#unrelated note: how attached would you say you are to your computer | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

sanguinescorpios · 4 years ago

Text

stream sniper

dream x f!reader

summary | dream is on an important stream and too busy to give you attention. unfortunately for him, you’re feeling needy.

warnings | smut, thigh riding, voyeurism, dom!dream x sub!reader, edging, cockwarming, orgasm denial if you squint, this is filthy

word count | 2.8k

it started out innocent. you had been missing your boyfriend; between your school work and his editing, you rarely got to spend time together despite living in the same house.

you admit, you were a needy partner. you liked to be attached to clay’s hip at any chance you got, and he just let you. during recordings, during editing, even during streams; you were always there. it didn’t matter if he couldn’t really pay attention to you or if you had to sit on the couch behind his set up, you just enjoyed being in his presence.

this one, however, was slightly different than the average stream. you could count on one hand the amount of times clay had refused to let you be present for a stream and every time he had, it was a trainwreckstv stream.

it was fine, you always said, you understood. of course he wouldn’t want you there for a stream like that. he had to focus a lot harder on how and what he said on train’s podcast because the demographic and content was so drastically different from his own, and you would only distract him. it wasn’t personal. still, you couldn’t help but feel bitter about it. you missed him; final exams week had just ended and the idea of spending worry-free quality time with him was what got you through it. so you did what your totally logical brain told you to do: walk in anyways.

the door creaked as you opened it and you cringed internally. your sock-clad feet tread lightly as you moved forward into the room, praying your boyfriend wouldn’t notice your presence.

he did.

being a faceless creator, he didn’t even own a camera to accidentally have on, so you were safe on that front. the look on his face, however, told you that you were not so safe after all.

“i thought we agreed on you not being here for this stream?” he asked after tapping the mute keybind on his keyboard. he spun around in his chair with an abrupt kick from his heel, trying and failing to veil his annoyance.

“we did...but i missed you.”

he rolled his eyes, still ticked off but not so much that he was willing to turn you away. he missed you as well, he couldn’t deny it. not having you in his arms for so many hours was excruciating, though he tried not to think so dramatically. clay waved you over to him, the corners of his lips curling up at your attire.

“is that my shirt?” he asked, and you nodded. placing his large hands firmly on your hips, clay kept you close to him while he took a closer look at the oversized red t-shirt. it hung loosely on you, two sizes too big and ending mid-way down your thighs. clay couldn’t help but notice your lack of pants, too.

swooping his head down, he pressed a kiss to your exposed thigh. you brought your hands up to your face, heating up by the second, and giggled.

“no pants, hm?”

you gave him another non-verbal response, bashfully shaking your head while looking down at him through your fingers. he tsked you before pressing another kiss against your skin, inching closer and closer to where you needed him most.

“naughty girl,” he remarked after a few more kisses.

“aren’t you on a stream right now?”

clay glanced behind himself at his monitor, watching as the grown men on the screen argued with each other over some nonsensical issue. returning his gaze to you, he shrugged.

“yeah, but it was getting pretty boring.”

without a warning, clay clumsily pulled you into his lap and spun the two of you back around in his chair. after giving you one more kiss, he placed his headphones back on his head and returned to the conversation on his computer.

“yo, dream, you’ve been pretty quiet, man,” train noted, just in time.

“yeah my cat was acting weird, so i was gone for a minute.” clay placed a hand on your thigh and squeezed, a stupid grin on his face. this was gonna be one hell of a night.

***

you hated to say it, but you regretted crashing the stream. the conversation was painfully boring and dragging on, but there was no way you could leave now with the hold clay had on you. one hand lay around your middle and the other was firmly gripping your thigh. with his calloused fingers rubbing circles into the crease between your leg and your torso and his confident voice rumbling in your ear, you weren’t sure if you’d make it to the end of the stream. maybe he was teasing you, or maybe you were just needy. either way, you were gonna need a little more attention than this.

you stretched your neck in order to meet clay’s gaze, hoping he’d see the desperation in your eyes. instead, he gave you a soft smile and a kiss on the nose before turning back to the screen. he expected you to turn back as well so when you didn’t, he took notice.

reaching to mute himself, he gave you a concerned look.

“you alright, baby?” he asked and you shook your head no, “what’s up?”

“need you,” you admitted, barely concealing the whine that threatened to escape your throat.

clay’s eyes darkened ever so slightly, making it feel like the air had just been sucked out of the room. he was thinking, debating what to do next as he bounced you on his leg. the pace was punishingly slow and you grit your teeth to hold yourself together.

“i’m a little busy, pretty girl,” he began as you let out a whine, “you’ll have to take care of yourself for now.”

you weren’t sure what that meant until you followed his gaze down. oh. oh. he wants you to...use him. okay. you raised yourself off his lap and he gave you a confused look, but it disappeared as soon as he saw you slipping out of your panties and was replaced by a smug smile.

climbing back onto his leg, facing him this time, you let out a puff of air. fuck, he felt good. your already dripping center pressed against clay’s jean-clad thigh, the rough fabric intensifying any amount of friction you could manage. you wanted to move so badly, but clay’s tight hold on your hips kept you stationary. you looked up at him with big eyes, silently asked for permission. finally, he nodded.

you immediately began rutting your hips against his thigh, resting your hands on his shoulders to stabilize yourself. fuck, you thought as you felt the sturdiness of him underneath you, his shoulders. small mewls and whimpers escaped you as you increased your pace, chasing a high that you weren’t sure you could reach on your own.

train had clay talking about his sudden success, which was a fan-favorite topic as everyone either hated or loved him for it. the only catch was that, being the nature of train’s podcast, the focus was less on the money and more on the, well, you know.

“think about it, dream. there are people out there fucking themselves to the sound-to the thought of you. isn’t that crazy?” you heard train ask, though it was muffled by clay’s headset.

clay looked down at his lap, on which you were grinding your bare clit like a bitch in heat, and then back up to his monitor.

“not really.”

you nearly moaned at his words, but hid it by sucking a bruise into clay’s neck. clay hissed at the feeling and tried to push you off, but you were unrelenting. you swirled your tongue around the section of his skin to soothe the pain. pulling back to admire your work, you were met with a now aggravated clay.

“y-yeah i’m alright man,” he started, glaring down at you, “my cat just scratched me.”

you rolled your eyes. great excuse, asshole.

you began to lean back down towards his already bruising neck, but were instead met with a strong hand gripping your jaw, turning you to face your now dually frustrated boyfriend. something had shifted, the air felt thicker and clay felt sharper, all softness void from his demeanor. the look in his eyes was made of steel and flickering between your own gaze and your mouth, brows furrowed and tongue dipping between his lips to swipe across them. the little voice in your head was screaming “danger”, but danger didn’t look so bad in that moment. danger looked good, danger looked worth the risk. danger looked like getting the best fuck of your life.

ignited by the heat building in your core and the near-paralyzing look clay was giving you, you continued your previous actions. rutting your hips against clay’s thigh with fervor, you smiled proudly at him. the roughness of his jeans sent shivers through your body, you had to be soaking him and you were only getting wetter by the second.

your chin raised, a smug smile plastered to your features, and that challenging glint in your eye - you were such a fucking brat and clay lived to put you in your place. his hold on your jaw tightened before sliding down to rest on your throat, squeezing until your eyelids began to flutter and your thrusts grew sloppier. the knot in his stomach twisted tighter at the sight. fuck, clay thought, you were something else. something that needed to be taught a lesson.

clay muted again, taking advantage of the ad break to pull down his sweatpants and pull out his cock. he pumped it a few times, precum leaking from the tip and sliding down his length. your stomach flipped at the sight, never not taken back by his size. clay grabbed you by your hips and spun you around so that you were facing his pc, facing everyone on the call that you had nearly forgotten he was still on. then, he began to tease his tip at your entrance.

“this what you wanted, pretty girl? wanted me to treat you like a slut? wanted me to fuck you with everyone on the call?”

you moaned at the feeling of him circling the place you needed him most. the heat was still heavy on you from your previous actions and your body was no less frenzied than before, you wanted your release more than anything. knowing that all of those people were there didn’t help your crazed state. you felt dirty and you liked it.

“sit.”

you lifted yourself over him without a second thought, slick and sensitive from the buildup of your long-awaited orgasm. a moan slipped past your lips at the stretch, feeling every inch of him against your walls as he bottomed out. instinctively, you let your head fall against clay’s shoulder, overwhelmed by how full you felt. god, he felt so good. when you went to move, clay’s strong hands gripped your hips and held you in place.

you whimpered against his neck, trying and failing to get some sort of friction going. when that didn’t work, you opted to clench around him, but clay simply tsk-ed you.

“you’ve been naughty, baby,” he started, “now you’ll sit here like a good girl and keep me warm until the stream’s over.”

what? you thought to yourself, the panic setting in. he can’t be serious!

“no, no, no, no, i’ll be good!” you begged. you’d been practically edging yourself for what felt like hours now, you needed him to let you release.

“i know you will, baby. now sit still for daddy, okay?”

time passed immeasurably slow. your mind was racing with thoughts, trying to focus on anything but clay’s cock throbbing inside of you. you tried your hardest not to squeeze him too often, despite how much relief it brought you. clay was feeling the heat too, your warm, velvety walls gripped him impossibly tight and he was beginning to regret choosing this punishment. you needed the lesson, but god was he suffering for it.

when the stream finally came to an end, the first thing clay did was thrust up into you. you yelped, gripping his arm in surprise at the sudden movement. he started up a steady pace, pounding up into you and rubbing harshly at your clit. the feeling was intense, especially after how long you’d been teased and forced to wait, and you found yourself moaning wildly because of it, unable to control your noises as he spun you around in his lap once again.

“had to-make me-punish you-during a stream, huh?” he taunted between harsh thrusts, grabbing you by your hair and forcing you to look at him. “had to choose today to be a little slut?”

you let out a near-pornographic noise, your eyes rolling back into your head as he hit your most sensitive spot.

“i asked you a question.”

“i’m sorry, daddy. i - ah! - i won’t do it again!” you wailed, head falling back as you felt your release fastly approaching.

clay grunted and forced you to look at him again, pushing his thumb into your mouth and letting you drool around it.

“look at me when you fucking speak,” he ordered.

he picked up the pace in frustration, wanting you to apologize appropriately. you distracted him, you should know how much he hates that. you should also know how much he demands your eye contact, getting fucked or not.

you coerce your eyes open and look at him, not concerned about how absolutely wrecked you must look right now. mascara running down your cheeks with tears from over and under stimulation, eyeliner smudged around your blown out eyes, lips red and sore from kissing on his neck, you were a mess. a hot one, if you asked clay.

“i’m sorry, daddy. i’m sorry, i’m sorry, i’m sorry!” you continued to babble around his finger as his thrusts somehow grew harder and harder, the pace excruciatingly pleasurable. you were going to cum, you knew that much, but you needed permission.

“gonna cum, daddy!” you warned, feeling the burning knot in the pit of your stomach begging to unravel.

“cum for me, baby. make daddy proud.”

and make daddy proud you did, cumming hard around clay’s cock and feeling yourself spray his stomach with your juices. did you just? oh my god, you did. the embarrassment only made you feel hotter as clay continued to fuck your hole past your orgasm. you whined from the overstimulation, but he couldn’t have cared less.

clay’s moans went from low grunts to higher, breathy gasps, the closer he got the lighter his noises became. his brows were furrowed tightly and his eyes were blown out, the darkest shade of green you think you’d ever seen. the muscles in his arm pulsed as he gripped your waist tighter, completely using you as his own personal fuck toy. he was almost there, you could feel it in the way he gave his all but couldn’t keep up the organized pace he had before. you needed him to cum, not just because you were close to being worked up all over again from the stimulation, but because you wanted to make him feel good. in that moment, making him cum felt like your life purpose, your only purpose. you didn’t just want him to cum, you needed it.

“please give me your cum daddy, wanna feel it inside me,” you begged, taking matters into your own hands, “need you to make me yours.”

at that, clay groaned out a loud string of profanities and came inside of you. he painted your insides, you could feel him everywhere. you sighed at the feeling, warm and full and satisfied. clay let his head fall into the crook of your neck as he breathed through his cool down, pressing soft kisses to your neck and shoulder and mumbling praises and ‘i love you’s’. it took a moment for either of you to actually speak, just relishing in the moment and enjoying each others company.

“you gonna move anytime soon, bud?” you finally asked with a giggle. clay simply shook his head and buried it farther into your neck, humming out a ‘no’.

“wanna make sure it stays in for a while.”

you giggled again at his confession, pressing a kiss to the side of his head and ruffling his hair.

“okay baby,” you paused and pouted, “i’m sorry for interrupting your stream.”

clay sat back and gave you a soft smile, pressing his finger to your lips and turning your frown upside down, literally. he shook his head and gave you a sweet kiss, pressing his own lips tenderly to yours.

“don’t apologize, it was worth it.” a cheeky smile spread across his face and you rolled your eyes, the endearing air around you severed by your boyfriend’s childishness. you loved it, though you’d never tell him.

“you think anyone was suspicious of us?” you inquired, hoping to god no one had picked up on your quiet moans while the stream was still going.

“nah,’ clay lied.

#dreamwastaken x you #dream x you #dream x reader #mcyt x reader #dreamwastaken smut #dream smut #dreamwastaken x reader #dream #dreamwastaken #mcyt

2K notes · View notes

deitysnips · 4 years ago

Text

Regrettably Attached Pt. 1

Stark!Reader x Loki

Word Count: 2958

Authors Note: I wanna thank you guys in advance for reading this. I haven’t written anything in probably 6 years so it might be a little sloppy. I am open to suggestions and any fixes you guys can bring to my attention!

Summary:; You’re Tony Stark’s younger sister and you are somewhat part of the Avengers, but behind the scenes, not necessarily on the front lines unless you’re needed. This is an UA where Loki is living in the compound living under strict supervision and the reader slowly starts falling for the God of Mischief after hating him due to, yaknow, trying to kill her brother and some of her closest friends, but that quickly turns into lovers(obvi)

Growing up as Tony’s sister was and still is kind of terrifying. Tony has always been such a “smarty pants” for lack of a better phrase. Even with him being a child prodigy, you two have always been close and you would want it any other way. You grew up following in his and your fathers footsteps.

Years past and you have graduated with multiple engineering degrees and even though your mother and father weren’t here to see it, Tony always made sure you knew how proud they would be of you. No graduation, presentation or ceremony went unattended by the now Iron Man. So it was no surprise when Tony asked you to join him and the other Avengers at the compound to help with logistics and help Tony and Bruce create safer suits.

“Hey Kid! Get down here, we need your help!”

It’s been 5 years that you’ve been living with Tony and still, nothing surprises you.

“Hold on! I just got out of the shower!” You shouted from your cracked bedroom door. You quickly put on some extremely worn jeans and a Led Zeppelin t-shirt that you MIGHT have stolen from your older brother. You cracked open the door once more and yelled to Tony

“Is this a no shoes project?!” You sat with your head out the door tapping your fingers along the door frame when someone threw what seemed to be a wad of paper at the back of your head. You groaned and sucked air through your teeth. “I swear to the gods, Rogers, if you don’t stop throwing shit, I’m gonna curb stomp you” You said as you turned your head to send a glare towards Steve. To your unpleasant surprise, it was not Steve, but the annoying, somewhat attractive God Of Mischief, Loki

“Oh, my dear, Mr. America isn’t the only one who likes to get under your skin” Loki said very nonchalantly while leaning against his own door frame. “Now if you don’t mind. Stop that obnoxious yelling. Some of us are actually trying to work and not be babied by their dear brother.” Loki glared at you from where he stood with his arms crossed over his chest.

You and the god have never been on good terms, even after the pleading Thor gave you when he brought him back from Asgard after its destruction. You wanted to believe him when he said that his brother had changed and was working towards being a better ‘person’, but it still left an unpleasant taste in your mouth since, you know, he tried to kill your brother.

“Get fucked, Loki.” You stepped out of your room, body completely turned towards the man in front of you. “I have told you multiple times to leave me alone. Tony might be okay with you being here, but I certainly don’t give a shit what happens to you.” You spat at him with venom and malice in your voice. Tony told you time and time again to try to be civil with Loki, but you never listened. You just couldn’t.

You continued to stare at the slimy, yet oddly handsome man-god thing in front of you and if looks could kill, he wouldn’t be breathing.

“Hey, kid, did you not hear the urgency in my voice or do you enjoy giving me a heart attack?” You jumped when you felt your brother out his hand on your shoulder. “I told you that yes, you did need shoes. Bruce and I really need your help on the Mark VII suit- wait, sis, are you alright?” Tony studied your face after turning your shoulder towards him with a worried expression

“Yeah, I’m fine Tony. Let me just grab my shoes and I’ll be down” You pulled away from your brother and ran into your room, slamming the door behind you. You sit with your back against your door and hide your face in your hands, groaning loudly.

“Why can’t he just leave me alone?” You whisper softly to yourself. You’ve been at such a crossroads when it comes to the trickster god. You hate him for what he did to Tony and your friends, but at the same time, you can’t help but have this… attraction to him. The sharpness of his jawline, the softness in his bright blue eyes, or the way his lips curl up into a cheeky little smirk when he does something that riles you up. It’s been a year and a half since Thor brought Loki back, and you still haven’t adjusted.

You let out a long sigh of frustration as you stand up and walk to your closet pulling out a loved pair boots. After you pull your shoes on, you finally find the strength to walk out of your room and start heading towards the workshop to find Tony and Bruce. You make a pitstop to the kitchen to grab some coffee and a small snack

“Hey FRIDAY, can you ask if Tony and Bruce want anything?” You call out into the empty room while making a PB&J sandwich”

“They both say nothing at the moment other than your presence, Miss. Stark. Mr. Stark said it is very urgent and they need you down there quickly”

You groan as you toss the butter knife into the sink and start walking down the stairs to the workshop. Once you enter you see Bruce leaning over one of the tablets with his hands running through his hair.

“Alright, what did I miss?” you say as you take a bite of your sandwich, causing the men to look up at you, seemingly irritated. “Whoa whoa boys, what the hell?” You raise an eyebrow at your brother who’s sitting across from Bruce, impatiently tapping his fingers on the desk. Tony sighs and stands up to walk over to his computer, pulling up the internals of the suit

“For whatever reason, the suit keeps overheating after about 10 minutes and we cannot for the life of us figure out why” Bruce says while Tony is flipping through all the internals for you. You can’t help but smile and giggle a little bit.

“Alright kid, what's so funny? Tony asks, slightly glaring in your direction.

“Oh no, nothing. Nothing at all. But, uh, unrelated, how long have you guys been working on this?”

“A couple h-” Tony goes to speak but is interrupted by the suit powering up, seemingly without issues.

“Big brother, you’re a terrible liar. When I woke up yesterday morning, you both had already been down here working on it. It was a simply missing variable and a loose connection.” Tony and Bruce both keep switching between the suit and their respective computers trying to figure out how they missed such a small thing.

“How the fu-” “LANGUAGE!” Steve yells out as he stares coming down the stairs. Tony rolls his eyes and starts going through the internals again before smacking his palm to his forehead. “Thanks kid”

“No problem old man, now go get some rest.” You say, patting Tony on the back.

“Hey, can I talk to you really quick, Squeak?” You groan loudly at the nickname that the team gave you when you first showed up. You were so nervous about making a good impression, that when you started to speak, all of your words got stuck in your chest and all that came out was a little squeak.

“Yeah Cap, maybe if you stop calling me that god awful nickname, like I've told you to do multiple times!” You both start walking up the stairs and you playfully push Rogers shoulder, knowing it won’t do much.

Once you make it up the stairs, Steve leads you to the living room and sits at the couch across from your favorite chair

“Alright, if this is an intervention, I’m leaving. I get I shouldn’t be smoking bu-” You stop talking when Steve lifts his hand up and just stares at you with a dumbfounded look “This isn’t an intervention, but maybe it should be- yo- what?!” Steve gets a little loud at the end of his sentence, catching the attention of Tony and Thor who are in the kitchen making some lunch

“STEVE SHUT UP” You blush slightly and hide your face in your hands again.

“Conversation for another time, anyways” Steve pulls your hands away from your face and makes you look at him and quietly says your name “What was going on earlier when Tony came up stairs? I was in the bathroom down the hall and I heard you yelling at someone? Was it Loki again?” You avoid eye contact but nod slightly. Steve lets out a small sigh and sits back

“What he did wasn’t even terrible, Cap. He threw a ball of paper at me and basically told me to shut up. I just get so irrationally angry at him for what he tried to do to my family. Tony is all I have left. I know that everyone has told me to make nice and just fake it for the sake of all of us being here almost all the time, but I can’t. I'm just so confused and..” You stop yourself and look up at Steve who is intently listening.

“What are you confused about, doll?” He raises an eyebrow and you start blushing again.

“I- I don’t wanna talk about it..” You whisper softly and glance over to where Tony and Thor are at. As much as Tony begs you to be nice and try to be civil, he would not hesitate to beat your ass if he found out that you were harboring a crush for the trickster. Steve leans in and whispers

“I think I know. I may be from a different time, but I know a crush when I see it.” He pulls back and smiles at you and for whatever reason, this makes you angry.

“WHAT?! You think I have a little schoolgirl crush on that fucking murderer?! HE TRIED TO KILL TONY MULTIPLE TIMES!” You yelled at Steve as you stood up, tears stinging your eyes “I would NEVER mess with the likes of Loki, whether he's a God or a prince of whatever the hell he is!”

“Squeak, now hold on-”

“No, Rogers- Leave me alone!” You storm away from him and go up the stairs leading to your bedroom. Once you get to your door, another wad of paper is thrown in your direction, but this time you catch it. Turning towards where the paper had come from, was he himself.

“Hello, darling. I heard you and Rogers speaking about me” He smirks ever so slightly and starts slowly sauntering over to you. Once he gets close to you, you pull a dagger out of the sheath around your thigh and press the tip to his chest

“I suggest you leave me the hell alone, you psychopath.” You grit your teeth as you finish your sentence and Loki puts his hands up in defeat and takes a few steps back

“My my, little one. I didn’t know you could be so feisty.” He chuckles slightly and crosses his arms over his chest. “I just wanted to have a civil conversation and see if we can come to an understanding about where my loyalties lie and try to get your tiny Midgardian brain to understand that I’m not the same person I was.. Before”

You sheath your dagger and pinch the bridge of your nose hopeful to fight off your frustration.

“Look, Loki. You may not realize the severity of what you did, but that doesn’t mean I’m just gonna accept that you’re some righteous person-god- whatever the hell you are.”

“Oh, good heavens, no. I’m not righteous whatsoever, darling. Never have been, never will be. But” He points a finger at the ceiling and smiles “I can promise you that I do not plan to murder anyone… in this building”

You smirk softly at the humor in the tricksters voice and cross your arms over your chest.

“So how about that conversation?” You gester to him to come in your room but when you look back at his face he has a rather dumbfounded look on his face

“What a minute, 45 seconds ago you had a bloody dagger to my chest, ready to skin me alive, but now you want me to come into your room with you?” Loki walks closer to you slowly still with that dumb look on his face.

You place your hand back on your dagger and laugh “Just because I’m inviting you into my room, doesn’t mean I won’t hesitate to stab you if you give me a reason to.” You wink at him and walk into your room, where you kick off your shoes and lounge in the recliner at the far corner of your room.

The rooms at the compound were not small by any means. Each room has a giant California king size bed, a double walk-in closet, its own little mini fridge, plus enough room to have 2 Hulks lay side by side on the floor.

You have yours decorated in your signature color, with white accents on the furniture as well as copious amount of liquor bottles on the top of your bookshelf.

Loki saunters in after a few seconds and takes a seat on your bed, directly in front of you. It seems like he’s… admiring you? He won’t look away and seems to be studying your face, how your wavy hair falls softly from the messy bun on the top of your head, how your eyes sparkle with the sun coming through the windows, how your lips are just a subtle rosy color, indicating that you either suck of chew on them when frustrated.

“Are you gonna say anything or are you just gonna sit here and stare at me all day?” You blush softly and stare right back at him

“My dear, if I may be rather brash, it just seems like something seems of worry to you, my apologies. But, yes, where would you like me to begin?”

You and Loki sat there for 3 or 4 hours talking about what really happened when Loki invaded New York, what happened to his mother and how Asgard was completely destroyed by his and Thor’s elder sister. Half way through the conversation, you had pulled down a rather nice bottle of Whiskey and two rocks glasses, pouring both of you a drink while Loki was reliving what he described to be the most painful part of his life. There you sat with the man you had sworn to hate until your last breath, actually feeling sorry for judging him so harshly. But who can blame you?

“Wow” You said after he had finally finished. You looked down at your glass and it was empty. While Loki was explaining everything to you, you had finished 4 or 5 full glasses of whiskey and were starting to feel a little tipsy

“Loki, I am so indecently sorry. All of the times Thor and I had talked about what happened, he never once told me how hard you took everything.”

Loki scoffed a little and looked at his glass “Well, my story really isn’t for my brother to tell, and he never really understood my feelings on the matter. I never really spoke to him about it. It was really only me on my own.” He shrugged softly and finished what liquor he still had in his glass “I really hope this changes your viewing of my, darling. I truly meant what I said. I have zero intentions of harming anyone in this compound.”

You shook your head a little and pushed the hair that had fallen into your face back “But why tell me all of this? Why tell the one person who probably hates you the most in the tower all of your worries and how at fault you feel?” You looked up from your glass when he chuckled.

“My dear, I know you don’t truly hate me. You hate what I did to your brother and the Avengers.” He leaned forward to be at eye level with you and spoke very softly “Do not forget, little one. I can read minds, you know” He winked at you and sat back in his chair

“I- you what now?!” You sat up straight and your face became very flushed. How could you have been so naive? Thor had mentioned it a couple of times that he believes his brother could read thoughts, but you never took it to heart.

“Miss. Stark, it seems as so Mr. Stark is worried about you. He has no idea where you are and I didn’t think to make him privy of your location.” FRIDAY interjected before you or Loki could say anything regarding the mind reading matter.

“Thanks, FRIDAY, can you tell him I’m up in my room? I don’t think I’ll be able to walk after the amount of alcohol I’ve drank” You chuckled slightly and rubbed your face with your hands.

“Right away Miss. Stark. Oh, it seems as if your brother is coming to see you.”

You internally began slightly panicking because as much as Tony wanted you to be civil, I don’t think he would want you damn near wasted with the God Of Mischief in your room.

“I shall be on my way, darling” Loki stood up and walked over to you. He rests his hands on the back of your chair and soon your face to face.

“Conversation for another time” He quickly places a kiss to your cheek before disappearing in a green cloud.

What the fuck is happening?

#loki imagine #loki x reader #loki laufeyson #loki fanfic #loki #new writers on tumblr #marvel #alternate universe

40 notes · View notes

fidothefinch · 7 years ago

Text

Unauthorized Understudy: Chapter 3

Ao3

First chapter / Previous chapter / Next chapter

It had been two days.

Two days without a trace of Damian. No flashes of color in the shadows at night. Nobody leaving treats where the cat or the dog or the cow could find them.

Dick had initially assumed Damian’s hot-headedness and desperation to prove himself a hero had spurred him to go after the blackmailer himself, but after so long without contact, the seed of worry in his gut had grown into a stone. Damian was a smart kid, when he stopped to think. He would have figured out the blackmailer was an inside job.

And Dick had thought he was getting through to him; Damian was responding to routine and a constant stream of support with calm. It didn’t make sense for him to run off like that.

Two days.

He rubbed his eyes when they started to sting from staring at the computer so long. He had complied a list of the information he had. Tim had always joked it was like reading Nancy Drew’s notebook, but Dick needed something to focus all the thoughts racing in his head.

One: Damian was upset about being sent away. He was known for running off on his own to prove himself. He probably went after the blackmailer.

Two: He hadn’t been seen since.

Dick’s eyes traced over that line several times. The tracking devices installed in the Robin suit had gone offline, along with the comms. He almost regretted not implanting one in Damian the way that Bruce had insisted on one in himself, but that was a breach of trust Damian wouldn’t come back from, he was sure.

Batman had ‘interviewed’ the usual suspects and had eyes and ears on the underground. Nobody had seen or heard anything. It meant Robin was being kept on the down-low. Or that the criminals were more scared of the perp than they were of Batman.

Both options were bad.

Three: The last person to see Robin was Michael Heymann, Gordon’s new bodyguard.

He had reviewed the security footage of the police precinct. There was footage of Robin slipping up the steps to the roof, and of Heymann following a few seconds after. There were no cameras on the roof, because the relationship between the commissioner and the vigilantes were still, technically, illegal. There was no way to confirm which direction he ran.

All signs pointed toward the blackmailer having Robin. But for all of the bluster in the notes, the criminal had yet to act on any threats. And how would kidnapping Robin help? The kid was too troublesome to be held as ransom. The best Dick could surmise was that Robin had figured out who the blackmailer was and was being held so he wouldn’t reveal the information.

It would be easier to kill a witness. Dick tried not to dwell on that.

He almost wanted to believe the kid was with his mother. At least then, he knew he wasn’t dead. But Talia was anything but subtle; if she had Damian, Dick would know by now.

He had Alfred spread the gossip he had the flu to get away with spending the day in the Batcave, searching radio frequencies and security footage for even a glimpse of the familiar uniform. He spent his nights under the cowl searching the city for signs of his young sidekick.

Two days. The likelihood of finding a victim of kidnapping dropped exponentially after the first twenty-four hours, a fact that echoed in the back of his head while he reread his notes with blurry eyes.

“It is time you got some rest,” Alfred said, stepping behind Dick with a tray of tea.

Dick blinked for the first time in what must have been several minutes. He pushed back from the Batcomputer to rest them on the dim-lit Cave. “I have to be missing something.”

“You must have memorized the footage and reports by now. The Batcomputer can continue searching for Master Damian’s tracking signal and the feed from the security cameras without rest. You cannot.”

Dick smiled unhappily. “You’re right.” He stood, cracking his back (and his hips, and his shoulders, and his knees—he should work more breaks into his investigations). “How did Bruce manage to get anything done?”

Alfred’s mustache twitched. “I drugged his tea. On occasion.”

Dick’s smile got a little more genuine around the edges, but quickly fell again. “I’ll take two hours.”

“Three.”

Dick eyed that tray that Alfred had brought down. He wasn’t Bruce; he knew better than to argue. “Fine. Three hours.” He combed his fingers through his hair. “If the computer finds anything—”

“I will tell you as soon as you wake.” Dick opened his mouth to protest, but Alfred cut him off again. “You will be no use to the boy otherwise.”

Dick snapped his mouth shut. His eyes closed as he nodded in agreement. He turned to leave.

“Master Richard,” Alfred called. “Do not let your worry consume you. Master Damian is too stubborn and prideful to let any scoundrel hurt him.”

Dick wanted to let that comfort him.

But then, that’s what they used to say about Bruce, too.

It was colder in the basement, a fact that crept up on Damian like the chill through his feet. Goosebumps rose along his bare arms and legs. He rubbed heat into the skin idly.

His feet hurt from standing, but the floor was too cold to sit on. His neck was warm and raw where he had tried—unsuccessfully—to remove the collar, then to remove the leash from the collar, then to break the leash, then to remove the leash from the stairs, then to break the stairs. Each step locked shut with one of those small padlocks that he could break through in a matter of minutes with the aid of a lockpick he didn’t have.

By his estimation, it had been at least forty-eight hours since he had been taken. But there were no windows, and Heymann didn’t seem to bring down food on any kind of schedule; there was no way to be sure.

He also surmised, from the pattern of Heymann’s heavy footfalls overhead, that Heymann left for a majority of the day. He assumed that the man was keeping up the ruse of bodyguard with Gordon in order to keep tabs on Batman’s search for Robin.

Damian grit his teeth against the chill that travelled up his spine. He had to get out of here.

The footsteps overhead began moving toward the door to the basement. Damian schooled his shivering into barely-perceptible tremors and rolled his weight into the balls of his feet.

Heymann was dressed in the Batman suit again, for the first time since the first night. In his hands was a paper plate with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the same thing he had brought—and Damian had refused—the last several times he came down. He wasn’t convinced it was even a new sandwich.

Damian opened his mouth to tell him off, but Heymann lifted a hand in warning. “A deal,” he said. “Eat the sandwich, and I’ll give you more of your outfit.”

Damian sneered. “How is that supposed to benefit me?” He positioned himself so the slack of the leash was behind him, further from Heymann’s reach but far from out of it.

Heymann offered the sandwich to him. Damian barely glanced at it though his stomach protested.

“We are going out tonight. As Batman and Robin.”

“No we aren’t.” His hands curled into fists at his side.

“You have a choice,” Heymann continued, as though Damian hadn’t said anything. “Eat the sandwich, and I will give you gloves, a cape, and shoes. Don’t eat it, and you will receive none of those things. We go out regardless.”

Damian gave the food another look. It looked innocent enough, but there was no telling what the contents of the sandwich were. The risk was too high. Setting his jaw, Damian shook his head. “No.”

Heymann grunted. “Very well.” Damian flinched when the man flicked his wrist, expecting an attack. The sandwich and accompanying plate crashed into the corner. While Damian watched it fall, Heymann pushed him back against the wall beneath the steps. “Face the wall. Head down.”

Ice, unrelated to the cold room, flooded Damian’s veins. He wouldn’t be able to see if he followed orders. The second Heymann removed his hand, Damian stepped away from the wall.

Heymann’s large hand clapped onto the back of his head, pressing his forehead hard into the cold brick. “I won’t tell you again.”

Damian growled, and pushed back against the weight. Heymann gripped his hair and tugged his head to the side, away from Heymann, applying more pressure than Damian could push against.

The tell-tale clacking of Heymann’s utility belt.

Damian clawed at whatever he could reach. The Kevlar held against his ripped nails.

After a second of silence, there was a small click, and the leash fell slack. Damian’s shock and relief lasted just long enough for Heymann to wrap the tail end around his free wrist. He released Damian’s head.

Damian turned. There was a trickle of something warm down the shell of his ear.

Heymann didn’t wait for him to react. He started toward the base of the stairs. “Come on, Robin.”

That’s when he remembered: patrol. Outside. Like this.

Damian grit his teeth. “Bite me.”

The backhand wasn’t unexpected, but it made the bruises already blossoming on his face ache. The new metal studs attached to the knuckles of the leather gloves made a horrid cracking sound against his cheekbone.

The burly man in the cowl growled. “That’s not how you treat the Batman.”

“You’re not Batman!”

The collar around his throat constricted threateningly as the man pulled him closer. “The old Batman is gone. I don’t know who it is that took his place, but he’s not the real deal. Gotham needs somebody stronger than Flippy-McGee out there.”

Damian narrowed his eyes. “He’s stronger than you will ever be.”

He almost regretted the words when the man’s mouth twisted into a snarl. It was not his father’s face under the cowl, or Grayson’s, and it was never more obvious than it was now, when the man’s face twisted with uncontrolled rage.

“You stubborn little shit,” Heymann hissed. He used the collar and attached leash to drag Damian back to the steps. Damian choked. The man paused at the metal banister, switched hands, and began wrapping the leash around a higher baluster than before. He gave the leash a good tug, making Damian’s breath catch in his throat. Locked it in place.

And then he stepped away.

Damian tried to gulp down air, but even on his toes the leash was almost too short. The collar was flush against his neck, digging into his trachea. He tugged at it with his hands, but couldn’t put enough power behind it to relieve any pressure. Every breath was an audible wheeze.

Heymann began to ascend the steps.

“Stop!” Damian tried to shout. It came out as a raspy whisper. “You can’t leave me like this!”

The hollow steps above him stopped. Damian tried to twist around to see, but moving his head only dug the collar in deeper. He listened instead, as the stair creaked under a weight shift. He almost jumped when a hand landed on his head. It swept his hair back roughly, the seams in the gloves catching strays and plucking them out.

One finger caught a piece in the front and tried to coax it into a curl. Damian had to resist the urge to reach up and break it. He couldn’t afford losing his hands again. Not like this.

Heymann grumbled when the hair didn’t cooperate. “You aren’t the original, I know. But you’d think he could choose somebody a bit more similar.” He gave up, patting Damian on the head like he was a dog. “Last chance, you ready to behave?”

“Fuck you!”

Heymann swept another pat across his head before removing his hand. “I’ll be back in an hour.”

“Master Richard.”

Dick shot to his feet before gaining full awareness. What sleep he had gotten did wonders for his reflexes. “Alfred. Any news?”

The butler had a grave face. “It’s the commissioner.”

Dick’s heart skipped a beat. “Is he—”

Alfred shook his head. “He wants to speak with you.”

Dick nodded absently, already headed toward the door. “I’ll go change.”

“I should have been more specific. He wants to speak to Dick Grayson.”

Dick froze in the doorway. “Why?”

“I’m afraid he could not disclose that information.” Alfred’s voice dropped in volume against some imaginary eavesdropper.

“He said it was urgent.”

Next chapter

#fido writes #batfam #batman #damian wayne

3 notes · View notes

norgad-vcd · 4 years ago

Text

COPY: First Revision

Introduction.

What goes on, online?

Anything and everything. It’s a beautiful and vibrant mess of human interaction. Everything from trivial and thoughtless acts to the most sincere and genuine deeds. It’s grounds for the vicious and the virtuous alike. The internet is what you make of it; A tool as good or bad as it’s wielders.

What this book is

It’d take a thousand lifetimes to see it all.

How about a quick glimpse instead?

Hiya, I’m Tom! I’ve spent enough of my life online that I can confer some of my findings to you. This book is a smörgåsbord of experiences, phenomena, and memories I’ve been witness to and participant in during my time here. While not a full picture, it should help you navigate the ballpark of possibilities out there. My experiences are just one sample from billions; perhaps after this you’ll seek to venture out further into that world-wide web, or - at the very least - understand a little better those who do.

Heads-up

Listen a moment, before you go.

I am only one person. My field of view is limited, as is my foresight. Take my advice with a grain of salt, I can’t prepare you for everything. There’s so much more out there waiting for you, some good, some bad; be sensible.

Who am I, online?

Personas and the separation of meatspace and cyberspace.

Online, your real-life identity isn’t attached to you by default. Of course there’s places where the expectation is indeed a connection to real identities - like Facebook for example - but this is not a requirement. I’m not known as ‘Tom’ online, people know me by my username, and t.

It’s not a fake me, or a way to lie to people, it’s just an alternate expression of myself. We act differently to different people in so many social situations, - from time with family, to at work, and to hanging out with friends - the internet allows even more possible ways to express parts of ourselves. For me, it’s liberating to exist in a state that’s disconnected from the tangle of my real life self, and to keep the tangle of my internet presence away from real life as well.

Equal ground, just another user.

On the internet, nobody knows who you are.

Unless you divulge them, your identity, physical appearance, background, nationality, gender, race and so on are completely unknown; this is the great equalizer. Free from biases based on your physical self, you can be perceived as purely another person.

Still a person, despite appearances.

A clean slate can tempt some however to act recklessly. If an identity and stigma can be shed so easily, some people feel emboldened to act without the threat of consequences; verbally beat someone up, and then wash your hands of the whole incident.

It’s important to remember that people online are still people; while their faces might be obscured, they still have thoughts and feelings.

In general, talking to people online has the same potential as real-life to be great, awful, or somewhere inbetween. It’s just luck of the draw who you’ll encounter.

Who else?

I’m hanging out with my friends.

“Go outside and spend time with your friends!”

What a classic line. Truth is I’m already spending time with my friends, just on the computer. It can be hard to organise in person meetups sometimes, and meeting up online can be much more spontaneous. All it takes is noticing someone else is online and flicking them a message, Boom, instant hangout, and before you know it you’ve got all the boys bantering away.

Over the first lockdown in 2020 me and most of my real-life friends started a minecraft server together and played through it for the duration of our stint stuck at home. It was like a little clubhouse, each time we logged in and saw things change slightly since last time. We left each other notes and set up gifts and pranks for when people left and returned. It was a great way to keep in touch when we were otherwise very isolated from social contact.

Guest speaker, Josh

[Josh text]

In general, hanging out online is pretty great. It might not be perfect, and sure we could get a little more sunlight, but for what it’s worth it’s good for the soul and sometimes the best thing on hand. Friendships don’t care about how you nourish them, just that you do.

[WHY ARE YOU STILL AWAKE?]

I don’t know the names of some of my closest friends.

What about friendships that never were from real life, rather that grew from the internet.

I don’t know the names of some of my closest friends.

That doesn’t mean I don’t care about them; it’s just we all know each other by our usernames and whatever funny profile picture we’re rocking at the time. I still know their personalities, their sense of humor, what they like and don’t, and everything else you’d know about a friend. We still have inside jokes, favourite group pastimes, and all the rest.

This has caused some strange moments though. When I was younger and my parents would ask who I’m talking to on the computer, I wouldn’t know how to respond. Do I tell them “I don’t know” and spark images in their heads of catfishers and criminals? Do I tell them my friend’s username and get told “that’s not a real name”? There really wasn’t any good solution in my head at the time, so I’d just say “someone from school” and pray the topic of the conversation would change as fast as possible.

A couple of times an internet friend has accidentally let their real name slip in a conversation, and that instantly got met with waves of banter about how “you’re not an Alex” or whatever the name was. We’d quickly forget about it though, we still see each other as the identities we met each other with; someone’s real-life name doesn’t change how we see them. In that sense, I suppose usernames are like a self-determination thing; you get to pick a name for yourself, based on who you see yourself as.

Timeless zones.

Because everyone lives in different time-zones, it can often be difficult to pre-plan hangouts. Oftentimes me and my friends have planned to have a movie night at a specific time, and then once that time rolls around, one or two people are still offline, probably asleep. Oftentimes whoever was missing will come online several hours later and be sorry and upset that they held everyone up and wasted everyone’s time. Of course, we had all just postponed the movie night and just hung out and chatted instead.

Perfect is the enemy of good. Oftentimes we have to accept that it’s near impossible to have everyone hang out at the same time; it’d require half of us to be up at god awful times or to wake up at 4am for something. Instead of trying to plan big ‘everyone’ events every once in a blue moon, we try to have frequent but smaller hangouts. It might mean that we don’t get to see everyone at the same time, but it’s still workable. If we were to hold out till everyone was free at the same time, we’d never end up hanging out at all.

My version of the morning paper is skimming what my mates have been talking about in the group chat. Most of the time it’s pretty coherent and I can tell what was going on, but sometimes it dissolves into a mess of completely unrelated images and text that doesn’t read like a conversation at all. Using my expert detective skills I have deduced that our two culprits were actually talking in a voice chat, and were just using the text chat to show each other stupid pictures of dogs.

That time my friend went missing.

A while ago, someone in one of my friend groups noted that someone hadn’t been online for two weeks. Dread set in. We all knew that our friend was very prone to getting ill, and we didn’t want to say it but we were worried she might have died. Since we don’t know each other in ‘real life’ it was entirely possible that someone could drop dead one day and we’d never get any confirmation; just left wondering what happened. We asked around in common friend circles, and nobody had heard from her, coming up on about three weeks at that point. We had to do something.

Multiple friend circles of people from all around the world, scrambling to find any scrap of information about our lost friend. One person had ‘maybe’ an address that they sent something to once, but it might have been an old house. We found about three different possible legal names, and had no way to be sure which was right. We ended up sending a letter addressed to three different names ‘or the family of’. It was a desperate shot in the dark, but we were worried sick.

It turned out she was alright, but she had been stuck in hospital for a while and didn’t have access to a phone. We all had a laugh over how everyone overreacted, but it really did scare me. I’ve learned to really value the time I get to spend with my online friends; next time might not be so lucky, and if something were to happen it’s hard to ever get closure on it.

Wider World.

Community

One thing the internet’s really helped with is connecting like-minded individuals. Before the internet, if you had a niche hobby, you were probably the only person you know in your town with that hobby. Kinda lame, yeah? Nowadays, you can reach across the globe and connect with everyone who’s into the same stuff as you! Mainstream topics can have gargantuan communities, but what I find even more interesting is the weird obscure hobbies and groups, the kind that would never survive without the internet.

My personal favourite is the community around the video game ‘Space Station 13’; it’s a simulation roleplay game that’s been kicking around for about 18 years at this point, kept alive by a cult following of obsessed players. The programming sucks, and the controls are horrifically obtuse, but it’s got a charm that I can’t deny. It’s not for everyone, and I think that’s great. It’s not for everyone, but thanks to the internet enough people can still get together that they can enjoy it.

Someone sends me a funny picture. There’s three layers of delight. The first - of course - is that the picture is funny. Beyond that, there’s also the impulsive knowledge that I know who else I could send it to that might like it; it’s a chain letter that for once isn’t a scam. And the third layer is knowing that whoever sent the picture to me first got it sent to them and thought “Hey, I know who might like this”!

Random people

Strange patterns can emerge after lurking and watching from the sidelines.

In the rules discussion channel of a board game group I’m in, I swear sometimes it’s like I’m stuck in a time loop. I watch a random person ask a common question about the game, and then someone else will get the rules clarified for them. A few hours will pass, the conversation drifting elsewhere as people drop in and out. Suddenly, I spot it; the same question from before, but from a different person. Like clockwork, another nameless devout will rise up and deliver the answer. And again. And again. It’s like a two-line stage show where the audience is also the cast, over and over and over.

Since profile pictures and usernames are self-selected you do get a weird little keyhole view of who you’re talking to might be like. This person has a picture of a cat as their profile image. Is it their cat, or did they just think the cat looked nice? Their username is ‘Millie’, is that their real life name; maybe? Or what if it’s the cat’s name? Are they pretending to be their cat? Are they a cat?

Getting popular, online presence & all eyes on you

Having a large presence online - that is, having other people follow or be ‘fans’ of you - is a mixed bag. For me it’s been really good in allowing me to get my art out there and get clients, but it’s also weird. It feels a bit like I’m up on a stage sometimes, everyone’s watching me. I’ve lost the feeling of being ‘just another guy in the crowd’. What if someone reads something I posted the wrong way? Do I keep being aloof and carefree, or will that hurt my image. Should I care?

Getting weird; parasocial relationships, doxxing, and personal armies.

People with large presences can feel familiar, friendly, like you’re already friends.

I’ve caught myself falling into this in the past. Parasocial relationships. There was an artist I really admired the style of. The brain’s great at filling in the details you want to be real. I realised that I had it written in my head that this person was super cool and the best and that it’d be really cool if we hung out. All extrapolation. While it’s entirely possible that they were everything I had imagined them to be, until it’s tested it’s all just imagination and fantasy. If you’ve never talked to them, how could you know?

Guest speaker, Chai

[Chai text]

Connecting with meatspace

Back down to earth. What happens when the digital and the physical self have to intersect? The two identities are from the same person, but they’re not the same.

My family found my twitter.

One time, my parents sent me a text: “Lucy showed us your art, looking really cool Tom!”. How. I’d never sent my family any of my online profiles. I check my Twitter; sure enough in front of my eyes the screen tells me my sister has followed my twitter account. Abject horror. How much did they look at? What did they think? Should I start looking for a flat?

It’s not that I had anything to hide, it’s just that it felt… misaligned. Like two worlds coming together that shouldn’t. I’m sure for them it was just “Wow, look at our son go!”, but for me it was a wave of confusion and dread.

Visiting internet friends. (They weren’t murderers.)

One time, I was lucky enough to have a few of my internet friends visit in real life. I was showing them around my house, when I ran into my mum. It hit me. Who do I even introduce these people as? We all know each other by our online names and had been using them in conversation minutes earlier, but that would make no sense to my poor mum. And so, awkwardly, one by one my friends rattled off a set of names entirely alien to me. We all kept straight faces as each of us discovered “Wait, this person’s called WHAT?”.

We all promptly forgot each other’s names within about two minutes.

LDRs

Thanks to the internet, I met my partner.

Almost four years later, we’re still going strong. It helps a lot that a lot of our common interests can be done online, chiefly gaming and watching shows. But even the other stuff, we can still do together in some aspects. We always say good morning and goodnight to each other on the phone, and fill each other in on what we’ve been up to that day. If we go somewhere and see something cool, we can still share pictures and videos. If I make a really nice dinner, I can send them the recipe and they can have a taste (though that last one might depend on their cooking skills).

Of course, it’s not identical to an in-person relationship, and it can be more stressful. You have to put a lot more effort into reaching out to each other and making time to hang out and talk; it won’t happen by accident. We’re both really looking forward to being able to move together, but until then, being together apart isn’t all that bad.

Signing off.

0 notes

kirk-kapitany-blog · 7 years ago

Text

How To Become An Affiliate Marketer

I’s quite simple to become an affiliate marketer. There are no certifications, degrees or trainings required. You don’t have to pay any fees.

Basically, you decide you want to do it and then do it.

Join affiliate programs, get your affiliate links and share them with others. It’s really as simple as that, although there’s definitely a right way to do it and a wrong way.

The best way to do affiliate marketing

Create excellent content where others can read it. A blog or an email newsletter are best. Provide really valuable information aimed at helping your readers.

Publish regularly. Consistency keeps people interested and engaged.

At first, don’t promote affiliate products. Concentrate on proving your trustworthiness, usefulness and expertise.

Once you’ve gained trust, slowly start promoting things you use and love.

This strategy is called content marketing and it’s the best way to be a successful affiliate marketer.

Things you need to start affiliate marketing

A way to communicate with people (like a blog, not social media). Sometimes this is called a platform. It might be a blog, a website, an email list or some other online presence where people listen to what you have to say.

I do not recommend using social media for your main platform. Why not social media? It’s risky because you don’t control YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and other social media sites — they do. And they can change the rules at any time.

Of course you can use social media (and you should!), but supplement with it don’t concentrate on it.

Related: How to Decide What to Blog About

High quality content. People don’t like to be constantly promoted to. Badgering your audience with nonstop affiliate promotions will not get you anywhere.

Successful affiliate marketers produce useful content aimed at helping their audience solve real problems. Eventually you can start recommending products naturally.

An audience. Who is your audience? “Everyone” is a bad answer. You’ve got to niche down, meaning, target a small subgroup of people. Maybe they are parents to toddlers. Maybe they are café owners. Maybe they are fly fisherman. Maybe they are nursing students.

Your ideal audience is one you know well, either because you fit into it yourself, or because you have answers to problems they commonly face.

For example, my audience is made up of people who want to start a blog and make money online but have limited time, budget and technical know-how. I can speak to this audience because that was me when I started 14 years ago!

Your audience’s trust. This cannot be overstated. Affiliate marketing is all about trust. When someone you trust recommends a product, you listen. Not so much when a stranger does. (In fact, if you’re like me, it often makes you skeptical.)

Be trustworthy and sincere in all you do online. This will lay the foundation for effective affiliate marketing. You will not make sustainable income if you do not have the trust of your audience.

Affiliate links to share. Once you have proven yourself to be a trustworthy source of information on topics important to your audience, you can begin to recommend affiliate products or services to them. This entails applying to affiliate programs and sharing your unique affiliate links for products you promote (more below).

Do you need a blog for affiliate marketing?

Technically no, although in my opinion, it’s the most convenient vehicle for affiliate marketing. Why? Because it’s a perfect spot to keep all your content and it’s not subject to the whims of social media algorithms. Plus, it’s available 24/7 so anyone can find it at any time.

Starting a blog is surprisingly quick and inexpensive.

Do you need an email list for affiliate marketing?

Again, technically no, but I highly recommend it.

You will vastly improve your chances of making a good income as an affiliate marketer if you use as many available communication vehicles as possible. Email is one of the most effective communication vehicles there is. Even more so than your blog or website.

Here’s my advice…

Start with a blog, where your content is always available. By itself, an email list can be hard to start if there’s not a place (like your blog or website) where potential subscribers can get to know you first.

Next, add an email list which gives you a fantastic opportunity to communicate with people on your own terms. That is, you don’t have to wait for them to come to your blog or website, you can go straight to their inboxes. Related: Email Marketing 101.

Lastly, use social media in your affiliate marketing efforts to supplement what you’re already doing on your blog and in email.

Do you need a lot of traffic for affiliate marketing?

No not always, but it helps tremendously. More traffic means more eyeballs and therefore more people who will potentially buy the product(s) you promote.

However, you can still make money as an affiliate even if you don’t have tons of traffic. I have a fraction of the traffic many fellow affiliate marketers have and yet my income rivals and in some cases exceeds theirs.

Caveat: some affiliate programs prefer a certain amount of traffic before they will accept you into their affiliate program. Obviously in those cases, your traffic numbers are key.

The bottom line is, don’t let low traffic numbers keep you from exploring affiliate marketing!

Chapter 5: How do you choose affiliate products to promote?

Recommend affiliate products that are relevant and fit naturally into your content.

For example, if you routinely talk about grilling meat, recommending your favorite butcher knife is probably a natural fit. If, however, you talk about landscape design, your favorite butcher knife is probably not a natural fit.

Once you think of a product to promote, ask yourself the following questions to determine if it’s a good fit:

Do I have legitimate experience with this product? If you don’t, pass. Being unfamiliar with a product you promote is risky for two reasons. First, if it turns out to be a dud, the trust you’ve built with your audience is damaged. Second, if your audience has questions about it, you won’t know how to answer.

Would I recommend this product to my mother or best friend? It’s tempting to recommend something when there’s a commission attached. But would you encourage your mom or best friend to spend their time and money on this thing? Be honest.

Will my target audience realistically buy this product? Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. What are they most likely to buy? If your blog is mainly about frugal living, your readers probably aren’t going to buy luxury products, so promoting high-end clothing might not work so well.

Will my target audience realistically spend this amount for the product? Again, your reputation is on the line here. Is the product you are thinking of promoting priced reasonably for your audience? When I was writing my ebook, I was stuck on pricing. I asked around for opinions. A number of people suggested I price my ebook at $47! Their idea was to price according to value, not size. In my mind that was crazy. My network was composed of a lot of stay-at-home bloggers, and my collective audience was comprised mostly of people without a whole lot of disposable income. There was no way anyone was going to pay $47 for my 30-page ebook.

Will my target audience realistically buy this now, or at a different time? Be sensitive to sales cycles and seasons. Maybe you should avoid holidays (when people are away from their computers, like July 4 in the U.S.) or maybe you should target holidays (like the day after Thanksgiving), but know the difference. Again, know your audience. Plan your content accordingly.

You don’t want to promote things unrelated to the content your audience is used to getting from you. It’s jarring and can decrease their trust in you. And without trust, your affiliate income will dry up.

Where do you get ideas for affiliate products to promote?

A lot of people overthink this. Start with what’s right in front of you and branch out from there.

There are 3 places to get ideas:

Yourself

Your readers

Others in your niche

Let’s cover each one in depth…

How to get affiliate marketing product ideas from yourself

Promote products you already use. What things do you use and love? Keep a list. Find the affiliate program for them. Of course, never write about a product or service you love without becoming an affiliate for it first!

For example, when I began teaching others how to start their own blogs in 2010, it was a no-brainer to recommend the hosting company I was already using. I became an affiliate and have made thousands of dollars since.

Are you a food blogger? What’s your favorite cookware? Create content about it. Craft blogger? What’s your favorite crafting tool? Create content about it. Photography blogger? What camera and lenses do you use? Create content about them.

Sometimes this is as simple as grabbing a paper and pen and walking around your house, looking for things you use and love. Or, look in your purchase / order history for Amazon and other retailers.

Every product or service you use and love is likely to have an affiliate program attached to it.

Review existing content. Have you ever mentioned a product in the past that you use? Maybe you didn’t even think about it at the time, but is there an affiliate program for it? Find out (just google “product/company affiliate program” like “Target affiliate program”) and update that content with your affiliate link.

If you’re a blogger, start by going through your analytics and finding your most popular posts. In Google Analytics (GA) you can find these pages by going to your GA Dashboard > Behavior > Site Content > All Pages. Examine the ones at the top of the list that bring in the most traffic. Are there any affiliate products or services you can naturally include in them?

Promote products relevant to your niche. Be a student of your niche. Listen to what others talk about. Note problems people have or holes that need filling. Find products that will help. Buy them. Use them. Recommend the best.

If your site is about children’s books and you promote car insurance, at best you’ll look like you don’t know what you’re doing. At worst, you’ll be branded a spammer. Once you develop a bad reputation as a spammer or an “out to make a quick buck” type of affiliate marketer, it’s incredibly difficult to go back.

Start out with high standards and you’ll be fine. Simply put, promoting bad stuff makes you look bad and will hurt you in the long run.

How to get affiliate marketing product ideas from your readers

Choose products that help your audience solve a problem or address a fear. These are excellent products to promote as readers are often open to spending money on them.

Ask them. What does your audience want? Stay aware by interacting with them on social media, in blog / video comments, in Facebook Groups or by taking a survey.

Check your stats. Check your Google Analytics for audience demographics, affinities, etc.

How to get affiliate marketing product ideas from others in your niche

Watch them. How are other content creators in your niche utilizing advertising? What types of ads do they use? What are they promoting? What do they talk about repeatedly (if you keep seeing the same affiliate product show up again and again, there’s a good chance they’re making good money from it)? If you see a product or service they talk about that jogs your memory and you can ethically promote it too, find affiliate information by the methods described above.

Ask around. In my experience, if you establish a good relationship with other content creators (and especially if you are giving more than you are taking in that relationship), over time, most are more than willing to share tips and hints about what has and has not worked for them. A mastermind group is also a great place to get ideas.

Follow affiliate hashtags. Hashtags like #affiliate and #ad are commonly used on social media when someone is promoting an affiliate product. Follow or search those hashtags on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest (and sometimes Facebook) to see what others are promoting.

Chapter 6: How do you join affiliate programs?

First, understand the difference between individual affiliate programs and affiliate networks.

You can join an affiliate network once and have access to many affiliate programs of many companies at once.

You can join an individual affiliate program which is for a single company.

You are not limited to one or the other. You can be part of multiple affiliate networks and individual affiliate programs at the same time.

How do you find the applications for affiliate networks / programs?

There are several ways to find affiliate program signup pages.

A company’s website. Think of a product or service you want to promote. Go to the website of said product. Look for a link (often in the footer) that says “Affiliates,” “Affiliate Program,” “Referral Program” or something similar. Follow the links to sign up.

Google it. Search for terms like “(company) affiliate program.” For example, “Target affiliate program” or “Amazon affiliate program.” If your first search doesn’t turn up anything, try again. Don’t give up too easily. Sometimes there are slight variances in word usage or terms.

Ask a friend. Do you know someone who is already an affiliate? Ask if they can connect you with a contact at the company.

Contact the company directly. If you use a product or service and want to recommend it but you can’t find evidence of an affiliate program, consider approaching them and asking if they are willing to set one up (maybe with your help). Highlight your audience and the value of your recommendation. Explain that an affiliate program is simply rewarding happy customers (you!) for promoting, and they don’t have to pay until a sale is made.

1 note · View note

lnfours · 8 years ago

Text

protect her (peter parker x stark!reader)

ya girl is back, i know, it’s shocking. everyone sitting on their phones/tablets/computers reading this is shaking right now.

okay i’m done, i’m sorry.

but yes, i came up with this amazing plot, which i’m not sure if it’s been made yet or not, but i literally thought of it when i was writing something completely unrelated to this.

so, with that, i hope you guys enjoy and let me know what you wanna see more of!

love you!

masterlist

words: 1410

note: pov changes, so sorry if it’s kinda strange.

Y/n’s point of view

i smiled as i nuzzled my face into the crook of Peter’s neck, his hands finding my waist as we sat on the couch in the living room of the Avengers Tower. we had just gotten done homework and every one else was asleep, except Tony, my father, who took Pepper out to dinner on a date night. i find it adorable that my father still goes the extra step to still do the small things with her, even if he is busy half the time making sure everything with the Avengers runs smoothly.

my father and Pepper have known each other for a while, and when i was first introduced to her, she instantly was my mother figure. she took me under her wing and treated me like her own, even if we weren’t related by blood. i had to owe almost everything to her, she’s the reason i’m not that antisocial. hell, i even call her mom.

but as i was saying before, i met Peter a little less than a year ago when he was recruited as a new edition to the Avengers. i almost instantly gained a friendship with the dorky, brown haired kid, who just so happened to get bit by a radioactive spider, due to a shared interest in science and enjoying the little things in life. we’re just a couple of normal teenagers who just so happened to have not so normal lives.

Peter and i’s friendship didn’t turn into anything more than that until a couple of months ago when he accidentally blurted out that he liked me. i wasn’t shocked at all. he clearly sucked at hiding affection for other people. i simply kissed his cheek in response, and our relationship has grown on from there with constant sneaking around quietly at night and kisses while hiding in the darker parts of the hallways.

i laughed lightly as Peter ran his fingertips along my sides, tickling me. he knew everything about me, from where i was most ticklish, to what kind of juice i liked. he was the only one i was really close with, the only one who truly understood me and what it’s like to have superhuman capabilities at this age, although mine aren’t too extreme. but still, he was the only one i felt like i had a connection with because there wasn’t an age gap, and we’re both the most nerdiest people on the entire face of the earth.

i continued laughing, trying to get out of his grip, but failing miserably. he went on until i was finally able to get out of his grip.

“Peter!” i whined as he laughed,”i literally hate you.”

i moved from off of him to an empty cushion on the couch. he looked over at me, still wearing a smirk.

“c’mon, babe. you can’t hate me forever.” he said and i shrugged.

“are you willing to find out the answer to that question?” i asked.

he chuckled as he hovered his body over top of me, his beautiful brown eyes looking into mine. his curls dipping across his forehead.

“i’m willing to give it a shot.” he said before leaning closer to my face,”i mean, it can’t be that hard, right?”

i stayed silent as he attached his lips onto mine. i instantly kissed back, craving the feeling of his lips on mine. i ran my fingers through his brown curls, tugging lightly at them as his hands found my waist. our mouths moving in sync, reminding me of the countless times we’ve shared kisses like this.

his lips soon made it’s path to my cheek and to my jawline, peppering the skin on my face with the lightest kisses before making their way to my neck. i wrapped my arms around his neck as he sucked softly, grazing his tongue over the spot he had just marked as his.

right then, there was the ding of the elevator bell and my father and Pepper walked out of it, causing Peter to instantly separate from me. my dad stopped in his tracks, widening his eyes as Pepper stood next to him, not as shocked as he was.

“really, spiderling?” my dad had said and i kid you not, i heard Peter gulp as my dad gave him a death glare.

“okay you know what, Peter, come with me, Pepper, talk to y/n.” he said and Peter soon got up and slowly followed behind my dad into the lab. she joined me on the couch.

“you’re not in trouble with me, don’t worry.” she said and i felt the breath that i didn’t even realize i was holding escape from my lips.

“i just want to know why you haven’t told me yet.” she said,”i’m so happy for you, y/n.”

i smiled,”thank you, Pepper. and i was, but i was scared of what dad would do and what you two would say and think.”

“honey,” she smiled, placing a hand on my knee,”never let your father and i’s opinions come between you and your happiness. i mean, i’m assuming you’re happy with Peter, right?”

“the happiest.” i smiled,”i seriously don’t know what would happen if i lost him.”

“i could tell.” she smiled,”and whenever you two are near each other i can see it in his eyes that he loves and adores you and that he will do anything in his power to protect you.” she said and i nodded.

“so, don’t worry. i’ll handle your father.” she smiled and i gave her a hug.

“thank you so much.”

“of course.” she said, her smile audible.

Peter Parker’s point of view

i walked into the lab behind Mr. Stark. after, he closed the door.

“okay, out of all the girls in the world, you had to choose my daughter?”

“mr. Stark, trust me i had no intention of falling in love with your daughter, but things just happened and i finally accepted the fact that i loved her. and when i told her, i was so relieved to hear that she felt the same way.” i said as Stark spun slowly in his desk chair, looking around the room.

“tell me, Peter.” he said and our eyes made contact, his looking softer than what they were before,”how much do you love her?”

“more than anything on this Earth, sir. more than you could possibly ever imagine.” i said and he nodded.

“you make her happy, i presume?” he asked.

“i try my hardest to make her happy, even if it means putting her needs in front of mine.”

he nodded again,”she’s great, isn’t she?”

i nodded,”yes, sir. she’s marvelous.”

he looked at me once again.

“look, Peter, i know you’re a great kid, and i know how much of a heart you have.” he said,”i believe you when you say that you’ll protect her with everything you have.”

i nodded simply.

“and that’s something i can’t promise to her.” he said,”i mean, i’m not getting any younger.” he let out a small laugh as he got up out of the chair, i didn’t react.

“so, promise me that you’ll protect her, when i’m gone and she’s got no one to do the job anymore.” he said with glossy eyes,”because the last thing that i want is someone swooping down and taking everything from her in the blink of an eye.”

i nodded,”i promise, Mr. Stark.”

he smiled as he shook my hand.

“c’mon spiderling, i’m sure you’re lover probably thinks that i’ve killed you by now.”

i let out a small laugh as we walked out of the lab and down the hallway. soon we reached the living room, y/n instantly shooting up and wrapping me into an embrace. i gladly held her in my arms as she nuzzled her face in my chest. i planted a kiss on her hair as i saw Tony bring Pepper into his side.

“the young love.” she said, smiling.

“yeah. it’s strange isn’t it?” he asked. Pepper looked over at Tony, giving him a confused look.

“not what i was gonna say, but okay.” she said, letting out a small giggle as Tony placed a kiss on her temple. i ran my fingers through y/n’s hair.

“i love you.” i heard her mumble into my chest. i smiled down at her.

“i love you more.” i said before kissing her forehead.

and that’s when i made my own promise:

that i’m never letting go of her.

never.

654 notes · View notes

chiauve · 8 years ago

Text

Algernon - Day 14-16

(Note: OH FUCK A SURPRISE SUBPLOT APPEARS I AM NOT PREPARED)

What? came Geronimo's reply, somehow thunderous even when there was technically no voice.

It's…It's Jet's head, Albert added when Joe ignored the flood of questions by his team and pushed forward, almost thrusting his own head into the locker.

"Jet!" he cried, reaching forward but finding nowhere to place his hand that did not look damaged. "Hang on, we'll get you out of there!"

Jet just shut his eye.

"Come on, help me!" Joe snapped and reached for the wires coiling around the vertebrae, his hand trailing down until he found a plug. He was about to pull when Albert grabbed his arm and dragged him back.

"He has no body, Joe! He can't breathe or pump blood! Unplug that and he'll only last a few minutes!"

"If even that," Francoise sighed, examining the wiring and machines attached to Jet. Her hands were shaking though her voice remained steady. "These oxygen and fluid tanks are dangerously low. He's probably already only surviving on the bare minimum."

"We have to get him to Gilmore!"

009, Great interrupted, what do we do? There was no way to expect this.

Joe was breathing heavily; he couldn't take his eyes off his friend's disembodied head. Have you been here the whole time? he thought, I tried so hard to save you when you were here all along. Oh god, Jet, I'm so sorry…

"009?"

Pyunma's transmission cut in, sharp and almost painful. Did you guys find anything down there?

Yeah, Albert replied, turning away as though he couldn't look at Jet and think at the same time. His hand crept up over his eyes. A regular arsenal down here. Everything looks in good condition too; I'm betting someone's coming back for these. 008, 002 is hooked into the system, if we pull him he won't live long.

Alright, we stick to the plan then. 005, 004, grab anything that looks useful down there. 007, 006, grab what computers you can, even if they were wiped. Gilmore may still be able to get something out of them. Then we'll destroy the plant. We're far enough out of the way that it'll be no risk to civilians.

But Jet…! Joe began.

009, after I set the explosives I'll give you detonator. Once we're all clear of the building, you blow the place. Accelerate with Jet and do not stop until you're within the Dolphin. 003, contact Ivan and tell him Jet's condition. He and Gilmore can get the lab ready while we clear out of here.

Everyone went to work. Albert took one last look at Jet and then vanished among the shelves of weapons. After her communication with Ivan, Francoise moved to Jet, removing the wires that were unrelated to keeping him alive.

Joe stood there, unable to look away and feeling shame that he couldn't. He froze. They were on a mission and he froze up when the others were just as thrown as he.

Jet, please look at me.

Joe opened a private channel to Pyunma. 008, thank you. I couldn't…I couldn't think.

There was a long pause, and then, We've thought Jet dead for the past two years. And honestly I'm not seeing what you are.

Understanding, maybe forgiveness, but Pyunma didn't tell him it was alright. Joe wouldn't accept that even if he did. Despite his cybernetic enhancements, Joe was human and as prone to mistakes as anyone else, but he was also the leader and couldn't afford to be. The reason for that was the tattered head of his supposed dead friend in a locker right in front of him. When he did it was understandable, it could be forgivable, but it was not alright.

Pyunma understood that.

Joe, Pyunma said, you can let us catch you sometimes, you know. You tend to forget that and put everything on yourself. We're a team.

Sorry.

Don't be sorry just stop doing it!

Pyunma's berating was not without a slight twinge of humor and Joe smiled a little, but it was a fleeting one. He turned his attention back to Francoise and Jet. Many of the wires hung loose in the locker now and with a grunt of frustration Francoise yanked them out completely.

"He was hooked into security. That was him opening the door."

"He knew it was us."

"No, I doubt it. There's no video feed, no audio connection…he was only connected to the door and the interface. That's why I couldn't get a response I was trying to hack into a computer."

"Then why did he open it?"

"I don't know. Why is he hooked up to a security system at all? Much less here."

Joe looked at Jet's too pale skin, his hair darkened by filth and patchy in places, the way his jaw hung completely wrong… "How long do you think he's been here?"

Francoise pulled free another set of cords and sighed. "I don't know, Joe. There's no way to know until Jet can tell us. He must have been picked up off the streets before the Guardians managed to cordon off the area in New York. That's why we never found him. Here, these wires in his eye are what are suspending him in here, once I disconnect them you'll have to hold him."

Joe winced at the thought of being held up by his eye socket and stepped close, hands open. Francois slid one hand behind Jet's skull, cradling his head as with deft fingers she released the last of the cords. His full weight dropped into her hand and she gasped, her free hand quickly taking hold of the back of his neck, her thumb holding his jaw still.

"What's wrong?"

"Here, the umbilical cords don't reach far. Carefully, he's not very…solid."

Joe didn't get a chance to ask what she meant before Jet was passed to him and Joe understood. What should have been solid skull instead shifted in parts under Joe's fingers, as though the only thing really holding Jet together was his skin.

Jet's eye flickered open slightly at the handling but then shut again.

"Oh god, Francoise, do you think he's…"

"Let's just get him to Gilmore."

The approach of lights alerted them to Pyunma's arrival, detonator in hand. He glanced at Jet's severed head and was unable to mask his shock and horror, but he regained himself quickly and pointedly looked away.

"We're ready to leave. 003, is Gilmore ready?" Pyunma asked.

"Yes, the lab's ready and the Professor is waiting."

"Alright. Come on up and we'll get back to the Dolphin. 009, we'll let you know when we're clear."

"Understood," Joe said, accepting the detonator.

He looked to Francoise who nodded. She took hold of the umbilical cords at their base in the locker and showed Joe the connections.

"The power you can just unplug. The oxygen and fluid lines need to be twisted and detached. This is the oxygen line, should something go wrong and you get held up you can connect this to your own oxygen reserves and buy Jet some time. Not much though."

"Thanks. We'll be right behind you. Both of us."

She smiled at him and followed Pyunma out.

With only his own lights now, the basement became very dark and very silent. Joe shifted closer to the locker and held Jet gently against himself.

"Is this what it's been like for you? Just dark and…" he sighed, "Jet, we thought you were dead. I swear we thought you were dead, I would never …I'm so sorry. Can you even hear me?"

Aside from a thready pulse barely felt under Joe's thumb, Jet remained motionless. There was no response when Joe tried to use the brain waves to contact his long lost friend either.

"I don't care if you're mad at me, I don't care if you never speak to me or want to see me again, just please be alright."

009, we're clear. Good luck.

"Hang on, Jet. You're going home."

He detached the fluid and oxygen lines, ripped out the umbilical, and slammed the detonator in the same instant he went into acceleration mode. Joe clutched Jet to himself and ran.

Up the stairs, through the assembly rooms, and out into open air. The concussive force of the explosion caressed him, harmless, as fire slowly and silently blossomed behind him and then disappeared as forest enclosed about them and forever stretched before him and time and the nothing bit at his ankles.

You used to see what I do, Jet, but then you didn't use the accelerator anymore. Was this why? What did you see? I should have told you, back then, about my time reversal.

Maybe you saw it too.

The Dolphin III came into view but Joe didn't slow. He ran up the boarding ramp into the open hangar and into the ship. He didn't de-accelerate until he was almost to the lab and still ran in at his full natural speed. He nearly bowled Gilmore over, would have if Ivan's telekinesis didn't press against him into a gentle stop.

"Save him, please!" Joe gasped and held Jet's head out to the Professor.

Gilmore took him and then, to Joe's horror, hesitated. Gilmore stared at the wreck that had once been one of his cyborgs, his brow furrowed in a way Joe had learned to fear. When the former Black Ghost cyberneticist feared he wouldn't be able to.

Professor, Ivan said, telepathic voice calm but with a slight edge.

It was enough. Gilmore came back to himself and turned from Joe, carrying Jet to the workstation already prepared for him. Gilmore immediately attached the umbilical lines into waiting life support then gently set Jet's head onto a padded stand.

"Can you save him?" Joe pressed, unable to help but step into the doctor's space.

Gilmore sighed and glanced at Joe, his mouth twisted slightly as he determined what to say. He was not one to sugar-coat problems or lie to his cyborgs, but sometimes it was best to dismiss them with an "of course" or "science can cure everything for you," just to get them out of his way. They had a tendency to hover if there was no world-ending disaster to distract them and in a situation such as this that was not helpful.

"I need to get a better assessment of the damage before I can determine that," Gilmore said. "The cybernetics can always be repaired, but Jet himself is another story."

"What can I do?"

"At the moment? Go greet the others, let them know 002 is in my care."

Joe hesitated, and Ivan regarded him. Still an infant despite his age and burdened with incredible power even his teammates couldn't always understand, Ivan had a tendency to appear emotionless if not completely indifferent to events around him, but Joe knew better and had known him long enough to recognize a softness in Ivan's eyes.

Go, 009. Let everyone know Jet's alright for the moment. I'll want to look over whatever you all managed to procure from the facility. Don't worry, I'll contact you if anything changes.

Joe surrendered and nodded. "Alright. Thanks, Ivan."

Joe moved to leave but still dawdled. He glanced back at Gilmore at the door to catch the doctor gently running a thumb across Jet's undamaged cheek.

"Don't worry, I'll get you all fixed up," Gilmore whispered, "and then I'll build you a brand new body. You'll see, you'll be up and driving me mad again within the week…"

Go, 009.

Joe left to go meet the others and see what they'd collected.

#cyborg 009 #call of justice #nanowrimo #algernon #fanfic #SCHMOOP

7 notes · View notes

crispyflowerblaze · 8 years ago

Text

school tips, because maybe i can give better advice than administration, who just loves to tell us to get involved 3000000000000 times a day

Find to have some fun each day. Okay, yeah, this is pretty hard. And sometimes impossible, but I think it’s pretty important to try, at least a few times a week or whenever the heck you want, to do something fun by yourself either outside or in your room. Something I’m gonna try to do every day is play a few songs from a musical (probably Book of Mormon) and like just completely PERFORM it, like jump on my bed, dance all over, and sing loudly and stuff like that, IT’S SO FUN and i recommend it!!!!! I just really hope you’re able to do something fun

Okay, spoiler alert, this is actually basically taken from an actual school recommended tip. I’m gonna try to summarize my day after school, I have a google doc called “summarizing what i did each day, or using memes to help me remember stuff” and I just do what the title says, but I also... use memes... which just memes it’s not completely serious, and then I have a “general stuff” section, which explains itself I guess, and then, the best part, is “today’s big mood” and that’s taking one funny or relatable thing I remember that happened. And I think this is gonna be helpful because I can look back on previous days and review, also I can remember funny things and I love doing that!

Use memes in your notes/other shit. This is probably the most important tip. Making “actual serious notes” is SO. BORING. And this is speaking as an A student who most of the time only capitalizes things in personal writing (not stories; like non-story google docs and tumblr posts) for THIS KIND OF STUFF and uses a whole fricking ton of wrong spelling for stuff. I wanted this to be at least a tiny “professional” so I’m capitalizing my “I”s blah blah blah. But when people tell you using text speech will destroy how you write, DON’T. LISTEN. Okay, I’m getting off topic, but anyways, MAKE NOTES AND STUFF FUN. I do this with memes and by shortening EVERYTHING. Do references and funny stuff and if you don’t have free time for fun things, try to make you study/homework time fun!!! Please!!!!! I want you to have fun!!!!!! FUN. IS. FUN. (also, unrelated, but doing things like CAPITALIZING EVERYTHING is really an amazing freedom if you’ve worried about it being annoying. please do things on personal writing and tumblr posts that you have worried about people judging you for! the freedom is amazing!)

USE GOOGLE DOCS. Another really important one for people whose school uses a lot of technology. Google Docs is just amazing, and it’s super convenient!!!!! If you know your email and password (if you’re not sure PLEASE WRITE IT DOWN) then you can always reach it if,,,,, like,,,, you have access to a computer. So if for some reason you have a school laptop that doesn’t connect to your home wifi and you have access to a computer at home, then you can go on that google account and access them; also, it doesn’t take long to get a doc shared and then to go on the account you shared it with. Then from there, or whenever, you can transfer things onto a word or pages document if you need to. So Google Docs should be your go-to thing!!

(adding onto/related to the memes section) Experiment with ways to remember homework/study. Everybody does these things differently, so yeah start with a generic one and make it your own! In 7th grade and most of 8th, I used a “homework chart” which is pretty self explanatory and I filled stuff out for each class. This year I think I’m gonna stick my homework in my summarizing doc. If doing something in a funner (i’m strangely attached to the non-word-but-should-be “funner”) way than the bare minimum of study techniques, FIND OUT WHAT WORKS FOR YOU! Adding onto that, make your own additions to my rules or ignore them completely! Make your own! Whatever! And back to the weird ways to study, last year, for my history EOC, I made possibly the best thing I’ve ever created. It was called “8th grade history in a nutshell” and was sprung from my love of “hamilton in a nutshell” videos and similar ones to other musicals, and the “-musical- in a nutshell” things I’ve done myself. I basically just used memes to describe what I’d learned in history class, using a bunch of Hamilton references, and also, my favorite section, where Andrew Jackson basically just says “FUCK YEAH -something-” or “FUCK NO -something-” because, as I explained, Andrew Jackson was more of a hothead than Alexander Hamilton. So like... I can’t say it enough,,,.. but USE MEMES! That’s what makes learning fun.

Use your knowledge for the True Real-Life Applications. Have you been badgered with that horrible phrase, “real-life applications”? Has it sucked your will to math or science completely? Then reclaim that sucky phrase! My adventures in Reclaiming The Sucky Phrase “Real-Life Applications” include finding out how many miles, feet, and inches there are in a light year, memorizing the number of miles in a light year (um... shoot, i DID have it memorized!), finding out how to pronounce these horribly long numbers, and finding out how many light years the whole human race has probably walked! (2.2 light years. So light travels more in 3 years than the whole human race has walked!) And that was just one day with my friend in science class last year. I also figured out if you could fit the moon in the Pacific Ocean (you can dip it in the center of the Pacific Ocean and it won’t touch continents, but it will touch the bottom, and it’s a LOT taller than the ocean!) and when my dad said (exaggerating, obviously) he got a random pain about every 15 minutes while he was awake, and that he slept about 6 hours a night, I calculated how many times a day, a month, a year, a decade with no leap years (which does not exist XD), a minute, a non-leap-year February, in August, and in a 30 day month he would get a pain. It’s hilarious XD. My point is, you can have fun by figuring things out using the stuff you’ve used and it’s a much better review than homework. (uh, do your homework)

Sometimes musicals can teach you stuff, so like,,,,, listen to musicals,,,,,, that’s all. (Hamilton act 1 for reviewing and Cabinet Battles for history reviews!!!!!!! Trust me)

Speed walking is great! And every time teachers/staff tell you that 5 minutes is completely enough time to CROSS A HUGE CAMPUS THAT YOU BARELY EVEN KNOW WITH A HORRIBLE AMOUNT OF TRAFFIC, I feel you. I am here for you. It’s stupid and unfair. But please, rant to me or somebody who understands how it’s STUPID too instead of teachers/staff. I don’t think it’s a good idea. But yes, please, I understand what you’re going through. It’s dumb as heck.

Judging by all of the “high school will just seem like a bad dream!!” I can assume it’s true. Of course everyone has different high school experiences and problems, but if you want to talk to me and we can rant together, that’d be great!! Ranting is completely fine, so I just hope things will get better. :D

#school #school tips #school hacks #high school #high school tips #using memes to learn #trust me this works #and AHH i'm in HIGH SCHOOL AHH #it's gonna be okay :D

22 notes · View notes

spicycreativity · 4 years ago

Text

Soft-Shoe Shuffle - Ch 4

Chapter: 4/12

Additional Notes: See Ch 1 for more information. Read on AO3 under "WizardGlick." Any formatting/italics errors are holdovers from AO3 that I was too lazy to fix.

Chapter Content Warnings:

Excerpt:

Remus smacked the back of Janus’ head with his open palm. “You sneaky little shit."

“Maybe now you’ll think twice about your letter-writing habits.”

Remus fixed Janus with his glassy-eyed gaze and gave a slow, wicked smile. “Was it not up to your ssssssssstandards,” he asked, “you good old-fashioned lover boy?”

A palm-sized origami frog perched on Janus' door at about eye level, with a small envelope in its mouth. Remus' work.

You know that talk is cheap

And those rumors ain't nice

And when I fall asleep

I don't think I'll survive the night

Janus peeled the frog off the door and examined the envelope as he walked to his desk.

He handled it gingerly, but it didn't explode or burst into flames or (God forbid) start singing. It was only an envelope with a single sheet of paper inside, on which Remus had written… his version of a love poem:

Dear Patton-oster,

How fiercely dost thou squeeze my pulsing heart!

Thy fist that veiny organ grips too strong.

Let my blood coat thy most clandestine parts:

By which, of course, I mean your dick-- come on.

My heart thy dick with equal firmness hold,

And stroke thyself as I too stroke for thee:

Yes, nightly! nightly! many nights untold,

I marry the bed, wishing it were thee.

I do admit thy puns exasperate,

Still, I picture you when I masturbate.

Signed,

Your Secret Admirer

Face aflame, Janus carefully folded the letter, placed it back in the envelope, inserted the envelope in the frog's mouth, gently placed the frog in his wastebasket, and set the whole thing on fire.

He had work to do, work that didn't involve Remus' influence.

Exerting his own influence over Thomas' thoughts was a mere matter of re-prioritizing. It was easier now that Patton wasn't outright working against him, although their functions were still nearly incompatible.

Janus stared at the empty expanse of the desk before him, shiny lacquered ebony, and braced his elbows on it. It helped to move his hands as he worked. On a good day, he would use all six. Today, he only used two, and weaved suggestions. He bound them up with logic (or what seemed like logic) and tied them to anxieties.

The fire in his wastebasket went out on its own, but not before leaving scorch marks on the side of his desk and filling the room with a smell of smoke that brought Janus' headache back with a vengeance and made his eyes water and his throat sting.

He spared a thought to summon two more aspirin and a glass of water (no, Blue Cherry Gatorade).

He got the hard work out of the way first before moving on to innocuous white lies. These came attached to morality. Janus focused on his work rather than letting his mind wander to thoughts of Patton's smile, the way his laugh made Janus feel like he'd just stepped into a sunbeam.

Hours must have passed, but he scarcely noticed, caught up in the gentle flow of his work.

"Janus?" The sound of knocking on the door brought his train of thought to a screeching halt.

Janus dropped the threads he'd been holding and immediately started to cough upon snapping back to reality. What had he been thinking, setting a fire like that?

"You okay in there?" Patton asked, voice muffled through the door. "I think I can smell smoke!"

"It's nothing, Patton." Janus wiped his streaming eyes. The tears left dark marks on his gloves. "One moment." He walked, slowly, like everything was under control, to the door, vanishing all the smoke and fixing the side of his desk as he went.

He only cracked the door at first, in case this was some sort of elaborate trap to get him to socialize with the others, but it was only Patton who stood there. He was holding a sheet of computer paper, folded into a card.

Janus' gaze fell on it and he forgot social niceties, nearly igniting his wastebasket again in a fit of panic. Surely Remus hadn't--

"It's for you," Patton said, holding out the card.

"Oh." Janus took it and examined the crayon drawing of a rainbow on the front. " Please tell me this is a disturbingly well-thought-out love poem."

"What?" Patton's smile became strained, then faltered into a look of puzzlement.

For the second time that day, Janus was forced to hide his blush under a mask. "Never mind. It was a bad joke." He took the card from Patton. "I'll just open this." He proceeded to do so while Patton babbled something about leaving poetry to the 'prose.'

The card turned out to be an invitation to watch Planet Earth with Patton and Logan later that night. Endearingly, Patton had included a little notecard so Janus could RSVP.

Janus summoned a brass Monteverde Invincia in his right hand before realizing he had no surface to write on.

Patton evidently noticed him floundering and turned around, removing his cardigan as he went. "Here, use my back."

"Couldn't I just tell you?" Janus mumbled, though he knew the answer. By summoning a pen, he had demonstrated a willingness to play the game.

So he pressed the RSVP card to Patton's back and marked the box next to 'yes.'

The bare patch of skin where his sleeve cuff rode up brushed against the fabric of Patton's shirt, sending a white-hot thrill through Janus' chest.

For unrelated reasons, he dropped the pen. He sent it back to his desk before it hit the floor. "Done."

Patton turned around and snatched the card from Janus' hand before Janus even registered what was happening. For a split second, his face lit up. Then it fell back into a neutral, guarded expression. "Do you mean it?" When Janus nodded, he continued, "I kind of would have expected… y'know, the opposite."

"I wasn't trying to be considerate; I know how much you love it when you can't understand me."

"Oh! That is nice of you, Janus."

Janus waved a hand. "Well, we're all making changes." He carefully did not make a face after saying this. He'd known it was true, but it felt different to say it out loud; it made a sick shiver crawl down his spine. Then something else struck him. "Oh."

"What?"

"Remus is likely to drop in tonight." Patton tilted his head, and his eyes flicked between Janus and the direction of the curtain, so Janus elaborated, "No, I didn't invite him. Never mind the fact that there's no way I could have while standing here and talking to you, it is precisely the fact that he wasn't invited that makes me think he's going to come."

"Oh," said Patton. "Should I invite him? I don't want to be rude."

Janus' mind jumped to the ashes still smoldering in his wastebasket and said, "No." He lowered his voice and added, "But when he does show up, please do try to give him a warm welcome."

"Him?"

Janus only raised an eyebrow. "Unless you have some moral objection?"

Patton sighed. "Okay."

In the few hours before he was due to meet Logan and Patton in the living room, Janus finished up his work. Logan had pointedly straightened out a few of the logical fallacies Janus had woven, and Janus could practically see the red ink splashed across Logan's papers. He let a few of them go, tied the next few tighter, then sat back in his chair.

Whatever Virgil and Roman were doing in their rooms, they certainly weren't working very hard.

Janus passed by their doors on his way to the living room and perceived no signs of life from within, not that he cared. He had extended hands to both Virgil and Roman in the past; it wasn't Janus' fault they wanted to burn bridges. His conscience was clean on both accounts.

End of story.

He definitely wasn't wearing a bitter scowl when he arrived in the living room, and his first reaction upon seeing Patton absolutely was not a warm smile that he hurriedly had to divert into a smirk. That would be silly. Like the others, Patton was a pawn to be used when Janus needed, and tolerated when he didn't. And that absurd cat onesie he was wearing wasn't cute in the slightest.

"You're not wearing a onesie," Patton said, vaulting over the couch with none of a cat's grace. He landed heavily and planted his hands on his hips. "Didn't you read the dress code, bud?"

"'Bud'?" Janus repeated, making no effort to conceal his disgust at the over-familiarity. Just how far was he going to let Patton push him?

Patton faltered and blushed and Janus forgave everything in one fluttering heartbeat. "Sorry," Patton said. "You don't seem like a 'kiddo,' so I thought I could try a new nickname." A look of horror dawned on his face and he gasped and added, "Not that I don't like your name! I think 'Janus' is a lovely name but I call everyone else 'kiddo' so I thought-- But then--"

Janus failed entirely to hold back a rush of laughter. "It's fine. Really."

"So I can call you--"

"Janus. You can call me Janus."

"I'll find a nickname you like," Patton said with a decisive nod.

"Where's Logan, anyway? It's very like him to be late."

"Logan's in the kitchen," Patton waved a hand in that direction. "He's trying out a new method for popping all the popcorn kernels without actually burning the popcorn."

"Well, doesn't that sound fascinating."

Patton didn't appear to be listening. With his mouth twisted in thought, he looked Janus slowly up and down. "Hmm."

Janus swallowed. "Like what you see?"

Patton snapped and suddenly Janus was clad in warm fleece. "Now I do!"

"A parrot?" Janus said, looking down at what was evidently a scarlet macaw onesie.

"Okay, so, maybe I panicked," Patton said. "But I think it suits you, and I ain't fffflying." Janus squinted. Patton continued, apologetically, "Bird puns are harder than you'd think."

Janus adjusted his hat. He kept up the dignified silence just to watch Patton squirm, and not because he was trying to think of a better bird pun. "I suppose I can handle being a parrot for tonight," he said finally, giving up. Patton was right; bird puns were hard.

Just then, Logan emerged from the kitchen with three mismatched bowls balanced in his arms. "I tried using a wok to pop the kernels, and it actually worked quite well."

"Patton got you, too?" Janus asked, studying Logan's unicorn onesie with a critical eye.

Logan thinned his lips and colored slightly. "Well."

Janus made the realization a half second too late. "I suppose it logically follows," he said hurriedly, well-aware that he was making absolutely no sense.

"Oh?"

"I don't expect you'd be able to properly relax in jeans and a tie." Janus waved a hand and noticed a flash of yellow-- Patton had left his gloves on him. Which was to be expected. It wasn't like Janus made any effort to hide how important they were to him. So he didn’t feel all warm and fuzzy that Patton had noticed this and left them (and his hat) on.

Logan gave a short nod and indicated for Janus to take one of the bowls of popcorn.

Remus made his appearance near the beginning of episode two of Planet Earth. “Monkeys, hm?” he said, popping up behind the couch.

They all flinched, even Janus, who had been expecting this. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Patton shook himself and turned toward Remus with a pasted-on smile. “Remus!”

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”

Patton’s eyes flicked toward Janus, who gave him only the tiniest nod of encouragement in the hopes that Remus wouldn't notice anything amiss. “Uh, I was hoping you would drop by! It’s good to see you.”

“It is ?” Remus said, recoiling. “What’s gotten into you, Daddy Dominus?”

“Nothing! Just bein’ friendly.” Patton’s smile was fading by the second.

“Actually,” Logan said, “I was also hoping you would show up.” He scooted closer to Patton to make a space by the armrest. “You can sit next to me if you’d like.”

Remus glanced between Patton and Logan, his look of puzzlement rapidly morphing into disgust. “Why?”

Finally, he looked to Janus in desperate agitation, his eyes wide and expression utterly helpless. Janus allowed himself to laugh. It wasn’t often that he got one over on Remus, who was notoriously hard to ruffle.

"You!” Remus shouted.

“You should have ssseen your face!” Janus said in between breathless spasms of laughter.

Remus smacked the back of Janus’ head with his open palm. “You sneaky little shit."

“Maybe now you’ll think twice about your letter-writing habits.”

Remus fixed Janus with his glassy-eyed gaze and gave a slow, wicked smile. “Was it not up to your ssssssssstandards,” he asked, “you good old-fashioned lover boy?”

Janus bit his tongue. Now was not the time to engage Remus in an argument, playful though it was. “Why don’t you sit down by Logan and watch the monkeys? Now that you know he and Patton don’t want you here.”

“I don’t-- You asked--” Patton protested feebly.

Remus was examining his fingers like he was thinking about sticking them in Patton’s mouth when Logan interjected, “I was not in on any prank, Remus. You’re welcome to sit next to me.”

Remus ignored him. “This isn’t over, Shakespeare in the Dark.”

“Oh, I can’t wait to see what you do next.” Janus waved goodbye as Remus sank out with one final lewd gesture at Patton. Before Logan or Patton could ask any questions, Janus snatched the remote from Logan’s hand with one deft motion and hit play.

The rest of the episode became blurrier and less meaningful by the moment until the sight of the TV screen slipped away, then the sound, then everything.

Janus only became aware he’d fallen asleep when he half-woke in somebody’s arms.

“Don’t freak out,” Remus said, “it’s just me. Didn’t think you’d want to spend the night on the couch.”

Janus nodded against Remus' chest and closed his eyes again.

Aside

When the clock struck 3:00 am, Roman stuck his head out his bedroom door and looked around for any signs of life. He couldn't face the others, not yet. Seeing nothing, he walked barefoot to the kitchen. He stared at the carpet as he went, still keeping an ear out for any indication that the others were awake. But there was nothing, so he proceeded.

The kitchen was dark except for the light over the sink, which Patton always switched on at night. Roman sighed and braced his arms against the bar. He had hoped the change of scenery might make him feel better,, but it only increased the loneliness sitting heavy on his chest.

He jumped when Virgil’s voice came from the shadows. “Been missing out on beauty sleep? You look rough.”

Roman turned to find Virgil seated on the counter opposite the bar with his legs splayed out in front of him and his back pressed against the fridge. He breathed a sigh of relief through his nose. He could at least face Virgil. “You don’t look so good yourself.” It was true. Virgil's coal-black eyeshadow was smudgier than Roman had ever seen it, and the way it streaked down toward his jaw made it look as though Virgil had inadvertently smeared it with his fingers by repeatedly running his hands down his face. "Where have you been, anyway?"

Virgil's lip curled. "Let's just say I'm going through it right now and leave it at that."

"So am I, my preoccupied purple partner. So am I." Roman hopped up on the counter by Virgil's feet and nearly smacked his head on the cabinets. Virgil, to his credit, only laughed a little bit. "I actually haven't seen the others in… several days now."

"Did something happen?"

"Let's just say a certain sneaky snake Side slithered his way into a situation that didn't concern him."

Virgil sat up straight. "What did he do? Is everyone okay?"

"Oh, everyone's fine. He and Patton and Thomas are all best pals now, and… Well, I suppose royal red is going out of style."

"He turned Patton against you like that?" Virgil demanded. "How? Patton can be naive at times, but he's not dumb ."

Roman sighed and buried his face in his hands. "No, Virgil, I'm afraid that was all me. I don't even want to tell you what I did, but I'm going to stay in my room until… Well, I don't know. Until the nightmare ends, I suppose."

"Jeeze." Virgil gave a mirthless chuckle. "Well, now my thing doesn't seem so bad. I also haven't been out of my room in several days."

"I know, Sweet Emo-tion, I was starting to worry. What happened? Did Thomas start thinking about that time in 9th grade where he--"

"No!" Virgil said, a touch too loud. "Uh, no. I… I told him."

"...About that time in 9th grade where he--"

"I told him I used to be, you know, a 'Dark Side'."

"And he took it badly?" Roman asked. "Really? But he loves you."

"He just looked at me." Virgil swallowed hard, his eyes vacant. "And somehow his silence was so much worse than anything he could have actually said to me."

"Well." Roman let his head fall back against the bottom of the cabinets with a dull thud. "Aren't we the pretty pair? The disgraced prince and the not-so-reformed villain."

"Yeah."

For a moment, they were silent.

Then Roman said, in an uncertain tone. "Virgil?"

"Yeah?"

"I… I really never thought I'd say this, but. I'm glad you're here with me. I'm glad it's you ."

"Honestly? Same." Virgil bit his lip and fixed his gaze on his socks. "Do you... maybe want to hang in my room for a bit? We can have a sleepover. A really depressing, pathetic sleepover."

"I think I'd like that," Roman said. And for the first time in days, he smiled .

#spicywrites #spicywrites soft-shoe shuffle #song featured: dream police - cheap trick

1 note · View note

gordonwilliamsweb · 5 years ago

Text

The Golden State’s Mixed Record On Lung Cancer

( function() { var func = function() { var iframe = document.getElementById('wpcom-iframe-b3698bf416a713969d44f67f67c195a2') if ( iframe ) { iframe.onload = function() { iframe.contentWindow.postMessage( { 'msg_type': 'poll_size', 'frame_id': 'wpcom-iframe-b3698bf416a713969d44f67f67c195a2' }, "https:\/\/embeds.kff.org" ); } } // Autosize iframe var funcSizeResponse = function( e ) { var origin = document.createElement( 'a' ); origin.href = e.origin; // Verify message origin if ( 'embeds.kff.org' !== origin.host ) return; // Verify message is in a format we expect if ( 'object' !== typeof e.data || undefined === e.data.msg_type ) return; switch ( e.data.msg_type ) { case 'poll_size:response': var iframe = document.getElementById( e.data._request.frame_id ); if ( iframe && '' === iframe.width ) iframe.width = '100%'; if ( iframe && '' === iframe.height ) iframe.height = parseInt( e.data.height ); return; default: return; } } if ( 'function' === typeof window.addEventListener ) { window.addEventListener( 'message', funcSizeResponse, false ); } else if ( 'function' === typeof window.attachEvent ) { window.attachEvent( 'onmessage', funcSizeResponse ); } } if (document.readyState === 'complete') { func.apply(); /* compat for infinite scroll */ } else if ( document.addEventListener ) { document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', func, false ); } else if ( document.attachEvent ) { document.attachEvent( 'onreadystatechange', func ); } } )();

It was a bewildering moment for Zach Jump, the American Lung Association’s national director of epidemiology and statistics. The numbers leaped off the computer screen and prompted an immediate question:

This story also ran on Los Angeles Times. This story can be republished for free (details).

How could California, a leader in reducing lung cancer cases, fall so short on early diagnosis and treatment of the disease?

“It’s like you’d found the needle in the haystack of results,” said Jump. “I don’t know if anyone knew this was going to show up.”

It was right there in the association’s annual “State of Lung Cancer” report, published in November: California had the third-lowest rate of new lung cancer cases in the country, a laudable achievement. But among state residents diagnosed with the disease, nearly a quarter received no treatment — a dismal showing that landed California near the bottom of the heap. Worse, California screened high-risk patients at a lower rate than every state but Nevada.

Nationally, the report showed a dramatic increase in the five-year survival rate of people diagnosed with the disease. That finding was reinforced by an American Cancer Society report released last month showing that from 2016 to 2017, the U.S. experienced the largest single-year drop in cancer mortality ever reported — driven by a decline in deaths from lung cancer.

California’s low rate of new lung cancer cases makes sense given its aggressive anti-tobacco laws and high taxes on tobacco products. Between 85% and 90% of people who die of lung cancer in the U.S. were smokers, and “California is the poster child for tobacco control,” said Jump.

But what explains the state’s dramatically weaker performance on early diagnosis and treatment?

Email Sign-Up

Subscribe to KHN’s free Morning Briefing.

Please confirm your email address below:

The answer is complicated in a state as large as California, but lung cancer experts agree on the influence of several factors: the state’s large income inequality, broad cultural and linguistic diversity, inconsistency of health care access by region — and neighborhood — and a financial reluctance by many medical professionals to treat poor people, who smoke at higher rates than those of the general population.

“People aren’t getting screened in the places where the incidence of smoking is the highest,” said Dr. Jorge Nieva, an oncologist with Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California.

A low-dose CT scan, the only recommended screening exam for lung cancer, is highly effective, research shows. In one large clinical trial, it reduced lung cancer deaths by 20% among people at high risk, who were defined as those between ages 55 and 80 with a history of heavy smoking, even if they had quit within the previous 15 years.

The lung association study shows that just 4.2% of patients in the United States who are at high risk for lung cancer get screened for it — seen as an alarmingly low figure by those who work in the area of prevention. But compared with that low national figure, California’s screening rate is woefully inadequate: just 0.9%.

Performing the exam is profitable — but only if insurance payments are high enough. Medi-Cal, the government-funded insurance program for low-income people that covers about a third of all Californians, has long paid rates far below the national average.

Not surprisingly, scans are performed much more commonly in areas where people are likely to have good private insurance. “Unfortunately, it’s the population that doesn’t have great insurance that needs the screening the most,” said Nieva.

Medical experts say the state’s low screening numbers help explain why 24% of California’s diagnosed lung cancer patients receive no treatment at all, well above the national average of around 15%. Without adequate screening, lung cancer generally is discovered at later stages, when treatment is far less effective and many clinical trials aren’t offered.

Other factors weigh heavily on California’s ability to boost screening and treatment, according to people with deep experience in the field. Among them:

Cultural barriers. Especially among immigrant groups, “we need culturally sensitive approaches that include materials, educational tools, awareness campaigns and doctors who can speak to people in their native languages,” said Laurie Fenton Ambrose, president and CEO of the GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer, a patient advocacy group.

Homelessness. As California’s unhoused population has swelled to over 150,000, health care providers have more difficulty reaching those in need of services. “Many of the 60,000 homeless in L.A. County would very likely be considered at risk for lung cancer, and they are not being screened,” said Dr. Steven Dubinett, a pulmonologist at UCLA.

Access to primary care. “California has some uniqueness in how hard it is to see a doctor in lots of parts of the state,” Nieva said. “That’s incredibly important when it comes to getting things early on, like that persistent cough you’ve had for a few months.”

Lack of statewide coordination. The state’s Comprehensive Cancer Control Plan hasn’t been updated in almost a decade. “It is inefficient and slow to improve. You don’t even have a plan that lays out its goals for fighting lung cancer,” Fenton Ambrose said.

Numerous personal factors can also influence whether patients get screening and treatment, experts say. Some people may be reluctant to be tested for fear of learning they have a terrible disease — including medical problems unrelated to lung cancer that the exam might uncover.

Nieva and Fenton Ambrose said the stigma attached to lung cancer — the notion that patients caused it themselves by smoking — can contribute to a sense of fatalism in both patients and their doctors.

Dubinett favors rolling out screening programs throughout the state, especially in areas where access to health care is spotty. Given the effectiveness of the exams and follow-up treatment if lung cancer is detected early, the state might well improve upon its five-year survival rate for lung cancer patients, which stands at 21.5% — roughly matching the national average of 21.7%, according to the lung association.

Such an initiative may fall to the state, with help from academic medical systems including USC and UCLA.

Nieva noted that USC has begun an outreach program in South Los Angeles offering high-risk patients free rides to Keck Hospital for screening.

“This should be getting done everywhere, and at a 100% rate,” Nieva said. The fact that it’s not is “a real indictment of our health care system.”

This KHN story first published on California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation.

The Golden State’s Mixed Record On Lung Cancer published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

0 notes

stephenmccull · 5 years ago

Text

The Golden State’s Mixed Record On Lung Cancer

This story also ran on Los Angeles Times. This story can be republished for free (details).

How could California, a leader in reducing lung cancer cases, fall so short on early diagnosis and treatment of the disease?

“It’s like you’d found the needle in the haystack of results,” said Jump. “I don’t know if anyone knew this was going to show up.”

But what explains the state’s dramatically weaker performance on early diagnosis and treatment?

Email Sign-Up

Subscribe to KHN’s free Morning Briefing.

Please confirm your email address below:

“People aren’t getting screened in the places where the incidence of smoking is the highest,” said Dr. Jorge Nieva, an oncologist with Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California.

Other factors weigh heavily on California’s ability to boost screening and treatment, according to people with deep experience in the field. Among them:

Such an initiative may fall to the state, with help from academic medical systems including USC and UCLA.

Nieva noted that USC has begun an outreach program in South Los Angeles offering high-risk patients free rides to Keck Hospital for screening.

“This should be getting done everywhere, and at a 100% rate,” Nieva said. The fact that it’s not is “a real indictment of our health care system.”

This KHN story first published on California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation.

The Golden State’s Mixed Record On Lung Cancer published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

0 notes

dinafbrownil · 5 years ago

Text

The Golden State’s Mixed Record On Lung Cancer

This story also ran on Los Angeles Times. This story can be republished for free (details).

How could California, a leader in reducing lung cancer cases, fall so short on early diagnosis and treatment of the disease?

“It’s like you’d found the needle in the haystack of results,” said Jump. “I don’t know if anyone knew this was going to show up.”

But what explains the state’s dramatically weaker performance on early diagnosis and treatment?

Email Sign-Up

Subscribe to KHN’s free Morning Briefing.

Please confirm your email address below:

“People aren’t getting screened in the places where the incidence of smoking is the highest,” said Dr. Jorge Nieva, an oncologist with Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California.

Other factors weigh heavily on California’s ability to boost screening and treatment, according to people with deep experience in the field. Among them:

Such an initiative may fall to the state, with help from academic medical systems including USC and UCLA.

Nieva noted that USC has begun an outreach program in South Los Angeles offering high-risk patients free rides to Keck Hospital for screening.

“This should be getting done everywhere, and at a 100% rate,” Nieva said. The fact that it’s not is “a real indictment of our health care system.”

This KHN story first published on California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation.

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/the-golden-states-mixed-record-on-lung-cancer/

0 notes

usesocialmedia-blog · 7 years ago

Text

Making the Most of Social Media Marketing in Your Business

Probably the most vital duties for home based business house Share your message on Social Media owners who wish to expand their presence on-line is to:

build your listing

get your message out to your listing

Constructing your list is something everyone needs to be engaged on in case you have an internet or offline business. Constructing your checklist will be the 'be all' or 'end' of any enterprise if you do not start to construct up a listing of people who are excited by your services or products. Now, not everybody who comes into your list will wish to buy into your main program, but if pitched correctly you might be able to upsell other objects and affiliate packages which will help them of their primary business.

Autoresponders helps you to do get your message out to your checklist upon getting drawn them into your web site or weblog. If you're perceived to provide worth to your readers, they are going to greater than seemingly stay up for your emails on a regular basis. Do not underestimate the usage of autoresponders to help develop your record and your income.

A number of the things you are able to do with autoresponders are:Broadcasts - You possibly can ship out broadcasts of your weblog posts to assist hold your readers interested. You possibly can automate your blog feed into a regular broadcast and produce this on a day by day or weekly or month-to-month foundation, invite your readers to remark back to you both by way of e mail or by way of your blog. Broadcasts can be used to send out adhoc emails and messages. These can be utilized to promote sales, providers and merchandise to your audience.

Create a Net Form - Auto responders can be utilized to create a capture kind which in flip you'll be able to hyperlink to a list in the back finish.

Create a listing- Autoresponders are nice for making a lists, which you can then construct a collection of emails to send out to your lists. It's really essential nonetheless to ensure that your message is congruent with the viewers for which you might be sending the messages out to. For instance you'll be able to create several totally different lists within the back end which correspond with different products or services. If you are promoting a training collection or a 'diet' program, then creating a series of emails to use in that capability can enhance your skilled online presence and present your experience.

Create a Newsletter - Another great way that can assist you keep in touch with your list, let them know what you may have been up to regularly, again, offering value will only help to improve your rankings with your leads, especially in the event that they go on your e-newsletter, emails and braodcasts.

Add Attachments - Including e-books, movies and audios to your emails are additionally a great way to share your content with your leads.

Hook your autoresponder up with social media - with AWeber you can hyperlink your Fb and twitter account so that while you send out a broadcast or autoresponder you possibly can say whether you wish to hyperlink this to your social media accounts.

There are quite a couple of autoresponders on the market available in the market place. Constant Contact, iContact, AWeber are among the really good ones. Nevertheless, AWeber has not too long ago updated some if its features and are at present the market chief for autoresponders for many community marketers.

We dwell in an data age but how can you get the message of your business out into the world as quickly as doable, particularly in this day and age where everyone seems to have one thing to say. On social media, content material is being generated so quickly, there is no such thing as a technique to sustain with it except you get pretty strategic and finally you're employed hard.

Here are 5 alternative ways to make use of content advertising to get your message out and get extra prospects in.

Have a Blog

Don't however assume that every one blogs are created equal. Don't accept one of many free blogs, there may be too many situations on them to truly create one thing that makes you any cash. So, spend money on an excellent domain name and hosting and have your individual website. Again, do not assume that it stops here. Be sure you maintain your weblog frequently up to date. If you consider yourself a author then generate 300 word plus articles yourself every day to put on the site and put it up for sale everywhere you'll be able to consider.

If you're not a writer then it's easy to get others to generate content for you by paying for it on outsourcing sites like hiremymom.com or fiverr.com or you possibly can also put the word out that you are in search of guest posts in your blog and you might get some uptake though, a brand new blog is unlikely to draw anybody apart from the extra novice business homeowners. Nonetheless, all of us have to start somewhere.

Do Podcasts

It might appear complicated however it's really not. Simply document your self reading your daily blogs into your smartphone's voice recorder and upload it to soundcloud and there you go, you will have one other post for someone to search out. Be energetic on websites like soundcloud and follow other folks to get folks tuning in to your audio content.

Do Videos

You is perhaps getting the idea here. Take your each day publish and both sit in front of your computer, utilizing your webcam to document yourself reading it out while elaborating on it utilizing your personal mannerisms (This builds a way that folks know you) Or put it on a slideshow presentation and file your screen as you talk over it. Then add this video to YouTube and again, share it with everybody you recognize. And there you may have another piece of content.

It has been assumed for quite some time now that the new "social" media advertising was the only real accountability of the millennial technology, Twitter and marketing were on opposite sides of the fence. Twitter was the accountability of these unusually unbiased cause oriented staff that have been as at residence on their good telephones as they had been on their laptops.

These strange new breeds would work in tandem with the wool suit 9-5 crowd on the office that were pushing unsolicited mail flyers, scheduling radio spots and dealing contacts that they had know for thirty years.

In actuality there have been two forces: a yin and yang, a push and a pull, a driving movement and a resistance. Nevertheless within the later stages of the final decade the 2 camps started to merge and Facebook pages had been popping up for established conservative nightly information programs and Twitter was being seen a viable part to the advertising of a enterprise.

It is important to note that Twitter is an "side" of the advertising and marketing side of the business, it's still no substitute to your effort in advertising planning and other strategic operations.

Twitter and advertising will not be 2 distinctly separate actions today, one is merely a software of the other, and Twitter and marketing must exist in harmonious balance.

So how does the modern day samurai balance the mushy facet and the onerous side, the yin and the yang, the dynamic dance between Twitter and advertising? The answer is in the utility of the software in relationship to your general technique. As an inventory of bullet factors Twitter should be used to:

Provide a low price marketing various that offers a hyperlink or an overview to additional data (you won't be able to publish your complete newspaper ad within the tweet).

Align your Twitter and marketing efforts to verify your message matches your viewers. If the message is just not geared towards those who use Twitter it's not exactly viral material (have a look at Toyota's branding of Scion as an example of focus advertising).

Make certain what you're tweeting is relevant, individuals will gladly be launched to new merchandise, however will probably be turned off by makes an attempt to spam.... If you wish to spam go back to direct mail.

Podcast advertising refers to producing audio files that can be shared on company web sites, podcasting directories, and social networking websites. These audio broadcasts can be used as infomercials, offer insights into enterprise operations, and for building model consciousness.

Several podcast advertising and marketing strategies can be found. Enterprise homeowners can use them to broadcast firm radio shows, conduct interviews with business specialists, for entertainment functions, or to share in-depth product information.

One of the greatest advantages of podcasting is this venue gives an inexpensive way to share information. The one gear required is a microphone, audio editing software, and computer entry to add audio information to podcast directories.

Almost all newer computer systems embrace preloaded audio modifying capabilities. Mac computer systems supply constructed-in audio recording and modifying software, whereas Microsoft consists of multichannel audio manufacturing through the Home windows Media program.

These programs are straightforward to use and permit practically everybody the chance to produce quality podcasts. Those with little endurance or time might find it beneficial to rent a web-based advertising firm to provide or edit audio podcasts.

Working with professionals can save business homeowners time and money. Professionals may observe campaign outcomes to find out effectiveness and calculate the monetary return on funding.

Once podcasts are created, corporations can upload audio information to a variety of podcast directories. It is advantageous to conduct analysis to find out which directories are continuously visited by your target market.

It's unproductive to publish audio podcasts at directories specializing in niches unrelated to your enterprise model or these that don't appeal to giant numbers of visitors. Presently, iTunes is the chief, but Podcast.com and PodcastDirectory.com aren't far behind.

Podcasts may also be revealed by way of company blogs and web sites. It can be useful to showcase current podcasts via the home web page and create an archive web page so visitors can review all printed files. Additionally it is advantageous to include the option to download files and offer share buttons so people can publish to social media websites comparable to Fb or Twitter.

Audio podcasts are a popular solution to obtain info. Information might be downloaded to iPods, MP3s, computers, cell telephones, and handheld gadgets. Subscribers can hear when it is handy and simply share files with others.

Folks can subscribe to podcasting companies and build lists of their favorites; receive notification of newly printed work; and have podcasts robotically downloaded to the machine of their selection.

Building a loyal following is one of the greatest types of promoting. Consumers like to do enterprise with individuals they belief and join with. Companies that learn to faucet into listeners' wants and needs and produce quality content material on a constant foundation can enhance their bottom line.

The secret to success with podcast advertising is to never grow to be complacent. There are literally thousands and thousands of accessible podcasts. For those who aren't putting your greatest foot ahead you'll shortly lose subscribers. Worse yet, they could trash-speak you everywhere in the Web.

For those who aren't prepared to supply nice content material, podcasting won't be for you. An answer is to rent a web-based advertising agency to supply audios or improve previously recorded episodes. Professionally produced podcasts can simply pay for production costs via elevated gross sales.

It's strongly recommended to develop a written podcast advertising and marketing plan. The Web offers abundant information of tips on how to produce audio podcasts; conduct demographic market analysis; and strategies to completely capitalize on this specialty area of interest.

Whether you're a network marketer, house primarily based business proprietor, or own a small brick and mortar enterprise on Major Avenue, getting your message... and your products... in front of your target market in all probability occupies a lot of your ideas. You understand your products/providers are distinctive, have already recognized your market, know the place to seek out them and now you're prepared to talk directly to them.

Your next process is to find out what strategies you'll use to get your message in front of your goal. Newspapers? Videos? Social Media? Articles? Flyers? There are far too many methods to listing right here. The purpose here is to get your message out to as many individuals as you probably can PERSISTENTLY.

Do that... make a listing of all of the methods you already know how to do. Choose three - 5 of these and begin doing them. Caution: In the event you're fascinated by the concept of video advertising and don't own a video digital camera (or a laptop computer that may shoot videos), DON"T choose that as one of your methods. Human nature will have you "waiting " until you get that digicam earlier than you begin...something...and you will stay caught the place you are.

So you've chosen your strategies. Now THE PLACE are you going to use them? We have to again to the description of our target market.(SEE why it is so important?) As a result of we know them so well, we all know where they hang out. As an example, if our target market is young mothers of preschoolers who wish to lose weight, we're not going to hold our flyers on the local auto parts store. (properly, possibly we are, but we would not count on to get a lot response from them) If our market is made up of retirees, we would not get our telephone to ring much if we put our advertisements in Parents Magazine, would we?

I think you get the thought right here. So spend a while alone and quiet with a pad and pencil and write a listing of the methods that you could start using RIGHT NOW! Then choose three to 5 of those strategies and COMMIT to using them PERSISTENTLY for ninety days and don't cease.

You will start seeing the primary trickle somewhere across the forty fifth day after you begin. Stay constant, and at the finish of ninety days, you'll be amazed at your results.

0 notes