on darker skin. All of the options cost more than $30, far more than lighter-skinned people have to pay for a functional sunscreen. Although darker skin is structurally less apt to show some of the most obvious signs of aging, people with it still encounter issues like acne and uneven pigmentation, and they’re up against a global beauty industry that historically doesn’t prioritize their needs.

Skin tends to be the most visible proof of a person’s accumulated lifestyle, and that only becomes truer as people age. The past few years have been a boomtime for skin care, as the oldest millennials begin their late 30s and start to wrinkle around the eyes. Soon, they’ll need more than just a fancy cream to get results, because skin loses volume as the body ages, no matter how good your products are. That’s when fillers and Botox come in, and when the high prices of those treatments mean class differences are even more easily elucidated by the condition of a person’s skin.

Still, though, mainstream beauty media continues to aggregate the tips and tricks of the young and wealthy, usually without questioning the larger picture. If everyone admitted that skin care is primarily a function of wealth, then they’d have to grapple with who has money, and what we assume and expect of those who don’t.

from Health News And Updates https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/01/skin-care-secret-wealth/579337/?utm_source=feed

[ethelbertpaul444-blog]

16 Signs Youre An INFJ, The Worlds Rarest Personality Type

INFJ, from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator instrument, is believed to be the rarest personality type, and to make up less than 2% of the population. Oh, and I am one . div> Oskar Krawczyk INFJ, referring to one of the 16 Myers-Briggs personality types, has become a bit of a buzzword in the media over the past several years. The reasonablenes behind it: INFJ is considered to be the rarest personality type, doing up less than 2% of the world’s whole population. They are labeled as” The Advocate ,” and have been described as “mysterious,” ” instinctive ,” and” emotionally smart ,” hitherto the type as a whole is often misunderstood. Perhaps “you think youre”, as well. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test, created in the 1940′ s by baby and daughter, Isabel Myers and Katharine Briggs, originally stanch from the typological theories of Carl Jung, a prominent psychoanalyst. The test estimates an individual in 4 lists: and using these criteria, resolves which category one’s personality most tilts toward. INFJs would be those individuals whose identities favor the sides of Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Judging. INFJs can be difficult to spot due to the fact that they are not dominant in civilization and tend to be reserved individuals. However, INFJs impel furiously steadfast pals, empathetic and unionized employees, and outstanding rulers for causes they deem worthy and for the greater good of humanity. 1. INFJs often report experiencing lonely and “different,” and for the right reasons. INFJs are low in multitudes so they tend to have trouble procure other persons who meet “the worlds” in the same realm as they do. Most people who are this kind have admitted find different from their peers since they were a very young child. 2. INFJs take an all-or-nothing coming to life . strong> INFJs, a inquisitive desegregate of psychological and logical, do not was ready to squander their meter on anything inauthentic. Although they may dabble in playing the field, INFJs are truly about aspect over part and will become disinterested in anyone or anything they perceive as being fraudulent, planning or wishy-washy. 3. INFJs exude warmness, and others instantly experience cozy in their spirit . strong> It is not singular for a stranger to sit down next to an INFJ and within times, disclose their most personal confidentials, horrors, and reveries. In point, this happens often to INFJs with seemingly no rhyme or reason. This personality type has a knack for impelling others immediately feel at ease, and they are great listeners and trusted pals who speak in human terms and encounter others where they are. 4. INFJs are rather empathic, and they are generally “just know” happens . strong> One of my favorite one-liners from is by the character, Tyrion Lannister, and this can often be said of an INFJ, with maybe fewer libations. INFJs have a highly-accurate feel of intuition that “theyve been” sharping for all of their lives. Without understanding exactly why or how, an INFJ will see, within times of assembling private individuals, their true person. As a make, they tend to be more condone of their friends who exhibit unruly behavior because they can identify the true root of the behaviour, such as insecurities or past trauma. 5. INFJs eventually endeavour sincere true and propose . strong> This personality type does not care one iota about pretentious fables or exuberant gestures if there is not a true-life and sincere incentive behind them. An INFJ’s calling in life is to seek penetration and conclusion, and as they develop, they often can discern a lie or half-truth at a moment’s notice. If they accept private individuals to be a phony or a manipulator, they will have no trouble writing them off. Likewise, this type often experiences traveling, undertakings and knowledge that increase their understanding of the intricacies of life and promote self-reflection. 6. INFJs are true introverts, hitherto people not very close to them believe them to be extroverts . strong> This is happening because INFJs can be social chameleons and have an innate ability to blend in in any social established. The INFJ can be the life of the party for a night or two, showcasing their inviting mood and vivaciousness. Nonetheless, this is never prolonged because, in introverted-fashion, they lose exertion from others. Those close to an INFJ know that this type prefers bars over golf-clubs and barbecues over projectiles, and can give a speech of millions of beings but winces at the idea of combining with the crowd subsequently. Eventually, this kind will need to retreat home for some gentle is necessary to” recharge their batteries ,” or they will become very on-edge and exhausted. 7. INFJs have intense, unwavering convictions, sometimes to a fault . strong> An INFJ has certain intuitions about the world and a need to foster altered in society. These are deep-seated and intense notions that they will never abandon. If a occupation, affair, or ordinance does not align with their moral compass, an INFJ will have no qualms about discounting it or leaving it in the dust. 8. INFJs tend to keep a small circle of friends and prefer to work alone . strong> Although an INFJ may have hundreds of acquaintances, if they call you a “friend,” you can be sure that they represent it for life. This category can count their close friends on a determine of thumbs and they will be loyal and devoted to these prized men no matter how much occasion surpass between their interactions. An INFJ can be a great team player but the idea of group activities and partnership meets naturally obligate them settle down in their accommodate. These are people who enjoy working from residence or in a charming power with a handful of like-minded coworkers. 9. INFJs cannot stand small talk . strong> This mannerism aligns with the need to pursue reality and all things bona fide. To an INFJ, small talk not only takes force but has little purpose as it is merely speaking to fill stillnes without revealing any deeper mantles of the individuals involved. Do not talk to an INFJ about the climate unless you want to see a glazed-over seem. Instead, tell them about the causes you are promoting, the wish-list of your person, or the road you smile every time you reek lavender because it reminds you of your great-grandmother. 10. INFJs are often high-achievers and people-pleasers . strong> If you require a assignment done right the first time, hand it over to an INFJ. They will plan every detail down to the time and will ever deliver a bright finished product. However, when handing evaluation to this type, do it gently, as they make every oath to heart and are always striving for purity. This kind is a unique combination of a dreamer and a doer, but they can easily come target to extreme contests of tension or depression centres on love of imperfection or failure. 11. INFJs are knack in speech and are often creative novelists . strong> In its compliance with their introverted nature, INFJs prefer to spend time alone and develop enriched inner-lives with many diversions and talents. This type has bother communicating their sentiments verbally, so they turn to pen and paper. This, combined with their inventive sort, leaves no startle that the majority of members of successful columnists are, in fact, INFJs. 12. INFJs make decisions based on feeling and insight . strong> An INFJ justices the world around them and the person or persons in it located off of how they move them detect. This nature does not am worried about track records and performance history, instead, they look for the heart of the matter and how a person or companionship treat them personally. This nature will rely their “gut feeling” about different situations and go with that, which has almost always proven to be accurate. 13. INFJs like to reflect on deep thoughts about their purpose and the world around them . strong> This category is a thinker. INFJs are old-souls who deplete a lot of time in their own brains manifesting on their purpose and the sense behind everything that happens to them. They are often books, investigates, and scholastics who truly enjoy ascertain. Although this is a royal endeavor, it is essential that the INFJ has sidekicks, normally of the extroverted sort, who can help them to be less serious and relax every now and then. 14. INFJs are utopians who ever examine the big picture . strong> This character tends to always operate about 10 gradations ahead. They are skilled planners and sharpen their batches on the end goal and what is necessary in order to propel them there. However, while INFJs are off in dreamland about their own future, they can sometimes forget to be present in the world that is happening now. As a decision, they do well with other more grounded types who are in a position remind members living a life in the moment. 15. INFJs are “fixers,” and they gravitate towards people who need help . strong> This category enjoys a good fixer-upper and with their ability to see the” good bones” of another person, their true intentions and purposes, and to freely furnish comfort and tendernes, they fall victim to the Broken Wing Theory, or the notion that they are unable salvage others who have a” broken wing ,” or who have been dealt a inadequate entrust. This can be honoring for the hopeful INFJ but likewise frustrating and depleting when borders are overstepped. 16. INFJs seek lifelong, true-blue liaisons . strong> This form typically find themselves with instinctive gregarious, such as the ENTPs, ENFPs, and ENFJs. These categories connect with the INFJ on the deeper plane of insight, more likewise will get the INFJ out of their own leaders and out on the town on a Saturday night. Read more: https :// thoughtcatalog.com/ alexandra-giardina/ 2018/01/ 16 -signs-youre-an-infj-the-worlds-rarest-personality-type / http://dailybuzznetwork.com/index.php/2018/07/05/16-signs-youre-an-infj-the-worlds-rarest-personality-type/